Author Archives: Tracy Inwood

T3 W6 in Pohutukawa

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Christchurch Schools' Music Festival

Massed Rehearsal next Monday

The Pōhutukawa Festival choir will be heading to Avonhead School next Monday, the 2nd of September, to attend our area rehearsal. We will be leaving school by bus at 12:15 and will return by 3pm.

Tickets

We will be performing on the evening of Thursday 7th November. Tickets are now on sale at Ticketek. This year marks 80 years since the Christchurch Schools' Music Festival began. Titled ‘You’re the Voice’, this year’s programme features songs from the past eight decades of the festival, as well as some new ones. Some parents or grandparents may remember singing some of the songs themselves as children in the massed or representative choirs during their youth! This year is also the first year that the festival will be held in the Town Hall since the earthquakes. We encourage you to get hold of your tickets asap, as the Town Hall has limited seats in comparison to our previous venue, Horncastle Arena. 


Orana Park Trip

Hopefully you will have received a paper copy of the notice informing you of our planned trip to Orana Park. If not, here is the information:

We are heading to Orana Park on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th of September, from 9.30am-2.45pm, to tie in with our inquiry focus of innovation, our science topics (habitats, classification, adaptations) and our writing of animal information reports this term.

As we are such a large team we are required to visit the park in two groups. On Monday Tracy’s home group, Rae’s home group and half of Steve’s home group will visit the park. On Tuesday Katie’s home group, Gayle’s home group and the other half of Steve’s home group will visit the park.

We will need the help of some adults to enable us to go on this trip. We will be leaving school at 9.30am via bus and we will have an emergency vehicle. If you are interested in assisting us on this trip as an adult supervisor, please email your child’s home group teacher before Friday 30 August. We will contact all adults who have kindly volunteered to help, to confirm whether your help is required.

The buses are being generously funded by the PTA. The cost per child will be $10 and a request for your contribution to this will be on your Term 3 account.

For the trip, your child will need to be in comfortable footwear and in school uniform. They should bring a jacket in case of inclement weather. If your child suffers from asthma, please ensure they have their medication with them in a named plastic bag, with instructions about administration. Your child needs to give this to their class teacher prior to departure.

On the day, students will need to wear school uniform and bring:

  • A water bottle
  • A substantial morning tea and lunch
  • A warm layer of clothing (especially a windproof jacket)

Please note there will be no postponement day if the weather is unsuitable. An email  message will be sent out at 8am on the day, if the trip is being cancelled.

Thank you to those adults who have shown an interest in being supervisor for the trip. We will contact everyone next week to confirm required help.

Winter Sports uniforms

Once winter sports uniforms have been washed and dried, could they please be returned to school and popped in the pink box in the wee foyer area between the library and the office.






T3 W6 in Pōhutukawa

Posted on by

Christchurch Schools' Music Festival

Massed Rehearsal next Monday
The Pōhutukawa Festival choir will be heading to Avonhead School next Monday, the 2nd of September, to attend our area rehearsal. We will be leaving school by bus at 12:15 and will return by 3pm.

Tickets
We will be performing on the evening of Thursday 7th November. Tickets are now on sale at Ticketek. This year marks 80 years since the Christchurch Schools' Music Festival began. Titled ‘You’re the Voice’, this year’s programme features songs from the past eight decades of the festival, as well as some new ones. Some parents or grandparents may remember singing some of the songs themselves as children in the massed or representative choirs during their youth! This year is also the first year that the festival will be held in the Town Hall since the earthquakes. We encourage you to get hold of your tickets asap, as the Town Hall has limited seats in comparison to our previous venue, Horncastle Arena.  

