Amesbury Digest - 28th March 2022

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Over the past week or so it has been good to see our numbers of students learning onsite have been steadily increasing as students are returning from isolation or feeling more confident to return onsite. Ngā mihi to the families of students who remain learning offsite for different reasons - we hope to see you back with us very soon.

The numbers of active Covid-19 cases in our school community remain low. We now have 12 ākonga (students) and 2 kaiako (teachers) away with Covid-19. We wish them all the best for a speedy recovery and hopefully they will be back with us at school soon. Our number of Covid cases has dropped recently, with some ākonga recovering from the virus and returning to school. Of the current active cases, only 2 ākonga were at school prior to testing positive for Covid. All other ākonga and kaiako were already at home in isolation when they caught the virus. School remains a safe place for our tamariki to be for the last few weeks of this term. 

High Needs Review

In October 2021 the Associate Minister for Education announced a review of the services provided to ākonga with the highest learning needs. The purpose of the review is to ensure that these tamariki and rangatahi (young people), and their whānau, receive the right learning support they need, when they need it, and for as long as they need it.

The Review’s online portal is now open for parents, whānau and educators to provide feedback about the services provided. We know that for whānau and educators it can be difficult to navigate the learning support system, and it would be good for anyone who has had experience in this area to provide feedback. The portal is not open for long - it closes on 31st March, so jump online using this link and have your say. The link for accessing the consultation is at the very bottom of the page.

Progress with the new build

Despite the awful weather recently, progress on our new build is forging ahead. All precast staircases are now in place, and the underfloor heating system has been installed. On March 29th (Tuesday this week) there will be a large concrete pour happening to lay the slab for the first storey. This will mean 20 - 30 concrete trucks arriving through the morning from 5 am - 1pm. The car park will be closed to parents, whānau and visitors for the morning, and we ask that, where possible, tamariki walk or wheel to school. If you need to travel to school in a vehicle, please be prepared to park on the surrounding roads and walk down into school. The car park and drop off zone should be open and back in action in time for the 3pm pick up. 

The following week we will hopefully begin the framing for the first storey going up - very exciting! For those of you who may not already have seen it, (and for those of us who would just like another peak), here is the walk through video for our new hub. It is exciting now that it is really beginning to take shape and we can start to see some of the features of the building emerging.

Kia pai tō wiki - have a good week, and stay warm and dry in this changing weather.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham