We are so excited!!! One week to go until our Twilight Fair 4.30-7.30pm on the school grounds on Friday 20 March. Remember we desperately need more helpers so that we can make this epic night happen. If we don’t get enough helpers we will have to cut stalls and there will be massive queues, which will mean sad faces on the night :(. Click the following link: Would love to help at the Fair!

Fair HQ is still open, we will be busily sorting all the awesome high quality clothes, books and toys this week, but we will still be there with our sign up sheets and taking mystery bottles. Clear out your cupboards, send us a bottle - just needs to be unopened and in-date :) We will also still be selling raffle tickets. The prize team have done some amazing work and the prizes in the raffle are brilliant!

Attractions: There will be fabulous games and fair ground attractions, no matter what your budget we hope we have found something fun for everyone- Hair wrapping, corn toss, spin art, bouncy castles and orb football, dunk a dad, cash cube, chocolate wheel, to name just a few.

Food: Do Not Cook  on Friday. The food team have been hard at work and they have prepared a menu to suit everyone. The Barbeque will be sizzling with sausies and Stag burgers, we have beautiful curries and rice, kid friendly nachos, sushi and of course the best thing on an autumn night Hot Chips!!! To finish off we will have gorgeous cakes, with coffee and hot drinks on sale from our loyal supporter Wheelie Good Coffee. And for those who like their sweets cold and creamy, we have sundaes, slushies and spiders!

Pumpkin Competition: It’s been a tough season for growing Pumpkins, but don’t despair, you can buy a pumpkin and decorate or carve it. So Whether your pumpkin is large or small, painted or carved we have competitions galore.

To enter complete the online form - Pumpkin Competition or come to Fair HQ to register.

Art Auction: Ask your children about the Fair Art Canvas they are working on- there are some amazing collaborative artworks that will be auctioned off during the Fair. 

We hope to see you in the Auction house where we will also house the silent auctions, raffle and the Beckenham Blokes cake and the Pumpkin competitions.

Raffle & Silent Auction: Our raffle and silent auction this year are fabulous! The Mohair store have generously donated a gorgeous throw, amazing local jeweller Love Fool have given us some amazing earrings and another local business Power Built Tools have also given a prize package that includes a creeper seat and socket set!

Entertainment: We have members of the school Whānau performing including our very own international stars!

Amanda Atlas: Amanda embarked on her international career in 1999, spending ten years singing leading roles for various opera companies and orchestras in the US and Europe. She will be performing some Musical theatre numbers and has some of her students coming along to perform for us too.

Stephen McDaid: Stephen performs in New Zealand and Ireland as a solo artist and with a variety of original acts on both guitar and bass. He is a highly skilled performance artist who straddles all styles of music. Stephen will be performing cover songs and if we are really lucky we will enjoy listening to his daughter and ex pupil Morven.

Christchurch Samba band: Brazilian percussion Music, lead by Doug and his big Drum! It’s loud, has an infectious rhythm and will have you shaking your booty!

The Samba band has a current staff member (Jacky ❤) and other members have children who used to attend Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.

Stalls: If shopping is your thing, we have, through the generosity of our sponsors, a wonderful array of silent auctions to bid on. There will also be a produce stall, a massive bake sale, plants, toys, books and some very nice clothes.

All of this work is to make-sure you have a great night, meet your community and our children have some fun. The bonus is that all the money we raise goes straight to school to update our sports uniforms - including getting some sizes appropriate for our smallest whānau, and to buy equipment to support the school in teaching the new digital curriculum.

We can't wait to see you there!!

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

One of my favourite parts of the week is doing road patrol, especially in the morning when I get to greet the smiling faces arriving at school. This week, we had not only happy children, but I spotted some cheeky monkeys too!

Zone review

Coronavirus and Pandemic Planning Update

As you will be aware, the biggest topic in the news at the moment is Coronavirus and the impact that this might have on our communities. I have met with Ester, our Board Chair, and we have reviewed our planning and are in regular communication about the changing landscape and what it might mean for our school.

We are currently receiving almost daily updates from the Ministry of Education regarding the situation with the Coronavirus and any specific actions that we should be taking.
As well as providing ongoing advice, the Ministry of Education provides comprehensive information about updating or creating a pandemic plan. See Planning for an epidemic/pandemic event (quick guide).
The key points are:

• Follow the advice of the Ministry of Health
• Protect students and staff
• Ensure a clean environment
• Communicate with the school community
• Make sure your contact information is current for parents and whanau, staff (including emergency contacts), and District Health Board and Ministry of Education contact numbers
• Identify rooms with amenities
• Plan for staff absences
• Plan for school closure
• Support boarding students and international students
• Plan for return.

