From our Tumuaki / Principal

Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa, warm greetings to you all,

Earlier this week we received the very sad news that Rory O’Connor, Board Chair of our Amesbury School Establishment Board of Trustees, passed away at the end of last week. Rory was an amazing man, and it was his passion and vision for education that drove the vision of our kura. 

The establishment board of Amesbury School can be seen in the photograph above, along with our Ministry new build team. Rory is on the far right, looking very dapper in his panama hat. Our foundation principal, Lesley Murrihy, is third from the right, wearing her beautiful korowai (cloak). Rory had incredible passion for learning and a future focused vision of a school where the environment and learning programmes were designed to meet students’ needs, rather than students adapting to fit into a one size fits all model of schooling. His energy and drive brought the establishment board together, and his experience, wisdom, vision, and willingness to be challenging, when needed, brought his vision into practice. 

Three of Rory’s grandchildren, Tom, Roderick, and Hamish, attended our school, building an ongoing link with his wider whānau. His legacy lives on at Amesbury School through our focus on being a student-centred place of learning. Our school library is named after Rory, and if you look up above the doorway as you enter the library from the reception area, you will see his name. It serves as a constant reminder to me of the vision that started our amazing school, and the ongoing focus of placing ngā tamariki, our children, at the centre of everything we do. 

While remembering Rory and thinking about what is important to us as a kura (school), it is really timely to remind you all of our community cultural celebration and gathering next Friday (15th November). It is running from 4-6pm, and will be a fabulous chance to connect as a community and share food and dancing from our fabulously diverse range of cultures. It will also be a chance to see our beautiful new school waharoa (carved entranceway) that will be installed this week and unveiled and blessed on Friday morning. Fittingly, our waharoa will frame the doorway heading into our school reception area, directly opposite Rory’s name on the library entranceway. I hope to see you all at the gathering. 

Have a lovely weekend and treasure the time with whānau and friends. 

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham