We are currently in the middle of our art week, with a daily dose of visual art. There are three collaborative art pieces being created, which will be auctioned off at the school fair.

Camp Fundraising:

Many thanks to those who offered to help with fundraising projects later this term, particularly our comedy evening on Saturday April 7th. If you are keen to help and have yet to complete the form, click here.  This week we are selling banana berry smoothies at lunch time for $2. Year 7 & 8's day is Friday.

Many thanks for the team who manned the sausage sizzle last weekend. We made over $800 towards our Dunedin Camp. A big thanks to Countdown for providing all the food and equipment.

Writing Motivation Trip:

On Thursday March 15 we are off to the Airforce Museum for a writing motivation trip. The only cost is the bus fare and we will let you know that cost as soon as the quote comes through. We would like to take three parents with us for the day. Please email your home-group teacher if you are able to join us.

Duathlon:

Entry forms for the Year 5-8 Duathlon are now available. Children can pick up a form from the box in the theatre. Entries need to have signed parental permission. The hand in box is also in the theatre. The event is on Monday March 12th in the afternoon. A course map will be available by the end of the week. We encourage children to enter as a personal challenge, however they need to have a reasonable level of fitness.

Leadership Week:

Tama from Attitude.inc got us thinking about personal leadership in his presentation on Monday. He will be back to deliver workshops as part of Leadership Week.

Next week is our leadership week - exciting! Please read either the Year 7 or Year 8 information below, as the two groups have different programmes.

Year 7:

Year 7 have a leadership day on Monday. They can wear mufti to school on this day. We have introduced the 7 habits of highly effective people to the children, however on this day we look at the habits through a series of practical activities. Later in the week the Year 7s will work in pairs to plan an activity to deliver to a small group of younger children.

Year 8:

Year 8 have a leadership camp on Thursday and Friday, March 8 and 9. We will be based at school on the Thursday, venturing out after dinner for some physical activity. We sleep overnight in the hub. On the Friday we head off to Spencer Park at 9:30 and return by 2:30 - 3:00. Children need to bring their lunch on the Thursday. We ask for a donation of $25 to cover the cost of food and bus fares. To keep the price down we ask parents to donate the following:

• Mountains (Nicky's home-group): A packet of breakfast cereal
• Forest (Hannah's home-group): Some baking
• Coast (Jenny's home-group): A bag of fruit
• Please send these food items along next week.

• Sleeping bag, pillow and something to sleep on, e.g. sleeping mat, stretcher or lilo
• PJs
• Toilet gear and towel
• A change of clothes for the next day, again suitable for physical activity
• These things should be packed in a day pack:
• Packed lunch and refillable drink bottle
• Sunhat
• Waterproof jacket
• Optional: camera, cell phone (these will be collected in)

Our children are being challenged with rich problems to solve in maths.

Rich discussion and questioning is creating deeper understanding of concepts.

Kia ora whānau,

As part of our fundraising for Dunedin Camp, Kauri whānau will be making and selling Banana Berry Smoothies.

These will be available from the Kauri Hub Makerspace window,  just opposite the park, before lunchtime eating (after 1:10pm). Children who wish to purchase a smoothie should place their order at the flag pole before school (under the eaves of the Hall Foyer, if raining). We'll be charging $2 per smoothie and junior children will receive a stamp on their hand to show they have ordered one.

In order to keep up with demand, we'll be offering smoothies to one hub each day.

Day	Hub
Tuesday	Koru (including New Entrants)
Wednesday	Kōwhai
Thursday	Pōhutukawa
Friday	Kauri

Our camp in Dunedin is just seven weeks away. It is time to get fundraising. We have the following projects planned:

Sausage sizzle at Countdown this weekend. Many thanks to the parents and children who have volunteered to man the BBQ and busk. Pop down and buy a sausage between 10 and 2 on Saturday or Sunday.

Next week we will be selling banana berry smoothies at school. The children will manage this, under the direction of Hannah.

On the 12th of March cheese roll orders will go out, with production days on the 28th and 29th of March. We will be seeking parent help for some equipment and supervision of groups on the making days.

The weekend before camp, on the evening of April 7th, we will be holding our comedy evening. Jarred and his crew will keep the audience rocking with laughter. This will be a major fundraising event and one that we need your support to run. Please complete this form if you are able to help out.

Vicki is currently applying to the Southern Trust for a grant towards our transport costs.

Thanks for supporting our fundraising efforts.

We are well into the swing of things now in the Intermediate Hub, with literacy and maths programmes underway. Please read the important messages below. Our aim is to keep messages brief for quick reading. Feel free to email us if you feel you need more information.

Kete Award Scheme: 

It was exciting to read a child's first blog post and award points last week. A number of families are paying for maths and science badges by Friday this week, so these can be ordered. The link to the scheme is on our blog. It is great to see the children living our values by getting involved in this scheme.

