Inā kei te mohio koe ko wai koe, I anga mai koe i hea, kei te mohio koe. Kei te anga atu ki hea. If you know who you are and where you are from, then you will know where you are going.

Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa - greetings to you all.

Many of you will have seen our school pepeha hung on the wall in our reception area. A pepeha is a way of introducing yourself in Māori, and it explains the places and people you are connected to. Our pepeha in reception is a large artwork completed by ākonga a few years ago that explains that we are connected to the Porirua stream and Rangituhi (Colonial Knob), and that Ngāti Toa are our iwi.

Another way to tell the story of place and people for a school or entity is through a waharoa, a carved entrance or gateway that tells the story of the place. The first part of the word "waha" means mouth, entrance, or voice, and the second part "roa" means long, slow, or delayed. Here is an image of the waharoa at Belmont School. For a while we have been exploring the idea of having a school waharoa, and we have made exciting progress with this recently.

One of our board and whānau members, Kris Love, and a previous board and whānau member, Ruia Harris, and myself met last week with several members of Ngāti Toa to talk about creating our school waharoa. We began to talk through the story of people and place that our waharoa would share, and where it would be placed, inside the main entranceway to the school reception. Our aim is to have it carved and installed towards the end of this year. It is really exciting to see this fabulous project begin to take shape, and we will continue to share the journey with you and ngā ākonga through the year.

Safety around our community

We have recently had several reports of students feeling that a car is following them or another student around the roads leading to school. Having looked into several of these situations, we feel that what may well be happening is that a few parents or whānau may be following their tamariki in the car as they bike or scoot to school during Movin’ March.

We are really pleased with the number of students walking or wheeling to school at the moment, and we understand that whānau want to ensure their tamariki are safe as they do this. We ask that parents and whānau are mindful of safety and of other tamariki in doing this. If you wish to check that your children are safe as they travel to school, perhaps driving down to school and parking close by to ensure they arrive at school may work as a solution. Alternatively, walking or wheeling alongside them to encourage and support them may help. It is good to be mindful that our ākonga are taught to be vigilant about suspicious vehicles and people acting in unusual ways. 

Bike track update

As you may well have noticed, we had our bike track resurfaced last week, to repair the damage done through flooding and heavy rain over the past few years. It is looking fabulous and Mike Barker from Track Build, has made some slight adjustments to the track to keep it engaging, adding some bumps and slight curves to help with drainage and also throw in a bit of challenge and interest. The fencing has stayed up for a few days after completion, to allow the new surface to get some sun and rain and settle a little. It is now back in action and we encourage you all to come on down and enjoy the main track, and the skill track and pump track.

Introducing staff

And finally, we will finish our focus on introducing kaimahi (staff), with our final three staff members. As we look to continue to be a connected community, just a quick reminder to book a conference with your child's whānau teacher using this information.

Charlotte Montu

Charlotte is one of our fabulous Pōhutukawa kaiako (teachers), working with our year 5 and 6 whānau groups alongside Brydon, Emma and Gar Kee. Although Charlotte joined us from Christchurch, where she had been teaching in a year 5 and 6 class, she is originally a local here in the northern suburbs, having grown up in Khandallah and attended Cashmere Avenue School and Rāroa Intermediate.

We love Charlotte’s friendly and cheery manner with everyone, and her strong sense of fun and enthusiasm helps to make Pōhutukawa a lovely place to be. Charlotte is particularly passionate about te reo me ona tikanga Māori, and she feels very strongly about ensuring ngā ākonga are seen, known, and have a strong sense of belonging.

Outside of school Charlotte loves a wide range of sports, particularly netball. She loves both indoor netball at Wellington indoor sports, and also outdoor netball - she will very shortly be involved with ASB Saturday netball playing for SMOG (Saint Mary's Old Girls). She also enjoys touch rugby at Wakefield Park.

Kirsty Little

Kirsty has worked at Amesbury School for several years, working alongside Brian to ensure our spaces are all clean, safe and ready to use. However, Kirsty has been a member of our wider school community for much longer, having cared for tamariki in several families in our school community.

Kirsty is a very valued member of our school team, and is extremely dedicated to ensuring all spaces are cleaned and vacuumed to a high standard. Kirsty will go above and beyond to do the job to her own personal high standard, being very flexible as we continually run meetings and events after school that can throw her timing out.

Outside of school, Kirsty is an amazing baker and has delighted us with sweet treats on a number of occasions. Sadly, Kirsty has not been with us for the past few months, as she suffered a shoulder injury while on holiday in Australia late last year. She is continuing to recover from this injury, and hopefully she will be back with us soon.

Jenny King

Jenny is our tumuaki tuarua, associate principal. She joined Amesbury School two years ago, and is a very valued member of the team. In her tumuaki tuarua role Jenny fulfils a wide range of tasks. Some of her key roles include being our learning support lead teacher, supporting students with particular needs across the school, being a learning partner in Pōhutukawa Hub, supporting the teachers in their growth and development across the hub, and also having oversight and organisation of international students.

One of Jenny’s big passions in her leadership role is supporting teachers in their growth and development, particularly beginning teachers. Alongside mentoring several of our beginning teachers, Jenny also runs a beginning teachers group across the ten schools in our kāhui.

We love Jenny’s calm and measured approach to things and her open and friendly manner. This works a treat when things can seem busy and on the go.

Outside of school Jenny loves spending time with her husband, Ben, and her two daughters, Mia and Dani, on their beautiful section of land up the coast. She likes spending time outdoors, usually starting her day with a walk on the beach with their dog, Casey. Her golf game is also coming on a treat!

It has been great getting to know a little more about our fabulous kaimahi (staff). Please feel free to come and chat with any of us, so that we can keep connecting and learning more about each other.

Kia pai te rā whakatā - have a lovely weekend and enjoy time with whānau and friends.

Ngā mihi nui, 

Urs Cunningham