Newsletter - WE 30/10/20

Tēnā Koutou

Achievers of the Month
With so many nominations from our teaching staff this month, it was difficult to choose a winner and impossible to select just one, so this month our achievers of the month are:-

Maddy Carr
Maddy has made fantastic progress with her reading, working hard with Ms Nimmo, moving from PM Benchmark Level 5 (Red) to Level 15 (Orange). She has achieved this since early Term 3.

As a result of her reading achievements, Maddy’s writing is showing great improvements too.

and

Angela Berrios
Angela is a student who is dedicated to learning, both at school and in her own time. She arrived in New Zealand with little knowledge of English and is now speaking to her teachers on a voluntary basis and completing significant extra work through Our Learning Village lessons. These lessons are reinforced by a lot of exercises to complete in Angela's own time and they always are.

Board Student Representative

On Wednesday this week Rachael Dalmer attended her last Board meeting as the student representative. Having a student voice within the governance of the school is incredibly important and valuable to our continued growth and to allow the Board to understand aspects of school life from the perspective of the student body. I would like to thank Rachael for her significant input this year and welcome Esme Hewitt as our new Board Student Representative for 2021.

Primary Athletics and Senior Dance

As I write this newsletter, the weather is looking fine for our Primary Athletics and we look forward to bringing you the results in next week's newsletter. The Senior Dance is also finally ON!!! We are looking forward to a great evening in Hanmer Springs on Saturday night and thanks to Mrs Greenwood for hanging in there and making this happen in spite of numerous attempts and cancellations.

Trail Ride

This is all go for Sunday 8th November. A great day out for all. Please see the ad for more details in this newsletter and we would love to see you there on the day. If you would like to volunteer to help the PTA on the day, please contact the office and we will pass on your details.

The basketball court is well underway and we look forward to seeing some asphalt being laid in the near future. I will be away for most of next week with the Year 9 and 10 Soccer team, so please direct any enquiries to Penny Mossman in my absence.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Nga Mihi Nui.

James Griggs

Principal

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SENIOR SCHOOL NEWS

All NCEA students entered to sit external exams have now been given their exam admission slips which has the standards they are sitting, plus the time and date of the exams. Included with the admission slip is a separate handout with the rules and instructions for candidates sitting external exams. For Year 12 and 13 students these are not new, but it is still good to familiarise yourself with them. Year 11 students need to read these carefully, although our mock exams at the end of Term 3 ran under the same conditions.

A reminder that students can wear mufti when attending exams – please make sure it is appropriate and comfortable for a 3-hour formal exam period.

Many of our senior students are still involved with internal assessments and resubmissions and for some, completion of this work to the required standard will make a difference between achieving and not achieving their NCEA level. We would like to acknowledge those numbers of students who have demonstrated the resilience, motivation, grit, and self-managing skills required to be very successful in what has been a challenging year. The reality is life will always have challenges beyond our immediate control and while we cannot change any of these, we can change the approach we take to adverse situations. Our success as a country will be in the hands of those who make things happen, not those who wait for things to happen.

Next week Mr Griggs and Mr Dwyer will be away with the Year 9/10 soccer tour. The team have been enthusiastically practising and are really looking forward to this great opportunity – we wish them every success for their games and time away.

It is always important for students to remember that being part of a team representing the school is not only dependant on being selected, but also demonstrating that you are modelling the values of the school on a consistent basis while at school. Red Slips and behaviour issues will cause these opportunities to be lost – simply bad decisions have consequences and while mistakes are part of learning, some mistakes can easily be avoided with a clear focus on self-managing and being the best you can be.

As we move into Week 4 next week, there is still much to do and get through before the end of term for all our class Levels 9-13, so we encourage everyone to use their time wisely and productively and stay on task to ensure they are in the best position for the next level of study in 2021.

Congratulations to Angela Berrios, our Secondary Achiever of the Month. We are very fortunate to have an outstanding and well recognised ESOL support system running at school for our migrant students to enable them to integrate successfully into our schooling system.

Penny Mossman

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1st Merit

Jack Cater

Daniel Drummond

Lilly Frame

Rosie Johnston

Maria Lim

DL Lopez

Billie McElroy

Emerson Morgado

Andre Morallos

Alex Shaw

Sophia Vidal

Lucy Whittleston

Mackenna Williamson

2nd Merit

Lucy Cater

Ben Langford

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Super Star Cricket will start for all kids aged 5 to 8 next Wednesday the 4th of November at 1.30 pm.

Meet at the Primary side Tennis Courts.

Any questions email to mkelly@kelly.co.nz

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Canterbury Swimming Champs

On the 15th October, a small but dedicated group of Amuri students attended the rescheduled Canterbury Swimming Champs at the Selwyn Aquatic Centre and performed admirably.

Congratulations to these competitors;

Grace Cundy

11th Girls 50m Open Butterfly

Sophie Ockwell

16th Yr 6 Girls 50m Freestyle

Bob Thompson

7th Yr 8 Boys 50m Breaststroke (Finals)

Alexis Sandall

6th Yr 8 Girls 50m Breaststroke (Finals)

13th Yr 8 Girls 50m Backstroke