Constable Ken talking with our students about safety on the bus.

Kia ora koutou

You have likely seen or heard that the government is looking at reducing policing numbers in small rural towns, and potentially some stations may end up closing. The other disappointing news we have received is that it is proposed to reduce the current number of School Community Officers within the entire Canterbury District from 11 to 5.  Constable Ken is our School Community Officer, and has been working with our students for a number of years.

In Canterbury rural this will mean the two full time positions in North Canterbury and Selwyn delivering services to 77 schools (Selwyn, Banks Peninsula, Waimakariri and Hurunui Districts) will become one full time position based in either Rangiora or Rolleston.  This proposal would effectively mean that School Community Officers would no longer be able to support and deliver programmes such as Keeping Ourselves Safe - KOS, Kia Kaha, Loves me Not, Cybersafety/Cyberbullying, bus safety, plus school wide problem solving, pastoral care and providing support and interventions when required. 

The focus of the sole School Community Officer would be primarily on Road Safety education and School Traffic Safety Team training, refreshing and monitoring, which is funded separately to Police by the NZTA.

As a board, we have submitted our feedback directly to Constable Ken, as he and his colleagues are gathering voice to send to their District Leadership Team. We have also submitted a letter to Stuart Smith, our local MP. We welcome you to do the same, and let your voices be heard. There is also a community meeting at the Tin Shed in Amberley on Tuesday 12th August at 7.30pm.

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

School Notices

Middle Leaders Course
Kelly, Penny and Georgie have been part of a Middle Leaders course with a number of leaders from across Canterbury. They had two days earlier in the year, and another two days this term. Their feedback was:
The middle leaders course has given us tools around leadership and critical thinking skills to grow our practice. As a teacher, pedagogy is always changing and it has been great to come away with concrete tools that we can use to structure our thinking around change management. 

3 Way Learning Conferences
On Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th August we have our 3 Way Learning Conferences. If you haven’t already, please book in a time on this sign up form.

Grandparents Day - Tuesday 12th August
We welcome all of our grandparents to our Grandparents Day on Tuesday 12th August from 9am - 10.30am. Our students will take them on a tour of the school and into their classes, then we will have a shared morning tea. We ask that each family please bring in a plate of food to share for morning tea.

Kapa Haka festival
Year 4-8 students will be taking part in the annual kapa haka festival run by Te Kura o Tuahiwi. This is held at Ohoka School on the 4th September, and we are in the first session of the day, starting at 10.15am. We will travel there by bus, and will be leaving school at 9am. Tickets are on sale at www.humanitix.com. Please note there will be no door sales this year.

Cultural Day
On Thursday 11th September, Tūpari 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. Then drinks, dinner and speakers in the evening at the Omihi Community Hall. Registrations are now open on www.iticket.co.nz. Please help us spread the word, and let any previous students, staff and community know. If you have any old photos you would like to share for the event, please send them to Fi Williams as soon as possible - fiphil@xtra.co.nz or 027 286 5772.

Term 3/4 sports team opportunities
Basketball - Please contact Bryleigh by 18 August if your Year 5-8 student is interested in playing basketball in Terms 3-4. Years 5-6 have a 3x3 competition held on Thursday nights at Mainpower Stadium in Rangiora. Years 7-8 have a 5x5 competition held on Friday nights at either Mainpower Stadium or Kaiapoi High School.
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

Stanley, Kenzie and Ze’ev

Kia ora koutou,

It’s been lovely to see children playing board games before school on these cold mornings. There is so much to learn from board games - maths and literacy skills, but also great oral language and social skills. If your child has a favourite board game, let their teacher know and they could bring it along one day to share.

At the end of the year we have our Canterbury Honda Trail Ride. We try and limit our fundraising each year to one big event, and a small raffle around the same time, as we know how busy our parents are. We would love to have every family a part of these if possible. If you are able to help on the day of the trail ride - Sunday 9th November - please can you add your name to this document. If you have experience riding trail bikes and are happy to be a marshall on the course on the day, please let me know so I can pass that onto Craig.

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

School Notices

3 Way Learning Conferences
On Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th August we have our 3 Way Learning Conferences. This is where you meet with your child and their teacher to discuss their learning. Please book in a time on this sign up form.

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

• Child Protection; Abuse Recognition and Reporting; Food and Nutrition; Safety Checking; Police Vetting; Missing Student Procedure.

