Kia ora koutou

A lot of you will know that outside of school I run an event company. Last week I organised a fashion show to raise money for Ronald McDonald House. It was so lovely to have a number of Omihi students, staff and community involved in the show. Together we raised over $85,000 for Ronald McDonald House.

With only three weeks left until the end of term, we still have loads of learning and fun things to fit in! I’m looking forward to our biking club this afternoon on the Waipara trails and also having our lovely preschoolers in school on Thursday for our preschooler morning.

Enjoy your long weekend over Easter. School will be closed from Friday until Tuesday.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Omihi Raffle
Thank you to everyone who sold and purchased raffle tickets. You helped us raise over $3000. Winners have been notified and are listed below.

Omihi Community Trust
The Omihi Community Trust has been closed and the remaining money has been donated to the school. We would like to thank the Trustees past and present for their hard work and dedication to our school. We received over $9000, which will go towards our teaching allocation in 2022.

Paemoana - Little Oaks and Amberley Library visit
Paemoana will be vising Little Oaks and Amberley Library on Wednesday. Please send along carseats. We have a couple of spare boosters on the bus if you are happy for your child to be in these. Please just let Penny know.

Preschooler morning
We welcome all preschoolers to our preschooler morning this Thursday from 9am - 10.30am.

Thank you
A big thank you to our posties Jan and Mark who deliver our newsletter each fortnight. We are so grateful you help us get our news out to our community.

North Canterbury Swimming Sports
Congratulations to Lily who came 2nd in breaststroke and 3rd in freestyle. Good luck for the Canterbury Swimming Sports next week!

Bus Parking
Please try not to park in front of the bus at school pick ups. If you are picking up children, please come over to school to pick them up, ideally after the bus has gone.

Lunches Online
A reminder that this week is Subway, and next week will be sushi.

Mufti Day
There is a mufti day on Wednesday 14th April to raise money for the ANZAC Day Poppy Appeal. Please send along a gold coin donation.

Omihi Raffle winners
1st $100 Waipara Springs voucher - Tom Maxwell
2nd $120 Macpac voucher - Delilah Lucas
3rd $150 Fire and Ice voucher - Megan Hamilton
4th $150 Push Bikes voucher - Chris Dury
5th $150 Push Bikes voucher - David RT
6th Carrfields prize pack (worth over $150) - Anna and Gareth
7th Moana Rd prize pack - Leighana and Will
8th Grocery Hamper - worth over $200 - Teresa Banks
9th 2 x adult day pass skiing or snowboarding for the 2021 season at Mt Lyford - Sarah Esler
10th $30 Ruby Six voucher - Elizabeth Elphinestone
11th $75 Nor'wester Cafe voucher - Jamie English
12th $50 Little Vintage voucher - Jane Croft
13th $50 Little Vintage voucher - Bridget Banks
14th $50 The Office Cafe voucher - George Morrisey
15th NZ Farm source/Stoney creek pack (worth over $300) - Alice
16th Moana Rd prize pack - Pip O’Keefe
17th All Blacks jersey - Jack Allen
18th Mini hamper - Dave Allen
19th Mini hamper - Emma Hughes-Games
20th Mini hamper - Clint Stringer
21st Mini hamper - Aimee Thorn
22nd Moana Road bag - Arly Murphy (Noah)
23rd Moana Road bag - Kira Volkov (Lisa)
24th Moana Road bag - Nikki Wilkie
25th Moana Road bag - Sarah Esler
26th Dog bed - Sarah Esler
27th Dog bed - Claire and Dave Inkson

Community Notices

Junior Football 2021
Registrations are now open for junior football in the Hurunui District. Go to the Hurunui Rangers website to register.

Age 4 - 8 players will play every Saturday of Term Two in Amberley, Hawarden, and Culverden. Starting May 8, this is the same format as the past two years.

Age 9 - 18 players will play every Saturday of Terms 2 & 3 in the Mainland competition.

Register today to help us ensure we have the right number of teams entered. Financial assistance is available for those who need it - please contact the club.

Kia ora whānau

Today is an exciting day at Omihi, as our work is starting on our new multipurpose space and our new playground! The children have had input as to what we will use the multipurpose space for and it is likely to be used for the following - Omihi library, assemblies, art, games, meetings, group learning, storage for resources, mindfulness space, community meetings and quiet areas to work. We can’t wait to see the progress!

The children have also had input into designing our new nature based playground with Woodland Escapes. This has been marked out and will be starting after Easter.

