Principals Message....

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

I would like to start this week's newsletter with a huge thank you for your support on Tuesday with keeping your child at home. The Professional Learning Teacher Only Day was a crucial time in ensuring our teachers provide the best education with up-to-date thinking, being clear about the learning that matters, and supporting students to experience success in their learning.

The weather was on our side this week and it allowed us to complete our Athletics sports, a huge congratulations to all those students who participated in this event. We also have a number of children who have qualified for the North Otago Athletics Champs. I know that they will represent the school well.

As the end of the year approaches we want to remind our whānau that we will need support from home to ensure that ākonga are wearing their uniform with pride and this includes appropriate black footwear. I am well aware that some students are nearing the end of their time at O.I.S. however, it is important that we uphold our uniform expectations.

As part of our uniform during Terms 1 and 4 we ask that students bring a hat to wear that they can put on at break times and at PE. Unfortunately, we had 110 students turn up to Athletics Sports with no hats. We did manage to find 50 hats at school for students to wear. Please can we ask that students have a black or navy hat that can be left in their bag for school. We have school caps for sale in the office for $8 each.

This year we had 12 students from Yr 7 Literacy Group who entered the Aggregate and Quarry Association of New Zealand - Rock our Future Competition. Congratulations to all of these students who took up this extra opportunity. A special thanks to Mrs Garrett who organised the students to visit a local quarry and then supported them in presenting their knowledge of the different types of aggregate and their everyday uses.

Massive congratulations to Ana Kaufana who won the Yr 7 section in this nationwide competition. She has earnt $100 for herself and $1000 for the school. A superb effort!

Thanks to the George and team at Road Metals Oamaru for your time and for allowing the students to visit the Corbett Road Quarry.

JR McKenzie Trust

If you have children coming to O.I.S. or leaving to go to high school, you may be eligible to apply to the JR McKenzie Trust for uniform support. If you could benefit from this support, please see the separate article in the newsletter with the application form.

Touch

We have over one hundred students who play touch on a Tuesday night, which is awesome to see so many of our students participating and being active. Can we please ask that only touch players attend touch on a Tuesday night, and that they only need to be at the game 10 minutes before the game starts.  We do ask that players go straight home after their game. If your child is not able to play touch it is really important that you let the coach know before the game. Thank you for your support.

Rebecca Meek, Principal