The sack race at the Year 1-3 athletics.

Kia ora koutou,

We had athletics day last week. Year 4-8 at Waipara School, and year 0-3 at Waikari School. It’s always lovely to mix with children from our wider community, and see how well our students compete. We are so proud of them all for giving it a go, even if it is something they don’t love doing. It shows great perseverance. One of the proudest moments for us as teachers was seeing all of our students on the sideline of the long distance race cheering on their friends! Thanks to Waipara and Waikari for hosting us.

This weekend is our major fundraiser, our trail ride. A big thanks to Craig Tomlinson and Andy Evans who are leading the set up of the ride. Thanks to Mike Stronach, and Yo and Hugh Turnbull who are allowing us to use their farms, and to all of our parents who are helping out on the day. The weather is looking good!

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

School Notices

Whole School Assembly
We welcome you to our whole school assembly this Thursday at 2pm.

Principal Comment
Your child’s Principal Comment will be sent home this week via Hero.

Year 5-8 Camp 2026
Our Year 5-8 camp is in Hanmer Springs from Wednesday 25th - Friday 27th March. We are looking for parents to come with us. If you would like to be a parent helper, please fill this google form out by Monday 17th November, and we will confirm by the end of term.

School raffle
Please send in your raffle tickets (sold or unsold) by Monday 17th November. Please transfer the payment to the school account.

Gumboot Friday
We are supporting Gumboot Friday on Friday 7th November. Children can wear gumboots to school and bring a donation that goes towards the initiative to support mental health for young people in New Zealand. 

Pool key
If you would like to purchase a pool key for the summer, please email Bryleigh on office@omihi.school.nz. It is $50 for school families, and $70 for our wider community. There is a $20 refund when you return the key. The pool is now open.

Preschooler morning
We welcome all of our preschoolers this Thursday from 9am - 10.30am. Please bring morning tea and a drink bottle for them.

School Pool
The school pool is now open, so please start sending along togs and towels each day. If your child has a rash vest, we ask that they wear it in the pool to protect them from the sun.

BNZ Kiwi Hoops – Hoops and Dreams on Tour
Basketball New Zealand, in partnership with BNZ and Canterbury Basketball Association, has invited Canterbury schools to a BNZ Kiwi Hoops 3x3 event, on this Friday 7th November, at Selwyn Sports Centre, Rolleston.

The event focuses on building confidence, teamwork, and fundamental basketball skills through fun, inclusive activities, and gameplay. The programme encourages participation, creativity, and a love for the game. The event is open to Years 5-8, and schools are invited to bring students grouped in 3x3 teams (3-5 players per team). All skill levels, genders and abilities are welcome, and teams will be sorted accordingly to ensure everyone has a great experience.

The invite to come along has only just been extended to North Canterbury schools. It is short notice with the event this Friday. Please let Maree know by 3pm tomorrow (Tuesday) if you would like your Year 5-8 student to attend, and if you are able to transport them there, and we will see if we have enough players to enter a team.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou

Our major fundraiser for the year is coming up on Sunday 9 November. We’d love to see you there.

We are excited about our Agri Sports and Pet Day tomorrow. We realise there are some strong winds forecast this week, and we have been discussing the potential of changing the pet day, but we’ve decided to go ahead after looking at the latest update, and we know how much organising goes into getting the pets here. We will have some of the Agri sports inside during the morning, so the children aren’t out in the wind all day. If your child doesn’t have a pet to bring, they will be buddied up with someone that has one, so they won’t be missing out.

Please bring pets along from 12pm, with anything they need - water bowl etc, and take them straight to the area where they need to be tied up. We will show our students today. A big thanks to our judges - Mandy Burrows, Slack and Ju Lucas, and Tilly Ensor, and to George Lucas for organising Agri Sports.

The children have all been working really hard on their pet projects, so these will be on display outside Kahiwi on pet day.

Thanks to all of the parents who have offered to help with transport on our upcoming trips. We will send you the confirmed transport info the week before each event. Next week we have athletics, so I’ll email this to you on Friday. We have always said that preschoolers are not able to come to any events, but this is only when you are needed as parent help - such as Beach Ed and the Antarctic Centre. If you are taking transport to any of our other trips, you are welcome to have preschoolers with you.

