Amesbury School


Kia ora koutou

It has been lovely to have such fine weather this week. Our strawberries are growing so big and ripening so quickly! I think it’s time to make a sponge cake and pick some strawberries to go on top. It looks like it is going to be a lovely weekend, so I hope you manage to get out and make the most of the sunshine.

Camps: Our year 5/6 students are off to the South Island on Monday to enjoy a week at Teapot Valley Christian Camp which is 25 minutes south of Nelson and set among vineyards, lifestyle blocks and farms. Our students have been there before and thoroughly enjoyed it. It looks like there could be a bit of rain, but mostly sunshine and warm temperatures. The activities they will be involved in include archery, slug guns, confidence course, orienteering, abseiling, damper cooking, go carts, a day trip to Abel Tasman National Park etc. It sounds like our year 5/6 students are in for a real treat.

Our year 3/4 students will be staying overnight at Palm Grove Christian Holiday Camp in Paraparaumu. They will be involved in a range of activities such as confidence course, archery, tyre wall climbing, waterslide, team building and campfire activities. They will also do a day trip to Ngā Manu Bird Sanctuary before returning to school. Our year 0 -2 students have a fun day of sporting activities planned at the ASB Centre and then an overnight camp at school followed by a day of arts and crafts. I have no doubt that all students will be incredibly tired next weekend, so I suggest you don’t plan anything too energetic.

Providing the opportunity for students to go on camp or stay overnight at school, is something that we think is really important. Over multiple experiences, it helps students to develop resilience and mental strength and contributes to life long mental wellbeing. I also believe that many of the slightly challenging activities that students do while on camp, contribute to the development of an “innovation” and “leadership” mindset. Children experience what it feels like to step out of their comfort zone and do something that is a little bit scary, a little bit risky, but in a tightly controlled environment. I believe this helps them to become the kind of risk takers who are well prepared to live in and lead in an uncertain and rapidly changing world. As a child, I went on many, many  camps, doing things like kayaking in the Hauraki Gulf and sleeping out under the stars – even in the rain. I also did many challenging outdoor activities with my family. I have no doubt that this contributed hugely to my development as a leader who is prepared to take risks and do things a little differently.

New build: Urs and I are really sorry we were not at the learning celebration yesterday afternoon. We were in Auckland with our lead architects looking at new schools to get ideas for the design of our new block. It was incredibly helpful and it has firmed up some ideas about what will work well for us and of what might not work so well. We have a wonderful design team and we are making some pretty quick progress towards getting concept designs together. One thing we are pretty certain about, is that the block will be two storeys. When we mapped out the space that a single storey block would take, it was simply unacceptable. We would have lost too much ground; and one thing that came through quite strongly in our new build consultation was that parents did not want to lose too much of the grounds that our community enjoys so much. This is an exciting project and I have no doubt that we will end up with amazing new learning environments.

Kia pai tōu mutunga wiki. Have a great weekend.

Ngā mihi nui

Lesley


  1. School Notices - 2 December 2019

    The main theme this week is CAMPS .... Read more…
  2. Interzone Athletics

    On Tuesday, eight students from Amesbury School went to Newtown Park to compete at Interzone Athletics. This is a tough competition ... Read more…
  3. Year 0-2 End of Year Camp - final notice

    Just a reminder that the year 0-2 activity day and camp is next Thursday 5 & Friday 6 December. Read more…
  4. Year 3/4 Palm Grove Camp: Notice #3 2019

    Please read this information as we prepare to go on camp. Read more…
  5. Year 5 & 6 South Island Camp Information #2

    This is the second and final information email for the Year 5 and 6 senior camp to Teapot Valley, Nelson. Read more…
  6. From the Library

    Book Fair and Book Club Issue 7 Order Read more…
  7. Surf Life Saving Programme

    In Term 4 all teams across the school will be taking part in a Surf Life Saving program. This will be very timely with the long summer ... Read more…