Swimming Sports:

This Thursday we have around 40 of our children heading to Wharenui Pool at 11:30am for our swimming sports. Jenny will send a separate message with information and instructions for the day. 

Math Club:

It was great to see so many keen mathematicians at 8:20am last Wednesday. This club with continue every Wednesday at this time.

Technology at South:

If you need to drop your child at South Intermediate on a Tuesday morning, it is very important that you let us know (text of email) each day, so that we can mark our roll correctly. Our bus arrives at 8:45. Please do not drop children off at South before 8:40. 

Writing:

Last week we had our first writing motivation: Fear Factor. The children are now writing a descriptive piece about fear. The focus is on the quality of the writing (varying sentence starters, using short sentences for effect, use of similes and metaphors and developing ideas within paragraphs),  rather than the quantity. We are discouraging them from writing a 'story'. This piece of writing is due next Friday. We will be reading all writing and providing feedback each weekend. If your child has not completed enough writing, we will send them an email and copy you in, asking them to work on this at home. Of course, any child is welcome to continue working on their writing at home if they would like to. On their document they have a link to 'Literacy Links' which is a website we have created to support them with their writing. They also have an exemplar in the books at school and a planning sheet. 

HPV Forms:

Earlier this term all Year 8 children brought packs containing HPV forms home. Please make sure these forms are completed and returned to the school office this week.

Looking for someone with design skills:

Do you work or dabble in art, design or advertising?  Would you be interested in helping design our wellbeing definition? This will be central to our student wellbeing strategy this year....and beyond! Please contact me if you can help. Many thanks, Charlotte (charlotte.verity@beckenham.school.nz)

Police Competency Test:

Today we will be telling the children about the PCT competition. This is a team competition open to Year 7 & 8 children. They literally complete the Police Competency Test, so a moderate to high level of fitness is required. This half day competition is on March 27 and includes other activities based on the police force. We will aim to put in two teams of 4 and will need a parent helper per team. Sign up sheets are up in the hub this week. Next week we will run trials to select eight children, four girls and four boys. 

Photos from Fear Factor...

There was an awesome positive vibe buzzing through the Kauri hub last week, as our year in the Intermediate Hub got underway for 2018. Please read the important messages below about what is coming up this week.

Maths Challenge Badges and Science Badges: 

If your child would like to work on a Maths Achievement Challenge or Science Badge this term, please check out the links below and email one of us with their order. We will send away the first order for the year this coming Friday. These badges count towards the 'We Love Learning' kete award.
Science Badges
Maths Achievement Challenge
Hannah: hannah.elliott@beckenham.school.nz
Jenny: jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz
Nicky: nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz

Technology:

Technology gets underway this week. On the notice board in our hub are group lists; these include the technology they will be learning about this term. Please make sure your child is at school by 8:30am on Tuesday.  Mrs Lynch, the fabric teacher who will be working with a Year 7 group this term has asked for and surplus clean fabric, zips, cottons, threads that parents no longer need.

Maths Club:

This year we will be running a maths club from 8:20 to 8:50 on a Wednesday morning in our breakout space. The purpose of this club is to extend our more able mathematicians. We will be working on the Otago Problem Solving Competition and solving Cantamath problems. If your child is interested, make sure they are at school by 8:20 this Wednesday. 

Leadership:

We have a vast number of applications for leadership positions. Children should hear about their roles by the middle of the week, then training will get underway. Children generally get two or three leadership positions.

Learning in our hub this week:

Each home-group will have three Life Education visits this week. Our focus is looking at empathy and understanding, to support our leadership programme. Due to these sessions, we will be fairly home-group based this week, however maths and reading groups will get underway on Wednesday and we start our writing programme with our first writing motivation on Tuesday afternoon.

Basic Facts Support:

If your child needs to work on their basic multiplication facts, we have put together a pack of worksheets that they can make use of at home. If you would like a copy of this pack, please send an email request to your child's home-group teacher. This would be a great SMART goal to work towards for the 'We Love Learning' kete award.

Gardening Request:

If you have any spare gardening gloves lying around home, Hannah would love to use these for her gardening passion group. Please send any you can spare along to school.

Swimming Sports:

We are delighted to have just under 80 children entered for our School Swimming Sports, which will be held at Wharenui Pool next Thursday. For each stroke the children have had the option to compete in either a 25 m or 50 m event. Only swimmers from 50 m events have the opportunity to qualify for zones. Please discuss with your child the events that they have entered to ensure that they are appropriate for your child’s ability. We would love to see you on poolside cheering on our competitors as they demonstrate a love of challenge.
To support the running of the event, we are looking for some amazing parent helpers to assist us with a few jobs on the day. If you are willing and available to help out, please email Jenny on jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz.  

Below are some pictures from last week. Highlights included passion sessions starting on Thursday and basketball on Friday.

Music Creation Passion

Code Club

Passion photography explored camera angles.

Buddy time with Year 3 & 4.

Basketball sessions got underway with three awesome coaches.