View fullsize

Kia ora everyone

It's exciting to have everyone back at school.  I had a wonderful break away and I have loved hearing about all the lovely memories your children have been making over the holidays.  One thing I would love to share with you about our holiday is - audiobooks and podcasts!  George and I did a lot of driving on our road trip, so we downloaded audiobooks free from the Hurunui library before we went away.  It's such a great idea!  It made the trips go so much quicker.  I would recommend having a look at these as they can make your road trip so much fun and the children are learning along the way!

It's been a very exciting day having all of our new children and teachers starting.  I would like to welcome Katherine, Jennie and Kathy to our teaching staff.  I would also like to welcome Sylvia, Arthur, Leni, Indi and Georgie to Omihi School, and Daisy, Stanley, Billy, Christian, Taylor, Ace and Zac who started their visits at the end of last year.  We are very proud to say our roll has started at 30, not the 12 that was predicted for 2018 when I started at Omihi.

We look forward to seeing you all at our picnic next Wednesday 7th February from 5-7pm.  This will be a chance to meet new families and for me to introduce our BOT and our new staff members.  The BBQ will be available for you to use and the pool will be open.

Enjoy the heat and make the most of the swimming!

Nga mihi

Maree Lucas
Principal

School Notices

Calendar
Please keep an eye on the calendar on our website.  All of our events go on there and it is updated regularly.

Family Picnic - Wednesday 7th February, 5-7pm. 
A great chance to meet our new families, staff and our BOT.  The BBQ will be available for use and the pool will be open.  All of our community are welcome.

Omihi School Farm Race - Sunday 25th March, 2018
Thank you for the support with this.  Please continue to promote this for us and spread the word.  We are looking for volunteers on the day, so if you aren't entering and you are available to volunteer, please let me know.

Fossil Point
Fossil Point lunches start again this Friday.  You can download an order form here and they are on the website under General Information.  Please have your money and order into the office by 9am Friday morning.

School of Rock
This will be starting again in week 3 and will be on Tuesdays.  If you are interested please fill out this form by Friday 9th February and you will organise and pay for it directly through School of Rock.

Water Safety
The children will be starting swimming lessons this Friday afternoon, which happen every afternoon for two weeks.  They will also have a water safety session with Water Safety NZ on the 26th February and we are going to Waikuku beach for Beach Ed on Monday 19th February.  We will need two parent helpers for Beach Ed (who are happy to go in the water), so please let me know if you are available.

Basketball
It is looking like we have enough children to have our own Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 basketball team this year.  I have talked to the children today, so please chat to them and confirm with me if they are keen to play.  I will also need a coach/manager for each team.  Let me know if you are interested.

Message from our BOT Chairperson

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had fantastic holidays and are enjoying the summer.  At our December meeting last year the board passed a resolution increasing the number of parent representatives from 5 to 6 for the remainder of the current board term (until May 2019). Most of the current members have served at least two terms and we consider it is important that we provide for the future by getting new board members involved.

The board is responsible for the governance of the school – we set the overall objectives and goals for student achievement. We are also the employer of the principal. Maree and her team are responsible for the management ie how the school achieves those goals. Any parent is eligible to be a trustee (other members of the community can also be board members provided certain criteria are met).

You don’t need any special skills or qualifications to be a trustee, just a desire to help the school help the children to be their best. We would like someone who would be prepared to stand for the board in the next triennial elections in 2019. You also need to be prepared to undertake NZ School Trustees Association training. The board often deals with sensitive information and it is important that board members understand the importance of discretion and confidentiality. We meet twice a term in weeks 4 and 9. Occasionally there are additional meetings but we try and keep that to a minimum.

At this stage we are just looking for expression of interest to be emailed to me by Friday February 9th.  The process for appointment will depend on how many expressions of interest we receive. If you have any questions please feel free to either ring me on 314 5979 or email me on samsarah.barnes@yahoo.co.nz.

Sarah Barnes
Chairperson

Kia Koutou

Our family picnic at Motunau beach today.

It has been a jammed packed 6 months since I started at Omihi School and I have loved every minute of it.  We have grown as a school and it is exciting to say that we are now at 31 students, and am still showing families through this week.  I would like to welcome Ace, Leni and Indi to our senior class for next year.

A big thank you to our amazing staff for all of their hard work and support.  It is Jaz and Jo's final week and we wish them luck for all of the exciting things coming their way next year.  It is also our Year 8's final week at primary school.  Next year Evie, Zoe and Allie will be heading into Christchurch for high school.  They are three truly wonderful, caring and respectful young ladies and we look forward to hearing about their successes at high school.  For the Lowrys and Wiltshires this is the end of an era as Allie and Zoe are the last of their children at Omihi.  Even though I have only been here for 6 months, I can see what a massive contribution they have had to our school.  Thank you for your dedication, love and support.

