Dear Parents / Caregivers,

 

What a great day it was down the River for Ashley school on Monday.

With 18 students competing in the Rakahuri Rage Mountain Bike Race we  certainly were well represented. All students performed well but outstanding on the day were the Mixed Team of Ella Isherwood and Lachlan Rowe who won their section and Hunter Kerr and Matt Isherwood who took out second place in their section. It was a well supported event by our parents and thank you to Tanya who not only organised it but also put up the marquee. 

Congratulations to all those who were involved and thank you for all the wonderful support.

 

Many of you are already wondering and concerned about your child’s transition for 2020. Unlike many schools Ashley attempts to have this information out to you before the end of the year. This helps prepare the younger students for the up coming year and gives parents a chance to help with that process.

We have been fortunate enough to get extra staffing for 2020 and this has meant that we can have greater facilitation in the junior school.There will also be two positional changes of year level for 2020 to give staff an experience at a different level. In 2020 the Korimako team will be made up of Kerri Taylor ,Rochelle Standen, Karen Daley ,Gill Robinson and Julie MacDonald. Some of these positions will be job share positions with Kerri still undertaking her role across the Kahui Ako.

In Harakeke the team will be Linda Horne Suzy Parker and Ruth Hodgkinson and Pip Tipping and in Rakau the team will be Juanita O’loughlin, John Lynskey, Chris Meehan and Pip Tipping. Once again a there will be a shared position in this teaching space as Chris starts to move herself away from the education sector. There will also be a Learning Support Coordinator employed at the school who will work across Ashley, Loburn Sefton and North Loburn. Sue Graham the former principal at Sefton and Omihi schools will be that person.That means in 2020 there will 15 teachers employed at Ashley School. At the moment we are still working through the number of Learning assistants who will be working alongside the teachers in classrooms are still being sorted as funding from the Ministry and other sources comes in. 

 

Over the last 2 years we have attempted to finish the year with our water battle. The weather has not played ball on the last two occasions so odds are it will be all good this time. The day normally starts with the classes doing their final tidy up until about 10.30 then from 11 the craziness normally begins. This year I have asked the PTA to get on the BBQ and supply us with a few saussies for after the event. We will probably need them to warm us up. As the time get closer we will send out more instruction for the day. Water pistols are compulsory but if you don’t want to be involved then you don’t have to be, there will be a number of areas that will be water and free and neutral, just like Switzerland.We don’t know what the weather is going to do on the day so I am hoping for a real hot one so we have a good reason for getting saturated.