Newsletter - WE 27.08.21

Tena koutou katoa

Next Week 

As I write my newsletter on Thursday, I realise by the time you read it on Friday evening circumstances may have yet again changed so I will avoid too much speculation on what next week may hold. All I can say is we are hoping for the fastest trajectory possible for having all students back at school and a regular teaching week. Once again, I would like to thank the team at Amuri for their efforts this week to do the best we can with what we have.

Thanks for your time and efforts this week to deliver our remote learning programmes. I know this is a challenge and our commitment is to provide the content in a way that you can best use it. We do however completely understand that resources such as reliable internet are not a given and that the most precious resource of all, TIME is hard to come by when working.

If we go to level three, our understanding is that students by and large must still stay home. For parents of students 13 and under who have no alternative child-care option, we will be setting up on site bubbles for these children to attend school. Under alert level three, students over 13 cannot come to school. These on-site bubbles are not “normal” school. They will be mixed age groups and they will be completing their remote learning programme supervised and assisted by a teacher. Student Bubbles will have separate break times and we are unsure at this stage what the mask requirement will be. This is by far the most challenging alert level logistically for educators as we try to provide for both onsite and offsite learners and we ask you to keep your child home if this is possible to do. 

Level two is back to what we would consider to be normal school. ALL students will be back on site and we will be running a regular programme, although sports events and trips may still be affected. At this level we ask parents not to come on site unless they sign in or scan. Personally, I would love to see us skip level three altogether and get to this level asap but such decisions are thankfully not mine to make.

Whatever the announcement brings, I will update you on Facebook/Email and APP on what the next steps are over the weekend. 

Exams

This week our team has completed pastoral check in calls/contact with families to see if you are going ok and if there is anything we can do to better support you. The topic of exam worries came up strongly. We met as a team to make a plan to relieve these concerns.

For Our Practice Exams scheduled for the 6th September

* When seniors return to face to face school they will discuss their readiness with the teacher and set a new date for their individual exam. This may mean exams happen over a period of longer than a week.

* NO exam will happen until seniors have been back at school for at least one week.

* Our intention is that exams will be completed before the end of Term Three however, some things are clearly out of our control.

Also From NZQA regarding end of Year Exams 

* The dates for end of year NCEA and NZ Scholarship exams will be delayed by two weeks, to run from Monday 22 November until Tues- day 14 December.

* Due dates for portfolio submissions will also be pushed back by two weeks.

* These two changes will give students and schools more time to prepare for the end of the year.

* Schools will also not have to provide Level One or Level Two Visual Arts portfolios for NZQA Verification. This also means there will be more time for students to finish their work, and for teachers to mark.

SEESAW Stats

In Year 1-8 Seesaw has once again proven to be a critical tool in our online delivery and in this lockdown we are using this far more consistently to reduce confusion over managing many different platforms. As you will see from the graphs below, we are certainly getting the engagement in the last week.

Remember, you should be able to do all the work without a printer at home. Some of you I spoke to have this facility and prefer to do so and that is fine, but you should be able to complete all work set without printing. If you need help with this talk to your teacher.

Getting HELP!

Helplines are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week:

Mental Health Crisis: 0800 800 717

Lifeline for counselling and support: 0800 543 354 or 0800 LIFELINE

Samaritans for confidential support for anyone who is lonely or in emotional distress: 0800 726 666

Depression Helpline to talk to a trained counsellor about how you are feeling or to ask any questions: 0800 111 757 or free text 4206

Healthline for advice from trained registered nurses: 0800 611 116

Suicide Prevention Helpline: 0508 828 865

Counselling Free Call or Text 1737

Also available:

Family Services 211 Helpline for help finding and direct transfer to community-based health and social support services in your area: 0800 211 211

Family Services Directory online

Unite Against COVID-19: Family and sexual violence prevention for help and support if you’re experiencing family violence or sexual violence.

Postponements and Cancellations

As the week progressed the inevitable knock on effects started to roll in with the cancellation of the SISS Netball tournament and the postponement of our Wearable Arts. As time goes on we may yet see more cancelations of anything that may have involved mass gatherings or travel. The upcoming 9/10 football tour for example is unlikely to go ahead unless we are at level one! These things are disappointing for both the students and for the teachers who have put in the time and effort to plan for such events.

Option Choices

Course selection for NCEA closes today and we will begin the process of ascertaining which courses have the numbers to run and what they will run against in option lines. Thankyou to Mr Cate and Mrs Steel for running 1-1 mentoring sessions by Zoom this week to help students make informed choices. Later this term we will also be putting out the year 10 options for 2022. 

I think this is perhaps the longest I have ever gone on in a newsletter so I will leave it here, wish you a wonderful weekend and I will be in touch over the weekend regarding whatever next week may bring. As ever we are here to help so reach out if you need to.

Kia Kitea Toikaka

James Griggs
Tena Koutou

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1st Merit

Mark Privaldos

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Amuri Maths Week 2021

It was another fantastic display of all things “Mathy”. Exhibited in the Culverden Community Room, Amuri Area School’s Maths Week was a superb display of thinking and creating with mathematics at the forefront of every project. Edible maths entries were extremely popular, as were models of wild boars, marble runs, as well as jumbled letters, rotated and reflected to reveal a secret name. Mathematical posters showed intricate designs made from tiny pieces of folded paper, fractions, fractals and tessellations. 

