Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 1

We have enjoyed welcoming everyone back to school this week. Unfortunately Hannah is unwell at the moment. We hope to have her back on board by Thursday. I will be in and out of the hub over the next four weeks. I will be teaching 50% of the time and will spend the rest of the time in the office as acting DP, while Sandy is away on a principal exchange in Australia. We are lucky to have Mel filling in for me. She is an experienced Year 7 & 8 teacher, with a multitude of skills and talents.

Cyber Safety:

Over the school holidays we were alerted to several Instagram pages that involved children from our hub. These pages had been set up anonymously and asked posters to request the owner give an honest opinion of what they thought of the poster. Accounts such as these have the potential to cause a lot of damage to the well-being of our children. One page started with warm fuzzy comments, but the 'honesty' promise led to some not so complimentary comments as well. Another page contained quite hurtful comments.  We had concerns on several levels, both for the person(s) who had set up the accounts and also for the many students who were asking for opinions of themselves. We have contacted the parents of the children we knew about who were involved directly. Due to the way the pages have been set up, we were not able to identify all of the children who posted. On Monday we had a very productive discussion about this at school, and will continue to revisit cyber-safety issues. It would be great to also have discussions at home to reinforce messages of safe on-line use.  One of our key messages is, if it is not something you would feel comfortable asking or saying to a person face to face, then don't say it on-line. Thanks for your support with keeping our tamariki safe on line.

Feedback:

We would like to gather some feedback from you on how this year is going for your child. We will use this information to continue to develop what we do in the Intermediate Hub. We would also like to use some of your comments at our Year 6 Open Evening which we will be holding in a couple of weeks time. Please click on this link to complete a brief feedback form.

Ski Trip:

Many thanks to everyone for filling in the ski info form. If you offered to loan ski clothing, please name this and sent it along to school in a named bag - preferably by the end of this week. We need to match gear to children who need it, next week.

Cantamath:

Your child will have brought home a sheet outlining the choices for their Cantamath project, on Monday. If you have yet to see this sheet, please check their bag. All children need to complete a project at home over the next three weeks. If they need inspiration, there is a slideshow with photos of past projects on google classroom, which they can access at home. If they need to discuss ideas, we encourage the children to talk with us before school, after school or at break times this week. We appreciate your encouragement from home, to make sure this project is completed well.

Speech Writing:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will be running our story telling speech motivation and start discussing ideas. Thanks to those of you who have already talked about this at home. The children will have the choice of retelling a traditional story, telling a story from the point of view of a different character, creating a fractured fairytale or telling a story of their own. On Thursday we will look at exemplars, then writing will begin next week. The more talking about the story before the children write, the better. Thank you for supporting them with this.

Winter Tournament:

Jenny now has enough coaches / managers for all Year 7 & 8 winter sport teams. Many thanks to those who are helping out.  All children involved in the tournament need to come to school with sports uniform, drink bottle, substantial lunch, shin pads and mouth guards - as required, on Monday, July 30th. The tournament takes place in the morning, with the children back at school in the afternoon.

Learning Conferences:

A reminder that school finishes at 2pm on Tuesday and Thursday next week for learning conferences. If you have yet to book, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz or click on this link and use the code z8vr4  In our hub, please allow 30 minutes for your conference. The children will share their learning with you and their home-group, maths and, possibly, reading teachers, will drop by to discuss progress and any questions you may have. This model has worked well for our older children since we started working collaboratively several years ago.

Soup and Cheese Roll Lunch:

Next Tuesday children can bring along $3 for a tomato soup and cheese roll lunch. We would love children to bring their own cups, but do have some disposable ones for those who need to use these. Funds will support future Intermediate Hub field trips.





Intermediate Hub Open Evening for Year 6 Families



We look forward to welcoming Year 6 families into the Intermediate Hub on Monday August 6th, between 7 and 8pm. This is an opportunity to see what happens in the intermediate years at Beckenham, both in and out of our hub. There is lots to find out about. Come along with your questions and get informed!

Kauri Whānau: Date Correction

Cantamath Projects:

Oh dear, I put the wrong month for the due date of Cantamath projects next term, in yesterday's post. These are due on Monday August 13th, not September. Ideas brainstorming over the holidays would be great. There will be a slideshow of ideas posted in the Kauri 2018 google classroom, which the children can access from home.


Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 2 Week 10

We are on the home straight now, with just two days until the end of term. Your child will come home with their school report, technology report and languages report on Friday. There are three pieces of work that we expect the children to finish this week: their argument writing, their artwork and their camp photo presentation. Those who are finished by Friday will get some free choice time in the afternoon.

Ski trip:

Have you filled in the ski trip information form for your child yet? If the answer is no, please click here. If the answer was yes, thanks!

