Monday 27th May, 2019

Kia ora whānau

Last week Neil Wilkinson was in school. He is my appraiser and he came in to talk to our students, our teachers and some of our parents. I really enjoy the appraisal process and having that time to reflect on myself as a Principal and to gather feedback from others on what is going well and anything I can improve on. It’s a great learning opportunity and a good chance to be able to talk through my goals and ensure I’m on the right track. I really do feel lucky to be Principal in such an encouraging, collegial, and supportive community.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Parent Liaison
Thank you to Jaz Hazeldine who is going to be our Parent Liaison. Jaz will get in touch with new whānau to our kura and make sure they are settling in ok. She will be an extra support, alongside our staff, if parents have any extra questions. Jaz will also help us to organise baking, etc when we need to support families. Rather than email everyone, she will contact different people each time to share it around.

Pie Orders
A reminder that all senior school pie orders and money need to be in by Tuesday 4th June. Year 0-4 pie orders need to be in by Monday 17th June.

Cross Country Bus
The Omihi bus will still be running tomorrow morning, but it won’t be running in the afternoon after cross country.

No Omihi bus on Thursday 20th June
On the 20th June I will be taking the Year 6-8 children to Rangiora to a leadership conference so there will be no Omihi bus on that day.

Strike on Wednesday
We greatly appreciate the community support that we have already received following the decision by teachers and principals to strike on Wednesday 29 May. The decision to take further strike action was not taken lightly by any of us. For the first time, both primary and secondary teachers are striking together because the crisis in education hits us all very hard and we need the Government to understand how serious it is.

Schools are grappling with the fallout of a 40% nosedive in the number of people training to be teachers between 2010 and 2016, even while the population grew by 400,000.  While the situation improved a little last year and the Government has announced an urgent $95m package to recruit teachers, this is not sufficient to address the crisis.  Schools struggle daily to find enough teachers to meet their relief teacher needs and this will worsen as winter approaches. There is also a desperate need for more support for children with additional learning needs.  

The fact is that teaching is no longer considered an attractive profession due to long-term under-funding of the education sector. A significant pay jolt is part of the solution, alongside significant improvements to our heavy workloads. Otherwise our schools will end up with larger class sizes and more teachers leaving.

On Wednesday 29 May we hope you will join us at our local public event in Rangiora, likely to be from midday. We would love to see you and your children standing with us – together we are a community and we can make a difference. We will advise you of further details when they are confirmed. 

Community Notices

Omihi Hall Committee AGM
This is on Monday 27th May at 7.30pm at the hall. Everyone is welcome.

Winter Ball
Tickets go on sale 1st June at 9am. There will be bus pick ups from Rangiora, Waikuku, Ashley, Sefton, Amberley, Waipara, Greta Valley, Cheviot, Scargill, Waikari and Cheviot (numbers dependent). Keep an eye on the M Factor Events Facebook page for Pre-sale ticket info.