Week 12! It's been a long term and everyone is in need of a holiday. We are so impressed with how so many of our learners are maintaining focus and continuing to give of their best. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us during learning conferences. This is a great opportunity to share successes and next steps.

Ski Trip Form

Many thanks to the 35 families who have filled in our ski form. If you have yet to do this, please click this link and fill it in now. We need this information before going to the next step of our preparation.

Sport in Term 3

We would like to continue our winter sport programme on Thursday afternoons next term. In order for this to happen, we need a football and a hockey coach. Please email Jenny if you can help.

Over the past two years, we have taken part in Koru Games, a South Island sports tournament for Year 7 & 8s. This competition takes place in the Selwyn District from Sept 12 - 15. Before we decide which teams to enter, we thought we should start by seeing which sports you could support us with. Please click on this link to see what is involved and let us know if you can help. 

Evening for Year 8 Whānau attending Cashmere High in 2021

Joe Eccleton, the principal of Cashmere High will be at school on Monday, July 27th, between 6 and 7pm, to talk with families and children planning to attend CHS in 2021. Please mark this date in your calendars.

ShowQuest - seeking a videographer and some sewers

For the past two terms, a group of Year 7 and 8 students have been conceptualising and choreographing an entry for ShowQuest. This is usually an on-stage performance but in response to Covid, the organisers have switched to an online video entry. We are wondering if there is anyone in our school community who has any experience or expertise that they could contribute to this project. We would like to hear from people with knowledge in filming, editing, or sewing. Please, get in touch with Jenny, if you think you could help. The plan is to film early in term 3.

We have had two zone sports events this week, cross country on Monday and basketball on Wednesday, at which we saw several awesome examples of positive sportsmanship. Seeing some of our seniors cheering on every runner, even when others had zoomed to the finish line, was a great example of getting there together and making a difference. Special congratulations to the girls' basketball team, who won their competition and have qualified for the Canterbury Indoor Tournament. Congratulations to Jonty Mitchel, who placed 4th in the cross country, earning him a place at Canterburys next term.

Camp

When we had to cancel camp before lockdown in term 1, we quickly penciled in a booking for term 4, just in case the situation improved. Now that we are in Level 1, the decision has been made to go ahead with our Dunedin / Waihola Camp in term 4 from October 19 - 23. This is the second week in term 2.  I will be contacting our term 1 camp parents to check on their availability for these new dates.

In order to make the camp as affordable as possible, we will be doing some more fundraising in term 3. This will include another round of cheese rolls, selling bulk packs of toilet paper, raffling a bike and holding a comedy evening. If many people pitched in in a small way, we can share the load of these projects. Please click here to let us know how you can contribute.

Unfortunately, since booking this new date, Primary Sports Canterbury have released their postponement date for the Canterbury Duathlon, which is October the 19th. We are happy to discuss options with any of the children who qualified back in March at our school event who wish to still compete at Canterburys.

Ski Trip

We have all our parent helpers confirmed and the buses are booked for our ski day on Friday, August 28th. We now need information about every child so that we can best meet their needs on this day. We need every family to click here and complete this form.

Cashmere High School 

We are in the process of arranging an evening where the principal of Cashmere High will come to speak with students and parents about the transition to secondary school and specifically about the transition to Cashmere High School. Once the date is set we will let you know. In the meantime, here is an informative video that CHS has put together.


Cashmere High School Combos and Big Bands will perform an evening of Jazz on Thursday July 2nd in the Cashmere High School McCombs Performing Arts Centre, 172 Rose Street at 7pm (Doors open 6.30pm). We would like to extend an invitation to our wider community to enjoy this event with us.

From Badminton Canterbury

A number of the children in our hub have shown an interest in badminton, so we thought that this might be of interest.

Keep fit and be active these school holidays with the opportunity to either give badminton a try for the first time or build on your existing skills.
Sessions will include a combination of fun games, skill practice and some game time. Racquets provided for all sessions.
Please bring food and drink bottles. Must have non-marking sole shoes.

Just a very brief post today with important messages for the start of next week.

Literacy Presentations

Over the past two weeks, the children have been researching and creating 1-2 min presentations on a topic of their choice.  These will be presented on Monday. Some practise over the weekend would be a great idea.

Sport

It felt so good to be underway with sport last week. The walking to local venues worked well and teams enjoyed their first round of competition on Thursday.

Our cross country is this coming Tuesday afternoon. We look forward to all children giving their best effort in this event. Please let your child's homegroup teacher know if they are unable to compete for medical reasons.

Well done to our basketballers for taking on the challenge of a new fast-paced 3 on 3 competition. They had a great first round on Friday.

