Author Archives: Anna Reid

Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 2

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Kia ora e te whānau,

Welcome to our 2026 blog! We have had a fantastic start to the year in the Kōwhai hub. Everyone is settling in well and becoming familiar with new routines in our new learning space. This year, each child has their own cubby for bags, and after a few early teething problems, we are all remembering where our spots are!

Over the first few weeks, we are focusing on getting to know one another within our homegroups and establishing our daily routines. This time is important for helping the children build a strong sense of security and belonging in their learning environment.

Girls Smash Cricket

Yesterday, all of the girls in the Kōwhai team had the opportunity to take part in a cricket session to encourage them to give the sport a go. They practised their bowling and batting skills through a range of fun games and activities, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

If your child is interested in joining a cricket club, they were given a leaflet with further information. The closest club is based in Beckenham, making it a very convenient option.





Top Team

This is a friendly reminder about our Top Team event next week. Weather permitting, it will be held on Wednesday 18th February in the afternoon at the park and will feature a variety of fun team-building activities.

As some water activities are planned, please ensure your child brings a change of clothes (including shoes) and a towel in their bag to use afterwards.

A big thank you to the parent helpers who have kindly offered their support — we truly couldn’t run events like this without you!

Construction

During Discovery time, many of our children love getting creative and building all sorts of things using cardboard boxes. At the moment, our supply is running low, so we would greatly appreciate any donations of small to medium cardboard boxes or containers.

Thank you for your support!

Water Play

Last week, we managed to squeeze in 2 sessions of water play with the weather not being altogether reliable! The children had lots of fun using their water blasters and sliding on the water slides with washing up liquid added for extra speed!







Discovery

Over the first couple of weeks, we have enjoyed plenty of Discovery time, giving our tamariki the opportunity to explore a wide range of activities while getting to know one another. Outdoor options have included giant checkers, four square, hula hooping, and chalk art. Indoors, children have been busy with marble runs and magnets, construction and Lego building, card making, and Zendoodle art. It has been wonderful to see everyone exploring the choices available and giving new things a go!










Hats

Thank you for ensuring your children bring their hats to school, we really appreciate your support. As you know, staying sun smart is important. Any children who forget their hat will need to remain under the hall verandah during break times, with duty teachers supporting and reminding students as needed.

Cyber Safety

Staying Safe Online


As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s important parents and whānau help them stay safe. Now is a great time to talk to them about how we use the internet and digital technology.


Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have all the information they need to talk about online safety.


If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.


We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Kōwhai News Term 4 Week 6

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Kia ora everyone!

Welcome to the Kōwhai blog for Term 4, Week 6! The term is rapidly disappearing and while we have achieved so much already, there is still much to do.

Production

Over the next few weeks, we will be very focused on putting our production together. We have been busy rehearsing our dances and preparing props and costumes and it is now time to put it all together into one big extravaganza!

This is a reminder that you are all invited to come and see our performance on Thursday 4th December at 11:30am in the hall.

Ukulele

Everyone is continuing to enjoy their dance and ukulele lessons every Tuesday. In our ukulele sessions, the children have been helping to make up a song about the school, contributing lots of great ideas. We look forward to hearing the end result!

Chicks Hatching

As you may have already heard, we have some chick eggs incubating in our very own school office! They have been carefully guarded by Sue, Jo and Cade over the last weeks. We have all had the opportunity to visit and see the eggs and Sue has been telling us all about the kind of chickens that will hatch and what we are going to do with them. Thank you, Sue! 

And now the chicks have started hatching and it is very exciting! We have starting thinking about names for them all. What do you think? Can you think of any good ones?



Colour Run

The PTA have organised a Colour Run event to take place next Friday afternoon. So far, the PTA have raised around $9,000 which is absolutely amazing! If you would like to help raise money for this fundraising event, just click on the following link and hit the red “Set Up a Fundraising Page” tab: 

In order to drum up some more support for this event, we are also sliming teachers, one teacher per $1,000 raised. Yesterday, at the end of the school day, we slimed 8 teachers in total with Chris getting slimed twice! The children absoltuely loved witnessing this and are looking forward to seeing more teachers get slimed next Wednesday. We will have to see if any Kōwhai teachers get included next time round! 






