On Monday night Oxford Area School had 12 students travel into Christchurch for their graduation at James Hay Theatre. It was such an awesome night celebrating the hard work that these wonderful students put in over the year.

The awards that students received were :

Graduated with a Gold National Award (100 hours).

Hannah Mullis

Graduated with a Silver National Award (65 hours).

Dominic Mullis
Nathaniel Sillars
Ella-May Keats
Eru Te Awa
Diaz Cameron

Graduated with a Bronze National Award (30 hours).

Amelia Bay
Scarlett Griffiths
Indie Blomfield
Caitlin Sands
Lilliana Oakes
Elizabeth Shore

A huge congratulations to these students for all their hard work and this massive achievement. You're amazing!

This year, 17 tamariki in Years 7, 8 and 9 participated in Children's University. Children’s University aims to raise young people’s aspirations for higher education and encourage lifelong learning. Throughout the year, the students were able to attend a Campus Experience day at The University of Canterbury, visit learning destinations all around Canterbury and complete activities on the portal, to collect hours for their passport. Once 30 + hours of learning or volunteering was reached, students were invited to attend the graduation ceremony to celebrate their achievements.

Next year Children's University will be opened to any students in Years 6-9 and we would love to many more students at the graduation so make sure you keep an ear out in the notices early next year for the sign up information. 

Amelia B

Monday the day came, for Year 7 to 9 to go to graduation for the children’s university program. This is a program that Year 7 to 9 can do. It is a fun chance to do lots of fun activities and learning destinations. You earn hours from the things you do. There are different categories to choose from. To name a few there is cooking, animals, family etc. There are 1 to 10 hours. You have to get at least 30 hours to graduate and that is a national bronze award. And then you have to get 65 hours to get silver and 100 hours to get gold. You could get all the way to a diploma which nobody in our group could get. Someone even went 770 hours. Wow, I was so surprised. I got 45 hours in total. Which means I got bronze. The good thing is that we all had fun. I know I did. In Oxford only about 9 got bronze, about 4 got silver and only one person got 100 hours which was gold.

Elizabeth S

On Monday, the students who decided to participate in Children’s University, and achieved the required amount of hours, went to a graduation at Christchurch Town Hall. It started at 6:00. We were the second school to receive our awards, and there were about a dozen of us. Most of us got 30 hours, but some people achieved 65 hours, and one person managed 100 hours.