Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Hooray! The sun is out, and we made it to the end of what has been a very long and quite challenging term! Whilst the first three weeks back after lockdown saw high attendance with very low levels of sickness, the winter coughs, colds, sniffles, sore throats and occasional tummy bug have all been present and challenging both students and staff this last four weeks of term. The rain and cold over the past two weeks just added to that challenge, and Learning Conferences for two evenings this week have meant that teachers have absolutely worked to their capacity and beyond. As a staff, we are all very much looking forward to the first proper break since the Christmas holidays.

The huge rainbow that appeared over the school yesterday, captured by one of our lovely cleaners, Ellen.

This is an important opportunity to acknowledge again, the incredible dedication that our staff all have to our school, our children and their professional responsibilities. During lockdown, they didn't really stop, whilst they learned new digital skills and set up new ways of working to try and keep learning available for all of our children. We would also like to acknowledge the support that we continue to get from you, our parents and whānau, for the challenge that you took on in becoming the teachers during lockdown, and then supporting the different ways that we have needed to operate during the changing Alert Levels.

We do wish you all a very safe, warm and relaxing break over the next two weeks, and we look forward to seeing you on TUESDAY 21st July for the first day of Term 3.

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki

Year 6 Parents and Whānau evening - Thursday 23 July 7-8pm

Farewell to a very special friend

Dental Care during the School Holidays                                               

The Community Dental Service will be providing dental care for children enrolled with our service during the upcoming school holidays.  The clinics will offer treatment and relief of pain sessions by appointment only.   To make an appointment please call/email our Contact Centre which operates between the hours of 8am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday throughout the holidays.
The following Dental Clinics will be open during these school holidays:

·       Burnside Clinic, 96A Memorial Avenue, Burnside,

·       Hornby Clinic, 2 Hei Hei Road, Hornby,

·       Lincoln Clinic, 35 James Street, Lincoln,

·       Timaru Clinic, Level 1, 18 Woollcombe Street, Timaru

The clinics will offer appointments between 8.15am and 4.45pm for school-age and preschool children requiring treatment.
If your child has dental pain because of an accident, please contact your dentist in the first instance.
To book an appointment at one of our clinics please: call 0800 846 983
Or email commdental@cdhb.health.nz

Sports News

Winter Sport

We are hoping to be able to continue to offer a local winter sport competitive programme with our zone next term on Thursday afternoons. Thank you to the parents who have already offered support with this. For this programme to run, we are in need of adults to manage hockey and football teams for Year 5/6 and 7/8. This is a six-week commitment.

School Cross Country Champions

Year 8 champions - Mia, Lucky and Erik

Year 7 champions - Mila and Jonty

Year 6 champions - Billy and Petra

Year 5 champions - Archie and Jayde

Year 4 champions - Lily and Jack

Year 3 - champions - Kawa and Isla

Zone Cross Country

Monday, was a fantastic day at Halswell Quarry for our zone cross country. Our competitors did our kura proud by showing exceptional perseverance and sportsmanship. It was great to see the way that the children supported each other. A special mention goes to Mia, Jain and Ruby who stayed back at the finish line to cheer every last runner over the finish line.

Congratulations to Jonty Mitchell, who placed 4th in the year 7 race, and Torin Jorgensen, who placed 5th in the year 6 race. Both children will be representing our kura at Canterbury’s in term 3.

Year 7/8 Zone Basketball

Congratulations to our girls’ basketball team who won our zone basketball tournament on Wednesday. 

Community Notices

Hola , Kia ora !

Celebrate Argentina Day with us in Riverside Market on Friday 10th of July. Come after work and stay all night long!

Featuring:

- 6pm- Argentinean Street Food from El Quincho
- Live music: El Ristu + Open Mic - El Quincho
-7pm- Social cards games (Truco & Chinchon)
- 7pm- Argie Quizz - Upstairs Cantina
- 8pm- Social Tango - Milonga -upstairs at Cantina
-10pm - Fiesta Argenta at Castro Bar
- Dance until 3am with Argentinean DJ Sofia
-Riverside Market and El Quincho $50 vouchers

- Free Entry

- To make the event safe and comply with COVID 19 regulations, please register your name for the event.

Thank you for sharing this event with your amigos!

Hasta pronto, Gracias!

Denise Lovato

The Big Planting Day Farnley Reserve 

19 July (last Sunday of school holidays), 9am -12pm  81 Eastern Terrace Beckenham
An opportunity for families to get to know your local reserve, plant some plants and meet some of the regular Friends of Farnley volunteers.

