Author Archives: Paulette Newton

Kōwhai Newsletter Term 2 Week 10

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It is hard to believe that the end of the Term is now upon us. We have been so fortunate to have been blessed with such wonderful weather this term as this has enabled our tamariki to play outside.

Over the past couple of weeks, the children have been having a focus on the arts in the afternoons. This has seen the children exercising their creativity in many different ways including; pastel art based on Wassily Kandinsky's Circles, paintings depicting Diane Adam's contemporary work and shadow art using mixed media paint and paper. Children have also created their own characters out of salt dough, some based on characters from the famous series 'Moomins'. Children also had fun doing drama role plays and skits using journal stories and plays. What a fantastic term we have had! Some of the artwork is still displayed on the walls in the hub so please feel free to come to check it out.



Rocket Maths
This term, Kate and Dorinda have provided an extra maths session to boost the maths knowledge and ability of some of our students. This has involved the children in having 3 extra fun maths sessions each week. We have noticed a HUGE improvement in the confidence of some of these students when solving DMIC problems and stronger number knowledge.
If you would like to give your child extra maths basic facts practise, you can use this website as it has a lot of great drill activities.
Maths Playground is another great website with great games to develop maths skills.
If you have any questions about your child and maths, feel free to drop in and see one of us as we would be more than happy to help out!

Hillview Cross Country
We sent 12 children to the Hillview Cross Country on Tuesday. We were highly impressed with the wonderful behaviour that our students demonstrated. They all showed the school value, 'We Love Challenge'. It was great to see the children pushing themselves to achieve their personal best. Well done to all those who participated.



Next Term
Rowe is away for the first week next term, as she is having an exciting adventure white water rafting through the Grand Canyon. Dorinda will continue to teach in the hub in her absence.

Wearable Arts/ Innovative Inventions
We have a variety of fantastic learning planned for next term. The children will be involved in creating some cool wearable arts or innovative inventions as part of our inquiry learning. If you have some cool items that could be used for this (ducting pipes, foil, cellophane, clothing etc), feel free to bring the items in. There will be an evening show for you to view these creations in the latter half of the term.

Gymnastics
Image result for gymnastics clipartFor PE, next term, the children will participate in a gymnastics unit here at school on a Thursday afternoon. For these sessions, the children do need to have bare feet. It would be advisable for the girls to not wear tights on this day. We hope to go to the school of gymnastics at the conclusion of this learning.



Music/Dance
Next term, the children will be participating in music and dance lessons each Tuesday afternoon. We are going to use the afternoons to develop a dance sequence to support our wearable art/ innovative inventions showcase. Josie Stanford, who is one of our itinerant music teachers is going to be conducting recorder lessons from week 5 for the children in our team. We are really excited to be able to provide this opportunity for our children. As she won't be able to teach all the children this term, she will continue her programme into Term 4, so all children have lessons with her.

Ear Buds
If your child has a set of earbuds that they can bring to school next term, that would be great. This will enable them to listen to the audio on the ipads or chromebooks.

That's all for now
Kōwhai teaching team



Newsletter Update- Pūkaki Working Bee 15-16th June

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Pūkaki Development/ Working Bee
Over the weekend, we had the first working bee at the Pūkaki play space. Although the rain on Saturday dampened the ground and our jackets, it in no way dampened the enthusiasm of the wonderful parents who came along to help dig the foundations for the 'fort'.  By the end of Saturday, we hade the posts all concreted in.

 



On Sunday, the weather had improved and resulted in a much bigger turnout. We constructed the base and decking for the fort, dug the sandpit and concreted the ring stones in and made the concrete base for the shed.



We have one more working bee this coming Saturday 22nd June, 8am-2pm. At this working bee, we will complete the fort structure, install the fencing, dig out and fill the sandpit and move the shed to the slab. We still need helpers to assist us with this. If you are able to help, please email Paulette at paulette.newton@beckenham.school.nz  or just drop in to lend a hand. Many hands make light work!

