Delilah is loving having her Mum and Dad out on the farm. We are grateful for beautiful days like today.

Kia ora whānau

Thanks for all of your support over the past few days. We have done this before and are able to slot back into home learning again. Your child’s teacher has sent out their home learning this morning. Please keep in touch with them if you need any support or would like any further learning. If there is anyway we can help, we are here for you.

We have some disappointing news that goes with us being back in lockdown - we are cancelling our Spring Ball. This is the second year we have had to cancel our major fundraiser and it’s not a decision we take lightly. But with the uncertain times ahead we can’t take the risk of it being cancelled last minute if we are still in level 2. We have items ready for a silent auction and a raffle, so we will still put these together for an online fundraiser. Thank you to everyone that has helped so far and those that have donated. At the NZ Principal’s Conference I was at a couple of weeks ago, Sir Ian Taylor talked about focusing on the ‘opportunities’ rather than the ‘challenges’. So let’s try and do that and be creative about our fundraising opportunities in the future.

On a positive note, at our BOT meeting last week we made the decision to continue with 3 classrooms next year. Even though we haven’t had fundraisers this year, we had some BOT funds put aside to go into the new building, but as we were under budget, we haven’t had to do this, so we are putting it into our teaching staff. I’m really excited to announce we have the same, amazing, dedicated team next year:

Tūpari - Sally Mickleson
Awaawa - Georgie Smith
Paemoana - Penny Vincent

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Welcome to our Omihi whānau
Welcome to Annie and Scarlett who have started full time in Paemoana.

Postponements
Our Grandparents Day and Year 0-4 assembly have been postponed. We will inform you of dates when these are confirmed.

3 Way Learning Conferences
These are on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st August. They will go ahead either in person, or via zoom. Please make a time to meet with your child’s teacher. I have shared the link in the newsletter email.

Speeches
These will be completed at school once we get back to level 2. Unfortunately parents won’t be able to come in to watch, but we will record them all and add to Hero.

Report comments
Your child’s maths comments will be coming out via Hero at the end of this week. If you haven’t managed to log into Hero please get in touch with your class teacher.

Dental Van
The dental van will be at school on Friday 17th September. Please see further details below.

Year 5-8 Camp
I have had questions around camp, it is not something we will make a decision on yet. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will have more of an idea if it can go ahead.

Community Notices

Tena koutou whānau

Last week I was at the New Zealand Principal’s Conference in Rotorua. It was such a great opportunity to meet a wide range of Principals from all of NZ and hear some really engaging speakers.

One of my favourites was Sir Ian Taylor. He is a 71 year old Māori/Pakeha man who has had an incredibly interesting life, from being a presenter on Playschool to creating an animation company and flying around the world tracking thousands of sporting events.

He talked a lot around Cultural Responsiveness, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and the importance for our tamariki learning about the history of Aotearoa. You may have seen his company’s work on animations for the top sports games in the world. He has now been part of setting up this innovative website to help us to teach our tamariki about Aotearoa - www.maatauranga.co.nz/. Feel free to check it out with your children.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Multipurpose Space
Our new building is just having the final few things completed on it and hopefully when it dries out a bit we will start with the landscaping around it. We will be holding a blessing for the building in the next couple of weeks with our tamariki and our Board of Trustees, led by Pone Taite (Kaumatua) and Melanie Taite-Pitama (Tuahiwi Education Team Member), then we will have an official opening in term 4 where our community will be invited.

Agri Sports/Pet Day
For the last few years Leighton Croft has organised our Agri Sports and Julie Wells has organised the Pet Day. We are looking for new people to help with this year’s event, so they could then take it over next year. Please let me know if you are keen.

Spring Ball
A reminder to please send in a grocery item for our raffle at the Spring Ball. Plus tickets are on sale and we would love to see you there. It is a great opportunity to catch up and have a dance! Or just enjoy the band and yummy food! Tickets are at www.iticket.co.nz.

Ski Trips - 10th and 17th August
I will email everyone and put a message on the school’s Facebook page at 6.30am to let you know if the ski trip is going ahead or not.

ERO - Education Review Office
In two weeks we will be meeting our ERO evaluation partner, which we are really looking forward to. Our last review was in 2017 and we were thrilled with our report. There is a new approach since that last review and our evaluation partner will be with us for a longer period of time now and working alongside us to review our kura. We look forward to keeping you updated along the way.