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

School Notices

School closed on Thursday 23rd October
As we had sent out in our email, NZEI teachers, support staff and principals will be striking this Thursday, so our school will be closed. We will be attending the march at Pak’n’save in Rangiora at 8am on Thursday. There is also one at Hagley Park from 11.30am if anybody would like to attend either of these.

Omihi School raffle
Thank you for all of the donations for our raffle. We will be sending home tickets this week, and we ask that each child please sell 20 tickets. If possible, can you please transfer the payment to the school account rather than send cash along.

Literacy update from Penny
The introduction of a new curriculum has been significant in education. We are in a privileged position in that we had already been implementing a number of the newer requirements. We continue to strengthen and develop our structured literacy approach and look at ways we can interweave this into what we know of our kids, the new curriculum and our experience and knowledge. We are seeing marked progress with handwriting for our children and will continue to work towards improving surface level writing features such as structure, punctuation and spelling.

Parent AI session
We are running an AI session on Wednesday 22nd October from 3.15pm - 4pm in Kahiwi. Maree will talk briefly about our draft AI policy and how we are using AI across the school for the admin side, and then each teacher will talk about how they are using AI in their classrooms, and there will be a chance for questions.

Your children are welcome to play outside while you are there, but please note we haven't got any supervision for them outside. Please email Maree to register.

School Docs review
We work on a 3 year cycle, and each term we review a number of our policies. These are open for review from our community as well. Please review the following by going to http://omihi.schooldocs.co.nz. Username: omihi Password: glenmark

• Bullying and Harassment

• Behaviour Management

• Searches, Surrender, and Retention of Property

• Minimising Physical Restraint

• Stand-down, Suspension, and Exclusion

• Staff Wellbeing and Safety

Trailride help
Our biggest fundraiser for the year is coming up on Sunday 9 November. Thank you to those who have volunteered to help. We are looking for someone who is going to be in Christchurch around this time to collect and return the radios for the marshals from TL Parker in Burnside. They can be collected either 6 or 7 November, and will need to be returned on 10 November. Please let Maree know if you are able to do this for us.

Pool key
If you would like to purchase a pool key for the summer, please email Bryleigh on office@omihi.school.nz. It is $50 for school families, and $70 for our wider community. There is a $20 refund when you return the key.

School photos
PhotoLife has emailed parents directly with access details to place your school photo orders. Please make sure you check your junk folder for these and email enquiries@photolife.co.nz with any questions.

Free delivery is available for all orders placed before midnight on Sunday 26 October, so we recommend getting any orders in before this time.

Community Notices

Excited to be back learning on the first day of term!

Kia ora koutou

We hope you had a lovely holiday, and some quality family time. We are excited to have all of our students back today and ready to learn for our final term of the year.

During the holidays, I was elected onto the New Zealand Principal Federation. There are 11 Principals from around the country who are a part of this, and I’m proud to say that I am the only small school Principal on the executive, and one of four Principals from Canterbury. It’s a real privilege to have been voted on, to work at a national level, and be a voice for small and rural schools across New Zealand, as well as learn and grow as a leader at the same time. I have been on the Canterbury Primary Principals Association for the last 5 years, so it’s exciting to be able to work on this kaupapa at a national level. We will meet twice a term in Wellington, starting in January 2026. I look forward to updating you on what we are working on.

We are excited for our year 2 students to be moving through to Awaawa today, and our year 5 students who are moving through to Tūpari. It is a great transition for next year, and also allows for smaller class sizes in our junior class. We will be welcoming two new entrants this term - Eddie and Estelle.

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

School Notices

Principal awards
Congratulations to our Principal award winners from term 3 - Fergus, Ava and Noah.

Sunsmart School
A reminder for students to wear their school hats each day this term. Please can you put sunscreen on your child before they come to school, and they are able to top up at lunchtime as well.

Events this term
We have quite a lot going on this term, please keep an eye on the calendar. We are looking for help with transport for some of the events, so please let Maree know if you are able to help:

• Science Roadshow - whole school trip to Amuri Area School, Monday 13th October, leaving at 11.30am - parent help needed.

