The last two weeks in Kauri have been jam-packed with lots of different activities. We have been busy working away on our calendar art, starting a new round of passions, maths, literacy and exploring opportunities outside of the classroom; as well as enjoying our new learning spaces.

Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday 29 July - School Beckamath Event

Friday 8 August - Celebration Assembly 

PTA School Disco: Year 7 & 8: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Sport in Kauri

Week two saw the return of weekly winter sport and it was great to have all our teams out competing yesterday in the sunshine. We want to thank all of our volunteers that show up every week to ensure our tamariki are able to get out every Thursday and experience the nature of competitive sport.

We have two upcoming sports events that we are still seeking parent support for:

Canterbury Volleyball - Wednesday 6 August – Year 7/8 team at Hillview Christian School. We are seeking at least one volunteer to take the team on the day.

Koru Games - Tuesday 16 September - Thursday 18 September - Various year 7/8 teams competing across Lincoln University, Rolleston Netball Centre and Foster Park. We are still seeking volunteers for the following teams and days:

• Boys Dodgeball: Tuesday 16 September

• Football: Tuesday 16 September and Wednesday 17 September

• Ki-o-rahi: Tuesday 16 September

Please reach out if you’re able to support: kate.mcgregor@beckenham.school.nz 

South Zones Basketball Tournament

On Monday 21 July, we had a group of tāma compete in the South Zones Basketball Tournament hosted by Hillview Christian School. While the results didn’t go our way, the boys had a great day competing against and playing alongside other local schools.

Ski Day

We are excited to be able to take all of our Year 7 & 8s up to Mt Hutt on Wednesday September 3rd for our annual ski day. Nicky has sent out the requests for parent help and student information. If you have any questions, it is best to reach out to Nicky: nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz 

Passions in Kauri

The start of term three meant the start of a new Passions rotation. This term, we are excited to be offering: Felting, Engineering Experiments, Debating, Drawing and buddies in the junior school. It is always great to see the students trying new things and getting to collaborate with different groups of students. Last week, our engineering students created marble rollercoasters.

Education Outside The Classroom - Sites of Significance Trip

On Thursday the 28th of August, we are excited to be taking our entire Kauri Team into Christchurch City to explore the city’s sites of significance. This links into our te reo and tikanga Māori unit where the students are exploring our cultural narrative and connecting with the local whenua. For this trip to go ahead, we are seeking parent support. A survey went home on Hero earlier this week but if you are available to help, even for part of the day, please reach out to your child’s homeroom teacher. 

English: Exploring Rivet Boy and Human Rights

This term in English, we’ve been diving into the historical novel Rivet Boy by Barbara Henderson. Set in Victorian-era Scotland, the novel provides powerful insights into the working conditions of children during the Industrial Revolution. Using this text as a springboard, we’ve been expanding our vocabulary and experimenting with sentence structure such as, learning to craft simple, compound, and complex sentences that suit different purposes and enhance meaning.

Our focus has been on persuasive writing, with the big question: Is using children as slave labour a violation of basic human rights? Learners have been exploring this idea from multiple perspectives and using evidence from the text and wider reading to justify their opinions. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to connect literature with real-world issues, particularly around human rights.

We are well into Term 2 with lots of events on the horizon. It was great to see the effort and participation in our Whole School Cross Country, and the feedback from the Zones cross country was that our students were competitive and respectful throughout the day!

At the heart of everything we do is our school value: "We Love Challenge." We have shown this through our effort and participation in training for our cross country. It was great to see so many students in our team stepping up as leaders during this event and supporting younger students by motivating them and running with them.

Winter Sport

Our representation for Winter Sport has been excellent with the vast majority of students showing “We Care” by demonstrating good sportsmanship and representing our school values and citizenship.

Christchurch South Intermediate - Technology

Team Kauri students are actively engaged in Technology. Students are demonstrating their technical and creative skills by designing and creating outcomes in each of their technology subjects. 

Kowhaiwhai

This week our students were exploring art through Kowhaiwhai patterns. Kowhaiwhai patterns are created using transformation geometry: reflection, rotation and 

Year 8 Cups & Awards

Congratulations to Kawariki Taylor and Imogen Orchard for receiving our Year 8 Boy & Girl swimming cups for 2025. We are all super proud of your achievements!

