Monday 9th November, 2026
Kia ora koutou
We had such a great time at our trailride fundraiser on Sunday - thank you to Canterbury Honda for their sponsorship of the event once again this year.
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that helped us put on our trail ride this year. Especially Canterbury Honda, who were our sponsors, Craig and Andy for letting us use your land, as well as setting it all up, Kate for leading the BBQ team, Bryleigh for all of the admin leading up to it, and Amuri Net for our wifi. We had a great group of parents that were able to help on the day, we really appreciate all of your support. There were around 280 riders, and we raised nearly $20,000. This is a huge fundraiser for our school. We are really conscious of only having our two main fundraisers a year, so we are not putting too much pressure on parents, but still raising a decent amount for the school.
The last fundraiser is our raffle. We ask that you please push as hard as you can to sell all of the tickets we have given you. Our goal is $5000. There were a lot sold at the trail ride, and some families have taken on extra tickets as well, so thanks everyone for your support. Please transfer the money to the school account and send your raffle tickets in when sold.
Last week I was at a conference in Hanmer Springs and listened to a keynote from Charlotte Cummings, who has a number of qualifications including Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Counselling, Post Gradulate diploma in Health Science, Licensed Private Investigator and Certificate in Clinical Supervision for Human Services.
One of things she talked about was emotional literacy, basically the lack of it in many children and adults. So whether as humans, we can identify an emotion that we are feeling, that isn’t just sad, glad or mad. This is something we focus on during our Positive Education lessons, and we will be looking more at this as we join the Mitey Programme in 2027. I have attached one of her slides that can help with emotion regulation. Georgie has a poster in her class about emotions that is child friendly. Charlotte talks about how important it is to be able to identify the emotion you are feeling, in order to move to how you want to feel.
Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz
School Notices
Raffles
Once you have sold all of your raffle tickets, please send the sheets back in, and transfer the payment to the school bank account. These need to be in by Monday 23rd November. If you would like any more to sell, please email Bryleigh.
Teacher only day
A reminder it is teacher only day this Thursday 12th November, and Show day on Friday 13th November.
Pie Day Friday
Here is the order form for pies for next Friday, 20th November. This is the last pie order for the year.
International Kindness Week
This is International Kindness week. All students have picked out another student (or teacher) to do something kind for over the week. We don’t want them to buy anything, it could be a kind gesture, a handmade card, etc.
Omihi School bus drivers
Next year Emma is stepping back from being our bus driver. She will still be an emergency back up driver for us. Fi is going to be carrying on, and we welcome Kate (Heidi’s mum) as our new bus driver to work alongside Fi. Kate will get her licences this term, and will hopefully be up and running for the start of term 1. We are really grateful for our bus driving team, as we know how hard it is to come and drive for an hour in the middle of the day. A big thanks to Emma for all of her years as our bus driver.
Student teacher
We have been very grateful to have Rachel as our student teacher for the last 3 years. Rachel will be graduating at the end of this year, and we want to wish her all the best for her next steps. Next year we welcome Emma Hughes-Games as a student teacher. She will be working alongside Georgie in Paemoana on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In a small school it makes such a difference having an extra person on site, and teaching in the classroom. Our students are very lucky….small class sizes, and extra teachers.
Year 5-8 Top Team Challenge
On Tuesday 17th November, our Year 5-8 group will be going to the Amberley Domain for Top Team. They need to be there by 12.15pm. We will take the school bus, and please let Maree know if you can take a car. We will arrive back to school at approximately 3.15pm. There will be no school bus after school on this day.
Bus run
There will be no school bus run on the afternoon of Tuesday 17th November.
Piano and singing lessons
Nicola Malcolm is a registered piano and singing teacher through the North Canterbury Modern School of Music. She has reached out to us to see if our students are interested in having these lessons at our school. The Modern School of Music pathway provides graded exams, through to Piano Musical Theory Diplomas. Recitals are also hosted regularly throughout the year which students are welcome to participate in. Please email Bryleigh by Friday 13 November if your child is interested in finding out more about piano or singing lessons.
Pool key
If you would like to purchase a pool key for the summer, please email Bryleigh on office@omihi.school.nz. It is $50 for school families, and $70 for our wider community. There is a $20 refund when you return the key.