Specific actions we have taken include:

• We have increased our communications and teaching with students about hygiene and handwashing. This will continue at a higher than usual level through the period of increased risk (as advised by the Ministry of Health).
• We continue to remind staff and whānau about the importance of staying at home if they are feeling unwell, and keeping their emergency contact details up to date with the school office.
• We have reviewed our cleaning protocols, in partnership with our cleaning contractors.
• We have reviewed the way we use our Hauora Room and specifically increased the cleaning regime within that space.
• We have begun considering how we could continue to support student learning in the unlikely event that the school was required to close for any significant period of time.
• We have increased our pool of relieving teachers so that we should be able to manage the unlikely event of large numbers of staff becoming unwell.
• We have direct communication as we need it with our local Community Public Health Unit.
• As we do each year, we are currently in the process of booking and paying for influenza vaccine for all of our staff who want to have it, in order to support the ongoing wellbeing of our staff.

Should a pandemic be declared, and/or active cases be identified within our community, we will follow the advice of the Ministry of Health, and follow the Ministry of Education Pandemic Planning Guide (full guide).
We will be reviewing these procedures on an as-needs basis - as frequently as daily if that is what is required in this changing situation.

Sandy Hastings and Ester Vallero (Board Chair)
6 March 2020

Important Dates

PTA News

Hey parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles! Your kids need you to have an amazing Fair!! We need more volunteers to help with shifts at the Twilight Fair. We have soooooo many fun games, stalls and delicious food but a team of 12 can’t serve it all! Please click this link to sign up now! Because when it comes down to the actual event…it should be all fun and games!

And don't forget Mystery Bottles pretty please!!!!!! Read more in the upcoming Fair Newsletter #Two weeks!

Community Notices

Magic the Gathering Club

Mondays 6.30pm in the green room at Beckenham school.

Fun, educational, great for making friends and building social skills. Magic the Gathering is the world's most popular collectible card game.

We welcome players of all skill levels and new players will get a FREE introduction deck.

Entry by gold coin donation. All proceeds to Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.

For enquiries call or email Cameron Taffs cameronjamestaffs@gmail.com 02108566724

Introduce your kids to the joy of adventure racing - Try the Kids Challenge!

The Kids Challenge offers kids, ages approx 6 through 13, the opportunity to experience the joy of adventure racing.
They will race in a team of two, on foot, by bike and on water hunting down checkpoints.
The race emphasises teamwork, problem solving, sportsmanship, environmental awareness and fun. The kids cross the finish line, sweaty, smiling, full of pride, hopefully a little dirty and tired and maybe a little bit wet!
For more information – www.kidschallenge.co.nz

World Fish Migration Day

Create a fabulous feisty fish puppet during seaweek.
Aged 9 - 13? Head along to this workshop facilitated by experienced puppet maker, Juliet Neill.  Puppets made at this workshop will be paraded during the World fish Migration Day Festival at Tūranga on May 16th.
When: Sat 7th March, 1;30 - 4:30pm at Ao Tawhiti 5 Mollet St, Central ChCh.  cos is $10 pp to cover materials.
Register at: https://forms.gle/EficXRhZEeMEmTkAA or contact Jocelyn chchnzaee@gmail.com

Sydenham Rugby online registrations are now open at:

www.sydenhamrugby.co.nz

Go to Registrations 2020 and choose the required form (junior, coach, volunteer)
To avoid queues, it is much quicker to register and pay online so have your credit card ready.
The sub for one child is $85. (2 children $130 | 3 children $150 | $180 for 4+ family members)
However, if required, you can still come down to one of our junior registration days:
Sydenham Lounge at the The Cashmere Club
Wednesday 26 February, 5pm – 6pm
Sunday 1 March, 10am – 12pm
There is also a CRFU weigh-in on 23 March so please ensure you’ve registered before 20 March 2020.
JUNIOR GRADES AVAILABLE
U6 – U7 Rippa Rugby
U8 -U9 Rip Rugby (alternative to tackle)
U8 – U11: 10-aside Tackle
U12 – U13: 15-aside Tackle
U14 – U18
register through Cashmere Rugby at:
www.sporty.co.nz/cashmerehighschoolrugby

McDonalds 202 Youth duathlon
the Rotary Club of Garden City has organised the event for may years and are doing so again in 2020.  The event will be on Sunday 5th April in South Hagley Park .  It involves running and cycle stages and is for indivodual entrants aged 7 - 15 years old.
Online entry and payment can be made at www.mcdonaldsduathlon.co.nz.  entries close on March 20th .  The entry fee is $20 per person.

