Author Archives: Sandy Hastings, Principal, Beckenham School

Last update for Term 1

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

We have started into a new phase of New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 and it is very different than anything most of us have ever experienced.  I wanted to reassure you that school staff and Board of Trustees will continue to be available to support your child’s learning and wellbeing in the next weeks.

Thank you for your understanding of our very generalised learning support over the days this week since school formally closed on Monday. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday with most of the staff at school, preparing for the lockdown. This included developing plans for continuing to upskill teachers around what digital learning might look like, and helping all teachers to develop the skills for uploading videos, using online tools such as Google hangouts for team meetings and exploring options for linking up with students next term.

You will understand the importance of routine for your family. If your routine has been shaken up, like you’re now working from home, it’s good to structure your time. Routines are reassuring, and promote health and physical wellbeing. The below timetable (targeted at children) could be something your household adapts to use over the next weeks. A school holiday version will likely look a little different, but some form of routine will still be important as we go through the lockdown period. Obviously, this is just one example, and what it might look like for each family will be different, depending on your situation.



If you need to get in contact with anyone from school over the next two weeks of holidays, please email me using principal@beckenham.school.nz
Our teachers will be communicating during school hours, once the term starts again on Wed 15th April. Please also bear in mind that teachers have their own lockdown lives to manage too. Like many of you, some have children and other whānau in their homes, and may also be trying to share a workspace with others on their kitchen tables!
We would ask that you use email as the primary way to contact teachers during the lockdown, rather than texting or phoning, in the first instance. This means that teachers can manage their time and schedule work time at home too.

Some good news to support you either working at home and/or studying at home - Spark, Vodafone, Vocus/Slingshot, 2Degrees and Trustpower have all advised they have removed their data caps and the possibility of any extra charges based on usage.

If you do not have a data plan at home, Skinny Jump is flexible prepaid broadband: Only $5 for 30GB of data, no contracts or credit checks. https://www.skinny.co.nz/jump/home.html Skinny Jump is a not-for-profit service supporting those most at risk of digital exclusion, including families with children, job seekers, seniors, people with disabilities, refugees and migrant communities, those in social housing. If you think this sounds like a plan can support you, or someone in our community please share with them and make contact with Skinny Jump

For our Pacific families, if you are not aware the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ has been working to ensure useful information is available to Pacific peoples. A one-hour special will be aired on Tagata Pasifika’s segment on Saturday at 9am; and on Sunday at 7.35am, Tagata Pasifika will share messages from community leaders. The Ministry is asking you to reach out to all your family members, community groups, friends and group chats to ensure our Pacific community groups are watching the programming on both days.

A big thank you to all of you for taking the lockdown so seriously. As the Prime Minister has noted staying at home will break the chain and save lives; breaking the rules could risk someone close to you and if the rules are not complied with, this could risk the lock down period being extended or could risk the virus being spread to thousands

Ngā mini nui
Sandy and the team!

Reminders from the Ministry of Education

I am getting daily, lengthy email bulletins from the Ministry of Education, much of which contains reminders for our community about what the Level 4 lockdown means. These have included the following for whānau and community:

Key dates reminder

26 March            Alert Level 4 commenced
28 March            School holidays begin
10 – 14 April      Easter including the Tuesday after Easter
15 April              Term 2 begins (through distance learning)
22 April              Current date for ending of lockdown period
27 April               ANZAC Day observed

Key lockdown messages from the Prime Minister (Select Committee Media Briefing 25 March)

If the virus is left unchecked it will have an unacceptable toll on New Zealanders

  • Staying at home will break the chain and save lives
  • Breaking the rules could risk someone close to you
  • if the rules are not complied with, this could risk the lock down period being extended or could risk the virus being spread to thousands
  • Success will not be instant. The benefit of actions taken today will not be felt for many days to come. People need to expect the numbers to continue rising, because they will. Modelling indicates that New Zealand could have several thousand cases before today’s measures have an impact. However, if everyone sticks to the rules there will be change over time
  • Act like you have COVID-19. Every move you make could be a risk to someone else. That is how New Zealanders must collectively think now
  • All New Zealanders are urged to be calm, be kind, stay at home
  • If people have no explanation of why they are outside the Police will remind them of their obligations and can take enforcement actions if they feel it is necessary
  • New Zealanders will want to do the right thing. The Government is being as clear as they can on the guidance and Police will be working with people to help them understand
  • Government’s goal is to keep people connected to their employer through the wage subsidy, and said if that was not happening then they have the backup mechanism of the welfare system
  • In regard to those overseas - even under the most difficult of circumstances - New Zealand is their home.

