Monday 30th January, 2023

Our teachers, with special guests Ada and Vuk, getting ready for students to return.

Kia ora e te whānau,

Nau mai, huki mai and welcome back to Term 1 of 2023. 

After a lovely holiday break spending time with friends and family, I’m looking forward to the buzz and excitement when our students arrive back on Wednesday. I always love hearing about their holiday adventures, books they have read, or a new found hobby they have picked up.

You will all know by now that I have made the tough decision to finish my time here at Omihi. After just over 4 years of teaching here at this special school, I have made the call to pursue a job opportunity in Australia. I am excited for change and looking forward to spending some time abroad. I feel privileged to have begun my teaching career at this school and I would like to thank each and every one of you for your ongoing support, trust and kindness. Omihi will always hold a special place in my heart. 

This year we welcome Ruby-Grace, Hugh, Luka, Noah and Jack to our Omihi Whānau. 

As a part of the Curriculum Refresh, from Term 1 of this year, all schools and kura in New Zealand will be implementing teaching of the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories which comes under the Social Sciences learning area of the New Zealand Curriculum. Our teachers have been working hard to develop their knowledge and understanding of this new content and have carefully developed an inquiry plan for our tamariki that is localised to them and of purpose. 

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

School Notices

Waiswim 

Waiswim will be taking place Monday - Friday during weeks 2 and 3. We have trained instructors taking these lessons. In order for your child to get the most out of each lesson, please ensure that they bring their togs, towel and goggles to school each day. We encourage students to wear a rash top while in the water. The teachers will continue with swimming lessons for the duration of this term. 

Whānau picnic 

We invite you to our whānau picnic which will be held at school on Tuesday 7th February at 5pm. Please bring a picnic for you and your whānau to share. The BBQ will be available for whānau to use. 

Camp (Year 5-8) 

We can now confirm the total cost for our camp will be $250 per child. We will invoice parents in week 3 of this term. We understand that this is a significant cost for many families so please contact Sally if you would like some support around payment options. 

If you are interested in coming on camp as a parent help, please fill out this Google form before Friday 16th February

Omihi Raffle

One of our major fundraisers is our Omihi Raffle. The fundraising money helps us to employ an extra teacher so we can have three classrooms. We ask each family to please donate an item for our raffle with a minimum value of $10. We are happy to take items, or vouchers, and can bundle them together where needed.  

Basketball

Registrations for the Term 1 basketball competition are now open. Last year we were able to enter a Year 7/8 mixed team, Year 5/6 boys team and a Year 5/6 girls team. We are hoping to have enough players to enter our teams again this year. Please contact Sally if you would like your child to play this year. The cost is still to be confirmed, we will communicate this with you as soon as we know. The dates for games during the Term 1 competition are: 3rd March, 10th March, 17th March, 24th March and 31st March.

Miniball

Registrations for the Term 1 miniball competition are now open. Please contact Bryleigh if you would like your child to play this year. The cost for this is $49 per student, and runs for 7 games.

Weeding

Once again our septic tank area has bloomed with weeds over the summer break. If you have some spare time in the morning or the end of the day, we would really appreciate any efforts to help us keep the weeds at bay. Please ask Sally for a key to access the gate.  

Lunches Online 

We are awaiting confirmation from Lunches Online. Please keep an eye out in the teachers' newsletters for the link to place your order. Our first order date is Wednesday 8th February.  

School Docs

To review our Concerns and Complaints Policy please go to https://omihi.schooldocs.co.nz/
Username: omihi   
Password: glenmark
Search: ‘Concerns and Complaints’ > Concerns and Complaints

Key dates

Monday 30th January - Teacher only day 

Wednesday 1st February - First day of term 1 

Monday 6th February - Waitangi Day

Tuesday 7th February - Whānau picnic 

Friday 24th February - Junior assembly 

Wednesday 1st March - Small Schools Swimming Sports 

Monday 6th March - Kowai Swimming Sports 

Friday 10th March - Teacher only day 

Friday 17th March - Senior assembly 

Monday 24th April - Teacher only day (first day of term 2)

Community Notices

Omihi School Office
Monday 12th December, 2022

Kia ora koutou

Year 8s

Our Year 8s, Christian and Acacia.

Here we are at the end of the year! It has been a busy last few weeks of the term and we are looking forward to spending the next two days celebrating with some Christmas activities and water fun. A big thank you to our wonderful Year 8 leaders, Christian and Acacia, for organising our Fun Day tomorrow. A reminder that they will be selling bags of chips and popcorn for $1 at morning tea tomorrow.

