Monday, 20th September 2021
Tēna Koutou
Year 6-8 Speech winners for 2021.
This week Year 5-8 are heading off to Wainui for school camp. Miss Mickleson is leading the camp, and with Miss Smith’s help they have done a wonderful job of organising it. So much thought, time and planning goes into a school camp, so I would like to thank Sally and Georgie for this.
Camp is about building relationships, trust, resilience and stepping outside your comfort zone. It is a chance for our tamariki to push themselves and try new things. It can be nerve wracking being away from their family and we know some children feel a bit anxious about this, but it is so wonderful to see them challenge themselves and thrive in the activities. They always come away feeling so proud….and tired!
A big thanks to Aaron, Nathan, Jane and Carl for coming with us. We look forward to sharing photos with you of our three days.
Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz
School Notices
Principal Award Winners
Congratulations to our latest Principal Award winners - Acacia Stevens-Pugh and Macy Finlayson. They will be heading to Fossil Point for a hot chocolate at the start of term 4.
Omihi School Online Auction
We would love your support with our auction now that our other fundraisers have had to be cancelled. You can go to the Omihi School Facebook page and the album is pinned to the top of the page, or click on this link. The auction finishes on Friday 24th September at 8pm. Please share it on Facebook for us and get your bids in. We also have a Fisher and Paykel cooktop on Trade me that was donated to us.
3 Way Learning Conferences
These were postponed during lockdown and we are struggling to find set days to book them in, plus we know parents are busy. So instead of booking in set days, we are going to leave it as an optional 3WLC and let you organise a time with your child’s teacher if you would like to catch up about your child's progress. If we are still in level 2, you will need to sign in and use the Covid scanner. Report comments will all be coming out in term 4.
Character Strengths
Character Strengths is a big focus for us as part of our Positive Education Curriculum. Everybody has character strengths and we help our students to identify them and utilise them. Students and staff complete the VIA Character Strength Survey online to find out where their strengths lie. Each newsletter we are going to showcase one of our students or staff, what their character strengths are, and how they help them. Macy, Year 6 - My top character strengths are kindness, love and teamwork. These help me to make friends and to engage in conversations with others.
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
We loved celebrating te reo last week. Our tamariki are definitely getting more confident when using te reo, as are our staff. We are challenging ourselves to continue to learn new kupu (words) and phrases. Ask your tamariki what they can say to you in te reo….
Speech Competition
We were so proud of all of our tamariki last week. Each and every one of them stood up and either performed a poem or presented a speech. It was so lovely to see their progress from last year. It blew me away seeing the confidence in some of our children who previously have been very shy when presenting speeches. In our Year 6-8 competition we would like to congratulate Jeremy for coming 1st, Daisy 2nd, Macy and Acacia 3rd equal.
Upcoming work at school
Today we were really grateful to have Pone Taite (Kaumatua) and Melanie Taite-Pitama (Tuahiwi Education Team Member) bless our new multipurpose space for us. The name gifted to our building is Kahiwi (mountain). It goes perfectly with our other buildings - Paemoana (sea), Awaawa (valley), Tūpari (mountain cliff). These capture our local environment. It was a wonderful learning experience for our tamariki to be a part of this.
The furniture has been delayed due to Covid, but hopefully that should start arriving early next term, so we can start using Kahiwi. We are excited to move our library in there, plus start using it for assemblies, music, break out spaces, groups of students working with adults, BOT meetings and much more! It truly will be an asset to our kura.
In the October holidays there are also a few other jobs happening - a new roof going on the office and the children’s toilet block, a new master key system being installed in all of the school buildings and gates, stage two of our playground and outdoor learning space will be started…..and thanks to a very kind member of our community and the money we raised from our virtual walk - we are having solar panels installed on the classroom roof! This is another step towards our sustainability goal and we are excited with the learning that will be able to surround this as well. We look forward to when everything is completed and we can invite you all in for our official opening in term 4.
