Kia ora Koutou

What a wet, miserable day it is today!  Luckily it is still warm and cosy in our classrooms for our Community Evening tonight.  We are very excited about showing off our gorgeous school, but also talking about the exciting things that are happening at Omihi.  We look forward to seeing you tonight at 7pm.

This is the last newsletter for the term and what a busy term it has been!  I feel so lucky and privileged to be Principal at Omihi and have truly loved getting to know our students, staff, parents and community this term.  We have a lot more exciting things planned for term 4, so we will keep you up to date through our fortnightly newsletters, Facebook and Instagram.

Ngā mihi

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

 

School Notices

Principal Awards
We give out Principal Awards at each assembly, which happens three times a term.  This term we have had two assemblies so far.  Congratulations to the following students who have received Principal Awards for term 3:

• Allie Lowry
• Lily Banks

John Parsons - Cyber Safety
John Parsons is an Internet Safety and Risk Assessment Consultant.  He runs workshops all over the country.  I have seen him twice and he is brilliant.  He has very relevant information for our students, right from Year 1 - 8 and he has great tips for parents and teachers on how to keep our children safe online.  John is going to be working with Amberley, Broomfield and Leithfield School in term 4, and they have very kindly said we can join them.  Our students and staff will be part of his workshops, plus he is running a parents session which I highly recommend all parents attend.  The parents session will be at Amberley School on Wednesday 22nd November - time TBC.  For more information on John - http://www.johnparsons.nz/.  Our school have recently purchased his book and are happy to loan it to parents if you would like to read it.

Mt Grey Walk
As part of our lead up to camp and getting 'mountain fit', the seniors will be walking up Mt Grey from Lake Janet on Wednesday 27th September at 9am.  Jaz and I would like one parent to accompany us.  Please let me know if you are available.

Waikari School Cultural Festival
While the seniors are walking up Mt Grey, the juniors will be going to the Waikari Cultural Festival at Waikari School on Wednesday 27th September at 11am.  If you are able to take a car to this, please let Jo know.

Personalised Calendars/Diaries/Notepads/Cards
The whole school will be working on a piece of artwork at the beginning of term 4.  This will be used to create personalised calendars, diaries, notepads, cards and mouse pads that parents will be able to purchase.  It is a small fundraiser for the school, but that is not our focus, we thought it might be something that you would all like and appreciate - plus great Christmas presents!  There will be an opportunity in week 3 to order what you would like.

Change of dates
We have had to change our camp dates to a week later: 28 Nov - 1 Dec, which means this clashed with our Grandparents Day.  So Grandparents Day will now be on Tuesday 21st November.  

Kiwisport Sports Day
This is tomorrow at the Waikari Domain for the whole school.  If the weather is terrible, the postponement date is Thursday 21st September.  We will put it on Facebook as soon as we hear.

Omihi School Raffle
Thank you to everyone who has donated to our raffle.  We are starting to get a great prize list together. If you would still like to donate something, please contact me on principal@omihi.school.nz

School Calendar
Keep up to date with what's going on - https://www.omihi.school.nz/calendar/

Community Notices

Safety around Trains

• Always expect trains from either direction and at any time
• If you are in a car, always slow down as you’re approaching a level crossing and be prepared to STOP
• Look out for trains, and obey signs and signals
• Stay off railway tracks. Only cross the railway at approved railway level crossing points

PGG Wrightson
If you shop at PGG Wrightson, please register at the following website to help raise money for Omihi School - http://www.cashforcommunities.co.nz/. Or contact us and we can register for you.

Hurunui Foodbanks

Kia ora Koutou

I really enjoyed the Canterbury Principal's Conference a couple of weeks ago.  Lucy Hone and Steve Francis were the speakers, and both were very inspiring.  Steve talked about work/life balance and strategies to help with these and Lucy focused on Resilience.  Lucy is a prime example of showing a great deal of resilience after the tragedy she had in her life 3 years ago.  Here are some key points I took away:

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• A resilient person can focus on what they can change. 
• Too much challenge causes anxiety.  Too much skill and not enough challenge causes boredom.
• The skills of wellbeing, resilience and character can all be taught (and learned).
• People have activity strengths and character strengths
• Identify yours and your child's character strengths on this website by taking the free survey - www.viacharacter.org
• Character strengths are not traits, they are not fixed
• Unwanted & unexpected change is often forced upon us, while we cannot control our life circumstances, we can control our response

• Greater awareness and use of character strengths is associated with:

  • Improved school performance (Quinlan, 2014)

  • Engaged learning, increased happiness

  • Enhanced class climate

  • Greater odds of having higher wellbeing (Hone 2015)

  • Improved physical health

  • Greater goal achievement

The wellbeing of our students and staff is so important to me.  It is critical that we teach our children how to be resilient and how to grow their character strengths.  We will be integrating this more and more into our daily classroom programmes.  If you would like to find out more, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Ngā mihi

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

Community Evening
The BOT welcome all school families, children and members of our community to come along to our Community Evening on Monday 18th September at 7pm.  This is an opportunity to have a look around our school, hear about our goals for the future and socialise with the community.  Tea/coffee and cake will be provided, so please RSVP to office@omihi.school.nz or 314 5857 for catering purposes.

