Kia ora koutou

Eddy, Stanley, Arty and Theo working together on our preschooler morning.

One of my highlights from last week was our preschooler morning. It was lovely to see so many siblings coming in for the morning, but also to welcome new families to join us for our preschooler morning. It’s a great opportunity for children and parents to meet each other, and for children to build up their confidence when at school. Plus an opportunity for our students to be leaders, and help strengthen their tuakana-teina relationships.

A big thank you to Penny and Georgie for running this. We are looking forward to the next one in term 4 on Monday 31st October.

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

School Notices

Character Strengths:
Zariah (Year 5) - My top 3 character strengths are love, creativity and love of learning. Love helps me get into better relationships with my friends. Creativity is really good for my art that I do at school and at home. Love of learning helps me learn more about when I am going to be an adult and have a job. Maths used to be hard for me, but I love learning so it is getting easier and easier.

Reports - Principal Comment
In term 4 I usually write a Principal comment for each child. As I won’t be here for all of term 4, these will be going home later in term 3.

Student Teacher
We are really excited to have Chantelle White back again in 2023. Chantelle is a student teacher who has been in Tūpari two days a week this year. Next year she will be joining Paemoana for two days a week. It’s a great way for student teachers to learn by being in the classroom, and a wonderful opportunity for our students to have another teacher in with them.

Year 5-8 Top Team Challenge - 7 September
On Wednesday we will be taking our year 5-8 students to the Top Team Challenge at the Amberley Domain. This is run by North Canterbury Sport. Our students will be put into teams with other students from schools in our area.  We will transport the children in the bus and we need one car. We will be leaving school at 12:20. If you are planning on taking your own child(ren), or can take a car, please let me know asap.  The event will run from 12:45 - 3pm.  There will be water involved in some activities, so we ask that children please bring a towel and change of clothes.  Children can be collected from the Amberley Domain at 2.50pm, or can go back to school for collection at 3:20.

Omihi School bus
There will be no bus this Wednesday afternoon.

Kapahaka festival - 22 September
On Thursday 22nd September 1:30-1:45pm years 4-8 will be performing in the annual Kapahaka festival run by Tuahiwi School. This will be held at Ohoka School Hall.  Child and adult tickets are $10 each and preschoolers are free. Please contact Bryleigh by September 15th if you would like to purchase tickets. 

There will be raffles and baking for sale during the festival so please bring cash if you wish to purchase something. We will be performing at 1.30pm.  Please note that students need to be there for the whole session from 12:30 - 2:45pm. We will leave school at 11:30am and meet at Ohoka Hall at 12.15pm.  Children will get changed into their kapahaka uniform at school the morning of. 

If you are able to assist with transporting children to the event or wish to transport your own child(ren), please let Sally know.

School photos - 22 September
We have school photos at school at 9am on Thursday 22nd September. There will be sibling photos as well.

Grandparents Day - 28 September
We are so excited to welcome our Grandparents back into school!  This is on Wednesday 28th September from 9am - 10.30am.  We ask each family to provide a small plate of food to share with our grandparents for morning tea please.  We are asking Grandparents to wear a mask as well please.

Yamaha Omihi School Trailride
Earlybird entries are now open on www.iticket.co.nz!

Community Notices

Cleaner for Omihi Hall
We are looking for a cleaner for the Omihi Hall. This is usually 1-2 times a week, sometimes not every week. There are flexible working times. If you are interested please contact Maree - principal@omihi.school.nz.

Kia ora koutou

Hamish, Jack and Leo having a break during play time.

It has been a very wet winter and our grounds still seem to be muddy. As the children always remind me, we are a country school with country kids that love the mud! Our students are allowed to climb trees, they love to play physical games, and they do get muddy. The teachers and I try to be as clear as we can on our expectations around this. They still need to show our Omihi values of whakaute (respect) and kotahitanga (unity), and look after one another. Plus show respect for our classrooms, as Sharryn shouldn’t have to be cleaning mud up off the classroom floor everyday.

During break times there is always a staff member on duty, and we now wear a high vis vest so we are really visible to the children. We keep an eye on the games, and if there are games that are getting too rough or too muddy, or they are too high up in a tree, we generally move them onto something else.

There is often a group that push to play tackle rugby, but as we explain to them, to play that they must have mouth guards and a qualified rugby referee or coach here with them. If they can organise that, then I’m happy to let it happen and supervise.

The most wonderful thing to see when out on duty is the tuakana-teina relationships we have in our kura. There are 5 year olds playing with 13 year olds, and often the whole school are playing a game altogether. If there are children that are a bit nervous, someone always steps in and supports them.

We really are lucky to have such an amazing Omihi whānau.

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

School Notices

Principal Awards
Congratulations to our latest Principal award winners - Eva and Hugo.

Teachers for 2023
We are excited to have our teachers back for 2023. I will be on maternity leave for the first half, and will be returning in term 3. Sally and Penny will be sharing the Acting Principal role until then. The classes for next year will be:

Paemoana (Year 0-2) - Georgie Smith
Awaawa (Year 3-5) - Penny Vincent
Tūpari (Year 6-8) - Sally Mickleson and Liz Grigg

Please let me know if you have any questions, or would like to discuss anything further. We will be sending out info on Sally and Penny’s Acting Principal roles before the end of term, so you know who the best person is to contact in different situations.

Enviroschools
We are excited to have Andrea from Enviroschools working with our Enviro leaders tomorrow. There hasn’t been any funding in the Hurunui for Enviroschools in the last 2 years, so we have been quietly working away on our own. Now that there is some funding we will be able to become registered as a Bronze Enviroschool, then continue working towards our silver. Thanks to Sally and Georgie who are leading this.

Yamaha Omihi School Trailride - Sunday 30th October
Early bird entries will be online at www.iticket.co.nz from the 1st September. Thanks to Sofia who is going to be running the BBQ on the day. We need some parents to help with this, and with registrations on the morning. Please let me know if you are able to help.

Nano Girl - Science Assembly
We are excited to have Nano Girl visit us and a number of other schools in the Omihi Hall this Thursday. The cost for this is covered in your activity fee. The Superhero Science Assembly is an hour long interactive and explosive Live Show which includes a short Q&A session for the budding scientists and engineers in the room. The show focuses on the superpowers of general science and engineering creativity and covers topics from both the Physical and Material Worlds, and The Nature of Science.

Omihi bus
A reminder there is no Omihi bus this Friday.

3 Way Learning Conferences - 29th and 30th August
Please sign your child and yourself up to have a time to meet with their teacher to discuss their learning. We ask that parents please wear masks during the meeting.

Production 2023
2023 is a Production year for us at Omihi. We are already looking ahead to the initial planning stage of this and are excited to announce our production will be ‘Peter Pan’. We are putting the word out now that if you have any large cardboard boxes from appliances etc, please can you save these and send them in to school. They will be really useful for us to make props with next year. Thanks to Penny who will be leading this.

Tuahiwi School
The Year 0-2 children are looking forward to building on their connection with Tuahiwi School and are going there for a visit on Tuesday 30th August. We will take them in the school bus, so please ensure their carseats are at school that day if needed.

Preschooler Morning
We welcome all of our local preschoolers to come and join us for our preschooler morning on Wednesday 31st August from 9am - 10.30am. They will be in Paemoana for the first session, and then will join our students for playtime, so please bring some morning tea for them.

Tipū Maia Kāhui Ako update
Earlier this term Principals, Deputy Principals, Teachers, and Leaders from Tipu Māia, our Kāhui Ako or Community of Learning, gathered for our annual Hui. Tipu Māia Kāhui Ako aims to grow strong, brave, capable, and confident learners. The representatives from across all thirteen schools came together to unpack our shared, student-focused, achievement challenges around literacy, numeracy, wellbeing, and culture. We were able to send all of our teachers, plus myself to this.

Collaboration works by sharing the expertise that already exists within a community and by providing opportunities for good ideas to be tested and developed further; collaboration leads to knowledge building. By working with the other Tipu Māia schools we increase our impact on the learning for all our ākonga. The hui was an ideal time to reaffirm and strengthen the connection between our schools with a shared purpose; we look forward to our next steps.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou

The smiling faces of Liza and Kaisa.

With this terrible weather, we have some exciting news leading up to our summer! We have installed a heat pump for the swimming pool, and have purchased a new thermal cover. This means we should be able to use the pool for a longer period of time in terms 1 and 4, and it will be lovely and warm for our swimming lessons!

