Tena Koutou Katoa

A big week here for us to start off Term Four. Year 8 campers had an awesome time in Kaiteriteri and thanks again to Mr Black, Mrs Shaw and the awesome parent helpers who made this happen. I have seen the pictures and is there really anymore evidence needed that NZ is such a great place to live!

Special thanks to the Amuri Lions for supporting our Year 7 leadership programme this week. We have added some great pics into this newsletter for you to enjoy and students will be busy next week processing and writing thankyou letters to all that come together to make this week such a success.

The issue of vaccination and masks have come to the fore this week with the release of public health orders mandating masks on buses for over 12's and mandatory vaccinations of all front facing school staff AND volunteers from 1st January 2022. In this order we see a transfer of responsibility from central government and law enforcement to schools as we are now responsible for collating a vaccine register for staff/volunteers and students and ensuring the mask on buses mandate is enforced. 

Under the current order, all staff and volunteers that have front facing student contact will need to have had their first jab by November 15th and be fully vaccinated by January 1st. We are still waiting on firmer guidance around much of this new health order, however, for now please ensure your child has a mask to wear on the bus if they are 12 and over and we will provide more information as we receive it on the other aspects.

As it currently stands, this order will also impact on visitors/parent help and contractors to the school from January and how this will actually work in reality I have no idea at this time. For now we can only deal with what we know and work out the rest as we receive more clarity.

This is certainly a time of change with strong opinions on both sides of just about every issue. I do ask that you channel your conflicting views in the right direction and remember for example that our bus drivers and bus controller are doing the best they can with the mandate they have been given and are simply trying to implement the health order as requested by law. At Amuri we welcome and accept all students and the diversity they bring to our school. We are an inclusive school where everyone is welcome and everyone is accepted for who they are and everyone has a right to learn.

Have a wonderful long weekend as we are still good to head out and about and enjoy some family time. These are strange times where such a thing is considered a privilege!

Nga mihi Nui. 

James Griggs

Principal

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Junior School News

Kia ora Parents and Whanau

Welcome back after the break and it’s good to see the final term underway. As it’s now Term 4, we need all students in Year 1-6 to be wearing a broad brimmed sunhat when they are outdoors. This is part of our Sunsmart policy which requires all students and staff to be wearing a hat outside in Term 1 and 4. Please make sure your children have a sunhat each day and that it is named! Most students leave these at school in their cubbyhole during the week, so they have one every day.

Last term we trialled virtual assemblies here at school. By grouping the students with a buddy class, we were able to keep to a limit of 50 and we were able to link the student groups via Zoom. Now that we are feeling confident, we have decided to open this opportunity to parents. A zoom link will be posted to your children’s class journal on Friday and by clicking the link you should be able to join, via a waiting room. Please make sure your microphone is on mute for the assembly. Thank you!

Assembly Roster - Term 4 

22 Oct – Terako
29 Oct – Year 1-8 Athletics
5 Nov – Tekoa
12 Nov - Show Day
19 Nov –Te Kooti
26 Nov - Singing
3 Dec - Year 6 Leavers Assembly
10 Dec - Singing Practice

We have finalised our staffing for 2022 and we have several staff who will be moving to a new year group next year.
 Year 7/8 – Mrs Shaw, Ms Campbell and Miss Sopp
Year 6 – Miss Garthwaite
Year 5 – Mrs Moke and Miss Quin Paterson
Year 3/4 – Mrs Johnson and Miss Allison
Year 2 - Mrs Van der Merwe
Year 1 – Ms Anna Jamieson

With all the uncertainty surrounding us, we are ready to go if we need to move back to online learning. Seesaw is our delivery platform for online learning and by now we are familiar with how this works, thanks to our last lockdown. When the school is open and we are face to face teaching, there will be no provision for online learning. Seesaw will only be used for teaching when the school is not open for all students and when the school is closed for longer than two days, unless otherwise specified. We will communicate when we will be using Seesaw as our learning platform, via a message on Seesaw or with a post on our Facebook page.

This week Year 8 have been on camp up at Kaiteriteri and they look as though they have had a fabulous week. Mr Griggs and I think we may have made a mistake allowing Mr Black admin rights to the school Facebook page, as we were insanely jealous of all the photos he put up. Thank you to Mr Black, Mrs Shaw and all our camp parents for their efforts in making this camp such a great success for our Year 8 students. While they have been away, Year 7 students have been involved in their leadership week in preparation for being leaders in Year 8. Mrs B and Ms Garthwaite have been leading this experience and along with parent helpers, have been showing Year 7 students how to be leaders by providing opportunities for them to shine and by listening to examples of good leaders within our community. Thank you to all the teachers and parents for their support in providing these experiences for our learners.