Orana Park Trip

Hopefully you will have received a paper copy of the notice informing you of our planned trip to Orana Park. If not, here is the information: 

We are heading to Orana Park on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th of September, from 9.30am-2.45pm, to tie in with our inquiry focus of innovation, our science topics (habitats, classification, adaptations) and our writing of animal information reports this term.
As we are such a large team we are required to visit the park in two groups. On Monday Tracy’s home group, Rae’s home group and half of Steve’s home group will visit the park. On Tuesday Katie’s home group, Gayle’s home group and the other half of Steve’s home group will visit the park.
We will need the help of some adults to enable us to go on this trip. We will be leaving school at 9.30am via bus and we will have an emergency vehicle. If you are interested in assisting us on this trip as an adult supervisor, please email your child’s home group teacher before Friday 30 August. We will contact all adults who have kindly volunteered to help, to confirm whether your help is required.
The buses are being generously funded by the PTA. The cost per child will be $10 and a request for your contribution to this will be on your Term 3 account.
For the trip, your child will need to be in comfortable footwear and in school uniform. They should bring a jacket in case of inclement weather. If your child suffers from asthma, please ensure they have their medication with them in a named plastic bag, with instructions about administration. Your child needs to give this to their class teacher prior to departure.
On the day, students will need to wear school uniform and bring:
A water bottle
A substantial morning tea and lunch
A warm layer of clothing (especially a windproof jacket)
Please note there will be no postponement day if the weather is unsuitable. An email  message will be sent out at 8am on the day, if the trip is being cancelled.

Thank you to those adults who have shown an interest in being supervisor for the trip. We will contact everyone next week to confirm required help.

Winter Sports uniforms

Once winter sports uniforms have been washed and dried, could they please be returned to school and popped in the pink box in the wee foyer area between the library and the office.

T3 W4 in Pōhutukawa

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Making Dutch biscuits

Today Forest (Rae's home group) were lucky to have Linda, Keanna's mum, come in to share a part of her Dutch culture with the children. They made Dutch biscuits, which looked and smelt delicious.
The children really appreciated the time Linda spent with them, and enjoyed gobbling up the fruits of their labour. Thanks Linda!




 

Head Lice

This is a reminder to routinely check your child/ren's hair for head lice or eggs. Unfortunately the little creatures are sneaky and need to be treated when detected, as they are very easily transferred from head to head.

School email address

As you may have heard, we have had a talk with the students about the way they use their school email address and school Google account. It came to our attention that some students had been using their school email address and school Google account for purposes other than learning. To make it very clear, we talked to the students about the following points:
  • not having extensions (including cursors, GIFs, wallpapers etc)
  • slides and docs are to be learning related and set or directed by a teacher 
  • slides and docs are not to be shared with other students unless allowed/directed by a teacher (to avoid being distracted by commenting chat)
  • school email is to be used for learning purposes only, and not as a means of communication with other students
  • students have been asked to 'unshare' docs, delete docs from their drive which are not school or learning related
  • students can use their school Google account at home for continuing with any work started at school (especially if directed by a teacher), to go on any educational websites such as Studyladder, Nick’s App, Maths Whizz, Prototec, E-ako, Solve Me, ReadWorks or to complete any home learning set by teacher
  • using teacher approved websites only. Some YouTube clips are allowed to be viewed when it is relevant to learning.
For all other usage which is not school or learning related, such as communication (emails), making slide shows or docs with friends, we suggested that the students use their own personal account. This of course would be with the knowledge and permission of parents/caregivers. The recommended age for creating a personal Gmail account is 13 years old. You can create a Google Account for your child under the age of 13 and manage it using Family Link. With Google Accounts, children get access to Google products like Search, Chrome and Gmail, and you can set up basic digital ground rules to supervise them. 

Technology is an ever growing part of our world and we feel it is very important to ensure that at school the purpose of technology is to enhance the students' learning, as well as teach them skills regarding technology to equip them for their future. By monitoring and setting tight guidelines with regards to technology use at school, we hope to grow responsible and respectful users of technology.

Winter sport

Next week is the last week of winter sport. Thank you so much to all of the adults who have volunteered and helped out with a team. We certainly couldn't have done it without you!








T3 W2 in Pōhutukawa

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Winter tournament

The weather hasn't been very kind to us over the last two weeks with regards to our zone's winter tournament. Jenny has made the call to cancel the tournament due to the weather and the impact it would have on the students returning to school. Unfortunately the tournament is unlikely to be rescheduled.