Things are ticking along nicely in our Intermediate Hub. The children have settled well into the routine of self-directed learning at the start of each day. It is great to see so many BYOD devices coming to school each day. On Friday Sandy sent out a newsletter with details of learning conferences in the last week of term. Please note that you need to allow 30 mins for a Year 7 & 8 conference.

Congratulations

Otis has been taken on as an illustrator for Toitoi, a magazine that publishes the work of young people. Over 1000 submissions were entered for the upcoming issue. What a fantastic achievement.

Henry H has been awarded 1st place in the Year 7/8 category in the Speaking 4 the Planet competition for his speech on increasing biodiversity in farming practises.

https://sustainablechristchurch.org.nz/speaking-4-the-planet-2020/results/

Rosie has been awarded 2nd place in the School for Young Writers monologue competition. Grace H achieved a Highly Commended for her monologue.

It is fantastic to see so many children showing a love of learning and challenge and putting their work out there. What great courage this shows.

Uniform

With colder days we want the children to be warm at school. The hub is very cosy and they also need to be warm when outside. School uniform jackets and polar fleeces rather than non-uniform items need to be worn. A back thermal under their red shirt is a great way to add a layer of warmth. Hoodies should not be worn to school.

Sport starts this Thursday

Our zone winter sport competition starts this Thursday. Many thanks to the parents who are taking/supporting teams; we couldn't do this without you. It will be exciting to be underway with this new local competition. If your child is involved in this competition, please read the important info from Jenny at the end of this post.

Cross Country

Yes, it is that time again - cross country training. A chance to get out around our beautiful neighborhood for a light jog, to get the heart rate up and do the body lots of good! We encourage all children to give their best effort, with the baseline being - run a lamp-post, walk a lamp-post, run a lamp-post, etc. One teacher runs with the children and we also power-walk at the back, encouraging the children at the end of the pack. If for any reason your child is medically unfit to run, please send a note or email your child's teacher. Please also make sure your child brings suitable shoes for running. The school cross country is on June 16th.

If you are available to help Marshal on the 16th, please email Jenny.

Early start on Tuesdays

Just a quick reminder that all Year 7 & 8s need to be at school by 8:30am on Tuesday to catch the bus to technology. We will no longer be dropping children, who turn up late, off by car. If they miss the bus, they will spend the morning at Beckenham.

Ski Day

Our team ski day is all booked in for Friday August 28th. With a lesson time of 11:30, we will need to leave school by 7:30am and should return close to 6pm. As part of the schools deal the children get skis, boots, poles and a helmet. Soon we will be sending home a form that explains clothing requirements and how we can support families to get the clothing their child needs. At this stage, we need to know who can come along on the day as a parent helper. Please read and complete this form if you can help us out.

High Schools Information: Shirley Boys' High School

Scholarships now open:
CV Gallagher Academic - Creative Shirley - Spartan Sports
Registrations close 19th June

ENROLMENTS FOR 2021 NOW OPEN
Visit shirley.school.nz/parents/enrolment/for more information
ENROLMENTS CLOSE 31ST JULY

Information for Competitive Winter Sport players

Thank you for your patience as we work through a competitive winter sport option for Years 5 - 8.

Competitive winter sport starts this Thursday and will run for three weeks.

Development Players

Children who are not in a competitive team will have a training session and fun games on a Thursday afternoon at school. The options available for these children are netball, hockey, football, table tennis, badminton and chess.

Game Locations

• All hockey games will be at Beckenham Park.
• All football games will be at Hansens Park 
• Netball games will be held at local schools, including Beckenham, Thorrington, St Martins, Hillview and Steiner. Each team will likely go to a different venue each week. 

All travelling teams will be walking to their game. They will be accompanied by teaching staff and/or parents. A huge thank you to the parents who have volunteered their time for this. If you have offered your time as children supervision, it is looking highly likely that we will need your support. I will be in touch soon with the finer details.

Games start at 1:50. This means that, unlike our usual winter sports programme, the morning learning time will not be affected.

Covid- 19 Guidelines

We will be recording names of all children and adults that are at each venue to allow for contact tracing if necessary. If you wish to spectate a game, please ensure that you check in with the Beckenham adult at that venue.

Safety Gear and uniforms

Uniforms will be issued by Anne Chin at the library this week. Instructions will be given via the daily notices.

Essential safety gear

• Hockey - mouth guard and shin guards are essential
• Football - shin guards and football boot
• Netball - short nails and no jewellery

If your child needs, shin guards or football boots, please ask them to see me as soon as possible next week. Hockey players will also be able to borrow a hockey stick if needed.

ALL CHILDREN WHO CARRY PERSONAL MEDICATION, SUCH AS AN ASMTHA INHALER MUST CARRY THIS WITH THEM TO THEIR GAME. ANY MEDICATION USUALLY HELD AT THE OFFICE WILL BE COLLECTED BY A TEACHER.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email Jenny. 

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