Next week we have our Year 1-8 athletics day on Friday the 29th of October. Unfortunately, at this stage, this will be a closed event meaning no parents can attend. This is due to alert levels for Covid-19 and is disappointing for us all, as everyone enjoys getting together for this event. 

Finally a warm welcome to our newest Amurian Wally! He is beginning his school journey with Mrs Johnson and his new friends in Room 1. 

Nga mihi nui
Kylee Habgood 

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Dates for Your diary

October
25th Labour Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
29th Primary Athletics

November
1st Year 11-13 School Reports emailed
1st Primary Athletics Postponement
1st Canterbury Rams visit with Year 5-8s 
5th Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival
8th HPSSA Athletics - Amuri
10th HPSSA Athletics Postponement
10th Board of Trustees Meeting at 6:00pm
12th Canterbury Anniversary - SCHOOL CLOSED
15th-17th Year 6 Camp to Kaikoura
21st Craig Pickering Memorial Trail Ride
22nd-24th Year 10 Camp to Windy Point
25th MOE Accord Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
26th Primary Market Day

December
1st CPS Athletics at Nga Puna Wai
1st Board of Trustees Meeting at 6:00pm
2nd-3rd Kapa Haka Festival at Tuahiwi
6th Year 7-9 Transition Day
10th 125th Celebration Day
16th Prizegiving - End of the School Year

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Senior School News

Tena koutou Amuri whanau
It has been an absolute pleasure to be welcomed into the school by students, staff and community. I am looking forward to the journey that we will experience together. Every day so far has brought an adventure and it has been fantastic to see the wide variety of activities that have been going on across the school. I feel proud to be part of an area school that caters so well for it’s students.

Nuts and Bolts
There has been much speculation around the changing state of Covid-19 and the impact on how as a school we collect achievement results for senior students. We have been advised by NZQA that at alert Level 2, end of year external examinations will go ahead as planned.

If alert levels were to increase between now and November 22nd then as a school, we have been collecting evidence of students ongoing achievement which can be used to provide an emergency derived grades. These grades are made up of a mixture of Mock exam results and further evidence that has been gathered between the end of Term 3 and the point of entering Level 3 or higher.

Study, study, study…….
All students in the senior school are reaching the end of their academic year. The focus of each student should be on putting forward their best effort in showing their ability and knowledge that they have gained, whether it be in end of year exams or end of topic tests. Every effort made will put them in a stronger position for the next part of their journey. Part of preparation for this should be a commitment to study, this includes time at home to complete homework, to revise or to practice exam questions.

Balance…..
Useful tips to create balance while studying, University of Auckland wellbeing guide.

Nicole Peterson
Deputy Principal

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Roll of Honour

Maddie Bell
Heider Carreon
Gus Clisby
Mike Davies
Daphne Delos Santos
Kevin Egmao
George Flintoft
Rachel Forbes
Max Jackson
Holly Jones
Jourdyn Keepa
Matthew Kenyon
Rose Lilley
Tamzyn Murdoch
Alex Palmer
Kieran Palmer
Flynn Pearson
Hana Samera
CJ Supan
Sophia Vidal
Madison Wayne
Taryn Werahiko

1st Merit

Eli Belton
Olivia Brogden
Lizzy Cate
Will Clark
Liv Dampier-Crossley
Grace Cundy
Ewan Dalmer
Bianca Dela Vega
Sophie Drummond
George Flintoft
Alysha Hepi Te Huia
Joe Neppelenbroek
Stephanie Robinson-Gutierrez
Shelby Rutherford-Menzies
Hana Samera
Gypsy Thornton
Eury Tumamoa
Lucy Whittleston
Charlotte Williamson

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PTA TRAIL RIDE MEETING

To all our Amuri Area School Parents!
Please come along on Wednesday 27th October at 7pm at the Amuri Area School Staffroom.
We need your help and support to pull off another great Trail Ride as it’s a great fundraiser for our school and students.
The more helpers the easier it is to run these events so I look forward to seeing you there.
Any queries please phone or message:
Marie Blomfield - 027 363 2101
Fi Dwyer - 027 260 2027
Simon Clisby - 022 319 8900

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Arie Newall and Mateo Jamieson who represented North Canterbury U16 rugby team in the holidays. Played 3 games winning 2 and losing 1. Congratulations to both of you.

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Amuri Community Health Centre

We will be here on Thursday 28th October from 1:20pm-2:00pm for students and/or parents to drop in if they would like to chat about the COVID-19 vaccination.

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