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Kowhai News Week 6, term 4, 2017
Christmas Trip to the City
On Thursday 14 December Kowhai Whanau will be visiting the Transitional Cathedral to sing Christmas Carols under the big Christmas tree. We will follow this up by walking to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic and a play. We will be leaving school at 9.30 to travel to the Transitional Cathedral, arriving at 10am. We will leave the Botanic Gardens at 2.30 to be back at school by 3pm.
The trip will cost $4.00 per child to cover the buses. This donation will be added to your school account. Children will also be able to place a present under the Christmas tree for less fortunate children.
We will need parent help for this trip. If you can support us in this please email your child's home group teacher. Thank you so much. This will be an awesome trip!
Pizza Making
Each Monday, the children who received a certificate at our team hui are be able to make pizzas for their lunch. If you are able to help us with the pizza making, please add your name onto this document. We still need helpers for the last couple of weeks.
Marae Trip
On Thursday 16 November we had a wonderful visit to Rehua Marae. We were welcomed onto the marae with a formal powhiri. This was followed by morning tea and an opportunity to explore the wharenui and sketch the beautiful carvings and kowhaiwhai.
We were so impressed with the wonderful behaviour of the children. They showed immense respect at all times. Thank you to Sherrilee who taught us about the marae and supported us during the powhiri. Thank you also to the lovely parents who supported us on the trip. We hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did.
Athletics Day
This Wednesday was our annual athletics day. It was wonderful to see all the parents at school supporting their children. The Kowhai children competed in five events:
We finished off the afternoon by joining up with Koru to run house relays. Congratulations to Heathcote for their win. It was great hearing your enthusiastic house chant.
Library Visits
We are continuing to visit South Library on Mondays during our literacy time. Each literacy group has one more visit each:
Monday 27 November - Anna and Mike's literacy group.
Monday 4 December - Susan's literacy group.
Monday 11 December - Paulette and Rebekah's literacy group.
If you can help with walking down to the library with us please let us know.
Mandarin
A big congratulations to our star Lauren Maule, who was awarded a certificate of excellence for learning Mandarin. This was awarded at a special prize giving at St Margaret's college. Well done Lauren, you can be so proud of your achievement!
On Thursday 14 December Kowhai Whanau will be visiting the Transitional Cathedral to sing Christmas Carols under the big Christmas tree. We will follow this up by walking to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic and a play. We will be leaving school at 9.30 to travel to the Transitional Cathedral, arriving at 10am. We will leave the Botanic Gardens at 2.30 to be back at school by 3pm.
The trip will cost $4.00 per child to cover the buses. This donation will be added to your school account. Children will also be able to place a present under the Christmas tree for less fortunate children.
We will need parent help for this trip. If you can support us in this please email your child's home group teacher. Thank you so much. This will be an awesome trip!
Pizza Making
Each Monday, the children who received a certificate at our team hui are be able to make pizzas for their lunch. If you are able to help us with the pizza making, please add your name onto this document. We still need helpers for the last couple of weeks.
On Thursday 16 November we had a wonderful visit to Rehua Marae. We were welcomed onto the marae with a formal powhiri. This was followed by morning tea and an opportunity to explore the wharenui and sketch the beautiful carvings and kowhaiwhai.
We were so impressed with the wonderful behaviour of the children. They showed immense respect at all times. Thank you to Sherrilee who taught us about the marae and supported us during the powhiri. Thank you also to the lovely parents who supported us on the trip. We hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did.
Athletics Day
This Wednesday was our annual athletics day. It was wonderful to see all the parents at school supporting their children. The Kowhai children competed in five events:
- High jump
- Long jump
- Shot Putt
- Discus
- Sprints
We finished off the afternoon by joining up with Koru to run house relays. Congratulations to Heathcote for their win. It was great hearing your enthusiastic house chant.
Library Visits
We are continuing to visit South Library on Mondays during our literacy time. Each literacy group has one more visit each:
Monday 27 November - Anna and Mike's literacy group.
Monday 4 December - Susan's literacy group.
Monday 11 December - Paulette and Rebekah's literacy group.
If you can help with walking down to the library with us please let us know.
Mandarin
A big congratulations to our star Lauren Maule, who was awarded a certificate of excellence for learning Mandarin. This was awarded at a special prize giving at St Margaret's college. Well done Lauren, you can be so proud of your achievement!
End of Year Activities
Walking Trip to the Margaret Mahy Playground
As a special end of year celebration we plan to walk from Champion Street to The Margaret Mahy playground in Armagh Street on Tuesday, 13 December. We will leave Champion Street at 12pm and walk to the playground, alongside the Avon River. When we get there we will have lunch and an afternoon of fun and adventure. We will walk back to Champion Street at 2pm ready for the buses back to Beckenham at 2.30
.
We will need parent help for the walk. If you are able to support us please let us know. End of Year Shared Lunch
Early this term all the children visited a local supermarket to learn about healthy eating. We received some vouchers to buy food for a healthy lunch. This week a team of children will survey all the children and plan a delicious lunch. This will replace our usual end of year celebrations and we will not be asking parents to provide a plate of food to share.
The shared lunch will take place on Wednesday 14 December. Parents are very welcome to join us at this time.
Team Challenges
To celebrate the end of a successful year, the Pohutukawa students will be involved in some team challenges. The children will need to bring their togs, two towels, some old clothes (which may get dirty) and a plastic bag to school each day from Wednesday, 7 December to Wednesday, 14 December.
