Kia ora koutou,

Well, school camps were run quite differently for the two older hubs, and it was great to see different ways that camp weeks can operate. Pōhutukawa students opted into different interest-based ‘tracks’, and there was a huge range of activities happening, from mosaic making, to indoor rock climbing and netball with the fabulous Sandra Edge (former Silver Fern netball player). For Harakeke Hub a trip to the zoo kicked off the creation of a hub zoo, with some very impressive creations! In Koru Hub students became sleuths in the Police Museum, and bounced away their energy at Awesome Bounce. Between fun trips, sleep overs and much pizza, it seems we sent home some very tired children (and staff!) on Friday. I hope everyone slept well.

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of the staff involved in making these trips and camps happen. From Gail and Navy, who have sliced more vegetables and pizza this week than they ever thought possible, to Rachel, who doled out increasing numbers of plasters and ice packs to tired people as the week went on. For teachers the jobs were many and varied, from booking buses, checking sunhats and organising groupings, to helping children who couldn’t sleep at 3am. A huge amount of planning, prepping and energy goes into these opportunities, and our children are lucky to have staff who are so willing and happy to do this.

Huge thanks also to all of the parents who came along and helped on various trips and sleepovers. These events can’t happen without whānau support, and we are very grateful for your generous help.

We now head into the final week, with a few final end of year events happening. Below is a list of events for the week, and there is an article attached to this digest explaining the overview for the final day of school, which includes our annual final day water play event and sausage sizzle. There will be one final Amesbury Digest for the year next week before a summer break that everyone is definitely ready for!

Events coming up

• Mon 7th Dec: Junior Athletics Carnival 9:30am - 12:30pm
• Mon 7th Dec: End of Year Reports go live on ALF 
• Mon 7th Dec: Year 6 Graduation Dinner at school 5:30 - 7:30pm
• Tues 8th Dec: Year 6 Graduation Trip into Wellington (all day)
• Wed 9th Dec: Big school tidy up - all hands on deck!
• Thurs 10th: School farewell / water play morning / sausage picnic / school closes for the year at 12:30pm
• Fri 11th Dec: Staff only day - planning for 2021 (school not open for instruction)

Have a fabulous final week of the school year.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham (Acting Principal)