Tena Koutou

It was lovely to spend some time in the holidays reflecting on what an exciting term 1 we had at Omihi.  I love seeing our school grow, but also our children grow.  Grow in their learning, and in their confidence and social skills, which I consider to be really important.

We are going into term 2 with some more fantastic news......we are setting up 3 classrooms!  From week 3 this term, we will have three classes running.  Year 0-2 with Whaea Jennie, Year 3-5 with Whaea Kathy and Mrs Croft and Year 6-8 with Miss Hanna.  We feel this is the best way for us to cater for the range of learning needs in each class.  The Year 3-5 children will use our lovely library space in the morning and then they will join their junior or senior class for the afternoons.

Our school is always open, so feel free to pop in some time and say hello and have a look around.

Nga mihi
Maree Lucas
Principal - principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Principal's Award
The Principal Award winner at the end of term 1 was JACK SLOSS.  The three Principal award winners from term 1 will be going out for a hot chocolate with me this term.

Compass FM
We have a wonderful opportunity to be part of our local radio station Compass FM.  They have a children's show every Sunday morning and our Omihi children are going to be a part of this!  We will be pre-recording bits to go in this slot.  Our Year 6 children will be the first to star on the show, so listen out in the coming weeks.

Grandparents Day
We would like to invite all of our grandparents to come in on Thursday, 17th May from 9-11am.  There will be a chance for you to be in the class with your grandchildren and then there will be a morning tea for you.  If you haven't got grandchildren at Omihi, you are still more than welcome to come!

Mufti Day for Turtle Rescue
We have a mufti day on Friday, 11th May to raise money for the Turtle Rescue Organisation.  This is a charity that our Year 8 leaders have chosen.  Please send along a gold coin donation.

Character Strengths and Antarctic Centre visit
Our whole school inquiry this term is focusing on character strengths.  Do the 10min survey online to find out your character strengths - http://www.viacharacter.org.  We will be having special guests from our community come in to share what their character strengths are and will also be going to the Antarctic Centre to see what character strengths the explorers had.  The whole school will be going to the Antarctic Centre on Friday, 25th May.  If you are able to help with transport, please email me on principal@omihi.school.nz.  The $8 cost will be covered by your activity fee.  We will only be invoicing each child $9 to cover the cost of the Hagglund ride while we are there.

Movie Night
On Friday, 25th May the senior leaders are organising a movie night for the whole school.  This is a fundraising event for the school.  It will be $5 to come and watch a movie and there will be popcorn available to purchase as well.  The movie will be in the junior classroom.  While it is on, we invite the parents to come to the senior class for a social event.  We will provide coffee and tea and ask that you please bring a plate.  I would like to talk to everyone briefly about our Omihi Curriculum and reporting and get some feedback from you, then it will be a chance for you to socialise with each other.  Anyone from the community is welcome.

Student ICT Agreement
Miss Hanna and the senior class have been looking at our student agreement for using technology at Omihi.  They have come up with a fantastic, child friendly agreement.  We will be sending this home this week, so please read it with them and discuss.  Once you have both signed it, please send it back to school.

Lunchtime Clubs
Our students are very keen to have some more lunchtime clubs for the winter terms.  If you have a skill or interest and would like to run a club, then please let me know.  

Ronald McDonald House
It was lovely to see so many of our community at our fashion show for Ronald McDonald House.  The children loved being a part of it, setting up and modelling.  It's such a great experience for them to be able to give back to a charity.  I can proudly say we raised over $65,000 for Ronald McDonald House.

Graffiti Art
We are very excited to say our Graffiti art is starting this week.  The back of the PE Shed and the lizard are going to be painted.  We have a graffiti artist who has come up with designs based on our school values and ideas from our students on how to show our values - Pride, Unity, Respect, Excellence.  We can't wait to show you all the finished product!

Reading with Dads
I would love to invite our Dads into school.  It's so great for our children to see role models reading books. Every Friday when I'm teaching the juniors I would love a Dad to come and read to the class with a book of their choice.  It could be a Dad from any of the classes.  If you would like to do this, please email me and we can work out a date that suits you.

Strum, strike and blow - Wednesday 29th August
This term we will be working towards our Strum, strike and blow concert that we are performing in during August.  The children will be playing either the ukelele or the marimba (glockenspiels) and will be learning songs every Monday.   There is more info at www.strumstrikeblow.org.  We will let you know when tickets become available.

Kia ora Koutou

What an inspiring two days Kat, Jennie and I had on Friday and Saturday.  We attended the Positive Education Conference in Christchurch.  A whole conference around how we can embed positive education and wellbeing into our schools.  This is a passion of mine, and great that we can start thinking about what this looks like at Omihi.  Part of our strategic plan is to include wellbeing into our programmes, so we will keep you informed with our progress with this.

