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
This week we have felt the impact of COVID along with other illnesses with our teaching team and support staff and have had 9 members of staff away at various times during the week. I had to make the call to put one of our classrooms on to home learning today. While I know that this can put extra pressure on family units, we are extremely thankful for your ongoing support. Please rest assured that we will always work with you to provide supervision for your child if this is needed. Again, a sincere thank you to our school community for continuing to show kindness at this challenging time.
I do also ask that students are not coming to school when they are unwell, there has been a terrible flu and tummy bug going around.
Next week we welcome back our Client school technology groups. We are certainly excited to be able to mix and mingle with these wonderful students during our break times.
With the weather cooling down, especially in the morning, it is important that students do not arrive at school before 8.30 am. Please ensure your child is wearing the correct school uniform ie, black leather shoes, navy over the knee socks for girls, boys are able to wear the long grey dress pants on cold days. Your child is allowed to wear a jacket outside at break times as long as they have an O.I.S. blue jersey or polar fleece underneath. We have available school jackets for sale at the school office however, this is not compulsory.
Learning conversations - It is very timely that next week, we will be engaging in our Learning Conversations with you. This is a perfect opportunity to pause and reflect on how well your child is tracking towards achieving their goals and what needs to be done to make further progress. Making the time to come and meet with their classroom teacher sends a direct message to your child that you are invested in their learning and the importance that you place on them having success at O.I.S. and with their education. It also helps to keep building positive home and school connections that are so important in ensuring successful outcomes for your children. We aim for 100% attendance at our Learning Conversations, so it is important that your child comes along to their conference with you.
We are constantly looking for, and finding different opportunities for our students to have while they are here at O.I.S. with the hope that this will set them up to continue to give to their community beyond their time at O.I.S. Students enjoy making connections with their wider community and more importantly, it puts learning into a valuable context. This week a number of our Year 8 students submitted their submissions to the Waitaki District Council. It was great that I could watch these students deliver their ideas, whilst I was at home isolating. WOW I was so impressed, and have had a number of emails, phone calls and comments from the wider community around the delivery and quality of submissions.
We are still looking for support for our Matariki Celebration and would love any donations of kumara, pumpkin, potatoes and meat. If you're able to support us with any of these products please email jamayaf@oamaruint.school.nz, we would really appreciate it.
Enjoy the long weekend!
He waka eke noa - We are in this together
Rebecca Meek