Amesbury Digest - 14th June 2021

Kia ora koutou,

Thanks to the people who let us know about the unfortunate incident early on Saturday morning where a car drove onto our school courts and field, tearing up the turf and driving very dangerously. Thankfully nobody was hurt in the incident, and the car only remained onsite for 3 minutes, limiting the damage done somewhat. We have used details from several witnesses and from our security camera footage to file a report with the police. If anybody has any further information that they feel may be useful regarding this incident, please contact Urs.

Our wonderful support team

This past week was Support Staff Week, and we would like to celebrate our fabulous support staff at Amesbury School. We have a range of support staff who help to keep our school and systems running smoothly, safely and in tip top condition. I would like to join with our community in celebrating the following support staff members:

- Brian and Kirsty: Brian is our caretaker and cleaner. He is forever handy with a screwdriver to fix things back on and tighten them up, polish and clean our place from top to bottom, and as ever, get the inevitable ball (or shoe) from the roof. Brian’s workload has significantly increased due to Covid-19, and he works really hard to consistently keep our surfaces and high touch areas clean and hygienic. Kirsty has joined Brian as part of our cleaning crew this year, due to the increased work load. Kirsty whips around our school with the vacuum cleaner each evening, and is tremendously patient with moving between and around different groups and activities happening about the place.

- Navy and Jenny are our fabulous learning assistants. Navy works largely with our younger students, assisting with ESOL (English as a second language) learning, reading and phonics (sounds). Jenny works with our older Year 3-6 students, supporting students with some additional reading learning. Both learning assistants are amazingly focused, kind, and motivated to do their very best for ngā ākonga (our students). Navy also works in the reception area, oversees our road patrol and keeps our admin and common areas spick and span and running smoothly - she is always on the go and is tremendously efficient. 

- Caro is our wonderful library assistant. She works several mornings a week keeping everything running smoothly and in order in our library. It is a very well used space, and she has her work cut out for her, but she is more than up to the job!

- Rachel is the welcoming face of our school when you first walk into reception. She keeps us all on track and ensures we all have the information and resources we need. One of Rachel’s key roles is as a first aid person in our treatment room. The care and attention she shows our tamariki is second to none - they are all so lucky to have her looking after them. Rachel is also a master at providing a delicious flat white coffee if you look like you are in need of a pick-me-up.

- John is our extremely efficient eagle eyed communications manager, and he helps to ensure we are not inundating families with too many missives. He creates the weekly digest, which includes all of the key articles and information you need. John also organises all co-curricular lessons and new enrolments, which are complex and ever-changing roles. This all requires very careful thinking and keeping track of a lot of moving parts - John is more than up the task.

- Last and certainly not least, Gail. There are many things that Gail does, particularly managing the finances and school property. She has oversight of our school finances, and keeps the school shop and school invoices running smoothly.  Gail also works closely with Brian to ensure all property is well maintained, safe and clean, and, along with Navy, acts as our school catering team, making sure staff are well fed for staff only days, conference evenings and Friday morning teas. We especially adore Gail’s butter chicken curry and Navy’s spring rolls.

All in all, we have a fabulous team supporting our teachers and leaders, and we could not do our work without them. I would like to give a huge vote of thanks to them all - we and our community are all so lucky to have this wonderful team who work so hard and do such a great job. Thank you all!

School Attendance

Several weeks ago I reported to our school community about attendance rates for our school for term 1 this year. It was really positive to note that attendance rates were generally high for the first term of the year.

As part of this focus on attendance, here is the link to our school attendance procedure. This has recently been reviewed by our Board of Trustees, and one notable change made during this process was to alter the time period around requests for medical certificates as part of an ongoing absence. Previously a medical certificate was required for an absence longer than 3 consecutive days. This has now been changed, given the ongoing situation around Covid-19 and the request of our community to stay away and keep students away when sick. We are also aware that students need to stay away from school for 48 hours after the most recent instance of vomiting or diarrhoea. As such, we now require families to provide a medical certificate for five or more consecutive days of absence.

Events coming up

There are a number of events coming up, so please keep an eye on the school calendar over the next few weeks.

- Tuesday 15th June and Thursday 17th June: School photos with Inspire Photography

- Tuesday 15th June: Inter Zone Cross Country (postponement day Thursday 17th June)

- Monday 21st June: Ministry of Education photo shoot at school (see attached article)

- Tuesday 22 June: Early pick up at 12:45pm due to paid union meeting for teachers (see attached article)

- Thursday 24th June: School discos in the evening (see attached article)

- Friday 25th June: Full evacuation and early pick up at 2:15pm (see attached article)

Kia pai tō wiki - have a good week.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham