Whānau Groups
This term Koru has six 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!
Staff Farewell As you will be aware, we sadly farewelled two of our amazing teachers at the end of last term. Cam Botha and her whānau have moved to Tauranga to be closer to family. Her husband, Ryan, is an avid surfer so I think the waves in that part of the country were also a big plus. Esther Koh and her whānau moved to Christchurch. They bought land down there and have now decided to build on it. We wish Cam and Esther and their families all the best for the journey ahead. We know that the schools they go into will be very fortunate to have them.
We also farewelled Caro who has been helping out in the library a couple of days a week. Caro and her whānau are expecting their third child which is very exciting for them. We are looking forward to seeing photos of and maybe even meeting baby Guadalupe (Luly for short).
New Staff We are happy to introduce two new staff members to our Amesbury team. Bronwyn Thurston is a beginning teacher who will be replacing Cam in Koru. She covered release in Harakeke on Tuesdays last term and her cool, calm and collected presence was very noticeable. We are also pleased to introduce Jenny King who will be joining Urs and Demelza in the Senior Leadership as an Associate Principal. Jenny has taught in a number of schools across Wellington and in more recent years, she has been working as an educational consultant and facilitator.
Although she is not new to our school, we would like to let you know that Hannah Sadler will be replacing Esther as a full-time teacher in Kōwhai. Jenny, Demelza and Amaria will be completing all the release in Koru.
We are very happy to have all of our new staff joining us and we are sure they will be very positive additions to our fabulous team.
Our teaching teams for term 2 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.
*Gemma Williamson will continue as our ESOL teacher providing extra support to students and staff.
*Navy Ny will continue as our amazing teacher aide. She does such a fantastic job.
Communications
Last year, we moved over to 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 2 Inquiry
This year we will be running three 12 week inquiries. As such, the timing of our learning celebrations will change this year, to link in with the end of each inquiry and celebrate the learning completed within that module. Our first learning celebration will be Friday 13 May (Week 2 Term 2).
We will spend the first two weeks of term 2 finishing off our module 1 inquiry. In week 3, we will then move into our second inquiry module - Living Sustainably. In this module, students will gain a greater understanding of the material world - the physical and chemical properties of materials, the particular uses of common materials and the physical and chemical changes that occur when heating, cooling or mixing. Students will learn about the material world through one of three contexts - construction, fabric or food. We will also explore the need for sustainability and what we can do to ensure resources are not wasted. They will then use the knowledge they have gained to design buildings, furniture, uniforms or lunches for a “school of the future”. We are very much looking forward to seeing what they come up with!
We know that we have a wealth of knowledge within our community and we keen to have your input in this inquiry module (and the next one…but more about that next 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). Also, if you could save your glass jars (e.g. jam) and drop them 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.
This inquiry will finish at the end of week 4 term 3 and we are looking to have our module 2 learning celebration on Tuesday 16 August (week 4 term 3).
Module 1 Learning Celebration
Our learning celebration for Module 1 will be happening on Friday 13th May. We are looking forward to welcoming parents back onsite, and students are excited to share their learning.
Due to Covid, we are making changes to the way we will run this event.
The learning celebration will be staggered by hubs, and the Amesbury Awesomeness presentation will be livestreamed as part of our Mihi Whakatau on Tuesday 10th May.
Koru Hub will have their learning celebration between 1.40pm-2pm in Koru Hub.
Harakeke Hub will have their learning celebration from 2pm-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 on Orange Level at Amesbury, masks will be required for all adults when indoors.
Term 2 Health Module
For our health module this term, students will be exploring how I keep myself safe, both physically and online. This will include looking at consent, safe and unsafe touch / behaviours / situations, good and bad secrets, people I can go to for help, supporting others, standing up for myself and others, and knowing what information is safe to share online.
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 2. If you do not want your child participating in any particular session, please let your child’s whānau teacher know before Monday 16 May (week 3)- we will be starting our health sessions in week 3.
*The year 2 students in Harakeke will join the students in Koru for these health sessions to ensure the health programme is at their level.
Mihi Whakatau
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. However, in order to have enough space for students to spread out during singing and the haka, we are unable to have parents attend this term’s mihi whakatau.
New Families Information Session
This will be happening on Monday 9 May 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).
Teacher only days in 2022
As part of the Primary Teachers Collective Agreement, schools can take 8 days across three years (2020-2022) as teacher-only days for professional development, without extending the school year. We took two of these days in 2020, two in 2021 and have decided to take three of these days in 2022 - two days in Term 1 and one day in Term 2. The Term 2 day is:
*Monday 27th June (Week 9 Term 2): This will be a day where Amesbury School staff are completing professional development. Please note that this day is added onto a long weekend after our Matariki public holiday on Friday 24th June.
Swimming
All hubs are swimming this term. Harakeke and Pōhutukawa will have their swimming on Mondays and this will start in week 1. Here is a link to further information about Harakeke and Pōhutukawa swimming. Koru will have their swimming on Thursdays, beginning in week 2. Here is a link to further information about Koru swimming.
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. This includes a subsidised ‘IXL’ (online English and Maths programme) licence fee.
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 2 May 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. For students in Harakeke and Pōhutukawa, they will also need to bring their swimming gear and library cards (if they have them). 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.
As was noted in the article that has been sent out, now that we have moved to Orange level parents and whānau are now able to come onsite to walk their tamariki into their hubs. We ask that you socially distance where possible and that you wear masks to ensure the safety of our children, our teachers and our community. Here is a link to the article outline life at Amesbury School at Orange level.
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 2 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 2 May First day of term
Mon 2 May First day of Harakeke and Pōhutukawa Swimming
Wed 4 May BoT Meeting
Thu 5 May Amesbury School Cross Country
Mon 9 May New Families Information Session
Tue 10 May In School Mihi Whakatau
Thu 12 May First day of Koru Swimming
Fri 13 May Module 1 Learning Celebration
Tue 17 May Year 6 Day at Raroa
Fri 20 May Pink Shirt Day (The whole week is Bullying-Free NZ Week)
Tue 24 May Northern Zone Cross Country
Tue 31 May Year 6 Road Patrol Refresher
Thu 2 June Amesbury School’s Junior Invitational Cross Country
Fri 3 June ICAS Parent Meeting
Tue 7 June Playhouse Theatre presents The Emperor’s New Clothes (at Amesbury)
Tue 7 June Online Safety Parent Workshop
Wed 8 June Online Safety Parent Workshop
Tue 14 June School Photos
Wed 15 June Bot Meeting
Thu 16 June School Photos
Mon 20 June Last day of Harakeke and Pōhutukawa Swimming
Wed 22 June Nanogirl: Science Superhero Assembly
Thu 23 June School Matariki Discos
Fri 24 June Matariki Public Holiday - School is closed
Mon 27 June Staff Only Day - School is closed
Thu 30 June Last day of Koru swimming
Thu 7 July Harakeke and Pōhutukawa Perform Education Performance (at Amesbury)
Fri 8 July Last day of term
Enjoy the last few days of the school break and we look forward to seeing you all next week.
Warm regards,
The Amesbury Team