Update on the provision of home-based supervision and care for the children (aged 0-14 years) of essential workers

The Government has agreed that three large home-based providers (Barnardos, Edubase and PORSE) will provide additional support to essential service workers, where workers are not able to make their own arrangements. These providers have national coverage.

The level of demand from essential service workers is not yet clear and we are exploring all options to make sure that essential service workers can do the important work necessary. In particular we are working with the wider network of home based providers to identify additional carers in areas of high demand.

Essential workers should still continue to contact one of the following three providers if they have been unable to make their own arrangements:
Barnardos - covid19enquiries@barnardos.org.nz
Edubase - Home Grown Kids & Kids at Home 0508 44 54 37 or info@hgk.co.nz
PORSE - porse.co.nz 0800 023 456

Access to school sites

School sites, including all buildings, playgrounds and grounds, are completely closed and off-site to the public, school communities and school staff.

Further information to support wellbeing


https://www.iamhope.org.nz/- I AM HOPE is the youth and community focused support group run by The Key to Life Charitable Trust, started by Mike King.

https://www.facebook.com/nathanwallisxfactoreducation/ - Nathan Wallis has some helpful videos on his Facebook page for parents and whānau

https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/get-help/covid-19/ - tips on looking after mental health and wellbeing during COVID-19 from the Mental Health foundation

https://depression.org.nz/covid-19/ - a website by the Health Promotion Agency to help New Zealanders recognise and understand depression and anxiety.

25 Mental Health Wellness Tips during Quarantine from Eileen M Feliciano, Psy.D. – although overseas-based this is a good list and highlights some things particularly important for children. Remember the rules of New Zealand’s level 4 lockdown still apply.


Important newsletter: Tuesday 24 March

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Kia ora koutou

Our staff have been at school today, getting our heads around the implications of the Level 4 COVID19 situation and what it means for us as teachers, and also as individuals who have families, elderly parents, friends and loved ones who also need supporting over the coming weeks.

Changes to school holidays

As part of the changes announced yesterday, the school holidays have been brought forward two weeks. This means that Term 1 finishes this Friday, and Term 2 officially begins (at home) on Wednesday 15th April (after Easter Tuesday).

Between now and Friday, we are all adjusting to this new way of being and we do not anticipate that you will want to necessarily be focusing on learning.

We have created a new page as part of our website called Learning at Home. You can either click on the link above, or go to the school website, and find it by clicking on the link (as shown below) on the Learning at Home icon.

This page has some suggestions from the Ministry of Education about how you 'could' engage with learning if you want to over the next three days, or not!

By the end of the holidays, our staff will have created and made live more detailed options for learning that will be team based and from which you can then select, as you need.

Until then, we wish you all the very best with these challenging and important changes for our country.

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy, and the team.

Covid 19 Update from Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto

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Kia ora koutou

With today’s announcement by Government, we are implementing with urgency our plan to support your child’s learning from home. We appreciate this is a sudden and significant change, and will be heavily disruptive to many people in our community.

For children of essential workers, we look forward to seeing your child here at school tomorrow morning from 8:30am. Children may wear mufti, and we ask ALL children to go to Kōwhai on arrival and sign in there with Paulette. You may wish to check if you are considered an essential worker - https://covid19.govt.nz/government-actions/covid-19-alert-system/  however those roles include doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and police. We continue to ask that children who are not well, do not attend school. This option will also be available on Wednesday. After that, as the country moves into Level 4 of our COVID19 plan, school will be completely closed for attendance.

For all other children, school is now closed.

The government have advised that the holidays have been brought forward to begin on Monday 30th March. From tomorrow evening, we will have a page of optional learning activities available for you to select from for the rest of this week.

We will be supporting children's learning from your home with a menu of opportunities that you can select from. Our teachers have been beginning to develop a framework for this, and tomorrow and Wednesday will see our staff putting some of these ideas together in a place you can access them.

The learning options will be linked from our school website, and will include both 'online' and 'offline' options with plenty of choice available for families to select what will work for them.

We are aware that 'being connected' will support families with learning and with social connection.

To support learning, we have a small number of Chromebooks at school that we can loan to families who might need them for learning, particularly for older children. If you think this might be your family, please click on this link to let us know via a brief survey. You need to complete this BEFORE 3ppm tomorrow (Tuesday), so that we can work out how to allocate these on Wednesday and let you know to come in and pick them up on Wednesday.

The following information has come directly from the Ministry of Education and clarifies what support you can put in place around child care whilst the country is at a Level 4 position:
If you need to have your child cared for by someone else you will need to identify that person or people as part of your self-isolated group. This will need to be done by midnight Wednesday and the group must remain the same for the whole 4 week period. The caregiver’s own group (eg, their partner and children), your child and your own group (eg, your parents and other children) become one group. This group needs to be limited to minimise any risk of spread and should be no more than 20 people.

