A very warm welcome to all whānau (families), especially those joining our kura (school) for the first time. We hope you have enjoyed the holidays and took the opportunity to rest, recharge, and spend time with your whānau. Our kaimahi (teachers and support staff) are looking forward to another exciting term of learning with our ākonga(learners).
This article contains some basic admin information for Term 3, along with details about our continuation of Module 2 learning and the main events that are coming up this term. It is relevant for ngā ākonga 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 3 2026 are:
Te Rito Rōpū (Māwhero and Kikorangi): Angela Herman-Childs (working Mon-Wed and Friday each week), Kate Dammer, Ly Nguyen and Sophia Hughes. 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.
Release teachers: Amaria Picard, Bina Chauhan & Emma Murdoch.
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.
First Day of KuraSchool begins for the term on Monday 20 July at 9:00am.
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 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, Wee Ai, Aleesha & 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.
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.
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 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.
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 and 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 and celebrate event each term will also include our termly hub Amesbury Awesomeness awards.
Inquiry Module 2 Learning
We will continue our learning around energy in the form of light, sound, and heat (Physical World Science) until the end of this term.
Key Understandings for this module are:
* I know that heat, light, and sound are forms of energy.
* I understand that heat is the transfer of energy from one object to another due to a temperature difference.
* I understand that light is a form of energy that travels out in all directions, in straight lines, from a variety of sources, including the sun.
* I understand that sound is the energy things produce when they vibrate. It travels as waves.
* I can explain that observing, questioning, hypothesising, testing, and concluding make up the scientific method of inquiry.
Term 3 Health Module
This term, the focus in health is Capability and Continuous Learning. Our full planning for Term 3 can be found here.
If there are any health sessions you do not wish your tamaiti 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 3
All ākonga will participate in PE sessions, along with daily fitness/movement. In addition to this, in Term 3 we have:
28 July - Junior Swimming Carnival
Mid-term 3 tbc - Senior Swimming Sports
8 September - Futsal Festival
School teams across all years will play Netball and Miniball. Please see previous articles for more information.
Mihi Whakatau
Our Term 3 mihi whakatau to welcome new ākonga will be held on Monday 20 July. Parents and whānau are welcome to attend. This will begin at 2.15pm in the hall.
Reporting to parents
This year our reporting structure looks a little different.
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 and older ākonga will upload learning posts to student Hero profiles. These will be examples or explanations of learning that your child has done. As ākonga 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 tamaiti 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 tamaiti 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 ākonga 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 ākonga in Years 5-6 will be issued with a Chromebook and all Years 3-4 will have access to their Chromebook when necessary at kura. Younger ākonga 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 kura
We do not generally recommend that ākonga bring beloved items or toys to kura. However, we also recognise that there can be good reasons for some ākonga to bring personal items to kura. If your tamaiti chooses to bring a toy or another item of interest to kura, 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 tamaiti every day, so notification to the kura office should be before 9 am if ākonga will be more than 15 minutes late or not be attending kura. Please provide a reason, as we 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 tamaiti arrives at kura 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 kura 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 kura.
Some Important Term 3 Dates
As always, our school events are all added to our kura calendar as soon as we become aware of them. Please follow this link to our school calendar, housed on our kura 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:
Monday 20 July - Mihi Whakatau at 2:15pm
Monday 20 July - New families information session at 4pm.
Tuesday 28 July - Junior Swimming Carnival
Tuesday 4th August - ICAS Digital Technology Exam (for those signed up)
Tuesday 11th August - ICAS English (reading) Exam (for those signed up)
Tuesday 18th August - Mathswell competition
Tuesday 18th August - ICAS Science Exam (for those signed up)
Tuesday 25th August - ICAS Maths Exam (for those signed up)
Wednesday 26th August - Student Conferences
Thursday 27th August - Student Conferences
Friday 28th August - School closed (Staff Only day)
Tuesday 8th September - Futsal Festival
Friday 11 September - School Disco
Saturday 19 September - St Brigid's Kapa Haka Festival
Friday 25 September - Last day of Term 3
Enjoy the school break, and we look forward to seeing you all next week.
Warm regards,
The Amesbury Team
