From the Principal
Welcome aboard Kirsty Doyle
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Kirsty Doyle is our new College Sports Coordinator
Kirsty has lived 16 years in Ōtaki and has children attending local schools so she has a very good understanding of our community. She has been heavily involved in the Ōtaki Surf Club and will now share her many skills through her involvement in the organisation and development of sport in the College.
Careers for the Future Expo— come and have a look!
As part of the partnership we have developed with the Clean Technology Park, Kapiti Coast District Council, UCOL. Ministry of Education and Paraparaumu Collegework a Vocational Pathways Career Expo will be run on Saturday June 14th at the Clean Technology Park in Ōtaki.
Some key objectives:
- upskilling parents/whanau/rangatahi about NCEA
- upskilling parents/whanau/rangatahi on vocational pathways — how parents and rangatahi can access information about careers and their future
- informing young people about local opportunities for employment
- developing an awareness around the Clean Technology Park and its role in developing environmental sustainability and how this can be linked to vocational courses (our point of difference to give our young people an edge)
- to develop a youth training hub here in Ōtaki in partnership with other Colleges, UCOL, KCDC and the Clean Technology Park.
- to ascertain numbers for future UCOL or other courses.
PB4L and Restorative Practices
What is PB4L and RP?
It is easy to take for granted that parents/caregivers know about things that go on in the college but this is not always the case. Our college is described as a Restorative /PB4L college but what does this mean?
Restorative Practices and PB4L underpin everything that we do at Ōtaki College.
Restorative Practices is about the creation of a culture of care at Ōtaki College. This recognises and preserves everyone’s mana and dignity and creates a learning environment where diversity is respected.
When relationships have been harmed this approach focusses on ‘making things right’ and putting strategies in place to minimise the chance of the behaviour being repeated.
School-wide PB4L is about creating a solid foundation for collaborative and productive relationships. Restorative Practices sits within the PB4L school-wide framework developed at Ōtaki College; Respect, Ōtaki College Pride, Active Learning and Responsibility — ROAR.
Otaki College PB4L Purpose Statement: “To actively engage with staff, students and families to understand and live school wide expectations. This will enable OC students and staff to be the best that they can be.”
Principal’s Awards
The following students have gained 50 Kia Kaha cards as part of the PB4L reward system and have gained a Principal’s Award. This is an outstanding achievement and shows that these students live our expectations on a daily basis:
- Lauren Blakeley
- Daisy Davis
- Claudia Graham
- Isla Gray
- Rosana Kata
- Jennifer Lei
- Kelsi McArley
- Telesia Nelson-Latu
- Shanna O’Brien
- Tarah Ratai
- Ella Sims
- Courtney Spiller
- Ashleigh Stevenson
- William Tam
- Nicole Taylor
- Cullen Te Wiata
- Sean Todd
Chromebook Update
The four classes that are involved in the Chromebook pilot are now operating. Chromebooks are used in subjects, including Homeroom, Integrated Studies, Mathematics, Science and Health. Teachers of other subjects are also thinking about how they can incorporate them in their classes.
The teachers are saying:
“Students are enjoying the new way of learning and the ability to work at their own pace. They are also supported by a range of online tools that we are discovering daily.”
“Students are quickly getting used to the new routines that having a Chromebook to manage requires. They are using a variety of Google docs to present and complete work. How we do classwork has changed and students are keen to get started each day.”
“The students are enjoying the ability to get a photographic record of experiments as they progress.”
“From a teacher point of view, we don’t have to worry about whether students have pens etc in class, so they are ready to start straightaway. Hence lessons start a lot more quickly and thus more time is available for learning.”
“Students are also, in many cases, personalising their work more and taking more pride in what they do.”
The students are commenting:
“It is really good to use and makes things a lot easier to write down and has a whole world of things to explore on the internet to find out information.”
“The chromebooks are helpful because they limit the amount of paper we use and they save time because instead of having to get out all our books and pencil cases and that stuff we just have to get one thing.”
“I like using them because they are the new way of learning. And they helped me learn how to use the technology better. We use less paper which means we aren’t using as many trees. Yeah they are really fast and efficient.”
“It is a fast and cool way of doing school work.”
On June 3rd all staff will have professional development on using Google Apps in education. Six of our staff spent time during the Easter break at a conference on the use of these apps to promote learning and were excited to see the variety of tools available.
During this term, together with the BoT, we will look at where we are heading with Chromebooks in College and what additional classes will be introduced to Chromebooks in 2015.
Visiting Musician
Bernard Mangakahia came to perform to the Year 7 and 8 students on Thursday 15 May. He was stunning as he took us around the Pacific and spoke about his life of learning about the different cultures in Polynesia. Some of the dances he did were the Native American Hoop Dance, Samoan Slap Dance, Haka, and Poi. The students were invited to participate and they did so with much enthusiasm. Jeremiah even got up and had a bit of a dance-off with him at the end! All the students who attended had a great time and many stayed afterwards to talk to Bernard about his dancing and life.
Kids Can Cook Workshop
On Monday 12 May, Ōtaki College were fortunate to receive a visit from Chris Fortune and the Kids Can Cook Kitchen. Over the course of the day, Chris worked with all five year 7/8 Homeroom classes as well as the Year 9 and 10 Home Economics classes. Chris spoke to the students about healthy eating, how to make unappealing food appealing and looked at exactly what is in all of those energy drinks that some of our students seem to love. Students got to experience some yummy apple and silverbeet crepes and observed Chris cooking up a storm. At the end of the day, Chris had this to say about his visit to Ōtaki College;
“The Teens Can Cook Kitchen found the best tasters in New Zealand at Ōtaki College…. There was no shortage of good manners, respect, politeness and mana as these boys and girls gave it a go and we found out about energy drinks, super foods and gluten.”
Students and parents can check out Chris’s visit.
Equestrian Success
On 14th April a combined Ōtaki College/Waitohu School Equestrian Team competed in the 2014 Interschool Equestrian Event hosted by Te Horo School at the Ōtaki Racecourse. Team members were Aleisha Blakeley, Lauren Blakeley and Kaitlyn Freeman. In total there were 27 individual riders and 7 teams.
Team results were:
1st Te Horo Red, 2nd Ōtaki College/Waitohu School, 3rd Koputaroa. Lauren was 1st in the 50cm Show Jumping, 3rd Overall Working Hunter and 4th Overall turnout. Aleisha was 3rd in Overall turnout and Kaitlyn was 4th Overall Dressage.
An excellent effort all round!