Penny and Maree at Google Headquarters in Sydney.
Kia ora koutou
Welcome back to term 2, I hope you had some lovely family time in the holidays. It was really nice to see so many of our Omihi families attend the ANZAC service on Friday.
This term we welcome new students, Constantine and Oliver who are starting with us this week, and Delilah who is starting in week 5.
In the last few days of term 1, Penny and I went with a group of Canterbury Principals to Google Headquarters in Sydney. We attended workshops focused on AI in Education.
It was actually mind blowing. I hadn’t really embraced AI yet, and was possibly a bit scared of it as I had no knowledge around it, but we have both come away really excited and inspired.
There are so many ways to use AI to help our learners, to make our teaching admin more efficient, to add creativity to lessons, to help us to analyse data, research, and so much more. Of course there are negative aspects to AI, but after attending these workshops we can see the benefits of our children being introduced to it, and having the opportunity to learn about it and know how to utilise it in a safe space, especially before they go to high school. A lot of the AI tools aren’t available for children to use, but there are ways we can incorporate it into our lessons so their teacher can share learning with them.
Our first steps are for Penny and I to share our learning with our BOT and teachers. Then for teachers to have a trial with how they can use AI to assist their planning, individualise learning more using AI, and provide greater support for our students, as well as make our admin more efficient. We will work with our BOT around AI policies in the school, and then later in the year we would love to share our learning with parents, and if you’re not using it already, share ways in which you can use it to support your children, or your own lives. Or simply to just have a better understanding around what AI is.
The main platform we will be using is a Google product called Gemini. There is a free version, and also a premium version. The premium version is free for all schools. This is the version that makes it safe for us to use.
If you would like to have a conversation with Penny or I about it, or want to know more, feel free to get in touch. Otherwise we will share more information throughout the year.
Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz
School Notices
Strategic Planning Community Afternoon - Wednesday 7th May
If you haven’t signed up yet, we would love you to come to our community afternoon on Wednesday 7th May, from 3.30 - 5.30pm. There will be a movie on for the kids, and we will provide food for everyone. Please fill out this Google form to let us know if you are able to make it.
ASB Getwise
On Tuesday 13th May ASB are coming into school to run their GetWise programme for year 3 students and up. GetWise is a financial literacy programme inspiring students to be confident with money. It provides professionally facilitated classroom workshops, resources, and digital tools for primary and intermediate students across New Zealand. Learning how to deal with money and having financial literacy is such an important life skill that children use no matter what direction they head in the future.
Cultural Responsiveness Strategic Initiative - update from Georgie
By localising our curriculum, this term tamariki have gained a deeper understanding into our country and the journey our ancestors took to end up in Aotearoa. We have also been focusing on learning a variety of waiata before starting our kapahaka programme back up in terms 2 and 3. It has been so fantastic to see the tuakana-teina relationships between the seniors and juniors during this time.
Preschooler Morning
We welcome all of our preschoolers in the community to our preschooler morning tomorrow (Tuesday 29th April), from 9.00 - 10.30am. Please bring along some morning tea and a drink bottle for your child.
Kapahaka
Our Year 4-8 students are part of our kapahaka lessons with Matua Rihari for terms 2 and 3. These start tomorrow, and Waikari School will be joining us again this year.
Paemoana trip to Lucas farm
Paemoana will be visiting the Lucas farm this Wednesday 30th April. They will be focusing on measurement for Maths at the start of the term, so will apply this to practical situations on the farm. Georgie, Maree and Rachel will transport them there on the school bus. If your child has a carseat, please drop this off in the morning.
Small School Cross Country
Our Year 1-8 students compete in the Small School’s Cross Country with Waipara and Broomfield School. This will be on Wednesday 21st May, held at Broomfield School. We ask you to please take your child there, or organise to carpool with others, and you can take your child home afterwards. We will confirm times and details nearer the time once we receive them from the organisers. It usually starts around lunchtime, so children can come to school first.
Whole school trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery
On Tuesday 10th June we are heading to the Christchurch Art Gallery on a whole school trip. Our inquiry topic for this term is Art History so this will be a great way to finish our learning. This will be a whole day trip, as we will head into the Botanical Gardens for an early lunch before the Art Gallery. We will be taking the school bus and the community bus, and are looking for some parent helpers. Please let Georgie know if you are available.
