Principal's Message.....

By Rebecca Meek | Posted: Thursday September 29, 2022

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 three-quarters of the way through the year. This term we have managed to pack a number of different events that have been put off over the last two years due to COVID. I have loved seeing students back on the stage performing and also pushing themselves in the sporting arena. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the students who have really stepped up with our IDEAL values and taken up the different opportunities this term. Also to the staff, for their ongoing commitment to ensuring that Oamaru Intermediate is a place of positive and fun learning opportunities.

Today we say goodbye to Miss Natalie Preston who has been on her teaching placement in Room 11. We wish her all the best with her study next year.

This week we welcomed back our second group of students from a very successful Year 8 Outdoor Education programme. The students go to camp in their class groups and with their teachers, which is an excellent opportunity for students to push themselves out of their comfort zone in a very supportive environment. The students get to do a range of activities from high ropes, raft making to orienteering. 

Yesterday our Year 7 students brought home a notice regarding the 2023 Camp Programme, which will be taking place at the end of Term 1 and the beginning of Term 2, 2023. While we do facilitate fundraising opportunities, if you think you may find it difficult to fundraise, it is essential that you start to prepare for your child's camp by making a regular payment into the school bank account.

O.I.S. bank account number is

Westpac Bank 03-0937-0207107-00

Reference: Child's name and what the payment is for eg Camp

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 and 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 and these conversations have been around the inappropriate content of messages that have been sent. Often, these messages are sent on group platforms where more than one student is 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 as parents, 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 their enrolment, which gives them their own log-in. While they are logged into 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-in and complete work and tasks they may want to get done, however, we do encourage students to use their personal log-ins 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, Principal