From the Principal, 21 February

He tia, he tia, He ranga, he ranga,

Haere mai te toki, Hamui ē, hui e, taiki ē.

Rise and press on, When the challenge arrives,

We will gather and unite together, Strength together it will be done.

Welcome to the 2023 College Year

The 2023 Year began with a pōwhiri for new students and staff. This is always a really warm and welcoming occasion for not only new students but also their whānau. Students, their whānau and new staff are welcomed into the wider College community. At the pōwhiri it is acknowledged that whānau are handing their children into the care of the College and this is something that is treated with the utmost respect. To this end I would like to urge you at any time, should you have any worries or concerns, to make contact with us. One of our most important jobs is to value our young people and, that being the case, any call will be treated as very important to us.

I would like to acknowledge the arrival of our new staff member, Caleb Lipinski. Caleb is an experienced teacher and will undertake work in both the Mathematics and Physical Education departments.

It is great to see our students arriving dressed smartly in College uniform and ready for learning. As much of our work is now electronically sourced, could I urge you all to make sure that students are arriving each day with their chromebooks fully charged and ready to engage in their learning. If any whānau are having difficulty with the purchase of uniform items or chromebooks, please do not hesitate to contact me and we can make arrangements to alleviate this worry.

It has been really enjoyable seeing students, not only engage in classroom work, but also getting involved in the recent house activities. I would really urge parents to support their young ones engaging in the many sports and cultural activities that are on offer. Kirsty Doyle, our Sports Director, is looking forward to a year of full participation but would also love to have more parent volunteers to support those activities. Please contact Kirsty on kdl@otakicollege.school.nz if you would like to help.

Cyclone Gabrielle

As you are aware, we have been extremely lucky to avoid the destruction encountered in the Hawkes Bay and East Coast regions. Already there has been a massive Ōtaki community response to provide food, clothing and other items to cyclone victims. On Friday we are having a non-uniform day and students should bring a koha and a can of food so that we can forward this onto the cyclone relief effort. I would like to thank you in advance for your support of this and also acknowledge New World for supplying sausages for our sausage sizzle fundraiser.

Royal Connections

On their recent, and very successful, tour of the United Kingdom our Everiss Scholars, Krisha Modi and Jess Thomsen, had the honour of having morning tea with Princess Anne at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Following on from this, we recently received an invitation to attend the unveiling of a plaque in front of the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul which marks the commencement of a maritime Merchant Navy monument which will be erected there. This monument acknowledges the service of the Merchant Navy in both peace and war and will have the names of all Merchant Navy personnel who have lost their lives during conflicts. Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence were central in the service and unveiling of the plaque and at the end of the ceremony spent time mixing and mingling with invited guests. Princess Anne spent some time talking to Hannah Thompson and Caleb Smith, our Kākākura (Heads of School), who attended this service with me.

This is a really good example of how our connections with the Merchant Navy and Robert Gordon's College have extended opportunities to students of Ōtaki College as the SS Otaki tradition grows.

We will again be undertaking the SS Otaki Commemorative Service on Friday 10 March with the theme being the 150 year anniversary of the founding of the New Zealand Shipping Company. The SS Otaki was a New Zealand Shipping Company vessel so the links to this event are strong. We look forward to hosting a large number of former employees of the New Zealand Shipping Company at this event.

2023 Ngā Ringa Whero - Heads of School Team

Becoming a school leader carries a lot of responsibilities along with many opportunities. With our strong relationship with the New Zealand Airforce we were again able to secure the services of three airforce personnel to undertake leadership training with the Heads of School team. This was a great day with some really good feedback from our young people:

"I found the session with Brad, Alex, and Mikayla very enjoyable and informative. For me some things I took away from it was the different definitions of what a leader can be or look like, for example to be a leader and a good one you don’t have to be the loudest, or the one that provides answers straight away whenever there’s a problem, you can be a leader that steps back and analyses the situation while your team offers the answers. Which I think is both useful for myself and the team as we can each be a leader in our own perspective which will be helpful for the journey ahead. Thank you. "

"I really enjoyed yesterday's leadership training and felt that it was a worthwhile experience which bonded our heads of school team and taught us some valuable lessons about what makes a good leader, follower and role model.

Some things I took away were about the importance of being a good listener, making sure everyone on your team is heard, being open to new ideas and compromising. I think it was a very useful day for me and as well as gaining new knowledge and getting a chance to connect with our new leadership team we got to learn about the Airforce and their experiences. It was an all round good and fun day and great opportunity."

"Throughout the session guided by Brad, Alex and Mikayla, I found my overall experience with them to be very positive and interesting, especially with diving into the different scenarios of what a leader can be perceived as VS what a leader can actually look like. I’ve learnt that being a good leader doesn’t always have to be the one to take the initiative and put their hand up first, rather it takes a team to support each other, not just titles that define our positions within the team. I enjoyed a lot of the different yet fun activities that brought out the messages conveyed to us through small talk and games which helped us understand the importance of each team member and how we are able to improve together as a group. I think that this program is incredibly useful to us in the long run as it is our first stepping stone towards creating an amazing future. "

Report abuse