This article contains some basic admin information for Term 2, along with details about our Module 2 inquiry (starting in Week 2) and main events for this term.

Welcome back to Term 2! A warm welcome to all new students and whānau joining us, and a warm welcome back to all returning families. We hope you have all had a lovely break with family and friends and are well rested and ready for the term ahead. Teachers have been meeting together this week and we are excited to see you all again on Monday.

Whānau Groups

This term Koru has seven whānau groups, Harakeke has six whānau groups and Pōhutukawa has five 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, reminding you of who their whānau teacher is. However, you only need to read the following information once!

New Staff
We are happy to introduce Gina Quintero who started teaching at Amesbury School toward the end of last term. Gina is originally from Columbia and it is great to have another Spanish speaking teacher in our school. She has a real passion for sharing her culture and language with students and she also truly values the cultures of others. We are very fortunate to have Gina at Amesbury School. She will begin as a release teacher and will then move full time into Koru as the numbers grow.

Our teaching teams for 2021 are:

Koru: Amaria Picard (team leader), Angela Herman-Childs, Camella Botha, Elena Taylor, Esther Koh, Jemima Colquhoun and Regina Singh

Harakeke: Eilís Ni Chaiside, Lisa Bengtsson, Natalie Douglas, Sonali Singh, Zelda Van Zyl and Zoe Jiang

*Teachers in Harakeke will be taking on different aspects of hub leadership.

Pōhutukawa: Kalesha Segatta (team leader), Andy Little, Gar Kee Wu, Michélle Prinsloo and Onaitta Setefano

*Gina Quintero will be a release teacher across the school for this term but will move into Koru as the numbers grow.

*Navy Ny will continue as our amazing learning assistant and all round super hero! She does such a fantastic job and we are pleased to have her at Amesbury School.

*Jenny Moore started part way through last term as a literacy learning assistant in Harakeke and Pōhutukawa. She has a real passion for literacy and it is great having her take a few students for extra literacy sessions each day.

*Caro Cazares started part way through last term as our library assistant. Caro adores children’s books and loves spending time with staff and students in the library. She works for several hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, helping to keep our library systems running smoothly.

Communications

This 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. All of this will be reposted 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, and this link can also be found on the front page of our school website - the small book icon in the top right hand corner of the homescreen.

Module 2 Inquiry

In Week 2 Term 2, we will begin our second inquiry module. This module will run for 12 weeks and will finish at the end of Week 4 Term 3. To celebrate the learning in this module, we will have our second learning celebration on Thursday 19 August (Week 4 Term 3).

The focus for this inquiry is Planet Earth and Beyond. At the end of last year we collected student voice and ideas from all students across the school around what they would like to learn about within this inquiry. We have used this information to inform our planning for the inquiry modules. We will begin the inquiry by learning about the scientific process. We will then move into three mini inquiries - astronomical systems, earth systems and interacting systems - where students will explore a range of questions linked with Earth and the solar system. Students will then spend the last 4-5 weeks researching and working on their own science project, related to Planet Earth and Beyond, which they will present at our science fair (learning celebration). It is a very exciting inquiry module and we know students are particularly looking forward to learning about space.

Term 2 Health Module

The focus for our Health module this term is relationships. For Health sessions, we will split students in Years 1-2, Years 3-4 and Years 5-6, to ensure students are getting necessary information at an appropriate age. This will mean year 2 students in Harakeke Hub joining other year 2 students in Koru Hub for this learning, and year 4 students in Pōhutukawa joining year 4 students in Harakeke Hub for these sessions. This module will contain five sessions and will run from Week 4 to Week 8.

*For Years 1-2 students, we will explore treating others well, being a good friend, expressing my feelings and standing up for myself and others.

*For Years 3-4 students, we will explore growing healthy relationships, recognising and expressing my feelings, solving conflicts, managing peer pressure and standing up for myself and others.

*For Years 5-6 students, we will explore different types of relationships, what good relationships look and feel like, communicating effectively, understanding different perspectives and making good decisions, even if I feel pressured to make a poor decision.

For a brief overview of each of the five 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 wish for your child to be part of a particular health session, please let your child’s whānau teacher know by the end of Week 3 (Friday 21st May).

In Term 3, the health module will focus on how our bodies grow and change, including correctly naming body parts, puberty, menstruation and the human reproductive system. As part of this module we will also look at hygiene and nutrition and keeping ourselves safe, including consent and safe/unsafe touching.

