Amesbury Digest - 6 February 2019

Kia ora koutou

Welcome back to the eighth year of Amesbury School. I guess somewhere along the way, we will stop counting how many years the school has been open, but not just yet! It has been lovely to see the “old faces” of students returning after the holidays, but also to see so many new students. We have had students arrive from all around the world. Our 2018 year six leavers will be starting school this week at the various schools they have enrolled in. We wish them all the very best!

The Board of Trustees met last week, with a very full agenda to get through. The Annual Charter was approved as well as the budget, which is quite similar to last year’s budget. Watch out for articles about these agenda items over the next couple of weeks. One important item the Board discussed was whether to apply for recapitation again. This year is likely to be the last opportunity we will have to apply. Once the new building’s foundations go down, there will no longer be an adequate building site for a further build. Hence, any additional provision will need to be included as part of this new build. Indications are that there will be a much more positive response to an application to include year 7/8 this time around (we have been turned down 3 times already). However, it is a lot of work to put an application together and the Board of Trustees is very keen to be sure that this is what parents want. Very shortly a survey will be put out asking parents whether they would support the school’s application for recapitation. The intention is not to reduce choice, but to increase it. The question we will be asking is: “Are you interested in having the choice of your child remaining at Amesbury School for year 7/8?”

In considering your answer to this question, it is important to understand that Newlands Intermediate is over-subscribed and may have to reduce its zone even further by removing the Amesbury part of Churton Park from its zone. Thus in the future, it is possible that our students will not have the choice to attend Newlands Intermediate. Raroa Intermediate is also very full. Hence, there is a very strong argument for having year 7/8 provision at Amesbury School. However, we fully understand that parents may be looking for different things in a year 7/8 education some of which might be better provided for at a bigger school. Hence, the question we are asking is not whether you would send your child to year 7/8 at Amesbury School, but whether you would like to have the option.

If we receive overwhelming support from parents for recapitation, the next step will then be to talk to the schools in our network to try to gain their support (or, at the very least, their agreement to not oppose our application). In the past, a few of the schools in our network have been strongly opposed to the possibility of our school recapitating. It would be very helpful if this has changed.

Please look out for the Recapitation Survey and fill it out as quickly as possible. We are on a tight timeline for getting this application done.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Nga mihi nui

Lesley