I want to wish the children and whānau that are leaving us this year all the best with the next steps on their journey. We have loved having you as part of our school and hope to see you again soon.

Next year we are really looking forward to welcoming Hugh and Ruby-Grace to our kura. 

Thank you to you all for your continued support this year. Have a happy, safe and relaxing summer break and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

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


School Notices

Staffing for 2023
Last week, we regretfully accepted a resignation letter from Sally. She will be leaving us at the end of Term 2 next year. She has been a truly valuable member of our whānau and we wish her all the best for her next steps.

Prize Giving and Whānau Hui
Our final day of school is this Wednesday 14th December. Our end of year prize giving will run from 11:00-12:00 followed by a whānau picnic from 12:00-1:00. Please bring a picnic rug and some food to share with your family. We are looking forward to seeing you all there.

2023 Stationery List

Here is the link to Office Max to place your stationery order for next year. Stationery orders must be placed before the 13th of January to arrive in time for the start of the school term.

Key 2023 Dates

Our first day back for 2023 is Wednesday 1st February. We have Teacher Only Days on Friday 10th March and Monday 24th April. Please add these to your calendar.

Report Comments

The teachers will be publishing General Comments and an Arts (Music) Comment on Hero for the children this week. Please keep an eye out for these.

2023 Camp
Last week Miss Mickleson and Miss Smith headed into Christchurch to begin planning our city based camp. The cost of camp is likely to be around $200. We will confirm this as soon as possible once we have finalised all of our costs.

Who to contact over the school holidays?

If you need to contact someone from school over the holidays, please send an email. Staff will not be replying to emails over the Christmas and New Year period, however will attend to emails when available after that. Sally and Penny will be checking the Principal emails as well. 

2023 Trail Ride

Planning is already underway for our 2023 Trail Ride! We are all booked in for Saturday November 4th (postponement date Sunday 5th November). This is set to be an even bigger and better event next year so please read the information flyer at the bottom of this newsletter and mark it on your calendars. 

Omihi Pool Party

Please see the flyer below for information on the Hurunui Council Omihi Pool Party for 2023. This is a fun event and we would love to see some of our families there. 

A reminder that if you would like to purchase a pool key, please email Bryleigh before the end of term - office@omihi.school.nz.  It is $50 for school families and $70 for community members.  This includes a $20 refundable bond when you return the key.

Beach Ed
A huge thank you to all the parents who helped out on Beach Ed Day last week. We really appreciate your support. 

Dates this term
Prize giving and whānau picnic - Wednesday 14th December

 

Community Notices

Yamaha Omihi School trail ride 2023
Community Dental Service
Summer reading challenges
Omihi School Office
Monday 28th November, 2022

Kia ora koutou

Jack running at the Kowai Athletics at Amberley Domain.

It is hard to believe that we only have two and a half weeks left of the school year for 2022! We will be maintaining normal classroom routines until the last three days of the term where we have some super fun activities planned. There will be more information about this in the teacher newsletters next week. 

It was a real milestone for our school to be officially awarded our Bronze EnviroSchool award last week. We are very proud to have achieved this after lots of hard mahi. 

It has been really special having so many visitors to the school over the past few weeks. This Thursday we are looking forward to welcoming the Junior Class from Tuahiwi School. The whole school will be taking them on a walk across the road on the Dormer’s Farm up to the steel cows on the hill. 

All the best of luck to our tamariki that are competing in the Canterbury athletics event on Wednesday this week. 

Have a wonderful week everyone.

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

School Notices

Junior Assembly
This Friday is our Year 0-4 assembly. We look forward to seeing you there at 2pm if you can make it.

Prize Giving and Whānau Hui
Our final day of school for 2022 is Wednesday 14th December. Our end of year prize giving will run from 11am-12pm followed by a whānau picnic from 12-1pm. We are looking forward to seeing you all there.

Tipu Maia Transition Hui
Miss Mickleson and Mrs Vincent attended a transition hui at Hurunui College with other schools in our area to discuss the transition from primary to secondary school. This was a really beneficial conversation to be a part of which reiterated the importance of the way we are teaching literacy at Omihi School. Secondary teachers are currently having to take Year 9’s right back to sentence level teaching in writing because students are not arriving with adequate skills. This highlighted that our Writing Revolution approach is preparing our students well for the requirements of secondary school literacy learning.

