Otamatea High School

Summary

Otamatea High School was established in 1966. We are a rural year 7 to 13, co-educational, state high school situated in the beautiful, rural township of Maungaturoto. Our 480 students travel from far and wide to be here; from Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto, Paparoa, Mangawhai, Waipu, Matakohe, Ruakaka and Tinopai. We have seen steady roll growth over the past few years, have achieved strong NCEA results and have high staff morale.

School Vision

One that would prepare our students for the challenges of the future. We invited parents, caregivers and members of our community to join staff and students in developing our new school vision. After much collaboration and discussion, we arrived at ‘Ready for the World’- a vision statement that places future focussed schooling at the heart of what we do.

Our whakatauki ‘He waka eke noa’ represents the clear message that our whole community has a role to play in preparing our students for the future. It helps nurture a culture of support and builds resilience amongst students and staff. As a culturally responsive, restorative school, we have worked hard to create a warm, welcoming culture at Otamatea High School, and visitors regularly comment on the great vibe here at OTA. The tikanga of our school is best described as The OTA Way which stands for Our safety, Total respect and Always learning. ‘Our safety’ is a reminder to our students to make good choices to help keep themselves and others safe; ‘Total respect’ is about demonstrating mana in ourselves and our school, and being respectful of others and of our environment. ‘Always learning’ reinforces the message to students and staff to support theirs and others’ learning, to have a positive attitude to new learning, and to build resilience - to not give up when things get challenging. This is supported by our core values and principles of kotahitanga, high expectations, responsibility, resilience and a well balanced personal hauora/wellbeing.

At Otamatea High School we offer a broad curriculum for all of our students. Year 7 and 8 students are served well by having a homeroom teacher who teaches them for more than one curriculum area as well as subject specialists and of course benefitting from the use of specialist facilities.