We were thrilled with how our open evening went last Thursday. Lots of people came along to our new hub to learn about how things operate in Year 7 & 8, and about all of the events and activities we do. The 25 Year 7 & 8 children who spoke were superb. We ran an informal 'panel type' discussion and were so impressed with the children's enthusiastic responses and their willingness to contribute.

Ski Trip:

Most children who needed gear for our ski day have now been sorted. We are still in need of ski gloves and glasses / goggles for some. Please let Nicky know if you can help out with these. Parents helping with transport should have received a form that needs to be completed and sent back to school ASAP. This form was sent home with children today. Some key points for next Thursday's trip:

• Children are to meet on Eastern Tce at 7am, dressed in their ski gear. We will peel off a couple of layers once in bus/car. 
• If the Mountain is on hold or closed we will postpone the trip. The daily ski report is available from 6am  https://www.nzski.com/mt-hutt
• As well as the clothing already discussed on the form, children will need sturdy footwear, a bottle of water, a hearty lunch, sun screen and lip balm. 
• Long hair will need to be tied up.
• Children can bring devices to use in the bus / car. These will stay locked in vehicles during the day. The journey from school to mountain will take about 2 hours. 
• It is up to you if you would like your child to have money to buy a hot drink etc at the cafe. Food prices up the mountain are expensive. We would ask that children have no more than $5. It is absolutely fine for them to come with no money.
• We will return by 6pm. Collection will be on Eastern Tce.

Many thanks to the families who lent us gear for our dry land session today. We can all now put on a ski boot, fit it to a ski and take it off.

Trees for the Port Hills:

We had a visit from Steve, who works for 'Tress for Canterbury' today. He talked with us about the vital role trees play, and the impact that the loss of trees on the hills from the fires in February, has had on our environment. The mud we saw in our rivers during the recent flood, came from our hills. We learnt about the kahikatea, our tallest tree, which takes 700 years to reach full height! Steve talked about the huge number of volunteers who have been turning up to weekend planting sessions since the fire and how we need large numbers to help with planting every year. If your family is keen to help with tree planting, click this link. Many thanks to Jordan from our student council exec who arranged for Steve to visit.

Becamath: 

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will be holding our annual Becamath problem solving competition at school in the afternoon. The children have been put into mixed ability teams. Problem solving, grit, teamwork, running and cheering will be abound!

Home Learning: 

Hopefully there has been lots of maths activity at your place over the past two and a half weeks, as the children put together their Cantamath projects. We are looking forward to seeing these arrive at school by this Friday. It is fine to bring in any completed work early. Please remind your child to name their work. Most of Jenny's maths class are completing the usual home learning instead of a Cantamath project. This is also due on Friday.

Help needed:

Nicky's maths class are creating a mural to enhance our outdoor spaces. The finished mural will look like a scrabble board. We need someone to help us by cutting 100 square shapes out of wood, for the tiles, before next Tuesday. If you are able to help out, please email Nicky.

Writing:

We are currently learning about using 'show don't tell' when writing, to add interest for the reader. Our current writing topic wraps up this week. Here are some snippets that we have been impressed with:

• Creeks echo through the room from the dusty floor boards. Cornelius fills with fear. Trying not to wake his brother, he slowly opens the window and heads into the dark abyss. He gradually straightens his back as he stoops along the gravel path. (Caleb)
• Darkness surrounds me, crawling through my body. One by one goosebumps appear on my forearms. Agony screams inside me from scorching rope burns that twist and turn to form an indented pattern. Branches of stinging nettle scrape me, forcing blood to trickle down my forehead, itching to be rubbed off. I hear deafening screams behind me as dirt tumbles down in front of me. Hard pointy rocks wedge in between my shoe leaving an uncomfortable touch to my foot. “Here comes the steep part!” someone yells. I start to tiptoe up the steep, rocky outcrop, taking each step in caution. (Bella)
  
