Tēnā koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te kura o Amesbury mo te rua mano rua tekau ma ono. A very warm greeting to you all. Welcome to Amesbury School for 2026. If you are new to Amesbury School, we look forward to welcoming you to the school community, and if you are returning, we look forward to hearing about your holiday break and reconnecting with you all.
Our team has been hard at work preparing for the new school year and we are excited about the learning opportunities they have planned for the upcoming term.
Whānau Groups
We have two hubs - Koru (Year 0-3) and Pōhutukawa (Year 4-6). Koru Hub has seven whānau groups and Pōhutukawa Hub has five whānau groups.
The role of your child’s whānau teacher is to act as a learning advocate for your child at school. They are your first port of call if you have any questions, comments or concerns about school or your child. The whānau teacher is not your child’s overall ‘class teacher’, most students will work with multiple teachers throughout the year, but the whānau teacher will have particular oversight of your child.
Our teams for Term 1 2026 are:
Te Rito Rōpū (Māwhero and Kikorangi): Angela Herman-Childs (working Mon-Wed and Friday each week), Sophia Hughes and Kate Dammer.
Koru Rōpū (Kōwhai, Karaka & Kākāriki): Amaria Picard (team leader), Hannah Sadler (co - team leader), Wee Ai Teh, Aleesha Majaw Monisse and Lauren Brown.
Pōhutukawa Year 4, 5 and 6 Hub: Emma Murdoch (co - team leader, working Tues-Friday), Rupert Webb (co - team leader), Gar Kee Wu, Brydon Gillam, Charlotte Montu, and Sarah King. Bina Chauhan will work on Mondays, releasing Sarah who will be working Tuesday - Friday each week.
Release teachers: Amaria Picard and Emma Murdoch
Learning support team : Sara Saunders, Navy Ny, Lida Ny, Gerri Ng and Nic Love are our teacher aides who support students with their learning.
English Language Learner support teacher (working in both hubs): Kirat Singh (working Mon-Thurs each week)
Senior Leadership Team : Urs Cunningham - Principal and Jenny King Associate Principal (SENCO)
This year we will once again be hosting a Mandarin Language Assistant. We will update you when we have confirmed details about our MLA for the year.
Connection Hui
The hui are running throughout the day on Monday 26th January, two days before school starts. Read this article to find out more about the hui. Please remember to book a hui with your child's whānau teacher for this year, not for last year - the whānau groupings can be found here. The connection hui is a good chance to meet and connect with your child's teacher, and to share important information about your child for the year ahead.
First Day of SchoolSchool begins for the term on Wednesday 28 January at 9:00am.
Please read and follow the information below to ensure your child has a great start to their first day of school in 2026.
Koru Hub:
Our Hub will be open from 8.30am and kaiako will be here to welcome all ākonga for their first day.
Ākonga from Kate, Sophia and Angela’s whānau will be based in Māwhero (pink carpet) and Kikorangi (blue carpet). They can enter via the left side of the central courtyard, through the sliding door. Ākonga will need to take their shoes off before coming into the space. Kaiako (teachers) will then be available to show your child where to put their bag and how to sign in.
We ask that ākonga from Hannah, Wee Ai, Aleesha & Lauren’s whānau take their shoes off before coming into the learning space and signing in before finding their bag space. There will be activities set up for students to engage with throughout the morning.
At the end of the day, students in Kate, Sophia and Angela’s whānau can be picked up from Māwhero by parents, guardians or older siblings. The rest of Koru Hub will continue to be picked up outside on the basketball court or at the drop off zone as usual. If your child is being picked up by someone at the drop off zone, please let them know, so they know to head to the drop off area.
Pōhutukawa:
Our hub is open from 8.30am and kaiako will be here to welcome all ākonga for their first day. We ask that ākonga enter in through the door closest to their whānau space (we will show them where to go if they don’t know). Ākonga do need to take their shoes off and neatly put them outside their whānau space on the shoe rack before they enter the hub. School bags will need to be placed in their whānau area also.
Every morning ākonga will need to sign themselves in on the TV screen that will be set up for them to do so. We will have a ‘What’s On?’ projected on a big screen telling ākonga what to expect throughout the day as well as any other notices they may need to know. At the end of the day, ākonga are released at 3pm from the hub.
Students are required to wear an Amesbury School sunhat when outside during Terms 1 and 4 - this includes during all breaks and while outside during school time. Sunhats are $15.00 purchased via Kindo and available to collect after school. To avoid being misplaced or worn before being named at home, orders are not issued to students before school or during the day. Children without sun hats will need to stay in the designated shaded areas during break times.
*We ask all students to take their shoes off before heading inside - there are shoe racks outside each hub to put shoes on.
*Hubs are open for students from 8:30am onwards. We ask that students do not arrive at school prior to 8:30am, as they are not supervised by teachers at this time. Kelly Club operates a care programme before school for students who need to be at school before 8:30am. Please see the Kelly Club information page on our website for more details. We encourage all students to be at school by 8:45am as this allows children time to settle in, put their bags away, sign in, read the timetable for the day and then say ‘hello’ to friends and teachers before the bell goes.
Communications
We use LINC-ED Hero for all our communication, learning and administration. Here is a link to show the steps for setting up a new Hero parent account. Hero will be regularly updated with information about school admin, events and general educational information, along with information about events in our local community. This link here has information for tips and tricks that can be useful for using Hero. Any notices that can be public will also be published on our school website.
Each hub has a hub website which has access to the hub timetable overview, with links to planning. This can be accessed by anyone. No personal student information or names will be included in this planning. Any documents or planning including specific names are kept as private documents and cannot be accessed by anyone except Amesbury staff. Here is the link to our learning sites. The article here also explains how to find these from the school website.
Module 1 Learning
This year we have three learning modules.
Module 1: Forces (Physical World Science)
Key Understandings
I can name and explain force, friction, and gravity
I understand that an object's movement is influenced by a range of contact and non-contact forces.
I know that a force is not an object you can hold, it is an action that is done.
I can name and talk about Newton's 3 laws, and observe them in the world around me.
I understand that observing, questioning, hypothesising, testing, and concluding make up the scientific method of inquiry.
Module 2: Energy - heat, light & sound (Physical World Science)
Module 3: Manaakitanga (Social Science)
Sharing and celebrating learning
Throughout each term, kaiako (teachers) will upload learning posts to students’ Hero profile. These will be examples or explanations of learning that your child has done. You will receive a notification through your Hero account when a post is uploaded. If you have any difficulty setting up or accessing your Hero account, please contact your child’s whānau teacher.
Each fortnight both hubs will meet together on Friday to share and celebrate different things we have noticed happening. Our share and celebrate times will be informal and a great way to share a wide range of fabulous things happening across the school. The final share and celebrate event each term will also include our termly hub Amesbury Awesomeness awards.
Our Term 1 community gathering will happen on Friday 13 February 4:00 – 5:30pm. Come along with your whānau and hang out at school on the main school field. Connect with other families, socialise, join in with some games - cricket, basketball, chess.
School will provide pizza and a sausage sizzle (free of charge). Families can also bring their own snacks or family Friday night picnic, if you would like to. More information will be sent out closer to the time.
Term 1 Health Module
This term, the focus on health is Connectedness.
Year 1-2 ākonga will focus on communicating and interacting positively with others. They will look at sharing who they are, and communicating positively - introducing themselves, greeting others and listening well to others. The group will look at taking care of themselves and keeping themselves safe - road safety, safe and unsafe untouching, and how to get help. Towards the end of the term they will explore how to take care of the environment around them at home and at school.
Year 3-4 ākonga will learn about communicating and interacting positively with others at a deeper level - learning and playing with a wide range of people, and ensuring there are adults at school they can connect and communicate with. The group will also look at being an ‘upstander’ - taking care of themselves and others, both offline and online. They will also explore keeping themselves safe - road safety and safe and unsafe touching, how to get help, and the right to say no. Towards the end of the term they will explore how to take care of the environment around them at home and at school.
Year 5-6 ākonga will learn about communicating and interacting positively with a wide range of people, including those with diverse views and options. They will explore supporting others and standing up for yourself and for others. In safety sessions they will revisit road safety, online safety and recognising cyber bullying, and how to deal with it. Towards the end of the term they will explore how to take care of the environment around them at home and at school.
Our full planning for Term 1 can be found here. If there are any health sessions you do not wish your tamariki to be part of, please contact your child’s whānau teacher and let them know the sessions you wish to withdraw them from.
Sports in Term 1
All students will complete PE sessions on a weekly basis, along with daily fitness / movement. In addition to this, in term 1 we have:
Pedal Ready instructors are working alongside our years 4-6 hub teachers to deliver a series of safe bike riding lessons.
Northern Zone sports events for years 4 to 6 include cricket, football and ki-o-rahi.
School teams across all years will play touch rugby games after school this term.
Mihi Whakatau
Our Term 1 mihi whakatau to welcome new students will be held on Friday 30th January. Parents and whānau are welcome to attend. This will begin at 2.15pm in the hall.
Reporting to parents
This year our reporting structure will look a little different.
Term 1: Week 1 Monday 26 January - Connection Hui - (information above)
Term 2: Week 11 Written report will be available on each child’s Hero learning profile
Term 3: Week 6 Wed 26th and Thurs 27th August Student conferences - parents and whānau have a 20 minute in-person conference with their child’s whānau teacher.
Ongoing throughout the year: As we go through each term, kaiako (teachers) and older students will upload learning posts to student Hero profiles. These will be examples or explanations of learning that your child has done. As students achieve learning goals and progress in their learning, their goals will be updated as achieved, and new goals will be set. There will be a statement in each key learning area (reading, writing maths) that states where your child is currently working. At any time you can go on to their learning profile (the page with the large green dials) and see your child’s current learning levels and goals. This document gives you more detail about how to access information on your child’s learning profile.
Stationery
Your child will be issued with everything they need for the year, including books, pencils and felts/colouring pencils. There will be a cost of $45 for the year for this. This cost is charged to school accounts at the start of the year.
If students have their own personal stationery that they would also like to use, they are very welcome to bring it in and keep it in their tote tray or bag. All students in Years 5-6 will be issued with a Chromebook and all Years 3-4 will have access to their Chromebook when necessary at school. Younger students will have access to a range of devices.
Clothing and lost property
Please label clothing, lunch boxes and drink bottles, as clearly named items are easily returned to their owner. Children will often be the people looking for the names on items, so it is important that names are clear and easy to read. Thanks for your help with this.
Toys/Belongings at school
We do not generally recommend that students bring beloved items or toys to school. However, we also recognise that there can be good reasons for some students to bring personal items to school. If your child chooses to bring a toy or another item of interest to school, it will need to be put away in their bag during learning time and we cannot take responsibility for lost, traded or broken toys/items.
Absences
Schools are legally required to account for the safe whereabouts of each child every day, so notification to the school office should be before 9am if students will be more than 15 minutes late or not be attending school. Please provide a reason as schools are required to record this information. Late/Absence notifications can be made by:
Hero app (preferred way)
Email –office@amesbury.school.nz
Text – 021 86 55 28
Telephone – 04 477 3423
If your child arrives at school any time from 9:00am, they must sign in at the office, not in the class/hub. For absences of a week or more from school due to holiday or travel during term time, parents are required to contact Urs/Principal in writing. For planned trips, this should be well in advance of the holiday/time away from school.
Some Important Term 1 Dates
As always, our school events are all added to our school calendar as soon as we become aware of them. Please followthis link to our school calendar, housed on our school website. Some events may be added to our calendar as we go through the term, so please keep an eye on the weeks coming up on the calendar. Here are the main school events to date:
Friday 30 January - mihi whakatau for new students
Friday 6 February - Waitangi Day - School Closed
Tuesday 10 February - 5-6pm Year 1 Parent Focus Meeting
Friday 13 February - 4-5.30pm Community Gathering (Term 1 Learning Celebration)
Friday 6 March - Staff Only Day - School Closed
Tuesday 10 March - 5-6pm Year 6 Parent Focus Meeting
Friday 20 March - Koru and Pōhutukawa discos
Tuesday 24 March - 5-6pm Year 2 Parent Focus Meeting
Thursday 2 April - Last day of Term 1
Enjoy the last few days of the school break and we look forward to seeing you all next week.
Warm regards,
The Amesbury Team
