Author Archives: Katie Chapman

Ferrymead Heritage Park Trip

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Dear Parents/Caregivers,


Pohutukawa Whanau are arranging a trip to Ferrymead Heritage Park this term as part of our conceptual learning around ‘Change’. The purpose of this trip is for the children to experience life as a child in the 1900’s in an authentic township and to allow children to see the technological progress that humankind has made to improve our lives.


The trip to Ferrymead will take place over two separate days.
  • Year 6 children will attend on Thursday 24th August. Year 5 children will bus to Champion Street as per usual.
  • Year 5 children will attend on Thursday 14th September. Year 6 children will bus to Champion Street as per usual.


On both days the bus to Ferrymead Heritage Park will depart from Eastern Tce at 9.00am and will return to school by 2.30pm. Children will need to meet their teachers in the East Hub by 8.45am on the day of their trip. When we return to school, we will have some reflection time in the East Hub before heading home for the day.


Students will need to bring:
  • Water bottle
  • Lunch and morning tea (no lunch orders on the day of their trip)
  • A warm layer of clothing
  • Comfortable shoes for walking
  • Any medication they will need i.e inhalers for asthma


We will need parents who are willing to travel with us to and from Ferrymead and who are happy to be responsible for a small group of children while they are there. Please contact your child’s homeroom teacher if you are interested in attending.


To cover the cost of the lesson and bus, a contribution of $15 will be added to your school account.


Kind Regards,


Nice Bruce nick.bruce@beckenham.school.nz

Term 2 Week 2

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Kia ora whanau!

Welcome back to Term 2. 

We have had an action packed programme for our concept-based learning approach this term, with children involved in either Science, Health or Visual Art. Each teacher is leading in a curriculum passion that they have to ensure that children get amazing experiences and deep learning opportunities. Each home room will have the opportunity to be involved in each of the different learning areas throughout the course of the term.

Hub 14 have started the term off with Amy for Health. They are focussing on understanding:
-what a good friend is
-what a bad friend is
-what bullying is and what to do about it
-what by-standing is
-the effects of negative self-image and tools to change our thoughts.

Hub 15 are starting the term off with a crime scene investigation with Gayle. The children are learning the basics of forensics and DNA.

Hub 21 have been very engaged in their Science lessons, in which they have been learning about identity through dissecting different things such as hearts and eye balls. 

Hub 22 are underway with their learning about 'Cubism', a style of art made famous by Georges Braques and Pablo Picasso. They have learned pencil techniques, had a play with fragmenting their drawings with different lines and shapes, and are now beginning their cubist style artwork.

Reading and Maths Groups

Term 1 provided a great opportunity for us to get to know the strengths and next steps of all of our children across reading and maths. Some reading and maths groups will be changing in the coming weeks to reflect the learning that children have achieved during Term 1. 


Sport updates


Winter Sport


We have now finalised teams for Winter Sport and communicated these to the children. The interest in playing sport was really encouraging and making up teams was a challenging task due to the level of skill and positive sportsmanship displayed by all the children. Unfortunately, we are limited to entering a maximum of two teams per sport in each age group and so can not take all the children who want to go.


Children participating in Winter Sport will have an early lunch each Friday (starting in week 3). They will be bussed to their game location at 12.30. Games start at 1.15 and should be finished by 2.15. On completion of their game they will be bussed back to Sandwich Road via Champion Street, arriving back at Beckenham by 3 pm.


Locations for matches are as follows:


  • Netball, Rugby and Year 7 and 8 football - Hagley Park
  • Hockey and Year 5 and 6 football - Nunweek Park


Children attending Winter Sport should ensure that they bring a warm jersey or jacket and a water bottle to their game. The following safety gear is also required:


  • Hockey - shin guards and mouthguards
  • Football - shin guards
  • Rugby - mouthguards


All players should have short nails and are not permitted to wear any kind of jewellery.


Of the children competing we have a mixture of highly able, competitive players and children who are trying out the sport for the first time. While there is a competitive element to Winter Sport, the primary focus is on participation and good sportsmanship. We look forward to seeing our school kete values on display.  

Literacy Learning in Hub 21/22

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In Hub 21/22 we settle into the school day with literacy learning. We begin with writing, which is done in home groups. Our latest text type has been persuasive writing which was ignited by the topic of 'Scooters should be banned at Beckenham School'. We had some very interesting discussions around this.

Please enjoy reading the following two examples of children's work.



After writing, we begin reading. We are in groups and have different activities each day. These include independent novel study, Olympics activities, guided reading with the teacher, and plays. We enjoyed watching two groups perform their plays this morning.