Friday, March 27, 2015

Kelly Sports - Term 2

Kelly Sports will be back in Term 2 with their fun and exciting classes. Kelly Sports encourages children to have fun, build confidence and to give sport a go. We believe that sport and physical activity has so much to offer young people; it improves fitness, develops communication skills, team work and gives children a place to channel their energy.

Kelly Sports Term 2
Autumn Action (Yrs 1-4) – Fridays 3.05pm-4.05pm - Come and try Football, Basketball, Hockey and Turbo Touch. Learn the fundamentals of all sports and new game skills all while having FUN!

Football Skills Programme Term 2– A 8 week football skills programme at West Rugby Club Rooms, Ian Galloway Park on Fridays (3.30-4.30pm). The programme is designed to cover both individual and team skills including, Game rules, Ball control, Dribbling, Passing, Tackling, Defence, Team work, Goalkeeping, practice and warm up drills for players and teams. It is ideal way to improve skills and confidence for the winter football season.

KELLY CLUB Holiday Programmes
Kelly Club will once again be operating at Amesbury SchoolChurton Park SchoolWests Rugby Club Rooms in Wilton, West Park School, during the April holidays. Kelly Club Holiday Programmes focus on giving children aged between 5 and 12 the opportunity to do things they enjoy in a safe, supportive and encouraging environment. They are packed with variety to entertain, inspire and challenge children.

KELLY CLUB BEFORE SCHOOL CARE AND AFTER SCHOOL CARE
Our Aftercare Programme is focused around various activities including sports, cooking, art and craft as well as structured ‘free-time’ after a busy day at school. These activities are incorporated into themes that give children the opportunity to extend their learning outside of the school classroom. For more information and to enrol please email amesbury@kellyclub.co.nz or call 021 133 2891

Holiday Sports Workshops - Kelly Sports is offering their popular Holiday Sports Workshops in FootballNetball:
NETBALL (Yrs 1–6) - Onslow College - Fun drills and games to develop and challenge young players 
(13th & 14th April 9.30-12.30pm).
FOOTBALL (Yrs 1–6) - Wests Club Rooms, Wilton - Work on core skills of control, dribbling, passing & improve technique
(Wk 1:Tues-Thurs 9.30-12.30pm, Wk 2:Tues-Thurs 9.30am-12.30pm).

ENROL FOR ALL PROGRAMMES ONLINE AT www.kellysports.co.nz or emailadminwgtn@kellysports.co.nz

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Book Swap for Adults is OPEN


The shelves are up,
The books are in,
We're open!

Fiction and non-fiction books for adults.  Lots of goodies here.   Bring a book down to school to swap for a different one.  If you don't have a book to swap on the first visit, then just bring one the next time.

Head to the reception area.  See Gail for the key and start browsing.

Happy reading everyone!


                                        


Friday, March 20, 2015

Sports shirts for Amesbury School students

We are really excited that our new, custom made sports shirt is in the final stages of production. The image below shows the front and reverse of the shirt. The orange and green colours will match our orange and lime polo shirts (the green doesn't show as quite the right colour in this image).

Who can buy a shirt?  Shirts will be available for any Amesbury student who wishes to purchase one and it can be worn for any sports activity. Students representing Amesbury School at a sports event will be required to wear a sports shirt (generally year 4-6 students).  School will have a small number of shirts available to hire at a small cost if students are attending an external sports event and they do not wish to purchase their own shirt.

The sports shirt is not a replacement for the uniform polo, which should still be worn as usual during the school day.

What sizes will the shirt come in?  
They will be available in sizes 4 years - 16 years (there is a sizing chart with measurements at the bottom of this page) - ignore the graphics on the sizing chart, this does not relate to the Amesbury sports shirt.

How much will the shirts cost?
$55.00 including GST, however we will be offering a discount on this price for any shirts ordered, (and paid for) by 30 April 2015.  This "Early Bird" price will be $48 per shirt.

How do I place an order?
Just complete the form via the link below.  

Sports Shirt Order Form


Any other questions?  Email: office@amesbury.school.nz



High Five Awards - Term 1, week 7 (13-20 March 2015)


Congratulations to all students who received a High Five certificate this week. For further detail on the award, please see the certificates in the parent area near the main office.  All certificates will be given to students to take home at the end of term.


Leo Smith - Excellence
Callum Stevens - Authenticity
Marco Mortensen - Excellence
Atharva Singh - Connecting & Including
Joshua Ho - Excellence
Louise Lange - Authenticity
Max Smith - Authenticity
Milla Grant - Creating & Inquiry




Thursday, March 19, 2015

Entertainment Book 2015/16

We will be selling Entertainment Books this year but are not planning to send a book home with each family. Pre-sales are available now.  

Only online payments will be accepted this year.  Please click on this link  to purchase your book or digital version.

"The new books and the exciting new Entertainment™ Digital Memberships, are filled with terrific businesses with valuable and often exclusive offers.  Customers will be able to choose the Book Membership or the Digital Membership, each selling for only $60, with $12 being contributed to the school"
If you have any other questions, please email amaria: amaria@amesbury.school.nz

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

$20,000 for Adventure Playground

Woohoo! We have just received notification that our application for funding to the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust has been successful and $20,000.00 will be deposited in our account for our new adventure playgound.
We are so grateful for their generous funding. Thanks HMCT!

Book Swap for Adults - Coming Soon

Exciting news!

We are currently in the throes of creating a book swap system for adults. This will be a great addition to our library.  A new shelf (in boxes) has arrived and there are many books waiting to be swapped.

THE DETAILS:
What:    Book swap for adults
Who:     Any parents, grandparents, older brothers and sisters,
              neighbours, staff
Where:  Amesbury School Library / Reception area
When:   As soon as the installer comes to get the shelf made up.
              Books will be accessible any time the school is open.

How:     Bring along a book from home and swap it with another book on the shelf.  Read the book,
              then bring it back and swap it for another one.  You can even relax on our comfy reception
              furniture or in the sunny library with a hot cup of  coffee and read onsite.  A small koha
              (donation)  tin for coffee is on the bench in the reception area.










A small taster of what we already have:



















NB: As these are adult fiction and non-fiction books, the book swap shelf is lockable and only accessibly by adults.


Monday, March 16, 2015

High Five Awards - Term 1, Week 6 (9-13 March 2015)

Congratulations to all of our students who received a High Five Award last week:
Further detail can be seen on the certificates, which are up in the parent area of the school office. Certificates will be given to students to take home at the end of term.

Joshua Thomas Clark - Authenticity
Caitlyn Van Rij - Connecting & Including
Vishakan Gopieswaran - Authenticity
Ayrton Hodson - Connecting & Including
Khan Love - Creating & Inquiring
Matthew Upton - Excellence
Niamh Ashley - Connecting & Including
Ryan Topp - Authenticity
Shruthi Anandh - Excellence
Varsha Ranganathan - Connecting & Including

Afternoon Tea for Parents, Caregivers and Grandparents: this Friday 2pm onwards

Our first parent-organised afternoon tea was held on Friday, 27th February, 2-3pm, in the school library. There is another one this Friday. Come a little earlier to pick up your kids and join the parents in the library for some yummy refreshments and a chat. This is a great opportunity to meet some new people in our school community and get to know old friends better!

If you missed out last time....don't worry, you now have another chance to join in.

By the way....men are most welcome and feel free to bring your younger children.

Photo from the last Community Afternoon Tea....Spot the delicious home cooked food! I can vouch for it because leftovers were put in the staffroom for teachers! BIG thanks for sharing with us, by the way.

Coming Events - Please put these on your calendar

The term 2 & 3 community evenings are already organised. Please keep these dates free as they will be interesting evenings and very worthwhile attending.

Term 2 Community Evening - 20th May, 2015, 5.30 pm

Jeff Johnstone and Sean O'Connor from the Asia Aware Foundation will be speaking on the following important question:

Why is Asia Awareness so important in today's world?

A number of mandarin learning assistants from around Wellington will attend in their traditional clothes, perform and provide a range of activities for the children. 

Term 3 Community Evening - 19 August, 2015, 5.30pm - 7.30pm

Karen Boyes, 2014 New Zealand Educator of the Year and 2013 New Zealand Speaker of the Year will be coming to Amesbury School to speak about "Future Proofing Your Child". Further information below:

Future Proofing Your Child In a busy, fast paced, changing world where change is the only constant and knowledge is easily accessible, the concern bubbling up is how to ensure your child is truly prepared for the real world. The 21st century skills are very different skills from when we were at school. Many are just common sense, however this is not so common. In this presentation, Karen will explore some of the key behaviours and dispositions needed to be successful in the modern world. These include knowing how to question and problem solve, think flexibly, manage oneself, listen with understanding & empathy, and create and innovate – just to name a few. You will also hear about the future jobs predicted and ways you can support your child at school and home to ensure they are prepared for an ever changing world.Be ready for an interactive evening full of great information, laughs and some aha moments...

Great Turn Out at Community Evening


Being a bit cold and overcast, it wasn't much of an evening for sport. However, in spite of the weather, we had a fantastic turnout for our first community evening of the year. Gail and her helpers gave away over 260 sausages including gluten free and vegetarian varieties. 
After refreshments and mixing and mingling, our wonderful teachers looked after the children in Koru Hub while parents took part in a variety of activities, including learning more about ALF (Amesbury Learning Framework) with Urs, looking at the different ways we communicate with our community with Angela and doing "techie stuff' with Matt. Angela Natali also spoke with parents about the Walking Buses that have started at Amesbury School.
We had a "self-serve consultation hub", but few people availed themselves of the opportunity to feedback to us. Thanks to those who did. There may well have been too much other "stuff" going on for people to get to the meeting room where this was set up. We will shortly send out a link to a google form so that people can provide us with feedback.

One theme that arose several times in the "communication stuff" sessions with Angela related to homework. No doubt this was top of mind because of the recent BLOG Post put out by Angela and Urs regarding homework guidelines. There were a couple of questions that came up several times. One related to how parents could know with clarity just what their children's homework is - their children always say they have done their follow up tasks during school time. The other question asked related to parents wanting to help their children by assisting them to do meaningful work at home- and being sure to teach them in the right way. These are both issues that we will put our minds to and get back to you about.

Judging by the amount of happy chatter, it seemed that people really appreciated the opportunity to get together and chat.

Thanks so much for coming out last Wednesday and we look forward to seeing you at next term's community evening and all the other events coming up. 




Sunday, March 15, 2015

Celebrating Birthdays @ Amesbury

Kia ora koutou,

At Amesbury School we are all about creating a safe and happy community for our learners. As such it is great to see many people looking for ways to celebrate the birthdays of various students in both hubs. However, the number of lollies and sweet treats being given out regularly to celebrate birthdays has increased.

Our structure of working in two large hubs makes this a bigger issue. In a hub of 97 students it is often someone's birthday, and lollies and treats are being given out very regularly. We feel that this is not encouraging a healthy, balanced diet, where treats should only be an occasional event rather than a very regular occurrence. We also feel this puts pressure on parents to provide treats for a large number of students.

As such, we are asking students not to bring lollies or treats to give out in celebration of their birthday. We will look into ways for us to celebrate the birthday of all students consistently and equitably, whilst also looking for practices that will be sustainable as we continue to grow. Both hubs will be talking with students this week to explain this expectation to them. Students may also have some suggestions about sustainable ways to celebrate birthdays at Amesbury.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Community Evening, this Wednesday 11 March, 5.30pm

For those new to the school, we hold a community evening once every term. In the third term we try to bring in an inspirational, entertaining and relevant speaker and employ Kelly Sport to provide care for the children so you can enjoy the speaker without interruption or worrying about your child.

The purpose of community evenings is to provide an opportunity for our school community to gather together. We acknowledge the importance of family by generally beginning with family activities. We acknowledge the importance of fellowship and eating together by providing light refreshments and we try to make it as easy as possible for you to attend after a busy day at work by NOT asking you to bring a plate. We also take the opportunity, when we are all together, to provide you with relevant school information and/or give you the opportunity to feed back your thoughts to us. We believe school community evenings are an important part of school life.....so we hope you can attend this first one of the year.


Programme

5.30pm - Sausage sizzle and informal outdoor games -  we will put out the sports' equipment and the games can begin. This is a chance to meet and get to know teachers, parents and students. 

6.15pm - For parents: Information and consultation - this is an informal programme of information-giving, question-answering and question-asking (consultation - your chance to feed into the ongoing development of the school). 

The following programme will be available - you choose what you want to be involved in depending on your needs.

When
What/Who
Where
6.15 - 6.35pm
Session on ALF with Urs - to show you how to navigate through ALF, what information might be of interest to you as parents

Mawhero (pink carpet in Harakeke)
6.45 - 7.00pm:
Walking Bus meeting - Angela Natali would like to talk with parents to work out some further details regarding the Walking Buses
Kikorangi (blue carpet in Harakeke)
6.15 - 7.00pm:

You can walk around any of our information 'stands' to find out more about life at Amesbury.
"Any stuff" - Lesley will be available to answer your questions or provide you with information about "stuff" - anything you want to know about school - or just for a chat

parent/reception area
"Techie Stuff" - Matt will be available to help you with your own sign on for ALF or to answer any "techie" questions you might have related to technology @ Amesbury School          
Library
"Communication Stuff" - Angela will be available to help you find your way around/in/through our communication network. For example, how do I find out what my child’s follow-up tasks are? What is the Tizmos page? Where is the planning for my child’s literacy group?
Library
“Consultation Stuff” - School Consultation: there will be some questions we would appreciate your thoughts about. 
    - What is going well? What would you really like to see continue?
    - What do you think are our next development steps as a school? 


Meeting Room

     6.15 - 7.00pm: Children will be supervised by teachers.

     7pm:                   Home

Friday, March 6, 2015

High Five Awards - Term 1, Week 5 (02-06 March 2015

Congratulations to all our students who received High Five Award this week:


Cameron Piercy - Authenticity AND Excellence
George Robiony Rogers - Excellence
Jade Jamieson - Excellence
Lucas Dray - Excellence 
Olivia Bourne - Excellence
Phoebe Riddle - Authenticity
Emile Quiros Pellegrin - Connecting & Including

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Four Year Old Programme - Cancelled Session

Kia ora Whanau

There will be no four year old programme on Tuesday 31 March.
We have two overnight trips that week which affect the whole school.

The last session for this term will be on Tuesday 24 March.
The first session starting again next term will be on Tuesday 21 April.

See you there!



Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Home Learning @ Amesbury

Kia ora koutou,


This post is to let you know of our Amesbury School approach to home learning and our recommendations for activities and tasks students can be completing at home to help with their learning.


We recognise that students all have different learning needs and styles. As such, we do not send home hub or group home learning sheets; we prefer a more personalised approach, ensuring that students are completing tasks that help their particular learning needs.  We allocate amounts of time to groups of students and recommend that they spend these blocks of time on activities that help their learning. We then have suggested activities that students can choose from, depending on their needs.


