Amesbury Notices - 2 May 2022

By: John Murrihy | Posted Sunday May 1, 2022

What's on this week?

  • First Day Term 2 - 9am Monday 2 May
  • Harakeke and Pōhutukawa Swimming Begins - Monday 2 May
  • Co-curricular Lessons Begin - Wednesday 4 & Friday 6 May
  • BOT Meeting - Wednesday 4 May
  • Amesbury School Cross Country - 11am Thursday 5 May 
  • Hindi Lessons Begin - 3.15-4.15 Thursday 5 May

Term 2 Starts Monday

I'm sure that you all know by now that Term 2 starts on Monday at 9am.

We encourage tamariki to arrive by 8.45am to sign in, put their bags away, read the timetable for the day, catch up and generally settle in before the bell goes at 9am.

Hubs open at 8.30am so, please, do not arrive before then as there is no teacher supervision. If you need for your child to arrive earlier than 8.30am, please contact Kelly Club (amesbury@kellyclub.co.nz) who run a before school care programme. For further information please go to our Out of School Care webpage.

Orange Level at Amesbury School

Urs has put together an article covering the routines and requirements here at Amesbury now that we are at the Orange Level of the Covid Protection Framework.

Please read it as it sets out how it affects you as a parent, plus it details all of the covid related actions being undertaken within the school to keep our ākonga (students) safe.

Harakeke and Pōhutukawa Swimming

 Swimming for Harekeke & Pōhutukawa Hubs start on Monday - the first day of term.

Students need to bring togs, a towel and a swim cap, all in a named swimming bag. Goggles are also very useful, but not compulsory.

Co-curricular Lessons

Co-curricular lessons commence this week.

For those signed up and paid, your child will already be included in the timetable and, as usual, we will get them off to their appropriate lessons.

For everyone else, if you want your child to have the opportunity to try an instrument or Speech & Drama, check out our webpage, and if you are interested or have some further questions then please contact John (communications@amesbury.school.nz).

Please note:

  • Keyboard lessons are full but we can place you on the waiting list
  • All drum lessons will take place after school on Fridays

School Cross Country

The annual school cross country will be taking place this Thursday (5 May), commencing at 11am.

For specific details please read Eilis's article which was sent out last term. 

Below is the new course for this year. Some slight modifications were made as a result of the new build.

Image by: John Murrihy

Hindi Lessons

After school Hindi lessons commence this Thursday (5 May) from 3.15-4.15pm

Hindi lessons are run by the Wellington Hindi School and are organised by their head teacher, Sunita Narayan.

For further details please read the Hindi Lessons article and contact Sunita (sunita.d.narayan@gmail.com) with any questions or to register.

New Families Information Session

On Monday 9 May from 4.30-5.30pm we will be holding an invitation session for all families new to the school. 

The purpose of the session is to introduce whānau to our learning programmes, how you can help at home, and we show you how to follow our online communications and resources.

For parents who have children starting in Koru, you will meet in Kōwhai (the space with the yellow carpet in Koru). If your child has started in Harakeke or Pōhutukawa, you will meet in Māwhero (the pink carpet in Harakeke).

Mihi Whakatau & Amesbury Awesomeness Awards

Our Term 2 Mihi Whakatau to welcome new students and staff will be held on Tuesday 10 May. We have made some slight changes to this as we are in ‘orange’ level. We are now able to come together as a whole school to welcome our new students to Amesbury. 

In order to have enough space for students to spread out during singing and the haka, we are unable to have parents attend onsite. However, we will be livestreaming the event for you to watch either live or at your own leisure later. This link will be sent out shortly before the event begins

In conjunction with the mihi whakatau we will be holding the Amesbury Awesomeness Award presentations. I always look forward to these to see who are the recipients and what it was that showed them as being particularly awesome.

Cyber Safety Evening

If you are interested in attending a presentation aimed at helping parents to keep their tamariki safe online then complete this form to reserve your seat to one of the two sessions being held at the Rāroa Intermediate School Hall on 7 & 8 June.