Clubs
This term Kelly will be running a guitar club. It will be during Tuesday lunchtimes, and will start next week for anyone who is interested. Children can bring along their own guitar, or can use the school ukeleles.

Preschooler morning
We welcome you to our preschooler morning on Wednesday 6th August from 9am - 10.30am. Please bring along morning tea and a drink bottle for your child.

Grandparents Day - Tuesday 12th August
We welcome all of our grandparents to our Grandparents Day on Tuesday 12th August from 9am - 10.30am. Our students will take them on a tour of the school and into their classes, then we will have a shared morning tea. We ask that each family please bring in a plate of food to share for morning tea.

Ski free days - Tuesday 29th July and Friday 8th August
If you are taking your child skiing on our ‘ski free days’, please let their teacher know.

Cantamaths
We have a group of Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 students who will be attending a Cantamaths competition at Amuri Area School on Thursday 14th August. All details have been emailed to those parents, and Maree will drive the children on the school bus.

Kapa Haka festival
Year 4-8 students will be taking part in the annual kapa haka festival run by Te Kura o Tuahiwi. This is held at Ohoka School on the 4th September, and we are in the first session of the day, starting at 10.15am. Tickets go on sale on the 4th of August at www.humanitix.com. We will travel there by bus, and will be leaving school at 9am.

Cultural Day
On Thursday 11th September, Tūpari 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, and they will be travelling in the school bus, leaving at 9am and returning by 3pm.

Attendance
It is important for students to attend school. It is a legal obligation that your child is at school. It is our responsibility to follow up if a child is not at school. Here is some guidance for parents and caregivers from the MOE. If your child is not at school and we haven’t heard from you, either their teacher or Bryleigh will be in touch with you. Each term we will send home letters to any parents whose children were at school less than 90% of the prior term. We will send these out this week for Term 2.

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. Then drinks, dinner and speakers in the evening at the Omihi Community Hall. Registrations are now open on www.iticket.co.nz. Please help us spread the word, and let any previous students, staff and community know. If you have any old photos you would like to share for the event, please send them to Fi Williams as soon as possible - fiphil@xtra.co.nz or 027 286 5772.

Updating of permissions
This week we will be emailing parents a Google form to complete, to update or re-confirm your permissions for school trips, medical treatment, technology use, and photography. Students will also bring home a cybersafety agreement to read with parents, sign and return to school.

Basketball
Please contact Bryleigh by 18 August if your Year 5-8 student is interested in playing basketball in Terms 3-4. Years 5-6 have a 3x3 competition held on Thursday nights at Mainpower Stadium in Rangiora. This competition runs from 11 September - 27 November (no game during the school holidays). The team registration fee is $380 which would be split evenly between the players.

Years 7-8 have a 5x5 competition held on Friday nights at either Mainpower Stadium or Kaiapoi High School. The competition runs from 5 September until 5 December (no games during school holidays, Labour and Show Weekends). The team registration fee is $700 which would be split evenly between players. If we don’t have quite enough players keen to make a full team, we can contact other local small schools to see if they would like to enter a combined team.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou,

Heidi, Emma, Amelia, Penny and Delilah on their first day back at school.

Welcome back to term 3. We hope you had some lovely family time in the holidays, and the children are refreshed and ready to be back at school.

The teachers and I met in the holidays, and we are excited to get into term 3 with a full team again. We have a great term coming up, with a music inquiry across the school. You will get to see a performance at our end of term assembly, and at the Omihi School Jubilee afternoon tea. We can’t wait to celebrate our school at our Jubilee, have some class trips, welcome our preschoolers and grandparents to school, as well as some ‘ski free days’. Plus continuing our maths and literacy programmes, and integrating our new learning from our teacher’s professional learning.

This term we are also focusing on persuasive writing and oral language. Paemoana will be reciting and performing poems, and Awaawa and Tūpari will be writing speeches, focusing on persuasive writing.

Feel free to chat to your child’s teacher if you would like to discuss their classroom programmes, or your child’s learning.

Please remember our doors are always open and if you want to catch up with your child’s teacher, or myself, just let us know. We will have 3 Way Learning Conferences later in the term where there is a formal opportunity for this, but we are also happy to chat before and after school. Have a look at our school calendar on our website for all of the events coming up this term. If you would like me to share our Google calendar with you, please let me know.

