A great day on Mt Grey!

Kia Ora whānau

I hope you are all managing to stay dry out there. There has certainly been a lot of rain, and a lot more in North Canterbury last night. Please let us know if you need any further support from the school.

It was wonderful to see such a great turn out to the Drought Shout on Friday. A great initiative and so important to get our farmers off their farms and communicating with each other. Quite a turn of events after it with this weather!

Stay safe, and keep in touch if we can support your whānau in any way.

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

School Notices

Welcome
Welcome to Niko Plaskett who is starting with us this week in Paemoana.

Principal Awards
Congratulations to the latest Principal Award winners....Zariah Bartlett and Emma Waldron.

Important dates
Tuesday 1st June - Year 8 going to National Young Leaders Day (no Omihi bus run)
Wednesday 2nd June - Year 1-8 cross country. All info here. Children to be picked up from school by 12.30pm.
Thursday 3rd June - Pie/pizza orders due in
Friday 4th June - Teacher only day
Monday 7th June - Queens bday - School closed
Tuesday 8th June - Preschooler morning, 9am - 10.30am
Friday 11th June - whole school watching Playhouse Theatre show Rumplestiltskin at Omihi Hall with Greta Valley School and Waipara School

Professional Leadership and Strategic Planning
This year I am part of a year long professional opportunity called Springboard Trust. It is a free resource for Principals and it has honestly been some of the best professional learning I have been a part of.

There are two focuses - professional leadership and strategic planning. I have a mentor from outside the education sector who has been amazing at challenging me, helping me to reflect deeper and to look at things with a different perspective. I had a 360 degree survey where our staff, BOT, some parents, my appraiser, leadership advisor and Principal mentor all filled out questions around my leadership. It was great to be able to reflect on my strengths and how I can further enhance those and also to look at areas where I can continue to grow.

The strategic planning module has been very timely for our kura. We were due to review our school vision and strategic plan ready for 2022, so the learning has really helped with the process of this. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in our vision review. It has come through strongly that our vision is still very relevant for us - Ako/Learn, Tipu/Grow, Puawai/Thrive. We have loved unpacking this with our tamariki, whānau and BOT.

Further info for Year 1-8 Cross Country from the organisers - Broomfield School
* No dogs are permitted to be on the farm
* There will be a coffee cart (We encourage the use of reusable cups and only buying drinks for your own child)
* A portaloo will be on site
* The weather for Wednesday is looking pretty good, and the farmer believes that the surface flooding from the rain will quickly dry up, so we are good to go on Wednesday.
* If postponed, we will notify you the night before the event.
* Because of the wet, cars will have to park on the outside of the paddock. Signs will indicate where to park.

Virtual Mission
We are tracking well with our mission and are nearly in Bali! It hasn’t been great weather to get out and about, but hopefully over the next few days that will improve and we can keep adding on those kms. If you would like to join, please go to https://www.omihi.school.nz/virtual-mission. As the days get colder we might need more people on board to keep us tracking well!

Paid Union Meetings
There are paid union meetings coming up on the 29th June for Principals and 1st July for teachers. At this stage we don’t need to ask you to pick your children up early as we are managing it in house. If this changes, we will let you know.

Outside Learning Area
Stage two of our outside learning area and playground is creating shade over the sandpit, shade outside Tūpari and a new lunch area with shade. We will also be creating vegetable boxes and gardens around the new building, and on our wish list is a concrete table tennis table! We are starting to plan these now, and are hoping for them to be ready for term 4.

New sliding door
We have a new sliding door to be installed in the school house. We are looking for a contractor to employ to do this. Please let me know if you could help us out.

Community Notices

Compass FM Open Day
You’re invited to come along to your local radio station. It’s our Tenth Anniversary!! Local radio is as important today as it has ever been, so come along and see Compass FM in action.

Saturday 12th June 2021 10am – 12pm.
Gold coin BBQ on the day with funds raised going to charity.

Share a bite to eat and chat with Compass FM staff who have influenced our local radio station over the last decade. Compass FM is based in High Street Rangiora, between ANZ and the Lotto shop."

Resilient Hurunui
Resilient Hurunui Presents Dr Merf Merfield, on Thursday June 17th at 7.30p.m, at Amberley School, Douglas Road, Amberley.

Merf is the head of the BHU Future Farming Centre, which is dedicated to the extension of permanent and whole-system agricultures and horticultures. This presentation will give an overview of Regenerative Agriculture.

We took our friends from Tuahiwi for a walk up the hill to see our beautiful environment. Thank you to the Dormers for letting us walk on your lovely property.

