Kia ora whānau

We hope you had a wonderful holiday and some great down time with the family. George, Delilah and I spent some time at Mount Cook, which was just stunning. We managed to fit in a few walks and see some of the beautiful scenery.

We are excited to be launching our Omihi School Virtual Mission today! All of the info is on our website at www.omihi.school.nz/virtual-mission. Basically we are trying to virtually get to Christ Church School in London, England by walking, biking, scootering or running and we want you to come with us and help us clock up those 26,724km! There is a donation to enter the mission and then you can add in your km's either manually or through apps such as Strava, Apple Health etc. Your km's will add to our map and we can track our path from NZ - England!

If you're competitive, there is a leaderboard, or you can simply use it for your own motivation and a chance to help our fundraising efforts.

It is live now, so we have until Monday 26th July to reach Christ Church School. Anyone in the world can join, so feel free to share this around! We would love to have as many of our community on board as possible. Let me know if you need any help joining.

For the past two years I have been a support Principal in our Tipu Maia Kahui Ako (Community of Learning). This involves 13 schools, a range of small schools and area schools. This term I am Acting Lead Principal while Mike Hart is on sabbatical. There will be commitments that I have each week that may take me out of school at times, but also a lot that I can work on from here. It’s a great leadership opportunity for me, and also a chance for the school to receive some extra staffing for a term, which helps towards us having our 3 classrooms.

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

School Notices

Playground working bee
Our playground is well underway! Emma and Jared from Woodland Escapes and Natureflow are hoping most of it will be finished next week. They have asked if there are a few parents who would be able to come in for a couple of hours and help with our students to move the bark into the playground and also plant the 89 plants that Trees for Canterbury donated. This will be on Monday 10th May from 12pm. Please email me if you are able to help with this.

Movie Night/Parent catch up
A reminder that tickets are now on sale for our movie night this Friday 7th May at 5pm. The Year 8's are organising this as a fundraiser for school camp. The profits will be split across everyone going to camp. Tickets are $5. There will be two movies going for the different age groups and snacks available.

We would love to catch up with parents in Tūpari while the movie is on. Please bring a plate and a drink and we can have a chat regarding our school vision and moving forward with 3 classrooms.

Paddock to Plate Inquiry
This term our whole school inquiry is ‘Paddock to Plate’. We want our students to understand that the nutrients in the air and earth are the same nutrients we eat in our food, and to understand the process that food goes through before we eat it. This week we start our ‘ignition’ phase. On Wednesday and Thursday we are going to visit Michael and Alex’s Nana and Grandad, Sarah and William, to make pizzas from scratch - from milling the flour, to sourcing ingredients that have been grown and produced locally within our Omihi whānau. Then on Friday to the Black Estate vineyard and kitchen to find out how they produce, process and prepare their food and wine locally and organically. We will be transporting children on the school bus, so we don’t need transport help, but if you would like to come along, please let me know.

Pies Fundraiser
We offer the opportunity for our students to sell pies. The money each child makes will come directly off their camp fees or ski trip. It is an optional fundraiser. Pies are sold for $8 each and for every pie sold, you will receive $2.60 off your camp/ski trip. The order forms will go home in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to Jane for organising this.

Wheelie Wednesday
This term we invite students to have scooters and skateboards at school on Wednesdays. Paemoana will be using their scooters during Ako tahi time, so they can have them at school each day, but only use them in break times on Wednesdays.

Subway and Sushi
This is continuing this term. Thanks to Dave and Carl for picking these up for us. Sushi is odd weeks, starting this Wednesday and Subway is even weeks, starting next week.

Biking Club
We have biking club at Waipara on Monday 10th May at 4pm. There will be two groups. Mrs Vincent will be taking a shorter loop with the juniors and Mrs Lucas will be taking the longer track right to Black Estate and back. Please add your name and your child’s name to the doc if you would like to come. All parents welcome.

Community Notices

Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) – The Correspondence School
Early Childhood Programme

Did you know that Te Kura provides a free early childhood programme in your home? Your 2 to 5 year old child may be eligible if:

• you live more than 6kms from your nearest licensed early childhood centre; and

• they attend a licensed early childhood centre for up to or less than 12 hours per week, or

• they have high health needs, special educational needs or there are special family circumstances preventing attendance at a face to face early childhood centre.  

