Monday 21st February, 2022

Kia ora e te whānau

One of the things that make our school special is the people. I feel so privileged to work with such a dedicated team. At our last staff meeting we shared something positive from the start of the year. Mine was being able to work with such a dream team of staff, and our amazing students. We had eight new students at the start of the year, and seeing how inclusive our Omihi whānau have been, and how easily these students have transitioned is such a credit to our wonderful ‘one big whānau’.

We have enjoyed getting back into our routines of learning, as well as having outdoor experiences, such as a farm walk and our triathlon. It’s great to see our students pushing themselves academically as well as physically and mentally.

We know that there is some anxiety out there about Covid, with it getting closer to our community. We have our BOT meeting tonight and will share our Covid Response Plan with you tomorrow. A reminder that if we have Covid in our school, we will contact the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education straight away and follow their guidelines, work through contract tracing and will contact our community as soon as possible. If you have Covid or someone in your family does, please make sure you contact me asap.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Character Strengths
Taylor, Year 5 - My character strengths are humour, honesty and zest. Humour helps me to make jokes with friends and they can actually understand it. It wouldn’t be very good if I lied, so honesty is a good strength. Zest helps me find learning exciting.

Technology
Year 7/8 technology start date is postponed. This will now start in week 2 of Term 2.

Reporting Timetable
We report to parents throughout the year via Hero. If you are not able to login to Hero, please let your child’s teacher know. Here is the timetable of when you will expect to see reporting come home.

School Donation
We will be sending out an invoice for a contribution to our school via a donation. This is $60 for one child, $100 for two and $120 for three or more. We usually ask for a contribution towards our bus and activities. These cover activities such as Beach Ed, Life Education, and any other trips we do during the year. The only trips we ask for payment for outside of this are ski trips and camp. Plus this helps us use the bus for these trips, so we don’t need to ask for parents to take cars if possible. These are all optional, and we realise times are tough for some families right now.

Fundraising Events
As you know we have had to cancel our last two year’s major fundraising events. So we are needing to be creative with our ideas. This year we are looking to have a raffle again and also the online auction. We are hoping to be able to run an event later in the year if possible.

We have been given a fundraising opportunity by Black Estate and wondered if there are any parents that are available. They are looking for some people to help pick their grapes from the 14th March for three weeks, and they will pay the school for your time. It could be that you are available for a few half days or a day or two here or there within that timeframe. Please let me know if you are available.

Community Notices

St Andrew’s College Boarding Road Shows are currently being held as online meetings. This is being held 5:00-7:00pm on Monday 28th February for North Canterbury families. To connect with the boarding team, register here.