A Message From Our Head of School
It has been a truly remarkable September! We officially opened the doors of The Oxford School on September 3, 2019. The students, staff, and families of the former Woodstock Trinity School embraced the new hallways, classrooms and spacious outdoor areas with great excitement! We welcomed many new students and their families to The Oxford School Community. Together, we look forward to many new and exciting experiences that await us in our new facility and from our new resources this year. On behalf of The Oxford School community, we sincerely wish to thank the VanHaeren family for their overwhelming thoughtfulness and generosity in creating our new school.
Our students will experience tremendous development utilizing our new spaces! New outside spaces are redefining recess, physical education classes and our house challenges. With the vast space and the coming winter weather, we will be treated to a beautiful landscape and a wonderful environment for the children to play and socialize amongst their peers. With dreams of educational and experiential learning events outdoors, we will realize and discover boundless learning opportunities from the new property that is The Oxford School in the coming months and years.
Indoors, we are excited to share new learning spaces designed to inspire children and encourage collaboration. The versatility of our new Maker-space classroom has already ignited the curiosities of our students. Classes have very quickly engaged in STEM initiatives as part of their science and math courses in this new space. Collaboration has come alive in the large, comfortable Learning Resource Centre where classes have merged to challenge themselves in project based assignments. These blended learning spaces having truly encouraged significant informal learning opportunities, where collaboration and friendships can grow. With variety, space and versatility, we are confident that these physical and social environments will surely have a wonderful impact on our students’ well-being.
We do not under estimate the greatest impact on student learning and that is the element of its people. Our staff is committed to providing a safe learning environment and challenging programs to create a strong, exceptional educational foundation for your children. We thank you for entrusting us with this enormous responsibility!
I am reminded of the importance and value of the traditions of the former Woodstock Trinity School. Friday afternoon “Sandra Hurley Tea” continues this year in our much larger Oxford Hall. Kindness Bears have already been presented to those nominated by staff and students in honour of their random acts of respect and kindness to others! We continue to challenge our students daily to support each other socially and academically, to enhance their presentation skills, while silently supporting each other on stage in our “celebration of learning”. All of this, for the greater purpose of developing personal confidence in each student and pride as a school community. It is a wonderful celebration of the things learned during the past week.
On behalf of the staff and the students, we thank-you for all of your support and look forward to a fantastic year ahead!
Sincerely,
George Friesen (Head of School)