Kia ora koutou,

We are heading into the final full week of the 2021 school year. Last week was an exciting, action-packed week across the school, and I would imagine you have had some very tired tamariki at home this weekend. Huge thanks to all of the kaiako (teachers) who planned and ran such a fabulous range of activities for our ākonga last week. Special thanks also to all of our parent and whānau volunteers. These activities cannot run without your support on the day, and we really appreciate your time and help with this.

Next week’s digest will have an editorial from me that will look at a summary of our student achievement for the year, and some of the focus areas we have been working on. This week I will give an overview of any final school events that will run, so that parents and caregivers have a clear idea of what is coming up. Please note that schools are still operating under Alert Level 2 restrictions until the end of 2021. This means no gatherings or events that bring parents and whānau onsite, unfortunately. From Jan 2022 we will be operating under the new traffic light system, which will allow for more events and gatherings to take place. We will send home guidelines around what this will look like for Amesbury School at the start of next year, along with information about our preparations for managing learning if any further disruptions happen.

Here are the details for our final events and activities for the last few days of school:

This week:

- Monday 6th: end of year reports go live on Hero

- Tuesday 7th: transition to new hubs. Students start the day in their current hub, and through the morning they move across to their new hub for 2022, or to the Year 6 leavers’ programme. They will then stay in their new hubs for the rest of this year

- Wednesday 8th: Board of Trustees meeting 5:30 pm in the school meeting room

- Thursday 9th: Year 6 transition trip into town.

The following week (final two days of school)

- Mon 13th:

*Celebration assembly 9:30 - 10:30am. This will have our full school Kapa Haka performance, several dance items, school band performances, school choir performance, celebrations of our school netball and miniball teams, and a celebration of all students who participated in ICAS exams. This event will be live streamed, and the link will be sent out on Hero just before 9:30am.

*Kapa Haka performance group shared kai and acknowledgements - 10:30-11am

*Whole school water play fun 11:30am-12:30pm (weather permitting). Children can bring togs and clothes for water play fun, towels and water guns. There are also non-water based activities for any children who do not want to get wet

*Year 6 graduation dinner 4:30-8:30pm. 

- Tues 14th

*Farewell assembly 9:15-9:45am. This will be when we present our 6 Amesbury Awesomeness Awards, our Northern Suburbs Leadership award, and our Pōhutukawa awards. We will also farewell all year 6 leavers, all other students who are not returning to Amesbury next year, and Elena and Zoe who will both be leaving at the end of this year. This event will be live streamed. The link will be sent out on Hero just before 9:15am.

*Whole school picnic at school - sausages and ice blocks provided by school.

*School closes at 1pm for the year

Kia pai tō wiki - enjoy your week.

Ngā mihi, 

Urs Cunningham