Kia ora koutou

Welcome to 2018 at Amesbury School. What a great year we have planned and what an amazing team we have to carry it out! Our teacher only days last week were great, with everyone very engaged and contributing in spite of coming back from several wonderful weeks of holiday bliss! An especially big welcome to our new staff. You will have seen Alexis and Kieron around the hubs in term 4 last year; and Sonali was with us in 2016. However, Katie is completely new this year and has moved to Wellington from Australia with her family. Please make her feel very welcome. Today we were very pleased to have Mike, Chrissy, Amaria, Bex and Briana back again as part-timers.

You are, of course, always welcome to talk with teachers in the hubs, before or after school. However, we are planning a specific opportunity for you to meet the teachers – at our “Meet, Greet and Eat” Community Evening being held on the evening of the 14th February (Wednesday, week 3). More information will be out soon. However, this should be a lovely evening out with music duo (Redfernz) performing, games, sports and activities, food and “Meet the Teachers” sessions. Hopefully the weather will be hot and summery and it will be a wonderful family evening. I look forward to seeing you there.

I trust that you have all enjoyed a wonderful summer with lots of visits to beaches, lakes or pools. We spent some time staying on the shores of Lake Te Anau and Lake Wakatipu, soaking in the stunning scenery that surrounded us. We enjoyed an amazing trip to Milford – travelling there in misty, wet weather (with huge waterfalls everywhere) and travelling back in hot sunshine. We travelled back to Dunedin via the scenic route, through McKenzie country and Lakes Pupaki and Tekapo. Wonderful!

I enjoyed seeing your children arriving for school yesterday, with big smiles on their faces. It seemed they were still smiling at the end of the day and what a buzz there was as they left for home.

Please remember our Carpark Rules. A few people were a little bit rusty on them yesterday and Angela needed to remind a few people about our expectations – possibly new parents/caregivers. I will send out an article outlining what is expected in the carpark. With a continually growing roll,  it is increasingly important that we all follow the Carpark Rules to keep everyone safe and everything flowing as freely as possible.

As I said, lovely to see you back, and I look forward to catching up with you over this term and sharing the great things we plan to do.

Arohanui

Lesley