Elements Nature Based Play programmes are an option in Christchurch! 

Are you looking to give your children a different experience in the next school holidays? Have your children active & imaginative in the great outdoors. Think huts, ropes, tools, water play, mud and paint! We have a great mix of planned experiences and play throughout our days. Programmes
throughout April school holidays including ‘Knights & Castles”& “Heroes in the Wild”. Located on a farm in Westmorland and a reserve in Marshlands.
For more info email elementsprogrammes@gmail.com. Holiday bookings are through https://elements.aimyplus.com putting ‘Elements Canterbury’ as the ‘school’. See facebook for what we get up to: https://www.facebook.com/elementsprogrammes/

Two weeks to go until the best Twilight Fair of 2020!  Hopefully by now you have seen us at school at Fair HQ, and know that we are on the lookout for fair helpers. We need over 100 volunteers on the night, to serve food, run the games or sell items on our stalls. The night is split into two shifts, so if you sign up you will have plenty of time to relax and have fun too. Follow this link to our google form to sign up here.

Thanks for all the wonderful donations of clothes and toys - the container is starting to fill up, but we still need more, and there is only 1 week left to bring your items as donations close on the 13th March after school, so bring it down before or after school and we will sort you out.

While you are at Fair HQ there are other fun things to sign up for (or just click the link):

Dunk a Dad or Mum (Waiting List)

Glamour cakes (Tick the cake in the Helper Form)

Beckenham blokes cake (BBC) 

Pumpkin competition (You can buy a pumpkin and enter the best decorated or carved pumpkin category)

In the past we have asked for children to donate a can of food for the food stall, however, this year the only grocery item we are asking for is a bottle for the mystery bottle stall. So please put a bottle in your shop this week, think: cordial, sauce, vinegar, oil, toiletries - just no alcohol thanks as it is a family event. Last year it was a huge hit and we sold out super fast, so we are really keen to make it even better and bigger this year!

Make sure you don't plan to cook on Friday the 20th, as we will have a beautiful menu of food for you to enjoy. As well as delicious chips and BBQ food, we will have other hot meals, including a beautiful vegetarian curry from Sai Touch of Spice and a delicious Beef Massam from Zaffron. We love our loyal local sponsors, so please support them!

Do you know who this beautiful baby is? At the fair there will be heaps of games and competitions including the return of the ever popular Teacher Baby photo competition.

[

We have a variety of acts from choirs, dancing groups, a CSM band, the Ukulele group and Te whanau, children performing from the 3/4 hub to the 7/8Hub. It's going to be great seeing our Tamariki on stage. Come along and show your support for our talented kids.

Thanks again for all your continued and amazing support!

See you at Fair HQ, Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA

Twilight Fair News # Just under three weeks to go!

There are three weeks to go until our annual Twilight Fair! Planning is humming along. Hopefully you have seen that Fair HQ located in the Green Room, just besides Hall Foyer, is up and running. We are there everyday before and after school. leading up to the Fair.  We are accepting quality second hand clothes, books & toys (we will be accepting these items up until one week before the fair). *NB* Feel free to drop off a combination of donations (i.e.. books, toys and clothes in one go) over the next two weeks.
As well as second hand items, we would love it if you could drop off an unwrapped (Non-alcoholic) bottle. Can be anything-sauce, shampoo, fizzy, oil….just needs to be unopened & not expired. And nothing that requires refrigeration. If it’s in the shape of a bottle, we want it for our Mystery Bottle Stall!
Donations are voluntary. We appreciate any donation that can be made. The collection schedule makes it easier for us to sort and store the donations. However, we will gratefully accept any donation at any time. 

Thank you to the fantastic people who have followed the helper link and signed up already! We need over 100 helpers at night to run fair stalls, serve food and sell tickets. It is a fun way to meet other parents and be part of our awesome Te Kura o Puroto community, so please do click the link Fair Helpers or email us at pta@beckenham.school.nz and let us know what you can do.
We still need more help, especially with staffing the stalls! Even if you can sign up for an hour or two that would be a big help and give others a break to enjoy the festivities. We understand that we are asking a lot of the school community at the moment and please do not feel any pressure to donate. This is the biggest fundraising event that we run as a community and all of these funds are spent on making the school a better learning environment for the kids so please do support where you can.
If you are a baking guru you can drop off BAKING/SWEETS on the day (cakes, loaves, biscuits,
slice, cupcakes, muffins, fudge, toffee..etc..) or BAKE a Cafe style CAKE to sell on the Cof-
fee & Cake stand. You can also distribute FAIR flyers to neighbouring shops/ business and put a FAIR flyer on your back car window!
Don’t forget you can always sign up to be Dunked (20 min duty & no gender discrimination + free hot pie or hot drink & shower) or enter a competition, such as Beckenham Blokes Cake Decorating Competition or Pumpkin Competition!

