Kia ora Koutou Whānau

I had written my newsletter on Friday and it was about all the excitement for the Omihi School Farm Race coming up this weekend. Sadly with the events and actions over the weekend regarding the Coronavirus, we have now decided to postpone our race until further notice. We will keep you updated and will hopefully aim to run it again later this year.

Thank you to all of the families who have offered to help and donated prizes, and to our fundraising committee for all of your support. All the hard work is done, so it will be easy enough to pick up later in the year and run with it again. I had listed all of our sponsors below and will leave those there, as we really appreciate your support for our kura.

We are in touch with iticket regarding refunds for entrants, so you will receive an email from them at some point this week.

Ngā mihi

Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Thomas loving the warm days in our pool!

Principal Award
Our latest Principal award went to……Eva Harris.

Reports
A reminder that our report comments are being spread throughout the year. On Friday this week you will receive your child’s PE comment through Linc ed, then in the last week of this term you will receive their maths, social sciences and health comments. These will be a mixture of self reflection, teacher comments and evidence of their learning.

Coronavirus and Infectious Disease Policy
Please have a read of these two policies on School Docs that we are following, along with guidance from the Ministry. We will keep you updated with any changes. If you or your family are planning any overseas travel in the next few weeks, please let me know. Also if your child is showing any signs of illness, please keep them home. We will be continuing to discuss and be diligent with sneezing into your elbow and hand washing at school, especially before morning tea and lunchtime, and would appreciate you continuing those messages at home.

School Docs
The policy we are reviewing this term is ‘recognising cultural diversity’ . We would love you to review this with us. The login details are: www.schooldocs.co.nz
Username: omihi
Password: glenmark

Swimming Sports and Duathlon
Congratulations to all of our Year 4-8 children who participated in the Small School Swimming Sports. They did themselves proud. Well done to Charlie, Jeremy, Tom and Georgie who then went on to compete in the Kowai Swimming Sports.

Well done to our juniors who completed their duathlon last week. It was so lovely to see them all giving it a go!

Omihi Bus
If your child is not on the bus in the afternoon, please let me know as early as possible. Last Friday Tracey arrived to drive the bus and there were no children on it, but I hadn’t heard from anyone. It is usually when there is a school event on, but we can’t assume that all parents are coming, so please still let me know.

Plywood
Paemoana are after some plywood. If you have any lying around, can you please let Penny know. They would like 4 or 5 pieces approximately 30-60cm square

Omihi School Farm Race
Thank you to all of our sponsors and volunteers:

• Downer - traffic management 

• Croft family - farm

• To our Omihi fundraising committee - Jane, Megan, Kate, Amy and Jaz

• To our Omihi families for all donating a prize and donating their time today to help.

• Forestry - Rayonier

• FMG

• Commodore Hotel - one night’s accommodation

• Commodore Hotel Park and Fly - one week’s free parking

• The Good Home, Pegasus

• Carrfields, Feilding - organised by Mickleson family

• www.Gwamma.co.nz

• Crafty Weka Bars

• Rangiora New World

• Smartwool socks

• Fire and Ice Hanmer Springs

• Push Bikes, Rangiora

• Little Vintage, Amberley

• Pita Pit, Rangiora

• Vege’n out, Woodend

• The Good Home, Pegasus

• PURE

• Aaron Harris Electrical - sponsoring the signs.

• Water cups donated by Hazeldine Family

• Mt Lyford

• PGG

• Fonterra

• Swanndri

• The Office Cafe, Waikuku

• Thanks to the Glenmark Lions for the sausages and pumpkin soup at the finish line!

Community Notices

Our 2020 Year 8 leaders

Kia ora koutou

The BOT and I are pleased to appoint Penny Vincent as the Acting Principal while I am on maternity leave. Penny will take over when I leave - which will be early-mid term 2, until mid term 4.

Thank you to parents who have been helping with our transport and trips lately, we really appreciate it.

I sent an email home last week regarding the Omihi School Farm Race. We are looking for someone to take over the lead of this for next year. We have one parent keen and are looking to have one more on board so they can work together and share the load. Please let me know if you are available. All the systems are set up, so it is mainly monitoring that things are done. It is our major fundraiser of the year and the reason why we are able to have an extra teacher for our 3rd classroom.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

3 Way Learning Conferences - Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th March
This is an opportunity to meet with your child and their teacher and talk about their goals for the year. Please book a time on this timetable.

Year 0-4 Triathlon
This is being held at Omihi School on Tuesday 10th March at 2.15pm. We invite parents to come and watch. The children are encouraged to bring their bikes and helmets to school this week to start their practice. This event is designed to give our junior children a taster of what a triathlon is like before they attend the real thing at the Kowai triathlon from Year 5 and up.

