Ki te kotahi te kākaho, ka whati, ki te kāpuia e kori e whati; When we stand alone we are vulnerable, when we stand together we are unbreakable.

Wow, a particularly wild and windy week, even for Wellington! It was great that people took the opportunity to stay home and stay safe on Thursday, when winds were especially strong. Here's hoping for a much calmer long weekend ahead.

Our one disappointment is that, as a staff team and as a wider education collective, we did not get the opportunity to come together and voice our concerns about the current negotiations for collective agreements for support staff, teachers, and principals, and also show support for wider education and health groups. Please see our separate article in this week's digest for more information about this.

Staffing for 2026

We sent a post out on Wednesday letting whānau know about some staffing changes for 2026. Our decreased staffing allocation for next year, along with our drop in release staffing (due to the axing of Kāhui Ako resourcing and all of our beginning teachers becoming fully registered), means that our teaching team will be smaller next year. This, very sadly, means that our hub teachers, Rachel H, Amelia, and Lily, and our release teachers, Katherine and Charlene, will be finishing their time with us at the end of this year.

We are extremely sad to see them all go, as we have loved having them all as part of our fabulous team. We are determined to make the most to our time left with them for the rest of this term, and we wish them all the very best for their onward journeys. They are all very valued members of the Amesbury whānau.

Hub structure for 2026

The changes in staff and student numbers means that our two hubs will be structured slightly differently next year.

• Koru Hub: The Koru team will operate in two sub-groups across the two different buildings:

  1) Māwhero (pink carpet) and Kikorangi (blue carpet) learning spaces will house all of our Year 0 ākonga (students) and almost all of our Year 1 ākonga. All Year 0 ākonga who are currently based in Māwhero this term will be part of this team. All ākonga who start school as new five year olds next year will also become part of this term.

  Three Koru teachers will base in this rōpū (group), across three whānau groups.

  2) Kōwhai (yellow carpet) and Karaka (orange carpet) learning spaces will house all of our Year 2 and 3 ākonga. Any Year 1 ākonga who are currently based in Koru main group will also be in this rōpū. Four Koru teachers will base in this rōpū, across four whānau groups.

  The Kākāriki learning space (green carpet) will be a multiple-use space that all learning groups can use as additional space. Kelly Club before and after school care will also use this space next year.

  The two teams will still work very closely together and come together at times for different aspects of learning.

  We will now begin to organise kaikao (teachers) and ākonga for the whānau groups in both rōpū. In Week 9 of this term, we will hold our transition week, where ākonga will find out their whānau groups and whānau teacher for next year, and they will spend three days together in preparation for 2026.

• Pōhutukawa Hub: The Pōhutukawa team will not have many changes in structure as Koru Hub, but it will still look slightly different. Instead of six whānau groups like this year, the hub will have five whānau groups, with two groups based on the ground floor, and three groups upstairs. The five whānau teachers will be Rupert, Gar Kee, Brydon, Charlotte, and Sarah. Emma will work as the release teacher across all five whānau groups. The five groups will still work collaboratively together, in a similar way to this year.

  Again, ākonga will find out their new whānau teacher and whānau base in time for transition week in Week 9.

  As a lead-in to transition week, our EOTC (education outside the classroom) week in Week 8 of the term will provide a fabulous chance for students to mix and get to know each other. EOTC week will operate in three groups, with Year 5 and 6 ākonga mixing and working together across their chosen threads, Year 3 and 4 ākonga will work together, giving them a chance to mix and connect, in preparation for being in Pōhutukawa together next year, and Year 0-2 will mix and connect together, as they will all be in Koru Hub next year. Please see the separate EOTC article in digest for more information about this.

We now have a long weekend, with school being closed for the Labour Day public holiday on Rāhina (Monday). I hope you have a wonderful long weekend with whānau and friends, stay warm and dry and out of the wind.

Ngā mihi nui

Urs Cunningham