• Creak! The axles of the rope dispenser rub together causing it to emit a loud obnoxious noise. Is it sturdy enough? Will it hold? Time will tell soon. “You're Up!” the coach yells. The fear and nerves hit me like a bullet to the heart; is this even safe? There are no professionals for miles in little old New Zealand. Welp! There’s no turning back now.
  “Anchors Away!” The owner of the vessel yells out to add effect to the moment. I can tell he knows that I’m feeling more nervous than anything. We hear a faint crashing sound from a distance. Here I go. As tight as I can I clutch the rope, still standing I look down to the depths; what lies beneath there? (Lennox)
  
• I turn my last page of the Hunger Games, my all time favourite book. Refreshing water drips off my numb fingers. The distant roar of the waterfall is somewhat relaxing in this magical forest wonderland. Skyscraper trees tower above me entwining to make a canopy of branches. Sunlight streams to the ground filtering between the small gaps in the brunches. Autumn leaves delicately fall towards the ground carpeting the dusty brown earth. Bees and butterflies dance in and out between the wild corn-flour blue forget me knots, beside the babbling brook. Out of the corner of my eye I spot the prettiest blood red rose I had ever seen. (Rosie)
  
• Blackness  ruled my body.  My heart began to pound in panic, realising that all I could see was nothing. I was walking around the  room like a lost tourist, putting my arms out in front of me to find where I was going. Immediately I fell to the ground  and lost my sense of direction. My hands and my feet began to numb and I lost feeling in my legs. (Millie)

Many thanks to the 8 parents who filled in this form to give us feedback last week. Your comments were really useful. If you have yet to complete the form, we would really appreciate you doing so over the next couple of days.

Open Evening:

Thanks to the parents who have confirmed that their child can help out at our open evening this Thursday. The children involved need to be at our new hub, accessed via Beckenham Park, by 6:55 on Thursday, in school uniform. We should be all wrapped up by 8:30. Please collect your child from the hub at the end of the evening. 

Home Learning:

By now your child should be in the midst of their Cantamath project home learning, if they are in Jarred or Nicky's maths class. This is due next Friday, August 11th. If your child needs some support, we are here to help. Encourage them to ask us at school, or email. 

Ski Trip:

We have just over two weeks until we head up Mt Hutt for the day on August 17th. Mt Hutt now has the student information and the bus has been triple checked! 

The next task is to match up clothing with the children who need it. If you offered to lend clothing, please name it and send it to school this week. If you asked for help to source clothing, but then manage to sort something, please let us know, as we have a long list of requests to fill. 

On the day of the trip, children will need to be at school by 7am. We will be back between 5:30 and 6:00pm. 

To transport the children we have booked one bus and have organised a number of cars. All drivers have 4WD vehicles and are experienced with driving on mountain roads. If you have a preference for the transport of your child, car or bus, please email one of us by Friday. We will be sorting transport lists next week. 

Thanks from World Vision:

Harley from World Vision came to see us today. He showed us how our fundraising is making a difference to the children who have escaped from Syria, to the safety of Jordan. Beckenham raised over $2000. What an awesome way to show that 'We make a difference'!

Celebrating our Leaders:

At the end of last term we presented gold leadership awards for term 2, and today we presented silver and bronze awards. Congratulations to:
Bronze: Santiago, Tilly, Tom, Adam, Bella, Fynn, Hannah W, Gabe and Felix
Silver: Isolda, Nathan and Olivia 
Gold: Daisy, Kaia, Rosie, Juliette, Elise and Sadie

Winter Sport Tournament:

Ski Racing at Mt Cheeseman:

We are looking to put together a team for the Canterbury Primary and Intermediate School Ski Races that are being held at Mount Cheeseman on Sunday the 20th of August. The children need to be able to confidently ride a T-bar and ski groomed slopes. Please email Jenny on jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz if your child is interested.

