Oxford Area School Tumuaki|Principal update

Mauri ora ki a tātau, good health to all of us,

Last month the Ministry of Education was able to confirm Brosnan as the main contractor for our building project. Over the last few weeks, we have seen site preparations in anticipation of the pouring of the foundations which should take us through to the end of the month.

Just like a building’s foundation, we too set the all-important foundations for our students' ability to learn.

At Oxford Area School this is through the development of the 6 C’s - collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, citizenship, and character.

As you read through our monthly pānui | newsletter please see where you can identify the 6 C’s in action.

What have our students been up to over the past few weeks? Here are a few highlights:

We are very proud of Amelia Smith in Year 8 and Olivia Smith in Year 9 who were both selected to represent our district on the Waimakariri District Youth Council. Congratulations to both for their selections and what they can bring to the youth council.

Over Easter weekend Hillary Cooper, head student, competed in in Breeders classes and Youth handlers class at the Royal Sydney Easter Show, Australia’s biggest show based in Sydney.

We are very proud of Jero Galway and Charlotte Shelley who both represented our school at the South Island Secondary School Athletics in Invercargill last month.

Noho ora mai, nā | stay well

Mike Hart

Tumuaki | Principal

Te Kura o Te Poho Rakahua (the school of Mt Oxford) Oxford Area School

Year 7/8 camp experience at Living Springs

by Rachel Campbell

Last term, the Year 7/8 students went to Living Springs. The camp began with some learning about the history of Lyttelton and the coastline.

We hiked up quite a large hill to get to our location. We spent three days participating in many activities including a swimming code challenge, archery tag, mini golf, monorail, dodgeball, orienteering, bouldering wall, burma trail blindfold activity and an escape box.

We also had a very competitive quiz night and movie. Lastly, we finished off with a game of animal survival. The camp was full of teamwork, support for one another, GRIT and perseverance. Camp was a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another better as we build our team culture. The teachers were proud of the way the students were able to manage themselves, look after their own equipment and showed the school's values.

A huge thank you to the eight parents who came and supported the students and served the delicious kai!

Some student voice:

Unfortunately, we were gifted with a frustrating amount of rain and hail on the second and third day.(Jade) Excitedly, we made it to camp and we could try out some cool activities. (Sienna)

The bunkrooms- warm, cozy and calming- were the perfect place to sleep.(Indie)

Gasping for air, I sprinted up the last bit of the hill. (Luke) Sadly, it was the third day so we had to pack up and leave.

Alyssa

My eyes- sore, red and bloodshot- struggled to stay awake. Amelia Camp was tiring, fun and rainy. Scarlett

Animal Survival, this was a game where we were split into four different groups based on their food chain. There were dogs, large herbivores, small herbivores and small carnivores. Oliver Walking through the Burma Trail, I enjoyed trying to figure out my way around the trees and down the edges of the cliff, whilst holding onto the rope and being blindfolded. Bella-Rose

Ka pai everyone!

Willowbank Trip

On Friday 17th March, Year 7-8 students spent the day at Willowbank as part of their Science programme.

Students have begun their Ecology unit of work with a special emphasis on Aotearoa New Zealand endemic and native birds. Willowbank was an ideal learning environment to closely observe birds such as Kea, Weka, Kaka, Kakariki and of course, let's not forget the Kiwi.

The drawcard of Willowbank is that it is also the home of many other interesting animals such as Capybara, Otters, and Siamese Gibbons as well as examples of domesticated animals.

Students honed their scientific investigation skills with observation and the use of ethograms and ethogram tally charts. The data collected will be used back in the classroom over the coming weeks. While our ākonga may only be ten and eleven years old, the skills they are learning will provide a good grounding for NCEA investigations and beyond. In the students words, highlights of the experience includeThe Capybara had chunky shaped faces and were quite big (Rhylee)

I liked the Capuchin monkeys; they kept swinging on the ropes using their tails (Jamie)

The baby Capybara moved really fast (Alex)

When the rabbits were lying down it looked like they had a large pillow of fur underneath them (Xavier)

The miniature cow was very cute. It had a large head and eyes (Sophie)

The otters were really playful and were very good at swimming (Nakita)

The Kunekune pigs lay on their backs when their bellies were rubbed (Ghermyll)

A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who accompanied us alongside the Year 7-8 teaching teams. Without this support, we wouldn't be able to offer our tamariki these experiences.

Ravensdown - Kirwee Fundraiser

A huge thank you to all the parents and students who volunteered their help during the three days of the Kirwee Field Days, helping with the catering in the Ravensdown tent. Special mention to our Year 10 students who helped on Wednesday & Friday and who were able to put this experience towards an Assessment.Bridget Eder, Alice McLaughlan, Zara Chittenham, Alexis Stubbs, Hannah Mullis, Lillia Beer, Maia Regan, Alexis Graham and Scarlett Hart.

Such awesome young students, thank you.

Roar

by Jesse Moore

This year, our awesome Year 10 students are involved in the 'ROAR' programme. This is a course designed to grow and stretch the students as they leave childhood behind and embrace adulthood, with more responsibilities and challenges being thrown their way.

This is where the name ROAR comes from as we want to see our ākonga grow in their Resilience, take Opportunities, seek out Adventures, and be Reflective about their lives.

For Term 1, we focused on IDENTITY; students worked on understanding who they are, where they have come from, and where they are going with in-class discussion, activities and games to help this process.

As part of this programme, we took some time outside of class to explore some local scenery and spend time reflecting on the people in our lives and what kind of adults we want to be. Our Year 10's braced the cold and headed down to Ashley Gorge. The aim of the trip was to reflect on the people in our lives that have helped shape us into who we are today and think about what qualities we want to work on in ourselves. After a quick walk around the loop track, we wrote some gratitude letters to the adults and family that have helped shape us into who we are today. The day ended with a big challenge - to leave something from our childhood behind (bad habit, attitude, etc) and pick up something new for the journey into adulthood ahead (courage, caring, humility, etc), to which all the students embraced and had a great time doing so.

Special thanks to Mr Halliwell, Mrs Lovatt, Mrs Gilpin, Miss Wallace, Samara and Beth and Iain Froud (24/7 YouthWork), for your mahi on the trip