From our Tumuaki / Principal

Kia ora e te whānau,

I hope you have all had a lovely break with your whānau. I spent time with my whānau over on the Gold Coast, and it was lovely to recharge after a busy term. Walking along the beautiful stretches of Queensland beaches always does wonders to re energize me, and I certainly felel better for it. Our staff have also been resting and recharging in many different ways, and it has been lovely hearing the different ways they have gone about doing this, from staycations locally in Wellington to international travel in various destinations. As a team we are ready and recharged for an exciting term ahead. 

Staffing update

In news that is both sad and exciting, Onaitta Setefano has accepted a teaching position at Cannons Creek School in Porirua, and will be leaving Amesbury School at the end of this year. We have really valued Onaitta as part of our fabulous team, and we will certainly miss her. Onaitta is passionate about working with Pasifika ākonga and whānau, and is moving to a school with a larger Pasifika community. We wish her all the very best on her exciting journey.

Several key events coming up to be aware of:

• A reminder that there is a staff only day on Friday 20th October (Week 2 of the school term). This tags onto Labour Day weekend, as we have a public holiday on Monday 23rd October. School will be closed for instruction on both of those days.
• For the staff only day on Friday, the team will be working on Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed national curriculum.
• On Friday 10th November (Week 5 of the term) we will have our formal opening of Pōhutukawa Hub and our school cultural celebration and social gathering. Please see the separate article in this digest for more details. We hope to see many of you there for a chance to connect as a community.

Property update

You may have already noticed that much of the fencing is already down around our new Pōhutukawa hub building. Work around the exterior of the hub has gone to plan over the last few weeks, which is fabulous, and we are now completing the last few small jobs to bring it to completion. The building itself is now fully completed inside and out, and we have full access around the exterior of the building. The temporary road at the back of the hub has been removed, and the topsoil has been replaced. Grass will be seeded in these areas in the coming week, and we will fence off part of this areas for the next next couple of weeks, just to protect the grass as it grows. The soil is still extremely soft and quite fragile, so we will be staying away from it for the time being, to let it develop. 

Mayor Whanau will join us at our formal opening of the hub building part way through Term 4, which will be exciting. It has been a long journey, hitting various obstacles along the way. However, looking at the finished building, we can definitely say it was all worth it and we are so proud and delighted with the finished product. Huge thanks and well done to our fabulous construction crew, especially the site manager Joe Bannerton, who has been amazing to work with. Huge thanks also to our amazing architects at Mackenzie Higham, especially Dipak Patel and Jacob Rhodes-Robinson, who have worked closely with us throughout the project, and also to our Ministry delivery manager, Trudie Ward. We now look forward to continue settling into the new building and truly making it our own.

And so, let the final term of 2023 begin. Term 4 is always a very busy and exciting term, with lots of things going on. We start Week 1 with a hiss and a roar in Harakeke Hub with our overnight camps at the zoo, and things keep going from there. Please check out the whānau information article in this digest for a list of events coming up, and we will keep you updated with notices and articles about events throughout the term, so keep an eye out each week for the weekly digest.

Kia pai te rā whakatā, have a good weekend, and I look forward to seeing you around school and at various events through the term. 

Ngā mihi nui, 

Urs Cunningham