Upcoming events

Learning Conferences - 10th & 11th June

Matariki celebration evening - Tuesday 17th June

Cross Country Canterbury Zones - Wednesday 18th June

Matariki - School closed - Friday 20th June

End of Term 2 - 27th June

Term 2, Week 6 - All Ages

Staying Safe Online: Bullying

One in five young people in New Zealand have been the target of online bullying – it can happen to anyone, and it can be hard for parents and whānau to deal with. Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto takes online bullying seriously and would encourage you to chat to your tamariki’s teacher if you have any concerns about online bullying.

Visit Netsafe’s Online Bullying Advice for Parents to read more.

The last two weeks in Kauri have been jam-packed with lots of different activities. We have been busy working away on our art, inquiry, passions, maths, literacy and exploring opportunities outside of the classroom.

Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday 28 May - Zones Cross Country (you will be notified if your child has been selected to represent Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto)

Friday 30 May - Staff Only Day (School Closed)

Friday 6 June - Celebration Assembly

Cashmere High School Open Day on Tuesday 10 June 2025, from 4.00pm to 6.30pm at the McCombs Performing Arts Centre.

Farewell Kate Hastings!

Last week, we sadly farewelled Kate Hastings as she set off on her new adventure in New York. Kate has been an incredibly valuable member of our team and will be dearly missed by staff and students. Kate gave up hours of her time to help with supporting our learners, both in the classroom and out. We wish you all the best Kate, make sure to send through updates!

Awards

Our Kete award winners in week 3 were Sarah W and Max P for “We Love Learning” and Alfie R-M for “We Love Challenge”. We also congratulated Vinny J for earning his Bronze Leadership award and Archie C for earning his Silver Leadership award.

In week four, we also awarded kete badges to our students who have been working hard on their Kete Blog posts. We awarded kete badges to Bianca A, Dylan B, Samson N, Isabella F, Minah M, Ella H, Georgia S and Evelyn P.

Korfball

On Thursday of week three, we had Tom from Mixx Korfball come in and take sessions with each homegroup. He taught us a few simple rules and then the importance of those rules. We played small games against each other and practiced following Tom’s instructions. There were lots of us that got stuck in and really enjoyed the session.

If your child particularly enjoyed the session and it is something they would like to pursue outside of school, please have them ask their homegroup for an information flier from Mixx Korfball.

I enjoyed the competitiveness of the korfball. It was lots of fun to get involved in the game, passing with my team, and using lots of teamwork. - Ruvi L

Korfball was very fun. I liked how we started without many rules to get us familiar with the game as not many of us had played it before. With more rules being added throughout the game, it was all very well paced and fun. - Oscar W

Strike Percussion

Also on Thursday of week 3, we had a visit from Strike Percussion in the afternoon. Strike is a percussion group from Auckland who travel around the country, performing in different schools. We had Tayla F, Ruvi L, Misha L and Zach G invited onto the stage to join a performance. We were then luckily enough to watch a drumming battle between our very own Hugo and Kate H - where Kate H was the clear winner.

The percussion was good. We really enjoyed the fire number they did at the end. If we were to give it a rating out of 10, it would be 20. - Quinn H & Lukas O

Book Character Day

On Friday of week three, we held our book character day with many of our students getting in the spirit and dressing as their favourite character. We had a variety of characters from Peppa Pig to Harry Potter to King Kong. It was great to see so many of our students getting involved and feeling the spirit of book day!

Pink Shirt Day

Also on Friday of week three, we celebrated Pink Shirt Day. Pink Shirt Day is an annual anti-bullying campaign where people wear pink to show their support for diversity, kindness, and inclusion. It's a way to stand together against bullying and create safe, respectful environments for everyone. 

40 Hour Challenge

A passionate group of student leaders recently attended a youth conference to kick off this year’s 40 Hour Challenge. Representing our school as the 40 Hour Challenge leaders, they explored this years theme “40 Hours Offline”—a powerful call to disconnect from devices and reconnect with the world around them. Through inspiring workshops and guest speakers, the students gained valuable insights, ideas, and motivation to lead the challenge and raise awareness about making a difference—one hour at a time. Sign up will be happening within the coming weeks. 

Cross Country

On Friday of week four, we had our school cross country. It was a great day of doing our best and showing our school values of “We Love Challenge” and “We Care”. We showed “We Love Challenge” by pushing ourselves to do our best and working hard to make it to the finish line. We showed “We Care” by encouraging others and cheering them on. We had some incredible results and are very proud of all of our tamariki for taking part and doing their best.