A Message from the Leader of Learning: Luke Sumich

We have doubled the numbers of students and staff at OJC from last year so relationships have been a major focus in term one. Last year we embedded some really important values through our learners and we could easily have let things slip if we didn't continue to live these values through our actions in this first term. Children showing integrity, not just talking about it, has been a specific goal of ours. As a parent, staff member or grandparent we know the importance of respect, hard work, accountability, grind, attitude and caring for others. We feel that learning is intertwined with values and key competencies. We have deliberately developed our programme to include non-negotiable numeracy and literacy (grit, grind, attitude), whanau ora and MAC (healthy mind, healthy body, caring for self and others, respect) and TAIP (authentic projects, hard work, accountability).

You do know that your child has a MAC (the MAC is a teacher and a group of other students), they are there for the social-emotional and academic needs of your child, please talk to them if you have any concerns. We have put hours of professional learning into our Mentor Advisor Coach system and we will continue to work as a staff to have our children receive the best education we can
deliver.

Lastly a lovely story I wanted to share with our families.
A young learner went home from school and his parents asked “how was your day”.

The boy said he went to McDonalds after school, they asked “where did you get the money”. His son said his friend found $50.
The parents were a little concerned that they may have spent someone’s lost money. The next day dad came in and brought $50 to school to see if we could find the owners. He wanted his son to learn he could have made a better choice.

When our parents show the integrity we all admire then we raise the levels of all of us. Thank you.

As an aside it turns out the boy said he found the $50 but it was his money. Our kind dad got his $50 back, and we all found a teachable moment.