Tena Koutou

We are really excited to share with you our latest ERO report as of May, 2018.  A lot of time, thinking, collaborating and hard work went into this and we are very proud of where our school is at.  There are always things to continue to work on and with the support of our BOT, community and staff I am 100% confident that we will continue to learn, grow and thrive to ensure our school is your school of choice.  The report is now on our website and will be live on the ERO website in 2 weeks.  I would like to thank the BOT, our staff this year, and also Jaz and Jo from last year for their contributions towards getting to where we are today.  We are very proud of where Omihi School is now.

Fun in the snow at the Antarctic Centre

It has been lovely couple of weeks having grandparents share in our learning, a movie night for the whole school and lots of exciting learning opportunities outside of the classroom. We have had a few outings lately and I wanted to thank all the parents that have helped out with transport.  It is really appreciated.  We are currently looking into purchasing a bigger bus which will help with trips in the future.

We hope you enjoy your long weekend for Queens Birthday. 

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

School Notices

Principal's Award
The latest Principal's Award went to.....George Steel.  George will be enjoying a hot chocolate at Fossil Point with the other winners later this term.

Thanks to Mainpower
Thank you to Mainpower for donating a truck load of bark for our gardens.  It is much appreciated and looks amazing!

Camp
This year we are going to Kaikoura for our camp.  The whole school will all go on Wednesday 28th November.  Year 0-4 will be there for the first day and the rest of the school will stay for two nights.  Here is the draft timetable of what we will be doing during the stay. All of the activities are confirmed, but timings may change.  You can see the cost of the camp for the Year 0-4 and Year 5-8 on the document.  We realise this is a big expense, so are wanting to give you plenty of notice.   The invoice will go out at the end of term 3 and will be due at the start of November. If you would like to pay this off in instalments, that is no problem, just organise a payment system with Ruth.  Feel free to come and talk to me if there are any issues with the payment.  

Fundraising for Camp
We would like to give you the opportunity to sell Naked Baker pies in order to reduce the cost of the camp.  For every pie you sell, you get $2.50 off your camp cost.  We do need a parent to organise this, so please let me know if you are available.  The children have decided to use the Movie Night money to go towards their camp costs.  This will take $7.50 off each child's cost.  If there are any parents that would like to help children organise other fundraising opportunities, please let me know.

Uniform
A friendly reminder to ensure all children are wearing our Omihi uniform with pride each day.  Children need to have navy bottoms and ideally navy or white socks, with comfortable running shoes.  They also need to have their Omihi polo shirt and Merino.  I realise sometimes these are misplaced, so please make sure they are named.  We have a number of Omihi jackets and beanies in stock if anybody needs to purchase them.

Cross Country
Thank you to the parents who are able to help with transport to cross country this Thursday.  Here are the travel arrangements and info for the day.

Omihi Hangi - celebration for Matariki
As part of our Matariki celebrations, the Hazeldines have kindly offered to organise a hangi for us on Wednesday 13th June.  If you are able to donate food and haven't filled it in yet, please add your name to the document.  On the second page can you please add your name if you are coming along so we can ensure we have enough food.  If you would like to attend and can't access this, please email me on principal@omihi.school.nz.

Preschooler Morning
We welcome all preschoolers into school on Tuesday 19th June from 9-11am.  Please share this with your friends, all are welcome.

Curriculum Survey
We would really appreciate if you could please fill out our survey.  This will give us more information when we are writing our Omihi Curriculum.  Thanks to those who have filled it out already.

National Young Leaders Day - no bus run
A reminder that the Year 8's and some Year 7's are going to National Young Leaders Day this Wednesday 30th May, so there will be no Omihi school bus run on this day.  Children going on the trip need to be at school at 7.45am.  We will pick up George, Indi and Lucy on the way.

Kitchen cutlery
Could you please ensure your child has their own cutlery, if need be, in their lunch.  We seem to be getting low in the staffroom with more and more children borrowing spoons and forks.

Community Notices

Kia ora Koutou

We have had such a busy, inspiring and creative first two weeks at school.  We are super excited to have our third learning space open today.  The children loved their first day with Mrs Croft!  We have also been learning a lot from our special guests that have come in to talk about their character strengths.  Thank you to Claire Inkson, Winton Dalley, Julie Wells and George Lucas.  We are looking forward to finding out more about our own character strengths and how these can help us to look after our own well being.  Also listen out on Compass FM over the next few weeks on Sunday morning to hear our Year 6 children talking about our school!

