Community Core
OSS Core Values
As learners working together toward our mission, we are guided by four key values: Excellence, Community, Civic Engagement, and Leadership. These values, and examples of the ways in which they infuse each aspect of the OSS experience, are outlined below.
Excellence is achieving mastery, one step at a time. It is both the pinnacle and foundation of our journey. It is what we want and how we achieve it, step by step. Students identify their strengths, work on their challenges, and strive for accuracy in pursuit of academic and personal excellence.
Community is at the heart of why we’re here. OSS students learn to value all ideas and identities, support others, and engage in open discussions, “seeking first to understand, not to be understood.”
Civic Engagement is lending a hand in the spirit of service and activism. Through civic engagement, OSS students
learn to identify community needs, conduct research before action, and take the initiative to support their school and local community.
Leadership is seeing, showing, and paving a better way. OSS empowers students to become strong leaders by guiding them to think flexibly, seek mentors, and to find the courage to speak up for what they believe in.
When students graduate from OSS, we know they are stepping into the future with valuable skills, tools, and mindsets of achievement and excellence.
Community Core at OSS
Community Core Days start our school year. Students and staff experience a retreat to deepen our understanding of the OSS core values, recommit ourselves to an environmental ethic, and practice working and learning together outdoors before classes begin on the New Bedford campus.
Advisory is a weekly block during which we meet in small, intimate groups of mixed-grade learners (5/6 and 7/8) to explicitly study and practice the social and emotional literacy skills known as Community Core tools that help us live our core values.
Community Meeting is an all-school gathering every Monday and Friday when we share important news, announcements, appreciations, and use of Community Core tools.
The big/LITTLE program connects pairs or trios of older and younger students together for structured experiences and mentorship that often blossom into mutual support and friendship.
Morning Meetings are held every Monday morning during an extended Homeroom block by grade level. It is an opportunity for each grade cohort to connect, build community, problem-solve, and prepare for the week ahead.
We integrate use of and reflection on Community Core tools into daily classroom instruction, outside service and leadership projects, family events, and all other parts of life at OSS.