We hope you enjoy seeing the progress along the way with us!

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Swimming Sports
Congratulations to everyone who competed in our swimming sports. Thank you to Penny and Sally for running this in Amberley. Well done to the following children who qualified for Kowai Swimming Sports - Jeremy Pennell, Leni Wilkie, Daisy Kay, Monty Croft and Lily Banks. Congratulations to Lily who has also qualified for the Canterbury Swimming Sports.

Waterfall
The whole school are visiting the waterfall up Crofts Rd tomorrow morning (Tuesday) and will be travelling by school bus. Paemoana and Awaawa are going at 9am to study and sketch the landscapes and Tūpari at 11am to do some water testing. Please leave car seats at school if necessary.

Year 0-4 Triathlon
This is being held at school at 2pm tomorrow (Tuesday). We welcome parents to come and watch. Bikes are to go home after the race. Scooters only at school from Wednesday. We will email parents by 12pm if it is not going ahead due to weather.

3 Way Learning Conferences
If you haven’t booked in yet, please do so as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you over the next couple of days.

Blue Light Physical Competency Test (PCT) Competition
Good luck to our Year 8 team who are participating in this on Friday!

Paemoana to Lucas Farm
Paemoana are going to the Lucas farm to go for a walk and look at landscapes on Tuesday 23rd March. They will be travelling by bus.

Teacher only day - Kahui Ako hui day
On Monday 8th March, we held our annual Tipu Māia Hui. This is a teacher only day where the thirteen schools (six Canterbury Area Schools and seven Primary Schools) that operate under the umbrella of Tipu Māia come together to share their knowledge and learn from one another. Tipu Māia encapsulates close to 200 teachers and over 2150 learners within these schools. It was yet again a great opportunity to share best teaching practice across this network of schools. In the first session of the day, we heard from three past students from our schools. They discussed topics such as how our schools prepared them for life after school, the benefits they got out of being educated in a small rural school, and their thoughts on the future of education followed by a question and answer session from the floor. It was an excellent experience allowing us to hear directly from those we devote our time and energy to preparing for life beyond school.

In our closing session Karen Tui Boyes, of Spectrum Education, shared with us some stories of effective team collaboration including the US Navy's elite Blue Angel pilots. Karen is a highly regarded and respected education presenter delivering her work across the globe. The Tipu Māia network of schools provides our school with great opportunities to connect with and learn from one another. We would like to thank our community for giving us the opportunity to be involved with this day.

Community Notices

Alice Archer Yoga
Accessible to all abilities and experience. $12 per session if booked in as core group, $13 drop in.
Please get in touch to book and with any questions - 027 225 5851 or alicearcher6@gmail.com. Omihi Hall
5.20-6.20pm Thursday.

Resilient Hurunui Guest Speaker
Resilient Hurunui presents guest speaker Dr Colin Muerk on Thursday March 18th, 7.30p.m, at Amberley School Hall, Douglas Road, Amberley. " Re-energising the Greening Waipara Project". Colin is a lecturer at Canterbury University and Lincoln University, and is also a research Associate for Manaaki Whenua Landcare. $5 Donation appreciated

Senior running club

Kia ora whānau

It’s a tricky time at the moment going in and out of level 2 and having events cancelled and changed around. We would like to thank our community for supporting us through this time and understanding when we have to change things last minute.

It was wonderful to see our children compete in the Kowai Triathlon last week. It is a big event and we are so proud of each and every one of our students for completing it. Well done to Jack who came 2nd, and Daisy and Monty who came 3rd.

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

School Notices

Principals Award
The Principal’s award was awarded to…..Acacia Stevens-Pugh.

3 Way Learning Conferences
These are taking place after school on Tuesday 16th March and Wednesday 17th March. It is an opportunity for yourself, your child and their teacher to sit down and discuss their goals for this year. Please book in a time on the 3WLC timetable.

Raffle Tickets
Tickets and money are due back this Friday 5th March. Thank you so much for supporting this fundraiser. It looks like it’s going to be another tricky year for raising funds for our school.

Year 4-8 Swimming Sports
Due to level 2 restrictions, we will just be sending our 2 length swimmers to Amberley Pool on Thursday. You can either drop them there, or the school bus will be leaving school at 9am and will bring them back to school when finished. The rest of the children will complete their races in our school pool later that day. I’m sorry there will be no spectators at both events.

Technology
Year 7/8 are going to technology at Hurunui College every Monday morning from now until mid term 4.

