Nau mai, haere mai. It is hard to believe that we are about to start term 4 2022. We hope that you have had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday and that you have managed to stay warm and dry. A warm welcome back to all returning ākonga and whānau, and a special welcome to all our new students and their families. We are looking forward to connecting with you all over this term.
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.
Our teaching teams for Term 4 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)
We would like to introduce a new teacher to our school, Ciara Lynch. Ciara has recently arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand from Ireland. She said that the weather is making her feel at home which I think is positive. Ciara is an experienced teacher who comes to us highly recommended. She will mostly be providing release in Koru but there may be times when she provides release in other hubs. Ciara will be working three days a week.
*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.
*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.
*Yamama Abdulqadir is our amazing Arabic bilingual support worker. She works with students who are native Arabic speakers.
*Jenny King and Demelza Murrihy-Topp will also be providing release throughout the school as necessary. Jenny will work as a learning partner with Harakeke and Demelza will work with Koru as a learning partner.
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 our planning site.
Module 3 Learning Celebration
Our third inquiry for 2022 is “living in a global world”. Through this inquiry, we are exploring two main questions: Who are we and who am I? To answer the first question, we have put together a cultural showcase that celebrates different cultures from around the world. At the beginning of the inquiry, students opted into a particular geographical area (e.g. Europe or The Pacific), and they have spent the past 6 weeks learning about two cultures in this area. They have then put their knowledge together into a short showcase which they will perform for whānau in week 2 term 4. Rather than a traditional production, whānau will be able to move through the different learning spaces experiencing music, drama, visual arts, dance and more. Our showcase will be divided into the following regions: Aotearoa, Africa, Asia, The Americas, Europe, Middle East, Pacific Islands, and South East Asia.
Similar to our electives, students have been working collaboratively with kaiako (teachers) and other ākonga (students) from across the school. Each region will offer a look into 2 student chosen countries and present what they have learned in a culturally respectful way. Whānau should be able to leave each space having heard the language, learned some new facts, and understood the contribution each culture has made to the world.
We want our community to have the best interactive experience possible, which does mean we must limit numbers at any given time.
There are 2 days to choose from:
Tuesday 25th October, 9.30 - 11.00am
Thursday 27th October, 9.30 - 11.00am
Bookings are required and an expression of interest can be made through this form by Tuesday 18th October. You will be contacted with the number of tickets you have requested.
For any further information, please email either:
Angela angela.herman-childs@amesbury.school.nz
Onaitta onaitta@amesbury.school.nz
After the showcase the inquiry will continue until week 6. For this part of the inquiry, we will focus on ‘who am I?’ and ‘what makes me who I am?’. Students will put together a box of “memories” that show who they are. They will also create a workshop about something that represents their cultural identity. This will be shared with peers in week 6 term 4.
Term 4 Health Module
In term 4, we have six weeks of health. Two weeks will be used to further explore what it means to be a digital citizen and four weeks will be used to look into what I need to survive and what I need to thrive. We will use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a basis for these sessions which will include looking at needs and wants, understanding our physiological needs (such as food, water, warmth, etc.) and understanding our need for safety and a sense of belonging. Students will also learn about hygienic practices. Hopefully, they will be more willing to bathe after this session.
Mihi Whakatau
Our Term 4 mihi whakatau to welcome new students will be held on Monday 17 October. Parents and whānau are welcome to attend. This will begin at 2.30pm in the hall.
New Families Information Session
This will be happening on Monday 17 October 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).
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 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 fabric label pens, name stamps or iron-on name tags to make ownership of items very clear. Here are a couple of label companies to consider: Precious Labels (orders can be placed on Kindo) Stuck on You or 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.
Absences
Schools are legally required to account for the safe whereabouts of each child every day, so notification to the school office should be before 9am if students will be more than 15 minutes late or not be attending school.
Please provide a reason for a late arrival/absence as schools are required to record this information. Absence notifications can be made by:
Absence form on the school app *(preferred) or school website
Email – office@amesbury.school.nz
Telephone – 04 477 3423
Text – 021 86 55 28
If your child arrives at school any time from 9:00am, they must sign in at the office, not in the class/hub.
All absences are to be advised to the office, with extended leave requests copied to the Principal.
First Day of SchoolSchool begins for the term on Monday 17 October 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, sunhat, lunch and water bottle.
Please note that it is a sunhat term. Students are required to wear a named Amesbury School sunhat when outside during Terms 1 and 4 - this includes during all breaks and while outside during school time.
Sunhats are $15.00 and can be purchased via Kindo/the online school shop. Orders can't always be processed and issued overnight or the same day so best to order in advance so there's time to collect and clearly label before they are needed. Children without sun hats will need to stay in the designated shaded areas during break times.
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 4 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 17 Oct First day of term 4
Mon 17 Oct Mihi whakatau
Mon 17 Oct New families information session
Thu 20 Oct Chinese Whānau Hui
Mon 24 Oct Labour Day (school closed)
Tues 25 Oct Cultural Showcase
Wed 26 Oct BoT Meeting
Thu 27 Oct Cultural Showcase
Tue 1 Nov Junior Athletics Carnival (Year 0-2)
Mon 7 Nov Year 5 Road Patrol Training (for all Year 5 students or for students who have already signed up)
Mon 14 Nov Northern Zones Athletics (for students who have qualified)
Thu 17 Nov Year 5 Road Patrol Training (for all Year 5 students or for students who have already signed up)
Fri 18 Nov Amesbury Community Gathering
Wed 23 Nov BoT Meeting
Mon 28 Nov Pack the Bus pick up
Tue 29 Nov PSW Inter Zone Athletics (for students who have qualified)
Mon 5 Dec Year 5 and 6 El Rancho Camp
Thu 8 Dec Koru and Harakeke overnight stay at school
Mon 12 Dec Year 6 Trip to Town
Mon 12 Dec Year 6 Graduation Dinner
Tues 13 Dec School Water Play Fun
Wed 14 Dec Last day of school, including our farewell assembly and school sausage sizzle picnic
Enjoy the last few days of the school break and we look forward to seeing you all next week.
Warm regards,
The Amesbury Team