Have a great long weekend!

From the Kōwhai team

Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 10

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Kia ora whānau,

It is hard to believe that we have reached the end of Term 3 and what a busy term it has been! There has been lots of fantastic learning going on, of course, the highlight being our gymnastics sessions.

Gymnastics

We had 2 really successful sessions of gymnastics and the children loved taking part and trying out all the different apparatus. It was amazing to see everyone giving it their all and putting every effort into learning new gymnastics skills on the beam, the rings, the trampoline and the bars. Everyone was exhausted by the end of it!



























Scooter-athlon

Next term, the Kōwhai children will be taking part in an exciting Scooter-athlon on Wednesday 15th October from 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm. This is the first time this event will take place at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto! Parents are invited to come along and cheer on the tamariki. The event will give students early exposure to a duathlon-style challenge, helping prepare them for the Year 5 onwards duathlons.
The Scooter-athlon will follow a run → scooter → run format, giving students the chance to experience a fun, active, multi-stage race. Students are encouraged to wear their house t-shirts, bring their own scooter and helmet, wear closed-toe shoes, and follow the safety rules. Year 7/8 students will act as marshals to help run the event safely.
Please note: If it is raining, the Scooter-athlon will be postponed. Any changes will be shared with parents via Hero.
Please let your classroom teacher know if your child does not have a scooter or if you have a spare one you are happy to lend.
We can’t wait to see the tamariki scoot, run, and have fun – nau mai te wero! We love challenge!

Production: Jukebox Journey

We have been busy learning various dances through the ages over the last few weeks as part of our inquiry on dance, including Egyptian, rock and roll, disco, ragtime and also futuristic! From next term, we will be very focused on putting together a performance of all the dances for you to come and see in Week 9 which will be on Thursday 4th December at 11:30am in the hall. There is lots to do apart from learning our different dances including making props and also making and acquiring costumes. The children are already really enjoying the experience and are very excited to perform for you!



Athletics Day

Next term, we will be doing athletics, learning how to do shot put, long jump, discus, high jump and sprints. We will be practising over the first few weeks in preparation for our whole school Athletics Day in Week 4, Thursday 30th October. There will be more information to follow next term.

Hats!

Next term, everyone will need to be wearing hats at school to make sure we are being sun safe. Please make sure your child/children have a school hat ready for the beginning of term. This can be a red or black bucket hat or wide-brimmed hat. All children will need a hat to play outside and participate in outdoor activities such as athletics. Thank you so much for your support with this.

Walk or Wheel To School Week

In Week 2, we will be celebrating Walk or Wheel to School Week by encouraging everyone to walk, scooter, bike, run or skate to school. The children also have the opportunity to go in a draw to win an amazing prize! This is a great way to encourage the children to keep active as much as they can. We appreciate that some of the children are not able to do this but we do encourage those families that need to drive to school to drop their children off a short distance from the school entrance and they can walk from there. 

Lamb Visit

Georgia’s homegroup enjoyed a special experience when a lamb came to visit the classroom. The children were fascinated to learn how to feed the lamb with a bottle, and they loved having the chance to get up close to such a gentle animal. A heartfelt thank you to Poppy and Elisa for bringing in the lamb they were looking after. We are especially grateful for the time and effort they took to make this visit possible—it created a memorable learning experience for everyone!


Legacy Dance Studio - Hip Hop

Steph has been working hard with our Year 3-4 Hip Hop Club over the last couple of terms. The classes do warm-ups, games, freestyle and add onto their dance each week!  They are working towards performing at the Legacy Dance Studio end of year show. 
There is space in our hip hop club if your child is interested in joining in term 4. Please email legacydanceoffice@gmail.com.
 

