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
It is hard to believe that we are already a quarter of the way through our year. It's been a very busy term and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the students who have really stepped up with our IDEAL values and settled into routine at school and the staff for their ongoing commitment to ensuring that Oamaru Intermediate is a place of positive, fun learning opportunities. Believe me when I say, they go above and beyond to ensure that we have a wide range of opportunities both cultural and sporting.
Thank you for your support with selling chocolates - The chocolates sold so well this year that we have made just over $10000. A huge shout out to all of the P.T.A ladies who counted money. A special mention to Andrea Southee and Di Wardle for their commitment to ensuring this fundraiser was successful.
Our Year 8 team had a visit from the Life Education van this week. A huge thank you to Maria and Harold for taking the time out to visit our school. The focus of this classroom visit was to learn about the brain, and the affects drugs and alcohol have on people. I know a lot of classes have had additional discussions around making choices towards drugs and alcohol.
Well done to our Otago swimmers who represented Oamaru Intermediate in Dunedin over the weekend. Thank you to all the parents and staff who supported children to participate in the Dunedin event. Yesterday 40 students participated in the football festival run by Football Waitaki. A huge shout out to Gavin and Kate who supported this event and created the opportunity for our students.
During the holidays, we as a Nation will come together to remember our Anzac’s. This is an opportunity for us to commemorate all the Australians and New Zealanders who have survived and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served. Carmen Sim and two students from our school will represent Oamaru Intermediate at the ANZAC Service.
We have entered a number of teams in our local netball, basketball and hockey competitions this winter. Thanks to all parents who have put their hands up to coach or manage a team. On Tuesday 4 May at 6pm in the school hall, we will be holding a meeting for all parents who will be coaching or managing an O.I.S team. It is essential that you are at this meeting.
As we head into the holiday break it is a timely reminder to be aware of what your child is doing online. I am aware that a number of our students use Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and other social media platforms. A majority of these platforms have an age restriction of 13 and up.
Over the last few weeks we have been having a number of conversations with groups of children around social media. These conversations have been around the inappropriate content of messages that have been sent. Often these messages are sent on group platforms where there is more than one student involved. As these conversations are taking place outside of school, we are limited to what we can do to support students. The best approach is to educate students and us as parents to ensure that we have measures in place to keep our children safe.
At O.I.S each child signs a Digital Citizenship Student and Parent Agreement on enrolment which gives them their own log on. While they are logged in their O.I.S account, all activity is logged and tracked by the O.I.S filtering system. During the holidays, students are welcome to log on and complete work and tasks they may want to get done on the O.I.S accounts however, we do encourage students to use their personal logins for all other activities during the holiday break.
I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday
He waka eke noa - We are in this together
Rebecca Meek