Preschooler Morning
We welcome all preschoolers to our preschooler morning on Thursday 1st April from 9-10.30am.

Junior Triathlon
The Year 0-4 triathlon is on Tuesday 16th March at 2pm at school. Children are able to start bringing their bikes to school from next week.

Teacher only day
School is closed for teacher only days on the following dates:
Monday 8th March
Friday 4th June
Term 3 date TBC
Thursday 11 November

Reporting Plan
Here is our reporting plan for when our report data and comments will come out this year. It will be sent home online via Hero. If you don’t have a login yet for Hero we will send the information out to you before the first comment at the end of term 1.

Sushi and Subway
Thanks to Carl and Dave for picking up Sushi and Subway for us each week. I have added this to the calendar so you can see which one is on each week.

Community Notices

Kia ora whānau

Triathlon training is underway!

It was lovely to head along to the Markham St Festival on Saturday and support our local events. Then a reality check when we were sent back to level 2 last night. We are following guidelines from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and are crossing fingers that we are back to level 1 soon, so we can go back to enjoying the freedom we were getting very used to and these fantastic local events.

Each year we try to limit our fundraising to two main events, so we aren’t continuously asking for parent input. Things are slightly different this year as after cancelling our Farm Race twice last year we have decided to have a break from that event. Our fundraising helps us to fund our third teacher and enables us to have our lovely small class sizes. The fundraising committee will be asking for support with the following events this year:

* Selling raffle tickets
* Selling/buying pumpkins
* Helping with car parking at the Waipara Wine and Food Festival
* Running the bar and raffle at the Omihi Spring Ball

The Waipara Wine and Food Festival is on Sunday 7th March. If you are able to offer half a day to help with car parking, please contact Jane Croft on hamiltonglens@xtra.co.nz.

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

School Notices

Omihi School Raffle
All children have been given 20 tickets to sell. Please send back the money and the tickets by Friday 5th March.

Pumpkins fundraiser
Sofia Sloss is kindly organising the pumpkins for us. Please email Sofia if you would like to buy pumpkins and she will deliver them to you. She is happy to do a run to Waikuku as well. They are $5 each or 5 for $20. You can give cash straight to Sofia or pay to the school bank account before delivery. If you are paying to the school bank account, please copy Ruth in on your email to Sofia.

Year 5-8 Triathlon
This is on Wednesday 24th February at Amberley Domain. The briefing is at 12.30pm and the race starts at 1pm. All information has been emailed out to parents. Parents need to pick children up and take them to the domain. They can go straight home after the event. Parents are very welcome to come and watch.

Year 0-4 Triathlon
This will be at Omihi School on Tuesday 16th March at 2pm. Penny and Georgie will be in touch with more details closer to the time.

Year 4-8 Swimming Sports
These are at Amberley Pool on Thursday 4th March from 9.30am - 12.30pm. Parents will need to take students there and then drop them back to school afterwards. I am not available to drive the bus that day, so please try to carpool or contact me if you have any trouble. We are entering the children into events at the moment, please talk to your child about whether they will swim widths, one length or two lengths.

Running Club
The children are keen to start running club again. I am struggling to find the same day that suits each week, so if your child is keen please let me know and I can send out a weekly email with the day and time on it. We will aim for 8am for Year 5-8 and lunchtime for Year 0-4.

Waiswim
Waiswim lessons start daily on Monday 22nd February for two weeks. Each child will be part of a group lesson for 20mins. Please send togs each day and a rash vest if you have one.

Farm walks
The Lucas farm walk is still going ahead for Awaawa tomorrow and the Pennell farm walk on Wednesday for Tūpari. Please ensure children have their hats, good walking shoes and a drink bottle. We will travel there by bus. Please ensure car seats are at school if needed.

Bloomfields Preschool and Amberley Library
Awaawa are going to Bloomfields Preschool and Amberley Library on Tuesday 23rd February. Please ensure car seats are at school if needed.

Mini ball and Hockey
Waipara School are putting together a year 5/6 mini ball team and a year 7/8 hockey team and have offered us to join them. If anyone would like to join, please let me know.

ICAS Assessments
ICAS assessments are optional each year and are paid for by parents. If you would like your child to complete these or would like more information, please contact me.

Library Books
Please can you return any library books which were borrowed over the holidays.

Community Notices

Waikuku Surf Life Saving
Please vote for the Waikuku Surf Life Saving in the Mainpower Community Fund. A number of our students are part of this club.