OmololU
Network news
2021-2022 School year
Omololu Students Wear Blue to Recognise World Autism Day
Autism Day was first celebrated on April 2, 1972. It is now being celebrated by Omololu International School and all its students. The students wore blue and each brought a contribution of US$1. They donated the collected money to a charity called iSpeak Autism Society. The iSpeak Autism Society was launched in Anguilla March 2018 and works closely with schools and caregivers to help people on the Autism spectrum.
SPOTLIGHT ON GRADE 1
Today we watched the Grade 1 class to see what they do in their daily life. During this Friday afternoon, the Grade 1 students were learning Social Studies, more specifically tourism and modes of travel. We noticed many things about how the teacher has taught the students and how the students have been learning.
The class’s teacher, Ms. Cassie has kept them all well disciplined and engaged. They raise their hand and wait to be called on, and they work quietly while their teacher writes on the board. She gives them golden time (free-time) if they behave. Overall, Grade 1 is one of the best behaved classes of younger kids we reporters have come across. Good Job, Ms. Cassie!
4th GRADE RAISES $100 FOR CHARITY
Grade 4 has been working hard all week to earn $100 to donate to #TeamSeas and Water for Sudan. They have each done about 10 chores each and their families pledged $1 per chore completed. With the help of the donations, they have reached $100 to give to their chosen charities! Grade 4 chose these charities after reading the book "A Long Walk to Water".
100 DAYS SMARTER!
Primary students were excited to celebrate 100 Days of Learning on Friday, February 11th.
1st Grade chose to celebrate their 100th day of school by watching read aloud videos on the 100th day, making colorful images using only 100 blocks and really turn up the heat by doing 10 different exercises 10 times, adding up to 100 exercises to really get a good workout!
3rd Grade also recognised 100 days at school with outdoor activities such as hula hooping for 100 seconds. They also created a collage out of 100 words they have learnt.
More 100 days activities included colouring pages in Grade 2 and 100 Numbers Puzzles in Kindergarten.
Valentine's Day Celebration to be held on Monday, Feb 14th
A Valentine's day celebration will be held in all classes on Monday, February 14th! This will be a dress-down day for all classes but it will still be a full day of school, make sure to wear reds, pinks, and whites!
ART COMPETITION FOR NEW SCHOOL LOGO HOSTED BY MS. THOMAS
There is a currently ongoing Art Competition to make a new school logo which should be inspired by Keith Haring! Anyone can enter as long as you put effort into it and have something to submit. Submit your entries to the school office in person before the end of February 11th, 2022. For more information look around the school for brochures!
ART IS IMPORTANT AT OIS
Omololu International School 8th Grader Alexa "Pinky" Webster completed an artistic representation of Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem Annabel Lee as a project for literary analysis.
Two Omololu Students win national greeting card competition
The Christmas card competition was introduced by HM governor of Anguilla in the second half of term 1. Over 200 students submitted artwork and 2 of those students are from Omololu! Those students are Ella Bissell Grade 6 and Dishita Chhatlani Grade 5 . Dishita Chhatlani created a card inspired by kindness and always helping others. Ella Bissell created a card inspired by unity and togetherness around Christmas time. Both winners felt extremely joyful and proud with the news that they had won.
Creative Days Kick off with Crazy Hats!
OIS Celebrates Thanksgiving
In keeping with annual tradition, the Omolou Community gave thanks for another year of togetherness. Each class in the school had a special celebration with one another. Students enjoyed a relaxed day of games and friendship.
Do Teachers Care Too Much For their students and not enough for themselves?
Self care has been spoken about a lot in the media and amongst adults. We decided to see if our teachers practice self care.
The teachers of Omololu International School spend a lot of their free time creating quizzes and worksheets for their students. They take the time and effort to plan out the student’s work. We gathered that most of the teachers spend most of their free time working for their students. Especially in middle school where the teachers spend lots of their time grading work and creating reports on their students’ abilities. They also give their time to their students.
In the teachers' free time they usually sleep, go to the beach or watch television shows on Netflix. Some teachers have kids so they will sometimes have to put their own children first before they get to time for themselves. Most of the teachers we interviewed wish that they had more time for self care. Almost all of them said that they don't feel they get enough sleep.
