Newsletter # 6 - WE 10/05/2024

Kia ora koutou

I trust that you all had an enjoyable school holiday break. The first two weeks of term have rushed by and the holidays almost seem like a distant memory!

Next Friday 17th May is pink shirt day and we will be raising money to support this awesome initiative. This is a great cause and it is always good to remind students that we have a zero tolerance for bullying. The message resonates nicely with our school value for this term which is “RESPECT”. Respect is a universal value, a must in every area of life. Sometimes students can have a slightly distorted view of respect along the lines of “I will respect something if it belongs to me” or “if I like it” or “if I get something out of this.” It is always good to remind our young people that people, property and our environment all have immense value and therefore should command respect whether it belongs to us, whether we like it or whether we get something from it. 

The Government has recently released it’s six priorities in Education. These are as follows: 

Each of these priorities are already woven into the strategic aspirations that we have as a school (while we don’t have responsibility for initial teacher training, the school does offer lots of professional development opportunities for staff). We will be utilising the Teacher Only Day scheduled for Tuesday 4th June to do exactly this. A reminder that school is closed for instruction on that day for a Ministry directed Teacher Only Day. 

I want to make special mention of our U15 boys relay team (Owen Lewis, Jak Wilson, Tautuhi Donnelly-Collins and Van Samera who have qualified for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Champs in December. Owen also qualified as an individual in the triple jump – well done boys, this is an outstanding achievement! 

I also wish those students who are trialling for the Top of the South Area Schools teams in preparation for the NZ Area Schools tournament in July, all the very best for the trial in Murchison this Sunday and Monday.

Lastly, a reminder that the nationwide ban on cellular phones at school kicked in from the start of the term. This was already our policy; however, our Year 13 students had been allowed to have their phones at school and are now no longer able to. We would appreciate parental support on ensuring this is adhered to.

All the best for the next few weeks…stay warm!

Kia kitea toikaka

Matt Barlow
Principal

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Primary News

Kia ora Parents and Whanau

A huge welcome to Mrs Velmonte who is teaching Room 1A. This class is our older five-year-olds and she started on Monday. As soon as we moved some children through, we gained some more in Room 1. Welcome to Briar, Parker and Archie who have all turned five recently and have started their school journey with Ms Jamieson. Welcome to Amuri!

We have also farewelled Mrs Alison Nimmo from her part time learning support position. Many of you will know Alison from her role as Reading Recovery teacher in the Amuri Basin and from her work in more recent years as learning support teacher. Alison’s skills, wealth of knowledge and passion for Literacy will be greatly missed in our school and while we will miss her expertise in our classrooms, we look forward to having her in our school as a reliever in the not-too-distant future.

We have started to plan for the transition period that the dairy changeover brings and we already know about some children who will be leaving the area with their whanau. If you are employing new staff for the new dairy season who have children, please ask them to contact the school and pre-enrol them. It makes an enormous difference to the transition we can provide for students if we know about their arrival in advance. Some of our classes can change quite drastically so we like to be as prepared as we can be to ensure a smooth transition for everyone.

We have noticed the change in temperatures this week and this means that children are coming to school wearing more clothing. Please name all clothing and then it can be returned if it ends up in the lost property box. The box is currently full after one and half weeks back… if you’re missing something, please come in and have a look!

The students in Years 1-8 are busy practising for the school cross country which is coming up this Thursday. It will be a great opportunity to come down and cheer your children on, every little bit of encouragement helps. We have our fingers crossed for good weather to see this event go ahead. Last week our Tapuae-o-Uenuku hub staff accompanied Year 7 to camp at Hanmer Springs for two days of team building and experiences. They had a great time and it was a fantastic opportunity to build relationships between the three classes. A huge thank you to Mrs Shaw, Ms Campbell and Miss Symes for planning and organising the camp and to all our parent drivers and helpers, Bex Green, Mat Bailey, Alanah Schuurman, Melissa Colombus, Amy Anderson and Kelly Whittleston for their support and encouragement during the camp. You are all superstars and we hope you enjoyed the camp experience. 

You may have heard about the media releases from the Ministry of Education regarding the teaching of Structured Literacy last week. Structured Literacy is a phonics-based approach and the MoE have said the programme we will need to be delivering is the Better Start Literacy Approach – BSLA. At Amuri we currently deliver a balanced approach which incorporates some aspects of Structured Literacy, and we also teach reading for meaning and enjoyment. We have yet to receive guidance on how much this will change our teaching programmes and we are also expecting some information that we will be able to share with parents and whanau about what this is and what it will look like. I will be adding this information to our newsletter when it arrives to help you all understand the approach, what it looks like and what benefits there will be for the children.

Ngā mihi nui

Kylee Habgood
Deputy Principal - Primary School

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Secondary News

Welcome back to Term 2 everyone, already learning experiences in the secondary school are well underway.

Thursday saw a large group of senior students heading to Christchurch to experience the National Careers Roadshow. Students had the opportunity to talk to many industry employers and tertiary providers around possible career pathways for their futures.

Literacy Numeracy Common Assessment Exams round one for 2024 will be held at school from the 20th-30th May. Participants will receive a letter home for parents and whanau and students will be advised at school by their teachers. There has been a significant amount of work happening in class to prepare our students for these exams. For many this will be their first experience of an external nationwide exam. To minimise disruption to learning and reduce stress, we are delivering these exams in a staggered approach for 2024. 

10JSL - Literacy exam 9am 20th May
10GCE - Literacy exam 9am 28th May
10JSL and 10GCE - Numeracy 9am 23rd May
Year 11 (Those that do not have Numeracy) Numeracy 9am 27th May
All Year 11 – Literacy 9am 30th May

Please ensure that your child is at school on time and ready to sit these exams. 

A reminder to senior students and Whanau that when a student is old enough to drive to school, that they will need to register their vehicle with the school for a parking permit. There is also an expectation that students who do drive to school will be following the NZ road users rules and guidelines. 

We have upcoming events throughout Term 2 and 3 organised by our Kaiarahi student leadership team to continue to build inclusiveness and belonging within Amuri Area School.

One of these events will be our Senior formal for Year 11 to 13 students. This year our event will be held at Mt Lyford Lodge on Saturday 22nd June. Tickets will be on sale from our administration team from the 20th May. 

Nicole Peterson
Deputy Principal - Secondary School

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Dates for your Diary

May 

12th-13th TOSI Trials in Murchison
14th Be Bright Eat Right - Years 1-6
14th BOT Meeting @ 5.30pm
15th Worldvision Conference @ Christchurch
16th AAS Cross Country @ 1:30pm
17th Pink Shirt Mufti Day
22nd Year 11 Ag and Geo trip to Pahau River
23rd AAS Cross Country Postponement
25th-28th Otago University Open Days
28th HPSSA Cross Country @ Scargill
29th Mitchell Assembly @ 2:00pm
30th HPSSA Cross Country Postponement

June

3rd Kings Birthday - SCHOOL CLOSED
4th Teacher Only Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
5th National Young Leaders Day - Years 1-8
6th CSS Cross Country
11th Kaikoura Sports Exchange
11th Year 11 Ag Trip to Eudunda
12th Years 12/13 Chemistry trip to Canterbury University
12th BOT Meeting @ 5:30pm
17th Years 12/13 Physics trip to Canterbury University
17th Kapa Haka Matariki Dinner/Performance @ 5:00pm

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Strive Merit Awards

Roll of Honour

Harper Abernethy
Aliah Acantilado
Maizy Ashford
Ruby Batchelor
Jamie Cannell
Lucy Cater
Valerie Croft
William Cromie
Aizelle Dela Rosa
Maria Dela Rosa
Kadmiel Delos Santos
Mikaela Easton
Kees Flapper
Zoe Green
Connor Harrison
Vitolia Jackson
Isaac Kelly
Molly McKenzie
Arthur Milne
Alena Paora
Issy Pinckney
Yenzil Rana
Hank Reed
Charlotte Snowling
Bob Thompson
Gypsy Thornton
Riley Van der Heyden
Anki Van der Merwe
Summer Voight
Emma Whittleston
Sachi Wilkes
Mackenna Williamson

First Merit

Ruby Batchelor
Lily Black
Jorja Bush
Valerie Croft
Mikaela Easton
Kassy Frias
Connor Harrison
Alysha Hepi-Te Huia
Tori Kelly
Cassarla Kreisler
Maria Lim
Molly McKenzie
Miah Thomas
James Van Arendonk

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CASAfest

During week 10 of Term 1, Amuri had the pleasure to host the annual Casafest exchange with Hurunui, Cheviot, Akaroa, Rangiora New Life and Oxford Area Schools. Every six years we get this pleasure and this year we were blessed with some great weather, which was a great relief as the bulk of the programme was based outside. Each school sent 32 students (16 females, 16 males) and schools allocated each student an activity in each rotation.

Day 1: The exchange started with a very nice and powerful opening ceremony which our school Kapa Haka proudly starred in, along with some welcoming words from Matt Barlow with a response from one of the visiting schools. The National Anthem was sung and a haka was performed. After this we were straight into action with Basketball, Football, Netball, Soft Materials Challenge (schools had to make a mascot), Indoor Bowls, Amazing Race (schools in vans racing around Culverden and surrounds gathering answers to clues and doing some fun activities), Rogaining on foot gathering check points around Culverden, Construction activity, Hockey, Pickle Ball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Squash, NZ Quiz and Theatre Sports. After this action packed day and evening all students were packed off to our wonderful group of host families. After a short sleep Day 2 was soon upon us.

Day 2: Ki O Rahi, Animation, Volleyball, Kubb, Chess, Pitch and Putt, Duathlon with a twist and a fun explosive Science Challenge. During the afternoon each school performed their top team challenge where they were asked to design a lip sync performance to "Feel Like a Woman" by Shania Twain. Each school showcased their best and it was a hugely competitive competition. Once this was completed, students were packed off back to their host families to get ready for the Casafest Social which had a "Luau Hawaiian" theme. This was a fun night socialising with other schools and cutting some shapes on the dance floor. We had our 2023 head boy, Regan Clark, as our DJ who put together a very professional playlist of music. Then one last quick sleep before coming back for Day 3. 

Day 3: Ultimate Frisbee, Casa Maths, a fun and entertaining Farm Challenge, Cooking Challenge, Korfball and Art Challenge, which was to make a colourful school mural. Then we bought everyone back together to compete in a mass quiz canta-math style with plenty of brains, running and puffing. Then it was time to say farewell to everyone and pack up and look forward to next years exchange. The main and prestigious award on offer for the exchange is a fairplay trophy, which was won by Akaroa Area School who showed off some great acts of fairplay, respect and kotahitanga throughout the exchange. There is no performance trophy but we do keep the scores throughout and Amuri Area School came out on top after a very close tussle with Rangiora New Life. Well done to all students who were involved, hopefully you all had a good time. It was great to see all teams out their competing with smiles on their faces and enjoying the opportunity to represent their schools. 

A huge thank you to all families, School PTA, school staff, the Culverden and Amuri communities for making it a great success.