Welcomes and Congratulations

Kia ora koutou

Welcome back to term 3.
It was lovely to see all the smiling faces as students arrived at school yesterday. I hope everyone managed to enjoy their holidays and have begun the term feeling refreshed and ready for a HUGE term of learning.

We are excited about this term. Our student achievement data from terms 1 and 2 is looking pretty good. However, as a staff, we met yesterday to discuss how we can continue to improve the achievement of our students over the next two terms. This includes shifting students who are still below National Standards as well as shifting students who are "at" to "above". We are putting targeted programmes in place to assist a large number of students including some students who are highly capable in particular areas to ensure they receive the learning challenges they need.

Welcome to two new teachers
We have two new teachers who have started at Amesbury School this term. Andrea Smith arrived over the holidays from England where she has been teaching for some years. Andrea is a permanent appointment and will be teaching in Harakeke Hub. We are very pleased to have her here. She seems to be fitting in beautifully. Ange Compton is a teacher, science and technology advisor, researcher etc and she be will be working part-time providing support to the Senior Leadership Team carrying out some projects for us.

Congratulations Matt and Jenna
Matt, Jenna and Charlie travelled to Taiwan over the holidays and just about the first thing Matt and Jenna did when they arrived at Taiwan was to get married! Matt made this announcement at our staff meeting last night. We are thrilled for both of them, offer our heartiest congratulations and wish them every happiness and a wonderful future together.

Student achievements

*Congratulations to Ethan Dunne and Summer Ferguson for winning the Amesbury Awesomeness Awards at our term 2 learning celebration last term. Very well deserved. You are both truly awesome!

* A number of our students competed at the North Island Cross Country Champs over the holidays. Congratulations to Jamie Talbot, Tais Holley, Madi Thomas,  Ryan and Echelon Topp who competed well.

*The following students are representing our school in a cross country series. They were selected from the students who competed well at the Amesbury Cross country Championships: Cruz, Freeman, Kate,

Rosa, Lucy, Arnah, Ryan, Ayrton, Khan, Daniel, Ella and Kate. All the best for your races.

*Congratulation to Ella Jones-Rawstorne who competed recently in her first Taekwando Tournament. She did amazingly well - winning a gold medal in sparring against a much higher graded opponent and coming second in the jumping front kick competition. I am impressed! Well done, Ella.