Next year we welcome Kathy Menzies to our team, who will be our ORs teacher for 0.2 and a learning support teacher for 0.2.  Jane Croft will also be working 0.3 as a learning support and specialist art teacher.  Ros Tavita will be coming on in term 2 as a 0.2 to teach music.  Our children are going to be very lucky to have so many wonderful teachers around.

Thank you for all of our community support over the last 6 months.  I have enjoyed getting to know you all and am very excited about what lies ahead in 2018.  George and I are heading off for a road trip around the North Island.  We'll be looking for some beautiful spots to run, bike, kayak and paddle board!  I'm looking forward to having a complete break before we start again for 2018.  Have a lovely Christmas and we look forward to seeing you all next year.

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

School Notices

Raffle
Thank you for all of your support, we raised $4387!  As we no longer need to fund a teacher, this will purchase two new basketball/netball hoops for our playground.

Fundraiser 2018
We are holding a run/walk/bike race on Sunday 25th March, 2018.  It will start at the school, go onto the Crofts farm and through the forestry.  We would love your support with this.  Entries are open now on our website if you would like to enter or if you would like to be a volunteer or donate any spot prizes, please let me know.

Start date 2018
Our first day back is Wednesday 31st January.

Invoices for 2017
If you have an outstanding invoice for 2017, please can you make sure it is cleared by the end of our school year.  If there are any problems with this, please feel free to contact me and discuss.

Prize giving
We welcome all of our community to our prize giving on Thursday at 11.30am.  This is the last day of school for the year.

Kia ora Koutou

Thank you to those parents who were able to come along to listen to John Parsons. If you weren't able to make it, we have purchased the book and are very happy to lend it out. John has some very strong messages about keeping children safe online.

I have listened to John a number of times, and I pick up new things every time. We have very active social media pages for Omihi and I make sure I follow John’s advice on these. I never put children’s last names with their photos. I seek permission from parents, plus I regularly talk to the children about what I'm putting on social media. One of the things John talks about is showing children the photos before they go online and making sure they are ok with them. This shows them that their identity has value, they own it and have power, control and influence over what is done with it.  Here are a few of his messages:

• Empower our children to live in the online world safely and ethically

• Educate our children to understand the value of self, to respect and protect family and friends and to broadcast decency and positive values across the internet

• Encourage children to remember your family values when they are online.

• Teach children to be ‘powerful and connected’ online. Share photos online that show them with family, friends, their school. Not photos that show they are vulnerable.

• Help your children create a positive online profile. This is where future employees will be looking when they apply for jobs. Being a part of school websites, Facebook, etc is a great way to do this.

• If your child has a social media account, ensure it is private and you are a part of it. They shouldn't have more friends online than they know in real life.

• Ask your child what they have been doing online. Take an interest. Find out about the online games, social media if you don't know much about them.  Keep an open line of communication with them and don’t overreact if you see something that alarms you.  Make sure the games are appropriate.  There are a number of R18 games that young children are playing.

• Teach your child never to give out private information online - just like you would in the real world.

• Keep devices out of the bedroom

Reading the book there are so many more helpful things I could write here.  Get in touch.  Borrow the book and read it for yourself.  We are off to Queenstown for our senior camp this week.  We are looking forward to all of the amazing experiences Miss Lotz has planned and will share them with you via social media.

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

School Notices

Grandparents Day
Thank you to all of our wonderful grandparents that came along to school last week.  We loved having you at our school.

Bus Driver
We have been lucky enough to have Sue Parish driving our bus for the last 35 years. Sue will be continuing this next year, but is looking for someone who may like to job share later in the year and then potentially take over the bus run. If you might be interested in this and being a relief driver for us, please contact me on principal@omihi.school.nz.

Principal’s Award
Congratulations to Zoe Wiltshire who received the latest Principal award.

Wellbeing Survey
If you haven't already, please remember to fill out the wellness survey that we emailed out a couple of weeks ago.

Omihi Fundraiser
Thank you for all of the support for our Omihi fundraiser. This is the last week to purchase tickets. If you haven't done so yet, either pop into school or go to our Givealittle page. Tickets will be drawn at the end of the week. Any ticket money or unsold tickets need to be returned asap please. Winners will be announced on our Facebook page and next newsletter. Prizes can be collected from school or we will organise for delivery if you are out of town.

School Calendar
Remember to keep an eye on our school calendar on our website to keep up to date with things going on. It's a busy time of year. If you would like me to share the google calendar with you so you can have it on your phone, just let me know.

School Working Bee
We have a school working bee on Saturday 9th December at 8am.  We haven’t managed to find many people that are interested in helping with the gardens.  If you are able to come down for an hour or so, we would love your support.