Thank you to those parents who were able to make it to our movie night and strategic plan update on Friday. It was great to have the opportunity to share our progress on our plan, that you helped us create. Thanks to the teachers who took the time to create a presentation to share. If you weren’t there, here are the slides that you are welcome to look through - structured literacy, positive education, cultural responsiveness. We are happy to go through them with you as well, just let me know. We are proud of what we have achieved as a kura already. We also shared a document showing our curriculum coverage this year so far that you may like to have a look at.

As always, our doors are always open, so please feel free to pop in or touch base if you have any questions or would like further clarity.

Ngā mihi

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

School Notices

Board of Trustees
At the close of nominations, as the number of valid parent nominations was fewer than the number of vacancies required to be filled, the following nominees are therefore officially re-elected in a non-voting election to the school Board of Trustees:

• Julie Wells

• Emma Hughes-Games

• Craig Tomlinson

Georgie Smith has also been elected as the staff Board of Trustees member.

This Board officially takes office on 10 August 2022. A big thank you to Julie, Emma, Craig and Georgie for putting themselves forward for these roles.

Bryleigh Kingston-Rodgers
Returning Officer

Character Strengths
Liza (Year 6) - My top 3 character strengths are curiosity, creativity and bravery. Curiosity helps me to try new things. Creativity helps me to see lots of different ways to do my learning, and it improves my art. Bravery pushes me out of my comfort zone and helps me try things even if it looks hard.

School Photos
Camera and Digital Photography are doing our school photos this year. These will be taken at 9am on Thursday 22nd September. There will be an option for individual and sibling photos as well.

Grandparents Day
We are so excited to welcome our Grandparents back into school! This is on Wednesday 28th September from 9am - 10.30am. We ask each family to provide a small plate of food to share with our grandparents for morning tea please. We are asking Grandparents to wear a mask as well please.

Online Auction
A big thanks to Anna Williams who is organising our online auction. This will be going live on Facebook at 7pm on the 12th September. If you have any contacts or suppliers that may be interested in donating an item, please let Anna know. We aren’t asking families to donate to this, Anna is contacting outside businesses.

Kapahaka Festival
The Year 4-8 students are participating in the Kapahaka Festival, that Tuahiwi School organise, on Thursday 22nd September. They need to be there from 12.30pm - 2.45pm. We will be taking the school bus, and will need a couple of cars. Children are welcome to go home with parents afterwards. Tickets for parents to watch are $10 each. Please email Bryleigh if you would like to order tickets and let Sally or Georgie know if you can take a car.

3 Way Learning Conferences - 29th and 30th August
We are excited to be able to run these in person again. Please sign your child and yourself up to have a time to meet with their teacher to discuss their learning. We ask that parents please wear masks during the meeting.

Pet Day/Agri Sports
Our Agri sports/pet day is on the 19th October. Julie and Leighton have run this for the last few years. Thanks to Kurt who is taking over the organising of the Agri Sports. We are now looking for someone to take over the pet day organising. Julie will be able to support you this year. Please let me know if you would be happy to take this on.

School Docs Policy
These can all be accessed by clicking here and entering the following case-sensitive login details:
Username: omihi Password: glenmark This term we would love your feedback on the following policies:
Student and Staff wellbeing and Safety.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou

I feel so grateful to be in a profession where every 10 weeks we are able to have a break. Even though teachers and myself still work through some of the holidays, we encourage our staff to take time out and have a good break so they come back refreshed. These holidays my family went to Rarotonga, and what a treat it was to have some sunshine, warmth and relaxation. Delilah especially loved playing with all the dogs she met along the way.

Logan, Fergus, Andy and Hamish happy to see each other again after the holidays.

It was lovely to see all of our tamariki again this morning, and hear about their holiday stories - whether they enjoyed family time, played some new games or went away somewhere. They also seem refreshed, and we hope to continue to keep the winter bugs away from school. Thank you for your support in asking students to wear masks while indoors.

We look forward to seeing you this term at our assemblies, movie night, ski trips, camp, 3 way learning conferences, preschooler morning, or just popping into the classes to say hello.

Ngā mihi

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

School Notices

Strategic Initiative Update
Positive Education - Sally Mickleson
Our school first endeavoured on our Positive Education journey in 2019. Since then, Maree and I have attended Positive Education conferences, engaged in professional development courses and facilitated discussion groups in this domain at our school, and across our kāhui ako. As a school, this year we have further progressed our Pos Ed journey by implementing the Positive Education Enhanced Curriculum created by Geelong Grammar School (Melbourne) into our kura. 

