Newsletter - WE 23/10/20

Tēnā Koutou

Year Seven Leadership

This week I had the privilege of being part of the Year 7 leadership programme so ably organised by Mrs Baldwin. This 4 day programme has evolved over the last 4 years into an excellent week of intentional activity designed to prepare all our Year 7's to be leaders for the incoming Year 7 cohort in 2021. I have so many people to thank for bringing this programme together.

• Thanks to Hollie Woodhouse, Belinda McCone and Greg Moriarty for inspirational presentations on leadership to start the week.
• Thanks to Activity Hanmer for once again putting on and excellent day of activities designed to strengthen and teach leadership attributes.
• Thanks to Graham from HDC and the Team at St John for supporting our community projects and letting us loose.
• Thanks to Isaac and the team at Adrenalin Forest for a great day in the treetops.

Such a programme does not happen without material support. Huge thanks to the Amuri Lions as Principal Sponsors of the four day programme. To Amuri Irrigation for funding the plants for the St John Garden. To Waiau hardware for the paint, Goldpine for the timber, Graham Baldwin for the landscape plan and Alix and Peter Bush for the painting overalls we didn't realise we needed until we REALLY needed them! Also thanks to Maryanne McRae, Ben Dampier-Crossley, Rachael Neppelenbroek and Kara Lynn for parent support on the service day.

Primary Athletics next week for students in Year 1-8. Let us hope for an awesome day and under alert level one we would love to see parents come along as usual and support their children.

Labour Day Monday so probably best not to send the kids to school and have a great long weekend!

Our Year 8 campers returned from an awesome week at Raincliff and I look forward to hearing all about it and seeing the pictures.

Our Semi Formal has found a new date and we are looking forward to this finally going ahead on Saturday 31st October in Hanmer Springs. Any questions please to Mrs Greenwood.

125th Anniversary Committee Meeting

This is a bad time of year to get people together and interest for this has remained low, therefore, we will postpone this for now until the New Year. The school management team will work to put together a plan for the celebrations in the meantime and revisit early 2021.

Have a great long weekend with your children!

Nga Mihi Nui

James Griggs

Principal

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JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWS

Dear Parents and Whanau

Yesterday our Year 8 students returned from their camp at Raincliff and all reported having a great time. Thank you to all the parents who accompanied the group and to Mr Black and Mrs Shaw for their organisation. Year 7 remained at school with Mrs Baldwin and spent the week completing a leadership programme, which was also very successful. We are so lucky to have the skills within our community to provide these experiences for our students. Speaking of camps, Year 5/6 are heading away later this term in Week 7 to Living Springs. I would like to congratulate the Terako hub for their fundraising work with the raffle and carwash. Well done to you all!

The Amuri Area School ‘Virtual’ Pet Day will be all over by the time you read this. Due to uncertainty around Covid restrictions – we decided this year’s pet day would be ‘Virtual’, meaning no pets came to school. Instead we opted to upload videos to the student’s Seesaw journal and each hub viewed at school. We know that parents played a huge part in supporting their children to make and upload these videos – thank you! I’ve included photos of some of our ‘My Pet and Me’ and ‘Pet Lookalike’ entries in this newsletter.

This is the time of year when we start to examine class placement. Next year we will have two mixed classes of Year 3/4, two mixed classes of Year 5/6 and three mixed classes of Year 7/8. This means all children will move up a year in their learning progressions however some may be in the same room with the same teacher as this year. Others may move to another room with a new teacher. Classes are not sorted by academic ability (streamed). If your child stays in the same room as 2020 this is not in any way being 'held back' as both rooms will be running the same programme at multiple levels as they always would. We have large fluctuations during the year (particularly during dairy changeover) within age groups therefore this is the best way to manage class sizes and provide consistency for students throughout the year. We take great care in creating our class groupings and and once these are complete we will let you know what class your child will be in for 2021. If you have any questions related to this matter please contact me at school, 3158233.

We are asking that all Year 1-6 students wear a broad brimmed sunhat when they are outside for Term 4. Caps will not be allowed as they don’t adhere to our Sunsmart policy. Broad brimmed sunhats are available from the school office or from Mainland Uniforms. Please make sure your child has an appropriate hat that is named. We would appreciate it!

We would like to welcome Quaye in Year 7 with Mr Black, Alena in Room 1A and their little brother Ziggy who has joined Mrs Johnson in Room 1. Welcome to Amuri!