You will receive a personalised programme prepared by trained registered early childhood teachers based in Wellington. Teachers work in partnership with families, providing support through maintaining regular contact via free phone, email, online programmes and events held in regional areas. The programme includes termly packs of learning materials for your child, online resources for parents and whānau which contain information on children’s development and ideas for activities using resources from your own environment.

For further information please ask at your school office or call Te Kura on 0800 65 99 88 Ros extn 8753, Ann 8795 or visit our website www.tekura.school.nz/ech

Resilient Hurunui presents Dylan Muggeridge " A Beef and Lamb
Perspective". Dylan is the Environment Policy Manager for Beef and Lamb
NZ based in Havelock North, Hawkes Bay. He is an advocate for the
interests of Beef and Lamb farmers, on climate change issues. Thursday
May 20th, Amberley School, Rewi Alley Room, Douglas Road, Amberley,
7.30p.m. $5 donation appreciated.

Kia ora whānau

Omihi School are on a mission! Come and join our mission and help us to get to Christ Church School in London. Over the last year our Omihi School Farm Race has been cancelled twice. This year we decided we still wanted to participate in some form of exercise, but ensure it was something we could still do if we changed alert levels. I used to teach at Christ Church School in London and they contacted me as they were on a mission to virtually walk 25,538km’s from Christ Church School, London, to Christchurch, New Zealand.

They sent us a video and we sent one back, learning about each other's schools. So we thought it would be great if we could virtually get back to them. Whether it's running, walking, biking, swimming or any form of exercise! And we want our community to come with us. With fundraising being impossible last year due to Covid, we also wanted to find ways to raise money. The fundraising from this virtual trip to Christ Church School in London will help a number of projects. Being an Enviroschool, one of our projects is new solar panels. We have a community member that is going to match what we can raise, so we will be focusing on getting money for solar panels to start with and then see how much more we can raise for our other projects.

At the start of term 2 we will let you know the details on how to join our Virtual Mission. There is a donation amount to join, which is where the fundraising comes in and then you download an app and start uploading your exercise, either manually or through apps such as Strava. All of our exercise will add together and you will be able to see on the map where we are in the world.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Principal Awards
Our latest Principal Award winners are…..Kurtis and Gineva!

Anzac Day
The Anzac Ceremony will be held on Sunday, 25 April at 8.40am at the Omihi Domain. Please can you let me know by Friday if your child will be attending. Children are to please wear school uniform. We normally lay a wreath from our school. If there is someone that is able to help with that, please let me know.

Movie Night/Catch up
Our senior leaders are organising a movie night as a fundraiser for their camp. This will be on Friday 7th May at 5pm at school. Tickets will be $5 and they will be selling them in week 1. At the same time as the movie is playing in Paemoana, we would like the opportunity to talk with parents. The BOT are reviewing our school vision this year and it would be a great chance to get your input on this. We would also like to have an open discussion around our classes - obviously we have 3 classes at the moment, so we are wanting to discuss how we can make this manageable to continue moving forward.

Mufti Days
Our senior leaders have organised mufti days for this year:
Wednesday 14th April - Mufti day for ANZAC Poppy day
Friday 21st May - Pink Shirt Day
Friday 28th May - Gumboot Day (wear uniform and gumboots)
Friday 5th November - Mufti day for guide dogs

Omihi Bus
If your child is not going to be on the bus please make sure you notify Tracy and Fi for the morning and myself for the afternoon. Please note there will not be an Omihi bus run on Friday 28 May or Tuesday 1st June, due to using the bus for trips.

Playground update
The playground is looking great! The students have loved seeing it progress and our sandpit is nearly in! This week we will be working with Emma from Woodland Escape to look at how the water play section could look like. The students are going to model it on the waterfall that they visited on the Crofts farm. On Wednesday we will have time in the afternoon to literally get in there and play with water to see what works well and to give feedback to Emma. Can you please send along a change of clothes on Wednesday for this.

Teacher only day
Please note we have a Teacher Only Day on Friday 4th June, at the start of Queens Birthday weekend.

Rakahuri Rage
Good luck to our seniors who are participating in the Rakahuri Rage this Friday! Thanks to Miss Mickleson for organising this.

