In this article, you'll find essential administrative details for Term 4, as well as information about our Module 3 inquiry and the key events scheduled for this term. 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.

Nau mai, haere mai! We extend a warm greeting to our returning ākonga and whānau, and a special welcome to all our new students and their families. We trust that you enjoyed quality time with your loved ones during the school holidays. Term 4 is a particularly busy term but we are excited by the learning and the events that we have coming up.

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.

Our teaching teams for Term 4 2023 are:

Koru: Sonali Singh Nandra (team leader), Angela Herman-Childs (learning leader), Davina de Witts, Gina Quintero, Hannah Sadler and Sophia Hughes

Harakake: Natalie Douglas (team leader), Jemima Colquhoun (learning leader), Eilís Ni Chaiside, Rupert Webb and Kirat Singh

Pōhutukawa: Onaitta Setefano (co-team leader and learning leader), Gar Kee Wu (co-team leader), Brent de Saxe, Ciara Lynch

*Lauren Brown is a student teacher from the Masters of Teaching and Learning programme at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University. She has been working in Koru Hub with Sonali as her mentor teacher. Lauren will be in Koru Hub for the remainder of the year, coming in 2 days a week and teaching full time for 8 weeks between the end of Term 3 and beginning of Term 4.

*Navy Ny is one of our teacher aides, she works in the hubs, supporting students and teachers. You will see her on road patrol with the Year 6 students, one of her many other roles around the school.

*Nicola Love is also one of our teacher aides and she will continue to be based in Kōwhai, supporting teachers and students.

*Liping Liu will continue to work across all hubs in her Mandarin Language Assistant role.

*Jenny Lowe and Mariska van Reenan are working as release teachers in Koru.

*Jenny, Demelza and Lisa will continue to support teachers in their role as learning partners. Lisa is also working as a release teacher in all three hubs and Demelza is a release teacher in Koru.

Communications

We use LINC-ED Hero for all our communication, learning and administration. Please use the link to sign up, keep updated with information about school admin, events in our local community and general educational information. Any notices that can be public will also be published on our school website.

Here is the link to our 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 containing specific names are kept as private documents and cannot be accessed by anyone except Amesbury staff.

Module 3 Learning

This year we have three learning modules. Our first module in Term 1 explored ‘living as my best self.’ Our second module in Term 2 explored ‘living as kaitiaki’. In Term 3, we began our third learning module, ‘living together’. We specifically focused on being an active part of our community, particularly standing up for what is right. In Term 4, the focus will shift to being a team player, specifically focusing on being part of a sports team. This is a celebration of the various world cups we have had over the past few months (and still have going) - football, netball and rugby.

The culmination of this inquiry will be our Amesbury Games afternoon on Thursday 23 November from 1:50pm. In order to prepare for the Amesbury games, whānau from across the school will buddy up and create a game that can be played by all people. Students will explore different examples of being a team player through poetry, social justice, history, fairness, equality and equity.

Learning celebration

Our Term 4 learning celebration will happen on Thursday 23rd November from 1:50pm.Specific details about how the learning celebration will run will be shared closer to the date.

Term 4 Health Module

For our health module this term, students will be exploring how to look after our bodies. This will include being active, keeping ourselves clean and smelling nice, and maintaining a healthy diet. Koru and Pōhutukawa will also look after different aspects of digital citizenship and Harakeke will look at the difference between needs and wants.

*Please note that the sessions will be appropriate to the age of the children.

Years 0-2 students will spend the first three sessions exploring how to be safe, sensible and respectful online, including learning how to navigate the internet safely, identify websites and apps that are just right for them and being respectful online. Over the next three sessions, students will look at how they need regular physical activity, how they can keep themselves clean and how to have a healthy lunchbox.

Years 3-4 will spend the first three sessions exploring their needs using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (kid appropriate version) and Manson Durie’s Whare Tapa Whā. Over the next three sessions, students will look at how they need regular physical activity, how they can keep themselves clean and how to have a healthy lunchbox.

Years 5-6 will spend the first two sessions understanding the rights and responsibilities of a creator (including copyright) and exploring online news (particularly looking at the different parts including adverts). Over the next four sessions, they will explore hygiene as their bodies change, the influences of media on our choice of hygiene products (including being critical consumers), the place of exercise and what a healthy diet looks like.

If you do not want your child participating in any particular session, please let your child’s whānau teacher know.

Mihi Whakatau

Our Term 4 mihi whakatau to welcome new students will be held on Monday 16 October. Parents and whānau are welcome to attend. This will begin at 2.15pm in the hall.

New families Information Session

This will be happening on Monday 16 October from 4:30pm. 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. If your child has started in Harakeke or Pōhutukawa, you will meet in Pōhutukawa.

Term 4 Camps

Harakeke’s overnight stay at the Wellington Zoo will be happening on Wednesday and Thursday of the first week. You will have received communications about this.

Pōhutukawa's "Out and About in Wellington" week will happen on Monday 27 November - Friday 1 December with one overnight stay at school on Wednesday 29 November. Your child has already opted into 1 of the 5 choices available for the week. The cost will be approximately $50 per child. More information about this will be sent out early in term 4.

Koru are in the process of planning their camp. This will include a trip to Wellington Zoo on Monday 27 November, a walk to Churton Park Reserve on Wednesday 29 November and an overnight stay at school on Thursday 30 November. More information will be sent out about this early in term 4

Beach Ed

Beach Education is coming up later this term. More information about this will be sent out closer to the time.

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 School

School begins for the term on Monday 9 October 2023. Please read and follow the information below to ensure your child has a great start to their new school term. We ask that all students take their shoes off when entering our learning spaces, put their bags away and sign in. Teachers will be available at this time to support students. In Harakeke and Pōhutukawa, a timetable will be displayed for students to see where they need to be. In Koru Hub, there will be activities set up for students to engage with throughout the morning.

At the end of the day students in Hannah’s and Angela’s whānau can be picked up from Kōwhai by parents, guardians or older siblings. The rest of Koru Hub will continue to be picked up outside on the basketball court. Harakeke and Pōhutukawa students will be released from their hubs. All students who are being picked up from the drop off zone will be waiting in their usual place.

Students are required to wear a named Amesbury School sunhat when outside during Terms 1 and 4, so this might be a good time to make sure that you have one ordered for this term.

Sunhats are $15.00 and can be purchased via Kindo/the online school shop.

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 2023 

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:

Wed 11 Oct Co-curricular lessons begin

Wed 11 Oct Harakeke Overnight Camp

Thu 12 Oct Harakeke Overnight Camp

Fri 13 Oct Co-curricular lessons begin

Mon 16 Oct Year 5 Road Patrol training

Mon 16 Oct Mihi Whakatau

Mon 16 Oct New families information session

Tue 17 Oct Years 3-6 Athletics Day

Fri 20 Oct Teacher only day - school closed

Mon 23 Oct Labour Day - school closed

Tue 31 Oct Junior Athletics Carnival

Wed 1 Nov BoT Meeting

Fri 3 Nov Poetry Competition

Fri 10 Nov Pōhutukawa formal opening and school cultural festival

Wed 22 Nov Co-curricular last day

Thu 23 Nov Learning Celebration

Fri 24 Nov Co-curricular last day

Fri 24 Nov Amesbury Awesomeness

Mon 27 Nov - Fri 1 Dec Pōhutukawa Out & About in Wellington

Wed 29 Nov Pōhutukawa overnight stay

Thu 30 Nov Koru overnight stay

Mon 4 Dec - Fri 8 Dec Transition week

Mon 4 Dec Beach Ed: year 1

Tue 5 Dec Beach Ed: year 2

Wed 6 Dec Beach Ed: year 3

Wed 6 Dec BoT meeting

Thu 7 Dec Beach Ed: year 4

Mon 11 Dec Beach Ed: year 5

Mon 11 Dec Year 6 day in town

Mon 11 Dec year 6 graduation dinner

Tue 12 Dec Reports go live

Tue 12 Dec Beach Ed: year 6

Wed 13 Dec Beach Ed: year 6

Wed 13 Dec Water play fun

Thu 14 Dec Last day of term - school closes at 1pm

Fri 15 Dec Teacher only day

Enjoy the last few days of the school break and we look forward to seeing you all next week.

Warm regards,

The Amesbury Team