Friday, February 17, 2012

Communicate, Collaborate, Celebrate 17/02/2012


Newsletter Summary

Love our Squash Ottomans
Building Early Foundations
Hub Planning
Amesbury School Standards
School Lunches
Amesbury School Donations
Stationery Fee
Other Costs

Love our squash ottomans


Our squash ottomans arrived from China today and we are enamoured! Students and teachers love them.


Building Early Foundations

At the end of our third week of operation, things are beginning to settle down. Routines, expectations, protocols and a school culture are being established. There has been a huge amount of base work to be done with every single routine and process having to be established from scratch. With no prior relationships or history, no traditions, no rituals, no learning culture already in existence, all new equipment, a complex building to get to know - this early foundation work has been huge and very taxing on staff. A BIG thanks to those people who have made this phase of school set-up easier by the encouragement they have given and the morning teas and other expressions of appreciation they have provided. For a number of our teachers, not only is everything about their job new and requiring development, but they are in a new city and new accommodation. They have left family and friends behind. Change is always challenging, but the degree of change our teachers are having to adjust to is extraordinary.

However, I am proud to say that we have an outstanding team of teachers who are doing an amazing job and who are very excited about the opportunities they have before them to build a school for the future that will assist and support students to become energized, engaged, innovative, moral and highly resilient learners. The base skills of reading, writing and maths are an essential aspect of being a 21st century learner. However, rather than teaching these as isolated skills, we are trying, as much as is practicable, to teach them within a context. This gives students a purpose for learning the skills and we know that students are always more motivated when they can see the purpose for learning. Contextualising learning also helps them towards a wider and more effective application of the skills in “real life” because they don’t only learn the skill but they learn when it is appropriate to use that skill (practical wisdom=knowing when).

Here at Amesbury School, teachers are interrogating their teaching practices every day and asking themselves whether what they did today will support students to become independent, authentic 21st century learners. This work is not for the fainthearted and, we, the Board of Trustees and principal, applaud the staff for what they have achieved in such a short time. As one of the teachers said, “There are definitely moments of beautifulness.” However, we can assure you – there is still much more to come. This is an exciting, pioneering journey and we are loving it!

Lesley Murrihy - Principal

Hub Planning

As promised this will be available Monday 20th February. Please remember, this is a living document and learning never quite happens (and shouldn’t always happen) the way we plan it. There will always be tangents as we following children’s interests or take advantage of “teachable moments” or as an inquiry takes on a life of its own or as passion is ignited. This planning is primarily for teachers, but we believe it is important to share it with you.

Access the planning via the following hyperlink:

https://sites.google.com/a/amesbury.school.nz/learning-amesbury/

Amesbury School Standards

These are our interpretation of the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Shortly you will find a copy of these on the covering page of the teacher planning website https://sites.google.com/a/amesbury.school.nz/learning-amesbury/

Please keep an eye out for these matrices. They are in an initial draft form and will be reviewed and revised by teachers over the next couple of weeks. More information will be provided to you over the next few weeks about how these will be used to plan, assess and report to you. Their value is in their propensity to improve teaching and learning - not in how they place children in comparison to one another.

School lunches

We are finally ready to provide a limited menu of school lunches. This will continue to be available throughout term 1. In the meantime, a group of children will begin an inquiry into school lunches. We expect that they will seek feedback, survey students and parents, check costings and profit levels, try recipes, speak to experts, research what other schools do, look at relevant health issues and, after all that, write a proposal for school lunches provided at Amesbury School. The point of this is that the children will have an authentic context for their learning.

Menu - Monday to Thursday

Lunch packs will be available for $5.00 per lunch pack. This will include the main savoury item, a piece of fruit and a piece of home baking (slice, biscuit or muffin) sometimes there may be a snack rather than a baked item (e.g. popcorn, corn chips etc)

Lunch packs available

1. Ham salad sandwich

2. Smoked chicken wrap

3. Hummus and salad wrap (vegetarian)

Fridays - $3.00

24th Feb: Steak sandwich

2nd March: 2 X Sausage sizzle (vegetarian option available)

9th March: American Hotdog

16th March: Burger (vegetarian option available)

Ordering and payment

Please order by emailing, phoning or sending a note to Gail. Soon we hope to have an online ordering form.

You may pay by cash or you will be charged through your school account. We would appreciate it if you either transferred the payment at the time of ordering or kept your school account in credit, so that lunches are paid for immediately.

Money earned from lunches will help subsidise student’s activities such as trips and camps.

Parent Help for Lunches

If there are any parents who would like to help with school lunches, please contact Gail. When the hall is finished lunches will be prepared in the semi-commercial kitchen provided as part of the hall facilities.

Amesbury School Donation

Each year the BOT asks for voluntary donations to supplement the school’s budget. These donations help support and enhance many aspects of the school curriculum and activities. They enable us to provide resources that are not covered by state funding.

While donations are voluntary, we do rely on them and we greatly appreciate your financial support.

Receipts will be issued for donations, and tax rebates can be claimed from the Inland Revenue Department.

The Board of Trustees has set the school donation rates for 2012 as follow:

One child $240

Two children $400

Three or more children $480

The donation will be reduced for starting in terms 2, 3 and 4. Contact the school office for these fees.

Payment Options

Payments made in full up to no later than 29th February of the month, will attract a 10% reduction.

If families wish to pay by instalments, they may do so over 4 months, but the discount does not apply.

• Option 1 – one lump sum at the start of the year attracting a 10% reduction

• Option 2 – payment over four months consisting of four equal monthly instalments.

Stationery Fee

Again, given that we are in a development phase, we have not requested a particular pack of stationery for students. Rather we are asking parents to pay $25.00 per student for stationery for the year. This will be reviewed for 2013 after a year of operation and when we have more of an idea of what stationery will be required.

The advantages of this way of operating are:

• Immediate response time to students’ stationary needs. No down time when stationery runs out.

• We can purchase all basic stationery at the very cheap “back to school” prices at the beginning of the year enabling cheaper stationery for students throughout the year.

This fee will be added to your school account.

Other costs

Costs for field trips, camps, swimming etc. will be charged separately.



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