Principal's Message...

Our Purpose: To prepare students to be active participants who will contribute to their community.

Tēnā koutou katoa, Malo e lelei, Talofa lava, Bula vinaka

We have had a busy few weeks! It's been great to see children being involved in lots of extracurricular activities, camps and new experiences but, perhaps more importantly, I have been very impressed with the focus in the classrooms, especially during our first 3 blocks of the day, and looking at the interesting and personalised programmes the teachers are delivering.

Our extracurricular programmes have kicked off with great enthusiasm. Whether it's sports or the arts our students have shown an eagerness to participate in the “OIS Way" and showcase their talents. These activities are vital in promoting holistic development and fostering a sense of belonging among our students. I encourage all students to explore these opportunities further and find activities that ignite their passions. Well done to the Epro8 team who have made it into the Otago section next week, we look forward to hearing about the challenge they set for you.

Next term we have our Out-of-Hours Music Programme and Art classes starting up. Your child should know what day and time they have been allocated.

Thank you to the wonderful parents who have put their hands up to help manage or coach our sports teams. With so many children playing sports and participating in other activities, we can't do it without your support. On a similar theme, thank you to the many parents who are supporting classes at the Year 8 camps. This is a wonderful experience for our students, and we are so grateful for our whanau support in ensuring our students get to camp.

As we near the end of the term we can reflect on the past 10 weeks and see students moving from trying to find their place and fit in, to truly belonging to the OIS community. As Brene Brown once said “Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are, it requires us to be who we are”.

We are 5 school days away from the end of the term, unfortunately, like many other schools we have COVID and the flu doing the rounds. If your child is unwell and not at school it is really important that you phone or text school before 9am each day.

In a final note this week, I would like to congratulate Gavin Baumber who has been appointed as the new Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) for our region. Gavin has been a very valid member of our team and has stepped into many different roles at OIS during his time with us. We wish Gavin all the best and we look forward to working with him as our RTLB.

Next term we welcome Ryan Clark to the team. Ryan is coming to us from Hutt Intermediate where he is currently the Digital Technology/STEM specialist teacher. We're looking forward to Ryan and his family relocating to Oamaru and joining the OIS team.

School Documents Reviews

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Have a great weekend.

Rebecca