Newsletter WE 04/02/2022

Welcome back to 2022. 

We are ready to go and have had a great start to the term. Whilst the threat of Omicron does seem to be looming over us, our intention is to run things as normally as possible for as long as we can and we have developed a business continuity plan to ensure this happens. Who knows what the future may bring but we are as ready as we can be and our plan will adjust as circumstances evolve. You can help us by supporting your child with the mask mandate and supplying a fresh clean mask each day for your child if they are in Year 4 and above. We do have students and staff who have conditions that make them more vulnerable to complications from infection so the health measures are there for a very real purpose. 

 If we do get a case within the school, we have clear guidelines on who is to be considered a close or casual contact and will send all necessary communication out at the time. Anyone isolating at home and not sick will receive remote learning supplied through the school, although it will look a little different to last year’s lockdown as we try to juggle onsite and offsite provision with the possible reduction of staff. This information will be sent out when it is needed to whom it is needed to avoid a flood of untimely communication that you really don’t need right now. However, if you want to explore this in advance, please feel free to give me a call or look up the Governments Covid 19 website that has a lot of useful information related to schools.

We were extremely pleased with our NCEA achievement last year with one of our best years (certainly the best in my time as Principal) in terms of student achievement in external exams and University Entrance. We are still waiting on some glitches with NZQA to be resolved around endorsements to finalise the numbers and we will share them with you once we know they are accurate in our annual report. In my conversations with students this week, it would seem that holding off study leave made a real difference, and I would like to thank the senior staff here at Amuri for supporting this decision and making the very most of the extra time with their students.

Next week we have Waitangi Day holiday on Monday so no school. On Wednesday we will be running the championship swimming races so we can get times and placings should the zone events go ahead in the next few weeks. In order to keep within the health guidance, we will not be running the non-championship races or the usual big swimming carnival. If your child has entered a championship race, they will complete this in the morning with the remainder of students in class as normal.

 Another good thing to talk to your child about is ways they can ask for help at school. There are of course the teachers and the school counsellor however, we also have our email address help@amuri.school.nz they can use to send a message for follow up by our counselling staff. Also, a quick reminder that our school is cellphone free so the phones and other devices need to be switched OFF and in bags or left at home during the school day please.

 Looking through the school programme for the year, I see many exciting camps and activities on the horizon and I know at times the cost of these things is prohibitive. At Amuri we want no child to miss out so if you need some financial assistance, please call me in complete confidence so we can work something out. We do have a student hardship fund courtesy of our wonderful PTA each year to support students and make sure no-one gets left behind. We also have the Life Education bus coming next week for our primary classes as Harold the giraffe continues to entertain.

Under Red Alert Level we are asking parents not to come onto the school grounds. Please collect your child from the office if it is during the school day to sign them out.

Once again, welcome to another year at Amuri Area School. We have a great team, awesome students and it is good to be back.

Nga mihi nui.

James Griggs
Principal

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Junior School News

Kia ora Parents and WhanauNau mai, haere mai! 

Welcome to 2022.This week we have had a focus on Year 1-8 students and settling them into their new classes. We will continue to do this next week after the long weekend. We are working to ensure that all our students are in a good routine, know what is expected of them and have a good relationship with their teacher, before we move towards the unknown challenges ahead.

If you haven’t already created your parent account to link to your child’s Seesaw journal, please do this as soon as you can. All our students in Year 1-8 will have a learning journal portal and they are being created within their school classes. Please look out for an introductory letter from your child’s teacher with further instructions. We need to have these student journals ready for communication and to showcase learning.

Our playground has some new playground games that have been painted on the asphalt around the primary classrooms. Thank you to our Board of Trustees who financed these games and Dorz who organised them to be painted. Year 6 students are busy working on rules for these games so everyone knows what is expected. 

 We are a Sunsmart school and therefore it is compulsory for all our students in Year 1-6 to be wearing a broad brimmed sunhat when they are outdoors. This is part of our Sunsmart policy which requires all students and staff to be wearing a hat outside in Term 1 and 4. Please make sure your children have a sunhat each day and that it is named! Most students leave these at school in their cubbyhole during the week, so they have one every day. Caps are not acceptable, the hats need to be either bucket style or broad brimmed. Thank you for making sure our students are safe in the sun at school. 

Swimming is a focus for us at the beginning of Term 1. Over the summer break I was dismayed to see the drowning statistics throughout New Zealand. As part of our swimming programme that teaches children new skills for swimming, we have a component that looks at safety and how to be safe around water. Please discuss the bodies of water you have around your homes and on your farms and talk about the safety of swimming in them. 

Welcome to Rhyder, Maria, Louie and Charles who have all begun their school journeys in Room 1 with Ms Jamieson. Bethany and Kyani have come from opposite ends of the country and joined the 7/8 syndicate. Welcome to all our new Amurians!

Ngā mihi nui

Kylee Habgood

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Dates for Your diary

February 

7th Waitangi Day observed - SCHOOL CLOSED
9th Senior Swimming Sports
9th-10th Life Education Visit - Year 1-6
14th Primary Swimming Coaching - Pool
15th Life Education Visit - Year 1-6
16th Senior Swimming Sports Postponement
16th Board of Trustees Meeting @ 6:00pm
23rd Primary Swimming Display - TBC
24th Senior Athletics
March
3rd Senior Athletics Postponement
4th HPSSA Swimming
8th HPSSA Swimming Postponement
9th-11th Year 7 Camp - Hanmer Springs
14th-16th Year 9 Camp - Windy Point
16th Board of Trustees Meeting @ 6:00pm
23rd Hurunui Duathlon - Hanmer Springs
25th Hurunui Duathlon Postponement
28th-1st Year 11-13 Narrative Arts Camp
31st CPS Swimming at Selwyn Aquatic Centre
April
3rd-7th Year 12 OE Marlborough Sounds Expedition
4th Crash Bash with HDC
11th HPSSA Softball at Amuri Area School HPSSA Teeball at Scargill
13th HPSSA Softball at AAS Postponement HPSSA Teeball at Scargill Postponement
14th End of Term 1
May
2nd Start of Term 2