Your child will be looking to you for guidance about this decision. Parents, caregivers, whānau and teachers will have a particularly important part to play in reassuring children at this time. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read the information put together by the Ministry of Education to support your conversations with your children – Talking to children about COVID-19

As noted by the Prime Minister these restrictions are our best chance to slow the virus in New Zealand and to save lives. We all have a clear role here to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Please look out for more emails from school over the duration of this nationwide effort to keep our population safe and healthy. We will also post on our school Facebook page. We will continue to communicate with you during this time.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our school staff and school community.

Ngā mini nui, koutou

Sandy, and the amazing team, at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto

Beckenham Update Thursday 18 March 2020

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora e te whānau

Another short newsletter, to keep you up-to-date with the information we are getting from the Ministry of Education, and with what is happening at school. There is an important notice further down this newsletter about the PTA Fair Container Sale happening TODAY from 1-4pm in the staff carpark.

Based on Ministry advice, we are cancelling assemblies and whole school, indoor gatherings until further notice. This means that students will work mostly within their team and hub, rather than in close-contact events with the whole school. We will still run house games on Fridays, and the games will be focused on non-contact activities that are outside.

Hand-washing routines are a big part of each day, as are regular reminders about coughing and sneezing.

There are currently no requirements for mass closures of schools. Saying that, we are preparing for closures, should they be required. We will keep you closely informed about this. Until that happens, we are determined to carry on as much as normal as we can!

Thank you to the 256 whānau who completed the 'how connected is your household' survey - this has given us a pretty good picture of how connected many of you are, and will allow us to plan accordingly. Should school close, we will be putting learning options up on our website, and these will try to cater for the range of differently connected situations that you are all in. We also recognise that many of you do not want children at home on devices all day, and we are looking at a range of different options.

Are you and your children members of the Christchurch City Libraries? 

We strongly urge you to join your children up to the library - and learn how to use the online library facilities. We are aware that libraries in other jurisdictions have closed, and so accessing books online may be an important option to consider.

Do you have the phone numbers/contact details of your children's friends' caregivers? 

Connect up online now, with your child's friend's caregivers!
If we do go into school closures, supporting children to stay connected through parent supervised platforms may be helpful for some families.

Reminders from the Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education page containing the most up-to-the-minute information for schools and whānau in relation to Covid-19

Deputy Secretary of Education - Katrina Casey - speaks to Radio NZ on Monday about Covid-19: Ministry's advice on whether to send kids to school

Who needs to self-isolate?

The Government announcement at the weekend requires anyone who has arrived from overseas after 1am on Monday 16 March to self-isolate for 14 days, and to register with Healthline (0800 358 5453). The exception is people arriving from specified Pacific countries (“Category 2” countries as listed here), who do not need to self-isolate if they are not unwell.
People who arrived from overseas before 1am on Monday 16 March are not required to self-isolate, unless they have travelled from South Korea or Iran. Travellers from those countries need to self-isolate for 14 days from the date of their departure and register with Healthline.
People living in the same house as travellers that are required to self-isolate, need to minimise contact with them (avoiding being closer than 2 metres apart for more than 15 minutes). However, they are not required to self-isolate themselves.

Encouraging student attendance

We know that some parents have concerns about their children attending school at the moment, some of which may be due to what they are seeing in the media about other countries.
There’s a simple rule here – if students are unwell (whether or not their illness relates to COVID-19) they should stay at home. Students who are not unwell should continue to attend school.
While we are seeing large-scale school shutdowns elsewhere in the world, in New Zealand we still have no community transmission. Consequently, any decisions about school closures will be made on a case by case basis. In the meantime, unless students are unwell themselves, then parents should keep sending them to schools and early learning centres as these environments continue to be safe and the best place for them to continue their learning.
Schools will continue to be provided with the latest information and guidance from the Ministries of Education and Health so that Principals and Boards can make well-informed decisions based on their particular circumstances.

Kia kaha koutou!

Sandy and the team.

PTA Update


The Beckenham Te Kura o Puroto Twilight Fair might be cancelled but you still have a chance to win one of the amazing prizes at the RAFFLE. Buy a $2 ticket at the Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto grounds every morning before school starts and when it ends or tomorrow and Wednesday at New World St Martins from 3.30 to 6pm. Sale END on 20th of March at 3.30pm.


