COVID News:  We remain at the Orange traffic light setting and I am pleased to see attendance rates returning to pre COVID levels. A reminder that masks are no longer required to be worn at school, but all 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. The isolation rules also remain in place, which means anyone testing positive will need to isolate for at least 7 days while you recover. Day 0 is the day your symptoms started or when you tested positive, whichever came first. You do not need another test to leave isolation. If you do, the result would likely show as positive but that does not mean you are infectious. If you are still sick, stay home until you are well and for 24 hours after your symptoms resolve. Household contacts need to isolate from the day the person with COVID-19 tests positive or their symptoms started — whichever comes first. Household contacts also need to get a test for COVID-19 on day 3, and on day 7.  If your child has to be picked up from school because they are sick, we have free RATs (Rapid Antigen Tests) available for you to take home with you. At Orange, we can resume activities with large numbers of students indoors which means full school assemblies will resume most Wednesday mornings.

Basketball success: Congratulations to Isaiah Pere who recently attended a four day under 14 New Zealand basketball camp in Rotorua. Isaiah has also made the Northland under 15 basketball team! Their upcoming games will determine who will qualify for Nationals in July. Hard work and practice are the secrets to success and Isaiah is an excellent example of that. Well done Isaiah!

New staff and students: We held a powhiri on the first day of term to welcome new staff and students to our amazing school. We don't usually have a special powhiri this time of year, but with 10 new staff members and 23 new students having joined since the start of term 1, it was important that we gave them a proper welcome. Thanks to Mr Roux for talking so well in te reo Māori on behalf of the manuhiri. Well done also to Margaret Dunn for leading the karanga,  and to Jazzlyn Martin for doing the karakia. It was also lovely to have the whole school in the hall for the first time in many months. This week we welcomed Imogen McLeod, our new part time librarian, working Thursdays and Fridays, and Libby Aspden who started on Monday as teacher aide.

B-Block: Progress on the completion of B-Block continued over the holidays with all the external paving work completed. We now have access to all B-Block classrooms, which is a huge relief to teachers and students who have not had a regular classroom all year. Our librarians have retrieved all our library books from storage, where they have been for 18 months, and are in the process of putting these back onto the shelves, getting ready to reopen our library next week. It will be wonderful for students to be able to access the library again.

Parent Teacher Interviews: Our parent teacher interviews were held on Wednesday. These were postponed from last term while we remained at the Red traffic light setting. I was delighted with the turnout, the highest we have ever had at Otamatea High School, even when roll growth is factored in. With so many students new to our school, new teachers to meet, and a very disruptive term 1 behind us, the parents and caregivers I spoke to found the afternoon very useful. Having our Learning Support Coordinator and our RTLB teacher on hand meant any parents with concerns about their child's learning could immediately talk to these specialist teachers to access support.

Academic Mentoring: All senior students have completed their 2022 academic and personal goals, and term 1 NCEA assessments, if not already marked and moderated, are going through that process now. A reminder that on Wednesday 18th May we host our very popular and successful 20 minute parent/student/teacher conferences, and invitations have been sent out to parents/caregivers for these three way meetings. This will be an important opportunity to find out how your child is progressing overall with their NCEA studies.

ANZAC Day: Staff and prefects were represented at each of the four local ANZAC day services held on the 25th April (Waipu, Matakohe, Manugaturoto and Hakaru). Our prefects were dressed in their uniforms and layed beautiful wreaths on the day. They represented our school with pride. 

Staff Only Day:  Monday 9th May is the first of four Ministry of Education staff only days allocated for the year. These days are set aside to support the implementation of changes to NCEA, and the wider strengthening of curriculum, progress and achievement practice. 

Learning Support: I have attached the Te Manawa Tahi Community timetable for term 2. This is an opportunity to discuss with Learning Support and the RTLB service any significant concerns you may have about your child's learning, such as difficulty with speaking, hearing or seeing, and to gain appropriate support. Additional information about this service is also attached.