Sushi and Pita Pit
Thanks for supporting Sushi and Pita Pit. Last year Julie collected the sushi for us from Amberley every fortnight. If there is someone that is able to take that on this year, please let me know. It would be nice to share it around. Sushi is this Wednesday and Pita Pit is next week.

Mufti Days
The Year 8 senior leaders have organised four mufti days this year. They are for the following:
Term 1 - Heart Kids - Friday 3rd April. Gold coin donation and wear red.
Term 2 - SPCA
Term 3 - DOC Predator free 2050
Term 4 - Amberley Pool

Donation and bus/activity fee
This week Ruth will be sending out letters for our school donation. She will also be invoicing you for the books your child has been issued and asking for a contribution towards an activity fee and bus fee. This covers such experiences as Life Education, class trips, Waiswim, using the bus for school trips.

Omihi School Farm Race
Remember to get your entries in for this. We are looking forward to a great community day! Entry details at www.omihi.school.nz/bikerun. A reminder to send your prize along to school asap if you haven’t already.

Year 4-8 Swimming Sports
Here are the transport details for the day.

Year 0-4 Assembly
We welcome you to our Year 0-4 assembly this Friday 6th March at 2pm in Paemoana.

Waikari Rock Art trip
In Week 7 our tamariki will be going on a trip to the Waikari Rock Art as part of our ongoing 'Our Place, Our People' inquiry investigations. These trips will be taking place over two days. On Tuesday March 17 the year 0-5 children will be going and on Wednesday March 18 the year 6-8 children will be going. We will be taking the bus there, however will require one parent car for transport on each of the days. If you are able to help out please email Penny to let her know. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

School Calendar
Please keep an eye on our school calendar so you can keep on top of what is coming up.

Community Notices

Amberley Rugby Football Club
Please find attached a link for families to complete registration if they would like to be part of the Amberley Rugby Football Club for 2020.

Resilient Hurunui
Dr Nicholas Price, lecturer in Agricultural Systems Management at Lincoln University, will be speaking at the Amberley library on Thursday March 19th at 7.30 p.m. Topic: How farmers and land managers can address social concerns about issues such as water quality and GHG emissions. Gold coin please.

Kia ora Koutou

What an action packed first two weeks of school! This term is full with sports - golf, triathlon, swimming and also The Arts trips - Museum/Art Gallery, Waikari carvings and our sculptor visit. Please keep an eye on the calendar to keep up to date. We really appreciate all the parent support for this, thank you!

This week I am in Hanmer Springs for two days with a group of Canterbury Principals. I have joined the CPPA (Canterbury Primary Principals Association) Executive Committee and we have our first hui for the year and strategic planning meeting. It is a great learning opportunity for me and a chance to connect with other Principals and be part of a support team for Canterbury Principals.

We have had progress on our new multipurpose space. We have confirmed our project manager and In the holidays I met with potential architects and have now confirmed our architect. Ingrid and I met with them both last week and have shared the ideas from teachers and children as to what we want the building for. The next steps are for the architects to come back with ideas on where the building will go and then the initial concepts. These will be shared with the BOT and staff for discussion and we will keep you informed with the progress. My goal is to have the designs confirmed by the time I go on maternity leave. It’s an exciting time!

Ngā mihi

Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Omihi School Farm Race
This is our major fundraiser of the year. We need as much help as we can on the day of the race and ask all families to be involved. Please enter your name on the volunteers document of where you would like to help on the day. We also ask each family to please donate a prize with a minimum value of $10 and to send it along to school by the 2nd March.

Omihi bus
The bus is in getting a service and a small repair, so it will be up and running again on Friday.

Museum/Art Gallery trip - Tuesday 25th February
Transport information.

Raffle
Our second fundraiser of the year is our raffle. This raises between $5000-6000 to help us pay for our third teacher. Please click on the survey to give us feedback on ticket price.

Pita Pit and Sushi
Wednesday lunches start again this week. Sushi is this Wednesday and Pita Pit the following Wednesday. Please order online at www.luncheonline.co.nz.

Year 5-8 Triathlon
Wednesday 26th February. All information is here. Parents need to pick children up from school at 12.20pm and take them and their bikes to Amberley Pool, to be ready for the briefing at 1pm. Children go home straight from Amberley at the end of the race.

Contacting teachers
I encourage our teachers to have a work/life balance. We try not to contact parents after hours or in weekends, so we please ask the same from parents to teachers. If you need to contact us after hours, an email is definitely preferable than a text message. The teachers will give out their cell phone numbers if they want to, otherwise please just email them. If your child is away, an email is good so you can then copy me in as well in case I am teaching on that day.

