There are lots of things happening this term, so this article contains all the important details, along with basic admin information for Term 4 and what we will be learning in Module 3 (Inquiry and curriculum subjects focus). It is relevant for ngā ākonga (learners) throughout the kura. If you have more than one tamaiti (child) at kura, you will receive an email for each tamaiti. However, you only need to read the following information once!
Whānau Groups
We have two hubs - Koru (Year 0-3) and Pōhutukawa (Year 4-6). Koru Hub has eight 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 kura. They are your first port of call if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about kura or your child. The whānau teacher is not your child’s overall ‘class teacher’; most ākonga will work with multiple teachers throughout the year, but the whānau teacher will have particular oversight of your child.
Our teaching teams for Term 4 2026 are:
Koru Hub has 2 smaller teams within it:
Te Rito Rōpū (Māwhero and Kikorangi): Kate Dammer, Ly Nguyen, Sophia Hughes and Angela Herman-Childs (working Mon-Wed and Friday each week). Amaria Picard will continue to release Angela on a Thursday.
Koru Rōpū (Kōwhai, Karaka & Kākāriki): Amaria Picard (team leader), Hannah Sadler (team leader support), 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. Please note that Sarah King will be away on leave for four weeks, from 20th October to 13th November. Lisa Bengtsson will be teaching Sarah’s groups for those weeks.
Release teachers: Amaria Picard, Bina Chauhan, Emma Murdoch, Julia Reich-Simko. We are also delighted to welcome back Lisa Bengtsson. Lisa was a foundation teacher at Amesbury School and we are excited for her to be working across Koru and Pōhutukawa.
Learning support team: Gerri Ng, Lida Ny, Navy Ny, Nic Love, Sara Saunders & Trē Love are our teacher aides who support ākonga 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)
Mandarin Learning Assistant: Qinyi is our Mandarin Language Assistant, taking the lead in teaching Mandarin, with kaiako supporting her to implement the programme.
Hub information:
Koru Hub:
Our hub will be open from 8.30am, and kaiako will be here to welcome all ākonga(learners) for their first day.
Ākonga from Te Rito (Angela, Kate, Ly and Sophia’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. 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 Koru Rōpū (Hannah’s, Wee Ai’s, Aleesha’s & Lauren’s whānau) take their shoes off before coming into the learning space and sign in before finding their bag space.
At the end of the day, most ākonga in Te Rito will be picked up from Māwhero by parents, guardians or older siblings. The rest of Koru 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. Here is a visual showing how our drop off circle works.
Pōhutukawa Hub:
Our hub is open from 8.30am, and kaiako will be here to welcome ākonga. We ask that ākonga enter through the door closest to their whānau space (we will show them where to go if they don’t know). Ākonga need to take their shoes off and neatly place them on the shoe rack outside their whānau space before entering the hub. School bags will need to be placed in their whānau area also.
Every morning, ākonga will need to sign in on the TV screen set up for them. 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.
We ask that ākonga do not arrive at kura prior to 8:30am, as they are not supervised by teachers at this time. Kelly Club operates a care programme before kura for ākonga who need to be at kura before 8:30am. Please see the Kelly Club information page on our website for more details. We encourage all ākonga to be at kura 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.
Module 3 learning:
This term's module is Manaakitanga. Manaakitanga is defined as hospitality, kindness, generosity, and support - the process of showing respect, generosity and care for others. Our focus will be to explore manaakitanga as a way to uplift the dignity and wellbeing of others. Ākonga (students) will learn:
We exist alongside many others. We all have our own perspectives, opinions, needs, and feelings. We are all important.
The way we behave impacts others. That impact can be positive (bucket filler) or negative (bucket dipper).
When we care for our environment, we care for our people. Every choice we make leaves a footprint on the land, and an impact on others who share our space.
To learn about manaakitanga and help it grow across our kura (school), we will be forming learning groups across year groups and hubs. Some of our inquiry sessions will be completed in their current hub groups, and some sessions will be completed in ‘transition groups’, which means ākonga will work in their learning teams for 2027. This will mean Year 1 ākonga moving across to Koru Rōpū for those sessions, Year 3 ākonga moving across to Pōhutukawa, and Year 6 ākonga working in a leadership transition group.
Along with this, we will be looking at poetry in literacy (reading and writing) and financial maths (money). For Health, students will be learning about Healthy Bodies and Contribution. Here is the link to the overview and plan - please use the tabs on the left hand side to view the planning for each term. 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.