Discovery Photos










As you can see, Term 4 is shaping up to be a very busy term! It will also be lots of fun so we are very much looking forward to it. We hope you have a wonderful holiday break.

From the Kōwhai team





























Kōwhai News Term 2 Week 6

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Kia ora e te whānau,

We have really been in the swing of things over the last 2 weeks, focusing on literacy and maths, doing our Inquiry on technology and creating our Miro scupltures. Here is an update on what has been happening.

Inquiry: Technology

Over the past weeks, we have been looking at what technology was like in the past and comparing it to the technology we have today, specifically looking at communication, gaming and entertainment, toys and transport among other things. Technology has advanced so much over the last 50 years! 

Can you order the communication technologies below from oldest to most recent?

Ferrymead Trip


As part of our technology inquiry, we are also very much looking forward to our trip to Ferrymead in week 9 to celebrate our learning. There will be some more information coming soon around the details of this. 

Just a reminder that Anna R's and Anna M's homegroups are going on Tuesday 24th June along with half of Hazel's homegroup. Rowe's and Georgia's homegroups and the other half of Hazel's homegroups will be going on Wednesday 25th June. If anyone in Anna R's and Anna M's homegroups is taking part in the Cross Country Challenge at Hillview on Tuesday, they will going on the Wednesday.

Visual Arts: Miro Scilptures

We have been busy making our Miro sculptures with recyclable materials and the outcome has been amazing. Everyone has been enjoying making their creations and are very proud of them!







Learning Conferences


Our learning conferences are coming up next week. Thank you so those who have booked their conferences already. If you haven't booked a learning conference yet, there are still available slots. You can contact your child's homegroup teacher if you need help with this or go to the office. We look forward to catching up with you next Tuesday and Wednesday and to share you child's/children's learning.

Matariki Celebrations

Tēnā koutou e te whānau,

We would like to invite you to our Matariki Whānau Rōpū hui.

Matariki is the start of the Māori new year and a time of reflection, connection and planning for the year ahead. We would like to celebrate with you and your whānau on Tuesday the 17th of June from 5:00 pm. The PTA will be having a Sausage Sizzle on the night for a small koha (donation). We will also be having performances form our Year 3-8 Kapa Haka groups, and each hub will be providing different activities to do with Matariki. There will be more details to come soon. 

Mānawatia a Matariki!

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.

Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 11

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Kia ora whānau,

Wow! It is hard to believe that we have got to the end of an 11-week term with lots of highlights to look back on. We started the year with Slip 'n' Slide afternoons and then we also had Top Team come and visit with lots of fun team activities to particpate in. We have been doing lots of amazing chemistry experiments, looking at chemical change and how different substances react in different conditions. We have also been enjoying Discovery, with lots of different activities to get stuck into, such as making your own board game, deconstructing electronic equipment and learning how to play French Cricket. On top of all that, we have been making good progress with our learning in literacy and mathematics and have really got into the swing of things. Your tamariki have been working really hard and I'm sure they all looking forward to a holiday break.

Kōwhai Services Club

Megan has started up a Kōwhai Services Club with volunteers who do good deeds around the school and particularly in the Kōwhai hub. They have special lanyards which they have made and they wear these when they are taking on different responsibilites and carrying out jobs around the school. Their first job has been to sort and tidy all the games and activities in the hub and have done a great job of making everything look neat and tidy. They really have been showing how they care and how they make a difference at the school. Thank you!

Pizza Friday 

Next term, we are going to start up 'Pizza Friday' which will involve one child from each homegroup being chosen to make pizza on a Friday afternoon with our wonderful teaching assistants. This is a special reward for the children we see showing the school values each and every day. The school will provide the ingredients for the dough and then we will ask each child to bring in a topping or toppings of their choice. We think it will be a fun and educational way to celebrate success in our hub.


Finally, the Kōwhai team would like to thank you all for your ongoing support this term. We hope you have a wonderful holiday break and look forward to seeing you all in term 2. Happy holidays!