Lastly, we really enjoyed going to see The Addams Family in Waipara, run by the Hurunui Theatre Group in the holidays. It was wonderful to see Lavi, one of our students, and his Mum, Tamar, performing in it. It is great to have the opportunity for our local talent to perform, and for us to have fantastic performances to go and see.

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

School Notices

Principal Award winners
Congratulations to our term 2 Principal award winners - Charlotte, Skylah and Ze’ev. We will be going for a hot chocolate in Amberley this Friday.

Hurunui Youth Programme
We had two of our senior students attend the camp at Boyle River in the holidays. This was run and funded by Hurunui Youth from the Council, and was for Year 7/8 students from our local primary schools. Michael and Hugo said they, ‘loved all of the activities, especially the two wire and chasing possums, and getting to hang out with friends from other schools’.

Bloomfields Preschool and library
On Tuesday 15th July, Paemoana will be visiting Bloomfields Preschool and the Amberley Library. This is a great opportunity for our juniors to read to the preschoolers, and explore our local library. Maree, Georgie and Rachel will take the class there on the school bus.

Red Nose Day
We have an ‘own clothes day’ on Thursday 24th July to raise money for Cure Kids. They no longer give out red noses, but have stickers instead. You are welcome to make your own red nose! Please bring a gold coin donation.

Teacher only day
A reminder that we have a teacher only day on Friday 25th July. We will be working with the other schools in our kāhui, focusing on the new Maths curriculum.

Preschooler morning
We welcome you to our preschooler morning on Wednesday 6th August from 9am - 10.30am. Please bring along morning tea and a drink bottle for your child.

Grandparents Day - Tuesday 12th August
We welcome all of our grandparents to our Grandparents Day on Tuesday 12th August from 9am - 10.30am. Our students will take them on a tour of the school and take them into their classes, then we will have a shared morning tea. We ask that each family please bring in a plate of food to share for morning tea.

Ski free days - Tuesday 29th July and Friday 8th August
In the past we used to have ski days as a whole school. As we ended up having less and less children attending these, plus they would sometimes get cancelled due to weather, we decided as a BOT to have two ‘ski free days’ instead. These are 2 days that are set aside in term 3 where families are welcome to take their children skiing and they won’t get marked absent. I’m happy to connect families who would like to go up to the same ski field, so feel free to let me know if you are going and where you are going to. The days this term are Tuesday 29th July and Friday 8th August.

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. Then drinks, dinner and speakers in the evening at the Omihi Community Hall. Registrations are now open on www.iticket.co.nz. Please help us spread the word, and let any previous students, staff and community know. If you have any old photos you would like to share for the event, please send them to Fi Williams - fiphil@xtra.co.nz or 027 286 5772.

Change of bank account
A reminder we have changed banks to ASB. This is noted on our invoices. Please update any saved details you have.

Omihi School Board
12-3616-0070465-00

Kāhui Ako newsletter
You are welcome to read the Tipu Māia Kāhui Ako newsletter for Term 2 here.

Sushi/Subway
A reminder that we have Lunch Online every Wednesday. Week one is sushi, and week two is subway. You can order it here https://www.lunchonline.co.nz/.

2025 School Board Parent Elections
Nominations are open for the election of four parent representatives to the school board. Nomination forms have been emailed to parents. 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. The electoral roll and list of current nominations is able to be viewed at the office during school hours.

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 Pinkham, Omihi School, 990 Omihi Road, RD3, Amberley 7483, office@omihi.school.nz. Nominations close at noon on 30 July 2025.

Community Notices

Cottage to rent
A 2 bedroom farm cottage with log burner is available to rent. $275 per week, including wifi. Sorry, no dogs.
Please contact Leighton on 027 877 6390.

Kia ora koutou,

Nominations are open for the election of four parent representatives to the board of trustees.

All eligible voters have been emailed a nomination form and a notice calling for nominations – you can use this form to nominate yourself or someone in your community.

If you need hardcopies of the nomination forms, please contact the school office during school hours.

Nominations close at noon on 30 July 2025. You may provide a signed candidate statement and photograph with your nomination.

The electoral roll is held at the school and can be viewed during normal school hours.

As nominations are received, there will be a list of candidates’ names kept at the school up until election day, which you can view.  

Voting closes at 4pm on 3 September 2025.

Ngā mihi nui
Bryleigh Pinkham
Returning Officer