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,
It's been an excellent start to the year with students seamlessly adapting to OIS routines and expectations. This week, our Year 8 team embarked on an enriching walk to prepare for their EOTC camp. Today, our Year 7 team dedicated the day to forging connections and sharing joyful games and experiences, embodying the whanaungatanga theme this term. At OIS, we don't just value strong relationships, we actively cultivate and nurture them.
At OIS we talk about being IDEAL students, no matter where we are in our community. I am well aware that we are all human and can all make mistakes from time to time. As you well know, some of our best lessons can come from our mistakes. One of the greatest things we can do when we make a mistake is own it and put it right, because we can’t take it back and undo the action. A huge part of growing up is taking responsibility for our behaviour, and understanding that we can only control our behaviour and our response to others.
Often one of the questions we get asked as educators is how can we help our tamariki if they are struggling with emotions or finding learning difficult. As adults, how we respond to our children when they have times of struggle or when they make inappropriate choices is one of the biggest ways that we can support our akonga. If we respond calmly and allow our children to share their feelings and struggles, it empowers them to solve problems alongside someone and start the journey to solve them by themselves. It could simply be asking your child, “I can see you are finding this difficult. What do you need from me to help you achieve or accomplish what you want?”
Biking and scootering to school
It is wonderful to see so many of our students biking and scootering to school, however, our students must be travelling safely around our community. If your child bikes or scooters to school, please take the time to talk about these things:
Biking only on the roads, not on the footpaths
Looking both ways at a corner before crossing the road especially if you are on a scooter.
Riding in single file
Students on bikes must wear a helmet
Students who are biking to school need to know our road rules the same as we do when driving a car. I do suggest that you take the time to find what route your child is biking to school and what precautions need to be taken.
We strongly encourage all our students to bike the back streets from school, however, I am aware that a number of our students use the high school bike route. Regardless of what way your child bikes, they must adhere to all road rules.
School Documents Reviews
Please log into our school documents website to review this term's policies.
Community username oamaruint
Community password oispolicy
Have a great weekend!
Rebecca Meek
Principal