Monday 27 March, 2023

Zac and Lennox enjoying our green willow hut. 

Kia ora e te whānau, 

The weather has certainly changed this last week, giving us a gentle reminder, winter is around the corner. We enjoyed having you in our classrooms last week to celebrate your child's learning at our 3 way learning conferences. I certainly appreciated having the opportunity to see you all before I head overseas. 

This term we farewell Liz Grigg who has been teaching in Tūpari each Friday. Thank you Liz, our students have been so lucky to have had an additional, dedicated teacher in our school.  We also farewell Tracy. Tracy will be resigning as our school bus driver at the end of this term. For the past 4 years, Tracy has shared the bus run with Fi, up and down Reeces road and Omihi Road as well as ferrying students to and from school excursions. We will miss you Tracy. Thank you for your reliability and service to our school over the last 4 years. 

We would like to acknowledge a special celebration within our staff that took place over the weekend. Bryleigh and her husband Ryan were married at Tipapa Estate. We are excited to hear about their special day and look forward to seeing some photos.

This will be our last school newsletter for the term. Thank you all once again for your ongoing support. I will be back to visit and look forward to following our school activities and adventures on our school social media pages. We wish you all a safe Easter break. 

Ngā mihi
Sally Mickleson and Penny Vincent
Acting Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Raffle
Our raffle is ready to go. Your child will receive their tickets this week and they will have until the 1st week of term 2 to sell their 20 tickets. Tickets are $5 each. We encourage children to take ownership of selling their tickets by asking neighbours, grandparents, aunties, uncles etc.

Camp
Our year 5-8 camp is fast approaching and it’s great to see our tamariki so excited. Camp booklets will go home this week. Please read through these with your child and use the holidays to organise any gear on the list. If there are items on the gear list that you don’t have at home, please email Georgie and she will do her best to find any items within our school whānau. 

Vision and Hearing 

The vision and hearing service will be at school on Tuesday 28th March 1:30-3 pm. This is a free, routine public health service for our year 7 and 8 students. If your child is not in year 7 or 8 and you would like them to be screened for their vision and hearing, please let your child’s teacher know and we can arrange for them to be seen when the technician is at school. 

ANZAC Day Service
There will be an ANZAC service at the Omihi Domain on Tuesday 25th April at 9am. Our year 8 leader, Macy, will be reading a poem and we have a wreath to lay. We would love to see our students at this service or another in our area. Children attending are asked to wear school uniform please. 

Swimming
We are swimming until the end of the term to maximise use out of our pool, weather permitting. It is heated so please send togs to school with children everyday. 

Bus
A reminder to please park across the road after school. Our bus needs the space to pull in to collect our bus students and this can be a hazard if there are vehicles in the way. Children will need to be walked across the road by an adult. 

Reports
Your child will receive a Maths, P.E and Inquiry comment in Week 10 of this term. These will be available to view on Hero. If you need any support with your Hero account, please contact your child's teacher. 

Sanitary Products - Together Hurunui
Last year the Ministry of Education launched the IKURA Initiative, providing free period products to schools. Together Hurunui applied to be a part of the initiative and received three pallets of period products. Natalie Paterson has delivered some to our school. We will send some home with the girls in Tūpari this week, then let Sally know if you would like anymore.  If you don’t want any sent home, let us know by Friday.

Lunches Online
This week it is Subway. Please use this link to place an order. 

Key Dates:

• Tuesday 28th March- Vision and Hearing Service at school 

• Thursday 30th March - Canterbury Primary Swimming

• Monday 3rd April - Year 3-4 T-Ball competition at the Scargill Domain

• Thursday 6th April - Last day of term and reports home

• Friday 7th April - Good Friday

• Monday 24th April - Teacher Only 

• Tuesday 25th April - ANZAC Day - Service 9am at the Omihi Domain

• Wednesday 21st June - Omihi School Production (Peter Pan) day and evening performance 

Community Notices

House for rent
Do you know of a house for rent between Greta Valley and Waipara? Our lovely new teacher Kelly is looking for somewhere in this area. Please get in touch with Kelly on 0277330022 if you know of somewhere available.