Sharing and celebrating learning
Throughout each term, kaiako will upload learning posts to students’ Hero profiles. 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 & celebrate different things we have noticed happening. Our share & celebrate times will be informal and a great way to share a wide range of fabulous things happening across the kura. The final share & celebrate event each term will also include our termly hub Amesbury Awesomeness awards.
Reporting:
In accordance with the changes in reporting requirements of schools, your child will receive a written report through Hero. They will be published on Wednesday of week 9 (9th December).
Throughout the 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 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.
Term 4 Sports and Sports Events:
All students will participate in PE sessions, along with daily fitness/movement.
Koru will be holding their Athletics Carnival on Tuesday 27th of October from 9.30-11 am. Whānau are welcome to come and watch their tamariki participate in a range of athletics-based activities during the morning.
Pōhutukawa Athletics Day will be held in Week 1 on Thursday 15th October at Newtown Park. Parent helpers are needed so if you are free please contact brydon@amesbury.school.nz. For more information, please read this article. Top placers could be invited to the Northern Zone athletics competition on 2 November.
We have been invited to a Kī-O-Rahi competition for year 5 and 6 students on Tuesday week 7 (24 November). Many students have already expressed interest in this competition. More information will be available after the school holidays. We will need parent help with transport and assistance on the day. If you are interested and available, please let me know at brydon@amesbury.school.nz.
This term, Touch Rugby will be held on Mondays at Alex Moore Park. Please read this article to find out more information. Registrations close Monday 12th of October at 4 pm.
Mihi Whakatau
Our Term 4 mihi whakatau to welcome new students will be held on Monday 12th of October. All parents and whānau are welcome to attend. This will begin at 2.15 pm in the hall.
EOTC week:
Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) week is an exciting chance for all students to explore Wellington outside of the classroom through activities, trips and camps. It is held on Week 8, Monday 30th November - Friday 4th December
Year 0-2 will be going on 2 trips around Wellington. For more information, please see this article.
Year 3-4 will be going on 3 trips around Wellington, and having a sleepover at school. For more information about this, please see this article.
Year 5-6 will be going on camp to El Rancho. Those who have opted out of the camp will be staying at school doing fun activities. Jenny, Emma and Rupert will be in direct contact with whānau about this. If you have any questions, please speak to your whānau teachers.
Transition week:
Transition week is a week where ākonga move to their hubs for next year. This is an opportunity for students to meet and get to know each other and their kaiako. It is a great way to build familiarity with others and the space before next year. This year, transition week will be 2 days. It will be held on Monday and Tuesday of Week 9 (Monday 7th - Tuesday 8th December). On Monday morning, students will go to their whānau groups and spaces as normal. We will then move into next year's spaces during the day. More information about transition week will come closer to the time.
Koru & Pōhutukawa Learning Sites
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.
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.
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. Often, students will try to return items to the right owner, so it is important the correct name is written clearly. Thanks for your help with this.
Hats needed for outside:
Terms 1 and 4 are summer terms (despite how cold Wellington gets!), so all students are required to wear the school uniform hat when outside for P.E. and for play during morning tea and lunchtime, otherwise they are welcome to play at break times on the blue matting or under the yellow overhang between Pōhutukawa and Te Rito, or in the library during lunch.
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. 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 will 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 on or after 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.
Key Dates:
Here is the list of all the key dates this term:
Monday 12th October: First day of school. Mihi Whakatau at 2.15 pm, New Families Information Session 4 pm - 4.15 pm.
Thursday 15th October: Pōhutukawa Athletics Day.
Monday 26th October: School closed for public holiday (Labour Day)
Tuesday 27th October: Koru Hub Athletics Day
Monday 2nd November: Northern Zone Athletics
Friday 13th November: Amesbury School Cultural Festival
Tuesday 17th November: Children’s University Graduation
Tuesday 24th November: Kī-o-Rahi Competition.
Monday 30th November - Friday 4th December: EOTC Week. Year 5-6 El Rancho camp
Monday 7th December - Tuesday 8th December: Transition Week
Monday 7th December: Year 6 Graduation Dinner
Tuesday 8th December: Year 6 Transition trip to Wellington City
Wednesday 9th December: Water Play Day
Thursday 10th December: Last Day of School! School finishes at 2pm.
