Ashley School is located in the South Island of New Zealand in North Canterbury, close to Rangiora, about 30 minutes from Christchurch. Ashley School is a country School near the Ashley River and near a lot of beaches down and up the coast. As Ashley School is out in the country, we can see the beautiful Southern Alps which is very important to us because the mountains actually control our weather.  

At Ashley School, we have a real love for learning, with students of all ages working together indoors and outside, with kaiako or in tuakana/teina situations and we follow our school’s REACH values – Respect, Excellence, Aroha (Love), Courage, Honesty.

Six years ago was Ashley School’s 150th anniversary.  We also made a plaque and put it beside a tree that was planted in 2014 by the youngest student in the school at the time. On Friday the 13th March we unveiled the plaque to the whole school.   

Our senior school is named Rakau = meaning wood or forest, and in the area we have three classes of students from Years 5-8.  There is Kowhai classroom, with Mrs O’Loughlin, Ti Kouka is Mr Lynskey as the home teacher, and Totara has their home base with Ms Meehan.

Kowhai tree.

 

Ti Kouka – Cabbage Tree

The totara is one of New Zealand’s largest native trees, while ti kouka is much smaller and also known as a cabbage tree, and the kowhai tree is much smaller with yellow flowers during the year.

Totara tree. 

 

At Ashley School, we participate in lots of sports events like bike races, Jump Jam, basketball, touch rugby, soccer, cross country, swimming sports and athletics. At Ashley School everyone gives things a go and does their best, so we end up with lots of people moving to the next level of competition. When people from our school go to these events they always represent our school with pride.

One sporting thing that we do is Physical Activity Leaders or PALs, which is a group of 10 people who have been trained by the North Canterbury Sports Team, and who give up their time at lunch to set up games and activities for the younger students in the school. 

The Maori language is one of the two official languages in New Zealand. Every Friday, we do kapa haka which is a Maori tradition where you do singing and actions.

One activity we love to do is the school production. It is held every two years, and it involves acting, singing and dancing. It requires a lot of confidence, but when you have that confidence you have the best time of your life. This year our show will be Man of Steel.

In Rakau we like to participate in lots of fundraising to help the community and other countries. This term we are fundraising for wheelchairs for Africa. Every year we also fundraise for Cans for Good so they can donate cans of food  to the Salvation Army.

At Ashley School we have our REACH values which are most important in helping us to know and understand how to be great New Zealand citizens. The key to the REACH values is all about respecting everyone and everything.

Come on in and spend some time with us!