"Towards Community"

Kia ora koutou

Community Evening: Wednesday 8th August, 5.30pm.
One of the important aspects of the development of a new school is the development of the "school as a community". "School as a community" recognises that the school does not exist in isolation but is inextricably linked with all the families in its neighbourhood, but most particularly with the families who attend the school.

However, there are more effective and less effective communities. Developing an effective community is something that needs to be focused upon - not just left to chance. Effective communities behave in certain ways and hold shared visions and values.

This term we want to focus a little on what it means to be a community, what the characteristics are of our community, what the purpose is of the communuity and how we treat each other in our community.

Developing the school as a community is important because we know emphatically that learning happens best when it takes place within the context of an effective community. We further know that learning for children happens best when parents along with teachers and students are an integral part of that community.

Over the next term we want to work together to develop shared understandings about what we all think should be the characteristics of the Amesbury School Community. I hope you will help us with this.

Parents - Melinda Jones, Debbie Dunbar and Simon Law - have agreed to help, as together we develop a "Partnering-Type Document" which will cover the above aspects of the relationship. In order to do this, we need input from as many Amesbury School families as possible.

We are planning a Community Evening for Wednesday 8 August, 5.30pm, and Melinda, Debbie and Simon will run focus group discussions with parents as part of this. This will be the first step in the process of gathering information from which to develop a "partnering-type" document. Please put this date in your diary and plan to be there.

More information later. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Simon, Melinda, Debbie or myself.

Arohanui ki a koutou.

Lesley