Remember all proceeds raised go towards sports uniforms & digital technology for the Children of Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto! We are so grateful to you all, and to the generous donors who provided $1400 worth prizes for this event:

#1 Great Journeys of New Zealand – Cross Cook Strait with Interislander and truly experience our two beautiful islands. The 92km, three-hour journey between Wellington and Picton is one of New Zealand’s most iconic tourist experiences and acknowledged as one of the most spectacular cruises in the world. VALUE: $500.00

#2 SHELF home+gifts Voucher & Soy Melts, Green tea Blend (Novel Cafe South Library), Shits about to get dainty Crockery Coffee Mug, Nadia Lim’s Fresh Start Cookbook from My Food Bag, Handmade Peg Apron & Wooden Pegs. VALUE: $170.00

#3 Dinner voucher for 4 people. Courtesy of The Coffee Club Spitfire Square. VALUE: $150.00

#4 St Martins Pharmacy Gift Basket. Courtesy of St Martins Pharmacy. VALUE: $100.00

#5-7 Gift Baskets. Courtesy of FreshChoice Barrington. VALUE: $100.00 each

#8 Family pass to Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools. Courtesy of Hanmer Springs - Thermal Pools & Spa VALUE: $89.00

#9 Family pass to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. Courtesy of Willowbank Wildlife Reserve.
VALUE: $81.00

#10 Voucher from HAPA & 2 x Admit One for Deluxe Cinemas. Courtesy of Hapa at the Tannery/BNZ Centre & Deluxe Cinemas (The Tannery). VALUE: $66.00

#11 Large Gift Basket from the Fudge Cottage. Courtesy of The Fudge Cottage, New Zealand. VALUE: $59.90

#12 The Birdwood & Industria Store Cuppa Coffee Cup. Courtesy of ‘The Birdwood’ & Industria Design & Gift Store (The Colombo). VALUE: $50.00

#13 Voucher from Banfield’s Butchery. Courtesy of Beckenham Butchery. VALUE: $25.00



Beckenham Update: Monday 16 March 2020

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Beckenham Update: Monday 16th March 2020

Kia ora koutou

We are working on a day-to-day basis at the moment, as the nation prepares itself to make significant changes to the way we move around, in order to stem the spread of Covid-19. The situation we find ourselves in is unique and unprecedented in our lifetimes.

At school, we see our role as being first and foremost to maintain normal routines, to reassure our children and our community, and to enable caregivers to get on with their working lives where this continues to be possible.

We are also very aware that the situation is changing rapidly, and we are trying to be proactive in our planning to be able to be prepared for future scenarios.

Preparing for the possibility of school closure

As you will have seen in other countries, closures of schools have happened and it is certainly now a possibility that we need to consider may happen here. Currently, whilst the expectation is that we will stay open, we do need to be prepared that this may change. The Ministry of Education has today asked every school in New Zealand to give the Ministry an indication of how 'connected' their school community is.

To help us prepare for the possibility of closure, we would appreciate if EVERYONE would please take a moment to complete this brief questionnaire about your online capability at home.  Please do this as soon as possible. This information will support us as we try to plan for how teaching and learning 'online' might look, and we can also give the Ministry of Education a picture of how connected our community is.

Hygiene Education

We have a programme of education in place that is continuously reminding children about handwashing, and of coughing or sneezing into their elbow, rather than their hands.
We are adopting the 'no hugs, no handshakes and no hongi' approach.
Ask your child tomorrow to tell you about the East Coast wave!
We would really appreciate you reiterating these messages at home.

Absences from School

Thank you to everyone for keeping sick children at home. This is an important part of keeping our whole community as well as possible during this uncertain time. 
Please ensure that you contact the office if your child is going to be away and include the reason why.
If you do not contact us, your child's absence is marked as 'Truant'. If you let us know they are going to be away, but don't leave a reason, the absence is marked as 'Explained but Unjustified'.

Year 7/8 Camp

At this stage - the situation is too uncertain for us to try and rebook this camp later in the year. We will consider alternative options such as day trips etc, once we have a better picture of what the next few months will hold. If you have paid for camp already, please make contact with Sandra Rauch, our finance officer, regarding if you would like to apply this to your donation or have it returned back to you.

School Photos will be taken this Wednesday morning!

Please ensure that children are all in full uniform on Wednesday, ready for their class and individual photos.

Updating Contact Details

Please ensure that you let Jacky in the office know if any of your contact details have changed. This includes email addresses, caregiver contact numbers and names and numbers of emergency contacts.

Update from the PTA

The Twilight Fair may be cancelled but we still have a great Art exhibition running this week in Komanawa along with our Pumpkin competition, silent auction / prizes, raffle tickets and Mystery bottles. Come along to Kōmanawa (near the Eastern Terrace entrance to school, before or after school every day this week.