So what is Positive Education? 
Geelong Grammar School defines Pos Ed as;  “Positive Education brings together the science of positive psychology with best-practice teaching and learning to encourage and support schools and individuals within their communities to flourish.”  And  “Positive Education teaches skills and knowledge to help prevent illbeing and promote wellbeing within the context of living a good life.” (Geelong Grammar School, 2022) 

Every Friday our tamariki engage in explicit Positive Education lessons. It has been wonderful to see our tamariki soaking up the key messages in these lessons, and applying the skills and virtues they have learned into their daily school lives.

Principal Awards
Congratulations to our latest Principal Award Winners……Fergus and Andy!

Yamaha Omihi School Trailride
We are excited to announce that we have a new major fundraiser this year - the Yamaha Omihi School Trailride. It is on Sunday 30th October on a number of farms at the end of Reeces Road. Thanks to Todd McBreen and James Blanchard who will be running the event on the day, and to Yamaha for sponsoring this event. Nearer the time we will be asking for volunteers to run the BBQ on the day, and to help with the registration. We need one person to lead the organisation of the BBQ. If you are happy to do this, please let me know. Tickets will go online on the 1st September. Please help us to spread the word!

Movie Night
The Year 8’s are organising a movie night on Friday 5th August at 6pm. There will be a movie for Year 0-4 in Paemoana and one for Year 5-8 in Awaawa. Children are asked to bring their own water bottle, an empty coffee cup (for the popcorn) and there will be popcorn and corn chips to purchase for $1 each. We ask parents to please bring a plate to share with adults and we will meet in Tūpari. A 30min update on our strategic plan first, then a chance to catch up with each other. Parents and children Year 4 and up - we ask that you please wear a mask.

Year 5-8 Camp (14-16 September)
Camp invoices were sent out at the end of last term. Please can these be paid prior to us going on camp. Feel free to come and talk to me if you would like to look at payment options or need some support.

Ski trips (17th and 24th August)
The ski trip forms will be going home this week. As it is parent’s responsibility to take your own children up to the ski field, you are very welcome to bring your whole whānau with you - preschoolers and children who attend other schools. It’s a great family day out!

Sexuality Education
Here is a link to the parent’s guide so you can see the lessons that each year group will be doing over the next few weeks and can continue conversations at home. Paemoana will follow the Year 1-2 guide, Awaawa will follow Year 3-4, and Tūpari will follow Year 5/6. Sally will be in touch with the Year 7/8 parents regarding their content. Please feel free to touch base with your child’s teacher to find out more.

Omihi Library
We are so lucky to have our Omihi Library linked with the Hurunui Library. This means that you can order books online at Hurunui to pick up at Omihi, and issue and return books in both libraries. Our librarian, Yo Turnball, is here every Monday from 2.30pm and we welcome parents and our community to come in from 3pm-3.30pm if you would like to get books out. We have an adults section, and some great books for preschoolers.

Thank you
A big thank you to Jan and Mark, our posties, who continue to deliver our newsletter for us!

Other dates for term 3:
Whole school - speeches/poetry - week 1-3
Year 3-8 ASB Getwise Financial literacy workshops - Tuesday 9th August
Year 5-8 Cantamaths teams go to Ohoka - Wednesday 10th August
Year 5-8 Assembly - Friday 19th August, 2pm
3 Way Learning Conferences - 29/30th August
Preschooler morning - Wednesday 31st August, 9-10.30am
Year 5-8 Top Team Challenge at Amberley Domain - Wednesday 7th September
Life Education - Tuesday 20th September
Year 0-4 Assembly - Friday 23rd September, 2pm

2022 School Board Parent Elections (all info on the newsletter section of our website)
Nominations are open for the election of four parent representatives to the school board. Your nomination form has been emailed to you, or please contact Bryleigh, the returning officer, if you wish to get a copy - office@omihi.school.nz. You can use this form to nominate yourself or someone else in your community.

Nominating yourself or someone else - If you are on the voting roll and eligible to vote, you can nominate yourself. Please remember to sign both parts of the form. If you are nominating someone else, complete the nomination form and make sure it includes all the required contact details and signatures. You can post, hand deliver or email your nomination form/s to the returning officer: Bryleigh Kingston-Rodgers, Omihi School, 990 Omihi Road, RD3, Amberley 7483, office@omihi.school.nz. Nominations close at noon on 3 August 2022.

Community Notices