The first thing we are going to be looking at is Character strengths in term 2.  If you have time, have a look at the website www.viacharacter.org and find out what your strengths are.  As a society we focus a lot on academic, sporting, and The Arts strengths, but we believe our character strengths are so important.  Important for us to identify and important for us to celebrate.  Have a chat with your children about it.  We look forward to our many conversations with them about this next term.  We will be looking for people in our community to share their character strengths with us. If you know of someone that would be interesting for the children to talk to, please let us know.  

A big thank you for all of your support this term.  We have had an exciting and busy term with so many new children and staff and are very much looking forward to a lovely break in the holidays, and then back into more inspiring learning in term 2.  George and I are heading off to the wild West Coast for some adventures!  

Nga mihi

Maree Lucas
Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Omihi School Farm Race
Thank you so much for helping us to raise over $10,000 from our farm race!  What a huge achievement and so amazing to have our school buzzing that day. We have received loads of great feedback, so will be returning next year bigger and better on Sunday 24th March, 2019.  We are looking for a major sponsor to come on board. If you know a company that I could approach, please let me know. Any sporting brands would be great, or someone who wants to get their name out there.

Celebration of Learning Assembly
We welcome our community to the Celebration of Learning Assembly this Friday at 2pm.  All children will be sharing their learning from this term.

Mufti Day - Ronald McDonald House
We have a mufti day tomorrow on Tuesday 10th April to raise money for Ronald McDonald House.  Please send along a gold coin donation.

ERO
When I started at Omihi last year, one of my main priorities, other than growing the school, was around working with ERO to make the improvements necessary to update our current ERO review and have it signed off.  The great news is we had our final meeting last week and they are very happy with the progress and the way the school is heading.  We look forward to sharing the new document with you when we receive it at some stage in term 2.

ANZAC Day Service
There is an ANZAC day service across the road at the domain on ANZAC day.  Unfortunately I can't be there, but we would love for some of our children and families to be a part of it.  Please let me know if you are able to go along.

Community Library
Feel free to make use of our community library, drop books off and come and have a look at our adult section.  Or you are welcome to order books to be delivered here.  Yo is our volunteer librarian.  She is going to be away next term, but I can help you, or our student librarians.

Year 7/8 Technology at Hurunui College
This starts week 1, term 2 every Monday morning.  We will be in touch with parents regarding pick up and drop off times.

School Calendar
Please refer to our school calendar for all school events.  It is updated until the end of the year. If you would like me to share it with you so you can have it on your phone, just let me know.

School Pool Closed
Our school pool is now closed.  Please return your pool key this week in order to get your bond refunded.

 

Community Notices

Kia ora Koutou

Wow what an amazing day yesterday!  It was such a special day for our school, to be able to open it to literally hundreds of people and use it as the hub for our Omihi School Farm Race.  We had over 230 entries and not only raised a lot of money, but also it was such a lovely way to bring our community together.  I loved talking to people after the race.  We had entries from 7 years up to 90 years!  Some found it tough, but they said it made it all worth it when they got to see the view from the top.  Spectacular.  We will confirm how much we earned once all payments are finalised.

A huge thank you from all of us to the Crofts and the Heards for letting us use their land.  Leighton, for all the work getting the track ready, all of our volunteers who helped on the day, plus all of our amazing sponsors.  We really couldn't do it without you.  The best thing was hearing how so many people can't wait to come back again next year.  It will be an annual event, so we will let you know when we have the date confirmed.

Another exciting event for us this week is having Violet and Rowan Inkson join our school.  It is wonderful to have them as part of the Omihi family.

Maree Lucas
Principal
Omihi School

Thanks to our sponsors of our Omihi School Farm Race:

• Omihi School staff
• All our volunteers
• The Crofts 
• Mt Cass Station - The Heards
• Downer NZ
• St John Ambulance
• All the volunteers
• Countdown, Amberley
• Tait Electronics- Peter Drake 
• Claire Inkson
• Emma Beaton
• Pushbikes
• PGG Wrightson Ltd
• Amberley Outdoors & Sports
• Black Estate Wines
• Team CP - North Canterbury 
• Sherwood-Estate Winery
• FMG
• Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa
• The Sloss family 
• The Esler family 
• Mt Lyford Ski Area
• Farmlands Cooperative Society Limited
• North Canterbury Vets
• Roseglen Tea
• Mainpower Rangiora
• Stirling Sports Rangiora
• Hazeldine Construction
• Omihi Southdown
• The Munros

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

School Notices

Principal's Award
The recipient of the Principal's award last week was:  Alice Pennell.

Strum, Strike and Blow
The whole school are going to be part of the Strum, strike and blow festival on Wednesday 29th August.  Each child will learn how to play either the recorder, marimba or ukelele and will play with hundreds of other children on stage at the Horncastle Arena.  We will be starting learning these instruments in term 2.

Easter Tuesday
A reminder that school is closed on Easter Tuesday next week.

Sports T shirt
We are currently looking into an optional sports t shirt for the children.  This will be an optional purchase for parents that children will be able to wear whenever they represent the school or Kowai at sporting events.  It will have our school name on it and will be 'Dri Gear' fabric with UV protection.  We have showed designs to the children to get their feedback and will come back to you when we have further details confirmed, including costs.

 

 

Community Notices

Kia ora everyone

It's now only 2 weeks away from our Omihi School Farm Race.  We are very grateful to all the people that have donated prizes for this event.  Also a big thank you to Downer who are providing the Traffic Management for free and a huge thank you to the Croft family for letting us use their amazing farm for the race.  The views really are spectacular.

The last thing we need help with is to get some more entries.  These are coming in a bit faster now, but I know people leave them to the last minute.  If you know of anyone that is talking about entering, please get them to do so sooner rather than later.  This makes our planning a little easier.  We would love to see our community down there on the day to support these participants, even if you aren't doing the race.  The Lions will have a BBQ going, so make sure you have some cash with you.

The Crofts getting their farm ready for the race.

Nga mihi

Maree Lucas
Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Preschooler morning
We are introducing preschooler mornings once a term.  We invite you to bring in your preschoolers on Tuesday 20th March at 9am.  They will be part of the junior class programme with you and then there will be a morning tea for the parents.  Please share this around.  All children are welcome.  If you would like to come, please email Maree on principal@omihi.school.nz.  We are also looking for a couple of parents to provide morning tea.  If you are able to send in some baking, please let me know.

Sporting Achievements
Congratulations to the following children for their achievements in the past couple of weeks:

Kowai Triathlon:
Jeremy Pennell - 3rd
Alice Barnes - 1st
Maggie Hamilton - 3rd
George Steel - 3rd

Small School Swimming Sports: (Children who came 1st or 2nd will go onto Kowai Swimming Sports)
Freestyle:
Alice Barnes - 1st
Alice Pennell - 1st
Billy Esler - 1st
Tom Hazeldine - 3rd
Jeremy Pennell - 3rd

Backstroke:
Jeremy Pennell - 2nd
Tom Hazeldine - 2nd
Alice Barnes - 1st
Alice Pennell - 1st

Breaststroke:
Alice Barnes - 2nd
Alice Pennell - 1st
Jeremy Pennell - 2nd
Tom Hazeldine - 3rd

Butterfly:
Alice Pennell - 2nd

Indi, Max, George and Angus - Our Year 8 leaders

Medley:
Jeremy Pennell - 3rd
Alice Barnes - 3rd
Alice Pennell - 1st

Relay:
Year 5/6 team - Jeremy Pennell, Alice Barnes, Billy Esler, Georgie Macefield - 1st

A message from our Year 8 leaders:

A message from our Year 8 leaders:
Hi my name is Indi and I’m a one of the year 8 leaders here at Omihi.  I have moved here this year from Pegasus Bay and I am glad that I did it. I love all sports.  Hi my name is George and I am year 8. I have gone to Omihi my whole schooling life.  I love sports and outdoors.   Hi my name is Max, I have been here at Omihi for 8 years. I love the outdoors, sports and farming.   Hi my name is Angus.  I have been at Omihi for my whole schooling life and I love swimming and cycling.

Part of our leadership roll this year is to organise one fundraiser a term to raise money for charity.

In Term 1 Mrs Lucas is putting on a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House.  It is a fashion show and the some of the kids here at Omihi are modelling in it.  The year 7 and 8 children are going in on the day to help set up.  There are still tickets available. (Thursday 12th April)

In Term 2 we are having a mufti day for turtlerescue.co.nz.  This will also be a gold coin donation. (Friday 11th May)

In Term 3 we are having a Crazy Day.  Each child has to dress crazy, have their hair crazy and be crazy.  This will be a gold coin donation and we are fundraising for Kidscan. The whole school is participating in this fundraising. (Friday 10th August)

In Term 4 we are fundraising for the SPCA.  Your child has to dress up as their favourite animal and bring a can of animal food - it will be a great day. (Friday 9th November)

As a fundraiser for the school we are also organising a movie night on Friday 25th May.  It is $5 for children to come along and watch a movie in the junior class.  There will also be popcorn they can buy.  Parents will be able to come along and socialise with each other in the senior room.

Thank you from the Year 8s - Indi, Angus, Max and George

ICAS tests
Here is a link to the ICAS tests and the prices.  These are Australian based tests that are optional.  If you would like your child to enter any of them, please email me by Friday 23rd March.  Ruth will then invoice you for the entry fee.

Easter Weekend
School will be closed on Good Friday, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday.

NZEI Teachers Union Meeting
There is a paid union meeting for teachers on Thursday 22nd March.  There shouldn't be too much disruption to our day.  The teachers are going to go to different meetings throughout the day and I will cover their class when they are gone.

Community Notices