Year 4-8 Swimming Sports
Our swimming sports are on Thursday 5th March at Amberley Pool at 9am. We need two parent helpers. Please let me know if you can help.

Community Notices

Glenmark Netball Club
Registration day for any interested players on Sunday 15th March, 10.00am at Glenmark Netball Courts (opposite Omihi School on Reeces Rd). All ages & abilities welcome. Please contact Katie Croft (all under 14’s) on 021 022 30360 or Milly Croft (seniors) on 027 552 1644 if you have any queries.

Amberley Tennis
Coaching starts this Friday with anyone welcome as outlined below.
3.30pm - 4.30pm : all beginning tennis players who want coaching should attend.
4.30pm - 6.30pm : all intermediate, D,C, B and A grade interclub juniors who want coaching should attend at the times they did last year. Anyone NEW wanting to participate and join in the fun should please turn up at 3.30. Our funding application for this season was successful, so the cost is heavily subsidised by Amberley Tennis Club again this year. Contact Simon - bennetto@xtra.co.nz.

St Andrews College
The St Andrew’s College family wish to extend an invitation to you and your family, and prospective families from your community, to join us for refreshments and hors d’oeuvres for a St Andrew’s College promotional evening. We very much hope you will be able to join us.

Venue:  Waipara Hills, 780 Glasnevin Road, Waipara
Date:  Wednesday 4 March 2020
Time:  5.00pm – 7.00pm
RSVP:  Please click here to register before Friday 28 February

Kia ora koutou whānau

It was so nice to see everyone’s smiling faces this morning and hear about all the lovely memories made over the holidays. I love seeing how excited our students are at seeing their friends and teachers on day one.

George and I had some great camping adventures with Vuk in the holidays and managed to catch up with lots of friends and family. It was a lovely opportunity to have some down time, reflect on our exciting 2019 year and plan ahead to life with a baby. I will be at school until early/mid term 2 and am planning to take 6 months off, so depending on how everything goes, I will be back mid term 4. After our first Board of Trustees meeting in week 4, we will come back to you with information around who is going to be Acting Principal.

We welcome Penny and Megan to our teaching staff this year and also welcome back Tamar as our teaching assistant. I have included Penny and Megan’s introduction again in the newsletter below. We also welcome Kate Dodd who will be relieving in classes when needed. A warm welcome to Fergus and Noah who are starting their school journey in Paemoana today.

We have lots of exciting things coming up this term, so please see all the info below and we will continue to update the school calendar on the website as well. Let me know if you would like me to share the calendar with you so you can have it on your phone.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Congratulations to our Prize giving recipients from 2019:
Omihi Values - junior - Lily Banks
Omihi Values - senior - Alice Pennell
Speech cup - Maggie Hamilton
Sportsperson of the Year - Charlie Murphy
Excellence in Arts - Leni Wilkie
Academic - Maggie Hamilton

School trips:
Whole School Beach Ed - Thursday 13th February at Waikuku Beach
We will take the school bus, but will also need parent helpers to make up the ratios in the water. Please let me know asap if you are able to take a car and help out on the day. We ask that no preschoolers come on this trip.

Whole School Canterbury Museum and Art Gallery trip - Tuesday 25th February
To go alongside our inquiry unit this term, we will be going to the Museum and Art Gallery on the 25th February. We will take the school bus and hopefully the Waikuku bus, but will still need more helpers. Please contact Penny asap if you can help on this trip - penny@omihi.school.nz.

Year 5-8 Kowai Triathlon - Wednesday 26th February
This is at the Amberley domain and is run in the afternoon. We ask that parents take their own children and bikes to the domain. Further information will be sent out in due course. Usually you need to be there by 12.45pm.

Whānau picnic
We welcome all our families and our community to come along to our whānau picnic on Tuesday 4th February between 5-7pm. BYO picnics. The BBQ will be available to cook on and the pool will be open. This is a great chance to catch up after the holidays and meet new teachers and families.

School closed:
Waitangi day - Thursday 6th February
Kahui Ako teacher only day - Monday 2nd March

Waiswim lessons
We ask that children start bringing their togs everyday as we will use the pool as much as possible. We encourage children to wear rash vests if you have them. This not only protects them from the sun, but it also helps our pool from having all the extra sunscreen going into it every day. Waiswim lessons will be starting in week 3.

Reporting
We will be sharing our reporting schedule for 2020 with you this week. Reports are continuing on Linc ed, but the comments will be spread out during the year, so it is ‘real time’ reporting. You will still receive the general comment and the levels for reading, writing and maths mid and end of year.

3 Way Learning Conferences
These are booked in for Tuesday and Wednesday in week 6. We will send out a timetable nearer the time so you can book in a time to meet with your child and their teacher.

Assemblies this term:
This term there will only be 2 assemblies, as we are starting them later to give the classes time to settle in. From term 2 onwards there will be 3 each term.
Friday 6th March, 2pm - Year 0-4 assembly
Friday 27th March, 2pm - Year 5-8 assembly

School Uniform
A reminder that correct uniform needs to be worn each day and Omihi sunhats are compulsory in terms 1 and 4. Please ensure shorts, trousers or skirts are navy, with navy or white socks.

Bus Parking
When dropping off or picking up your child at the school gate, please don’t park right in front of the gate as that is where the two buses need to park. Either park across the road in the Omihi Hall carpark or closer to Omihi Road. The Omihi bus also needs space to be able to turn around. The children will be involved in bus safety with Constable Ken at the start of this term.

A reminder that the speed limit is 20km when passing a school pass that is stopped. We ask that any children getting on the bus on the main road, please wear a high vis vest. School can provide these if you haven’t got one.

Omihi School Farm Race
Please help us to promote the farm race and raise money for our school. Entries are available online at www.omihi.school.nz/bikerun. If you have anywhere that you can put up one of our posters, please let me know.

School of Rock
Music Lessons 2020 Term 1. One day a week there will be group, individual and or band music lessons available at the school within school time, that are run by School of Rock. In the lessons the students will learn the fundamental techniques associated with their instrument and a "song". The "song" could be anything from new school to old school, classical to rock.  Music Enrolment Form.

Year 5-8 Basketball
Basketball starts up again on the 28th February. Please let Maree know if your child wishes to play again and also if you are available to coach.

Penny Vincent - Paemoana teacher
I have been teaching for the past 11 years. I spent my first four years teaching at Dunsandel Primary School. Whilst there I taught years 3 - 6 and became the senior syndicate leader. My husband and I then moved to North Canterbury to be closer to our families and I spent 6 years at Waikuku/Pegasus School teaching Year 0 - 6. During this time I worked as both the Middle and Junior syndicate leader. Over the last year I have worked at St Patrick’s school in Kaiapoi from 9.15 - 12.30 four mornings a week. Initially I was taking small groups for numeracy and literacy support across the school and for the last two terms I have had a Year 2 and 3 class for the mornings doing intensive numeracy and literacy work. 

I feel very privileged to be in a job where I get to spend time getting to know and help shape little hearts and minds. I have also been lucky enough to previously teach and get to know some of the wonderful children and families that currently attend Omihi school.

My family and I live out in North Loburn and have three children. Jaxon is 4 and will be starting at North Loburn School in the new year, Hudson is 2 (almost 3) and Sadie is 1 (turning 2 in March). My husband Scott and I have been married for six years, he is a spray contractor in North Canterbury and some of you may know him (and his brother Jacob) from when he played rugby for Glenmark. 

I am so looking forward to being a part of a country school and community and look forward to getting to know you all and also catching up with some familiar faces too!! See you soon!

Megan Jacobson - Tūpari teacher
Hi, I’m Megan Jacobson and I’m loving being back in the Hurunui district with my young family. My partner Mike and I have a 7 month old girl Isobel, our dog Tank and cat Mozzy. We are both originally from the North Island where I’ve been teaching at Greytown Primary School for the past 7 years through years 2-6 and before that I was at Gladstone Primary in Years 6-8. 

However I did my degree at Canterbury University and we have family farming in the area. This year I have been relieving around the North Canterbury area and on maternity leave. I have a strong background in sports coordination and have previously been heavily involved in Young Farmers and AgriKids. I enjoy walking, exercising and anything outdoors and that gets me involved with people. I look forward to joining the team at Omihi and meeting you all.

Community Notices

KAIAPOI NORTH SCHOOL’S  2020 Memorial Golf Tournament for Robert ( Mr Bob ) Sincock 
WHERE: Kaiapoi Golf Club 
WHEN : Sunday, March 8th with a shotgun start at 10:30am. 
WHY : to raise funds to provide equal opportunities for ALL children at Kaiapoi North School. 
GRADES : Mens and Women’s handicap sections. Stableford. 
Trophy to be presented on day.  Calloway system to support all non-handicappers.  $100:00 for closest to the hole for both men on No 1 and women on No 10. 2’s, longest drives etc all included. 
COST : $30:00 per player which includes refreshments during your round and a wonderful afternoon tea. 
Fantastic raffles for all. Huge Prize Table for all. Over $2000:00 sponsorship.  For inquiries and for registration please contact Jack Oldridge  027 327 6633, or e-mail at jackoldridge5105@gmail.com .