Kia ora whānau

We have announced our major fundraiser of the year, the Spring Ball! This is on Saturday 11th September at the Omihi Hall. We are so thrilled to have the band ‘Assembly Required’ on board and DJ Boogie Beats. It’s going to be a fantastic night! Tickets go on sale on the 1st July and will be at www.iticket.co.nz. More details to come.

As a small school it is really important for us to ensure that our staff have opportunities of Professional Development. It is wonderful to work alongside teachers that embrace learning and are always looking for ways to learn and grow. Sally has done a lot of work around Digital Technology, Penny and Georgie are part of the Incredible Years Teacher programme and we have whole school professional learning around Maths, Digital Technology and Literacy this year. Plus we are really excited to have joined up to an 8 week course around Positive Education with Geelong Grammar in Melbourne. We will all be part of online learning focusing on Mindfulness, Character Strengths, Positive mindset and growth, and Positive Relationships.

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

School Notices

Omihi School Vision
Over the last couple of weeks our staff, students and parents have been part of a review of our Omihi School vision. We would also love to get feedback from our wider community. Have a read of our feedback so far on our vision - Ako/Learn, Tipu/Grow, Puawai/Thrive. If you have any further info of what you think it means for our school, then please either email me on principal@omihi.school.nz or fill it out on the form attached and drop it in our school letterbox by Monday 24 May.

Omihi Community Trust
The Omihi Community Trust was recently closed down and the remaining money has been given to Omihi School. We would like to thank the current and past trustees for this donation to the school.

Reports
Your child’s reading comment will be sent home via Hero at the end of this week.

Road Safety Week
This week is Road Safety week. We will be talking about safety at the school gates at the beginning and the end of the day and when we cross over to use the field. It would be great if you can talk to your children about this as well. The school gate is really busy with cars and buses at 3pm and a number of cars driving past don’t always slow down to 20km.

Omihi’s Virtual Mission
It’s been really exciting seeing new people join our Virtual Mission! We are heading through Australia at the moment and are on track to make it to London by term 3. It’s not too late to join, just head to www.omihi.school.nz/virtual-mission. Our students are running every day to add to this….great cross country practice!

Mufti Day
It is Pink Shirt Day this Friday. Children are to bring a gold coin donation and wear a pink shirt or brightly coloured shirt.

Black Estate visit: Year 1-8
Our Black Estate visit has been changed to Friday 18th June. We need 2 parent helpers. Please let Sally know if you are available.

Year 0-4 Assembly
We welcome you to our Year 0-4 assembly this Friday at 2pm

Small School’s Cross Country: Year 1-8
This is on Wednesday 2nd June (postponement 3rd June). The course is on Baxters Road. Briefing is at 12.45pm and the first race is at 1pm. All details are here. Parents are asked to please pick children up from school to take them there. They will not need to come back to school afterwards. Let me know if your child needs a ride.

Mt Grey walk
Tūpari are walking up Mt Grey on Tuesday 25th May. We need one parent to come with us. Please let Sally or I know if you are available.

Gumboot Day
On Friday 28th May children are invited to wear gumboots with their uniform and to bring a gold coin donation for the I am Hope campaign. Please note there will be no mufti day in term three, as we have two this term.

Principal visit
The North Canterbury Principals are going on a bus trip to visit three schools across North Canterbury on Friday 28th May. We are excited to be one of those schools hosting them. Our tamariki will give them a tour of our school and we will be sharing all of the things we love about our kura.

Pre Schooler Morning
We welcome all pre schoolers on Tuesday 8th June from 9am-10.30am.

Attendance Letters
Attendance letters will be sent home in the next week for term 1 attendance. As a school we send letters home for any children that have an attendance rating of less than 80%. We realise that the majority of these are for reasons such as sickness, which is completely understandable, but it is a requirement for us and important to keep track of the amount of school days your children are missing.

Community Notices

North Canterbury Basketball - Hoops and Stars programme. This is run by Harry Skirrow and coached by 3 others. If children want to better their skills and basketball knowledge and have fun while doing it, then Hoops and Stars is the best programme . Hoops and Stars has 4 leveled groups which depends on age and/or skill level. The groups are as follows:

Jr Jammers, Year 1-3. Time 5pm-6pm
Jammers, Year 4-6. Time 6pm-7pm
Slammers, Year 6-8. Time 6pm-7pm
Stars, Year 7-9. Time 7pm-8pm

The programme is on a Wednesday night at New Life School. Term 2 starts on the 12th of May and finishes on the 30th of June. Cost per term: $90

Registration link: https://membership.sportstg.com/regoform.cgi?formID=91883

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Hurunui Biodiversity Trust invites you to a native shrublands field day on Tuesday 25th of May at Murray and Earl farms Woods Road, Scargill starting at 1:30 pm at the top end of Woods Road. We will be discussing the importance of shrubland, pros & cons, Biodiversity and Government policies/regulations.  The aim of the field day is to help landowners understand their shrub lands and the different management options  See our Facebook page for more details. 