Year 6 morning in the Kauri hub

Our Year 6 students have a fabulous opportunity next week. On Tuesday, when the Year 7 & 8 students are off site at technology, the Year 6 students have been invited into the Kauri hub to have some fun with the Kauri teachers. They will get to experience some of the passions of the Kauri teachers, and be able to see what happens in the senior part of the school. When the Year 7 & 8 students return from technology, the Year 7 students will join the Year 6 students for some activities and chats about their favourite parts of being in the Intermediate hub.

Bakery on Thursday

The Year 7 & 8 small business group will be setting up their bakery and opening at lunchtime tomorrow, 12:40. All items are being sold for $1. All profits are going to charity. Your child can purchase cookies, cupcakes, donuts and rice-bubble slice. If your child is worried about losing their money before lunchtime, they can hand it in to their home group teacher who will hand it back at 12:40.

Curriculum areas:

Writing - At the moment we are embarking on writing information reports. The students are able to choose an animal they would like to find out more about. The report is mostly being completed on Google Docs/Slides so you are able to view progress at home.
Maths - The topic we have begun looking at this term is proportion and ratio. Most classes have started looking at fractions. Any talk at home around fractions (food being cut up, baking, sharing etc) to reinforce what we are doing at school would be great.
Science - This term on Friday we have Science for 50 minutes, and each home group will have two lessons with each teacher. Our overall topic is The Living World, and we are covering adaptations, classification, habitats, life cycles and human body processes.
CCC (Cool Curriculum Classes) - This term our classes are Culture (the cultures of the students in our home groups), NZ sign language, Jump Jam, Te Reo Māori and coding.

Culture

As mentioned, our focus for Culture this term is on the variety of cultures we have within our team. This will be an opportunity for all students to share their culture with their home group. So far we have located the countries of the children in home groups on a world map and have coloured in a flag from the identified country, which will be displayed around the world map on the wall. Every student in the Pōhutukawa hub will be represented by a flag on the wall. The students will be given an opportunity to gather information about their culture, whether that be from talking at home, from what they experience at home or what they look up on the internet.
On top of what the students can find out, I wondered if there might be anyone from or connected to our Pōhutukawa community who would like to and be able to pop into school to share any aspects of their (and their child's) culture? This might include teaching dance, sharing cultural experiences, teaching language, making food or anything else to do with your culture. If this sounds like something that you would like to do, or something you could convince someone in your whānau to do, please contact Tracy on tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz
We have so many experts within our community, and it would such a refreshing change for the students to have a different adult sharing what they know. I'm sure your child would also feel very proud to have their culture highlighted in such a way!




T2 W10 in Pōhutukawa

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No winter sport this Friday


Our travelling winter sports teams do not play on Friday, the last day of the term.
Winter tournament is on Tuesday 23 July, the first Tuesday back of the term.

CCC - Cool Curriculum Classes

This term for CCC we have offered music, culture (Social Studies), well being (Health), library and coding. On Monday, for the last session of the term, the children rotated around every class.

Lillie - "I really enjoyed music because you got to learn about different kinds of genres and got to learn more than you knew already."

Katya - "My favourite CCC was coding because it was really fun. It was good for your brain to learn about coding and it will be good for the future."

Josh - "Culture was my favourite subject because we learn about the ways people are different and about the NZ culture."

Luca - "I enjoyed going to the library because it's a calm, fun space where people can enjoy their books."

Lachy - "Well being helped me because doing mindfulness is good for my body and brain."


 






Drama Day

Today we have had a focus on drama. The students made groups, chose to select a script, adapt a book or movie, or make up a play. They have practised, made props, acquired costumes and then have volunteered to perform their play on the stage before our hub. It has been really pleasing to see the children working collaboratively, compromising and using their imagination.Who knew we had such a fabulous bunch of aspiring actors and actresses?




 


Have a super break. Fingers crossed the weather plays its part, and we look forward to everyone returning back to school safe and sound, on Monday 22 July.