Home learning for everyone:

In the first three weeks of next term all children will have a Cantamath design or research project to work on at home. We will be introducing this project to the children tomorrow, Thursday. They are most welcome to put in some time on this over the holidays. A Cantamath project requires the generation of an idea, planning and creating. It would be expected that at least 5 hours of work would be required. Projects will be due at school on Monday the 13th of September, however these can come to school if they are finished earlier. Work that is of an exceptional standard will be entered in the Cantamath Competition in Week 5, and will earn points towards the 'We Love Learning' Kete Badge. 

Speeches coming up next term:

Next term the first writing topic is for our speech competition, which takes place in the middle of the term. This year the children will write story-telling speeches. They will be able to retell a personal story, or take an existing story and either re-tell it, tell it from a different perspective or create a fractured fairytale. Over the holidays it would be great to brainstorm ideas at home; please don't encourage your child to start writing yet. Speech time brings on anxiety for a number of children. To alleviate this, there will be two options for presenting, either presenting live to their home-group or videoing their speech. A live presentation will be needed to be considered for our hub final. Thanks for your support with discussing ideas with your child. 

Blogging:

We have been thrilled to see a number of students in Kauri Hub earning their Kete Badges! In order to earn one of these badges, tamariki have to complete 60 points worth of actions and write about what they have done on their blogs. Please ask your child to have a look at their blog to see what they have been up to.

Many students have been putting fantastic effort into their posts. At the moment, the blogs are all set to private, with only invited readers being able to read posts (and invitations limited to the Kauri teachers). We are wanting to make these blogs public so that others are able to see the awesome actions that are being carried out. If you have any concerns about your child's blog being made public, please contact Hannah on hannah.elliott@beckenham.school.nz.

Prior to any blog going public, we will be going through all posts to check that there are no posts that provide information that could lead to safety concerns. Students will also be doing some learning around what sorts of things should be left out of future posts. It is unlikely that children will get large numbers of views; all this should do is make it easier for you to see what your child is posting and share it with other family members. In the extremely unlikely event that any issue arises, we can very easily revert the blog back to being private.

Winter Tournament:

On the second Monday of next term, we have our Winter Tournament. This is where our Friday Winter Sport team battle in out against other teams in our zone in a morning full of fast and furious games. It's a fun and action packed morning at Hagley Park. A number of our Friday Winter Sport Coaches are already on board to support our teams, which we greatly appreciate. We are in need of a few more parents to support teams in getting around to each of their games and to umpire/referee. We will be in particular need for football managers as each team gets split in half as the football games are 5-a-side. Please email Jenny asap if you are able to help out. You will be need to be available until 12:30. 

Congratulations:

We are extremely proud of Tilly, who has been selected for the Canterbury Primary Schools Netball Metro Representative team. This was after a number of trials and to be selected from such a huge number of players is absolutely fabulous!


Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 2 Week 9

We are racing towards the end of the term. Please remember that Monday coming, July 2nd, is a Teacher Only Day. Read on for important messages and celebrations.

Ski Day:

Our ski day is coming up in the third week of term 3, on Thursday August 9th. We have our parent helpers sorted and have raised $20 per child to reduce the cost of the day to $30 per child! We now need every family to complete this form for their child. If you have more than one child in the hub, please fill the form in twice.

Disco:

Our school disco is this Friday. We would love to see as many of our children coming along between 7:30 and 8:30pm. Bling, water and food will be available for purchase. Please come into the hall to collect your child at 8:30pm.

Sleep Research:

Many thanks for your support with reminding the children to fill out their sleep slips last week. On Wednesday we will be forming sleep goals. This will involve using what has been learnt in research to improve the sleep experience. Sleep slips will be coming home on Wednesday, Thursday and Tuesday next week. Please talk with your child about their sleep goal tomorrow evening and what changes they will be making to their routine.

Science and Maths Badges:

There are a number of children in the hub who are working through maths and science badges, for the pleasure of learning and also to earn points for their 'we love learning' badge. If your child would like to do a badge, please check out these web-links to see what is on offer and then email one of us with their preference. Science badges are $6 and Maths $10. Payment is required before we order the badge. 

We Make a Difference:

We have been so impressed with the progress the children are making towards earning their Kete badges. Last week we presented another 5 badges in assembly. We are noticing an improvement in the quality of reflections the children are writing in their blogs, about the actions they have completed. 



Morvern has designed her own 'We Make a Difference' action. Read about her project below. You can support her initiative by purchasing her products at the school office.

Hello! I'm Morvern from the Kauri Hub and I am making some bags for Plastic Free July. Plastic Free July is trying to not use plastic for all of July, so it would be awesome if you could play your part and not use plastic bags, but reusable fabric ones. I have made these handy bags in two sizes. You can purchase bags for a gold coin, either one large bag or a bundle of 5 snack bags. Pay your money and select your bags from the honesty box in the school office. 100% of the money will go to Christchurch Bull Breed Rescue, who are saving bull breed dogs lives. Thank you for supporting them!


We love challenge too!

Yes, the staff love putting the kete into action as well.  We embraced the challenge and got there together! This is the end of our 'Mud, Sweat and Tears' experience last week ...