Term 3 Welcome

Kia ora Koutou,

I am thrilled to have been appointed as Principal at your school.  It’s so special for me to be able to work with amazing children in my own community and to work alongside such dedicated teachers, parents and support staff.

I grew up in Rangiora with three brothers and studied at Canterbury University.  My first six years of teaching was in North Canterbury at Leithfield School, Broomfield School and Rangiora Borough, teaching from Years 1-8.  I then taught in London for three and a half years, whilst spending all my holidays travelling around Europe.  After that, I headed to Auckland for three years and was the Year 5/6 Syndicate Leader at Victoria Ave School in Remuera.  In 2015 I decided I wanted to move home to be closer to my family.  After all going travelling, my brothers now all live in Waikuku and my parents in Rangiora.   So I became the Assistant Principal at Oxford Area School, then Deputy Principal at Elmwood Normal School. When I saw this job come up, I knew it was an exciting school to be a part of.  I'm looking forward to the opportunities that arise and being able to share my knowledge and experiences with my own community.  George and I got married this year and live just up the road in Greta Valley, so I am also very excited about the fact I will be able to bike to work in the summer!

For me, variety is the spice of life.  During my teaching career, I have also run my own dancing school, been a TV presenter on Small Blacks TV and Crowd Goes Wild, run my own events company, created fashion shows for Ronald McDonald House, been a Big Sister mentor and travelled the world.  I believe that the opportunities in our lives are endless.  I love inspiring and encouraging students and teachers to take on new challenges and to think outside the square.  I truly believe that the academic side of school is very important, but it is also about the experiences the children have and the values they learn along the way.  It’s important to cater for individual learning needs and offer a diverse range of opportunities to engage, inspire and prepare our students to engage in a 21st century world.

My main focus over the next few weeks is to build relationships.  I will be chatting to each student and staff member individually and finding out what they love about Omihi School and what their dreams are for themselves and Omihi.  I would also love to talk to parents and our community.  Feel free to email, call or pop in and see me.  My door is always open.

We are very excited to welcome three new children to Omihi today.  My nieces Isobel and Eva Harris and Zariah Bartlett have joined our junior class.  I am thrilled to be teaching in the junior class every Thursday and teaching the whole school every second Friday.  I will also be covering release on other days throughout the term as well.  I have the best of both worlds!

I know that working together we can continue the wonderful learning that happens at Omihi, inspire our students and grow our roll so more children get to experience and be a part of our Omihi whanau. 

Ngā mihi

Maree Lucas
Principal        
P: 03 314 5857  E: principal@omihi.school.nz

Logan McMillan