Amesbury Digest - 27 March 2019

Kia ora koutou

Friday's activities: A BIG thanks to all our children and whanau for supporting our special events last Friday. It was a lovely day and seeing the LOVEWall up on the fence was especially gratifying. I am incredibly grateful that it was a windless weekend (how unusual is it in Wellington to have several windless days in a row!) because it meant that we could leave the students' messages and artworks up for the weekend. I came down to school several times to check that they were not blowing away and it was so good to see people reading the messages and looking at the children's contributions. 

You will be pleased to know that we raised $1500.00 over the different events of the day. This will go to individual families who were seriously affected by the 15 March attack, such as losing family members. The students I have been working with will be involved in making decisions about exactly who the money might help. 

A really big thank you to all the teachers who did such a great job of creating activities and ways for the students to contribute to the LOVEWall. Thanks also to all the staff who were involved in organising Friday's events and particularly to Urs, Gail and Navy for being such amazing organisers. Thanks to the parents who gave baking or came down to help - and to Rachel for holding the fort at reception. A special shout out to the group of year 6 students who came up with the ideas for the day, baked with me and helped the day run smoothly. Well done, guys. I really enjoyed working with you. 

Open Morning for Parents: It was lovely to catch up with a number of parents yesterday morning at the Open Morning. It made me aware, yet again, of how much information there is to pass on to parents about how learning happens at Amesbury School and we don't always do it as well as we should. One of the things that came out of the morning is that we will run a session or two early next term to pass on information, particularly to new parents, about ALF, homework, the Tismos page, communications, tracking learning etc. More information about this later.

Comings and goings: Yesterday morning, I let slip that we have staff leaving at the end of term 2, so I thought I had better make it official. Alexis (in Koru) will be going on maternity leave for twelve months in July. Congratulations, Alexis! We are really excited for you both! And Mike and Chrissy will be leaving for teaching positions in Myanmar. I am quite jealous of them because I really love Myanmar and would love to visit again. Mike is very special to us and we are really, really proud of him. He started with us as a beginning teacher in the school's first year and over the years he has grown into an amazing teacher. We will be incredibly sad to see him go, but I will save my tears for our farewell nearer the time. Chrissy joined our staff more recently, but we have really enjoyed having her here - she brings many strengths and has been a real asset to the school. We are currently advertising to cover their positions. 

Nga mihi nui.

Lesley