Newsletter - WE 11.09.20

Tēnā Koutou

Speech Competition

This event was held at the Hawarden Hall on Tuesday afternoon with a large number of Amuri students brave enough to take to the stage. It was a real privilege to listen to the students on stage and see what a difference it made when students are able to choose their own topic. Congratulations to all those that competed and in particular to those who were placed in the top 3 for their age group. Thanks to the Hawarden/Waikari Lions for putting this event together. In a year of cancellations and postponements, it was great to have something go ahead and be such a success.

Te Wiki O Te Reo Maori

Next week is Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori or Maori language week. Although Te reo Maori is entwined with our learning programmes, it is always great to take this time to really focus on our unique New Zealand language. Take this opportunity to use a little Te Reo around the home and don't be afraid to give it a try!

Exams

Well done to all our students who made it through practice exams this week. These experiences are essential to prepare students for exam conditions and also in an uncertain year, provides some evidence should we need to use derived grades. It is important to note that the subsequent addition to the extra credit subsidy recently announced in the media is for Auckland students only.

Year 11-13 reports

These will be emailed out at the end of term so please ensure we have an up to date email address for you.

Ministry Accord Days

There will be a Ministry mandated teacher only day on Thursday the 19th November. We were waiting on confirmation on whether this would still go ahead and have been advised this is the case. This means there will be no school on this day, however, exams will go ahead as normal if they are scheduled for your child on the 19th.

School Uniform

We have noticed there are some unacceptable intepretations of our uniform, namely students arriving wearing tights and leggings and monogrammed track pants.

Our uniform policy states the following items are acceptable for the bottom half.

Plain black Skort

Plain Black Skirt

Plain Black Dress Short

Plain Black Dress Trouser

School Kilt

With the term break coming, it is a good time to get to town and purchase any missing items. Please ensure your child is in correct uniform as we will not be accepting leggings and/or tights as a suitable bottom half.

Have a great weekend.

Kia Kitea Toikaka.

James Griggs

Principal

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JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWS

Sadly, cancellations and postponements seem to be very prominent in all aspects of our lives at the moment. We are still adhering to our Level 2 restrictions so primary assemblies are still postponed until further notice. Class teachers are awarding their own Strive certificates in class until we can get back to normal. Please also remember if you are entering the school grounds that you must sign in at either the school office, or use the national app. There is also a paper register in Room 1 for parents collecting students from Te Kooti.

As a staff, we are struggling with the organising of events that are cancelled at the last minute, leaving us with further work to ‘unorganise’ things. Under the current regulations, we would not be able to hold Pet Day and this week we have had a discussion on how we can make this happen without the threat of a cancellation hanging over us. So, this year we will be having a virtual Pet Day! The date for this is Friday the 23rd of October. Children will enter their pet as normal, but the project and competitions will be done via video and photos. There will be more details coming home in the next two weeks so we can make this as easy as possible for parents and whanau.

Next week I will be visiting Rotherham and Waiau Schools to meet the Year 6 students in preparation for 2021. I am taking a small group of students who attended these schools to help answer any questions about transition and who are looking forward to helping me start the transition process for these students. If any parent has questions about this transition process, feel free to give me a call here at school or email me at kylee@amuri.school.nz

We will be asking that all students wear a broad brimmed sunhat when they are outside for Term 4 so now is the time to start locating those sunhats! 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!

On Tuesday Mrs Steel took six of our students to compete in the annual Lion’s speech Competition. Amuri had six students competing in the Year 7/8 section - Matthew Kenyon, Ayame Balila, Kyla Domingo, Annie Francis, Catalina Serrano, Rosie Mones-Cazon. We were thrilled to hear that Annie won the Intermediate section with Catalina 2nd and Rosie was 3rd. Congratulations girls! We know there was a lot of time and effort that went into the writing of the speeches but also the time that was spent on perfecting a polished performance. Well done to all the students, we are very proud of your efforts.

We would like to welcome Lizzy who has joined Mrs Shaw’s homeroom and the Year 7/8 hub. Welcome to Amuri!

Nga mihi nui

Kylee Habgood 

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Roll of Honour

Claude Armstrong

Ewan Dalmer

Aizelle Dela Rosa

Alanah Flintoft

Max Jackson

Tom Jackson

Ella Lauder

Catherine Paragas

Kaden Tily

Tamika van de Wiel

1st Merit

Ava Brogden

Nathalia Ferrer

Alanah Flintoft

Joni Lester

Sophie Ockwell

Avril Paea

Catherine Paragas

Hananiah Samera

Hollie Scarlet

2nd Merit

Cris Tabunar

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Speech by Annie Francis

Winner of the Year 7-8 Lions
Speech Competition 2020

Today I’m going to explain to you why you should not go vegan or
if you are why you should change back immediately. If you are
vegan, you’ll lack in vitamins, you’ll be broke and you’ll be causing
damage to the environment and animal species. Keep on listening to
hear more.

Firstly, if you decide to go vegan which I hope you have not you will be lacking in vitamins B12, A & D3 and vitamin K2. B12 is naturally found in animal products such as eggs, fish, milk products and red meat. If you do not have this there are many problems. You can become tired, weak, and constipated. You can lose weight, lose your appetite, and possibly get megaloblastic anemia. Also, without B12 it can result in nerve problems, numbness in the hands and feet and you are at higher risk of getting a heart attack and having pregnancy complications. Did you know a vegan has a 20% higher chance of having a stroke than a person who has bacon and eggs for breaky most days? As you can tell B12 is a particularly important vitamin, but wait, there are more vitamins you will not have enough of such as A & D3. These two are found in dairy products, grazing animals, egg yolk and cod liver oil. A and D3 help with immune regulation digestion and fertility hormone balance. And finally, the vitamin K2. K2 is a vitamin which transports calcium to the bones. Plants do not provide this, so when the vegans get older their bones will disintegrate and break down quicker than usual. As you can tell there are tons of medical problems with the vegans and you do not want to grow up with all of these now do you, so it is a smart choice to stay an omnivore.

You all probably know that vegans are anti-farming and anti-farmed animals, so they drink their special nut juice and have their fancy tofu. But what if I told you that their nut juice is worse for the environment then having cow’s milk, well guess what it is. It is scientifically proven that cow’s milk is better for the environment than making soy milk. To make soy milk they are chopping down rainforests and jungles, leaving unique animals without a home such as the Giant anteater, the red faced Uakari monkey, and the giant otter. The giant anteater has only 5,000 left of its kind. In the last 10 years its number has decreased over 30% due to habitat loss. Also, if they are chopping down the forests to make soy then the air will be filled with more carbon dioxide. The Amazon rainforests absorbs 2 billion tons of CO2 each year. 20% of the amazon forest has gone - a big part in that is for nut milk.

Thirdly if you go vegan you will be enormously broke because it is awfully expensive even though you’re probably only getting a bit of lettuce with some broccoli and a side of nuts. Now that is not a proper meal. Imagine it, there would be no flavour in your food whatso ever. It would be tasteless. You will not even be able to put chicken or beef stock with your tofu. As well as that you would hardly ever be able to go out because of the cost and there are very few restaurants that serve vegan food. I just do not understand why you would put yourself through this. Becoming a vegan means you can’t have ice cream, chocolate, roasty potatoes cooked in the lamb fat, steak, KFC, burgers the list is endless. Also, animal fat offers distinctive nutrition, it is natural, and is just as good as vegetable oils.

And that concludes all my information on why vegans shouldn’t be vegans, they lack in vitamins, are damaging forests and are becoming broke.