Ms. Thomas,
Super Teacher!
Ms. Thomas has been a very important teacher this school year. She is an art teacher and a music teacher. She has been with us for a year now. We asked her some questions about how she stays safe for COVID19 and what she does to keep the students in her music and art classes safe. She said she uses lots of hand sanitizer and has forbidden any instrument played using the mouth.
Ms. Thomas is a super teacher because she has coined the term "air-high-fives” and even uses "air-hugs" to congratulate people.
“There are young kids that I teach that do not understand the threat of Covid19," Ms. Thomas said. She says sometimes she worries about the safety of her students.
We gave air-hugs to Ms. Thomas after our interview.
BASKETBALL ELECTIVE STARTS
Basketball is one of the school activities in the afternoon on a Friday that Middle School Students can choose from for their elective period. The activity takes place from 1:10 to 3:00pm.
Physical Education teacher Ms. Rodi Richardson said in an interview that the group is learning to play basketball with safety, however it is difficult to keep mask on when they are bouncing up and down.
Ms. Richardson teaches PE classes to the entire school and is excited to run the Basketball Club Elective. She says her future plans include a professional junior track club as well.
Media studies continues to cover the news
Media Studies this year started online as all other special classes and is now in-person! The Media Studies group is responsible for writing the school newspaper and the recording and editing of the upcoming school podcast.
The Media Studies group visits classrooms to find information about the next big thing to write about.
The members of the group are:
Ms. Vanessa Croft (Teacher Advisor)
Jerenique
Tresora
Ella
Kaylon
Teachers react to teaching in the time of covid
As we all know, teachers at Omololu International are very passionate about their classes and students. The Media Studies team wanted to find out more about how teachers feel their performance has been affected by teaching with the new COVID protocols in place. Reporters Ella Bissell and Jerenique Webster-Lake were accompanied by the photographer Kaylon Haskins-Brodie to conduct interviews.
The general outlook was very similar. Teachers prefer pre-COVID teaching, but understand the necessity of the precautions. Many teachers said that they have to use much of their teaching time to remind students of the protocols or for sanitizing. This has led to them needing to make changes to their lessons and procedures.
Teachers of the younger grades were unanimous in their responses that it was challenging to keep the little ones in routine, but that they felt the students were doing a great job with their new normal.
The classrooms visited all showed different desk groupings that fit with the new COVID protocols for social distancing. "Air Hugs", a term coined by arts teacher Ms. Thomas, are common all around as the new way of showing affection.
These students are in Grade 2 paying close attention to the safety instructions of their teacher.
Kyrae and Harrison of Grade 4 show off their treats.
Grade 4 creates yummy treats
We have caught 4th grade creating a delicious treat!
They have made sweet Caribbean treats with farine flour. Teacher Lancer Celestin, a St. Lucia native, gave the ONN Team the recipe. You can try to make these treats with the following ingredients:
Cassava flour (farine is another name for this)
Ripe Bananas or avocado
Salt-optional
Paper plate
Fork
The 4th graders have mixed feelings on the taste! They say the bananas make it sweet but the cassava flour is bitter. What an interesting taste! They shaped their mixtures into the shapes of Caribbean islands; how fun!
School safety precautions to protect from covid
With face-to-face learning back in session, Omololu has very strict safety precautions in order to keep all students and faculty healthy. All classrooms have been re-arranged to keep desks and students at least 3' apart.
Each teacher has packs of sterile masks if any child forgot theirs. Every morning when students come in, a staff member checks their temperature and gives out hand sanitizer. An additional layer of safety is added by having all grades keep their own recess and playground schedule to avoid mixing.
Once these measures are followed, the Omololu family is satisfied that everything is being done to protect us from COVID-19.
Omololu starts school year online
The new school year at Omololu is off to an unanticipated rocky start!
So far, the first 3 weeks at Omololu have been virtual. What's worse than 8 hours in a mask each day? 8 hours online!
Luckily, this is not going to last all year. When the COVID-19 cases on the island are controlled, we will all be able to go back into the classroom.
To get to no cases we must stay safe and wear our masks!