• Agri sports/Pet day - Tuesday 21st October

• Athletics - Wednesday 29th October
  Year 0-3 at Waikari School - parent help needed.
  Year 4-8 at Waipara School - we will take the school bus, and parent drop offs.

• Preschooler morning - Thursday 6th November

• Teacher only day - Thursday 13th November

• Whole school trip to the Antarctic Centre - Monday 17th November - parent help needed.

• Year 0-3 Sports Spectacular - Wednesday 19th November at the Sefton Domain - parent help needed

• Rakahuri Blast Mountain Bike race - (optional) year 5/6, year 7/8 - Monday 24th November

• Tūpari farm walk - Friday 5th December

• Whole school Beach Ed - Tuesday 9th December, Waikuku Beach - parent help needed.

• Year 8 day out - Thursday 11th December

• Tūpari library/rest home visit - Friday 12th December

Please let Maree know if you can help with transport to any of these events.

Prize Giving Cups
Can students please return all cups that were received at prize giving and pet day last year.

Agri Sports/Pet Day
This will be on Tuesday 21st October. We will send home a Google Form today for you to enter your pet. Preschoolers are welcome to join us. Agri Sports is in the morning. We ask that parents bring pets along at 12pm, ready for the pet day event to start at 12.30pm. Thanks to George who is organising Agri Sports for us this year.

Inquiry
This term's inquiry is all about investigating and exploring the continent that is Antarctica, looking at Antarctic exploration, ecosystems, food webs and environmental conservation. We are excited to be heading to the Antarctic Centre in week 7 to learn all about life in Antarctica and have some hands-on experiences. 

AI Parent Session
AI is new to us, and we have spent a lot of time this year learning about AI in Education. We would love to bring you on this journey with us, share what we have learnt so far, what’s happening in the classrooms, and what our draft policy looks like. We have an afternoon parent session from 3.15pm - 4pm on Wednesday 22nd October in Kahiwi. Please email Maree to register.

Prize giving
Our final day of school is Tuesday 16th December. We have our prize giving at 9.30am, and we welcome all of our community along to this. It is your choice if you would like to take your children home straight away afterwards, or some families have a play at school before they go. If it’s a nice day and you have a pool key, you might like to stay for a swim.

Attendance Letters
Attendance continues to be a focus for our current government, and they have targets that the Ministry of Education is working with schools on, ours included.  Parents and caregivers are required to have their children attend school, and to develop habits of regular attendance. It is the school’s responsibility to follow this up. We will be sending out attendance letters this week for any children that had less than 90% attendance in term 3. We know there was a lot of sickness in term 3. It’s the unjustified days off that the MOE are really interested in.

International Week of Happiness: 6th - 10th October
This week we are celebrating "International Week of Happiness" . This is an excellent opportunity to strengthen the dialogue around wellbeing education within our community. The children will each pull a name out of a hat within our kura, and throughout the week they try to fill that person's bucket by doing random acts of kindness towards that person. They are not to buy anything for this person, but make them feel loved. This could be by holding the door open for them, writing a positive note and leaving it in their bag, or asking them to do an activity at lunchtime. It is a fantastic way to remind children that small things can make a big difference in someones lives. 

Pool key
If you would like to purchase a pool key for the summer, please email Bryleigh on office@omihi.school.nz. It is $50 for school families, and $70 for our wider community. There is a $20 refund when you return the key.

Teacher only day
We have a teacher only day on Thursday 13th November.

2026
Our dates are in the calendar for term 1. Our first day of school will be on Monday 2nd February. Our whānau swim and picnic will be on Tuesday 3rd February from 3.30-5.30pm. It is a 9 week term, and school holidays start at Easter weekend.

Tipu Māia Kāhui Ako newsletter
You are welcome to read our kāhui newsletter for Term 3 here.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou,

Playing four square at lunchtime.

We would like to welcome Freya and Amelia who have joined our Paemoana class. It’s lovely to have them and their families as part of our Omihi whānau.

Congratulations to all of our students who performed speeches and poems last week, they did an outstanding job. Well done to Noah, who came 2nd and Ava, who came 3rd in our senior speech competition. Thanks to Mr Green and Mrs Pugh, who were our judges. Also a big congratulations to those students who participated in the kapahaka festival last week. We were so proud of you all. For some, it was out of their comfort zone, but they gave it a go, and put in 100%. It was a real team effort.

