TEACHERS STRIKE more information to follow · 5/24/2019 · Fahdil Ali – 4pts, Mahdi Hussaini...
Transcript of TEACHERS STRIKE more information to follow · 5/24/2019 · Fahdil Ali – 4pts, Mahdi Hussaini...
Otahuhu College Newsletter
Friday 24 May 2019
From our Principal
It was great to see so many of you at the Parent Teacher interviews on Friday. I know our
teachers really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with you about how best to support your child’s
learning. It was interesting talking to teachers new to Otahuhu College, and hearing how
impressed they were with the discussions being focused on learning and also how busy they
were with so many parents turning up. It is no wonder that the achievement of your children
and our students keeps improving.
There has been a lot of media attention about a strike by Primary and Secondary Teachers on
29 May. This situation is because there is a huge shortage of teachers as the profession is not
seen as attractive as it should be. Those of us involved in education realise how critical it is that
our young people have high quality teachers. Graduates should be keen to choose teaching but
the pay and conditions do not currently reward teachers for the excellent work that they do.
Important Dates
26-31 May Samoan Language Week
29 May TEACHERS STRIKE – more information to follow
31 May Teacher Only Day 3 June Queen’s Birthday – Public Holiday
4-7 June Smilecare on site
4-7 June ARTS Week
Our Commitments
Our commitment this week is to be respectful. There are simple ways in which we can encourage our
children to be respectful. Using more formal language when talking to adults and in particular staff and
visitors to Otahuhu College demonstrates respect. Saying ‘Yes’ instead of ‘yeah’, making sure we use
please and thankyou regularly. Holding doors open for others to walk through. Wearing the uniform
correctly to and from school. All these demonstrate respectful behaviours.
School Closed on 29 May Due to Strike Action
The Board has carefully considered the availability of teaching staff, and unfortunately decided that we
cannot provide the normal teaching services during the strike so the school will officially be closed for
instruction during the above times. Accordingly it’s important that you make appropriate alternative
arrangements for the care of your child/children during the period of the strike as no supervision can be
provided.
Otahuhu College Parent Portal
Parents/Caregivers should have received an email and/or letter with log in details on how to access the
schools Kamar Portal through our schools Website page. This portal provides information on how your
child is doing at school. Information such as the Daily notices, School Calendar, Student details and
Student results can be accessed by using your log in username and password. Year 11, 12 and 13
students will have a recent Achievement Report that can be downloaded. All parents/caregivers will be
alerted when future school Reports are up-loaded to the school Portal. If you have any questions about
the Portal please contact the school.
Year 11 Prizewinners and information about credits
From Mr. Martin (Year 11 Dean)
It is with great pleasure that I can announce the names of the prizewinners for the Year 11 Credit
Competition in Term 1 pictured above. They are left to right: Bianca Lal, Maisam Mohammadi and
Aliyah Hussein.
Students were asked to work with their Whanau teachers to record how many credits they had achieved
by the end of Term 1 and to record when future internal assessments would take place. The targets for
the end of each term are as follows:
Term 1 - 15
Term 2 - 35
Term 3 - 60
In order to make this task easier, and so they can show families and carers how they are doing, they
have been given a personalised tracker sheet which they can use to keep their latest credit totals in
mind and to act as a reminder when assessments are coming up. I have included an example of what
this looks like below. I am also very pleased to announce that by the end of Term 1 87% of our Year 11
students had reached their credit target for that term and many students are already past the total for
Term 2. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for all your support at home and I am sure
you would join me in also thanking their hard working and dedicated Year 11 teachers who have
supported them here in school.
Sports News
Pakuranga certainly made our boys work hard for their points on Saturday but we managed to come out
with the win.
The first half saw the boys struggle to find their feet. There were many missed opportunities but
fortunately they were able to regain their rhythm and confidence and started to score more in the
second half. Our parent and family support numbers are increasing by the week and we understand the
importance of family in our community, therefore we continue to encourage you all to keep supporting
your son(s) and daughters(s) in both sport and academics.
The 1st XV and 2B teams have a Parent engagement evening on Tuesday 21st May at 6pm to 7.30pm –
dinner will be provided.
A big fa’amalo and fa’afetai to Mr and Mrs Tukuafu, parents of (Kepa Tukuafu Y13) who has sponsored
our Players of the Day for the last couple of weeks. We are very grateful for your generosity. Malo
aupito.
Week 1: Best Back – Demetrius Siliva Best Forward: Vili Fangupo
Week 2: Best Back – William Suapaia Best Forward: Steven Tupou
Week 3: Best Back – Faleseuga Tomasi Best Forward: Confred Cordtz
Final score again Pakuranga College 22-10 to OC.
Last week Tuesday we were very fortunate to have some of the Tall Ferns Women’s Basketball
Players visit Otahuhu College.
Kalani Purcell, Natalie Taylor and Jordan Hunter represented New Zealand at the 2018
Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast.
They spoke to the students about how they used basketball as a pathway to gain a full
scholarship to attend University in the USA to get a degree and play the sport they love.
Boys 1st XI Soccer
The Boys 1st XI have made a strong start to the season in the Counties Manukau B Grade Competition.
