A lovely morning tea for our support staff, just missing Bryleigh, Sharryn and Fi.

Kia ora koutou,

We are very grateful for all of our support staff at Omihi. A big thank you to Bryleigh, Trudy, Sharryn, Emma, Fi and Yo. To celebrate Support Staff Week, we had a morning tea to celebrate these lovely ladies, and the children made them some special cards.

Our Year 7/8 debating team (Ze’ev, Noah and Michael) debated against Sefton School last week. It was a very close debate, and so great to see the improvement since the last debate. Sefton were the winning school on the day. Thanks to Hugo, who was our chairperson and Arlo, as our timekeeper. We look forward to our Year 5/6 debate this Wednesday against Leithfield School. A big thanks to Yo Turnbull who has been one of the judges at each of our debates.

A big thanks to the Hurunui Council Creative Community Grant. We were successful in this application, and have received this to cover the costs for ourselves and Greta Valley School to have kapahaka lessons this year. We really appreciate their support.

Ngā mihi

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

School Notices

Cross Country Transport
If you would like your child to go on the bus to cross country, please let Maree know asap. We have 5 spots left. Otherwise please organise your own transport and meet us there by 12.20pm. The bus is leaving school at 11.50am, so please pick your child up before then. The morning will be a normal school programme. Please see here for all the details of the race.

Kowai Cross Country
The year 4-8 children that get through to Kowai Cross Country will attend this on Tuesday 26th May at Broomfield. We will send details to parents as soon as we receive the results.

Trail ride
We would love help to promote our trail ride. If you have a work place or a community area where you could put up an A4 poster, please let me know and I will send them home with your child.

Preschooler morning
This term our preschooler morning is on Wednesday 3rd June. We welcome all preschoolers from 9am - 10.30am. Please bring along their morning tea and drink bottle.

Sexuality Education
For the last three weeks of this term the teachers will be teaching Sexuality Education. Mrs Stackhouse will teach all Year 0-2, Miss C Year 3-4, and Miss Fletcher will take Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 separately. We will be using some of ‘Navigating the Journey’, and ensuring we align with the curriculum, which you can see on the MOE parent portal. Our teachers know our students well, so they will be carefully reading through the planning and ensuring it is appropriate before teaching. Please have a look at the programme so you know what your children will be talking about, and how you can follow up at home. If you would like to talk to your child’s teacher or clarify anything prior to the lessons, please get in touch with them directly. If you would like to talk to Maree about any of the programmes, please email her to make a time.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou

A game of dodgeball at fitness.

Last week our Year 7/8 debating team hosted a debate against Cheviot Area School. The moot was - Success is more valuable than failure. It was a great learning experience for both teams, and a very close debate, with Omihi winning by 5 points! Congratulations to Ze’ev, Hugo and Noah. The team will now head into the next round of the competition, going against Sefton next week. We also have a Year 5/6 team who will be in their first debate in week 6.

We also had Firewise last week. What an amazing resource this is. It was wonderful to have local firefighters to teach our children, and resources they could take home to talk to their whānau about.

Last week, Kelly, Bella and I went to see Gilbert Enoka speak with the North Canterbury Principals Group. He is such an inspiring and engaging speaker. Gilbert was a Mental Skills Coach for 23 years with the All Blacks, and has just been called up again with them. He has also worked with numerous sports teams, CEO’s and businesses in NZ and across the world. Some of my key takeaways were:

• You will never rise above the opinion you have of yourself.

• When the leader gets better, everyone improves.

• Don’t forget the power of a kind word.

• Choices, not chances, determine your destiny.

• What familiar habits am I doing that no longer serve me well?

• Pressure is a lifestyle. It’s not your enemy, it’s your arena.

• Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

• Vent your joy.

• People come because they feel welcome, and stay because they feel valued.

I honestly could go on and on about the great insights, experience and wisdom Gilbert shared. It is a great opportunity for self reflection, and also to come back and share with our team, and discuss what this looks like for our students.

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

School Notices

Swimming pool
A big thanks to Kurt who has been managing our swimming pool for the last 5 years. We are looking for someone to take this over from next summer. Kurt would help you set it up at the end of this year. Please let Maree know if you are able to help. Feel free to talk to Kurt if you would like to find out more about the role.

Pink Shirt Day
It is Pink Shirt Day on Friday 15th May. Children are invited to wear something pink, and please bring a gold coin donation.

Reporting
You may have seen in the media that school’s reporting is going to be changing. Hero is working on updating their reporting system as fast as they can, now that the curriculum and requirements have changed, and they are aiming for this to be ready this term. So please be aware that reporting this term may look a little bit different. As we receive more information we will keep you informed so you know what to expect by the end of this term, and then what will come later in the year.

Trail ride
We would love help to promote our trail ride. If you have a work place or a community area where you could put up an A4 poster, please let me know and I will send them home with your child.

