Kia ora e te whānau,

It is incredible to think that we are into the second half of our first term together... and what a fantastic term it is! The tamariki are well-settled into school life, including our routines, timetables, and expectations. It's a joy to listen to them referring to our school values at both mat time, and during their learning and play. Their ability to articulate their thinking and their reasoning is second to none, and we're very proud of the way that they are already 'living our school values' (in particular, 'We Care' and 'We Get There Together' which are our focus values for Term 1)!

Kotahitanga (Getting On Together):

Throughout this first term, we have been focusing on the importance of making connections, forming, maintaining, and sustaining relationships.

Over the term, our work has (and will be) related to:

• personal identity and self worth (feeling good about ourselves)
• belonging
• talking about ourselves, including about our feelings and expressing our opinions
• enhancing relationships (working cooperatively)
• communication
• friendship (defining friendship, establishing friendships, maintaining and sustaining our friendships)
• social environments and, in particular, our class (aroha; what it looks like, feels like, sounds like; and making good choices in our happy hub!)

Maths in the Koru team:

Our Maths programme in the Koru team is made up of several different components:

• Warm ups
• A sequence of lessons focusing on a particular strand, or strands, of Maths (e.g., Maths and Statistics, Geometry, Algebra, etc.)
• Problem solving
• Maths games

Warm ups:

These take place at the start of each Maths lesson, and can take the form of an activity we call Notice, Think, Wonder, another activity we call Move and Prove, or a focus on number knowledge.

'Notice, Think, Wonder' will begin with a photograph which is designed to stimulate thinking and questions. Some examples might be:

What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder? What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder?

The letters 'a', 'b', and 'c' (and also 'd' as the children become familiar with the activity) are positioned on corners of the mat. The tamariki are given thinking time and then might be asked to 'turn and talk', to discuss their thinking with a learning buddy. They are then asked to move to the letter which represents the option that they have chosen. The 'prove' part of Move and Prove asks children to justify their thinking - why did they choose the answer which they chose? 

• All About Us (a 3-week topic, focusing on Number, Geometry, and Algebra)
• Pattern Makers (Algebra)
• Counting One to One (with a focus on Number Structure and Operations)

A selection of photos taken during these topics follows, and these will provide a glimpse into the learning the children have been engaging in during these topics.

Problem Solving:

Once a week, we have a problem-solving activity, during which the children are presented with a Maths problem to consider. They will generally work with a learning buddy and will have access to a range of equipment, including materials to help with their thinking and a whiteboard and a whiteboard pen for recording (one of each of these, between two children, encourages sharing and turn-taking).

An example of a possible Maths problem

Maths Games:

On Fridays, our big buddies from the Kauri team spend time with us and, during this time, the children are provided with a Maths game which they will play in small groups, each group supervised by one of the Kauri team students.

On the last two Fridays, the game the children have played is the game called '21'. (This might also be a fun game to play at home.)

This is a strategic counting game where players take turns to add 1, 2, or 3 numbers to a running total, starting from 1. The objective is to not be the player who says "21"!

In the Koru team, we are learning to think and act like Mathematicians, and we are LOVING it!!

• Here we are practising our interoception activities:

• Practising the letter sounds and forming the related grapheme:

• Playing schools:

• Playing hospitals:

• Practising writing the heart words:

Koru Team News 2026

Term 1, Week 4

This week we began our literacy group sessions. You may have heard your children talk about the yellow jelly bean table! This is where our literacy groups take place. At Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto we follow a Structured Literacy approach to reading. Your children will be bringing home a few letter sounds to practise at home and these will be added to as they progress. These can be used to practise the pure sounds the letters make and then can be blended together to form words. Your child could practice writing them as well as saying the pure sounds each letter makes. Heart words, these are words that cannot be sounded out, will also start coming home for children to practise. Once they are proficient in segmenting and blending the first 8 sounds together, and know the heart words, they will start bringing home decodable books to read with you at home. The ability to segment and blend sounds together is paramount to their success at decoding words, so this stage may take longer for some learners. It is exciting to see their progress take off once they have accomplished this skill. The next step is for the learner to be able to write the sounds they hear in words and we do lots of practise with this within our lessons. This would be a great home learning activity once they are secure in the sounds they are bringing home.

Evacuation Drill

Each term we have a schoolwide practice drill on a different type of emergency situation. On Wednesday morning we had a practice fire evacuation drill. We talked about it a lot and even had our own mini practice the day before. The children were amazing during the drill, so calm and listened so well. We were very impressed.