It has been wonderful to host Julia Steel (Head of English at Amuri Area School) as a guest teacher for our children in Tūpari so they can get a taste of what secondary school might be like.

School Docs Review

The following policies are up for review on School Docs. Please review the following by clicking on this link. http://omihi.schooldocs.co.nz 

Username: omihi
Password: glenmark

  • Health, safety and welfare policy

  • Alcohol, drugs and other harmful substances

  • Digital technology and cybersafety

  • School bus transport

  • School swimming pool

ENROL Privacy Statement and Usage

The information in ENROL is being shared with Stats NZ for the purposes of the schooling Equity Index, which enables us to better target school funding and resources.

The ENROL privacy statement has been updated for parents and whānau and outlines how ENROL collects and uses student information.

It is important that parents are aware of how enrolment information is collected, stored and used. Here is a link to the information held on their website: ENROL privacy statement – Ministry of Education

Beach Ed
A huge thank you to all the parents who are coming along as helpers for our Beach Ed day. We have our fingers crossed for a beautiful day of sunshine! Thank you to Miss Smith for all your organisation with this.

School Pool Key
If you would like to purchase a pool key, please email Bryleigh - office@omihi.school.nz.  It is $50 for school families and $70 for community members. This includes a $20 refundable bond when you return the key.

Dates this term
Year 0-4 Assembly - Friday 2nd December, 2pm
Last day of technology for Year 7/8 - Monday 5th December
Beach Ed Trip - Wednesday 7th December
Life Education - Thursday 8th December
Year 6-8 visit to ARA for a Careers day - Friday 9th December
Prize giving and whānau picnic - Wednesday 14th December

Community Notices

Hurunui Community Christmas Dinner
Omihi School Office
Monday 14th November, 2022

Kia ora koutou

Freddie and Emma enjoying their first week at school.

I hope you all had a lovely long weekend. I was lucky enough to spend it with my family doing a heli-hike in Mount Cook. An incredible experience and certainly something I won’t forget! We also enjoyed walking the Hooker Valley track to check out the glacier.

The first half of this term has had lots on in the calendar and the second half is just as busy. We appreciate all our whānau support to help transport, coach, organise, fundraise, weed whack and so on! You are all awesome! 

A big warm welcome to Emma Evans and Freddie Sloss who both start school this week. We are really looking forward to having both of you join our school whānau. We are also looking forward to lots of school visitors during the next few weeks for children starting school at the beginning of next year.

All the best of luck to our tamariki that are competing in the Kowai athletics event at the Amberley Domain after school today. 

Have a wonderful week everyone.

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

School notices

Reading and Writing Comments
At the end of this week you will receive a reading and a writing comment for your children on Hero. Please let your child’s teacher know if you have trouble accessing this or have any questions. 

Swimming Pool
A huge thank you to the Sloss family for all their hard work in getting the pool up and running. This has been a huge commitment and we really appreciate it. Another thank you to the Finlayson’s for helping out with the painting. Once the painting process is complete and dry we will let you know. Looking forward to seeing the kids in the pool before the end of term.

Principal’s Award
Congratulations to Jonty Williams for receiving the Principal’s Award in our Senior Assembly last week.

Paid Union Meeting
A reminder that our staff will be attending a paid union meeting this Friday morning (18th November). School will be open when staff have returned at 11.15am.

Fundraising Committee
We are looking for some more parents who would like to join our fundraising committee. Many hands make light work and if you would like to join a few of our fabulous parents in this group please let me know. 

Beach Ed
The whole school will be going to Waikuku Beach on Wednesday 7th December.  Please let Georgie know if you can be a parent helper on the day and if you can help with transport.

School Pool Key
If you would like to purchase a pool key, please email Bryleigh - office@omihi.school.nz.  It is $50 for school families and $70 for community members.  This includes a $20 refundable bond when you return the key.

Dates this term:
Year 4-8 Kowai Athletics (for those who qualify) - Monday 14th November, 4pm
Year 0-4 Assembly - Friday 2nd December, 2pm
Last day of technology for Year 7/8 - Monday 5th December
Beach Ed Trip - Wednesday 7th December
Life Education - Thursday 8th December
Year 6-8 visit to ARA for a Careers Day - Friday 9th December
Prize giving and whānau picnic - Wednesday 14th December

Community Notices

Omihi School Office