School donations are a voluntary contribution towards the cost of running a school. Parents and whānau can choose to pay them in part, in full or not at all. In making a decision about paying school donations, it is helpful for families to know more about how donations work and what Amesbury School uses school donations for.

The Government runs a donations scheme for some schools (those with an Equity Index above 432) to opt in to, whereby the school will be paid an amount per student if the school does not ask families for a donation. Amesbury School does not qualify for this scheme, so we accept school donations from our families. 

Running a school costs more than the funding schools receive, and schools use donations and other locally raised funds to make up the difference. So what does Amesbury School use money raised through donations for? In an ongoing way each year we have several key areas where we target some of our funding:

• Keeping class sizes lower than the Ministry-funded ratios. We employ 2-3 additional teachers every year to keep our group sizes smaller.
• Providing a Chromebook device for every ākonga in Harakeke and Pōhutukawa, rather than asking families to provide their own device. Sets of shared ipads are provided for Koru Hub.
• Providing the online IXL English and Maths learning programme for all ākonga.

Each year we also have a number of specific funding areas. In 2023 we have targeted PE and Sport as an area where we will look to provide some extra resourcing:

• In Term 1 we will run a basketball skills programme for eight weeks for Harakeke and Pōhutukawa. Outside facilitators will run this programme, to provide the expertise needed around basketball. In Koru Hub ākonga will participate in a ball skills programme run by our Koru kaiako (teachers).
• In Term 3 we will finally have our school hall back in action, hurrah! During this term we will run a gymnastics programme with outside facilitators (our EasySwim providers) for eight weeks for all ākonga across the school. We have received part funding for this through Nuku Ora, and School will provide the rest of the funding. 

School donations from whānau help us to resource these key areas. Click on this link to see the donation payment details. It is good to note that any donations made to the school are eligible for tax credits, and payments can be made at any time time of the year, including paying in instalments each term or at key points through the year. 

School donations are now available for payment from the home page in your Kindo account. Thank you for your ongoing support with all of these great opportunities for ākonga.

Ngā mihi, 

the Amesbury team