Students have opportunities to participate in small group or individual music, speech & drama, and communications skills lessons with specialist teachers. These lessons are at a cost to the parents and run during the normal school hours on Wednesdays and Fridays. Please see the Co-curricular Absence & Cancellation Policy.
Lessons run for approximately 8 weeks each term and, except for Term 1, normally start in the first week of term. Parents will be invited to "open days" twice a year to observe the progress of their tamariki (children). Some ākonga (students) will also have the opportunity to perform at Learning Celebrations.
Please contact communications@amesbury.school.nz if your child is interested in any of these lessons.
The following classes are currently being offered:
Individual violin ($38/wk)
Some of our students will be required to purchase music books to aid their progress in lessons and home practice sessions. Invoices will be added to a student's account as and when a music book, or next level music book, is required.
Students can learn guitar and/or ukulele with Floyd Marsden. Floyd has been playing music for most of her life. At an early age, she taught herself piano over three years, before moving on to teach herself guitar, bass, and drums.
She has released two solo albums digitally and has played gigs around some of Wellington's hottest music venues in various bands and solo projects, including a headline show at Wellington Gardens Magic. She currently works as a music teacher with Apollo and Encore Schools of Music, specialising in piano, guitar, drums, and bass.
Floyd also works as a music therapist with Independent Living, and as a session musician for various Wellington projects.
Floyd's teaching has a focus on freedom of expression - rather than following a specific book and repeating the same lessons for each student, she prefers instead to cater each lesson to the needs and goals of the individual.
Group (2 students only) and individual drum lessons are available, also taught by Floyd, who is also our guitar/ukulele teacher, is profiled above.
Violin
Both individual and group violin lessons are available at all levels. A limited number of violins are available for hire for $20/term.
Sam Berkahn is a musical polymath, whose interests and activities within the Wellington music community are quite eclectic. He plays many instruments, sings, conducts, and even composes! A graduate of the New Zealand School of Music, he has had a strong love of music from a young age, stemming from his upbringing in a very musical family.
Both individual and group keyboard lessons are available at all levels, taught this year by Carter Neal.
Both individual and group vocal lessons are available at all levels, taught by Tamsyn Simmons. Tamsyn has been teaching vocal technique, vocal performance, vocal health, voice recording and more for over ten years. Trinity Rock & Pop exams prep available, As well as other Levels programs. Opportunities to perform live and learn to record. The motto is
Passion | Technique | Performance.
Tamyn's vocal performance coaching strive to assist the young singers talent as it blooms.
Tamsyn is also offering Choir for Years 3-6.
We have the following drama classes available, taught by Maneesha Fonseka:
Maneesha has been a student of Drama & Speech since she was four years old.
After successfully completing her teaching diploma with Trinity College, London, Maneesha pursued her passion of being an educator of Speech & Drama. Maneesha is an eager drama enthusiast who is keen to impart her learning and knowledge to young artists and bring out the talents in them.
Find out more about Maneesha here.
Speech & Drama lessons are designed to help children develop their confidence, self esteem, social skills and conversational ability. They will learn to appreciate literature and enjoy presenting it for an audience. Drama is a wonderful way through which they can channel their energies to find innovative methods of creating and expressing.
Communication Skills lessons are designed to teach children to develop and refine expertise in different forms of communication through the spoken language. We teach correct pronunciation, build vocabulary and a clear sense of practical usage of the English language. Improving listening, reading, and speaking skills and fine tuning their communication skills are the primary focus of these lessons for our students.
Rhythmic gymnastics is taught by Ellie:
Ellie is (and has been) a senior gymnastics teacher at Elements Rhythmics Gymnastics Club for a number of years, having come to New Zealand from the UK for that appointment.
Ellie has been teaching gymnastics at Amesbury since 2017, however, this was interrupted for a few years as we needed the Hall for teaching & learning while the new block was being built.
We are excited to have Ellie back at Amesbury because, apart from her expertise, she is someone that the children really enjoy being taught by.
