Newsletter - WE 26/11/2021

Tena Koutou Katoa

Next week is the last full week for our Year 11 students with many of our Year 12 and 13 students already signed off for the year as they complete internals and exams.

Year 10 camp was as ever a great opportunity for our students and staff to get together for three days of fun and activity. Thanks to Mr Cate for all his organisation in putting this together and to all the staff who gave up a night or two to spend time with the students. Camp is a great leveller and those that perhaps struggle in the classroom get to shine. This is one of the many reasons why it is such a critical school experience.

Our trail ride last weekend was as ever a success thanks to our PTA who put in a simply HUGE amount of effort to make this successful. The sheer number of parents and staff that come together to make this happen is humbling to say the least. We also need to acknowledge the landowners who give access freely for this event, which in this day and age, is no small thing.

On Thursday next week we have a representative from the Children’s University coming to graduate our students who are involved in this programme. This is normally completed at the Town Hall but as with so many things, has been altered to meet health guidelines. Friday will be our usual Year 6 graduation which we will record and post for you to see online.

Last week I, with some delight, presented Lexi Godfrey Grant with her certificate from the Hurunui writers competition. Well done Lexie!

Please note the start date for Term 1, 2022 is Wednesday 2nd February for Year 1-8 and student leaders and for all remaining students on Thursday 3rd February. Our last day this year is Thursday 16th December with school finishing and buses departing at 1.15pm.

Pool Use over the Summer

We have finally received some guidance for public use of the pool over the summer and we are so pleased we can go ahead with community use with some restrictions in place.

• Keys must be purchased as usual and casual payments apply as ever.

• The usual if you are unwell stay away rule applies.

• You must scan in using the specific community use QR code that will be displayed around the pool area or sign in. 

 • The pool capacity is limited to 50 for public use.

Rules are constantly changing and its sometimes a little hard to keep up, so if in doubt please use your common sense and please stay up to date with any changes during the summer that the Pool Community Committee may need to make. The best way to stay up to date is to get involved! The Pool Community Committee could always use an extra hand or two so if you are interested in helping out over the summer when school is closed please contact alannah@amuri.school.nz.

A weekend of rain ahead according to the forecast so no better excuse to stay home and put the tree up!

Nga mihi nui.

James GriggsPrincipal

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Senior School NewsThe Year 10 students headed away to camp at the beginning of this week and returned, tired but full of enjoyment for the experiences they encountered. A big thank you to Mr Cate for his organisation and to the staff that supervised. The opportunity to attend camp and participate in a programme of leadership and team building, builds strength and understanding in self-management and communication skills with others. Having these skills entering into NCEA subjects is an advantage.. Planning for 2022 is underway and this week current Year 9’s have completed their option choices for subjects next year. With this information now completed staff can start planning the awesome learning activities that will engage students next year. There is some great courses coming, so a lot to look forward to in 2022.

The senior school has seen the start of external exams on Monday students in Year 11 through to 13 have been focused on doing the best that they can in the exams that they have sat to date. It has been really pleasing to see the ongoing work that has been completed in the classroom with our teachers in revision workshops and further learning and assessment of internal credits. The shift in student achievement has already improved and results in Year 11, 12 and 13 are looking healthy despite the disruption of Covid lockdown this year. It has taken a huge effort from staff and students to get us to this point so a “HUGE, THANK YOU”!

We are not quite there, so keep putting your best foot forward and aim for being ‘The best that you can be’.

Nicole Peterson
Deputy Principal

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Thank you to eight local farmers that nominated Amuri Area School for the AFFCO NZ Ltd Cash For Schools Bobby Calf Programme. As a result, we have recently received a payment of $1,170.00.

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Dates for Your diary

December 
6th Year 7-9 Transition Day
7th Prizegiving for Year 11 at 1pm straight after final Science exam
8th Board of Trustees Meeting at 6:00pm
13th Prizegiving for Year 12 and 13 at 5.00pm in the Community Room
16th Prizegiving for Year 1-10: Staggered throughout the morning with buses leaving at 1.15pm on this day.

January 2022 
24th School office opens

February
2nd Years 1-8 students and student leaders return
3rd All students return 
7th Waitangi Day observed - SCHOOL CLOSED

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From the Canterbury Rugby Union

Being a rurally based club, players this team came from Hanmer Springs, Culverden, Waiau, Rotherham, Hawarden, Waikari & Kaikoura, so made a huge commitment to travel the long distances to get to training sessions in Culverden and to away games in Rangiora, Oxford & Kaiapoi this season. Those from Kaikoura Club had over 200km round trip just for the weekly training sessions. Their commitment and dedication needs to be acknowledged. We lose many of the player base to boarding school in Christchurch which could have seen there being no team in this age grade for the club this season. So with the team providing a supportive environment for players who hadn't played rugby before or returning from injury they went from only having around 16 registered at the start to having over 22. Despite the mix of schools, the players seemed to gel together really well and at the games I attended had positive attitudes and extremely good conduct on and off the field.