ALL ABOUT US
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.
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.
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!
Hello Raukau at Ashley School !
We live in Brindas near the big city of Lyon. We are from a French Primary School.
Our class is participating in the Student Blogging Challenge, despite the difficult times we are living here in France and in Europe.
I am the Teacher. Today, I’m alone writing because my students are locked up at home. Since the coronavirus attack, everyone must stay confined. Every place is closed : administrations, shops, sports facilities, cinema and of course schools. So, the classroom is empty and your friends from France are deprived of their classmates for an unknown period. They continue learning thanks our class blog.
Congratulations for your “About page” which is really very interesting. You seem to be in an awesome school. I invited my students to visit your fantastic blog. We would like to be in touch with you for two reasons.
– For several years, we correspond with three schools from the North Island of New Zealand. You can read our exchanges on our blog page “Friends”
http://cm1.galligani.eu/auroa-school/
– This year, we are trying a new experience for us, building a haka in French language, on the model of a traditional New Zealand haka. We finished to write it, just before the pandemic. You can be an example for us with your participation in the Cultural Festival Christchurch.
Our blog has been running for over 10 years ; you’ll find many things to see, to listen to, to read… in French, but often in English too. Don’t hesitate to write us comments about the posts you want, in the language you want (we fluently use Google Translate).
We hope to hear from you soon, dear new friends.
Serge Galligani, CM2 Teacher from Brindas School, France
Class blog : http://cm1.galligani.eu/
STUBC 2020 page : http://cm1.galligani.eu/student-blogging-challenge/taches-hebdomadaires-2020/
Kia ora Serge = my apologies first of all for taking such a long time to respond to your lovely message, which I opened on March 23rd, and then in the afternoon that day went wild! Our Prime Minister announced New Zealand’s month-long lockdown with school closures, so I have been doing a bit of catching up and starting afresh.
It is certainly a difficult time for everyone, but I imagine in Europe, with your boundaries and borders being quite fluid, it must be even more tricky.
In New Zealand we are able to lift the drawbridge much more easily and disallow anyone from random entry to the country, which certainly makes us all feel safe and secure. I guess the big question is, is this the right thing to be doing? No doubt we will now in the next few months = whatever it will not be a quick answer.
Meanwhile, we are still participating in the blogging challenge, and I would LOVE the students from Rakau to communicate with your students from Brindas School, so I will add the site to our blogroll.
I’m glad you liked our kapa haka group’s Cultural Festival performance. we have a large group of about 80 students from age 5 to 13, and it is a lot of hard work to get the group ready for this performance. Overall there are about 70 schools around the Christchurch area, which perform over 4 days in the city, with a matinee and evening performance each day. We usually opt for an evening show so all of the parents can attend, and the students know that they have to make the most of the 8 minutes they get on stage = no regrets!
We are now on school holidays as they have been moved forward by a couple of weeks, but I hope that children might begin to make contact on your blog.
All the best Serge, ka kite and kia kaha!
Chris Meehan
Bonjour Mme Chris Meehan,
Thank you for this very complete and informative answer.
Into our list of links, I have added your blog address too (see “Accueil” page, link n ° 17 in right column).
While waiting for better days for our humanity, I wish all your students and teachers good moved forward holidays.
Good luck and soon the pleasure sharing our experiences together.
Bien amicalement.
Serge Galligani, CM2 Teacher from Brindas School, France
Class blog : http://cm1.galligani.eu/
STUBC 2020 page : http://cm1.galligani.eu/student-blogging-challenge/taches-hebdomadaires-2020/
Dear Ashley School friends,
What a wonderful post! I learned so much about your school, country, and surroundings. It is nice during this time of social distancing to travel the world with our blogs.
I especially enjoyed learning about REACH. We are working on a new motto for our school, and I really like your ideals, so clearly expressed.
Our school is in Vermont, where trees are also very important, although ours are quite different from yours. We are surrounded with gorgeous mountains and forests, and being able to walk outside in the beauty has been especially meaningful to us right now. Yesterday our class did an Outdoor Education Day at home, where all the lessons I sent to my students could be completed outside. It was refreshing. It’s still a bit cold here (spitting snow today), but yesterday was sunny and 50 degrees F., so it was good for romping about learning about math, science, and more. Most of the students found a cozy spot under a tree for their reading.
Thank you for blogging with us!
~Miss Blessing
STUBC commenter
Vermont, USA
Kia ora Miss Blessing.
You are so generous with your comments about our blog! I too think that it is a wonderful way to be able to meet with people across the globe, especially for school students.
We are back to school with online lessons next Wednesday, and this will continue until a decision is made about how long to continue staying at home. I am setting tasks for students to go to blogs and make connections, so you may be seeing more of us soon!
All the best = Ms Meehan
Hi Ashley School!
I am in a very windy Kent.
What is your weather right now?
Here is a link to my blogging website if you would like to check it out!
Keep blogging!
https://clusterblogging.net/egertony5/