2017 Road Patrol Training
This took place last Friday at Beckenham. Constable Ross Mitchell was very impressed with the focus and commitment shown by the children. They will receive their roster for Term 1&2 early next week.
We extend a huge thank you to the wonderful parents who provided transport back to Champion Street at the end of training. 
Pohutukawa News Week 2 2016
Trip to Rapaki Marae
This year one of our strategic goals was that every child from Year 5 to 8 should visit a marae. We are very pleased to let you know that we have arranged visits to Rapaki Marae on Tuesday 1 November (Hub 14/15) and Thursday 3 November (Hub 21/22).
Outline of the Day:
We will travel to Rapaki by bus and be dropped off at the top of the road. We will walk down and be formally welcomed onto the marae. After the powhiri we will have morning tea and then be taken on a tour of the wharenui where we will learn the history of the marae.
We will have lunch and some free time down at Rapaki beach. After that we will make our way back to the marae for a formal poroporoaki (farewell) before meeting the buses.
We will leave from Beckenham at 9am and will return to Beckenham at 3pm.
We need your help:
This is a very new experience for us and we would be very grateful for your support. Each group will need a male who is prepared to speak for us at the powhiri. This is very important for Hub 14/15 as the teachers are both female. This person does not need to speak Maori - English is fine!
As part of the powhiri we will need a woman to reply to the karanga. Sherrilee will be with Hub 21/22 on Thursday and will do this for us. She is unable to come on the Tuesday so we would be extremely grateful if any parent is able to help us with this.
We also need parent help to support us with supervision during the trip and at the beach.
If you can help with this please email your child’s home group teacher.
Parent Donation for the Trip
The cost of the trip is $7.50. This includes the cost of the buses. This amount will be added to your school account.
This will be a valuable and authentic experience for all our children and we are very excited that they will have this opportunity.
School Camp
As you are aware Team Pohutukawa will be going on camp to Living Springs from 23 to 25 November.
Today your child brought home two forms that need to be completed as soon as possible. One is a consent form and the other is a health form. Even if we already have this information we need it updated for camp. Please also include any dietary requirements as Living Springs will shortly be asking us for this information.
Year 5&6 Choir (Glee Club)
The choir will be performing at the Christchurch School’s Music Festival on Thursday October 27. If you have not yet purchased tickets for the festival they are now available at Ticketek.
On the morning of the 27th we will be travelling to the Horncastle Arena for a final massed rehearsal. The bus will leave Beckenham School at 8.30am and return to Champion Street at lunchtime.
Sexuality Education
Thank you to everyone who attended our parent evening last Thursday. If you have any questions about this topic please email your child’s home group teacher.
Peanut Free Hub
A reminder that we are peanut free in Team Pohutukawa. We ask our children to monitor the ingredients in their lunches. If an item with peanuts is inadvertently sent to school we will ask the child to take the item back home and eat it after school.
A&P Tip Top Ice Cream Sales
The PTA are working hard to try and fill all the shifts for the Tip Top Ice Cream sales fundraiser at the A&P show in November. At this stage we have lots of gaps that we need to fill to be able to run the fundraiser effectively. If you can help please let us know by emailing office@beckenham.school.nz
Ngā mihi kia koutou
Upcoming Events
Welcome to Term 4!
It was lovely to see the sun shining today as we began our first full day at our new site. The bus trip to Champion Street went very smoothly and the children were relaxed and happy in the new hubs.
Food For Thought
YEAR 5 -8 SEXUALITY EDUCATION
We advised you last term that, as part of our health curriculum, Teams Pōhutukawa and Kauri will be teaching sexuality education this term, beginning next week.
We are holding a parent evening this Thursday 13 October at 6.30pm in the hall foyer. Paul Scammell from Family Planning will explain the programme based on the resource THE SEXUALITY ROADSHOW.
If you have any questions or concerns about the programme this will be an excellent opportunity to find out more.
This is a parent only evening, however we can organise a separate room for your child to watch a DVD if you are unable to organise a babysitter. Please let the office know if you would like to take us up on this offer.
It was lovely to see the sun shining today as we began our first full day at our new site. The bus trip to Champion Street went very smoothly and the children were relaxed and happy in the new hubs.
Food For Thought
This free programme begins tomorrow. Each home group will have two lessons about healthy eating. On Thursday we will be walking to Richmond Street New World to continue learning reading food labels for healthy eating.
The times for these visits has changed:
Hub 14/15:
Leaving school at 9am.
Leaving school at 9am.
Supermarket visit 9.30 to 10.30
Arriving back to school 11am
Hub 21/22:
Hub 21/22:
Leaving school at 10.30am.
Supermarket visit 11.00 to 12.00
Arriving back to school 12.30
We urgently need more parent support for our walk from Champion Street to Richmond Street New World. If you can help please email your child's home group teacher as soon as possible.
Thank you to the parents who have already offered to help.
YEAR 5 -8 SEXUALITY EDUCATION
We advised you last term that, as part of our health curriculum, Teams Pōhutukawa and Kauri will be teaching sexuality education this term, beginning next week.
We are holding a parent evening this Thursday 13 October at 6.30pm in the hall foyer. Paul Scammell from Family Planning will explain the programme based on the resource THE SEXUALITY ROADSHOW.
If you have any questions or concerns about the programme this will be an excellent opportunity to find out more.
This is a parent only evening, however we can organise a separate room for your child to watch a DVD if you are unable to organise a babysitter. Please let the office know if you would like to take us up on this offer.
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| Working Together in the New Hub |
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| Making Name Tags for our new Tote Trays |