From the Senior Leadership Team

We had a very successful enrolment evening on Wednesday night, enrolling nearly 100 students who will be joining us next year. It was really lovely meeting new parents, and those who already have children at the school, and seeing how excited the new students are about coming to our school next year. We will be hosting our second enrolment evening on the 6th September. A reminder that we operate an enrolment scheme at Otamatea High School and any out of zone enrolments must be completed by the 30th August to go on our waiting list. Full details about our enrolment process can be found on our school website. 

Well done to our prefects for running the assemblies on Wednesday. Half the prefects ran the Whatua/Maniapoto assembly in the hall, and the other half ran the Ngapuhi/Arawa assembly in the gym. This is the third time our prefects have taken full responsibility for running these assemblies, and it helps develop their leadership and public speaking skills. Our head prefects also joined the principal at Rodney College on Monday for our termly get together, along with the Rodney College, Dargaville High School and Ruawai High School head prefects.  These are great opportunities to share experiences and ideas, and to develop friendships. The prefect selection process for 2024 has now begun with nominations for the student representative on the school board of trustees now open. Students will need to have their nomination forms handed into the office by 12pm on Tuesday the 29th August. Nominations for all other prefect positions open on Friday the 1st of September.

All the best to our senior netball team who are heading to Hamilton this weekend to participate in the annual UNISS tournament. UNISS is a week-long netball tournament for top secondary school players, coaches, managers, umpires, officials and spectators from around the Upper North Island. Our netball team has been playing very well in recent weeks and we wish them all the best for a successful tournament. All the best also goes to our boys' basketball team who are heading off to Palmerston North on Tuesday for the 2023 North Island Premierships Tournament. Our boys have improved so much this season and are playing some very entertaining and skillful basketball. All the best for a successful four days in Palmerston North. Last week we had a special visitor to our school - ex-student Robert Olsen who finished here in 1972. Robert was visiting from Australia and has fond memories of his time here, including his participation in the Reporoa Exchange all those years ago. All the students involved in the exchange last week, from both schools, enjoyed a short presentation from Robert about how things have changed in the past 50 years, and he shared some highlights from his own career with the students, inspiring them to be ambitious, and to continue to challenge themselves in all aspects of their lives. The countdown is on for our senior students. There is only 3 weeks until our school practice exams begin. Please encourage your senior student/s to take these exams seriously.The grades from these assessments may be used if the student is sick on the day of their NCEA exam. These grades are also used to calculate prizegiving awards and every student’s achievement also contributes to the iwi academic cup.

Students will need to manage their time carefully over the next few weeks, ensuring that they allocate sufficient time to prepare for all of the external standards being examined. In the coming week Nicky Cotching, Deputy Principal (Student Achievement), will email all senior students and their families with study tips and links to useful online revision tools. 

If you have any concerns or queries about your child’s learning you are advised to email their teachers directly. All our teachers' email addresses are on our website in the 'Our Staff' section.

This week our Alternative Education ski trip went to Ruapehu.  It was a great time to go, with Ruapehu reported in the international papers as having the deepest snow base in the world at the moment. Our students were fortunate to have a full day of ski and snowboard instruction on the first day up the mountain before venturing further up the slopes on the second day. The students showed massive amounts of perseverance and resilience, with many having never been skiing before. This trip would not be possible without the generosity of Sam Phillips (Alternative Education tutor) and Marco Troost (skiing extraordinaire) who willingly give up their time to support our students with this amazing experience.

Our student council is made up of students from each of our four Iwi.  We have student representatives from year 8 to year 13. This year our student representatives are.

Students that are keen to initiate change or introduce a new initiative to the school should talk to their Iwi representative on the student council.  Currently the student council is reviewing our student reward system, the Golden Kauri.  If parents and whānau would like to share their thoughts and ideas on the Golden Kauri system please email adrian.cooling@otamatea.school.nz