Kia ora koutou

It’s lovely to be back at school today after my sabbatical. A sabbatical is a time to study, and also refreshment leave, so it was wonderful to be able to travel to Ireland with my family to see my brother and his family. We had lots of special cousin time.

Exploring the countryside in Ireland.

A big thanks to Adrienne and the team for keeping everything running smoothly while I was away.

I’ve enjoyed chatting to our students today, and finding out about their learning. They are loving the Olympics study. I look forward to catching up with parents too. We have 3 Way Learning Conferences this term, as well as a whole school assembly in week 7. Hopefully will see you then, if not before.

I would also like to acknowledge the passing of Neil Evans. He was a wonderful community man, a past parent of Omihi and a grandparent of our school. He will be very missed. The most kind and lovely man. George and I were sad not to be able to attend Neil’s funeral as we were away, but it sounds like it was a lovely send off for him.

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

School Notices

Lunch Online
There will be no Lunch Online orders available for sushi on Wednesday 14th August.

Year 4-8 North Canterbury Kapahaka Celebration
This year’s kapahaka performance is on Thursday 19th September at the Rangiora Baptist Church, 111 East Belt, Rangiora. Tickets will be on sale from the 19th August on www.iticket.co.nz, they are $12 each. We will have our school bus taking students, but will need some cars as well, please let Kelly know if you will be transporting your own child and if you can take others.

Omihi Bus
There will be no Omihi bus on the afternoon of 19th September, due to the students going to the kapahaka performance.

Whole School Assembly
We welcome you to our whole school assembly on Friday 6th September at 2pm.

Preschooler morning
We welcome you to our preschooler morning on Wednesday 28th August from 9.00-10.30am. All preschoolers are welcome, please bring along your child’s drink bottle and morning tea.

3 Way Learning Conferences
This is an opportunity for you and your child to talk with their teacher about their learning. Please book in a time here.

Ski free day
We have another ‘Ski free day’ this Friday. As we no longer run school ski trips, this is an opportunity for your family to go skiing without having an absence next to your child’s name.

Lego
We are on the look out for some more lego, if you have any lego around home that you would be happy to donate to school the children would be very grateful.

Community Notices

Kia ora koutou e te whanau

Welcome Hope, with Charlotte & Mackenzie

Welcome back to Term 3. I hope you have all had a good holiday break and are ready for another great term. Here’s hoping the holidays have broken the cycle of sickness that we were seeing at the end of last term. There are some exciting events coming up - Life Education this week, Top Team Challenge, along with Grandparents Day and Kapahaka Festival later in the term. Inquiry this term will have a focus on the Olympics - an exciting event that I’m sure you will all be following.

Special welcome to Hope who starts officially in Paemoana today and to Heidi who starts next Monday.

Please remember to make sure that students are wearing their correct uniform. It does pay to make sure it is well named as we seem to collect quite a few items of lost property throughout the term - it’s so much easier if we know who to return them to!

If you have any board games, card games or puzzles that are surplus to your requirements or your children have grown beyond, we would really appreciate them to use at school. While we make sure that the students are able to play outside in the fresh air as much as possible, they are a great assistance on those wet days when this is not possible. Please make sure that what ever you donate to school has all the necessary pieces.

This will be my last newsletter as Maree returns from her Sabbatical in a couple of weeks time. I have thoroughly enjoyed working in this wonderful school, getting to know the students, the staff and parents. Your community is so fortunate to have such a well run school with dedicated and conscientious staff who know their learners well.

Ngā mihi

Adrienne Simpson

Acting Principal / Tumuaki

School Notices:

Red Nose Day: On the last day of last term we participated in the fundraising for Red Nose Day. Some people dressed up in red and everyone brought a donation for the Cure Kids Foundation. As a school we raised $63.00 - a great effort by everyone. Lily organised the day for us all.

Life Education Visit - Wednesday 24th July: Harold and the team will be visiting school for the day on Wednesday 24th July. All the students will have 2 sessions during the day with the facilitator. This year the focus on resilience and positive relationships.

Community Notices

Free Tots to Teens digital magazine for parentsView in browser 

Winter is upon us, and our latest issue is jam-packed with content to help Kiwi parents issue2406.totstoteens.co.nz/

What’s in this issue for parents?

» Building resilience through story telling
» How to get little kids ready to learn math
» Navigating reading, ’writing, and ’rithmetic
» Family-friendly things to do, see, and experience
» Your winter wellness kit
» Scrummy recipes to warm up your family (and fill those lunch boxes)
» Surviving the school holidays (with extended family)
» Fun, cute, and practical craft with jars
» PLUS awesome giveaways

Ask your tamariki to find this issue's Te Reo Māori words including hoahoa, tatau māwhitiwhiti, mahi kāinga, and tāpoi. 

Thank you to everyone for supporting our digital magazine, it means we are able to share our magazine with more kiwi parents and whānau, in a format that is super visual and user friendly (75% of your parents will be reading on their phone!).

We are proud to be Aotearoa’s favourite parenting magazine, with 275,000 free magazines distributed for free each year nationwide.

