Amesbury School


Kia ora koutou,

I hope you have all had a lovely term break with your children. I spent a relaxing few days away up the coast, which was timely after a busy and exciting term. I have also had some days enjoying the best of what Wellington has to offer, including the fabulous Van Gogh exhibition, (I definitely recommend this, if you have not already been) and some lovely walks around the local coastline.

The staff and I have spent some days in school over the past week, preparing for our final term of the year. People are all refreshed and raring to go, which is great to see. As a staff we have welcomed our three new staff members, Angela Herman-Childs, Elena Taylor and Mandy Liu, and they are all looking forward to starting the term and meeting our students and their whānau.

You may have noticed that work has been completed on the driveway entrance to school. We were aware that the design of the driveway entrance meant it was quite hard for cars to enter and exit at the same time, sometimes causing hold ups. The driveway has now been re-designed and broadened, which will hopefully make it easier to navigate.

Kāhui Ako

In our previous digest I talked about the Kāhui Ako that has formally begun in northern Wellington. A Kāhui Ako is a Community of Learning - a cluster of schools that collaborates and works together on a set of achievement challenges. Our Kāhui Ako consists of eleven local schools - nine primary schools, Rāroa Intermediate School and Onslow College. It has three principal leaders: Lesley Murrihy from Amesbury School; Christine Brown from Rāroa Intermediate School; and Kate Christie from Cashmere Avenue School.

The achievement challenges our Kāhui Ako will be focusing on are:

- Strong, secure cultural identities and a sense of belonging

- Hau ora and wellbeing

- Confident, capable, empowered learners

- Equitable outcomes for all students

Over the final weeks of last term and the school break, our other Kāhui Ako leaders were also appointed. Along with the principal leaders, a Kāhui Ako also has a number of across school leaders and some within school leaders. All schools have at least two within school leaders, with larger schools having more. 

The Kāhui Ako has appointed four across school roles, with two more roles still to be appointed. We are delighted to announce that Lisa Bengtsson has been appointed as an across school leader. Lisa will continue to work as a Harakeke teacher, and will be released each week to complete her Kāhui Ako work with the other across school leaders. It will be of great benefit to the school and to all other schools in the group to have Lisa and the other leaders working together to collaborate around our four achievement challenges to increase outcomes for all students. Onaitta Setefano will join Harakeke Hub on Thursdays when Lisa is released, and we are delighted to have Onaitta back with us again. 

We are also very pleased that Sonali Singh and Jemima Colquhoun have been appointed to our two within-school roles. They will work collaboratively with our teaching team to help teachers with our Kāhui Ako achievement challenges.

We are very excited to begin our work as a Kāhui Ako, and we will keep you all informed with what is happening in the collaborative cluster.

Events coming up

- Mihi Whakatau: Monday 19 October (Week 2 of Term 4). This will be in our school hall at 2:30pm. All families welcome. It will be followed by a new entrant parent session from 3:15 in Koru Hub.

- Staff only day: Friday 23 October (Week 2 of Term 4). Please note that school is closed for instruction on this day. This makes an extra long weekend for students, as Monday 26 October is a public holiday (Labour day), meaning school is also closed. During the staff only day, teachers will continue our work on development of our maths programme across the school.

- Walk or Wheels Week: Week 2 of this term (19 - 23 October). All students are encouraged to travel to school by walking, biking, scootering or skating, rather than travelling in a vehicle. They can gain stamps on their passport card each time they walk or wheel to school, and completed passport cards can earn chances to win prizes.

We are looking forward to seeing you and your children back at school next week. We have another exciting term ahead, and we are all looking forward to getting started.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham (Acting Principal) 


  1. School Notices - 12 October 2020

    Welcome back to Term 4 .... Read more…
  2. Amesbury Speech Competition

    This is a great opportunity for all students to create and present a short speech on something that has meaning to them. Read more…
  3. Invitation to Mihi Whakatau - Monday 19 October

    All Amesbury families are invited to join us at 2.30pm on Monday 19 October to welcome new students and teachers and their families ... Read more…
  4. Interested in your child trying out music or speech & drama?

    Co-curricular lessons begin this Wednesday. Read more…
  5. Year 3-6 Amesbury School Athletics Day

    Our Year 3-6 Amesbury School Athletics day is coming up very early in Term 4 on Thursday 15 October (Week 1) at Newtown Park. Please ... Read more…