This year the judges were thrilled to see lots of entries in the Tuakana Teina section (Big Brother helps little brother) where-by students might teach another group of students how to (for example) use an addition strategy, and then document that process of teaching and learning. The Wearable Maths section highlighted garments made from cards showing clever equations, a top hat with a carefully measured circumference, while others were constructed from recycled materials. Most pleasingly, the Mathematics Department were able to encourage more local schools to submit entries into this year’s competition. A very special thanks to first-timers Rotherham & Waikari Primary, and third-timers, Hanmer Springs Primary School, and who’s entries are the icing on the equivalent-fractions cake!

As the quality of the maths projects was so high and diverse, we advise students to start planning now for 2022!

Nga mihi nui,

Charlotte Baldwin, Susan Ibbetson & Emily Lane

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CHASE THE POSITIVES

As we all reshuffle our routines and lives around Lockdown 2.0, try to remember to keep doing the great stuff that makes you tick. Continue those daily routines of getting up and at it, showering and freshening up to face the day, even when it feels like it doesn't have much in it. Here is where the power of positivity lies, as each day will have good in it.

Start the day well with good fuel and keep it up through the day. By putting good stuff in, will encourage better attitudes, better health, more energy and long term wellness. Get more water in your body than usual, challenge yourself to at least drinking one large bottle by midday and another before dinner, that way you know you have made a good effort. Flush out those built up baddies.

Sleep and rest when you can too, head off to bed early and wake up with the lovely spring birdsong that's happening. These days ahead are too good to be wasted, so make sure you head outside when you can, take the books and schoolwork out too and just keep your minds fresh, it is food for the soul.

To those parents who are having to work and juggle homeschool life, be kind to yourselves, you can only do your best in these times. But try do just 1 thing for the day to encourage both yours and your children's good health and wellbeing. Chase the positive and keep up some normal routines.

Look after yourselves!

Mischa, School Nurse 

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Year 7/8 Lockdown Legends

(Consistent, committed, digital learning citizens)

We have been entertained with videos and images of lockdown workouts, demonstrations, weather reports, poetry recitals and unheard-of words (Did you know that 'Eunoia' is the shortest word in the English language containing all vowels and means 'beautiful thinking' - thanks Issy!). Thanks to all those that have participated and shared these, making our days more exciting!

Room 9
Liv Dampier-Crossley
Sophie Ockwell
Emerson Morgado
Eury Tumamao
Heider Carreon
Gus McKenzie
Estelle Johnston
Zoe Bailey
Lizzie Cate
Jake Diederich
Bella Coleman
Tamika Van de Wiel

Room 10
Isaac Kelly
Zac Barbara
Daphne Delos Santos
Angie Mones-Cazon
Zara Hamilton
Jade Butters
Hayley Fisher
Matthew Kenyon
Blake Clisby
Eli Belton
Max McCone

Room 11
Ruby Glassey
Max Kinney
Archie MacDonald
Valerie Croft
Alejo Ballester
Joe Neppelenbroek
Valerie Paragas
Ollie Simpson
Charlotte Schenkel
Issy Williamson

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The Surprised Mouse - by Maria Lim

One day a little mouse named Uni went house hunting in his small forest village because he was tired of waking up every morning and seeing the same old scenery over and over again. He was walking with a professional real mouse state agent named Greg. They walked all over the village looking for the perfect house but it was no use - they were either too big or too small or too shabby or too fancy for Uni's liking.

"Greg, thanks for trying but every mouse house we look at just isn't right. I'm going home." said Uni sadly.

"We have one more house to see. It won't take too long but I know it's the right one. Over here we have a 3 hole mouse house complete with a sun hole and even a pool." said Greg happily. Uni was stunned. The mouse house was perfect.

"How much is it? I will pay anything!" said Uni excitedly.

"All you have to pay is ten acorns." said Greg. Uni paid the ten acorns then moved into his new mouse house right away. He lived happily in his new mouse house. 

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The Surprised Mouse - by Gwen Manifold

“G-g-Gerald…”
“What is it now”
“What’s that?”
“It ain’t rocket science, c’mon what does it look like to you?” says Gerald annoyed.
“Something that’s going to eat my tiny brain”
 “Pull yourself together, it’s a leaf and we are mice, same dif” “You know I don’t like flying objects”
“It’s not flying it’s falling” and just then the leaf suddenly dropped onto Jeff’s head.
“Ahhhh!!!”
“As I said before Jeff, it’s a leaf” Gerald sighed, as Jeff ran off still screaming “There’s no hope for that mouse.”

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The Surprised Mouse… - by Sophie Jones

The little mouse ran, he couldn’t believe it! Right there in front of him was a huge block of cheese. But as soon as he’d sunken his teeth into his Camembert cheese a high pitched scream filled the air.. 

“Ahhhh! A mouse!” The mouse felt butterflies in his stomach. He shrunk in fear leaving his Camembert behind. As he ran, he saw the girl run too, then suddenly - bang! Lightning struck and it started raining cats and dogs. The mouse tried to go back for his Camembert but he chickened out and ran back to his hole.