Kia ora whānau
We hope you enjoy this update from our last two weeks at school.

Learning through play:
We are looking for donations of the following to support our play-based learning:  

• Old newspapers and non-glossy magazines

• Unwanted craft items e.g. wool, string, material scraps, 

• Old clean socks 

• Large suitcase (for storing dress ups)

• Boxes for creations (eg biscuit boxes, soap boxes, etc) 

• Clean plastic milk bottles 

• Plastic caps (from milk bottles etc) 

• Old kitchen pots, pans, spoons, etc. 

We continue to focus on children's wellbeing, with daily discussions and weekly home group circle time. Making time for gratitude, and making new friends have been key focuses recently.  Do feel free to discuss these at home with your child.

You might like to try this Sparklers Gratitude Journal in the next school holidays.
Personal "Space Bubbles"
Moving safely - We are noticing that some of our students are moving/playing in very busy and boisterous ways, and bumping into each other. Other times, some students are playing games that involved crashing, grabbing, pinching, and the like. 

While some of these games are fun for some students, they are upsetting for others. Thanks for your support in helping the children maintain their personal space bubbles, moving safely, and showing kindness to others. 

Take a look at this social story about maintaining safe spaces between people: 
 Space Bubble Social Story 


Parent Help

Growing

For the past couple of weeks, our learning in the middle part of the day has been around the theme 'Growing'. This has seen children involved in learning challenges and experiences involving nature, construction, and understanding how our bodies work.

Library Days

It has been great to get back into the school library and issue new books. Each home group now has an allocated day for returning and issuing. Please support your child to remember their library folder when it is their day.
Amber: Tuesday
Katie: Wednesday
Jules: Thursday
Charlotte: Friday

New Playground

Wow! What a fantastic time we have had this week exploring the new playground! It has been a very popular place during break times, and we feel very fortunate to have it immediately outside our hub.

Kia ora whanau,
Our kinds thanks to you for following our new morning and pick up processes. Please read Sandy's email this evening which provides further clarity.

Here are our gorgeous kids enjoying time back together: 

ESSENTIAL VIEWING:  

Warm Autumn Greetings from our Bubble to Yours

Firstly, our team would like to express how incredibly grateful we are for the amazing support you are giving to this new model of learning.
It is an absolute pleasure to see tamariki and their whānau engaging with the daily challenges on our Kahikatea Learning@Home webpage and Seesaw.
These platforms are dynamic and change each day. We love getting your feedback on the types of tasks and activities. Your feedback is incredibly helpful, so thank you. 
Many of you have developed your daily routines to include a balance of 'school learning' and other activities.
If you need any support or guidance with this please make contact with your child's homegroup teacher, we are here to help.

ZOOM Meetings (OPTIONAL)

Our team is very familiar with the video conferencing app Zoom.
If you and your child/children are feeling the need for some face to face time with your teacher via a zoom (video) meeting we are really happy for that to happen. You may want to simply say hi, or to ask questions or get clarification on some of the tasks. 
Please email your child's homegroup teacher to let them know you'd like to do this and let them know what times you can't zoom.
Your teachers can email the invite to you once a time is arranged. (You will need to have Zoom App set up on your device).  
We will continue to maintain regular contact with families via email and/or phone calls. 

A fun Friday Zoom team meeting Here is our Welcome Assembly for Term 2

Junior Neighbourhood Support Challenge

Sharing Our Learning 

Cyber Safety (when using school Google Logins)

As you may be aware from the school cyber safety agreement, Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto has various cyber safety systems in place in order to keep students safe. We have one system called “Highlights” that we would like you to be particularly mindful of during lockdown. 

This system allows teachers to see Chromebook screens and/or Chrome browser tabs whenever that device or browser is signed into a school Google account during school hours. This is an important tool that teachers use to keep students safe and to offer support while students are learning. It also has privacy implications and is one of the main reasons we always ask and remind students to only use their school account for learning purposes. If you want your child to use their personal device/browser for other purposes or without the school cyber safety systems in place, then it is important that students sign out of their school account and sign into a personal account created by you. If your child has borrowed a school Chromebook, they should only be using this with their school login and for learning purposes.

We also utilise a specialised web filtering system to help keep our students safe online. This filter automatically alerts staff whenever a student account is potentially being used to access unsafe content on the internet. Like Highlights, this filter system is active whenever a student is signed into their school account, even if they are at home. If we receive a concerning filter alert during lockdown, we will contact you via email.

It is important to note that teachers never rely on just the filtering system. We work hard to actively monitor students’ screens and always ask students to work in a place where their screens are visible. We strongly encourage you to adopt a similar approach at home by making sure children only use devices in a family area where they can be easily seen. We also encourage you to actively check that your child/children are using the device in a safe and positive manner.