Fundraising for 2018
The fundraising committee met last week to work out our fundraising for the next year.  We have some exciting things coming up and have tried to make it as easy as possible for parents and our community to be involved if they want to, without taking up too much of their time.  We know how busy parents are these days.  We are planning on two events a year, so once these are confirmed we will inform you.  In the mean time we are organising a 'Givealittle Raffle'.  This is a chance for people to buy a 'raffle ticket' from all over the world for $10 each.  We will advertise it in our newsletter and Facebook page and ask our families to share the post on their own Facebook.  What we need help with is finding prizes for the raffle.  If you have anything that you would like to donate or know of any businesses that may be able to support us, please get in touch with me - principal@omihi.school.nz by the end of the term.

Speeches and Inquiries
Our seniors are currently working on a speech of their choice and the whole school are working on their own inquiries around Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  We will be sharing our inquiries and our speech finalists with the community on Wednesday 27th September at 2.00pm.  We welcome you to come in and see our learning.

Three Way Learning Conferences
A reminder to book in for your three way learning conference on the Google Sheet.  Let me know if you need me to send it to you again.

Ski trip
It's our second ski trip tomorrow, I'm looking forward to seeing all of our children extend their learning and skills since our last ski trip.

Old Crockery
We are looking at completing the lizard mosaic in our garden and would like donations of any old crockery.  If you have any please let us know or bring it down to the container at school.

Elections
Omihi School will be a voting place for the coming elections on Saturday 23rd September.

 

Kia ora koutou

It's been lovely to have some warm weather over the past couple of weeks so the children can get out in the break times and play.  I love how well they play together and how creative they are with games they make up.  One thing that I have observed over the past four weeks is how inclusive and respectful all of the children are.  No one is left out and they all look out for each other....like one big family.  The children all have the ability and opportunity to be confident young people.  I did laugh when one of the Year 1's told off one of the Year 8's for being on her skateboard inside!

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Miss Richards and some of the lovely junior pupils.

This week I am in Hanmer Springs for two days for the Canterbury Principal's Conference.  The focus is Hauora - Health and Wellbeing.  This is such an important part of our world.  I look forward to learning and gaining information to help our children, teachers and myself as Principal.  We will also be hearing from a lecturer from the University of Canterbury about her research that she has carried out around how the earthquakes have affected children.  I will report back on my learnings in the next newsletter.

Have a lovely week,

Ngā mihi

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

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School Notices

Three Way Learning Conferences
These are coming up on Monday 11th September, Tuesday 12th September and Wednesday 13th September after school.  There will be a booking form that goes out to parents next week to secure a time. The children will be leading these conferences and sharing their learning with parents.  There will also be the opportunity to ask questions and talk to the teachers during these.  It is so important for children to be a part of these conversations and take ownership of their learning.

Personnel
We are really sad to announce that Jaz Lotz will be leaving Omihi School at the end of the year.  Jaz is going overseas to do her OE and teach in the UK.  It is a very exciting time for Jaz, but also a great loss for Omihi.  We would like to thank Jaz for all of her hard work, dedication, enthusiasm and positivity that she brings to our school.

Friday Fossil Point lunches
These seem to be really popular.  Please continue to get your orders in by Thursday at 3pm.  If you miss the cut off, feel free to email me, as I try to put the orders in on Friday morning.

Daffodil Day
A reminder it is Daffodil Day this Friday to support the Cancer Society.  We ask that children bring along a gold coin donation and can dress in yellow/green.

Dental Visits
We will be having the Community Dental Service at school on Wednesday 6th September.  Please also see the following information from the Dental assistant - Dental Info.

Ski Trip
The first ski trip was a great success!  Fantastic planning from Jaz and the children loved it on the day.  We are looking forward to our next trip on Thursday 31st August.  I will put a message on the Facebook page as soon as we hear from Mt Lyford as to whether it is on.  The postponement date is Thursday 14th September.  If you haven't let me know if your child is going, please do so asap.

