Newsletter - WE 11/03/2022

Tena Koutou Katoa

Firstly I would like to thank the Year 7 team and parent helpers for putting together a great programme of activities this week in Hanmer Springs. Whilst it is disappointing that camps are a bit tricky to manage right now due to masks and sleeping arrangements, we have tried to substitute these camps with a range of exciting activities as a replacement. Next week our Year 9 get the opportunity to head to Boyle River to try some new adventures thanks to Mr Cate, Drin and Ms Helmore, who will be back from her Godzone adventures. 

Our Student Executive proved to be fully up and running this week under the guidance of our Head Students, Nathan and Sarah and they have already started rolling with decisions made to move forward with. They collectively decided to keep our own formal this year and not to join the main CASA event in Christchurch. They have also chosen their charities for upcoming mufti days. 

We are noticing a fair bit of student anxiety (NO, not about Covid) but the war in Ukraine. It appears students are accessing quite disturbing content online with TikTok particularly noted as having some rather graphic content. It would be time well spent to check in with your child and their social media diet to ensure they are not causing themselves unnecessary anxiety.

As stated in previous newsletters, we won’t be sending individual notifications of any positive cases from now on. Schools that are well into this process found very quickly that they were sending multiple messages and this was an overload. Instead, we have our webpage you can see at any time in real time. If you do not have the password, please contact us and we will supply it for you. 

At the time of writing, we are still operating a full programme and are managing well. Cases here remain low. We have had some staff out this week but are coping well with our school attendance rate being pleasingly high and life is pretty much going on as normal (if you exclude the masks). Long may it last! 

It was great to be able to give out our student leader badges and our NCEA achievement pins this week in the sunshine. Some pictures are included in this newsletter and will be posted to Facebook. Next week Ms Teulon will arrange for the bus monitors to receive their badges and the next time we get our Kapa Haka group all together, we will present them with their service badges! We hope our students will wear all of these with pride. 

Keep in touch with us if your family needs to isolate so we can support you with home learning. Keep your child home if they are sick and send them to school if they are well. 

Have a great weekend.

Kia Kitea Toikaka

James Griggs
Principal

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Roll of Honour

Lucy Cater
Michael Fenemor-Halsey
Mitch McKenzie
Ruby Moke

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Senior School News

The milestone of mid-point Term 1, 2022 was celebrated by recognizing achievement and leadership within the school. Whanau Leaders, Form Class Leaders, Student Representative on the Board of Trustees and our Head Students were awarded their pins to acknowledge their important leadership roles within the school.

At the same awards ceremony, we acknowledged the achievement in NCEA of students in Year 12 and 13 from 2021. It is important to acknowledge the success of our students both to model success to the junior cohort and to continue to drive the students within the senior courses to strive to do the best they can.

One of the biggest advantages a student can have towards gaining high levels of achievement is consistent regular attendance to learning. Traditionally this has been at school in class, however, in current times schools have had to adapt to enable students to have access to learning from the home environment. If a student can not be physically at school, there still needs to be a commitment to access and engage with their learning programme from home. 

At this stage we have not been advised of any alteration to the NCEA process for 2022. This means that assessments inside of school and our externals will be run as normal. I have sent home the current NCEA guidelines, information and an authenticity form which needs to be signed and returned to school by all students in Years 11, 12 and 13. 

We have also started the process of surveying Year 12 and 13 students around career pathways with a view to increasing discussions in school around subject selection choices aligning with where students want to go with their future aspirations. I aim to meet with all these students to support their transitions through year levels and out of school into their futures.

One of the points that I talk about with each student is how extra-curricular involvement can support applications for jobs or university. My advice is to try and get involved in something in the community and or wider school to increase your experiences and understanding of the world. Amuri has many opportunities on offer and many students currently participate in supports and cultural activities. All this involvement adds to building the sense of community around the school and increasing your child’s sense of belonging. Keep an eye out through the notices for any new opportunities and jump in.