Community Notices

Resilient Hurunui presents guest speaker John McCaskey talking on "Water - A lifetime of living and farming in drought-prone Waipara". On August 19th at 7.30 p.m, Amberley School, Douglas Road, Amberley. $5 donation appreciated. All Welcome. All Resilient Hurunui talks can be found on YouTube.

Mt Cass Wind Farm
The Mt Cass Wind Farm project team continue to work hard to get the project ready for financial close. If you would like to be kept updated about progress, sign up for the Mt Cass Wind Farm newsletter - https://www.mtcasswindfarm.co.nz/

They will be hosting a series of community meetings around the region closer to construction. These meetings will be an opportunity to meet the project team and hear about what to expect during the construction phase of the project.

Kia ora koutou

I hope you’ve all had some great family time during the holidays. I know it can be a busy time, especially if parents are working, but from talking to the kids it sounds like there have been some fun experiences happening, as well as time for children to recharge and energise again ready for school.

On the top of Queenstown Hill.

George, Delilah and I had a great time down in Queenstown and loved catching up with friends in Auckland. Delilah certainly helped us add some km’s to our virtual mission! That was an exciting end to the holidays - we managed to get all the way from Omihi to Christ Church School in London….over 26,000kms! I would like to acknowledge the dedication, perseverance, and grit that our students put in with our daily runs to help us get there. Plus the support from our Omihi whānau and extended Omihi whānau adding in all their kms. It was a great motivation for us to get out and get exercising during a cold few months! Christ Church School in London made us a little video and we were mentioned in their newsletter as well. You can see them on our Facebook page. It was a fundraising opportunity, but most importantly a chance for us to work on a goal together as one big whānau.

With our ski trips and camp this term, we have lots to look forward to. Plus we can’t wait to welcome our grandparents in for Grandparents day on the 26th August.

You will see our new multipurpose space is nearly finished, it won’t be long until we can start utilising this. The rest of the outdoor learning space will start this term and aim to be finished by term 4. We look forward to welcoming you to an official opening of our multipurpose space and playground in term 4.

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

School Notices

Welcome to our Omihi whānau
We welcome Jonty who has joined our Awaawa class and Mackenzie who has joined our Paemoana class.

Spring Ball
We now need everyone’s help to promote our Spring Ball and sell tickets. This is our major fundraiser of the year and can only be successful if we have everyone behind it. Tickets are on sale at www.iticket.co.nz. I will be in touch with parents who have put their name down for jobs as needed. If you haven’t got a job and are still able to help, please let me know or add you name to the doc. The main things we still need help with are:
* a photographer
* organise the silent auction
* sell raffle tickets on the night
* someone who will be coming on the bus to check everyone off as they get on

Keeping Ourselves Safe
This term we will be running the ‘Keeping Ourselves Safe’ programme. There is information online so you can see exactly what we will be covering. Constable Ken will be working alongside us to deliver this to our students. The teachers will let you know in their newsletters when this is being covered. We encourage you to have a look at our ‘Child Protection Policy’ on School Docs. The login details are: omihi, password - glenmark.

Community Defibrillator
Please note this has now been moved from Omihi School, across the road to the Omihi Hall. It is on the side of the building and more accessible without having to go through the school gates.

Ski Trips
We are looking forward to our two whole school ski trips on the 10th and 17th August. I will share the further information with you today. Please check your child is in the correct group and has the gear selected if they need to hire, plus add in your car details at the bottom if you are driving. If you would like to meet halfway up the mountain and get a ride on the Mt Lyford bus, please contact Hamish directly on - lyfordski@xtra.co.nz. If you have any questions please let me know. If you need any ski clothing please let me know. There are often families that can lend these out, rather than having to buy new.

School Calendar
We have a lot of things coming up this term, so please keep up to date by keeping an eye on the calendar on our website. If you would like me to share it with you so you can add it to your Google calendar, please let me know. We would love to see you at our two assemblies - Year 0-4 on Friday 27th August at 2pm and Year 5-8 on Friday 17th September at 2pm.

Teacher Only Day
Please note there is a teacher only day on Monday 27th September.

