Monday 14th July, 2025

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.