We are looking forward to sharing the opportunities the Intermediate Hub at Beckenham has to offer in Year 7 & 8. Families are welcome to come along to our open evening on Thursday August 3rd, from 7pm. We will be holding this evening in our new hub. This is best accessed via Eastern Tce.

It was lovely to welcome Kauri Whānau back to school today. We have another exciting term ahead. Highlights include:

• Arts Academies get underway, as we work towards our music production of 'The Trials of Alice in Wonderland'. Auditions for speaking parts will be held next week. The show will be performed in December, on Monday 4th and Thursday 7th. 
• Week 2: Monday 31st July, Winter Tournament and GTX Dance workshop for those not going to tournament.
• Week 2: Thursday 3rd August, Open Evening for Year 5 & 6 families. You would have received an email if your child is one of the presenters.
• Week 3: Wednesday Aug 9th, Becamath problem solving competition for all of Year 7 & 8.
• Week 4: Monday Aug 14th, Cultural Festival.
• Week 4: Thursday Aug 17th, Ski trip to Mt Hutt. 7am - 6pm
• Week 5: Art week.
• Week 5: Wednesday Aug 23rd, Cantamath at Horncastle Arena from 3:30 - 6pm. Teams yet to be selected.
• Week 6: Learning conferences on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
• Week 7: Friday Sept 8th Beckenham speech finals. 
• Week 8: Tuesday Sept 12, possible trip to town.
• Week 9: Monday Sept 18th, South zone speech finals at Cashmere Primary in the evening.
• Week 10: Packing up for our move back to Beckenham.

Writing:

Your feedback please:

We would appreciate you filling in this brief survey, so that we can continue to improve the teaching and learning in our hub.

Home Learning:

Over the next three weeks, all of Jarred and Nicky's and some of Jenny's maths class will be working on a Cantamath display project for home learning. Children have been given a sheet with all instructions to take home today. There is also a google presentation with ideas that children can access at home through google classroom. It is really important that they make a decision on their project and get underway this week. Anyone struggling for an idea should talk with their maths teacher before Friday. Three weeks will be needed to complete a quality piece of work. Jenny's class has the option of doing a Cantamath project or normal home learning. Most opted for the usual worksheets.

Ski Trip:

We nearly have information for all children for our ski trip. Some paper forms were sent home today, for those who have not completed the online form. Please return these tomorrow, Wednesday. Many thanks to the people who have offered to loan clothing and goggles. Please name these and send them along to school ASAP, so we can match children up with gear.

Language reports from Cashmere High School:

Language reports arrived at school after the children had left at the end of last term. Today these were handed to children to take home. Check your child's bag if it has not been produced.

Congratulations:

Congratulations to Daisy, Rosie and Kaia who competed in the NZ School Orienteering Championships in the first week of the school holidays. There were about 50 girls competing in the event and all three girls were placed in the top five for both the short and long events.
Short event: Kaia 1st, Daisy 4th, Rosie 5th
Long event: Kaia 1st, Daisy 2nd, Rosie 5th
What an awesome achievement. A shining example of girls who love challenge!

Our new hub:

Today our new hub was opened. At the moment, a lack of outdoor play space and the Year 5 & 6 hub being used for admin, delays our return for one more term. We can't wait!

Declaring the Year 7 & 8 and Year 3 & 4 hubs open.

Lovely outlook to the park.

I hope the holidays are going well at your place.

Thanks to the parents of Juliette, Adam, Mirielle, Constantin, Felix, Bonnie, Sophia, Georgina, Jess, Rohith and Rekha, for filling in the ski trip information form. I need everyone else to do this by the end of the holidays at the latest. Mt Hutt require information from several weeks before our trip.

We are planning a trip into town, to make the most of our 'local' environment for learning, before we leave Champion Street at the end of term 3. In order to go ahead with the activity we are thinking about, we will need a large number of parent helpers. If you could help out on Tuesday September 12th, from 11:30 - 3:00, please click this link.

Many thanks for providing this information ASAP. Stay cosy.