Amesbury Digest - 15th March 2021

Kia ora koutou,

On Monday I will join many people in New Zealand and around the world who will be remembering the terrible attacks at the All Noor and Linwood Mosques in Christchurch two years ago. I know that, for me, this will be a time to consider the ways in which I am modelling my values of respect, tolerance, and the embracing of diversity. I have recently been giving this some thought, particularly through my participation in a leadership book club focusing on a book about the undivided self - living as your best, true, and whole self. I have been reflecting on times recently when I have shown my best self and what I stand for, and also times when I have not done this - particularly by not standing up and speaking out when I have seen or heard things I believe are not okay.

One of the ways we can look to honour those impacted by the Mosque attacks is by modelling to our tamariki (children) what our own values and beliefs are, and showing how to embrace the wonderful diversity our community, and our world, has to offer. By discussing and embracing compassion, unity, and love, and saying no to racism, hatred, and discrimination in all its forms, we can show our tamariki and our community how to live well in, for, and with the world. Here are several links with further reading around talking with children about the mosque attacks:

Talking to children about the Christchurch attacks

Talking about the March 15 mosque attacks: Part 1    Part 2

Attendance at school

For ākonga (students) to gain the numerous benefits of school, both in their learning and their social development, regular attendance is critical. We closely monitor attendance at school, and we report to our Board of Trustees every term on levels of attendance. We also send out communication at the start of terms 2, 3 and mid term 4, to parents of ākonga who are showing low attendance or a low punctuality (not arriving at school on time).

Here is the summary of attendance for Amesbury School in 2020. Our overall levels of attendance for 2020 were slightly higher than in previous years. We believe that this is largely due to our closed borders throughout most of 2020, meaning families were not able to travel abroad. A growing amount of absence at our school is due to travelling overseas, either for holidays or for family reasons, and last year there was a huge reduction in travel. This resulted in our attendance rates being higher than most previous years, despite concerns around Covid-19 and parents being more careful about keeping children away when they were unwell.

One of the many benefits of our new LINC-ED Hero system is that parents can consistently see an updated summary of their child/ren’s attendance at the bottom of their learning report. The different colours on the attendance summary show the different labels tagged under attendance. Dark green shows the half days attended by your child. Orange shows justified absences in half days, whilst red shows unjustified absences. Light green shows the number of times your child has been late in a term. Whether your child’s absence is justified or unjustified is not determined by their teacher or our administration team: this is determined by codes from the Ministry of Education. For example, if your child is away because they were unwell, this is coded as a medical absence, and is a justified absence. However, if your child is away from school for the afternoon to pick up a relative from the airport, this is coded as explained but unjustified. It is a good idea to check your child’s attendance using the Hero app regularly, as absences from school can build up without parents realising it, and a day away from school here and there can have a significant impact on a child’s learning and wellbeing at school.

We would also like to remind parents to please include a reason for absence when you notify the school office about your child/ren being away from school. We are required to include a reason for absence on our student attendance records, and so a member of our office team will need to contact you if we do not have a reason for absence. This process can be made much easier if a reason is included in the initial notification of absence. Thank you for your help with this.

Ka pai tō wiki - have a good week.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham