Kia ora everyone! I hope the holidays are going well at your place. Below are some important reminders and a list of term 4 dates for your diaries.

Headphones

We need every child to bring their headphones / ear-buds from the first day of term 4.

BYOD

If your child has signed up for BYOD, can you please check that they are bringing their device to school every day.

Year 7 Leadership

We have shared a form through the Kauri Google Classrooom (children can access this from home), for Year 7 children to apply for House Captain and Student Council exec positions for 2020. Children have until Friday, November 1st to complete this form. Once all applications are in, there will be group interviews. All details are on the form.

Year 8 Yearbook

Every year we put together a book of Year 8 memories that will be presented to each Year 8 child at Leavers' Assembly. Year 8s need to complete their memory and share their doc with a friend and a teacher for their memories to be added. This google doc has been shared with the Year 8s through the Kauri Google Classroom (children can access this from home). It is great to see some children have already filled in their memories and shared the docs with the necessary people. The deadline for this is Friday, November 1st.

Parent / Caregiver Help

We need parent support with a few events in term 4. Please click this link to see what is involved and fill in the form if you can help.

Year 7 & 8 Term 4 Calendar

Thursday Oct 17: Carisbrook School sports exchange
Monday Nov 4: Athletics Day
Wednesday Nov 6: Summer tournament
Tuesday Nov 12: Group photos, including Year 8 photo
Wednesday Nov 13: 'Be Inspired' leadership event for 2020 House Captains and Student Council exec
Monday Nov 18: Zone athletics
Friday Nov 22: Self defence classes for the remaining Year 8 girls commence
Monday Nov 25: Top Team afternoon at school
Wednesday Dec 4: Canterbury athletics
Thursday Dec 5: Kapa haka celebration in evening
Monday Dec 9: Kauri Production in evening - all children involved
Wednesday Dec 11: Kauri Production in evening - all children involved
Friday Dec 13: Corsair Bay trip
Monday Dec 16: Walk to Victoria Park
Monday Dec 16: Year 8 pool and pizza party
Wednesday Dec 18: Year 8 leavers' assembly and lunch (Year 8 finish school after lunch)
Thursday Dec 19: Last day of school for Yr 1-7, morning only

In yesterday's blog post, there was a request for parents to supply a lunch dish for the Carisbrook sports exchange on the first Thursday of next term. Unfortunately, the link was incorrect. This is the correct link. 

We are busy in the Intermediate Hub this week wrapping up our Choice health unit and getting stuck into athletics. We are looking forward to the talent quest final on Friday. All the best to our finalists: Walter, Paolo and Ben.

Cultural Festival

We were so proud of Te Whānau Mahi Tahi when they performed at the Cultural festival recently.  Here is the official Cultural Festival Video.

Congratulations

A big congratulations to Maddi and Henry who represented Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto at the South Speech Competition on Monday evening. Opawa, St Martins, Cashmere, St Peters and Hillview were all part of the event. Henry and Maddi were commended for the research, ideas and structure of their speeches. Henry was placed third in Year 7 and Maddi was first in Year 8!

We need your help

On Thursday in week 1 of term 4, we have Carisbrook School visiting from Dunedin for our annual sporting interchange. The children will be playing, Ki o Rahi, volleyball, ultimate frisbee and football.  The exchange runs for the morning and finishes with lunch that we provide for the visitors. If you are able to help by providing a lunch dish, please fill in this form. 

Furry friends need a home for the holidays

Fidget and Snowy are looking for somewhere to stay during the first week on the school holidays. They come with their own indoor hutch and supplies. If your family would like to welcome these wee furry bundles into your home from Friday Sept 27th until Monday Oct 7th, please send Nicky an email. 

This week has been one out of the box. Sometimes being a teacher can be a bit tough going and sometimes is can be immensely rewarding. This week was all about the latter. We love working with your tamariki!

Monday

Ski day was a blast. The children followed all instructions, supported each other, persevered when the going was tough and the vast majority absolutely loved it.

Tuesday - Thursday

Koru games

Thursday was another sunny day and a fantastic finale to our three-day tournament. At Ultimate, a song was composed about the joys of the sport, at volleyball, the team formed friendships with their opposition and joined forces to take on some Canterbury Representative Year 10 players. The girls' football team embraced the challenge of a penalty shootout while the boys continued to impress with their skill and positivity.

Final Placings
Volleyball 7th
Girls' Football 6th
Boys' football 8th
Ultimate 4th

The ultimate team were awarded the top Sportsmanship Award and gifted with a goodie bag of sports merchandise. This kind of recognition surpasses any other win in our book and we are so proud of our tamariki for showing such positive values. All the children were exceptional for the duration of the tournament. They are such a pleasure to take away to sporting events and their efforts and attitudes have done themselves and our kura proud.


Those not in Koru games worked splendidly in the hub, they offered sensible and deep thinking ideas during 'Choice' sessions with Constable Ross and they stepped up to extra leadership duties due to 40 children being at Koru Games.

Friday

We held our breath when the full hub got back together again; there was the potential for a rumpity day. We shouldn't have worried, they were great. At our celebration assembly, we recognised the outstanding leadership shown by Ben Evans when he was presented with the Sir Peter Blake Young Leader award. Te Whānau Mahi Tahi gave Ben a stirring haka led so well by Paolo. This afternoon we had the auditions for the talent quest. What an entertaining afternoon it was and what a tough job we now have deciding on the three finalists! The afternoon wrapped up with Lucy talking about the next Climate Strike that is coming up next Friday, September 27th. She encouraged those interested to bring along as many extended family members as possible. If your child is planning on attending this strike on Friday afternoon, please send us an email.