Bring your own shovel and gloves if you have one (make sure they are named).  Wear warm clothes, sturdy footwear and bring your own morning tea.

Do you need an internet connection at home?

As part of their goal to have all New Zealand students digitally connected at home, the Ministry of Education are rolling out a programme to support those families in the community who do not have an internet connection at their home address. The Ministry will be providing modems and 6 months of free internet to families who do not currently have the internet at their home address.
The Ministry have provided me with a list of families who they believe do not have internet, and we have the opportunity to add you to this (or check that you are on it if you need to be). If you do NOT have internet at home (having a data plan on your phone does not count as internet connected to your address), please let us know by emailing Jacky your name and your child's name, and we will make sure that you are added to the list. I have to have this data to send to the Ministry by next Thursday, 11th June. email: office@beckenham.school.nz

Playground opening!

We had a fabulous day on Tuesday afternoon, in spite of the misty, damp day, as the sun broke through the clouds for the opening of our our new outdoor spaces play area. Due to being at Level 2, we had only a very small number of guests present, and the whole school assembled around the play area to watch the proceedings.
Our thanks go to the PTA for funding $73,729.00 of the cost of the playground, from their Outdoor Spaces Fund. This fund was built up over many years of strenuous fundraising by many PTA members and we are so grateful to have been able to utilise this money for this wonderful explorative play space for our children.
The Outdoor Spaces Team, comprising original members of Carmel Wade (BOT), Amanda Wolt (PTA) and current members Nigel Easson, Paulette Newton, Matthew Macdonald (BOT), Nathalie Doering and Nicola Reddecliffe (PTA), have been the driving force for three years in getting the playground from concept to reality.
Our thanks also to the Greenscapes Landscaping team who have taken the design and brought it to life so successfully.
Our final thanks go to Carol and Graham Palmer who donated the money needed for the Ready-Lawn which was laid and will mean that the children should be able to access the grassed areas from the start of Term 3.
We were fortunate to also have Ministry of Education property funding become available in December 2019, which has contributed to this and meant that the PTA still has some Outdoor Spaces funding to use for further projects.
The playground was opened officially by two students - our oldest and youngest students at school on Tuesday - Lucky (Y8) and Ivy (on her very first day at school!).


After the opening, we took the opportunity of having both Paulette Newton and Nigel Easson present, to formally farewell them with all of our students. Nigel has started his new role as Principal at Sheffield School and Paulette has begun her new role as a Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour. We do wish them both all the very best and we will still see them around from time to time.

The children have been making the most of the playground, even in this cold and wet weather, and have been having an amazing time!





Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Principal/Tumuaki

Important Dates

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Celebration Assembly!

Outdoor Spaces

Excitement has really been building this week as the Greenscapes Team have been putting the final touches to our new outdoor playspace. It will be formally opened on Tuesday, and will be available for the children to play on from Wednesday.

Our huge thanks go to the Outdoor Spaces Team who have driven this project from the very beginning. They have included Carmel Wade (BOT) and Amanda Wolt (PTA) currently consist of Nigel Easson, Paulette Newton, Nathalie Doering, Nicola Reddecliffe (PTA) and Matthew Macdonald (BOT). We wouldn't have got to this stage without their amazing dedication and commitment.

Morning Drop-offs and Afternoon Pick-ups

Thank you all for the support you are giving at the school gates!
We are really appreciative of the way that our families and children are managing the new drop-off and pick-up procedures.
What has been interesting is the positive feedback from many parents, and from teachers too, about the benefits of children independently coming into the hubs in the mornings. Numerous caregivers have reported to staff about how they are enjoying having the extra 20mins or so each morning. The teachers have noted how much calmer the hubs are in the morning when they can focus on your children as they settle into the day.
We are also aware that caregivers do need time to maintain relationships with teachers. Many of you are making great use of email, in the first instance, and we know that face-to-face conversations are important too so we are considering how morning drop-offs might look going forward.

New Signage!

We are very excited to have new signage at our front entrance area. We have a large sign now at the front gate, and a sign showing our school values, next to the hall.

Learning Conferences - final week of Term 2

Due to the lockdown, we have had to reschedule our Learning Conferences for this term. We are now working towards these happening in the final week of term, on Tuesday 30 June and Thursday 2nd July. School will close at 2pm both days, to allow the learning conferences to take place. More information about booking a learning conference will come out next week.

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy and the team

Scooters

Have you lost a scooter?  These two are sitting in office area.  Please come and claim them if they are yours.