Dates for 2022
Start date: Thursday 3rd February. Finish date: Wednesday 14th December
Pet Day
Thanks to Kurt who is going to take over Agri Sports from Leighton next year. We are still looking for someone to organise pet day. It doesn’t have to be a farmer. It would be great to have someone that could work with Julie this year, and then do it on their own next year. Please let me know if you are interested.
Swimming Pool
We are looking for someone to help us run the pool. In order to keep the pool going, it needs to be tested each day, including throughout the holidays. We could set up a roster if we can’t just get one person to do it. If you are interested, please let me know. There is training available if you haven’t looked after swimming pools before.
Sushi
Thanks to Dave.E for picking this up for us on Wednesday this week.
Upcoming Dates:
Term 3:
Camp (Year 5-8) - 22-24 September
Positive Education Week - week 10 (celebrating 5 fingers of kindness, resilience, character strengths and mindfulness)
Term 4:
Dental van - 20/21 October
School photos - Thursday 21st October
Student teacher Joella Haglund joins Paemoana - start of term 4
Labour Day - Monday 25th October
Athletics (Year 1-3) at Waikari School - Tuesday 26th October
Agri Sports/Pet Day - Wednesday 3rd November
Athletics (Year 4-8) - at Waipara School - Thursday 4th November
Assembly (Year 0-4) - Friday 5th November, 2pm
Teacher only day - Thursday 11th November
Assembly (Year 5-8) - Friday 26th November, 2pm
Grandparents Day - Tuesday 30th November
Kapahaka Festival (Year 4-8) - Thursday 2nd December
Community Notices
The Hurunui Theatre Group production of "Spamalot" is on hold and will be rescheduled to to a date that suits all parties and conditions. Tickets already purchased will be transferable to any of the new dates, or refundable, with online bookings to be re-selected.
Amberley Tennis Club have a registered Professional for coaching and are the furthest club North offering team entry into the North Canterbury Tennis competitions. Subject to grants, heavily subsidised coaching to children has been available for some years now which has led to a revival in the sport locally, with some great players coming through. Hopefully we can do this again this 2021-2022 year. Social hit and registration: Please come along for a hit and a catch up Saturday 25th September and we can put you into a team or sort out coaching for the season. Juniors from 10am and Adults from 1pm.
We request that everyone complies with the government’s contact tracing policy and signs in on the day. We will limit the attendance to 100 persons for the outdoor event and will be following the L2 protocols as required. Please bring your masks for any spectators/parents.
Competition players: We are looking for numbers this year to make up some short teams in all the grades. We are particularly interested if there’s any A graders out there wanting to play some great competition tennis and put Amberley on the map again this year. We are always looking for the more mature players (35YO) for President competition grade 1 & 2 (doubles only) players to make up the teams even if you only wish to play casually. It often helps.
Simon Bennetto 03 314-8338,
Kate Dodd 021-509-955
Kylie Chapman 021-816-564
Vegan Expo Christchurch
Haere-Roa (UCSA, 90 Ilam Rd)
10am – 4pm
Sunday, November 7, 2020
Enjoy great vegan food, watch top veggie chefs display their cooking secrets, learn about plant-based living and enjoy celebrating cruelty-free, pro-planet lives with Christchurch’s vegetarian and vegan community. Whether you are vegetarian or not, you will love the variety of foods and entertainment on offer, which includes a special kid’s zone, bouncy castle and activities.
Eftpos and plenty of free parking will be available.
Kids free (12 and under), adults $5 if bought online now (veganexpo.co.nz/christchurch) or $6 on the door.
More info: veganexpo.org.nz/christchurch
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/veganexpochristchurch
Instagram: www.instagram.com/veganexpochristchurch
Please note: The Expo will only go ahead if we are in Covid-19 alert level 1. If the event has to be cancelled, refunds will be issued to anyone who has purchased tickets.
