This weekend marks a huge event on our annual calendar, as staff and students head to Trigg Sports Arena in Kensington, Whangarei for 'Relay for Life'. This fundraising event raises money for cancer research, education, advocacy, and patient services. It involves an 18-hour overnight relay in which team members take turns walking or running around the track. Students can also take part in a variety of activities such as games, music, and food, as well as participating in the Candlelight Ceremony where we remember those who have lost their battle with the disease. It is a wonderful opportunity for communities to come together to support those affected by cancer and I know that our students will represent Otamatea High School with pride. Included in this newsletter is a wonderful description of our students' fundraising efforts to date, put together by Mr Blake who has done a magnificent job helping our students with the planning and organisation of their fundraising activities. Well done!

It is a relief to see that the Brynderwyns Road is back open in both directions. This is expected to last until the 17th April when the road will be closed again for full repairs. As a result,  Glenmohr Road bus students will be picked up at 8.10am from Glenmohr from Monday.

Many of our students are busy with assessments at the moment, which can be quite stressful for some students.  There are several ways to help your learners through these busy times: encourage them to prepare well for their tests; if the assessment allows, get them to work on it at home to reduce pressure in class and improve the quality of their work; ensure that they are eating well, exercising and getting plenty of sleep.  If your student has been absent or is falling behind in their work, encourage them to use some time in the holidays to catch up - this is particularly important for senior students.  You can email your student's teachers if you have any questions about their learning.  Staff email addresses can be found on our school website.

Cameras on buses
We now have cameras installed on several of our bus routes.  This is to ensure the safety of your child to and from school each day. We hope that having cameras on buses will remind some of our students of the high behaviour expectations we have when travelling on school buses. We take privacy seriously and video footage is only viewed if we are investigating a specific incident.

Student Attendance
Attending school regularly is closely linked to student achievement and success.  I would like to thank parents, caregivers and whānau for your support in ensuring students at Otamatea are getting to school at a rate well above the national average.  Despite the challenges we have faced over the term with weather and road closures we have achieved an overall attendance rate for term one of 87.3% just short of out goal 2023 goal of 90%.

If your child is unable to attend school for any reason, please let us know by using one of the following options.

·         By phone.  0800682628, select the report a student absence option.

·         The school website select report an absence

·         By Email absence@otamatea.school.nz

·         Download the KAMAR app.

When reporting an absence, it’s important to include your name, the name of the student and the reason of the absence.

"From the archives"

This lovely black and white shot of the main characters from "Grease" a production that was performed some years ago.
Do you recognise anyone in here? Do you know what year this was? We have no record of who or when this production happened, so if you have any information get in touch with us.

From Our Social Science Department

Level 2 and 3 Tourism trip to Paihia
On Monday 27th of March twenty senior tourism students traveled up to Paihia to visit the Queenstown Resort College. Before we visited the college some of the students had free time to explore the tourism town of Paihia. Eight of the students decided to go parasailing, going up at least 1300 ft for around 10 minutes each, Thankfully it wasn't too scary. After our adventures around Paihia we headed over to the QRC to listen to a presentation on what the college offers which is mainly hospitality and tourism, The college cooks were nice enough to give us a free lunch which was burgers and fruits which was good then we headed around the back to take a tour around the dorms, that was pretty much all so we headed back home with a compulsory maccas stop. Hannah Osborne Year 12

From Our English Department 

A Cry for Help.

You may have read recently about the new NCEA literacy requirements and the poor levels of literacy in Aotearoa New Zealand. In the English Department we are seeing this first hand. Many students are finding it difficult to access the texts that we have done in the past and they often struggle to express themselves with any specificity or to explain their opinions in full. This is a pressing problem considering that the new NCEA literacy examination being introduced next year suggests that approximately 50% of students nationwide may not pass. The most effective way to improve our literacy skills is to read. And the sad fact is that many of our students don’t read. So, my plea to you, wonderful parents, whānau and caregivers, is to support our students to read. No matter what age they are. No matter what they wish to read. So, please help them put down the game controller, or the phone, and to read for a minimum of 10 minutes each day.

Help them find the time in their busy schedules to read. Help them find things to read that interest them. Read with them. Read to them. Just read.