School Docs Policies
Please take time to read through and review our school policies and procedures that are under review in term 3. These can all be accessed by clicking here and entering the following case-sensitive login details below. This term we are reviewing - Behaviour Management and Concerns and Complaints.
Username: omihi
Password: glenmark

Community Notices

Scargill/Motunau Playgroup
The Scargill/Motunau Playgroup runs during the school term for children under 6 and their caregivers. We meet at Scargill every Wednesday morning to learn through play. New families welcome anytime, please contact Lisa for more information on 021 223 8029.

The Hurunui Theatre Group presents Monty Python’s SPAMALOT.

Book and lyrics by Eric Idle; music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle. A new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Show runs from the 26th August – 4th September at the Waipara Memorial Hall.

Tickets available from Sally Mac’s, Gas Waikari from August, or online bookings and more info at www.hurunuitheatre.org

Yoga
A yoga practice can facilitate the journey to and maintain wellness. The postures and breath are an element of the whole practice of yoga. Group sessions can be the catalyst for great change and development, a dynamic element of a wholistic approach to health and wellbeing.

Singing bowls 🥣, Sound and music through high quality speakers in my private sessions.

My classes are $12, $13 for drop in. Omihi Hall, Thursdays 5.20-6.20pm. www.facebook.com/AliceArcherYoga

Please get in touch with any questions and to book.

Kia ora whānau

This has been a full term of learning inside and outside of the classroom. I would like to thank Sally, Georgie, Penny, Ruth, Sharryn, Fi and Tracy for all of their hard work this term. Our children are so lucky to have such dedicated staff.

We are loving watching the progress of our new multipurpose space. The good news is it’s running on time and under budget…that never seems to happen, so we are thrilled! We look forward to being able to start using it at some stage in term 3. The new slide also goes in over the holidays, and the children are meeting with Emma from Woodlands Escape this week to start designing our ‘stage 2’ of the playground, which will include - shaded areas, space to eat lunch, vegetable gardens and hopefully a concrete table tennis table!

The Paddock to Plate inquiry has been so interesting this term and I enjoyed my two days with Year 5-8 last week working on their iMovie’s to finish off the inquiry. I can see there has been substantial learning going on and I love the conversations around what they have learnt and how they relate it to their own lives. You will be able to see these at the end of next week when reports go out via Hero. If you aren’t able to log on to Hero, please let me know.

This is my last newsletter for the term, so enjoy time with your family over the holidays. We are heading to Queenstown to hopefully get a bit of skiing in. Delilah went up to Coronet Peak last year, but this year she might make it down some slopes in her Dad’s backpack!

Ngā mihi

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

School Notices

Ski Trips
We have two ski trips booked in for Tuesday 10th and 17th August. Children need to have a parent with them that has responsibility for them for the day. If you are not able to go, it is up to you to organise another parent to take your child and they will have responsibility for them for the day. A ski trip information form is being sent home with each child today. Please send these back by Monday 5th July and let me know if you have any questions.

Pies/Pizza
These are being sent home tomorrow. Please arrange to pick them up if you have ordered a lot of them.

Awaawa trip to Motunau
Awaawa will be going to Motunau on Wednesday for an afternoon walk to explore the area. We will be travelling by school bus and will be back by 3pm. Please send any booster seats if needed.

Literacy Week
We are looking forward to focusing on literacy next week. As well as our special guests we have asked the children to bring along one of their favourite books to share with their buddy. Plus a reminder that we have dress up as a book character on Friday 9th July. This is not a mufti day so they don’t need to bring any money.

Life Education
We have Harold and the Life Education van at school tomorrow. Year 0-4 are focusing on Healthy Eating and Year 5-8 will be focusing on Cybersafety.

Spring Ball - Saturday 11th September
Tickets go on sale this week! Thursday 1st July at www.iticket.co.nz. Please spread the word and help us to make it a sell out. If you can put some posters up for us, please let me know and I will send them home.

School Docs Policies
Each term staff and our BOT review our School Docs Policies. There are some policies that are to be reviewed by parents as well. This term we have:

• Reporting to parents on student progress and achievement

  Please review the following by clicking on this link: http://omihi.schooldocs.co.nz

Username: omihi Password: glenmark

Community Notices

RESILIENT HURUNUI Brad Lake and Jamie Engelbrecht of the Amuri based "The Brothers Green"will be speaking about The Economic Opportunities for Hemp, at Amberley School, Rewi Alley room on July, 15th at 7.30 p.m. All welcome. $5 donation appreciated.