RSVP via HurunuiBiodiversity@gmail.com

Kia ora whānau

We hope you had a wonderful holiday and some great down time with the family. George, Delilah and I spent some time at Mount Cook, which was just stunning. We managed to fit in a few walks and see some of the beautiful scenery.

We are excited to be launching our Omihi School Virtual Mission today! All of the info is on our website at www.omihi.school.nz/virtual-mission. Basically we are trying to virtually get to Christ Church School in London, England by walking, biking, scootering or running and we want you to come with us and help us clock up those 26,724km! There is a donation to enter the mission and then you can add in your km's either manually or through apps such as Strava, Apple Health etc. Your km's will add to our map and we can track our path from NZ - England!

If you're competitive, there is a leaderboard, or you can simply use it for your own motivation and a chance to help our fundraising efforts.

It is live now, so we have until Monday 26th July to reach Christ Church School. Anyone in the world can join, so feel free to share this around! We would love to have as many of our community on board as possible. Let me know if you need any help joining.

For the past two years I have been a support Principal in our Tipu Maia Kahui Ako (Community of Learning). This involves 13 schools, a range of small schools and area schools. This term I am Acting Lead Principal while Mike Hart is on sabbatical. There will be commitments that I have each week that may take me out of school at times, but also a lot that I can work on from here. It’s a great leadership opportunity for me, and also a chance for the school to receive some extra staffing for a term, which helps towards us having our 3 classrooms.

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

School Notices

Playground working bee
Our playground is well underway! Emma and Jared from Woodland Escapes and Natureflow are hoping most of it will be finished next week. They have asked if there are a few parents who would be able to come in for a couple of hours and help with our students to move the bark into the playground and also plant the 89 plants that Trees for Canterbury donated. This will be on Monday 10th May from 12pm. Please email me if you are able to help with this.

Movie Night/Parent catch up
A reminder that tickets are now on sale for our movie night this Friday 7th May at 5pm. The Year 8's are organising this as a fundraiser for school camp. The profits will be split across everyone going to camp. Tickets are $5. There will be two movies going for the different age groups and snacks available.

We would love to catch up with parents in Tūpari while the movie is on. Please bring a plate and a drink and we can have a chat regarding our school vision and moving forward with 3 classrooms.

Paddock to Plate Inquiry
This term our whole school inquiry is ‘Paddock to Plate’. We want our students to understand that the nutrients in the air and earth are the same nutrients we eat in our food, and to understand the process that food goes through before we eat it. This week we start our ‘ignition’ phase. On Wednesday and Thursday we are going to visit Michael and Alex’s Nana and Grandad, Sarah and William, to make pizzas from scratch - from milling the flour, to sourcing ingredients that have been grown and produced locally within our Omihi whānau. Then on Friday to the Black Estate vineyard and kitchen to find out how they produce, process and prepare their food and wine locally and organically. We will be transporting children on the school bus, so we don’t need transport help, but if you would like to come along, please let me know.

Pies Fundraiser
We offer the opportunity for our students to sell pies. The money each child makes will come directly off their camp fees or ski trip. It is an optional fundraiser. Pies are sold for $8 each and for every pie sold, you will receive $2.60 off your camp/ski trip. The order forms will go home in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to Jane for organising this.

Wheelie Wednesday
This term we invite students to have scooters and skateboards at school on Wednesdays. Paemoana will be using their scooters during Ako tahi time, so they can have them at school each day, but only use them in break times on Wednesdays.

Subway and Sushi
This is continuing this term. Thanks to Dave and Carl for picking these up for us. Sushi is odd weeks, starting this Wednesday and Subway is even weeks, starting next week.

Biking Club
We have biking club at Waipara on Monday 10th May at 4pm. There will be two groups. Mrs Vincent will be taking a shorter loop with the juniors and Mrs Lucas will be taking the longer track right to Black Estate and back. Please add your name and your child’s name to the doc if you would like to come. All parents welcome.

Community Notices

Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) – The Correspondence School
Early Childhood Programme

Did you know that Te Kura provides a free early childhood programme in your home? Your 2 to 5 year old child may be eligible if:

• you live more than 6kms from your nearest licensed early childhood centre; and

• they attend a licensed early childhood centre for up to or less than 12 hours per week, or

• they have high health needs, special educational needs or there are special family circumstances preventing attendance at a face to face early childhood centre.  

You will receive a personalised programme prepared by trained registered early childhood teachers based in Wellington. Teachers work in partnership with families, providing support through maintaining regular contact via free phone, email, online programmes and events held in regional areas. The programme includes termly packs of learning materials for your child, online resources for parents and whānau which contain information on children’s development and ideas for activities using resources from your own environment.

