Welcome! We are delighted that you are interested in having your child study as an international student at Amesbury School.
Amesbury School was built in 2012, and is a vibrant, welcoming and nurturing learning environment, with a diverse student body.
The school is located in Churton Park, in the northern hills of Wellington, just 14 minutes north of the CBD and 25 minutes from Wellington International Airport by car. Churton Park is a developing suburb, in the green hills of Wellington and is centrally located to Wellington City, Porirua and the Hutt Valley.
Amesbury School has agreed to observe and be bound by the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students. Copies of the Code are available from the NZQA website at www.nzqa.govt.nz.
You can download a copy of our Application Brochure. You can apply as an international student at Amesbury School by completing our Application Form & Tuition Agreement here or by getting in touch with us or your agent. Completed Application Forms should be emailed to international@amesbury.school.nz.
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We believe Amesbury School offers an opportunity to experience personalised education in an innovative and uniquely New Zealand environment.
We are welcoming: Amesbury School prides itself on being an inclusive, diverse and welcoming environment. Our school community is made up of families from all over the world, many who have recently arrived in the country.
We are safe: Situated on expansive grounds in a greenfields suburb in the capital of New Zealand. A safe, beautiful, welcoming community.
We are personalised: Personalised learning programmes are developed for each child, focussing on meeting the needs of the whole child. Children are actively involved in their learning journey and the process of making sense of their experiences and the world.
We are 21st century: State-of-the-art facilities, in a purpose built modern learning environment with integrated technology. Amesbury has a higher than 1:1 student:device ratio.
We are bi-cultural: Māori culture is integrated into the school environment, practices and rituals.
Amesbury School teaches the New Zealand Curriculum for Year 0 – Year 6 (5 year olds through to approximately 11 years old). See here for background on the New Zealand Education system and the national curriculum. Following completion of Year 6 at Amesbury School, a student can go on to attend a school offering tuition for Year 7 and beyond. Our International Student Co-ordinator can provide you with connections to other schools offering tuition for international students beyond Year 7.
The Education Review Office reviews all primary schools in New Zealand on a regular basis and provides a public report on the quality of the education received at the school. Please find a link to Amesbury School’s latest ERO report here.
Full information about education at Amesbury School is outlined here. The school is set up to educate 21st Century learners through personalised learning programs that meet the needs, interests and desires of each child in a rapidly changing world. From the school design and furniture choice, through to the use of highly effective learning management software to track student progress, the school is committed to ensuring each student experiences educational success at Amesbury School.
Amesbury School has a custom-designed software system called ALF (Amesbury Learning Framework), that tracks the goals and achievements of every student, enabling the planning of personalised learning programmes for each child, focussing on meeting their individual needs. Students, teachers and parents can all access this ALF, so that even parents who remain in their home country can be actively involved with their child’s learning and progress at Amesbury School.
Amesbury School is committed to providing an environment that caters for the needs of all students. Our purpose built 21st Century environment allows us to work flexibly to ensure all children’s learning is engaging, meaningful, personalised, joyful and empowering. For a bird’s eye view, you can fly through the school spaces, and view the original architectural plans for the school.
Amesbury School has fluid and organic environments to allow real learning to take place. Characteristics of our indoor learning environments include:
Standard classroom furniture is not evident in the hubs (learning areas). Rather, each hub (which has several spaces - called suites - and a range of possible configurations) is furnished to accommodate learners in a variety of contexts across the space and utilise a range of furniture to facilitate this. Teachers do not “own” a particular area of the hub; they work with a range of students in a range of spaces across the hub over the course of the day. Furniture choices not only reflect this way of working, but encourage it.
Amesbury School has a large hall, library, large meeting room, teachers’ workrooms, media room and parents’ area with coffee making facilities. Our grounds include two playgrounds, two courts, a three quarter length soccer pitch, bike tracks including a skills and pump track and a wetlands area. Inside, our hall has a half size basketball court and hoop, and is marked out for 2 badminton courts. Sports equipment is available to play with during breaks and students can bike or scooter to school, with bike/scooter parks made available during school time.
All students will have access to devices such as Chromebooks and iPads as required for their learning.
Amesbury has a staff of hard-working and dedicated teachers, committed to developing personalised learning for each student to help them develop what it means to be fully human. Meet all our staff members here.
Every student at Amesbury School has a whānau teacher, who is the first point of contact for both student and parent for education-related questions. The whānau teacher proactively manages the student’s wellbeing and academic progress.
International students will be given a 24 x 7 staff contact person while they are enrolled at Amesbury School.
Amesbury School currently welcomes students with all levels of English, there are no English language proficiency requirements.
International students will partake in four ESOL sessions a week. These will be run separately from main learning programmes, but primarily, international students will remain in the main learning environment with their peers as much as possible. This helps them settle in and integrate into the school quickly.
Amesbury School offers a range of exciting co-curricular activities, including
There are a number of activities available at the school outside of school hours. These are organised by private groups or companies and include:
In the community, within easy walking distance, there is also a tennis club and a community centre offering after school and weekend classes for adults and children.
When they start at Amesbury, each student is assigned a whānau teacher. Whānau means “family” in Te Reo Māori, and the whānau teacher will be your student’s primary support contact during their time at Amesbury School. Parents are encouraged to communicate with the whānau teacher for questions and concerns.
In addition, each international student will be assigned a “buddy” from the same year group to support their transition into their new school and cultural environment.
All International Students will be involved in an orientation and pastoral care programme. This is planned to support students and their families with integrating into a new country, culture and schooling system. The programme is responsive to changing needs. Amesbury School has a designated pastoral care teacher. All students have a weekly pastoral care session with her, and parents also have support and orientation sessions with the pastoral care teacher and International Student Co-ordinator.
Amesbury School has a strong ESOL programme and international students will participate in the programme, alongside domestic students requiring ESOL support. This will provide additional support to all international students.
We believe that supporting the parents of international students is also very important. Caregiving parents of international students will be “buddied” up with another parent from the school and will be encouraged to participate in the school community. Because of the diverse nature of the Amesbury School population, we may be able to provide parents with first language support.
