Kia ora Koutou

We had an amazing day up at Mt Lyford last week. Thank you to all the parents that were able to come up with us.  What a wonderful community day and so great to see our students improving every time.  We look forward to the next one in a couple of weeks.

I am currently in Hanmer Springs on the annual Canterbury Primary Principal's Conference.  Our focus is on Disruption (disrupting our thinking around leadership) and our keynote speaker is Tony Burkin.  I look forward to reporting back in the next newsletter from my new learning.

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

School Notices

Principal's Award
The latest Principal's award went to....Angus Barnes!

Strum, Strike and Blow Festival - Wednesday 29th August
This is coming around very quickly and the children are sounding great on their glockenspiels and ukuleles!  We now have enough transport for the day.  Here is the transport info.   Children need to be back at the arena by 6.30pm that night.  We will let you know the meeting place after we have been there during the day.  It is $5 for parents to watch - please have cash. Students need to wear school uniform and have a pair of black/dark sunglasses and a cushion to sit on.

Omihi Community Hall Opening
We are very excited to see the Omihi Community Hall nearly finished.  This is a huge asset for our school as we will be able to utilise it for productions, assemblies, prize givings, etc.  As our school grows, it is great to have a big space for us to invite our whanau and community into.  They are having an opening night celebration on the 29th September.  I have included the information below in the community notices.  George and I will be going.  If you are going and haven't got a group to go with, it would be great to get an Omihi School table together.  Let me know if you would like to join our table.

Teacher Only Day
A reminder that on Friday 31st August we have a teacher only day with our Kahui Ako (Community of Learning).  There are 13 schools coming together at Oxford Area School for Professional Development, which is very exciting.

Year 6-8 Mt Grey Walk - Wednesday 22nd August
We will be leaving school at 9am.  Children need to take their morning tea and a drink bottle.  We will be back before lunchtime.

Tennis
If there are any Y5-8 children interested in playing competition tennis in Term 4 please let Megan know at Nick_megan@xtra.co.nz. This competition is held on Wednesday afternoons.

Also if you are interested in tennis coaching in term 4, please let Megan know.  Last year a tennis coach came into school once a week and took lessons throughout the day for all age groups.  These are private lessons, so Megan organises the payment of these from parents.

Naked Baker Pies
A big thank you to Ingrid for organising the Naked Baker Pies fundraiser.  A lot of students took advantage of this and now have money taken off their camp fees.  Also thank you to Jaz, Megan and Amy for helping Ingrid to give out all the pies when they arrived.

Pet Day
In term 4 we have our annual pet day.  There is Agri Sports in the morning, run by Leighton and pet day in the afternoon.  Last year one of our parents ran this.  Her daughter has now left the school, so we are looking for someone to take it over.  If you are available, please let me know.  Tracy is happy to talk through what needs to happen on the day with the new organiser.

Raffle Prizes
We are starting to organise our annual raffle for term 4.  We have two main fundraisers each year - our raffle and our bike/run race.  We need to start gathering prizes for our raffle.  If you have anything you would like to donate, please let me know or drop it off to school.  We will promote any sponsors on our Facebook page and in our newsletter.  Last year we managed to raise $5000 through the raffle, so we are hoping to do this again.  Our two fundraisers help to support our BOT funded third teacher.
 

Community Notices

Omihi Community Hall Opening Night Dinner
We invite our wider community to our opening night.  If you would like to purchase tickets please contact Maree on maree@mfactorevents.co.nz or 021 77 6864.  We are also looking for a couple of volunteers for the event:

• We need a photographer on the night to take some photos as guests arrive.  
• We would also like some flowers for decoration on the night. 

If you are happy to donate some flowers for decoration or take some photos, please contact Maree.

ARC
What exactly is ARC? It is a mystery adventure race where parent and child aged 5-13 race together, locate and complete 10 mystery challenges; racing the clock and all the other family teams. A team is made up of two people- an adult (over 17yrs); Dad or Mum or a relative or family friend and a child aged between 5 and 13 years of age.