Pumpkin Competition

The largest pumpkin ever grown in the USA had a weight of 2500 pounds, but the title of the heaviest pumpkin in the entire world went to a man in Belgium. His massive pumpkin weighed over 2900 pounds. (For those of you who are completely metricated, that's about 1134 kilograms!) Sometimes these pumpkins are so large they can be hollowed out and converted into rowboats!
At every Twilight Fair one of the most favourite competitions is the "Big Boy" Pumpkin Competition. Every family at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto is entitled to one free Giant Atlantic Pumpkin Seed, courtesy of the PTA. Some of you took up the challenge last October & might have managed to grow a 'Big Boy'!!! For those of you whose pumpkin hasn't grown so big, we have the 'Tiny Tot' Category available for you to enter.
And for those of you not so "green fingered,' don't worry because we have two other categories that might be right up your alley - the 'Best Carved' Pumpkin & the 'Best Dressed/Decorated' Pumpkin Categories.
Whether your pumpkin is large or small, painted or carved we have competitions galore and we would like to know how are YOUR pumpkins growing? Send us a picture on FB or by email  pta@beckenhamschool.nz

Twilight Fair Art Auction

The Twilight Fair Art Auction is underway again! Ask your children about the Fair Art Canvas they are working on - there are some amazing collaborative artworks that will be auctioned off during the Fair.
This is a chance for students to showcase their talent and each class is doing a combined piece. As art is up to interpretation we try not to limit the work to just two dimensional paintings. For the Fair two years ago one hub used wet on wet watercolor technique, and painted small rectangles of watercolor paper. Using a template, these rectangles were cut out the feather shape and students cut “fringes” into the edges of their feather. Finally, they mounted the feathers together in a wing shape on a canvas.
There will be a great collection of keepsakes created by students up for sale so don't miss this opportunity to own one of these. We hope to see you in the Auction house where we will also house the silent auctions!

‘Bumperball Football’ (Mini Zorbs)

They were so much fun last time so we’ve brought them back again to this year's Beckenham Te Kura o Puroto Twilight Fair!! Bumper Balls, Bumpa Balls, Bubble Balls, Loopy Balls, Mini Zorbs; whatever you call them, they are all about maximum fun and minimum rules! The Bumper Balls are giant spheres that go around the body and head, like a bubble, leaving just the legs sticking out. Brilliant fun for a game of bumper soccer. Bump, roll and flip over whilst trying to score a goal against your opponents! Too much FUN to handle & something for ALL ages! Look out for them on the big field!! And of course we have a Mitre 10 Mega Ferrymead Bouncy Castle that’ll be popping up on the big field too!!

Twilight Fair Supporters

We very much appreciate the support of the different businesses, parents and others who have all contributed towards our raffle and silent auction at the Fair, or who have donated services & products at a reduced rate or for free to keep down the running costs of the Fair.
Today we have received a voucher for a 'General Service and Drive Chain Clean' valued at $130 and Bell Spark mips helmet 53 - 60cm valued at $135 from Basic Bikes.



And if you have your eye on this brilliant piece of biking equipment it can be exchanged for the same or lesser value or you can of course pay the difference for a more expensive one if you wish too.
Or if your head is more in the clouds why not try trial Flight out of a Rangiora airfield! This has to be one of our MAJOR PRIZES for the Beckenham Twilight Fair Silent Auction ;). You will fly down to the coast, along the beach to New Brighton Pier, have a look around, and return to Rangiora. Approximately a 45 min flight. And for those that would like to “have a go” at flying the aeroplane, the pilot who is an 'A Category Instructor' can assist with this wish!
More information on fabulous donations and sponsors will come!
If you are a business/person that can help, please click on the link for more detailed information: Beckenham Te Kura o Puroto Donations. Please share/ tag this information with those you think may be able to assist.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA Beginning of the Year Bulletin 2020

Who is the PTA?

We are a group of caregivers and teachers who meet on the 4th Wednesday every month. Our main
purpose is to support the school. We try to do this not only by fundraising, so we can financially
support the school, but also by organising events that bring us together as a school community. We
have an extraordinary community at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto and because of this, the PTA can
do a great job at supporting the school.
We would love new people to come along & see how we work. Why not pop along to our first
meeting in 2020: Wednesday 26th February at 7:30 pm in the staffroom & check the PTA out? You do not have to be a PTA member to attend and there is no pressure to feel like you need to join just because you attend a meeting (There is often good food and always good chat!).
If you do want to help, rest assured you only have to do as little or as much as you have capacity for.
We are all busy parents with other commitments: jobs, preschoolers, our own sports (even partners
get a look in sometimes), and if we all do a little bit, it is amazing what can be achieved. Having a
broad range of skills and ideas is key to making the PTA work, so don’t be shy, come and say hi :).
Please click on the link Meet your PTA for a breakdown on who we are & what we do. We have a variety of roles, some that can even be done at home.