We believe that all learning should be positive and purposeful. If your child is struggling with their home learning, or very reluctant to do it, please feel free to talk to your child’s whanau teacher for some ideas or suggestions. Below are the home learning recommendations for students at Amesbury School, along with some suggested activities, tasks and practise they can be doing:


Year 1 and 2 students:  At this age we would expect children to be completing approximately 15 minutes of home learning on at least 4 days through the week.  This can include their reading books, word game and basic facts from their book bags. They might also have a library book to share together.  There won't be new home learning added to the book bag each day (such as on our rotation day on Wednesdays), but there are plenty of books to chose from. Once we have all our online resources set up we will share with you the children's logins for sunshine classics, e-ako and mathletics.


Year 3 and 4 students: At this age we would expect students to be completing learning activities at home for approx 30 minutes a day on at least 4 days through the week. See the list of suggested activities below.


Year 5 and 6 students: At this age we would expect students to be completing learning activities for approx 45 minutes a day on at least 4 days through the week. See the list of suggested activities below.


Suggested activities for Harakeke students:

Spelling: Most students will have a set of spelling words on their spelling doc to practise each week, ready for their buddy test on Friday. The spelling tab on our Tizmos page gives suggestions of different ways to learn spelling words. It also houses all of our essential spelling lists, along with spelling tests and links to useful spelling games and sites.
Maths: Basic facts - practise, practise, practise! Students should be learning addition and subtraction facts to 10, then to 20; doubles to 10 and then 20; then 2, 5 and 10 times tables, including division facts; then all other times tables, including division facts. Our Tizmos maths tab has lots of helpful links; we recommend the Prototec site as a good one for focused learning of basic facts. It also has links to other basic facts and general maths sites and games, such as Mathletics, e-ako and many more.
Literacy: We would like all students to be completing some personal reading at least 5 times each week (we suggest a bit of home reading time every evening). Most students will not bring home a daily reader, as much of our reading is completed through inquiry learning. At times students may have novels to read as part of their learning programme. They should all have a library book ‘on the go’ at all times. We recommend that students have a library or personal reading book to keep at home and one for school.
Students may use home learning time to continue with their writing from school. Alternatively they can be keeping a journal, emailing relatives, friends and teachers, completing their own creative writing, or using our literacy tab on Tizmos to get some other ideas for writing.
Inquiry and areas of personal passion: We strongly encourage students to use some home learning time to follow their own personal passions, such as sports, music, languages, art, coding etc. We have some additional tabs on our Tizmos site around some of these areas, such as our Mandarin tab, our Coding tab and our  Inquiry tab.


At times your child’s teachers may contact you to suggest particular activities or practise your child could complete as part of their home learning. If you have any further questions about home learning for your child/ren, please feel free to contact their whanau teacher.

This information has also been added to our school website, so that it can be referred back to. The information is under the ' Our Information' tab, on both the Harakeke Hub and Koru Hub pages.

Monday, March 2, 2015

High Five Awards - Weeks 3 & 4 (16th-27th February 2015)

Congratulations to all our students who received a High Five Award over the last 2 weeks.  For more detail, you can view the certificates up on the wall in the parent area of the main school entrance.


Hannah Dunbar - Connecting & Including

Sam Grey - Connecting & Including (twice!)

Maddie Thomas - Sustainability
Echelon Topp - Creating & Inquiring
Jade Jamieson - Sustainability
Olivia Williams - Sustainability
Melanie Kimble - Creating & Inquiring
Oliver Dunbar - Excellence AND Creating & Inquiring
Jayden Dickison - Connecting & Including
Anika Cao - Authenticity
Holly Gould - Authenticity
Xandre Pascual - Excellence AND Authenticiy
Jamie Talbot - Authenticity
Emma Lange - Excellence
Jacob Knowles - Connecting & Including
Toby Short - Excellence
Harry Law - Excellence
Artem Maksimov - Authenticity
Kate Yu - Creating & Inquiring
Kayla Morris - Connecting & Including
Fynn Jones-Rawstorne - Excellence
Eden Skogstad - Connecting & Including
Scott Picard - Connecting & Including
Arna Dixit - Connecting & Including
Tomas Joe - Connecting & Including
Lucas Dray - Connecting & Including