Kia ora koutou
Welcome back Kate and Elizabeth! It’s lovely to have Kate and Elizabeth back teaching in Paemoana on a regular basis. I loved seeing the love and kindness our students had for Georgie on her last day with us. They made her a very unique and touching card, and had a fun dance party with her at the end of the day.
Carlos, Andy, Zac and Logan getting ready for a quidditch match.
One highlight for me last week was seeing Tūpari working on their Harry Potter STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) investigations. The passion they had for their learning was obvious in the excitement for creating their very own quidditch match. Another highlight was welcoming our preschoolers into school. It’s wonderful to see the tuakana-teina (older and younger) relationships forming, and how our students look out for our preschoolers.
Part of my sabbatical has been focused on the Dare to Lead course, which is based on Brené Brown’s research. I took so much away from the course, not only for myself as a leader, but also for our staff, and students. We will be discussing segments at our staff professional learning days, and are all going to be reading the Dare to Lead book together next year, plus looking at how we can integrate this into our day to day programmes. I’d love to share some of the key takeaways that I had, so in my newsletters I will add a ‘Dare to Lead’ section, and a link if you want to find out more from Brené’s resources. Here are 3 of my takeaways that could be applicable in so many areas of our school, and life in general:
Who we are is how we lead
Courage is contagious
There are 40 types of emotions. Understanding these can be crucial to help leaders
The final part of my sabbatical starts in week 7 (June 10th), so you will see Adrienne back in during this time. I look forward to seeing you all again week 3, term 3.
Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz
School Notices
Year 1-8 Small Schools Cross Country
The small schools cross country is on Tuesday 11th June (pp 13th June). This is where we join with Waipara and Broomfield School and it will be held where Onepunga meets Holleth Hills Road (about 2.5 km from Broomfield School) There will be lots of signage. Please no dogs on the property. Here are all of the details of the day, including a map. Children can go straight home afterwards. We ask that parents pick their children up and take them to the cross country, plus we will have some space on the school bus. Please let Kelly know if your child needs to go on the bus.
Playhouse Theatre
The whole school will be attending ‘The Reluctant Dragon’, performed by the Playhouse Theatre at Omihi Hall on Friday 14th June.
Whole School Assembly
We welcome you to our whole school assembly on Friday 14th June at 2pm in Kahiwi.
National Young Leaders Day
There are a group of seniors attending the National Young Leaders Day on Wednesday 5th June in Christchurch. They will be going in by bus, so there will be no Omihi bus run on that day.
Attendance
As part of the government’s attendance action plan they are now collecting attendance data from schools on a weekly basis. From the beginning of 2025, they will be collecting it from schools on a daily basis. There is a new interactive dashboard that has been launched where you can see a national average on any given day. The website is https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/daily-attendance.
Attendance continues to be a focus at our school as well, and we encourage you to check these guidelines if you’re not sure whether to send your child or not. Each term we send out letters to notify you if your child had less than 90% attendance in the previous term. These letters will be coming out this week for term 1 attendance. Parents and caregivers are required to have their children attend school, and to develop habits of regular attendance, and it is the school’s responsibility to follow this up.
Positive Education update from Georgie:
Through explicit teaching of positive education lessons, we have been seeing tamariki utilising different strategies they have learnt to try to solve situations themselves. We will always be there to support children when they need it, but it has been pleasing to see so many children utilising what they have been taught both in the classroom and playground. As a school it is really important that we try to utilise the special environment that our kura is in. Studies have revealed that spending time outdoors leads to a notable decrease in cortisol, the stress hormone, and reduces feelings of anxiety. We provide the children with opportunities to spend time outside as much as possible, and from this we see higher levels of focus during learning time.
Lost Property
We have 2 very new merino jerseys in the office which are unnamed. If you think these are your childs please come and collect them from the office. There is a student missing a merino jersey, which is clearly named. We kindly ask that you check your child’s merinos to make sure they haven’t picked it up by mistake.
School Docs - term 2 review
Please review the following policies at http://omihi.schooldocs.co.nz.
Username: omihi. Password: glenmark
Employer Responsibility
Appointment procedure
Equal Employment Opportunities
Teacher Relief Cover
Safety Checking
Police Vetting
Classroom Release Time
Matariki Public Holiday
A reminder that school will be closed on Friday 28th June for Matariki.
Life Education
The Life Education bus will be visiting us on Wednesday 3rd July.
