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Kia ora koutou,

I hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine over the past couple of days - certainly a welcome relief from all the rain; long may it last!

Earlier this week we announced and celebrated the winners of our recent Amesbury’s Got Talent show. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all participants in the show for sharing their fabulous talents and enthusiasm with us all. Congratulations to all of the finalists, and a special shout out to our winners: in third place we had Vaibhawi, with her fabulous and creative dance routine. In second place we had Nakshatra and Tisha, who also wowed us with their amazing dancing. And in first place we were very impressed with the beautiful piano playing we heard from Xiangyi. I would also like to say a huge thank you to Natalie, for all of her hard work and organisation in setting up and running the talent show.

On Friday last week our teaching team spent the Teacher Only Day in a Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) workshop. It was a very informative and thought provoking day, and we all got a lot out of it. An outside facilitator ran the workshop, which was based around the whakatauki (proverb) whāia te mātauranga kia mārama - seek knowledge for understanding. We spent time exploring the history around the treaty, and the content contained with the treaty. We then explored the issues that occurred after the treaty was signed, and the third section of the day was looking at the impacts of the treaty on education. Hub teams then worked together to identify goals and make plans for achieving their team goals. It was a very useful day and one that our team participated and engaged really well in. Our aim is that the goal setting from our teams will lead to positive outcomes for all students across the school.

Update from the Board of Trustees meeting

The Board met on Wednesday last week. Aside from some of the standing items in each Board meeting, the key aspects from this meeting were the sign off of the detailed design for our new hub building, and the continuation of the Board self review.

- The work on the new hub building is continuing steadily, and the detailed design has now been signed off by the Board. It is looking to be a very exciting, innovative space and we hope to soon be able to share updated plans of the space.

- The Board has been working through a self-review process over the last few meetings, reflecting on areas where it is performing well, and next steps for continued improvement. It is a very useful and thought provoking process, and one that certainly generates lots of discussion around the table!

Our next Board of Trustees meeting is set for Wednesday 4th November, and we will post an agenda for the meeting a little closer to the time.

Term dates for 2021

Our Board of Trustees have now set the term dates for 2021. These dates, including all holiday dates, are now in the school calendar, which can be found on our school website. These term dates include three Teacher Only Days through the year. As part of the Teacher Collective Agreement, eight Teacher Only Days were added into the agreement, to be used over three years (2020 - 2022). We used two of these days this year (three were initially planned, but that timeline was disrupted due to the Covid-19 outbreak). We will be using three of these days in 2021, and the dates for these days are added in the term dates below.

Term 1: Tues 2nd February - Friday 16th April

Holidays: Waitangi Day Mon 8th February; Easter Good Friday 2nd April; Easter Mon 5 April; Easter Tues 6 April

Staff only day: Wednesday 7th April (school closed for instruction)

Term 2: Monday 3 May - Friday 9 July

Holidays: Staff only day: Friday 4 June (school closed for instruction)

Queen’s Birthday Monday 7 June

Term 3: Monday 26 July - Friday 1 October

Holidays: Staff only day: Friday 27 August (school closed for instruction)

Term 4: Monday 18 October - Tues 14 December

Holidays: Labour Day 25 October

Events coming up

- Learning celebration Tuesday 22nd September: This term the learning celebration is planned as a science roadshow, where students will set up examples of their learning around the hubs. The ‘roadshow’ will be running on Tuesday 22nd from 1:50-2:50pm. If we have moved into Alert Level 1 by that time, we will be able to welcome parents and whānau back onsite in large groups. If we are still in Level 2 in the final week of term, we will not be able to invite parents and whānau onsite as a large gathering. We will keep you all updated about this as we go through the week.

- Student Conferences on Wed 23rd and Thurs 24th September: Please remember to book a conference with your child’s teacher. Check your email for the link to the student conference information explaining how to book a conference and who to book with.

- Last day of term 3: Friday 25th September. School finishes at the usual time of 3pm.

- Year 3-6 Athletics Day at Newtown Park: Thursday 15th October (first week of term 4).

We hope you all have a lovely week.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham (Acting Principal)