We are thrilled to welcome Lucy to our senior room.  She has slotted in already and feels like one of the whanau. 

The Year 6 students and Vuk visiting Compass FM.

Earlier in the year I talked about my new love of audio books and podcasts and I encouraged you to introduce these to your children.  Here is a great website I found that has some good podcasts for children.

Nga Mihi
Maree Lucas
Principal, principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Grandparents Day
We welcome our grandparents into school on Thursday 17th May from 9-11am.  Families please remember to send along a small plate of morning tea that we can share with our grandparents.

Movie Night
This Friday 18th May at 5.30pm.  The movie will be showing in the junior room and in the senior room I will talk to parents briefly, then there will be an opportunity to socialise.  Please bring along a plate to share.  There will be popcorn and drinks available for the children to purchase.  

Antarctic Centre
We still need some help with transport on Friday 25th May to the Antarctic Centre.  Can you please email me if you are available - prinicpal@omihi.school.nz.

Court Theatre
On Tuesday 22nd May we are going to Broomfield School to see He Kura Korero - The Gift of Speech at 9.30am.  If you are able to help with transport, please let me know.  We will be back at school at 11am for Kapahaka.  

Parking outside school
As we have two buses running to and from school each day it is getting quite congested at the front gate.  If you are picking up or dropping off your children, can you please make sure you leave space by the front gate for the two buses.  Feel free to park up the drive if you need to.

Our new classroom for our Year 3-5 students.

Matariki - Maori New Year
As part of our Matariki celebration, we are going to be having a hangi at Omihi.  We are very lucky that the Hazeldine family have offered to organise it for us.  It will be on Wednesday 13th June and we will aim to eat at 5pm.  The children will be part of the process throughout the day.  We are looking for donations of food to make this happen.  I will send out a Google doc where you can add your name.  Our whole community is very welcome to come to the hangi.  Each meal will include 2-3 meat and vegetables.  There will be no cost for the hangi meals, but we will need definite numbers closer to the time so we know how much to prepare. I will send out a doc for you to put your orders on so we can work out how much food we need.  If you would like to come along and you aren't a parent at school, just email or call me to book in.

Cross Country - Year 1-8
All children will be part of the cross country that Broomfield School are organising on Thursday 31st May.  There is no postponement date, so it will run rain or shine.  The venue is 100 Crampton's Bush Road, Broomfield.  All children will run in year groups and will run the following distances:
Year 1 and 2 - short course
Year 3 and 4 - 1.5km
Year 5 and 6 - 2km
Year 7 and 8 - 3km
We need to be at the start line by 12pm, ready for a 12.30pm start, starting with the youngest children.  We need help with transport and helpers at the event, so please let me know if you are available.

NZEI Union Meeting
There is a paid teachers union meeting on Thursday 21st June at 2pm.  Last time we were able to cover this in school, but this time we have to ask parents to please pick up your children at 1pm on that day to enable teachers to attend.  If you are able to pick up your child, that would be appreciated.  The school bus will run at 1pm, and it will take the north and south children first, then the Reeces Rd children last on that day.

BOT Notices

ERO
At the beginning of April, ERO visited the school to follow up on the 2017 review. The 2017 review had identified a number of areas where we could be doing better. Addressing these issues has been one of Maree’s key priorities since she began with us in term 3 last year. Last week Maree and I received the unconfirmed report from ERO. We will share the full report once it is confirmed and we can share it publically.

The report is extremely positive. It comments positively on the leadership and management of the school and the improvements in internal evaluation and curriculum development. The improvement is entirely due to the hard work and dedication of Maree and the teaching team.  On behalf of the board I would like to acknowledge the huge effort that they have put in and the huge improvements that have been made in less than a year.
Thank you
Sarah, BOT Chairperson

Restraint Policy
Over the past couple of years the use of restraint and seclusion in schools has had a lot of media time. In response the Government introduced physical restraint rules in 2017. The rules effectively prescribe who can use physical restraint and when it can be used. The rules also set out a process that has to be followed when physical restraint has been used.  Under the rules a registered teacher or authorized staff member can use physical restraint in certain situations.  We have adopted a policy on the use of physical restraint and the Board is able to approve an unregistered staff member as an authorized person for the purpose of the rules.  If you have any questions about the policy or the use of restraint please feel free to approach Maree or Sarah.

Community Notices

Omihi Community and Sports Hall Incorporated Society
The AGM for the Omihi Community and Sports Hall Incorporated Society will be held at school on Wednesday 23 May at 7:30pm.   All welcome.

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