Amesbury Digest - 16 September 2019

Kia ora koutou

Te hīkoi mo Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

Kei to pehea te Wiki o Te Reo Māori mo koutou? How was Māori language week for you? I have been thrilled to see the celebration of this special week everywhere and popping up continuously on social media. In particular, it was a real thrill for me to be involved in taking a bus load of our kapahaka group into the city for the hīkoi (walk) which marked the beginning of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori in Wellington. A huge thanks to Amaria for organising this. It was quite a different experience for most of our students, but I loved seeing the confidence with which they sang waiata as we walked from Parliament to Civic Square, and they even did the haka several times. At one point, we were involved in a haka duel with a Kura Kaupapa that was walking behind us. At Civic Square, there were competitions involving waiata, haka and the longest pukana. Derek managed to catch one of the special hoodies created for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori in the “hoodie scramble”. Thanks so much to whanau (parents/family) who came out from their places of work to support our students on the hīkoi. It was so great to have your support.

Māori Language week has been celebrated each year from 1975 and Māori Language Day is the day on which I am writing this – Saturday, September 14th – and it commemorates the presentation of the 1972 Māori language petition to parliament. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is all about revitalising the Māori language. It is an opportunity for concentrated celebration, promotion and encouragement of te Reo Māori. And every minute of every hour of every day is a Māori language minute – we can choose to use te reo – every time we do, even just a ‘Kia ora!’ contributes to revitalisation. So, I encourage you to be brave and try using even just a little bit of Te Reo Māori. Our teachers are certainly using increasing amounts of Te Reo Māori as they deliver their programmes of learning. Good for them!

KIA KAHA TE REO MĀORI!

New Build News

I am thrilled to let you know that the Ministry of Education has now appointed the Lead Designer for our new build. To our great delight, McKenzie Higham have won the contract, with Callum McKenzie as the lead designer. Callum, and McKenzie Higham, were the architects for the original school build and we really enjoyed working with them because of their commitment to creating buildings that supported our vision for teaching and learning, plus they are easy to work with. Work on developing the design of the building will begin in earnest next week. We are very excited about this because with our ongoing roll growth we already need the extended capacity. However, the finished building is still a couple of years away. Next year we are going to have to start making much more use of the hall for the delivery of teaching and learning programmes.

New Baby for Alexis

It is with great pleasure that we announce the arrival of Elliot Aiden Allen. He was born on Friday, September 6 at 12:37 and weighed 3.45 kilos/ 7.6 pounds. He came via emergency caesarean and recovery is going well.

BIG congratulations to Alexis and Antwan. Wishing you all the very best in this next exciting next chapter in your lives together. Arohanui ki a korua.

Car Park Behaviour

Thank you to all of those who have been making an extra special effort to ensure the safety of our students in the car park especially at pick up and drop off times. It has been so much better. However, we do still have a few car registration numbers/photos of cars on our list of those who have not followed the “car park rules”. Just remember that the rules don’t change just because it is a wet day. In fact, it is on wet days that the rules are most needed. Please keep up the effort and make sure that when you are sending whanau to pick up your children, that they are made fully aware of the expectations. However, most of all I just want to thank those who have always been considerate and mindful of the rules we have put in place to protect our kids. Nga mihi nui ki a koutou.

Kia pai tō mutunga wiki. Have a lovely weekend!

Lesley