Whare Kotahitanga

On Wednesday we had our first Whare Kotahitanga event. It was lots of fun! Whare Kotahitanga is a refreshed house programme focused on connection, belonging, and unity rather than competition. It is being run on Wednesday afternoons for the next 3 weeks. During the sessions each house is taking part in a different activity. Over the 4 week programme each house will rotate around the 4 different activities. Ask your little house member what the activity for their house was this week.

Photos from Learning Through Play

Photos from one of our Maths lessons this week - How many puppies are in the basket and how many are out of the basket? Can you write the equation?

Reminders

• Hats are needed each day at school for terms 1 & 2
• Our library day is Friday so books need to be brought back to school before Friday
• Poetry books go home on a Friday and can come back any day before the next Friday
• House tee shirts can be worn on the next 3 Wednesdays - these are optional uniform items and can be purchased from the school office.
• There has been quite a lot of sickness across the school, if your child is unwell please keep them home to prevent spreading bugs.

Koru Team News 2026

Term 1, Week 2

Literacy - Letter Learning

Kinetic Letters Handwriting

This week, we started our Kinetic Letters Handwriting Program. The first stage of this involves strengthening our bodies, ready for writing. You will see in the photos below that we have been crawling and holding different animal poses to get our muscles strong. Can your child show you the meerkat or gorilla pose? Or maybe the lizard or lion pose? A much-loved part of this program is our monkey friends, Skip and Bounce. Some of you may have had a visit from them already. If not, there will be one soon! The monkeys come with a book, with all the instructions on the front, so you and your child can prepare a story to share with us.

Art

This week we read about Greedy Cat, a cheeky little ginger cat who is always hungry! The tamariki had a lot of great knowledge about colours and mixing primary colours to make secondary colours. We put this into practice, making Greedy Cat's gingery colour for our own paintings.

 

Friendship List 

If you would like your phone number and email address to be included in a friendship list, please email Nicola (nicola.reddecliffe@beckenham.school.nz). This is a great way to get in contact with other families and organise play dates. A new list will come out each term.

Cyber Safety - Staying Safe Online

Kia ora e te whānau,

It is very hard to believe that we are at the end of our school year - a bittersweet feeling for all, as we say our farewells in advance of the long summer holiday. 

Our children have continued to work hard in all areas of their learning, despite the fact that many of them are feeling very tired indeed! We congratulate all tamariki on their impressive self-management, as the resources around them have been packed up, walls have been cleared, and spaces emptied, leading up to the final big furniture move on Thursday afternoon. Friday arrived, and the children had their first day in Tahaki, embracing the new space with enthusiasm and positivity. Very well done indeed, children. We're proud of you!

We send our heartfelt thanks to those families who were able to give their time last Thursday after school. We appreciate all you were able to do to help us. Your willingness and patience as we were trying to negotiate the boxes, the furniture, and the equipment were truly amazing. You just quietly pitched in, saw the needs and gaps, and filled them. Hooray for you!

Literacy books:

If you happen to find any Little Learners reading books over the summer break, please return these to the office in the new year.

Kia ora e te whānau, 

We have had a busy and exciting fortnight in our Koru hub, filled with hands-on learning, hot days, and big smiles! 

Colour Run

Last Friday, we had our much-anticipated colour run! The children had an amazing time getting sprayed, splashed, and sprinting through the colourful course, twice! A big thank you to the PTA and all the parent helpers who came along to support.

Chickens

One of our favourite highlights was having the baby chickens in for a special visit. The children loved watching them play, eat, and explore. We even had the chance to gently hold them and notice how much they have grown since we last saw them. 

Some of our students also teamed up with their big buddies from Year 7/8. They took a closer look at the chicks together and enjoyed some reciprocal reading time focused on chicks. It was such a beautiful moment of tuakana-teina learning in action. 

Chicken Dance

Here is the cute poem we read last week - The Chick 

Maths

This week in maths, we have been exploring repeating patterns. Looking for them, making them, and thinking about what comes next. Students have been creating patterns using shapes, colours, movements and numbers. This has strengthened our noticing skills and our algebraic thinking.

A friendly reminder to please keep bringing literacy folders every morning. Even though we are getting close to the end of the term, daily practice and reading make a huge difference.

Hats Hats Hats

Transition Visits

In the next couple of weeks, Koru will begin visiting their new learning spaces for next year. These visits help tamariki feel confident and settled for next year.

Have a wonderful weekend, 

The Koru team, 

Niquita, Katie, Elizabeth, and Stacey