Teacher only day
A reminder it is a teacher only day this Friday, where we have a focus on our new Maths curriculum with local schools, held at Oxford Area School.

Preschooler morning
This term our preschooler morning is on Wednesday 3rd June. We welcome all preschoolers from 9am - 10.30am. Please bring along their morning tea and drink bottle.

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

• Daily School Bus

• School Swimming Pool

• Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC)

• EOTC Governance Roles and Responsibilities

• EOTC Risk Assessment and Management

Maths Update from Kelly, Leader of Maths
The refreshed Mathematics and Statistics curriculum, which became mandatory for all state schools in Term 1, 2026, marks a significant shift toward a more structured and knowledge-rich approach. This updated curriculum moves away from the previous levels and into distinct Phases of Learning, providing year-by-year expectations to ensure no gaps are left in a child’s development. There is an emphasis on explicit teaching with a requirement of one hour a day of lesson time, a renewed focus on fluency in basic facts, times tables and place value and a change in mandatory assessment and reporting tools.

As a staff we continue to attend maths based professional development throughout the term as well as running professional learning, with a focus on the maths curriculum, twice a term during staff meetings.

Sexuality Education
For the last three weeks of this term the teachers will be teaching Sexuality Education. Mrs Stackhouse will teach all Year 0-2, Miss C Year 3-4, and Miss Fletcher will take Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 separately. We will be using some of ‘Navigating the Journey’, and ensuring we align with the curriculum, which you can see on the MOE parent portal. Our teachers know our students well, so they will be carefully reading through the planning and ensuring it is appropriate before teaching. Please have a look at the programme so you know what your children will be talking about, and how you can follow up at home. If you would like to talk to your child’s teacher or clarify anything prior to the lessons, please get in touch with them directly. If you would like to talk to Maree about any of the programmes, please email her to make a time.

Attendance letters
Parents with a child whose attendance was below 90% in Term 1 have received a courtesy letter alerting them to this. There was a noticeable improvement in many students’ attendance rates last term, which was great to see. You can view our Stepped Attendance Response for absences across a term here.

Small Schools Cross Country
The Small Schools Cross Country event is coming up at Broomfield School on the 19th May for Years 1-8. Please see here for all the details.

Community Notices

Paemoana happily settling into Term 2.

Kia ora koutou

Welcome back to term 2. We are all refreshed and ready for the term. We have an exciting term, with a Science Fair, cross country, and at the end of the term we will be casting for our production in term 3. We will send out more info for the production later this term. A reminder that all dates are on our school calendar.

Mrs Stackhouse is away this week, so Mrs Maddren and myself will be teaching in Paemoana.

Thanks to everyone for making a conscious effort for your child’s attendance for term 1. We realise there is sickness and special things that pop up every now and again, but we appreciate you taking your child’s attendance seriously.

It is a parent’s responsibility to get their child to school, and it is the school’s responsibility to follow it up. Please see the statistics below for our huge improvement for term 1. We had 85% of our students with regular attendance, that means 34 of our students had over 90% attendance for term 1. This makes a huge difference to their learning, and to their social interactions at school.

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

School Notices

ANZAC Service
On Saturday 25th April there will be our annual Omihi ANZAC service, across the road from school. It starts at 9am, and we would love to have some school families there. We will ask the children there to lay a wreath on behalf of the school. Thanks to Anna for picking this up.

Children are to please wear school uniform to the service. We ask families to bring something small to share for morning tea (it could be a packet of ANZAC biscuits) and we will have tea, coffee and morning tea available afterwards, if you would like to join us. Thanks to Yo and Hugh for organising this.

National Young Leaders Day (NYLD)
Each year we pay for our Year 8 leaders to attend this. This year it is on Tuesday 9th June at the Christchurch Town Hall. More details are here. It is $54 for children to go, and we open this up to all year 5-7 students as an optional event. If you would like your child to attend, please let Maree know by this Friday, and Bryleigh will then invoice you for the ticket.

Teacher only day
We have a teacher only day on Friday 8th May to work on the new Maths curriculum.

Litter free lunchboxes
As an Enviroschool, from term 2 we ask that children please have litter free lunchboxes. After often finding lots of rubbish around the school, the students have come up with some ideas on how we can reduce this:

• Take wrappers off muesli bars, chips etc at home.

• Use beeswax wraps, containers or compartments in lunchboxes, instead of glad wrap.

• Buy bulk and have a little bit each day - such as chips, popcorn etc, instead of lots of little bags.

Science Inquiry
This term we have a whole school science inquiry, and will be participating in a Science Fair with our other local schools. This will be held at the Omihi Hall on Wednesday 24th June. We will be investigating how materials' matter change, through the process of scientific experiments. Year 0-3 will complete an investigation as a group, and years 4-8 will be in groups of 2-3. We will have our own mini science fair, where the investigations will be judged, and the top four will go across to the Science Fair at the hall. We will invite parents to both of these events, and give you more details nearer the time.

