News in Brief

Kia ora koutou

I have been a bit quiet on the blog lately in spite of my best intentions. A number of things have happened over the last couple of weeks which deserve a spotlight put on them and I have not managed to do so as yet. However, I intend to rectify that now and provide you with the "News In Brief".

Junior Cross Country Event

On Friday 1st June we held a Junior (year 1 - 3) Cross Country Event to which we invited a number of local schools. Unfortunately most schools were unable to make it, but it was great that two schools turned up on the day and enjoyed the event. Thanks to Johnsonville Primary and Crofton Downs for sending about 50 students to compete with ours. And thanks to all their parents who made it possible by transporting the children. It was perfect cross country weather - had rained hard in the night so parts of the track were wet and muddy, but the morning dawned bright and warm with not a cloud in the sky.

Johnsonville students won the day in terms of competition. But for everyone, it was a most enjoyable day and we relished our first experience of hosting other schools on our site in this way. We have received lots of positive feedback from the parents and staff of the other schools and we plan to host this event again next year. It is a good course for spectators and provides a bit of challenge for athletes with the wet and muddy part down the back. Next year we will set the date early so that hopefully more schools can attend.
 
Congratulations to the following Amesbury students who were among the top 5 place getters in their races:
 
Year 1 - Kate 5th, William 2nd, Cruz 5th
Year 2 - Gabriel 2nd
Year 3 - Jamie 2nd, Ryan 3rd
 
Education Review Office 
 
On Wednesday 30 May we had the final of three "Readiness to Open" audits with ERO. The two ERO reviewers who visited with us twice last year, came and met with members of the Establishment Board and the Senior Leadership Team. It was a very positive day. All new schools have a full ERO audit in their second year of operation. We expect the full review to take place in a year's time.
 
Colin Prentice/mentor and coach
 
We had Colin Prentice in the school last week. Colin was the foundation principal of McLean's College (Auckland) 30 plus years ago and within a couple of years of opening had taken it to being the highest performing secondary school in the country. He also achieved remarkable things at Mt Roskill Grammar as principal and then went on to become CEO of World Vision. He has now been semi retired for a number of years, but has acted as my coach and mentor for the past 6 - 7 years. It was great to catch up with him, show off our new school and then do a series of reflective sessions with him, which has prompted lots of thought and review.

I am frequently aware of how much we need others to help us see ourselves more clearly. When coaching and mentoring is done well, it provides more focus and a sharper image as we look into that mirror and it enables us to reflect on our own actions more accurately. I have found the process to be incredibly valuable because how can I change myself when I cannot see very clearly what needs to change?

Student trips

Recently we have had a few groups taking their learning outside of the school site:

- All students travelled to Newlands to explore Matariki in the Starlab.
- Senior students Food Technology Group - shopping expedition
- Senior students Food Technology Group - Cooking pizza with the Novotel chef
- Senior students inquiry group - Trip to Wellington City Council

Community Evening - 6th June

Last week we held our second school community family evening. Apologies to anyone who was not aware that it was on. We have had it advertised on the BLOG for quite some while and we did send out an email to everyone the day before as a reminder. Perhaps we need to do a check that we have everyone's current contact details etc.

Anyway, a HUGE thanks to all those families who ventured back to school on an extremely cold, wet and windy evening. I was impressed that so many turned up. I am sure that if I had left the warmth of our school and gone home prior to the evening, I would have had difficulty forcing myself out into the weather - even enticed by the prospect of a fun evening together.

The evening began with hot soup and buns. I was going to make home made buns to accompany the soup but my day was impossibly busy and I ran out of time. Next time hopefully...
Thanks to Amaria, Gail and Mary-Jane who made the soup. It was delicious and so welcome. This was then followed by Banana or the Bag. I would like to thank "my beautiful assistant" Mike for assisting me with this. Didn't he look great....perfectly suited to the role! There was a really nice, family/community atmosphere at the evening. Thanks to everyone for participating.

To those who were not able to make it, I will share some of my presentation in a separate BLOG posting.

Advanced notice: We have a special Community Evening planned for Thursday, 1 November so everyone should keep this evening free. More later.

Wellington Inter-Zones Cross Country Championships

Tom Pavan represented our school and the Northern Zone Schools at the Wellington Inter-Zones earlier this week. Congratulations to Tom for his splendid run. According to those watching the race, he started off at a sensible pace (did not take off too fast like many others), and finished very strongly. The competition was fierce and he finished 36th.

International Festival

We are planning to finish our foundation year with an International Festival. We have not decided yet just what this festival will look like and will seek your input and ideas as we begin to plan this event. However, we think it would be fantastic to finish the year celebrating together the cultural richness of Amesbury School and the Churton Park community. I am very excited about this.

Visitors to the School

We are continuing to enjoy having many visitors to the school. Most of the visitors are from schools but some from the Ministry and others from education-related entities. Some of the visitors we have had recently are:

• Miramar and Strathmore Schools
• St Pats Junior School
• Learning Media
• Thorndon School
• Furnware – research project
• St Ignatius, Auckland
• Silverstream
Redwoood School
• Waikato University, School of ED.
 • Cashmere Ave

Up coming conferences/presentations etc.

• Next Thursday we are hosting the first Wellington Ignite Session. Up to 50 educationalists from around Wellington will be coming together with some participants giving Ignite talks - including a number of teachers from our school.
• Lesley, David Waters and Tricia Chapman will be presenting at the NZSTA conference in July
• Lesley will be speaking at the Education Leaders Forum in August
• Lesley and Tara have had their abstracts accepted and will be presenting a workshop each at the International Conference on Thinking in January.

Digital Citizenship

Check out this link for activities to do with your children to encourage safe cyber safety and explore what it means to be a digital citizen http://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/Prim_Splash/index.htm

Board of Trustees

Last week the first parent elected Board of Trustees of Amesbury School met for its first formal meeting. The first item on the agenda was to appoint the Board Chair. David Waters was elected to the position and Steve Dunbar is Deputy Chair. The Board is excited to be underway and looking forward to getting stuck into their role of governing the school.

The Rory O'Connor Library

The final act undertaken by the Establishment Board was to recognise the huge contribution made by Rory O'Connor as Chair of that Board. The Board met for their first meeting in late 2009 and continued to meet fortnightly after that until it ceased last month. It was fortunate for the Board that Rory was retired because he took on a huge workload to ensure that the school was up and running for its opening day. Personally, I really appreciated working with Rory and I learned a huge amount from watching him work. He is an extremely skilful Chair and, at times, I have been in absolute awe watching him take the board carefully through discussions which had the potential to be contentious.

To recognise Rory's contribution, the Establishment Board felt it was appropriate to name the library after him. The unveiling of the new signage was done at the meeting at which the Handover to the new board took place. Family and friends were present to see Rory (perhaps for the first time in his life) absolutely speechless but clearly delighted. It was a lovely moment as we formally recognised all of the contributions Rory has made to education throughout his distinguished career.

We trust that he will now enjoy retirement - probably out on the golf course.