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to attend a Principal Conference. As I am on the Canterbury Primary Principal’s executive committee, it meant they funded this professional learning for me. It is one of our priorities at Omihi, to ensure we have professional learning opportunities for all of our staff, and I’m grateful to have staff that want to continue to learn and grow. There is so much happening in the education space at the moment, and it is moving at a rapid rate, so it is crucial for us to keep up with that pace for our students. I’m proud to say we have a board and staff that also value this.

One of the stand out speakers of the conference for me was Justin Coulson. He is a psychologist, a parent of 6 daughters, a parenting expert, a keynote speaker and he talks to thousands of Principals and teachers about emotional intelligence, amongst other things. Three little statements that stuck with me were:

• High emotions = low intelligence 

• Emotions are contagious

• Definition of Connection - feeling seen, heard, valued

To me, these are very powerful statements, and great reminders for us as parents, and as educators, thinking of our students and children every day. We know they can have heightened emotions at times, but they are not adults, and they are not able to regulate these emotions like we can as adults. I attended Justin’s keynote and his workshop, and I think he’s worth looking into more. If you are interested, his website is https://happyfamilies.com.au/about .

Ngā mihi

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

School Notices

Prize giving cups
Could those who received cups at prize giving last year please return these to the office by the end of term.

Cultural Day
On Thursday 11th September, Year 5-8 will be attending our Tipu Māia Cultural Day with Miss Fletcher and Mrs Vincent, which is organised by the kāhui. This is at Rangiora New Life. They will be travelling in the school bus, leaving at 9am and returning by 3pm.

Omihi School 125th Jubilee - Friday 12th September
We invite you to our 125th Jubilee. There will be a school tour, decade photos, and an afternoon tea between 12.30pm - 2.30pm. The event will start promptly at 12.30pm at the Omihi Hall. We welcome our parent community to this as well, please email Bryleigh if you would like to come. Join us at the Greta Valley Tavern for a casual drink and a catch up from 3pm. Please call them in advance if you would like to stay for dinner - 03 975 3924.

Scargill Flower Show
Our students have entered artwork into the Scarfill flower show this Saturday 13th September at Tipapa Estate. If you have some time, it’s a lovely event to attend, and Kelly will also be performing there.

Canterbury Country Cricket
On Tuesday 16th September, all classes will have cricket sessions with Canterbury Country Cricket.

Awaawa visit to Lucas farm
On Wednesday 17th September, Awaawa will be visiting the Lucas farm. Maree, Penny and Rachel will be attending this with them. They will have a literacy focus, and will use this trip for their writing once they are back in the classroom.

Assembly
We welcome you to our whole school assembly on Thursday 18th September at 2pm.

School Photos
We have school photos on Thursday 18th September at 9am. There will be an opportunity for individual and sibling photos as well.

Raffle
Each year we have our trail ride as our major fundraiser, and a raffle to supplement that. We ask that every family please donate an item or voucher worth at least $10, and we will put these together as hampers for the raffle. Can you please send these into the office by the end of Term 3. We will then send 20 raffle tickets home in Term 4 for each child to sell, and we will also have them for sale at the trail ride.

Trail ride
Online entries for the trail ride are now available at www.iticket.co.nz. Thanks to all of the helpers who are volunteering on the day.

Term 4 sports team opportunities
Touch - Please contact Bryleigh by 6 October if your child is interested in playing touch at Amberley Domain in Term 4. Games will be on Thursday nights, and the cost is $400 per team which would be split evenly between players.
Miniball - Please contact Bryleigh by 15 September if your Year 3-4 student is interested in playing miniball in Term 4. Games are Monday nights at Mainpower Stadium, and the cost is $49 per student for 7 games.
Hockey - Please contact Bryleigh by 15 September if your Year 3-8 student is interested in playing hockey in Term 4. Year 3-4 have a skills based programme on Fridays at Dudley Park, and Years 5-8 play at Mainpower Hockey Turf in Rangiora on Tuesdays. The cost is $42 per player for 6 weeks.
If we don’t have quite enough players keen to make a full team, we can contact other schools to see if they would like to enter a combined team.

Community Notices