Debating
This week Tūpari is learning about debating. We will be entering a year 5/6 team and year 7/8 team into the North Canterbury Debating Competition. The first debate is in week 2, so Maree will be working with these children, and will be in touch with the parents to support at home as well.

Term 2 Events
ASB Getwi$e - 21st April
Omihi ANZAC service - 25th April
ANZAC day (recognised, school closed) - 27th April
Firewise - 1st May
Teacher only day - 8th May
Pink Shirt Day - 15th May (gold coin donation, or donation into the school account)
Whole School Small Schools Cross Country at Broomfield - 19th May
Year 4-8 Kowai Cross Country - 26th May
Life Education - 10th June
NZ Playhouse Theatre at Omihi Hall - 12th June
Science Fair at Omihi Hall - 24th June

Ikura | Manaakitia te whare tangata - period products in schools initiative
We have opted in to the Ikura | Manaakitia te whare tangata - period products in schools initiative. Through this initiative, the Ministry of Education is providing period products (pads, tampons and liners) to support students in managing their ikura (period). The initiative also has resources available for young people to learn about ikura and help reduce the stigma around it. You are welcome to place an order via this Google form. Bryleigh will then let you know when the items are able to be collected from the school office.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou

Hanmer Springs Camp 2026

We had a great 3 days in Hanmer Springs last week with our Year 5-8 students. It’s not always easy being away from home for 2 nights, but I was so proud of everyone for giving it their all and embracing all of the opportunities. A big thank you to Kelly, Bella, Aimee, Rachel and Pip who were at camp for 3 days, and to Craig for helping with transport on Friday. We couldn’t have done it without you.

I would like to acknowledge the passing of Peter Mitchell. Peter was Principal of Omihi School from 2011-2013, and did some relieving for us when I first started at Omihi. Our thoughts go out to his family.

This is our last week of school for the term. Thanks for the support from our community this term. We look forward to having a refreshing break and we will be busy planning for term 2. We look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday 20th April.

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

School Notices

The Faraway Tree movie
Here is the transport info for The Faraway Tree trip. Thanks to those parents who are coming with us. We are covering the cost of the movie for our students and parent helpers. Children are to please bring their own drink bottle. If they would like to order popcorn, please order here and prepay to the school. If you are a parent helper and would like popcorn, please add that into the comment section. If you are a parent coming with us, we ask that you please don't purchase any other items for your child to ensure it's fair to all.

Holidays during term time
Please remember to let us know if your child is going to be going away on holiday, or away for any other reason, during term time. Please email the dates and reason to your child’s teacher, and cc in both principal@omihi.school.nz and office@omihi.school.nz.

School pool
The pool will be closing after Easter weekend. A big thank you to Kurt who manages the pool for us, and Tamar, Pip and Emma who do the daily tests. We feel very lucky to have our own swimming pool and to be swimming right to the end of term 1!

Teacher only day
We have a teacher only day on Friday 8th May to work on the new Maths curriculum.

Term 2 Events
ASB Getwi$e - 21st April
ANZAC day (recognised, school closed) - 27th April
Firewise - 1st May
Pink Shirt Day - 15th May
Small Schools Cross Country - 19th May
Year 4-8 Kowai Cross Country - 26th May
Life Education - 10th June
NZ Playhouse Theatre, Omihi Hall - 12th June
Science Fair, Omihi Hall - 24th June

ANZAC Service
On Saturday 25th April there will be our annual Omihi ANZAC service, across the road from school. It starts at 9am, and we would love to have some school families there. We always have some children lay a wreath on behalf of the school, and also ask a family to pick this up for us. If you are attending, or are able to collect the wreath for us after 4pm on 24th April in Amberley, please let Maree know.

Children are to please wear school uniform to the service. We ask families to bring something small to share for morning tea (it could be a packet of ANZAC biscuits) and we will have tea, coffee and morning tea available afterwards, if you would like to join us.

National Young Leaders Day (NYLD)
Each year we pay for our Year 8 leaders to attend this. This year it is on Tuesday 9th June at the Christchurch Town Hall. More details are here. It is $54 for children to go, and we open this up to all year 5-7 students as an optional event. If you would like your child to attend, please let Maree know by next week, and Bryleigh will then invoice you for the ticket.

Ikura | Manaakitia te whare tangata - period products in schools initiative
We have opted in to the Ikura | Manaakitia te whare tangata - period products in schools initiative. Through this initiative, the Ministry of Education is providing period products (pads, tampons and liners) to support students in managing their ikura (period). The initiative also has resources available for young people to learn about ikura and help reduce the stigma around it. You are welcome to place an order via this Google form. Bryleigh will then let you know when the items are able to be collected from the school office.

Community Notices