CodeCamp April School Holidays
CodeCamp allows children from the ages of 7-12 to develop 21st century skills in a fun and action packed environment.  Develop confidence & initiative through design, creativity, solving problems, presenting & collaboration. Create games, apps.

Waimari School: 17th - 20th April.  Book Now at https://codecamp.co.nz  

Kia ora e te whānau,

The beautiful Ōnuku Marae, Akaroa.
Image from www.onuku.nz

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend and were able to spend some time in the sunshine! 

Last Monday some of our students represented our kura at the Kowai Swimming Sports. Congratulations to Lily and Kaisa who have qualified for the Canterbury Primary Schools swimming competition. 

We had a wonderful Teacher Only Day at Ōnuku Marae in Akaroa on Friday. The focus of the day was Cultural Identity and we spent time learning about significant historical events of our local area.

Ngā mihi
Sally Mickleson and Penny Vincent
Acting Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Strike on Thursday 

You will all be aware of the strike which is planned to take place this Thursday 16th March. Omihi School will be closed for instruction on this day.
Tamariki across New Zealand need a quality education. And we want to give that to them. Unfortunately, the funding for our schools and kindergartens is not enough for us to give us the time we would like to support all our kids to thrive.  

We need to attract and retain educators by ensuring that teaching is a valued and attractive profession.

Principals and teachers in primary and area schools and kindergartens have considered at length offers from the government to settle our respective collective agreements. The offers did not meet our expectations, nor make sufficient steps towards the changes we need for our children to succeed.

A decision was made to take industrial action on 16 March. It’s the last thing we wanted to do and the decision was not taken lightly. We felt that this was the only way the government would listen and recognise that when they support our children to learn and succeed, we are supporting whānau and communities to thrive.

We look forward to another great year in 2023 – and together with your support, building the case for better investment in our tamariki. 

On Thursday 16th March, 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.

The Naked Baker Pie Fundraiser  

This year we have two ski trips planned to Mt Lyford which the whole school goes on. Year 5-8 also have their school camp in Christchurch. We are looking for a parent that would be willing to facilitate the pie fundraiser for this year. For more information about the fundraiser please go to thenakedbaker.co.nz/product/family-pies-fundraiser/

If we have a parent who is willing to organise this, all money raised comes directly off your own bill.  You will make $2.60 from each pie you sell.

Preschooler Morning

We invite you and your preschooler to our preschool morning this Wednesday in Paemoana from 9:00-10:30am. Please bring some morning tea for your child. 

Senior Assembly 

This Friday we invite you to our senior assembly at 2:00pm. Our students are excited to share our learning with you all.

3 Way Learning Conferences

Our 3 way learning conferences will be held next week 8 on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd March. 

Reports 

Your child will receive a Maths, P.E and Inquiry comment in Week 10 of this term. These will be available to view on Hero. If you need any support with your Hero account, please contact your child's teacher. 

School Docs 

Each term we review some of our school policies.  These are reviewed by staff, BOT and our community.

Here are our latest policies that are open for review:

• Legislation and Administration Policy

• Student Attendance

• Enrolment

• Privacy

• Official Information Requests

• Uniform / Dress Code

To review, go to http://omihi.schooldocs.co.nz Username: omihi password: glenmark

Lunches Online
This week it is Subway. Please use this link to place an order. 

Key dates

Wednesday 15th March - Preschooler Morning
Thursday 16th March - Strike (school closed)
Friday 17th March - Senior assembly 
Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd March - 3 way learning conferences
Monday 24th April - Teacher only day (first day of term 2)

Community Notices

House for rent

Do you know of a house for rent between Greta Valley and Waipara? Our lovely new teacher Kelly is looking for somewhere in this area. Please get in touch with Kelly on 0277330022 if you know of somewhere available.