Newsletter - WE 06/05/2022

Tena Koutou Katoa

Welcome back to term two with the sun still shining this week it has been a great start to the term.

Teacher Only Day 13th May
A reminder that next FRIDAY the 13th is a Ministry of Education Mandated Teacher Only Day so school will be closed for instruction. Our entire primary team will be having a day of professional development around the teaching of writing and the Secondary team will continue to work through the upcoming changes to NCEA. 

COVID Update
As a bit of a COVID update to our knowledge 80 students have now had COVID 19 and about 25% of our teaching staff. In a school of 340 this leaves us quite some way to go even with the predicted 50% infection rate so we will continue to avoid large scale indoor gatherings such as assemblies until we know the full impact of the removal of the mask mandate. We will review this again in week five. Please have a low threshold for keeping your child home if they are showing any symptoms. 

Students have returned and by and large are not wearing masks as is their choice. As part of our risk analysis we identified students who are taught by two of our teachers in particular to retain masks in those sessions for the immediate future to protect the teacher’s health as the potential for harm for those people is significantly higher than normal. Aged 12 and over still need masks for the bus and all students year 4+ should have mask in their bag ready to use if needed.

News from the Term Break
Thanks to Sarah Forbes and Jamie Dalmer for representing our school over the term break at the Waiau Anzac ceremony. 

It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of our Community Constable Phil Woods over the term break. I have often reflected on how difficult it must be to Police in the community you live and how he could ever possibly switch off and leave the job behind. Phil was a special man with whom I worked with on many occasions to develop the youth in our area and was a valued supporter of our school and the swimming club in so many ways. Phil will be missed by all that know and love him and our hearts go out to Dago, Pema and Tenzin at this difficult time.

Next Week
Next week our Narrative Arts students have their four-day camp to complete their filming projects and our Area Schools Sports trialists head away on Sunday to try and make the Top of The South teams. 

Winter Sport
Thanks as ever to all the coaches, managers and referees who give up their time and energy to work with our young people. We know for a fact that children in sport are happier, healthier and less likely to get into trouble so for those of you that make this happen you should know you make a real difference in so many ways. There is as ever a big push for us all to be great supporters of our children on the sideline, keeping it positive, respecting the coaches and officials, letting the coach do the coaching and letting the children play. Someone once told me never forget it is THEIR GAME.. we are merely spectators!

Acting Principal
You will have all received communication from the Board this week via Facebook and the school app around the appointment of Bob Norrish as acting Principal from term three until a new Principal appointment is made. Bob is a real treasure to find with significant experience as a principal in an Area School setting and I know you will all enjoy having him here at Amuri and make him welcome. Bob and I will start the process of handover later on this term.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Kia Kitea Toikaka
James Griggs
Principal

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Senior School News

Term 2 is well underway, with a settled school community focussed on learning. 

While mandates around covid precautions have been relaxed somewhat, as a school community we still need to prepare for disruptions this term with illness. Staff will continue to offer online learning packages for students in the senior school to minimise disruption to learning. 

That said, it is exciting to see opportunities and events start to open back up for our students to be able to participate in learning opportunities outside of the school. Winter sports codes have kicked off with a roar and our students are embracing the opportunities on offer. A big thank you to our community members who donate their time to coach and manage these teams. 

Y7/8 completed their first option class at the end of Term 1 and this week transitioned into their new class for Term 2. It is great to have Hanmer students back on board and fully integrated into our year 7 and 8 classes. On offer this term we have Hard Materials - workshop, Digital animation, Food technology and Robotics and coding. The team look forward to sharing student progress throughout the term.

As part of our strategic plan for 2022 we are reviewing our Year 9 and 10 curriculum. We would love to have input from our students, our staff and of course our wider community. Please follow the link below to complete this anonymous survey in order for your voice to be heard. We anticipate this taking no more than 5-10 minutes. 

Parents / Whanau and Community members are encouraged to have their say through our online survey through this link. The survey will be open until the 12th May.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LVC887F 

Term 2 will specifically be focussed on future pathways with Year 10–13. There will be a range of opportunities on offer for students to explore career pathway ideas ready for option selection for 2023 and University / employment transition.

First up we have the national Careers expo which is being held at Horncastle Arena in Christchurch on May 27th. We will be sending out trip information letters to all Year 11, 12 and 13 students in the next week. 

RYDA – Driver awareness programme is being held on the 18th May at Hurunui college. This programme is a fully sponsored course available each year to our students in Year 12. As this is the first time, we have had this programme available to our students due to Covid restrictions, we are widening this opportunity to Year 13 as well. A bus will be taking the students to and from the venue during school hours.

As a step to prepare students for their futures, Mr Griggs has organised a panel of volunteer community members to run mock interviews with our senior students. This is a great opportunity to learn interview techniques, get feedback on your CV and how you present in an interview so that you can be the best you can be when real opportunities for interviews arise. I strongly recommend that our students take part in this wonderful opportunity.

Nicole Peterson
Deputy Principal - Secondary

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Primary School News

Kia ora Parents and Whanau

We had a great finish to Term 1 with our school softball and tee ball tournaments and our ANZAC games. Both were hugely successful events and had our children laughing and smiling. It was so good to see everyone outside enjoying themselves after the long and very disruptive term. Thank you to Miss Sopp and to Miss Garthwaite for organising these events for us to participate in.

Under Orange level, we are able to have visitors back in the school and so we will be welcoming the Bible in Schools team back. They are hoping to start sometime in May. Your children will remain in or out of this optional activity, depending on your initial instructions. The alternative is a values-based programme run by the teachers. If you’re unsure which option your child is in, please ask your child’s teacher. Any changes must be made in writing to me on kylee@amuri.school.nz Orange level for parents simply means that you are able to go into the school grounds without a mask, but if you wish to enter the buildings, please sign in at the school office and wear a mask whilst indoors.