The challenges range from physical (like tug-of-war) to mental (like a memory challenge) to knowledge based (like current affairs).  Are you game enough to give it a go? Want to win your entry?   We will be refunding a couple of team entries at random for those that have entered... so enter now!

Kia ora Koutou

It's been a great week for me as I've been teaching in the senior classroom all of last week and this week I am teaching in the juniors with Miss Dickson.  Kat and Jennie have had amazing opportunities to do some travelling, which has worked out really well for me.  Even though I teach in the classroom a lot, it's normally no more than 2 days in a row, so it has been a real treat and makes me miss teaching!  Plus it reminds me what outstanding students we have.  They really are such a delight to teach and I know all of us feel very lucky to have such wonderful, small classes to teach so we can really focus on the individual students.

Nga mihi
Maree Lucas
Principal

School Notices

Speeches
Congratulations to all of the children that performed their speech on Friday.  They should all be very proud of themselves.  The results were as follows:
1st - Alice Pennell
2nd - Alice Barnes and Maggie Hamilton
3rd - Max Croft
Alice.P and Max will now be competing in the Year 7/8 Lions Speech Competition on Tuesday in the Hawarden Hall.

Mainpower $20,000
As you may have seen in our Facebook posts, Mainpower are giving away $20,000 to local schools and organisations.  The more votes we have, the more potential we have of winning some of this.  If you have 30 seconds spare could you please go onto their website and vote for Omihi School - http://www.mainpower.co.nz/community-support/help-us-spend-20000/voting-form

New Staff
I would like to welcome Paula Hawkins, our new Teaching Assistant.  Paula is supporting children for a couple of hours a day from Monday to Thursday each week.

Teacher's Strike
The teachers are going on strike on Wednesday 15th August for the whole day.  The BOT have decided to close the school, so there will be no school on that day.  Thank you very much for your support, as it wasn't an easy decision for teachers to make.

Strum, Strike and Blow Festival - Wednesday 29th August
We still need some help with transport on this day.  If you are available to take a car in, please let me know.

School of Rock
If your child would like music lessons at school, please contact nolanhnz@gmail.com from School of Rock.  Matt is currently teaching students at school, but he does need a couple more to make it worthwhile driving out from Christchurch.

Relationship with China
The Hurunui Council have developed a sister relationship with the Changping District, Beijing  and Honghu City, Hubei.  I have been working with the Council and their liaison to build that relationship with Omihi School as well.  Through this we have managed to organise free Mandarin lessons next year.  We have also opened up our school for Chinese students to visit.  My goal is for us to have students come and be a part of our school, learn about our NZ culture and then at some stage for some of our students to go over to China to learn about their culture. 

There is an opportunity for some students to come to our school early next year for a short trip.  We are looking at taking 5 students, so would need home stays for these children and possibly their parents for one week.  They are fee paying students, so if you had a child stay or a child and parent stay, you would be paid for this.  The parents would be doing activities with the other Chinese parents during the day and the children would attend school.  If you are interested in finding out more about this, please email me - principal@omihi.school.nz.

School Doc Policies
Each term we review our policies and ask for parent input.  This term we are reviewing the following:
* Behaviour management
* Complaints
Please go to http://omihi.schooldocs.co.nz/ and use the username 'omihi' and password 'glenmark'.

Mufti Day - Friday 10th August
This Friday is our Kidscan Mufti Day.  The theme is 'crazy kids'.  Children need to bring along a gold coin donation.

Naked Baker Pies
These will be delivered to school on Friday.  If there aren't too many, we will send them home with the children.  If you know you have ordered a lot, please can you pick them up on Friday.  Ingrid would also like 2 helpers to sort them all out at 1.15pm.  If you can help, please email Ingrid on ingriddavid@xtra.co.nz.

Community Notices

GLENMARK RURAL WOMEN
16th August 2018, 7.30PM
GLENMARK DOMAIN
AGM
Topic
Sister District Relationships
Changping China and Hurunui District
Enquiries     Jennie Wells 0276890688 or 314955
Bev Forrester 314-4195
ALL WELCOME   Gold Coin to cover costs

Tena Koutou Katoa

I hope everyone had a great break away from school and were able to have some family time and make some special memories.  It has definitely been nice to see the sunshine.  George and I managed to get a couple of days skiing in....preparing for our ski trips this term so I can keep up with the kids!