In Term 4, we will focus on knowing who I am and good mental health. This module will include gender roles, gender identity and media influences on identity and body image.

*Please note that we will cover topics that are appropriate to the age of students, and students will be split into Year 1-2, Year 3-4 and Year 5-6 for these lessons. We will send out a brief overview of each module in the Term 3 and Term 4 information articles, and you will be able to opt your child out of certain health sessions.

Mihi Whakatau and New Parent Information Session

Our Term 2 Mihi Whakatau to welcome new students and staff will be held in Week 2. The mihi whakatau will happen on Monday 10 May at 2:30pm in the hall. Everyone is welcome to come along and join in. Families of new students are warmly invited to come along and join in the mihi whakatau as we welcome you all to our school community.

The New Parent Information Session will take place after the mihi whakatau at 3:30pm. Further information about this session will be sent out in Week 1.

Teacher only days in 2021

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 and we will be taking three of these days in 2021. Those days are:

*Wednesday 7th April (Wednesday after Easter Tuesday) This will be a day where schools in our local cluster meet together for professional development.

*Friday 4th June (Friday before Queen’s Birthday) This will be a day of professional development for Amesbury teachers.

*Friday 27th August This will be a day where schools in our local cluster are all spending the day doing professional development.

Amesbury’s Got Talent

By popular demand, Amesbury’s Got Talent is back this term. This is an opportunity for students to showcase their amazing talents and to also grow their confidence by performing in front of a live audience. We were wowed last year and look forward to seeing what is in store for us this year. The final for Amesbury’s Got Talent will take place on Friday 2 July (Week 9) - it will be an evening show this year! Further information about how your child can sign up will be sent out in the next few weeks.

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. There has been a slight increase in the stationery fee this year. The fee has been $40 since the school opened in 2012, and it has increased slightly to $45. This includes a subsidised ‘Matific’ (online Maths programme) licence fee, and 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 Pōhutukawa and Harakeke Hubs will be issued with a Chromebook. 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 Andy Little (andy@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. "Precious Labels" offer a range of stick on and iron labels for your child's belongings and these can be purchased through Kindo.

Toys/Belongings at school

While we do not generally recommend that students bring toys to school, we do not prohibit this, as there are circumstances under which it is helpful for a child to bring a personal item to school. If your child chooses to bring a toy or another item of interest to school, all teachers will ask this it is put away in their bag during learning time. We cannot take responsibility for lost, traded or broken toys/items, and therefore, we recommend that your child leaves any particularly treasured possessions at home.

First Day of School
On Monday 3 May, school begins for the term 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 and Harakeke to put shoes on. For students who are in Pōhutukawa, place your shoes against the wall under the overhang by the hall kitchen or under the overhang by the piano hall door.

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. 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.

Lunch time activities
Throughout the year we will have a number of lunchtime activities running. This term, we will have:

• Monday: Choir

• Tuesday: Gardening Club

• Tuesday or Wednesday: Rocket Club

• The library will be open every lunchtime for students to read books, play board games and create amazing arts and crafts.

Term 2 Dates 2021 

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 3 May First day of school

• Tue 4 May Amesbury School Cross Country

• Wed 5 May Wednesday co-curricular begins

• Wed 5 May BoT meeting

• Thu 6 May Koru swimming begins (8 weeks)

• Fri 7 May Friday co-curricular begins

• Mon 10 May Mihi Whakatau

• Mon 10 May New Parent Information Session

• Thu 13 May Learning Celebration

• Mon 17 May Electives begin (5 weeks)

• Tue 18 May Year 6s Day at Raroa

• Tue 25 May Northern Zone Cross Country (Years 4-6)

• Wed 2 June BoT meeting

• Thu 3 June Junior Invitational Cross Country (Years 1-3)

• Fri 4 June Staff Only Day

• Mon 7 June Queen’s Birthday - No school

• Tue 15 June School Photos

• Thurs 17 June School Photos catch up session (if required)

• Wed 23 June Wednesday co-curricular open day

• Fri 25 June Friday co-curricular open day

• Fri 25 June Whole school emergency evacuation drill and pick up practice

• Tue 29 June Northern Zone Hockey (Years 5-6)

• Fri 2 July Amesbury’s Got Talent Final

• Wed 7 July BoT meeting

• Fri 9 July Final 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