On Monday, the children were so excited to see this play space taking shape. Here are some of NEs already looking after the new plantings.





Outdoor Spaces Committee



Kōwhai Newsletter Term 2 Week 6

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Hi everyone,

Wow! What a change in temperature this week! We have been so happy to have the underfloor heating on!

Learning Conferences

Please remember that learning conferences are being held next week on Tuesday 11th June and Thursday 13th June. School will finish at the earlier time of 2 pm on both days to allow for the learning conferences to take place. These conferences are an opportunity for you to meet with us to discuss your child’s current achievements and their next steps for learning.

If you would like your child to stay at school between 2 pm and 3 pm on one or both of those days please fill in this google survey so we can plan ahead.
To book, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use the code yucbe.  

We are looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you!

ART

The children have been busy creating wonderful artworks this week. Rowe and Kate's home groups created Kandinsky Circles and Dorinda's home group painted some Diane Adams inspired art while Nick's home group made some incredible silhouette art.  Here are some examples.




Lunchtime Activities

We are so lucky to have many innovative thinkers in our team. Over the past few weeks, a group of students have provided an activity table for children at lunch. They have provided crafting, drawing and origami to name a few. Look at them having fun!

Phonics/Word Study

One of our word study groups has been using a multi-sensory approach to help them learn how to spell some of their high-frequency words. One of the activities has seen them making words with clay which has helped their visual memory. In each session, they need to create and read the words. We have noticed a huge improvement with their retention of these spelling words.


PTA DISCO

The PTA is having their annual Disco, next Friday 14th June. The children in our team have the option of going to either the NE-Y3 disco from 4.30pm-5.30pm  or the Y4-6  disco from 6pm-7pm. This is a really fun event and we are so appreciative of the PTA for organising it.

Up and Coming Events

11th and 13th June- Learning Conferences. School closes at 2pm on these days.
15th and 16th June- Pūkaki Working Bee Let Jacky at the school office know if you can come along and help.
21st June- Shortest Day Breakfast. Come in your PJs and have breakfast at school. Bring along your own plate and spoon and have some yummy breakfast in the hall. The breakfast is being provided by and served by our wonderful PTA.
2nd July- Y0-4 Cross Country. This is for the children who placed in the top 3 at our school cross country.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Kōwhai Teaching Team






Outdoor Spaces Development 2019-05-28 16:26:00

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Newsletter - Outdoor Spaces Update 4

28th  May 2019

PUKAKI PLAY SPACE
Last week we met with a group of builders who are going to be installing the playground by Pūkaki. The trees had to be assessed to ensure they are healthy and safe to have a play area underneath. Beaver Tree Services completed this in the Term 1 holidays.
It is important to note that this first project is not for the sole use of the NE team. Many children prefer smaller enclosed spaces when they play, and all children in Year 1-4 will be able to play in this area.
PŪKAKI WORKING BEES
Carmel Wade is our main coordinator for this project and we will be working on site with a group of builders on 15th-16th June. We would love the help of approximately 10 people for these working bees on each of these days. You would be required to help dig the sandpit, plant trees, assist with some of the foundation work and help install the stones for the sandpit. If you are able to help, please fill in this google form with your expression of interest. 


JUNIOR PLAYGROUND UPDATE
The children across the school have all had the opportunity to create their concept plans for the Junior Playground. Unlike other institutions, it is important for us to have as much student involvement as possible as they are the kaitaiti of the school grounds.  As a school, we view this as a wonderful authentic learning opportunity for our students and want them to be a part of the process as much as possible. 


Their ideas have been collated and sent to Rachel Annan and Nik Kneale (landscape architects) to be incorporated into plans. They both have huge experience designing school outdoor spaces and will use their expertise with the designs. Nik designed the Treemendous area in 2018. We are hoping that these plans will be completed over the next 3 weeks. Once complete, we will be asking students, the school community and staff for feedback on the preferred plan. After this consultation, the decided plan will be priced up and we will be in the situation of starting the development, hopefully at the beginning of  Term 3.


We also met with Sam from Smile Dial (a charity specialising in supporting students with special needs). He gave us some guidance on creating spaces that cater for sensory, behavioural and physical needs. This will be of benefit to both Beckenham and Ferndale students. Sam’s recommendations will be included in the Design Plans. 


Last week the Ministry of Education was on site to review drainage issues around the admin building. This now sees them completing further work outside the admin block over the Term 2 school holidays addressing drainage and resealing the area. Luckily for us, this means that the money raised by our incredible PTA will not need to be spent resurfacing some of the outside areas and can be best used on improving spaces across the school.


We are currently in the process of applying for grants to resurface the Junior Playground. The replacement cost of this is between $60,000-$80,000 which is huge. We very much hope that our grants will be accepted. We are putting in grants for other areas across the school, including painting games on the asphalt and constructing small games areas such as gaga ball.


We have been given trees to be used for landscaping across the school from Trees for Canterbury and these are currently being cared for by the children until they need to be used in Term 3/4. We have also applied for a selection of fruit trees through the Resilience Network Canterbury.

Outdoor Spaces Committee

Newsletter – Outdoor Spaces Update 3

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 Newsletter - Outdoor Spaces Update 3

26th March 2019

We held a community meeting to discuss the Pūkaki play area on 4th March. It was great to have so many people interested interested with this first project. This meeting highlighted the need for us to create a space for our school community, to be able to easily access the information about the outdoor spaces development around the school and to keep the school community informed of up and coming events.

A tab has been created on the school website for you to be able to access from one place all the newsletter updates that we send out, along with information about the processes we are following and the projects that are currently being worked on.

We are aware that the development of the outdoor spaces is taking time. As a committee, we are committed to ensuring that we achieve the best possible outcomes for all. Having student voice and involvement is an important element of this process as the children are the ones who will be using the spaces and are our guardians of this land. We also want to ensure that the areas created across the school have a consistent ‘flow’. The school cultural narrative is our guiding theme. The cultural narrative is our story and what makes our space in the world unique. Here is our school cultural narrative if you are unfamiliar with it. It also explains the development and significance of our school logo and building names.

We have developed a set of protocols to be governed by to ensure the developments across the school are equitable. These are the Beckenham Outdoor Spaces Committee Process Protocols
as approved by the BOT:

Guidelines/Process
1. Gather Ideas (Students) based on set criteria.  They must:

  • Support our cultural narrative
  • Be accessible for all children
  • Support neurodiverse as well as neurotypical students (different spaces for different purposes; busy/quiet spaces)
  • Be achievable 
  • Be within the set budget (organised by the Outdoor Spaces team)

2. Refine ideas and put in 2-3 plans for consideration
3. Involve experts (landscape architect and playground expert) to review the plans
4. Confirm the plan- costings, timeline etc.
5. Ensure plans meet safety guidelines
6. Install the project

Here are our latest developments 
Pūkaki Play Space The plans for the Pukaki play space are all ready to go. We are awaiting a tree report to understand the viability of working on and around the tree roots.

Junior Playground
 The children are currently being asked for their input into the refurbishment of this play area. We plan to repaint and repair damaged and worn areas on the current playground and will add new items to enhance what is already there. The children across the school will be asked for their ideas for what they would like to see updated and added. It is important that we have student involvement as they are the ones who will be using the area. We would like to begin this over the Term 2 holidays and complete this in the first few weeks of Term 2 so the children receive the greatest benefit.


Court Markings
 We are aware that we need to add some court games across the school. The senior school are investigating what types of court markings that they would like to install across the school. This may include hopscotches, four square, twister, chess etc. We will send out the plans when they are developed. This will give the children more games to be able to play at break times and maximise the use of our court space.



Examples of court markings
Trees for Canterbury 
We are currently putting in an order from trees for Canterbury for us to use across the school.

Outdoor Spaces Committee