Whānau Groups
This term Koru has seven whānau groups, Harakeke has five whānau groups and Pōhutukawa has four whānau groups. The role of your child’s whānau teacher is to act as a learning advocate for your child at school. They are your first port of call if you have any questions, comments or concerns about school or your child. The whānau teacher is not your child’s overall ‘class teacher’, most students will work with multiple teachers throughout the year, but the whānau teacher will have particular oversight of your child.
The following information is relevant for all students throughout the school. If you have more than one child at school, you will receive an email for each child. However, you only need to read the following information once!
Our teaching teams for term 3 2022 are:
Koru: Amaria Picard (team leader), Angela Herman-Childs, Bronwyn Thurston, Davina de Witts, Gina Quintero, Hannah Sadler and Kirat Singh
Harakake: Jemima Colquhoun (co-team leader), Sonali Singh Nandra (co-team leader), Eilís Ni Chaiside, Natalie Douglas and Rupert Webb
Pōhutukawa: Kalesha Segatta (team leader), Gar Kee Wu, Onaitta Setefano, Brent de Saxe and Lisa Bengtsson (learning partner)
*Lisa will be a learning partner in Pōhutukawa providing extra support to staff and students. She is doing an excellent job and the teachers in Pōhutukawa are noticing a lot of growth in their practice.
*Gemma Williamson’s role is a mixture of providing English language support for students and also working with other students who would benefit from extra support. She is mostly based in Harakeke and Pōhutukawa.
*Yamama Abdulqadir is our amazing Arabic bilingual support worker. She works with students who are native Arabic speakers.
*Navy Ny has been with us since Amesbury School opened in 2012. We refer to her as Wonder Woman. She is a fantastic teacher aide and also has many other roles that she completes with efficiency and a cheerful smile. When Navy is away, it takes at least three people to cover all her tasks.
*Jenny King and Demelza Murrihy-Topp will also be providing release in Koru this term. They enjoyed working with the juniors so much last term that they have offered to do it again this term.
Communications
We use LINC-ED Hero for all our communication, learning and administration. Here is a link to more information about this platform and how you sign up. Hero will be regularly updated with information about school admin, events and general educational information, along with information about events in our local community. Any notices that can be public will also be published on our school website.
We have a school planning site, where planning for all teachers is stored and can be accessed by everyone. No personal student information or names will be included in this planning. Any documents or planning including specific names are kept as private documents and cannot be accessed by anyone except Amesbury staff. Here is the link to ourplanning site.
Module 3 Inquiry
For our first inquiry module, we delved into Aotearoa New Zealand’s history, particularly the migration of Māori and Pakeha, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the New Zealand wars. We also briefly explored geography - where places are in Aotearoa and the stories behind their names.
Our second inquiry module, which will continue until the end of week 4 term 3 is a scientific inquiry. Students have explored the material world as well as sustainability through food, construction and fabrics. They have also looked at weather and combustion, especially fire. Students are now moving into the final part of the inquiry - ourTime. In groups, students will use their knowledge of the material world and sustainability to create a lunch, a building or a uniform for a new school. This will be showcased at our module 2 learning celebration on Friday 19 August. Please see below for more information about the learning celebration.
Our final inquiry module for this year will commence in week 5 of this term. Essentially, it is a celebration of the multicultural nature of Aotearoa New Zealand and particularly Amesbury School. This inquiry will begin with students exploring how the world fits together (continents, countries and regions), how different parts of the world have connected (especially through trade) and how countries can be quite different depending on their geological features, climate and natural resources. Students will then opt into one region and learn about two different countries in this region. They will learn about language, history, geography and festivals and celebrations.
All of this learning will culminate in a cultural showcase where students will show what they have learned about the particular countries they were exploring. This will take place in week 2 term 4. Further details will be sent out closer to the time.
For the last few weeks of this module, the inquiry will focus more on “Who am I?” and “What makes me, me?”. Students will present this to their peers in week 6 term 4.
Module 2 Learning Celebration
Our learning celebration for Module 2 will be happening on Friday 19 August. We are looking forward to having parents onsite, and students are excited to share their learning.