Nga mihi nui

Kylee Habgood 

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Roll of Honour

Maddie Bell

Will Clark

Duncan Eggleston

George Flintoft

Tom Frame

Scarlett Holland

Catalina Jamieson

Jourdyn Keepa

Nicholas Kelly

Arie Newall

Oscar Palmer

Antonio Rutherford-Mailangi

Shelby Rutherford-Menzies

Maddie Scarlet

Charlotte Schenkel

Angelika Soriano

Gonzalo Vasquez-Jouannet

Charlotte Williamson

1st Merit

George Flintoft

Scarlett Holland

Nicholas Kelly

Jonty O’Neill

Oscar Palmer

Maddie Scarlet

Charlotte Schenkel

Angelika Soriano

Gonzalo Vasquez-Jouannet

Jackson Wilkes

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Year 7 Leadership 2020 - with Charlotte Baldwin and James Griggs

Day 1: We got into the swing of what leadership really meant. Hollie Woodhouse, Bee McCone and Greg Moriarty spoke to us about their own experiences of leadership. Hollie talked about digging deep, trusting in your team and having a goal as she skied across Greenland in 29 days while towing a 65kg sled. Bee talked about respect, courage and communication needed when participating in a gruelling, multi-sport event such as The Godzone challenge. Greg talked about his experiences leading young shearers who went on to compete at the Golden Shears. “Make mistakes, make lots of them and learn,” says Greg.

Day 2: Activity Hanmer provided us with tons of challenges to really hone our leadership skills. The kids worked so well together and really stepped up. Interestingly, some our quieter girls shone when others run out of ideas to achieve a solution.

Day 3: Community Service in Culverden. Helping at St Johns, by making-over a garden, painting a fence and washing the ambulances. We also worked with Graeme Shaw weeding, moving bark and tidying up the mounds near the playground.Day 4: Adrenalin Forest Challenge. Putting all our leadership skills, experiences, and ideas into place. Bringing out the best in others, working as a team, being respectful, taking a risk and being positive, are the values that we took away from this course.

We, so rocked!

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NEW FACILITY IN HURUNUI PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES
FOR GROWTH

Throughout New Zealand we continually see initiative being shown in different communities for the love of hockey. Everything from new ideas to small teams of people coming together to make the game happen. In 2019, we had multiple impressive applicants for our Community Initiative of the Year Award.

For 2019, the winner goes to the Canterbury Hockey Association and the Hurunui District for their initiative and hard work to get a new multi-purpose turf in the district.

In June 2019, the Hurunui District had a massive boost with the official opening of a $450,000 multi-purpose turf at Amuri Area School. The project had been in the pipeline for two years, and thanks to some passionate parents and a supportive principal, the half-turf is now used for six-a-side hockey and other sports such as futsal.

The construction of this facility has created a home for hockey in the Hurunui district. With a place to play hockey in its traditional format, the Hurunui Hockey Club has provided residents with the opportunity to play hockey and has attracted interest from several people who have never played the sport before.

Amuri Area School principal James Griggs said he was approached by some school parents who wanted to provide more opportunities for people to play hockey in the area. “These parents were passionate about growing the sport and providing opportunities for our students and the community to get involved in hockey.”

Lourdes Mones-Cazon, a former representative player from Argentina, was one of the driving forces behind the project. The mother of seven had played for Waikato while living in the region, but after moving to Culverden discovered there were no opportunities for her or her family to play the sport she loved. “I started talking to some other parents, and we decided to advertise for people who might be interested in playing.”

“We had no turf to play on, so we had to play in the gym. One week out from our registration closing date we had one team, and by the end of the week we had seven teams of 10 players.” Lourdes said although it was a social league, it got quite competitive.

“It was for this reason we knew we had to move out of the gym. So we went and talked to James, and it all started from there. When we officially opened the facility, it was like a dream come true,” she said.

Throughout the second half of 2019, the Hurunui Hockey Club implemented a range of skills programmes and social competitions. They delivered Hockey New Zealand’s Fun Sticks programme to 32 participants over 12 weeks, with the support of six coaches. In addition, they ran skills sessions and six-a-side games for children aged Years 4-9 and finally ran a six-a-side summer hockey competition for men, women and intermediate/senior-aged children in mixed teams.

The construction of this new facility would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of Amuri Area School, the Hurunui Hockey Club and the North Canterbury Sports and Recreation Trust, as well as grants from Lottery, Rata, Pub Charities and the Amuri Area School Board of Trustees. James and Lourdes commented that support from The North Canterbury Sports Trust and Canterbury Hockey has also been instrumental in getting the project completed.

With the new multiple sports facility on the school’s site, the turf will be utilised for hockey, school-based sporting activities and other sporting codes training and/or matches. With Hurunui Hockey Clubs intentions to become an affiliated club of Canterbury Hockey, they have worked alongside Rangiora Hockey Club to provide a playing opportunity for their competitive athletes in Canterbury Hockey junior and open grade winter competitions.

These two groups will continue to work together throughout the next few years until Hurunui have enough playing numbers to create a stand-alone club.

Posted on Wednesday, 14 October, 2020 | CommunityFeature