Newsletter - WE 03/11/23

Janine Jack

— Nov 3, 2023

Kia ora Koutou

Today is gumboot Friday and it is fantastic to see our students wearing theirs to support this amazing initiative which seeks to provide free counselling for kids. The work that I am Hope and Gumboot Friday do to support Mental Health is amazing and we are pleased to be able to participate.

Last week we announced our head students for 2024. Congratulations to Olivia Adcock and Laura Cundy who have been appointed to these roles. They will be accompanied by Olivia Ferguson, Hana Samera, Catherine Paragas, Isla Blomfield, Bella Manifold and Michaela-Rae Lamont, who have been appointed as Kaiarahi – leaders for 2024. This will be a fantastic team of leaders for our kura.

Our junior choir is performing today at the Christchurch School’s Music Festival in the Town Hall. Congratulations to Bella Godfrey-Grant who was selected for the senior representative choir and to be the Compère for Tuesday evening. This is an outstanding achievement.

Earlier this week our Year 1-8 students enjoyed their athletics sports day. It was great to see students enjoying themselves and dressed up in house colours. Congratulations to those students who qualified for the Hurunui Athletics Sports which will be held here at Amuri Area School next week.

Next week our Kapa Haka rōpu is heading to Takahanga Marae in Kaikōura for a noho marae – overnight stay. Takahanga is the main marae of Ngati Kūri who are mana whenua of this area. This will be an awesome experience for all those going. My thanks to Mrs Johnson and the staff who are organising this event. There is a whakatauki that reads: “Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa” this translates as “Let us keep close together and not wide apart.” Building this connection will be positive for all involved.

We also have a team of Year 9 and 10 students heading to Tapawera for a sports exchange next Thursday and Friday. All the best to this team as they travel and compete.

A reminder that Thursday 16th is a Teacher Only Day. This is a compulsory Ministry Day where staff will be working on the changes relating to NCEA for 2024 and The Curriculum Refresh.

NCEA exams start next week and will be held in Room 22 (the room on it’s own near the Squash Courts). Afternoon exams finish at 5pm so if your children are heading down to sports practices after school time, could you please remind them to keep noise to a minimum as they head past this room.

Kia kitea toikaka

Matt Barlow
Principal

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Primary School News

Kia ora parents and whanau

Year 8 had a fabulous camp at Kaiteriteri and we saw lots of pictures of our students having a great time while they were there. The weather was a bit hit and miss but it didn’t affect their programme. A real highlight was the trip to Pic’s Peanut Butter Factory where they got to make their own peanut butter. Thank you to our parent helpers and to our teachers Mrs Shaw and Mrs Voice for making the camp an enjoyable one.

Ms Campbell and the Year 7 students completed leadership activities here at school. There was painting inside the pool complex, watch the space for a new mural to start evolving soon! The students were also involved in team building activities, getting ready for Year 8 in 2024.

Unfortunately wet weather last Friday got in the way of our athletics and we were much luckier with some sunshine on Monday for our Year 1-8 sports. It was wonderful to see so many parents and supporters there to cheer the students on and there were some magnificent performances on the day, with some students qualifying for the HPSSA zone athletics on Monday 6th of November. The postponement date for these (again, currently the weather isn’t looking promising) is Wednesday 8th November. Notices for students from Amuri who have qualified for HPSSA went home with students yesterday. We realise that if the athletics are postponed to Wednesday, there would be a clash with the Kapa Haka trip to Takahanga marae. Mrs Johnson has a plan to have the qualifying athletics students who are on this trip, back here in time for athletics.

It is time to start tidying up for the end of the year and we would love to see more of our reading book collection back at school. Books are easy things to lose track of, so please check under beds, in wardrobes and bookshelves and if you find any reading books, please return them to your child’s class teacher. We have lots of incomplete sets and this does impact on our reading programmes, we don’t always have enough books for a group.

We have noticed a few students arriving early to school and are unsupervised. We ask that you keep your children with you until 8:30am when the teachers are in their classrooms. School starts on the primary side at 8:55am and students can start arriving at school from 8:30am. There is no supervision for children before this time.

The primary assemblies for the remainder of the term are listed below. Please check these dates if you have already written them in your calendars.

Term 4
3 Nov - Room 7
10 Nov - Room 6
17 Nov - Show Weekend
24 Nov – Room 2
6 Dec – Terako (Leavers Assembly) 11:30am in the Gym

We are beginning to look at classes for 2024 and staffing for our classes. At this stage it looks like we will have the following classes. We will be allocating staff to these once our staffing entitlement is confirmed and we have our timetable in place.

Te Kooti – 1 x New Entrant, 1 x Year 1/2
Tekoa – 2 classes of Year 3/4
Terako – 2 classes of Year 5/6
Tapuae-o-Uenuku – 3 classes of Year 7/8 students

Students in the Primary School will find out what class they are in on Tuesday 5th of December.

A huge welcome to the following new Amurians: Symon has joined Mrs Van der Merwe in Room 2. Marionne is in Room 3 with Miss Allison. Welcome to the whanau here at Amuri!

Ngā mihi nui

Kylee Habgood
Deputy Principal-Primary

It must be gumboot Friday! Room 1's gumboots are all lined up ready to go for first break

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Senior School News

Kia Ora Whanau

The time has arrived so quickly this year that we say goodbye to our senior students as they leave for external exams. I am always filled with mixed feelings at this time of year, sad to see students leave Amuri but also filled with hopefulness and excitement for their journey beyond school. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge those leaving from the senior school and wish them all the best with their future endeavors. Kia Kaha.

Last week was a busy week for the up and coming Year 13’s for 2024 where we undertook an extensive application and interview process for our student leadership positions. Congratulations to those that were successful and we look forward to the endeavours that this team undertake for our student body in 2024.

There has been quite a lot of miscommunication around how students can obtain University Entrance. See below for clarification:

University Entrance, which is the general entry requirement into further education at tertiary level is made up of two components. UE Literacy, which is 10 credits at Level Two.

Five reading and five writing credits: These can be gained from a range of selected standards at Level Two and Three.

Further to that, students also need to have gained at least 14 credits (can be made up of internal and external credits) in at least three university approved subjects.

Within the Student/Parent Edge portal, the listed UE component refers only to whether a student has gained the literacy requirements for University Entrance. Students will not know if they have gained final University Entrance until the end of Year 13. Some University courses that have a higher demand for places such as Medicine, Engineering, Law, Commerce etc will have further requirements for students to achieve to gain a place.

If you would like to know more information about these requirements, please contact me for a meeting time to discuss.

We are looking forward to the events happening in the second half of the term for our middle school students, such as Year 10 camp, the Tapawera Sports exchange and our upcoming transition days. More information will be shared soon.

For those students sitting exams in the next few weeks: A reminder to prepare well, make the most of the workshops that teachers are offering and arrive at school in advance with all equipment required for the exams.

A reminder that exams have been moved to Room 22 for 2023.

Nicole Peterson
Deputy Principal - Secondary

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Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival

Isabella Godfrey-Grant auditioned for a second year and gained a prestigious place in the Senior Representative choir. Additionally, she auditioned for compère, and was selected, introducing the massed choir bracket, ‘The Moon’ and ‘Rehua ki te whanau.’Well done, Isabella! Tonight the Amuri choir will join you for the final performance, enjoy!