Due to Covid, we will keep the same format that we used in the last learning celebration.
The learning celebration will be staggered by hubs, and the Amesbury Awesomeness presentation will happen at another time in the term.
Koru Hub will have their learning celebration between 1:40pm-2:00pm in Koru Hub
Harakeke Hub will have their learning celebration from 2:00pm-2.20pm in Harakeke Hub.
Pōhutukawa Hub will have their learning celebration between 2:20pm-2:40pm in the Hall and the Library.
There will not be any gathering beforehand, and when the time for your child’s hub starts, you may go into their hub to see their learning.
More information on what to expect will be sent out prior to the learning celebration.
As noted in the article Urs sent out at the end of term 2, masks are not mandatory but they are highly encouraged.
Term 3 Health Module
For our health module this term, students will be exploring how we grow and change overtime. The specific content is dependent on the age of the students.
For students in years 1-2 (Harakeke year 2s will join Koru for these sessions), they will begin by exploring how their bodies move and the benefits of physical activity. They will then look at the stages of growth from birth to adulthood and the impact of this on our ability to do things. Finally, they will learn the correct terminology for all body parts, including private body parts.
Students in years 3-4 will also explore how their bodies have changed overtime and how they can best support this growth and development. They will identify the stages of development from birth to old age and also explore some of the changes that occur during puberty. They will finish with thinking about how they can best take care of their bodies.
The years 5-6 students will explore the stages of life in more depth and use the correct terms used to express these stages. They will explore pubertal change, the reproductive system (including the correct terms for the internal and external reproductive parts), menstruation and conception.
All students will begin with two sessions of digital technology.
For a brief overview of each of the eight sessions we will be teaching in the health module this term, please click on the link for our Health Overview Term 3. If you do not want your child participating in any particular session, please let your child’s whānau teacher know before Monday 8 August (week 3) as we will be starting our health sessions in week 3.
Mihi Whakatau
Our Term 3 mihi whakatau to welcome new students will be held on Monday 1 August. Due to the continued presence of covid, we will run this mihi whakatau in the same way we did last term. That means we will meet together as a whole school but we will not invite parents onsite. This will enable us to spread out more, particularly for singing and the haka.
New families Information Session
This will be happening on Monday 1 August from 4:30pm-5:30pm. This session is for all families who are new to Amesbury School. 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).
School Swimming Sports
The years 4-6 school swimming sports is happening on Thursday 4 August (week 2) and the years 1-3 school swimming sports are coming up on Thursday 18 August (week 4). We will send out further details about these events closer to the time.
The parents of our Year 0-3 students are asked to complete this form on behalf of their tamariki and we do expect that the majority of these students will opt into the fun water activities in the teaching pool. This needs to be filled out by Friday 29 July.
Amesbury Speech Competition
The Amesbury Speech Competition is coming up later this term. At this stage, the heats will be happening in week 6. Natalie will send out more information about this event when the final details have been confirmed. We look forward to hearing all the amazing speeches.
Amesbury Awesomeness Award
Please note that while we will present the Amesbury Awesomeness Awards early on this term for term 2, we are not able to invite all our Amesbury whānau onsite for this event. We will meet together as a whole school, and not having parents in the hall at the same time means we can provide the distancing required at Orange level.
Stationery
Your child will be issued with everything they need for the year, including books, pencils and felts/colouring pencils. There will be a cost of $45 for the year for this. This cost is charged to school accounts at the start of the year.
If students have their own personal stationery that they would also like to use, they are very welcome to bring it in and keep it in their tote tray or bag. All students in Years 5-6 will be issued with a Chromebook and all Years 3-4 will have access to their Chromebook when necessary at school. Younger students will have access to a range of devices. If you would like to purchase a Chromebook so that your child can use it at home and at school, please contact Gar Kee Wu (garkee@amesbury.school.nz).
Clothing and lost property
Named items within hubs will be handed directly back to your child. There will be a small lost property box in the main school office for any unnamed items, but no items with clear names in them will be held here.
