Amesbury Digest - 7th September 2020

Key links and numbers:

Healthline: 0800 358 5453

Ministry of Health site

Mental Health and Wellbeing Support

Kia ora koutou,

We will continue to be in Alert Level 2 until Wednesday 16th September, with the decision as to whether we move out of Level 2 being reviewed on Monday 14th September. This means that for Amesbury School, the current alert level routines and expectations will remain in place:

- Regular hand washing / sanitising throughout the day, particularly after returning into the hub from break times, or before eating times. 

- Staying home if you have any signs of sickness. Contacting your GP, local medical centre or Healthline if you have any symptoms of Covid-19.

- Staying outside of the onsite boundary (as shown by the red line on the school map attached to this digest) if it is not necessary to come into school. If you do need to come towards the school buildings or inside, please ensure you sanitise and sign in at the office or in the learning hubs.

- When waiting to pick up children at the school boundary, please practice physical distancing from others, and give our students enough room to do the same. If you are waiting for older children in Harakeke or Pōhutukawa, please consider waiting a little further away from school (such as out on Amesbury Drive or along the pathway running between Romaine Road and Amesbury Drive), to allow for distancing at our busiest time.

- No gatherings of over 100 people if the gathering includes people other than students or staff of the school.

We are sorry that parents were not able to attend our Amesbury’s Got Talent final on Friday, due to Level 2 gathering limits. Thank you so much to you all for your understanding around this, as we know this would have been disappointing for some of you. John took lots of fabulous photos of the children who performed, and they will be sent through to you. A huge well done to all students who made it through to the talent show final: Anandi, Xiangyi, Yiqi, Veda, Chloe S, Annabelle S, Caitlin S, Emma, Aniska, Jade J, Georgie, Ewan, Alex Fr, Vaibhawi, Tisha, Nakshatra, and Kyla. They were all absolutely fabulous, and this made the final decision very hard for the judges! The winners will be announced to all students very early this week, as soon as we can find a slot of time when all students are onsite (and not off at ASB Centre, swimming, Waitohi Library etc!).

It has been fabulous having our new fitness trail open last week. Students have really enjoyed the different obstacles on the trail, although the climbing walls and the climbing arches seemed to be particular favourites. Teams are now beginning to incorporate the trail as part of their ongoing fitness programme. We had some slight maintenance required on the trail earlier in the week, causing it to be temporarily closed for several days, but it is now up and going again. Please see the article in this week’s digest for some photos of the new trail in action.

Events coming up

* Teacher Only Day: This coming Friday (11th September) we have a teacher only day. School will be closed for instruction and students will not be attending school for the day. All teachers will be at school participating in a day-long workshop about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its implications for us professionally and personally.

* Board of Trustees meeting: There is a meeting of the Board of Trustees members this Wednesday at 5:30pm. Here is the agenda for the meeting.

* Learning celebration 22nd September: This term the learning celebration is planned as a science roadshow, where students will set up examples of their learning around the hubs. The ‘roadshow’ will be running on Tuesday 22nd from 1:50 - 2:50pm. If we have moved into Alert Level 1 by that time, we will be able to welcome parents and whānau back onsite in large groups. If we are still in Level 2 in the final week of term, we will not be able to invite parents and whānau onsite as a large gathering. We will keep you all updated about this closer to the time.

* Student conferences on Wed 23rd and Thurs 24th September: Please remember to book a conference with your child’s teacher. Check your email for the link to the student conference information explaining how to book a conference and who to book with.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham (Acting Principal)