Community Notices

Farmers and landowners are invited to a Groundswell NZ meeting at the Omihi Community Hall on Tuesday, 13th April at 7:30 pm.

Groundswell NZ are a new group formed by Southland and Otago farmers initially aimed at providing a stronger voice on behalf of farmers against the Freshwater legislation. Next week they are touring the South Island with 3 guest speakers:

• Jane Smith Otago farmer and vocal critic of the Freshwater legislation.

• Jamie McFadden environmentalist and chair of Rural Advocacy Network who will explain the new Freshwater and Indigenous Biodiversity laws, why they are unworkable and the alternative solutions.

• Otago farmer Bryce Mckenzie will speak on how their local catchment Pomahaka Water Care Group are addressing water quality issues.

Further information is on Groundswell NZ Facebook or contact Jamie 027 3218747.

Kia ora koutou

A lot of you will know that outside of school I run an event company. Last week I organised a fashion show to raise money for Ronald McDonald House. It was so lovely to have a number of Omihi students, staff and community involved in the show. Together we raised over $85,000 for Ronald McDonald House.

With only three weeks left until the end of term, we still have loads of learning and fun things to fit in! I’m looking forward to our biking club this afternoon on the Waipara trails and also having our lovely preschoolers in school on Thursday for our preschooler morning.

Enjoy your long weekend over Easter. School will be closed from Friday until Tuesday.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Omihi Raffle
Thank you to everyone who sold and purchased raffle tickets. You helped us raise over $3000. Winners have been notified and are listed below.

Omihi Community Trust
The Omihi Community Trust has been closed and the remaining money has been donated to the school. We would like to thank the Trustees past and present for their hard work and dedication to our school. We received over $9000, which will go towards our teaching allocation in 2022.

Paemoana - Little Oaks and Amberley Library visit
Paemoana will be vising Little Oaks and Amberley Library on Wednesday. Please send along carseats. We have a couple of spare boosters on the bus if you are happy for your child to be in these. Please just let Penny know.

Preschooler morning
We welcome all preschoolers to our preschooler morning this Thursday from 9am - 10.30am.

Thank you
A big thank you to our posties Jan and Mark who deliver our newsletter each fortnight. We are so grateful you help us get our news out to our community.

North Canterbury Swimming Sports
Congratulations to Lily who came 2nd in breaststroke and 3rd in freestyle. Good luck for the Canterbury Swimming Sports next week!

Bus Parking
Please try not to park in front of the bus at school pick ups. If you are picking up children, please come over to school to pick them up, ideally after the bus has gone.

Lunches Online
A reminder that this week is Subway, and next week will be sushi.

Mufti Day
There is a mufti day on Wednesday 14th April to raise money for the ANZAC Day Poppy Appeal. Please send along a gold coin donation.

Omihi Raffle winners
1st $100 Waipara Springs voucher - Tom Maxwell
2nd $120 Macpac voucher - Delilah Lucas
3rd $150 Fire and Ice voucher - Megan Hamilton
4th $150 Push Bikes voucher - Chris Dury
5th $150 Push Bikes voucher - David RT
6th Carrfields prize pack (worth over $150) - Anna and Gareth
7th Moana Rd prize pack - Leighana and Will
8th Grocery Hamper - worth over $200 - Teresa Banks
9th 2 x adult day pass skiing or snowboarding for the 2021 season at Mt Lyford - Sarah Esler
10th $30 Ruby Six voucher - Elizabeth Elphinestone
11th $75 Nor'wester Cafe voucher - Jamie English
12th $50 Little Vintage voucher - Jane Croft
13th $50 Little Vintage voucher - Bridget Banks
14th $50 The Office Cafe voucher - George Morrisey
15th NZ Farm source/Stoney creek pack (worth over $300) - Alice
16th Moana Rd prize pack - Pip O’Keefe
17th All Blacks jersey - Jack Allen
18th Mini hamper - Dave Allen
19th Mini hamper - Emma Hughes-Games
20th Mini hamper - Clint Stringer
21st Mini hamper - Aimee Thorn
22nd Moana Road bag - Arly Murphy (Noah)
23rd Moana Road bag - Kira Volkov (Lisa)
24th Moana Road bag - Nikki Wilkie
25th Moana Road bag - Sarah Esler
26th Dog bed - Sarah Esler
27th Dog bed - Claire and Dave Inkson

Community Notices

Junior Football 2021
Registrations are now open for junior football in the Hurunui District. Go to the Hurunui Rangers website to register.

Age 4 - 8 players will play every Saturday of Term Two in Amberley, Hawarden, and Culverden. Starting May 8, this is the same format as the past two years.

Age 9 - 18 players will play every Saturday of Terms 2 & 3 in the Mainland competition.

Register today to help us ensure we have the right number of teams entered. Financial assistance is available for those who need it - please contact the club.

Kia ora whānau

Today is an exciting day at Omihi, as our work is starting on our new multipurpose space and our new playground! The children have had input as to what we will use the multipurpose space for and it is likely to be used for the following - Omihi library, assemblies, art, games, meetings, group learning, storage for resources, mindfulness space, community meetings and quiet areas to work. We can’t wait to see the progress!

The children have also had input into designing our new nature based playground with Woodland Escapes. This has been marked out and will be starting after Easter.

We hope you enjoy seeing the progress along the way with us!

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal

School Notices

Swimming Sports
Congratulations to everyone who competed in our swimming sports. Thank you to Penny and Sally for running this in Amberley. Well done to the following children who qualified for Kowai Swimming Sports - Jeremy Pennell, Leni Wilkie, Daisy Kay, Monty Croft and Lily Banks. Congratulations to Lily who has also qualified for the Canterbury Swimming Sports.

Waterfall
The whole school are visiting the waterfall up Crofts Rd tomorrow morning (Tuesday) and will be travelling by school bus. Paemoana and Awaawa are going at 9am to study and sketch the landscapes and Tūpari at 11am to do some water testing. Please leave car seats at school if necessary.

Year 0-4 Triathlon
This is being held at school at 2pm tomorrow (Tuesday). We welcome parents to come and watch. Bikes are to go home after the race. Scooters only at school from Wednesday. We will email parents by 12pm if it is not going ahead due to weather.

3 Way Learning Conferences
If you haven’t booked in yet, please do so as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you over the next couple of days.

Blue Light Physical Competency Test (PCT) Competition
Good luck to our Year 8 team who are participating in this on Friday!

Paemoana to Lucas Farm
Paemoana are going to the Lucas farm to go for a walk and look at landscapes on Tuesday 23rd March. They will be travelling by bus.

Teacher only day - Kahui Ako hui day
On Monday 8th March, we held our annual Tipu Māia Hui. This is a teacher only day where the thirteen schools (six Canterbury Area Schools and seven Primary Schools) that operate under the umbrella of Tipu Māia come together to share their knowledge and learn from one another. Tipu Māia encapsulates close to 200 teachers and over 2150 learners within these schools. It was yet again a great opportunity to share best teaching practice across this network of schools. In the first session of the day, we heard from three past students from our schools. They discussed topics such as how our schools prepared them for life after school, the benefits they got out of being educated in a small rural school, and their thoughts on the future of education followed by a question and answer session from the floor. It was an excellent experience allowing us to hear directly from those we devote our time and energy to preparing for life beyond school.

In our closing session Karen Tui Boyes, of Spectrum Education, shared with us some stories of effective team collaboration including the US Navy's elite Blue Angel pilots. Karen is a highly regarded and respected education presenter delivering her work across the globe. The Tipu Māia network of schools provides our school with great opportunities to connect with and learn from one another. We would like to thank our community for giving us the opportunity to be involved with this day.

Community Notices

Alice Archer Yoga
Accessible to all abilities and experience. $12 per session if booked in as core group, $13 drop in.
Please get in touch to book and with any questions - 027 225 5851 or alicearcher6@gmail.com. Omihi Hall
5.20-6.20pm Thursday.

Resilient Hurunui Guest Speaker
Resilient Hurunui presents guest speaker Dr Colin Muerk on Thursday March 18th, 7.30p.m, at Amberley School Hall, Douglas Road, Amberley. " Re-energising the Greening Waipara Project". Colin is a lecturer at Canterbury University and Lincoln University, and is also a research Associate for Manaaki Whenua Landcare. $5 Donation appreciated