Medication for Pohutukawa’s Camp

If your child requires medication on camp, please complete the Medicine Authority Form and put it and your child’s medicine in a small, clearly named zip lock bag or plastic container. Please hand the bag/container to your child’s home group teacher on Wednesday morning when you drop your child off at the Beckenham School Hall. A paper copy of the form will be sent home on Monday for your convenience.

If your child requires an inhaler for the walk into camp, please put this in your child’s day pack and let your child’s home group teacher know where it is. If your child has other medication that you would like to be taken on the walk into camp rather than being kept with the other medical supplies, please discuss this with your child's home group teacher.

Please also remember that camp is strictly peanut free.

Camp Information and Gear List

Planning is well underway for the Year 5 and 6 camp at Living Springs. As you already know, we will be leaving from Beckenham School on November 23. The children need to meet us in the school hall at 9:00am on this day. After the camp, we will return to Beckenham School between 2:30 and 3:00pm on November 25. We will wait in the hall for you to pick your child up.

The children will be sleeping in carpeted bunk rooms, which can be heated if required. As well as regular meals, there are three snack times during the day.

The programme is challenging, stimulating and safe. The activities include: swimming (heated pool), farm park visit, group initiative challenges, orienteering, walking and recreational activities.

All children will be well supervised and all risks well managed in accordance with our Camp Safety Action Plan and the Living Springs Risk Management Strategies. It will be an exciting learning opportunity for your child.

Thank you very much for the many offers of parental assistance. We were overwhelmed and we’re sorry that we can’t take everyone who volunteered. These are the parents who will accompany us:

  • Chris Flynn
  • Matt Cowie
  • Phill Coxon
  • Matthew Reid
  • Brent Craig
  • Corey Archer
  • Rod Gray
  • Ashley Tough
  • Matthew Cornfoot
  • Simon Kingham
  • Nicole Haines
  • George York
  • Sarah Freeman
  • Jane Brittenden
  • Jane Parrett
  • Brett Sutherland

The list of gear the children will need to bring can be found here. It is not necessary to buy the items listed. For such a short time, it is better to borrow.

Please contact your child’s home group teacher if you have any questions.

Hub 21/22 Rapaki Marae Reminder

This is a reminder that Hub 21/22 will be going to Rapaki Marae tomorrow. We will meet in the Beckenham School Hall at 8:45 AM before we board the bus. We will return to Beckenham School around 1:00 and will finish the afternoon there. Your child will need a hat, packed lunch, drink bottle, warm clothing and a raincoat.

Market Day

The students in Team Pōhutukawa have been working hard to develop products and stalls for our Asian-inspired market day. The market will be open on Thursday, 15 September from 11:00 to 12:00 on the court by Hub 21/22. If the weather is poor, the market will open in the hall instead.

The Pōhutukawa students will be selling lots of interesting (and delicious) items such as Asian food, baking, confectionery, drinks, games, challenges and more. Students should still bring their lunch as normal on this day.

Market day vouchers will be sold before school near the flagpole on Thursday morning. The vouchers will be used as currency to purchase goods at the market. Most items at the market will cost between one and three dollars.

As many Year 8 students will be involved in Cashmere testing on Thursday, we will also be offering a special presale for Year 8 students on Wednesday so that they will not miss out.

The money raised will be used to reduce the cost of Team Pōhutukawa's camp in Term 4 and to offset the market day's expenses.

Living Springs Camp

Planning is well underway for Team Pōhutukawa's Term 4 camp at Living Springs (23 - 25 November). Living Springs is a self-contained complex where the children stay in comfortable and clean bunk rooms with attached ablution blocks. Parent helpers stay in the Harbour View Conference Centre or, if on bunk room supervision duty, in an adult bunk room adjoining the children's bunkrooms.

If you are able to be a parent helper at the camp, please complete the online form at https://goo.gl/forms/zUFikIgIYbwQt6r33 by Friday, 2 September. We require the help of approximately 15 parents if the camp is to go ahead. If you are able to help, your role will involve direct supervision of groups of children (inside/outside activities, evening bunk room duty, setting tables, supporting children during the bushwalk into camp), serving meals, operating the dishwasher, helping with the cleaning of all areas used at the end of the stay. You will need to be able to stay the entire camp. As the cost of parent helpers is covered in the camp fee, we will only take the necessary number of parent helpers in order to minimise costs. If we have more volunteers than we need, we will select first based on the skills needed and then names will be drawn from a ballot.

A consent form and medical questionnaire will be sent home in Term 4 to students and parent helpers.

The camp costs us $135 per child to run and this includes food, accommodation, the cost of the programmes run by the Living Springs staff and transport. Your next statement (due out at the end of August) will have a request for contribution for $135. You are welcome to make payments either in full or by instalment at any time. Please don't hesitate to contact your child's teacher or Audrey Cooper (Financial Officer) in the office, if payment will be difficult for you. Any funds raised prior to camp, including our Term 3 Market Day, will be shared evenly across the team and will appear as a credit on the Term 4 statement.

We are looking forward to a great camp.