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As we come to the end of a very busy week,

Rebecca Burke —

it is always a good opportunity for me to reflect on all the events that have taken place at OIS this week.

Year 7 students have been involved in a team-building week with students participating in an amazing race, sports day, trip to Karitane followed by a shared pot luck dinner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and teachers who made this trip possible.

James Hargest trials are well underway and children are starting to get really excited about this opportunity.

Year 8 students have just finished their third round of technology, I have been very impressed with the range and quality of their outcomes. 

What a fantastic effort with the cheese roll fundraiser over the weekend. For those of you that participated, you will receive an update on the total funds raised towards your camp, when we get the final expenses. After Queens birthday weekend, all Year 8 students will receive an invoice with camp fees owing. A non-refundable $100 deposit needs to be paid by Wednesday 30 June. This $100 can be from your fundraising so far or cash paid.

Each term we complete safety drills for both lockdown or an evacuation. We will be ensuring that these are completed in the next few weeks.

At OIS we are big on building student's independence, you can help by ensuring that your student knows what is happening after school. As you can imagine an office is a busy place and it can be very difficult to get messages to a number of students at the end of the day. 

Our EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) Policy is up for review and a copy of this is at the school office if you would like to read and comment on it.

We take pride in the way that we look in our uniform. As part of our review of the uniform policy, there was a very strong student voice that the students wanted to be able to leave school at the end of the day wearing their PE gear. We have taken this on board and have agreed with them. So, students are now able to leave in their PE gear at the end of the day BUT they MUST wear their correct uniform to school every day. If your child is not able to wear the correct school uniform they do require a uniform pass that can be issued from the office.

We have had a few cases of Chickenpox within the school community. Chickenpox can be spread by coughing and sneezing. Also, when you are in direct contact with weeping blisters. The time between exposure and sickness is 13-17 days. They are infectious until 5 days before the rash appears and until lesions have crusted (usually 5 days).  Children need to be away from school for at least 1 week from the date of the appearance of the rash.

Many of you will be aware that recently Lindsay Oakes our Public Health Nurse retired. Lindsay has worked at OIS for a number of years and given a lot to our community. This week, I had the pleasure of meeting our new Public Health Nurse, Fiona Stratford. We are super excited to have Fiona on board.

A message from Fiona... my role within OIS is to promote health and provide health information to parents, students, and teachers, with the goal of enabling everyone to make good choices around their health and wellbeing. I hope to start up drop-in clinics at OIS soon. This will be a free, private, and confidential session where students pop in for a chat about their health or wellbeing concerns.

In the meantime, I can be contacted on 0272206846. I’m really looking forward to working with the OIS whanau.