Year 5-8 Top Team Challenge
This is happening this Wednesday from 1pm at the Amberley domain.  We welcome parents to come and watch.  This is a fun day with the local schools.

Red Cross
Year 4-8 children are having Red Cross training this Tuesday.  There are so many important skills for children to know, especially for those children who are out and about regularly on farms.

School of Rock
At this stage we haven't got enough children interested to make it viable for School of Rock to come out.  If your child is keen and you haven't notified me, please do so asap.  I am contacting local schools to see if they would be interested in teaming up with us.

Community Notices

The Omihi BOT would like to invite you to a community event.  Feel free to share this with your friends and family:

 

The Hurunui Theatre Group presents: “Fiddler on the Roof”

Book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, music by Jerry Brock.Licensed by Music Theatre International.

• Waipara Memorial Hall:  August 24 – September 2; Thursday to Saturday

• Matinee August 26

• Tickets at Sally Mac’s, Waikari Auto Services

For more info plus online bookings go to www.hurunuitheatre.org

Tena Koutou

It's been a busy and exciting two weeks at Omihi.  We have seen a number of new initiatives, such as our new website, Instagram and the children have loved their new online programmes - RAZ Reading and Banqer.co.  We have also visiting the Hurunui library, watched 'The Hungry Caterpillar' and picked up some delights from the Community Chest in Amberley, as well as fit in a bunch of learning in the classroom!

I have truly loved my first two weeks at Omihi and have had a great time getting to know the gorgeous children we have here.  The parents I have met so far have been very supportive and I look forward to meeting more of you as time goes on.  

Please remember my door is always open if you want to pop in and have a chat.

Ngā mihi

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

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Jeremy reading his book to Sam.

Reading to dogs programme

I'm sure your children have all told you about Sam.  Sam is our gorgeous Omihi dog from 9-3pm each week day.  He comes to school with Isobel and Eva and is a real treat for the children to read to throughout the day.  Reading to dogs is something the Canterbury public libraries started.  It's a great opportunity for children to read to someone who is a good listener, doesn't answer back and loves a good cuddle.  I've loved seeing the excitement on the children's face to read this week.

Parent Help - Fridays

On Fridays we have the whole school together.  This is a great opportunity for the children to work collaboratively and encourage each other, which they are very good at.  We would love to have some parent support on these mornings to help with groups.  It could be listening to a reading group, playing maths games, helping the juniors put together a puzzle, etc.  If you have any Fridays this term that you are available to come in for the morning, please add your name to this document.  If you have trouble opening it, feel free to email me the dates you are available.

Lunchtime Clubs

We are going to start having a range of lunchtime clubs.  This is a chance for children to try new things and develop new skills.  My Mum is kicking it off by coming in during the next couple of weeks to teach knitting.  If you have a skill or something that you think the children would be interested in, please let me know.  We would love to have you come in and teach a group of students.

Friday Lunches

Fossil Point have offered to provide Friday lunches for us.  This is an optional lunch that you can order and they will deliver every Friday.  Here is an order form if you would like to print it at home, or children can get an order form off their teacher.   Orders need to be into the office by Thursday at 3pm in an envelope with the correct money.  They have a range of options - pizza, smoked chicken sandwich, fish and chips, sausage rolls, etc.  

School of Rock

School of Rock are available to come into school to teach private music lessons.  They have a range of instruments - vocal, drums, guitar, bass, clarinet, piano, ukulele, flute, saxophone, trumpet.  They offer individual and group lessons ranging from $18 - $32 per 30mins.  This is to be paid directly to School of Rock.  Your child needs to have an instrument at home so they can practise.  If you would be interested in this, please email me this week and if we have enough interest I will coordinate with them.  

School House

If you know of a lovely family that might like to rent our school house and come to our wonderful school, please let me know.  If we can't find anyone we know, then we will be advertising it this week.

Website

I'm sure by now you have all seen this.  But a huge thank you to Logan and Sade from Snorkel who have created our awesome, new website - www.omihi.school.nz.  It's a great reflection of our school and a real asset when new families are looking up Omihi.

Daffodil Day

On Friday 25th August Omihi School are supporting Daffodil Day.  Children can come to school to yellow and green and we ask that everyone brings a gold coin donation for the Cancer Society.

Permission for trips

We will be sending home a blanket permission form this week for all local trips.  This will be for any local class trips and any low risk trips.  For any class trips that are higher risk or we travel further to, we will send home a permission form each time.  We will do this at the start of each year.  I apologise if you have done this already this year, but I would like to have the documentation myself.

Community Notices

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