Nicole Peterson
Deputy Principal - Secondary

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Dates for Your Diary 

March 
14th-15th Year 9 Camp - Day trips
16th Board of Trustees Meeting @ 6:00pm
25th Amuri Primary Duathlon
28th-1st Year 11-13 Narrative Arts Camp - Castle Hill
31st CPS Swimming at Selwyn Aquatic Centre

April
3rd-7th Year 12 OE Marlborough Sounds Expedition
4th Crash Bash with HDC
11th HPSSA Softball at Amuri Area School HPSSA Teeball at Scargill
13th HPSSA Softball at AAS Postponement HPSSA Teeball at Scargill Postponement
14th End of Term 1

May
2nd Start of Term 2
6th Year 7/8 Self Defence Course
12th Year 7/8 Self Defence Course
13th MOE Accord Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
18th Year 12/13 Road Safety Course - Hawarden
20th Year 7/8 Self Defence Course
27th Year 7/8 Self Defence Course
31st HPSSA Cross Country - Waikari

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Community Dental Service is suspending some of its services from 5pm Wednesday 9th March 2022 to provide support to the Canterbury health sector in response to Omicron.We will continue to provide relief of pain clinics by appointment only from Thursday 10th March. You can access these appointments by calling our Contact Centre on 0800 846 983.For any dental advice please call the Contact Centre on 0800 846 983.

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Primary School News

Kia ora Parents and Whanau

This term we are pleased to have Mana Ake joining our school to facilitate a program called ‘Ko wai au?’ which is designed to help support and reconnect Maori students with their culture. We have a group of 12 students in Years 5-8 working with three tutors over the remainder of this term. We are delighted to have the opportunity to host this programme and we hope to be able to run this again next year with more students as they come through the school. Thank you to our tutors for their support and skills.

Usually Term 1 is a busy term with swimming sports, athletics sports and t-ball being just some of the events that take place. But the arrival of Omicron and the many regulations that have followed it, haven’t allowed our students the same kinds of opportunities this year. This has resulted in huge disappointment for our students. Miss Sopp and I have decided to try and keep things as normal as possible for our students and we will be continuing to run events within our school this term. We have plans for an in house t-ball/softball tournament in Week 11 here at school and coming up on March 25th, we are holding the Amuri Primary School Duathlon for all Year 1-8 students.

Students will race in hubs and can either complete the duathlon as an individual or in a team of two (1 person completing each of the disciplines). 

Participants can dress in house colours on the day and will be awarded house points for competing. Bikes will need to be wheeled by the students into school in the morning and parked in their allocated hub spot behind Room 6. This will be drawn up in chalk. Helmets must be worn by all cyclists. Training wheels are not suitable for the course as the bike section will be on grass. 

 Hopefully this will be a fun event for our tamariki and something to be excited about despite the many cancellations we have had! 

 We are beginning to see some effects of Omicron with staff and students isolating. It is an ever evolving plan where we are working to keep the school open and things as normal as possible. To help support your children’s teachers, please make sure your Seesaw login is working and that you able to contact your child’s teacher. We need to be prepared if your child needs to move to online learning when isolating. While we have the time, we want to be as prepared as we can. If you’re having difficulty, please contact your child’s class teacher here at school.

Year 7 have headed away today on the first of their day trips as part of their Year 7 camp. We decided that it was best to avoid disappointment of cancellation by doing day trips to Hanmer instead of staying up there. There was plenty of noise and chatter as the students, accompanied by Mrs Shaw and Miss Sopp left this morning, and there will be photos to come in the next newsletter.

Finally, it was a great privilege to be part of our Amuri Primary Swimming Sports last Wednesday. The children competed with great enthusiasm and it was great to see them supporting each other and cheering for their friends and whanau members. The students were competing for points and it was very close in the final tally. Caverhill slipped into first place with 315, Hamilton was 2nd with 305 and Mitchell was 3rd with 300. Well done to all our swimmers for a great afternoon. We even finished early which was a first ever occasion for the staff!

Ngā mihi nui

Kylee Habgood 
Deputy Principal - Primary