End of Year Prize giving
This is on Thursday 14th December at 11am.  All of the community are most welcome to attend.  This is our final day for the year.

Kia ora Koutou

After announcing our two new teachers last week, we are excited today to introduce seven new children to Omihi.  A big warm welcome to Stanley, Daisy, Tom, Zac, Taylor, Christian and Billy.  Tom has started already and the other children are coming every Monday, then will start full time in 2018.  We now have a roll of 27 children, which will be 24 at the start of next year when the Year 8’s have left.  We only need 2 more children to enrol to increase our staffing.  We will be able to use this staffing to employ a teacher to help with learning support and also to work in specialist areas.  Our children are very lucky!

I had a very inspiring day last week listening to Jan Robertson, who is an Academic Leadership Consultant.  Jan talked a lot about leadership within schools and how we can coach our staff and children to become leaders.  There was so much learning from this day.  Here are a few of the main points I took away:

• Create leaders that are more than you have ever been yourself
• Use questioning - give students/teachers a chance to reflect and discuss their thoughts and ideas
• The leadership coach is a learner.  Not an expert or a knower.  They want to learn with and from the person they are coaching
• Support and challenge thinking
• Great leaders know how to really listen
• Active listening - be present and focused.  No questions.  No judgement.  No advice.  No conversation.  Actively listen to learn.
• Leave time for the pause.  Be comfortable with pauses
• Reflective questioning after actively listening
• Use a growth mindset.  Mindfulness.  Resilience.  Wellbeing.  Sustainability - all part of being a leader

Also a reminder that we have a parents evening with John Parsons (Cyber Safety Expert) on Wednesday 22nd November at the Leithfield Hall at 6pm.  I highly recommend all parents should go to this.

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

 

BOT Chairperson Report

Welcome to the first BoT section of the newsletter. We’ll have a regular section every few months to give you information and updates about what’s happening at the board level.  The board of trustees is responsible for the governance of the school, it sets the direction and outcomes for the school and establishes the policies. Maree as principal is responsible for the management of the school which is concerned with how the direction and outcomes are achieved.

The current board members are Sarah Barnes (chair), Ruth Lowry (deputy chair and secretary), Bridget Banks (treasurer), Nick Hamilton (health and safety) and Leighton Croft (property). Miss Lotz is our staff representative.  Maree, as principal, also sits on the board and has input into the governance function.

We are about to start training to help us better fulfil our obligations in respect of student achievement. This training was recommended after the ERO review and Debbie Dawson is coming out on Monday to run a session on the governance role which will be new to some of us and a refresher for others.  The board meets twice a term, generally in weeks 4 and 9, and parents are welcome to attend meetings. If you have any questions at all about the board or governance please feel free to contact me on 314 5979 or samsarah.barnes@yahoo.co.nz.

School Notices

Principal’s Award
Congratulations to Jack Little who received the Principal’s Award at the last assembly.

Grandparents Day - Tuesday 21st November, 9am - 11am
We ask that all families please bring in a small plate of food to have a shared morning tea with our grandparents.

Tiromoana Walk
The seniors are doing the Tiromoana Walk on Tuesday.  We will be leaving school at 9am.  Check the Facebook page in the morning for any cancellations.

GRIP Leadership Conference
Some of the seniors will be going to this on Wednesday 22nd November.  The children attending need to meet at school at 7.30am.  Please note the normal bus run will not be running this day.

Community Working Bee
We are having a community working bee on Saturday 9th December from 8am.  If anyone would like to help, please feel free to let Maree know on 314 5857 or principal@omihi.school.nz, or just come down and join us.  We will be doing the following:

• Gardening
• Putting bark on the playground
• Tidying the container, garden shed and cleaners cupboard
• Filling the potholes in the driveway
• Building a bus shelter
• Painting the bench and shed door in the pool area
• Staining picnic tables
• Take tiles off and painting the lizard

Next year we will have a caretaker/gardener a few hours a week to keep everything maintained.  So I would like to get it all up to scratch before they start.

Cleaner
We are looking for a cleaner for 2018.  If you are interested please contact Maree on 314 5857 or principal@omihi.school.nz.  The hours are flexible.

School Fundraiser
$10 a ticket.  You can either donate $10 onto www.givealittle.co.nz/org/omihischool or drop $10 into school.  Every $10 you donate puts you in the draw to win a prize.  There are also tickets for sale at Fossil Point Cafe.

Community Library
We are thrilled to announce that we are joining with the Hurunui Library, so our school library will be a community library in 2018.  We will let you know more details of opening times, etc nearer the time.

End of Year Prizegiving
This is on Thursday 14th December at 11am.  All of the community are most welcome to attend.  This is our final day for the year.

2018
School will start on Wednesday 31st January and will finish on Tuesday 18th December.  There will be a Teacher’s only day on the Thursday before Show weekend.