We have beaten Ormiston 4-0 and Papatoetoe 6-0. Training sessions have been intense as players are
fighting to be part of the team on match day. Everyone has been playing well but special mention must
be made of Fahdil Ali who has scored 6 goals so far this season – 2 hattricks in the 2 games played!
MVP points after the first 2 games:
Fahdil Ali – 4pts, Mahdi Hussaini 3pts, Bhavin Lal and Ali Paiwandi 2pts, Ronit Bijay 1pt.
Girls Soccer
The Girls First Eleven has had a great start to their season, winning their first two games 2 – 0 against
local opponents McAuley High School and Southern Cross Campus. Goal scorers have been Amina Aziz,
Bianca Lal and Lisa Teariki. Special note was made of Toalemoana Latu who showed great sportsmanship
in the game against Southern Cross Campus.
University Entrance
Otahuhu College was one of eight local high schools, and one central school, invited to a presentation at
AUT South Campus, by the United Nations Secretary Antonio Guterres, former Prime Minister of
Portugal. The following Year 13 and Year 12 students nominated by the school, participated in a
workshop working on three questions asked of the Secretary.
Shamis Abaid, Nabihah Nahila, Nickawana Perese, Leonie Stewart, Asinate Suluka, Sepoima Time and
Leon Tione.
Leonie introduced our school to the school groups, and Leon
presented the school’s workshop top three questions on
‘sustainable development goals’ to the school groups.
University of Waikato Open Day 2019
On Monday 17th May, our year 13
students attended The University
of Waikato open day in Hamilton.
The open day was an opportunity
for the students to familiarize
themselves with the place and to
learn about the programmes,
accommodation, student support
services, scholarships and
everything that the University
offers.
Young Women in Leadership 2019
The Young Women in Leadership Programme is a project run by Massey University. The programme was
established to provide young women, the opportunity to learn about different aspects of leadership. As
part of the programme the students were given a task to plan and conduct a small-scale project on an
issue that is relevant at our school.
Maddie leilua, Nina Do, April Heffernan, Shahilta Shah and Victoria Adams represented our school well
and based their project on self-acceptance and all received completion certificates.
Stem News
Museum visit to Otahuhu College
Tom from the Museum introduced the idea of Speciation to our year 12 Biology class. He took us
through New Zealand examples of gene flow, a bottleneck event and evolution at play. He presented the
class with bones of various Moa to examine as he discussed how the Moa species adapted to their
habitats. The class was even able to hold a Kiwi bird that had been taxidermy to closer examine the
adaptations it has to survive in New Zealand. We also looked at how the introduction of certain invasive
species is now threatening our vast native bird population. Tom spoke about the need for New Zealand
to become predator free by 2050 if we are to maintain certain species and retain genetic diversity
amongst species as well. This hands-on experience was a fun interactive session for our students!
Engineering her future
Four of our female senior students attended a careers event at the University of Auckland. This evening
was an opportunity to meet female students, hear about the wide variety of engineering specialisations,
and experience a mini engineering lecture. They also had the chance for questions and mingling with
both staff and current engineering students over refreshments during the second half of the evening.
This was a great chance for students to find out what engineering is and to discuss whether it is the right
pathway for them to follow. Thank you to Ms Kroonenberg for taking our girls! We look forward to
seeing the girl’s transition into Engineering.
Compulsory tutorials
This is a notice to the Chemistry students. Tutorials from week 6 onwards will be compulsory! Please
ensure your child attends these sessions. Feel free to contact the school if you have any concerns.
Returning HoD Science
This week saw the return of our HoD Science, Eva Cornforth. She has spent the last 4 ½ months in
Arizona studying at the Arizona State University and working alongside US teachers in middle and
secondary schools. The trip was part of her Fulbright Distinguished Teacher Award and culminated in a
presentation ceremony in Washington DC. During her time overseas, Mrs Cornforth studied the
development of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) academies in Arizona and the use of
Maker Spaces. These are collaborative workshops where students gain practical hands-on experience
with new technologies and innovative processes to design and build projects. They also provide a
flexible environment where learning is made physical and students demonstrate their creativity to solve
problems and build things. She will be applying some of her experiences on the Fulbright programme to
the work she is doing here.
Gateway Information
Due to the teacher strike on Wednesday, the CV workshop will be cancelled for the 29th. The next
workshop will be on Tuesday, June the 4th. Please encourage your students to attend if they do not yet
have a CV as this is vital for applying for jobs – part time or full time.
The learners licence workshop was cancelled this Thurs due to parent-teacher interviews, but will
resume next week on the 30th.
Health Centre News
PREVENTION OF MEASLES SICKNESS AND SPREAD TO OTHERS
There is an outbreak of measles in NZ.
Measles is:
* a serious infection with runny nose, sore eyes, cough, high fever, and then a rash.
* for some people, measles gets worse: meningitis, lung infection, deafness and seizures.
* easily spread by coughing and sneezing. Babies and young children are not old enough to be
fully immunised so are in real danger if others give them measles.
Please check that your child had their measles (MMR) shots as a baby and at 4 years.
If you have come from overseas, your child may not have had the measles shots. Please check
with your doctor.