For further information please ask at your school office or call Te Kura on 0800 65 99 88 Ros extn 8753, Ann 8795 or visit our website www.tekura.school.nz/ech

Resilient Hurunui presents Dylan Muggeridge " A Beef and Lamb
Perspective". Dylan is the Environment Policy Manager for Beef and Lamb
NZ based in Havelock North, Hawkes Bay. He is an advocate for the
interests of Beef and Lamb farmers, on climate change issues. Thursday
May 20th, Amberley School, Rewi Alley Room, Douglas Road, Amberley,
7.30p.m. $5 donation appreciated.

Kia ora whānau

Omihi School are on a mission! Come and join our mission and help us to get to Christ Church School in London. Over the last year our Omihi School Farm Race has been cancelled twice. This year we decided we still wanted to participate in some form of exercise, but ensure it was something we could still do if we changed alert levels. I used to teach at Christ Church School in London and they contacted me as they were on a mission to virtually walk 25,538km’s from Christ Church School, London, to Christchurch, New Zealand.

They sent us a video and we sent one back, learning about each other's schools. So we thought it would be great if we could virtually get back to them. Whether it's running, walking, biking, swimming or any form of exercise! And we want our community to come with us. With fundraising being impossible last year due to Covid, we also wanted to find ways to raise money. The fundraising from this virtual trip to Christ Church School in London will help a number of projects. Being an Enviroschool, one of our projects is new solar panels. We have a community member that is going to match what we can raise, so we will be focusing on getting money for solar panels to start with and then see how much more we can raise for our other projects.

At the start of term 2 we will let you know the details on how to join our Virtual Mission. There is a donation amount to join, which is where the fundraising comes in and then you download an app and start uploading your exercise, either manually or through apps such as Strava. All of our exercise will add together and you will be able to see on the map where we are in the world.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Principal Awards
Our latest Principal Award winners are…..Kurtis and Gineva!

Anzac Day
The Anzac Ceremony will be held on Sunday, 25 April at 8.40am at the Omihi Domain. Please can you let me know by Friday if your child will be attending. Children are to please wear school uniform. We normally lay a wreath from our school. If there is someone that is able to help with that, please let me know.

Movie Night/Catch up
Our senior leaders are organising a movie night as a fundraiser for their camp. This will be on Friday 7th May at 5pm at school. Tickets will be $5 and they will be selling them in week 1. At the same time as the movie is playing in Paemoana, we would like the opportunity to talk with parents. The BOT are reviewing our school vision this year and it would be a great chance to get your input on this. We would also like to have an open discussion around our classes - obviously we have 3 classes at the moment, so we are wanting to discuss how we can make this manageable to continue moving forward.

Mufti Days
Our senior leaders have organised mufti days for this year:
Wednesday 14th April - Mufti day for ANZAC Poppy day
Friday 21st May - Pink Shirt Day
Friday 28th May - Gumboot Day (wear uniform and gumboots)
Friday 5th November - Mufti day for guide dogs

Omihi Bus
If your child is not going to be on the bus please make sure you notify Tracy and Fi for the morning and myself for the afternoon. Please note there will not be an Omihi bus run on Friday 28 May or Tuesday 1st June, due to using the bus for trips.

Playground update
The playground is looking great! The students have loved seeing it progress and our sandpit is nearly in! This week we will be working with Emma from Woodland Escape to look at how the water play section could look like. The students are going to model it on the waterfall that they visited on the Crofts farm. On Wednesday we will have time in the afternoon to literally get in there and play with water to see what works well and to give feedback to Emma. Can you please send along a change of clothes on Wednesday for this.

Teacher only day
Please note we have a Teacher Only Day on Friday 4th June, at the start of Queens Birthday weekend.

Rakahuri Rage
Good luck to our seniors who are participating in the Rakahuri Rage this Friday! Thanks to Miss Mickleson for organising this.

Community Notices

Farmers and landowners are invited to a Groundswell NZ meeting at the Omihi Community Hall on Tuesday, 13th April at 7:30 pm.

Groundswell NZ are a new group formed by Southland and Otago farmers initially aimed at providing a stronger voice on behalf of farmers against the Freshwater legislation. Next week they are touring the South Island with 3 guest speakers:

• Jane Smith Otago farmer and vocal critic of the Freshwater legislation.

• Jamie McFadden environmentalist and chair of Rural Advocacy Network who will explain the new Freshwater and Indigenous Biodiversity laws, why they are unworkable and the alternative solutions.

• Otago farmer Bryce Mckenzie will speak on how their local catchment Pomahaka Water Care Group are addressing water quality issues.

Further information is on Groundswell NZ Facebook or contact Jamie 027 3218747.