Matariki Toi Māori Festival: What a fantastic day we had on Saturday for our annual Otamatea Toi Maori Festival. The kapa haka performances were very impressive and the Otamatea High School students' performance 'stole the show'. There were hundreds of guests in the hall for each roopu on stage, and the stalls and activities kept everyone entertained and well fed. Thank you to everyone involved, especially to Taira, Matua Wiremu and Whaea Mata as well as all those that volunteered to help on the day.

Year 9 and 10 Options for 2023: Year 8s and 9s are now making their option choices for next year. Parents and caregivers are strongly encouraged to discuss these carefully with their children, as these choices often set students up for future NCEA subject choices.

Fun Day: Congratulations to our Year 7/8 Syndicate teachers for running a very successful Fun Day here at school on Wednesday. We were all very relieved that the rain stayed away. Our student helpers did an amazing job, and our visiting year 6/7 students had a great time. They are really looking forward to being at high school next year. 

School Magazine: Well done to Mrs Christie and her year 10 magazine class for producing such a well polished and professional looking school magazine. It is very much a student centred publication, full of colourful photos and interesting articles. These students have done a great job and have learned a lot of publishing and editing skills along the way. There is one magazine available for each family.

Vaping: A reminder that it is illegal to vape (or smoke) at school or on the school buses. We will be taking a very strict approach to students who breach this law. Please ensure that your child is not bringing vaping devices to school. Students found vaping on the bus will be banned from riding on the bus, and will have to find alternative ways of getting to school each day. For more information on vaping, please see this link.

COVID: The number of COVID cases nationally remains high. A reminder that positive cases still need to self-isolate for 7 days but asymptomatic household contacts can return to school subject to daily RATs. If your child displays COVID symptoms at school, it remains our policy to contact parents/caregivers to collect their child as soon as possible. We do have spare RATs available if needed.

NCEA Examinations: The final NCEA examinations were held at school on Thursday and senior students not on study leave had their last day at school on Friday. This means there is now no more school for all senior students. Results will be out mid January.

Chromebooks 2023: A reminder that all year 10 to 13 students will need to bring a Chromebook in a hard shell case to school each day from the start of 2023. We have partnered with PB Tech and Cyclone who have some good deals available. See our website: Our School => Student Chromebooks for more details.

DOE: All the best to our gold DOE group who are away in the South Island for a week completing their qualifying tramp on the Routeburn track. I'm sure they will have a fantastic time on one of New Zealand's Great Walks.

Coming Up: We have the Amazing Race for year 9s on Thursday, with each subject department responsible for a leg of the race. This will be a fun way for year 9s to complete their curriculum programme for the year. On Thursday evening we also have the year 9 and 10 drama performance here at school, between 6pm and 8.30pm in E2. Supper will be provided by our year 10 food technology students.  A reminder that the Ministry of Education has a final NCEA staff only day on Tuesday 6th December so there will be no school for students on this day.

Dirk Smyth
Principal