Principal's News

Donna Squires: It is with great sadness that our long serving teacher aide, Donna Squires, passed away last weekend. Donna worked at Otamatea High School for 16 years, working with many of our most vulnerable and high needs students. We will miss her dearly. A service for Donna will be held at the Maungaturoto Country Club at 2pm this Saturday.

COVID News:  We have now moved from Red to the Orange traffic light setting. The decision to move to Orange has been made based on public health advice and reflects that New Zealand is showing clear signs that Omicron has peaked. At Orange, masks remain an important tool to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Students aged 12 years or over, who do not have an exemption, must continue to wear a face mask when travelling on the bus to or from school. At school, however, face masks are no longer required to be worn but any student or staff member who wishes to wear a face mask at Orange will be encouraged and supported to do so. At Orange, we can resume activities with large numbers of students indoors and I am very much looking forward to having whole school assemblies again. We look forward to welcoming our new staff and students to our school with a powhiri on the first Monday of next term, as part of our first whole school assembly of the year.

Relay for Life: Our school Relay for Life team has managed to raise nearly $9,000 for the Cancer Society. What an incredible result! This is largely due to the massive efforts our year 13s have made with their fundraising, and this was acknowledged at our senior assembly on Wednesday. I would also like to thank the PTCA for their donation of the solar lights which illuminated our track last Friday. This was much appreciated. I also wish to thank Maungaturoto Primary School (pictured below) for supporting our efforts with their own mufti day and sale of juicies, with the funds raised contributing to our total. It is great to live and work in such a supportive community.

Parafed visit: On Friday of last week Parafed came to Otamatea High School to deliver professional development on inclusive activities and sports for students with physical disabilities.Students in PE classes got to experience wheelchair turbo touch, magnetic archery, seated badminton and boccia. Parafed has a goal of creating inclusive opportunities for all northlanders so this was a great opportunity to learn more about what they deliver and for students to experience sport for all. Many thanks to the PE department for organising this visit.

Parent Teacher Interviews: A reminder that parent teacher interviews will be held on the 4th of May – the first Wednesday of next term. School will close early with buses running at 12.30pm.  All parents are encouraged to attend. The online booking app is now open, and closes at 12pm on Tuesday 3rd May. To book appointments parents/caregivers should log on to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz using the event code ar666. Those families who do not have internet access are encouraged to ring the school office and we will make the bookings for you.

Academic Mentoring: All seniors should have completed their 2022 academic goals by now. We know from past experience that those who set and monitor their goals throughout the year are more likely to achieve higher levels of success. On Wednesday 18th May we host our very popular and successful 20 minute parent/student/teacher conferences, and invitations are being sent out to parents/caregivers now for these important meetings. This will be an important opportunity to find out how your child is progressing with their NCEA studies.

ANZAC Day: Staff and prefects will be represented at each of the four local ANZAC day services being held on the 25th April (Waipu, Matakohe, Manugaturoto and Hakaru). Our prefects will be dressed in their uniforms and will be laying beautiful wreaths on the day. Lest we forget.

Please encourage your child to catch up on outstanding work over the break. I also strongly recommend that each student read at least one book. The holidays are the perfect opportunity to ensure students have the correct uniform too, ready for next term. For example, a number of students are still wearing the incorrect socks. These need to be black and black only. And for those of you who are going away over the holidays, please stay safe on our roads

Ngā mihi
Dirk Smyth