How does our PTA work?

Each event has a ‘coordinator’ who manages that event with the assistance from other PTA
members & volunteers from our school community. Volunteers are sourced either via the PTA
Survey (which gets sent out at least once a term via the newsletter) or from Google forms sent out
via social media. Please click on the link if you would like to complete the survey: PTA Survey.

How do we decide what to fundraise for?

We listen to your suggestions made via the PTA Survey. We also ask the staff to create a “Wish List”.
This year PTA is organising its largest fundraiser - The Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Twilight Fair,
which will be held on Fri 20th March 2020. Money raised from the Twilight Fair will be used to
replenish our school sports uniform collection (which is badly needed for the smaller students at
school!) and for funds the school can use to update our digital technology. A new digital curriculum
has been introduced nationwide: children need to learn coding concepts and how to program robots
so that they can become creators of digital technology, not just users. To do this requires expensive
equipment. As a PTA and a community, we are striving to assist the school with this expense.
Planning for the Fair is well underway and we would love new people to join the Fair Team and help us crack the $20k mark!!

What did we get up to last year?

Last year we enjoyed hosting the New Whānau Morning Tea each term, the Kids Masquerade Disco
& co-hosting, with the Student Council, the Shared Breakfast on the Shortest Day.
We ran the Clubbercise classes, which were a huge success – “whoop whoop”!

We organised a Cheese Roll-a-thon and sold some scrumptious Cheese Rolls!
On the last Sunday of each month, the PTA hosted a car boot sale in the school car park, the
Beckenham Booty. This was a great way to clear out cupboards and meet new members of the
community as people hawked their wares.


We co-ordinated our annual fundraisers the Read-a-thon, Calendar Art & the Back in 1969 Quiz.
Our last event of the year was the Annual Leavers lunch, a beautiful way to send off the year 8’s on
their next adventure!
With the money we raised last year, a new Beckenham Te Kura o Puroto Gazebo was purchased to
be used at community events where our tamariki are participating. Another exciting item bought
with fundraising money was the very flash Outdoor Portable Sound System, which was just fantastic
to see in use at athletic sports - goodbye squeaky bullhorn!
As well as this we funded each child to go on a class trip and contributed to the annual Kauri ski trip.
A real highlight has been seeing the new Outdoor Spaces take shape, as all the money generously
given by the community has enabled the Outdoor Spaces Committee to finalise the design stage and
begin to build some fabulous play spaces for our tamariki.

What is coming up in 2020?

As usual we have lots of things planned for the year ahead! There is no expectation for families to
participate in all the events we provide, anything contributed is always gratefully received. We aim
to offer our families a variety of events to participate in & hope you can enjoy some of them this
year.
Besides our main event the Twilight Fair, we will bring you back the Kids Disco, the Read-a-thon,
Calendar Art, the Quiz, a Top Team Family Fun Day and more!
One of our less known activities is mobilising pastoral care for families who need it. (We always keep
the family anonymous). A helping hand when a family is having a tough time is always so
appreciated. If you think you could cook a meal or bake a cake when we put a shout out, fill in the
PTA survey link.

We Care Range
We love our ‘We Care’ range, products that help us care for our environment & provide practical
assistance in our daily lives. We have Jute Bags, String Veggie Bags & Beeswax Wraps to assist you with your war on plastic. We also have a few Beckenham Tea Towels & Aprons left along with the Beckenham Grid A2 Canvas.


We are excited to be working in conjunction with our local Eatery, The Birdwood, to offer the
following Deal – purchase a $17 Reusable Takeaway Cup from The Birdwood & your first coffee is free. Every time you refill that cup you will receive an 80c discount. Let’s help keep those disposable cups out of the Landfill. These ‘Ideal Cups’ are NZ Made, BPA Free, Leak-Proof, Robust & Barista- friendly.
Contact us to order from our We Care Range at pta@beckenham.school.nz.


Thank you!
Thank you for your ongoing support
Remember to always check the PTA Facebook Page & the PTA Website for up to date information.
Regards
Jody Smith and Liz May (Co Chairs) and the PTA team
https://www.facebook.com/ptabeckenhamschool/
https://sites.google.com/view/beckenham-school-pta-nz/home