Reading at Home
Thank you for supporting your child by maintaining regular reading at home. Each day your child needs to self-select a book and put it into their reading folder. If you are concerned about your child's reading or you would like any ideas about supporting your child to read at home do not hesitate to speak with your child's teacher.

Slippers/Warm Socks/Winter Clothing/Glasses
The days are getting much cooler and it's really good to see students dressed appropriately for the weather. Please do remember to name your child's jackets as these inevitably come off when they enter our lovely warm hub. If your child would like to wear slippers or thick socks, do name these too.
We have an increasing number of students who wear glasses and we know it's so important that they develop the routine and discipline of managing this by themselves. If your child is suppose to wear glasses for specific learning tasks - reading, for example, please let us know.

Learning Conferences
Kind thanks to you all for taking the time to meet with us last week for learning conferences. These are such valuable meetings to celebrate with your child all their progress and to identify next steps.

Disco and Swimming Photos....enjoy!

We are so happy to have finally started swimming lessons. Thanks to all our lovely whanau who are supporting us during this time and to the many, many hours of work Charlotte has put into planning and organising such a valuable learning experience for our tamariki. Arohanui Charlotte!
Lessons continue this week (except for Wednesday 29th May) and then on into next week too.

Here are some photos of today's fun:

Cross Country 
On Monday 6th May we are having our school cross country! Your child/children are welcome to wear their house shirts on Monday. They will need to wear appropriate footwear.
Our Year 1-3 children will be out on the field from approximately 2.05pm.

Kahikatea Team Newsletter
Term 1 2019

Kia ora koutou,
Greetings to you all and a very warm welcome to this new year. It is a pleasure to be able to meet with you and your child/children during learning conferences. We are looking forward to a full and flourishing year ahead!

Meet our teaching team:




Amber Donovan amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
Jules May                        jules.may@beckenham.school.nz
Charlotte Verity charlotte.verity@beckenham.school.nz
Anna Reid                       ann.reid@beckenham.school.nz
Kristika Burridge kristika.burridge@beckenham.school.nz


The First Weeks of School
Our focus in the first weeks of school will be about building relationships and getting to know each other. This will include supporting students to become familiar with daily routines including how to use the inside and outside spaces, how to move around safely and sensibly, how we use resources and materials and learning how to work together. Becoming familiar with the sequence of and expectations within a day of learning at school is important for all our tamariki. If you have any questions or concerns please let your child’s home group teacher know.

Daily Routines:
The first bell rings at 8.30am. At our hub entrance there will be a teacher to meet and greet children and families as they arrive. If your child/children arrive before 8.30am they will need to wait outside as this allows time for teachers to prepare for their teaching day.
We encourage you to support your child’s independence by allowing them to carry and unpack their school bag and place it into one of the green or blue cubbies (at the back of the Tahaki Hub).
Lunch boxes, drink bottles and reading folders will be stored inside the hub.
Activities will be set up in hubs at 8.30 each morning. Once your child has put away their things, he/she is welcome to choose an activity or to go outside to play.
All children are to come to their home space at 8.55. If you arrive after this time it is very important that you report to the office to sign in.  If you need to collect your child from school during the day you will need to sign them out at the office.

Home Learning
During the first two weeks as our teaching and learning programmes are being established there will be no expectation for our tamariki to be completing home learning tasks. More detailed Information about what our Home Learning will involve will be shared with whanau soon and we will let whanau know how parents can support us within the hub.

Topic
Through a range of learning experiences and across a range of different curriculum areas we will be learning about the concept of Innovation. We look forward to sharing our learning goals for this with you soon.

Parent Help
To help us settle into our learning routines we would appreciate if offers of parent/whanau help are delayed for the first few weeks. If you are happy to work ‘behind the scenes’ to put away reading books etc we would very appreciate that.  Please make contact with one of us and we’ll let you know how you can help.

Mini Ball
We are offering our tamariki the opportunity to play mini ball in Terms 1&4 at Pioneer Stadium.
For us to provide this opportunity, we need the help of some wonderful parents who would be keen to coach one of the teams. This would look like providing a training session at school one lunchtime each week and attending the weekly games. I organise the management side of things; sending out game times etc each week.
If you are keen to help, please send me an email ASAP as the games begin early in Term 1. This will enable me to advertise this to the children and organise the teams in the first couple of weeks.
I very much look forward to hearing from you!
Kind regards
Anna Reid - anna.reid@beckenham.school.nz

Karakia to start the day
This karakia is used across our kura to start the day and for formal gatherings, celebrations and meetings.
“This is an ancient karakia that was used when you were out at sea and a storm was approaching. However, the storm is a metaphor for any life­ threatening force. It is now widely used at the start of the day or at the start of a meeting”.

Whakataka te hau ki te uru,
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga.
Kia mākinakina ki uta,
Kia mātaratara ki tai.
E hī ake ana te atākura he tio,
he huka, he hauhunga.
Haumi e! Hui e! Tāiki e!

Translation
Cease the winds from the west,
Cease the winds from the south,
Let the breeze blow over the land,
Let the breeze blow over the ocean,
Let the red ­tipped dawn come with a sharpened air,
A touch of frost, a promise of a glorious day.

We wish you all the best, for a very happy and successful year together!

Arohanui, Kahikatea Team.