A Message from Our Head of School
I trust everyone enjoyed the Christmas holidays and entered the roaring 20’s decade with excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead. I am extremely proud of how the fall unfolded for The Oxford School. The staff, students and community embraced the new location, making it feel like home in a very short time. The holidays have given me time to reflect on what makes The Oxford School such a great place for children to learn. The dedicated staff, the consistently supportive families, and the curiosity and engagement of the students together make for a fun, meaningful learning community within our school.
Our Staff have worked hard to create engaging classrooms covering their walls with visuals, learning cues and examples of proper literacy and numeracy fundamentals, each with their unique and creative themes. They have also embraced the new learning resource centre, the front corridor lounge, the maker space lab and especially the stage in The Oxford Hall, to provide numerous enjoyable and varied learning opportunities for their students. In reading George Monbiot’s book “Out of the Wreckage” over the holidays, although it focuses on politics, I appreciated his outlook on an effective educational environment for tomorrow’s world. In it he explains that teachers should nurture a variety of intelligences when planning lessons and experiences for their students. He also describes how teachers should develop a vast curriculum that does not dismiss the various personalities, but rather embrace them. This in turn makes children feel confident, accepted and free to pursue their independent interests within the course of study. I am proud of our staff and how they have expanded their programs beyond the narrow constructs of the traditional curriculum guidelines.
I have mentioned a few times the appreciation I have for our families who have been so supportive and patient as we have navigated the many changes and logistical processes of our new school. The Wild Community Connection, along with its volunteers, provided tremendous support and enhancements enriching the experiences of our students this fall and we look forward to the second half of the year. We sincerely thank you for your trust in our staff and program, and for your continued consistent support in the efforts of our staff to lead and facilitate the education of your children.
George Manbiot also describes how students need to feel free to be observant, intuitive, curious, full of ideas and adventurous. Students should not fear failure, but trust the process in their pursuit of understanding, creativity and logic. Tomorrow’s jobs require creativity and social skills. While the teachers diligently prepare plans and strategies to draw out the learning expectations for each child, we are overjoyed by the engagement of your children. We especially enjoy observing the fun they have developing, presenting and celebrating their own learning daily and at tea performances.
This is why we are excited about continuing our annual clubs program this winter to provide opportunities for children to be adventurous, explore other interests, engage themselves and develop these all important confidence building skills. We anticipate the children and club leaders having lots of fun performing cognitive tasks, solving problems and presenting displays of unique creations from all of our clubs this year!
We wish you all the best during this winter season!
George Friesen
Head of School