Kia ora koutou,

It has been lovely having everyone back at school and getting started on another busy and productive term. We have been very impressed with the positive way ngā akonga (our students) have slipped seamlessly back into learning, with the outcome of having very focused learning environments right across the school.

Our school cross country went really well on Tuesday, and it was lovely to see so many whānau members coming out to support our tamariki. We will be sending out an article shortly with a summary of the event and our place getters, and with some photos showing the fabulous energy and effort our tamariki put into their running.

Communicating school notices and learning information

We are aware that communications may feel a little different with the move to our HERO learning system. In essence, our communication systems are largely the same, although we are trying hard to streamline the information that parents and whānau receive.

Most of our communication happens through different articles that we send out to specific groups, hubs or the whole school, as needed. These articles may be about events coming up, learning that is currently happening, school notices, or opportunities for students. We are also aware that from time to time parents also receive notices from our school office, and notifications of invoices for payments through our school shop. In order to keep notifications and emails manageable for parents, especially in the busy world we live in these days, we ‘bundle’ articles and notices into one weekly newsletter called our Amesbury Digest. This digest is published generally on Sunday each week. From time to time we may also decide to send out a stand alone article, reminder or alert, in between weekly digests, if we feel the information is particularly important or timely. However, we aim to keep as much information as possible for the weekly digest.

Each weekly digest will have a short editorial or message, written by myself or John Murrihy, our communications manager. It will also have a set of current articles. This will always include an ‘Amesbury Notices’ article, and all other articles about relevant events or learning.

In order to stay informed about what is happening at school, the weekly digest is the most important place to look. It would help to look through the list of articles in the digest each week, and decide what is relevant for you and your family. In order to make it as easy as possible to do this, we will be including a list of articles contained in each week’s digest in the short post that is added to HERO when the digest is published. This means that the brief message you receive on your phone or via email will show the list of articles contained in the digest.

Throughout the term teachers, leaders and teams across the school will write a variety of articles, informing parents and whānau about the different events, happenings and learning going on at school. This will hopefully keep everyone well informed of what is going on at Amesbury School through the term.

Kia pai tō wiki - have a good week, despite the change in weather for the next few days! We hope to see many of you at school on Thursday for our first learning celebration of the year, sharing some of the great learning from our first inquiry - Living As Me in the World.  

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs Cunningham