Principal's Notes

What a wonderful start to the school year we have had. On Thursday 27th January the new senior leadership team enjoyed a team-building day in Whangarei. Huia Coll and Nicky Cotching have now joined Paul Chambers (Deputy Principal) and me as permanent members of our team, Huia as Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning, and Nicky Cotching as Assistant Principal - Student Achievement. This new, and very strong leadership team will continue to build on the great work accomplished last year, and will position our school very well for the future success of our school.

On Friday 28th January we held our new staff induction day and welcomed our new gardener, Lynda Bayer as well as many of our new teachers to Otamatea High School. I am very excited about the quality of new teachers we have joining us this year and am looking forward to the year ahead. 

Amy Dempsey (Whaea Amy), Sarah Bland and Clara Pepito join our year 7 and 8 teaching team, growing and strengthening our very experienced syndicate team. Jessica Baker will be joining us later in the term, as our new science teacher, arriving all the way from Switzerland, with the very experienced Hazel McIntosh and Sarah Bearne covering these classes until Jessica arrives. Jason Roux from South Africa will also be joining us later this term as our new mathematics teacher, and I am grateful that Grant Weston will again be with us, covering these classes until Jason arrives. With an acute shortage of specialist secondary school teachers in New Zealand, and my refusal to compromise on quality, I have had to cast the net very wide to find experienced teachers to join our school and I am very pleased with these overseas appointments. 

The experienced Grady Trail will be joining us from Whangarei Boys High School as our new hard materials technology teacher, with Mark MacKenzie covering these classes until Grady joins us at the end of March. We also welcome back Nazila Khan, Alice Croskery and Kylie Reynolds as permanent members of our teaching staff. The very experienced Frances Maclennan is back for the month of February to cover English classes while we fill this part-time vacancy. Kathy Riley returns to cover food and hospitality until Kari Meachin returns from maternity leave, and Lana Parkinson has returned part time from maternity leave to take PE classes two days per week. Robyn Baker, our business studies teacher, also returns part time from maternity leave while Anna Liddington is back on board full time as physical education and health teacher, having returned late last year from her very successful year of study in 2021.Finally, we welcome Caroline Foubister from Sommerville Special School as our new Learning Support Coordinator. Caroline brings a wealth of experience having worked in a range of diverse communities.

I would also like to congratulate Nyree Alcock on her marriage to Eli over the summer break, and we welcome Nyree back as Mrs Antunovich.

Staff Only Days and Year 13 Leadership Training: On Tuesday and Wednesday we had our first staff only days of the year and this time was well spent getting ready for the year ahead. Thank you to the amazing PTCA for catering lunch on these days. They give up so much of their time to fundraise for our students, and their efforts are greatly appreciated. I encourage new parents to please consider joining the PTCA group. They are always keen to welcome new parents to the association. Our year 13s and prefects also joined us on Wednesday for their leadership training and I was impressed with the maturity with which these students approached the day. We discussed the difference between being a leader and a ‘boss’, and I communicated with these students the very high expectations I have of them this year. Next week Thursday and Friday our year 13s and prefects will be putting their leadership training to good effect when they support the year 7s on their activity days at the Maungaturoto Country Club. 

Powhiri: On Thursday we welcomed all our new staff and students to school. COVID restrictions forced the powhiri outside this year, and regrettably we were unable to have parents and whānau join us. I talked about the importance of all of us being in the Otamatea High School waka - being prepared, working hard and having clear goals. We have over 160 new students joining us and it was lovely seeing them enjoying their first day at school, getting to know each other, how their timetables worked, and navigating their way around school. Extra time was put aside at the end of the day to ensure all bus students knew exactly which bus they needed to catch to get home in the afternoon. Thanks to our year 13s and prefects who joined us for the day to nurture our important tuakana-teina relationships - getting to know and helping our new students settle in.

Year 9 Team Building Morning: With over 40 new year 9 students joining us this year, a record for our school, we hosted a special year 9 team building day on Friday morning to help these students get to know those who were here as Year 8s last year. It was a fun filled day of activities with lots of smiling faces leaving us at the end of the day. I particularly enjoyed hearing our students signing the school waiata, as well as seeing how high they could make their dry spaghetti and marshmallow towers.

First Day for all Students: On Tuesday the 8th of February we welcome all 570 students to school. Full timetables will be issued and all classes from period 2 will be running. A reminder that we are a Free and Healthy Lunches school and all students will receive a free Subway meal each day at about 11.15am in the morning. Students are encouraged to bring additional snacks such as fruit to school, and their own water bottles. The cafe and canteen will be open during break times. Please note that so-called “energy drinks” are not allowed so please ensure these are not brought to school. 

B-Block: The finishing touches are being done on B-block this coming week. We have not had access to this block since the end of 2020. There have been so many COVID-caused disruptions to this project and I am grateful to our students and staff who have had to make do without these classrooms, and the library for so long. We are nearly there and I look forward to opening this block in the week of the 14th February. There will be some temporary classroom changes this coming week as a result.

Year 7 Activities Days: Year 7 students would normally visit the Otamatea Marae at the beginning of the year, staying overnight and participating in adventure based learning activities, together with our prefects. However, due to Covid restrictions, we will now be running two days of activities, during school hours for our Year 7 students here at school and at the Maungaturoto Country Club. All year 13s and prefects will be helping on these days. 

COVID News: A reminder that all students now need to wear a face mask when on the school buses, and when inside at school. These should be proper masks rather than other types of face coverings. I was impressed with how quickly students adapted to this new expectation this week and it reminds me how resilient our students have become over the past two years. All classrooms will have sanitiser available for use – and students will be encouraged to use these. Where possible and reasonable, students will be expected to social distance, both in and outside of the classroom. We will also be reminding students to regularly wash and dry hands (or use the hand sanitiser that is available in classrooms), to cough and sneeze into the elbow, and to avoid touching the face. Classrooms will be well ventilated. If your child is sick or is displaying any of the COVID symptoms (a new or worsening cough, sneezing and runny nose, a fever, temporary loss of smell or altered sense of taste, sore throat or shortness of breath) - please do not send them to school and seek medical advice. If we see a student displaying these symptoms, we will be contacting home for you to please collect your child from school. Students are also encouraged to bring their own water bottles to school. Visitors must wear face coverings when coming onto the school grounds. Please sign yourself in, and scan in using the COVID-19 tracer app on display and adhere to physical distancing of two metres where possible.

Ngā mihi
Dirk Smyth