In order for all items to be returned to their owners quickly and easily, please ensure that all uniform items are very clearly named with your child’s name before the first day of school. Please be aware that children will often be the people reading the names on clothing, so ensuring that names on all items are clear and easy to read is important. Thanks for your help with this. We recommend purchasing iron-on name tags to make ownership of items very clear. Here are a couple of label companies to consider: Stuck on You Name it
Toys/Belongings at school
While we do not recommend that students bring toys to school, we do not have a ban on this. If your child chooses to bring a toy or another item of interest to school, it will need to be put away in their bag during learning time and we cannot take responsibility for lost, traded or broken toys/items. Therefore, we do recommend that your child leaves any treasured possessions at home.
First Day of SchoolSchool begins for the term on Monday 25 July at 9:00am. Children can head straight to their hub and sign in on the touchscreens - teachers will be in each hub to help with this. Children will need to come to school in their uniform and bring their school bag, lunch and water bottle. We ask all students to take their shoes off before heading inside - there are shoe racks outside of Koru, Harakeke and Pōhutukawa to put shoes on.
Hubs are open for students from 8:30am onwards. We ask that students do not arrive at school prior to 8:30am, as they are not supervised by teachers at this time. Kelly Club operates a care programme before school for students who need to be at school before 8:30am. Please see the Kelly Club information page on our website for more details. We encourage all students to be at school by 8:45am as this allows children time to settle in, put their bags away, read the timetable for the day and then say ‘hello’ to friends and teachers before the bell goes.
Term 3 Dates 2022 As always, our school events are all added to our school calendar as soon as we become aware of them. Please follow this link to our school calendar, housed on our school website. Some events may be added to our calendar as we go through the term, so please keep an eye on the weeks coming up on the calendar. Here are the main school events to date:
Mon 25 Jul First day of term 3
Tue 26 Jul Newlands Intermediate “School in Action Morning” (for year 6 parents)
Wed 27 Jul BoT Meeting
Mon 1 Aug Koru ASB
Mon 1 Aug Mihi whakatau (only for staff and students)
Mon 1 Aug New families information session
Thu 4 Aug Years 4-6 School Swimming Sports
Fri 5 Aug Amesbury Awesomeness Awards (only for staff and students)
Mon 8 Aug Koru ASB
Tue 9 Aug Harakeke and Pōhutukawa ASB
Tue 9 Aug Raroa parent information evening (for year 6 parents)
Wed 10 Aug Raroa Open Morning (for year 6 parents)
Thu 11 Aug ICAS Digital Technologies exam (for students who have already signed up)
Mon 15 Aug Koru ASB
Mon 15 Aug ICAS English (Reading) exam (for students who have already signed up)
Tue 16 Aug Harakeke and Pōhutukawa ASB
Thu 18 Aug Years 0-3 School Swimming Sports
Fri 19 Aug Module 2 Learning Celebration
Mon 22 Aug Koru ASB
Tue 23 Aug Harakeke and Pōhutukawa ASB
Thu 25 Aug Junior Invitational Cross Country (for students who have qualified)
Thu 25 Aug ICAS Science exam (for students who have already signed up)
Fri 26 Aug Northern Zone Swimming Sports (for year 4-6 students who qualify)
Mon 29 Aug Koru ASB
Tue 30 Aug Harakeke and Pōhutukawa ASB
Wed 31 Aug BoT Meeting
Thu 1 Sep ICAS Maths exam (for students who have already signed up)
Mon 5 Sep Koru ASB
Tue 6 Sep Year 6 “Day at Raroa”
Tue 13 Sep Years 1-4 Futsal Festival
Wed 14 Sep Years 1-6 Futsal Festival
Thu 15 Sep Years 5-8 Futsal Festival
Tue 20 Sep Harakeke and Pōhutukawa ASB
Wed 22 Sep PSW Interzone Swimming Sports (for year 4-6 students who qualify)
Sat 24 Sep St Brigids Kapa Haka Festival
Tue 27 Sep Harakeke and Pōhutukawa ASB
Wed 28 Sep Student Conferences
Wed 28 Sep BoT Meeting
Thu 29 Sep Student Conferences
Fri 30 Sep Last day of term 3
Enjoy the last few days of the school break and we look forward to seeing you all next week.
Warm regards,
The Amesbury Team