As the new term begins I just wanted to remind you that our doors are always open.  If you ever want to come in and be a part of your child's learning or see what is happening in the classrooms, you are more than welcome.  Also if you want to touch base with myself or the teachers at anytime, just let us know.

We have lots of great learning experiences coming up this term.  We are especially looking forward to our Science unit where the children are going to be part of lots of exciting science experiments and learn about the processes of a science experiment.  The children will also be a part of the Strum, Strike and Blow festival and the North Canterbury Kapahaka festival.

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

School Notices

Dates for this term
Please keep an eye on our calendar on our website for upcoming dates.  This term we have:
Week 1
Tuesday 24th July - Year 7 students to Compass FM
Thursday 26th July - Principal Award winners trip to Fossil Point
Week 2
Wednesday 1st August - Juniors cricket coaching
Friday 3rd August - Year 6-8 speech competition
Week 3
Friday 10th August - Kidscan Crazy Day Mufti Day / Senior Assembly
Week 4
Tuesday 14th August - Ski trip
Wednesday 15th August - Teacher's strike
Week 5
Wednesday 22nd August - Year 6-8 walk up Mt Grey, Tuahiwi School visit us
Week 6
Wednesday 29th August - Whole School Strum, Strike and Blow Festival - day and evening
Friday 31st August - Teacher only day
Week 7
Monday 3rd September - Ski trip
Wednesday 5th September - Year 4-8 Top Team Challenge at Amberley Domain
Thursday 6th September - Ski trip postponement
Friday 7th September - Junior assembly
Week 8
3 Way Learning Conferences
Wednesday 12th September - Preschooler morning
Week 9
Thursday 20th September - Juniors visit Tuahiwi School
Week 10
Wednesday or Thursday (TBC) - Year 3-8 Kapahaka Festival, day and evening
Friday 28th September - Celebration of Learning Assembly

Principal Award
The Principal's award at the last assembly went to.....Georgie Macefield.

Student Teachers
We are very lucky to have two student teachers this term from University of Canterbury.  We have Tammy Dickson joining us for the first 5 weeks of the term in the junior class and Toka Te Taua in the senior class for the second 5 weeks.

Bus Driver
Sue Parish has been our dedicated, amazing bus driver for the past 35 years.  We have been truly blessed to have such a wonderful lady driving our children around.  Sue has decided she is going to retire at the end of this year, so for the next two terms she is helping us to train a new bus driver.  We welcome Rachel Lockwood to the position.  Rachel is the Mum of Ava who is in our junior class.  At this stage Rachel will be working one day a week, so you will see her out on the run with Sue to start with, and then later in the term on her own.

Birthday Treats
As a staff and board we have made the decision not to have birthday treats at school.  As we grow, we have noticed an increasing amount of cakes, lollies and treats being sent along to share with the whole school on a child's birthday.  Although this is a lovely thought, we would like to encourage you to celebrate at home or at their parties rather than bringing it to school.  We try not to encourage too much extra sugar if possible, plus we don't want it to become an expectation for all families.

Naked Baker Pies
If you are selling Naked Baker pies, please send the money and order form back to school by this Thursday.  Cheques to be made out to Naked Baker please.

Mindfulness Professional Development
We are very excited to have had a grant approved to pay for professional development around Mindfulness.  This is something we feel strongly about at Omihi and feel like it is a really useful and beneficial skill for our tamariki to learn.  Kate Brandram-Adams RN(MH), Registered Mindfulness Teacher from Mindfulness North Canterbury is coming out to Omihi to take two 2-hour sessions with our staff, to help us to pass this on to our students.  There are also spaces available for our community.  Please let me know if you would like to book in for these.  After we have taken bookings from our community, if there are any spaces left we will then offer them to our local schools.  The sessions are being held on Tuesday 28th August and Tuesday 25th September from 3.30-5.30pm.