Attendance is free for parents as the cost is covered by our Kāhui Ako cluster of schools.

Please note that each school has a total allocation of 70 tickets provided on a first come - first served basis with a maximum of two tickets per family.

For full details please read the Cyber Safety Evening article, complete this form if you will to attend, and contact Jenny, our Associate Principal (jenny.king@amesbury.school.nz), with any questions.

Expertise & Glass Jars - WHAT???

We know that we have a diverse range of skills out there in the Amesbury Community and we would like to tap into some of those for our Module 2 Inquiry which starts in Weeks 3 this term.

If you have any expertise in the areas of construction (e.g. building), fabric (e.g. sewing), food (e.g. nutritionist or chef) or waste management and you are keen to share your expertise with students at Amesbury School, please contact Jemima (jemima@amesbury.school.nz). 

Let's not forget the glass jars with lids. Could you please save your glass jars (e.g. jam) and drop them (not literally!) into the office, that would be great. We need them for one of our activities later in the term. 

Thank you in advance for your support with this. We really appreciate it.

Easter Raffle Results

Thank you to all Pōhutukawa whānau who donated items for the Easter raffle and to all Amesbury whānau who purchased tickets. 

It was a huge success which has resulted in us making a total of $1390. This is a wonderful amount of money to go towards our camp so we extend our greatest thanks.

Here is a list of the winners:

  1. Briona from Pōhutukawa Hub
  2. Andrew from Pōhutukawa Hub
  3. Lucia from Pōhutukawa Hub
  4. Rupert from Harakeke Hub (teacher)
  5. Jayden from Pōhutukawa Hub
  6. Liam from Pōhutukawa Hub
  7. Krish from Pōhutukawa Hub
  8. Tayla from Pōhutukawa Hub
  9. Angela Y from Harakeke Hub
  10. Rohan from Koru Hub
  11. Micah from Pōhutukawa Hub

Congratulations to all of our winners. We hope you enjoy your yummy treats over the Easter break.

Ngā mihi, The Pōhutukawa Team 

Dress up day thank you!

Towards the end of last term a dress up day was held with the goal of raising funds to support the people of Ukraine.

The day was organised by the Fundraising Kaitiakitanga Group and if you want to find out what happened and how much was raised you will need to read the article written by Jia, Briona, Chloe, and Lexie. As a bonus you get to see what the Pōhutukawa teachers wore. 

Pōhutukawa Hub in Term 1

If your tamariki are in Pōhutukawa Hub or you just want to know what's been happening in there during the term, check out Kalesha's overview. It provides a great insight into the focus and activities the tamariki and kaiako have been working on together. It also covers the Kaitiakitanga Roles and their activities which every Pōhutukawa student is involved in.

Names on Clothing and other Items

We frequently end up with a number of lost property items in the office, whether they be school uniform or personal treasures. Fleeces and hats are regularly discarded when different activities take place and, for some reason, they all look the same.

A way to prevent this and to ensure that your child is quickly and easily reunited with their property is to name all of the items that your child brings to school. If you do not have something that enables you to do this, then drop into the office and see Rachel as she can help you.

Kelly Sports

Active Autumn Sports - Term 2 @ Amesbury School

This 8 x weekly (Friday’s) programme gives children the skills and confidence in a fun and enjoyable environment. Its a great way to improve your child’s motor skills and coordination.

We aim to develop and enhance balls skills; catching, kicking and throwing, while improving strength, flexibility, hand/eye coordination and spatial awareness
It also encourages their enthusiasm for sport and the life skills that such involvement brings, giving them the confidence to join sports clubs and teams in the future.
In term 2 we will be focusing on the following sports:
Football, Netball, Ultimate Frisbee and Athletics! (2 weeks of each sport).

The sessions start in week 2 on Friday 13 May 2022.

To enrol go to www.kellysports.co.nz and in the school box put “Amesbury”

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