The winter term signals the cross country is approaching and the students have been practising the course and doing some training in school for this. We are looking forward to having parents come along to watch and we look forward to seeing you all there. It’s early days but this term is already filling up. Tapuae-o-Uenuku teachers are working on a trial for the team to compete in the PCT challenge, a police assault course race for Year 7/8 students. Run club is happening at 1.30pm on a Thursday, Mrs Shanks is about to start lunchtime activities on the primary side and there are catapults being built in Terako. 

 Welcome to Georgia in Room 5 with Mrs Moke, Ewen has joined Room 7 with Miss Garthwaite, Willow has arrived into Room 1 along with Cooper this term. And last term, Brodie, Maria, Rhyder and Charles all began their school journeys in Te Kooti. Ms Jamieson certainly has a busy and growing class. Welcome to Amuri everyone!

Hei konā
Kylee Habgood
Deputy Principal - Primary

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Dates for Your diary

May 
9th-12th Narrative Arts Camp
11th CSS Road Race
13th MOE Accord Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
13th CSS Basketball starts in Christchurch
15th-16th Area Schools Trial - Round 2 - Murchison
18th Year 12/13 Road Safety Course - Hawarden
18th CSS Netball starts in Christchurch
20th Year 7/8 Self Defence Course
20th Pink Shirt Mufti Day for Anti Bullying
23rd PTA Meeting - School Staffroom at 7:00pm
24th PCT Challenge - Wainoni
25th Board of Trustees Meeting at 6:00pm
25th AAS Cross Country @ 12:20pm
27th Year 7/8 Self Defence Course
27th Careers Expo - Christchurch
31st HPSSA Cross Country - Waikari
31st CSS Cross Country - Christchurch

June
2nd AAS Cross Country Postponement
3rd Year 7/8 Self Defence Course
3rd CCHS Winter Tournament
6th Queens Birthday - SCHOOL CLOSED
7th Hamilton Assembly
14th-15th Year 12 Outdoor Education Trip
18th-19th SISS Swimming - Dunedin
22nd CPS Cross Country - Nga Puna Wai
22nd NZDF Presentation
22nd Tapuae-o-Uenuku Matariki Sleepover
24th Matariki Holiday - SCHOOL CLOSED
27th School Reports sent out
28th Matariki Dinner and Kapa Haka Performance
29th Mitchell Assembly

July
1st Mufti Day for Culverden Fire Brigade
3rd Amuri Rogaine
4th-6th Parent Teacher Interviews
8th End of Term 2
11th-13th SISS Netball Christchurch
11th-16th Area Schools Tournament - Whangarei
25th Start of Term 3

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Dairy Changeover

Dairy changeover is coming up fast and as ever, we ask for your support by letting us know who is coming and going to this area. The more we know, the better we can make plans and ensure our students are well looked after, be it coming into Amuri or moving on. Please contact the school office if you know of a family coming into the area that we may be unaware of. Phone: 03-315-8233 / Email: office@amuri.school.nz

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Roll of Honour

Michael Anngow
Ruby Batchelor
Maddy Carr
Max Cater
Emma Cholmondeley
William Cromie
Ewan Dalmer
Jed Dwyer
Lexie Godfrey-Grant
Rosie Johnston
Honor McKenzie
Finn Parmar
Eva Roberts
Molly Schuurman
Charlotte Snowling
Emily Van Arendonk
James Van Arendonk
Jake Van der Heyden
Lucy Whittleston
Sarina Woodhouse

1st Merit

Lucy Cater
Cris Tabunar

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Congratulations to our Canterbury Secondary School Swimming Champs team who competed yesterday at Jellie Park! And a special thanks to Drin for being chief driver and cheerleader and to Alex Thompson for accompanying the team and being 2IC.

Congrats team for representing Amuri so well at the Canterbury Secondary Schools Swim Champs on Wednesday. Alex and Drin, thanks so much for transporting and managing the team for the day.Bob: Good Luck for the Nationals next week. We look forward to hearing how you get on. Photos and a wee report would be awesome :) Miss Helmore

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School Buses under the current Orange Level - Go Bus / Amuri Area School Procedures

Masks:
The Government have stated that all students 12 years and above have to wear masks on school buses. Students are expected to wear them for the duration of the journey. Go Bus management has asked all bus drivers to report those students not wearing them to Go Bus. Go Bus will then report non-mask wearing students to the school and these students may not be conveyed on school buses. Bus drivers are there to drive, NOT supervise mask wearing.
Using buses as a guest:
The absolute bottom line is rolls need to be accurate. Go Bus has agreed that students can access buses if the following occurs:
1) There is room on the bus.
2) Requests are made 24 hours in advance so that bus drivers can confirm for the following day there is room on the bus. Bus drivers take extra students as a kindness, it is not a guaranteed right.
3) Parents are to put their requests through the admin team at school the day before. The request must say what bus you are applying to travel on. The bus driver will only let students on the bus that have been verified through the office.

Typical requests may be for sports’ practices, accessing work etc. If the request is over several weeks, for example, sports’ training, then please indicate the length of time.

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Well done to the 15 students from Years 9 &10 who took part in the University of Otago Junior Maths Competition on 6th & 7th April.

Super congratulations to Issy Williamson (Year 8) and Jakob Bush (Year 9) who scored highly enough to be invited to participate in the second round of the competition. This includes students in the top 15% nationwide in their year level!

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