Thank you from all of us at Tots To Teens xx

Kia ora koutou

Congratulations to Ava for your Principals Award

Thanks to all those people who were able to make it to our whole school assembly on Friday 17th June. It was fascinating to see all the different aspects of learning on display. Congratulations to all the Class Certificate recipients and a special congratulations to Ava and Hugo who received Principal Awards.

School will be closed Friday 28th June for Matariki.

We are looking forward to our Matariki Celebration on Tuesday 2nd July from 9.00am - 11.00am when there will be activities to join in with and sharing of Kai for morning tea. We hope you will be able to come along and support the students and join in the activities.

The end of the term is coming around quickly - school will close Friday 5th July and reopen for Term 3 Monday 22nd July. Thanks to the students and the staff for all their hard work during the term.

Our Life Education visit has changed from the last week of this term until the beginning of next term due to staff illness. We’ll look forward to Harold and his team being with us for the day on Wednesday 24th July.

Congratulations to all the students who competed in the Kowai Cross Country in very difficult conditions on Tuesday. They showed amazing perseverance and resilience on a cold and wet afternoon. Lily, Jack, Hugo and Michael qualified to go to the Canterbury Cross Country at Nga Puna Wai next Wednesday. Lily and Michael will be representing Omihi School as Hugo and Jack are away overseas.


Ngā mihi

Adrienne Simpson

Acting Principal / Tumuaki

School Notices

Matariki Public Holiday
A reminder that school will be closed on Friday 28th June for Matariki.

Matariki Celebrations
On the 2nd of July we would like to invite our whānau to join us for a Matariki Celebration morning at school. From 9-10.30am we will run rotations that we would love you to join us for in classrooms. At 10.30am we will have a shared kai for morning tea. Please could everyone bring a small plate of food to share for this and we hope you can make it along for the morning.

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. 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.

Sickness
We appreciate you all keeping your children home when they are unwell, especially with all the sickness going around the community.
We do ask that if your child is away from school with sickness or any other reason please inform your teacher or the office.
This can be done by either messaging your child’s teacher, or via the HERO app.

Community Notices

AKOTECH CodeCamps July School Holidays

Our holiday camp allows children from the ages of 7-12 to develop 21st century skills in a fun and action packed environment. Learn AI, make games, code robots & go to work for a simulated Tech Gaming Studio to build games and apps for a big client.  

Develop confidence & initiative through design, creativity, solving problems, presenting & collaboration. Create your own games, worlds and apps to make our world a better place.

We also have Literati Lab just for girls, which includes AI Art & Animation. 

Canterbury Uni & St Patrick's School: 8th-11th & 15th-18th July

Programs: 2 & 4 Day Programs

Book Now at www.akotech.nz

Kia ora koutou

It’s lovely to be back at Omihi School for the second part of Maree’s sabbatical leave. It’s so nice coming back and knowing the school and the familiar faces of the children - I can nearly remember all their names!

Students at the National Young Leaders Day

We do wish Maree and her family well as they travel to the USA and Ireland. While it will be a wonderful experience and fantastic for them to see family in Ireland, it could be challenging at times with a very young family. We hope they all travel well!

We are fortunate to have the Playhouse Theatre Production coming to Omihi this Friday. They will be presenting “The Reluctant Dragon’ show for us. Waipara and Waikari Schools are joining us as well.

The Year 8 students went to the National Young Leaders Day last Friday at the Christchurch Town Hall. They listened to speakers such as William Pike (a kiwi explorer), Brooke Neal (a former NZ hockey player) and Te Kahukura Boynton (a 20 yr old entrepreneur). It’s always a great day out listening to inspiring speakers and travelling down in the School van. I was lucky enough to see them at the end of the day after I had a catch up meeting with Maree. Some comments from the students included involved:

“ It was……….. fun, inspiring, cool, encouraging, loud !!! The games were cool but we had to sit for a long time'!’

Thanks to the students who came to share their writing linked to their inquiry work with me this morning….. “The part of my body that I like the best….”

All the best to all the students who will participate in the Small Schools Cross Country tomorrow.

Ngā mihi

Adrienne Simpson

Acting Principal / Tumuaki

School Notices

Cross Country 
The small schools cross country is on tomorrow. Please ensure you pick up your child from school by 11.30am
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 contact Kelly if your child needs a ride on the school bus. 

Matariki Celebrations
On the 2nd of July we would like to invite our whānau to join us for a Matariki Celebration morning at school. From 9-10.30am we will run rotations that we would love you to join us for in classrooms. At 10.30am we will have a shared kai for morning tea. Please could everyone bring a small plate of food to share for this and we hope you can make it along for the morning.

Public holiday
A reminder that school will be closed for Matariki on Friday 28th June.

Whole School Assembly
We welcome our community to our whole school assembly this Friday 14th June at 2pm in Kahiwi.

Reports
In the last week of term you will be receiving report comments (whole school) and also updated graphs (Tūpari and Awaawa) to show progress. Please contact your child’s teacher if these don’t come through.

Community Notices