Tuahiwi Marae
We have requested support from Tuahiwi Marae to find out more about our cultural narrative of the Omihi area and to also help us to name our three classrooms. Di Collier, Mana Whenua Education Facilitator has been supporting us in this.  She is coming to talk to the children on Wednesday next week to talk about the information she has found out.  We will keep you informed.

Teacher's Union Meeting
As you have probably seen in the news our teachers and Principals are working with their union to negotiate a better offer with the Government.  On the 3rd August we will be joining our local schools to stand on the main road in Amberley after school.  We hope our presence will show what we believe in.  We welcome any community members to join us in this.  There will be a strike on Wednesday 15th August where teachers will attend a union meeting, if negotiations aren't sorted before hand.  I will keep you informed of this when we receive more information.  Kat is the teachers’ NZEI rep for our school, so please feel free to ask any questions.  This is a flyer showing you what the teachers are fighting for. 

Community News

Family moving to Omihi
George and I have friends who are looking at moving to NZ from France.  Greg (kiwi) and Gemma  (British) Brown would like to move to our area and for their children to go to Omihi School next year.  They are wanting a change of lifestyle after being in France for 8 years and are keen for their 3 children to have a taste of our NZ culture.  They are looking for a house to rent from January. Greg will be looking for work also.  He studied at Lincoln Uni and has an Ag Science degree.  He worked for Ravensdown and then in London as a project manager and now has his own landscaping and building company.  Greg is keen to work in the building or farming sector, ideally managing a farm.  Gemma is also a CELTA qualified, ESL English teacher and can speak fluent French so is available for part time work.  If you know of any farm cottages or houses available or any work opportunities, please contact me and I will forward on their details - principal@omihi.school.nz or 314 5857.

Kia ora Whanau

What an amazing couple of weeks we have had.  Celebrating Matariki with our community was definitely a highlight, along with our exploration of wool in The Wool Shed at Greta Valley School.  It was wonderful to hear the discussions from the children around wool and how we can support this industry.  We are looking forward to walking from Waikuku - Pegasus this week and also heading into Christchurch to watch Linwood Ave School's production.

It has been a busy few weeks for our teachers with assessing our students and writing their reports.  We are looking forward to sending all Year 3-8 reports home on Wednesday 4th July.  

We have two more weeks of learning and then it will be time for everyone to have a lovely break.  Thank you for all of your support this term, we have lots of interesting things coming up next term, so it will be great to come back refreshed and ready to learn again.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Grants
As we are a small school, it is important for us to apply for grants to help cover our costs and pay for the extra opportunities we want to give your children.  We are very excited to say we have been granted $3,000 from the Hurunui Council and $1,500 from the Amberley District Residents Association to cover the cost of our kapahaka lessons that we share with Greta Valley School.  I also applied for a grant from One Foundation to upgrade our server system.  We were granted just under $10,000 to make this happen.  A big thank you to these organisations.

Ski trip
In term 3 we have two ski trips planned.  I will send out info on this at the start of term 3 so you can fill out details on your child's skiing ability.  The dates are in the calendar.  We ask for parents to come with us and to provide transport on the day.  The cost for children is $40, which includes the ski hire, lift passes and a lesson. Or $30 without the hire.  The cost for adults is $55 for hire and lift passes or $40 without the hire.  So it is a really cost effective way to go skiing.  We will invoice families after each trip.

ARA
The Year 7/8 children will be visiting ARA on Thursday 5th July.  We can pick up the Waikuku children on the way through and drop off on the way home.

UP Programme
Kathy Menzies is very kindly donating her time to provide an amazing programme for some of our children each Friday afternoon.  Kathy brings in two ponies and the children learn confidence and skills through working with the animals.

Compass FM
Listen to Compass FM on Sunday mornings from 8-9am and you will hear some of our students talking about our school and what we are learning.

Community Notices

Waipara School Disco
Our PTA is hosting a disco for our children during the evening of Friday 6 July from 6-7.30pm in the Waipara Memorial Hall. Your children are cordially invited to attend. The theme is Winter Winterland!  Di Officer