Week 5! My goodness we are half way through the term. Life is busy in the Intermediate Hub. Please check the important messages below.

Top Team:

We are looking forward to Top Team on Thursday this week. Many thanks to the parents who responded to our plea for help. Parent helpers, we will see you at 1:10, with your sunhats and sunscreen as the weather forecast is for a warm and sunny day. This is great news as water is a key feature of this event. With that in mind, please make sure your child comes to school on Thursday with the following:

• Sunhat (this should already be at school)
• Towel
• A set of clothes to change into for the event, as they will get wet. They can wear togs under shorts and a t-shirt. 
• A plastic bag to carry damp clothes home in. 

Production:

Congratulations:

Our improv team team did a brilliant job in their South Island Junior Theatre Sports heat last Sunday. They were selected as the team to progress through to the finals on Sunday December 3rd. More details about that event will be coming soon. It would be great to have a big support crew. I'm sure the clapping and cheering makes a difference.



Well done to all of the children who competed at zone athletics on Monday. Special congratulations to Olivia, Vita, Shakira, Millie, Rosie, Kaia, Alex and Tilly who have qualified for the Canterbury athletics event on Wednesday December 6th in Ashburton.

2018 Leaders:

Tomorrow our house captains and student council exec for 2018 are off to Christ's College for an afternoon of learning about leadership. We selected these children after an application and interview process earlier this term. Congratulations to:

• Chairperson of the Student Council: Fynn Skelton
• Secretary of the Student Council: Tom Woodhouse
• Treasurer of the Student Council: Adam Barton
• House Captains Waimea: Bella Reddecliffe and Gabriel Lyall. Deputy: Murphy McCabe
• House Captains Tennyson: Hannah Winchester and Thom Bell. Deputy: Constantin Gorny
• House Captains Heathcote: Georgina Cockfield and Felix Morgan. Deputies: Jess Hancock and Santiago Montejo
• House Captains Fisher: Tilly Harris and Kaden Pedersen. Deputies: Portia Pasco and Christopher Reynolds

Home Learning:

Maths home learning is due this week. As Friday is a holiday, please remind your child to have their completed work at school by Thursday.

Year 8 Pool and Pizza Party:

It has become a tradition for our Year 8s to get together for an afternoon of outdoor activity and pizza eating.  This year we will be doing this at Jarred's place. There will be swimming, trampolining, basketball and other outdoor games, as well as chilling with friends. This will happen on Monday December 11th.

Year 8 families:

Many thanks to the Year 8 parents who have sent in photos of their lovely young person as a five year old. If you have yet to do this, please email a photo to nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz or send in a photo for scanning. We would love to use these in our Leavers' Year Book, but would not want to miss any children out. We need your photos by the end of this week.

Top Team might be cancelled:

We need your help! Next week we have booked in with Top Team to run this awesome event on Beckenham Park in the afternoon for our Year 7 & 8 team. We need five parent helpers for this event to go ahead. At the moment we have no offers of help. If we don't get five offers by this Thursday, I will need to cancel this event. This is an awesome opportunity to observe your child working in a team. Please click this link to let us know if you can help.

Carisbrook School exchange:

We are looking forward to spending the morning of November 30th playing sport against Carisbrook School, from Dunedin. Today sign up sheets went up for football, basketball and touch teams. Part of our hospitality will involve providing lunch and morning tea for our visitors. If you are able to help us with the making and serving of lunch, please email nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz

Old curtains needed:

For one of our props for 'Alice' we need to paint on some old curtains to create a mini backdrop. I was thinking of the plain white thermal backing as a good painting surface. If you have some curtains lying around that we could use, please email Nicky (see above address). Many thanks in anticipation.

Zone Athletics: 

The south zone athletics takes place this coming Monday, Nov 13th, at Hansen Park. Jenny and Gail will send out a separate notice to families of children involved. If you are able to help out on this day, please email Jenny at jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz

Theatre Sports:

Last week we mentioned that our theatre sports team would be competing this Sunday, November 12th. There was an error with the venue; they are competing at St Bede's (access via the Momorangi Crs entrance). The competitors need to be there at 3pm for warm up and briefing. The show begins at 4pm and we would love to have lots of Beckenham supporters in the audience. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults. These can be purchased at the door.

We are feeling very proud of our Year 7 & 8s today, after an awesome afternoon of House Games. They really stepped up with their organisation, leadership and support of each other. 

Top Team: 

One of the highlights of term 4 in Year 7 & 8 is our annual Top Team afternoon. For those who can remember that far back back, this is run along the lines of the Top Town competition we watched on TV a long time ago. In order the run the afternoon, we need parents to help. If you are available on the afternoon of Thursday November 16, from 1:15 until 3pm, please click this link. We need up to 10 helpers, so would really appreciate your help if you are free. 

Leadership:

Congratulations to our Year 7s who have been appointed as house captains and on the student council exec for 2018. We have made these appointments early so that the children can attend 'Be Inspired', a leadership afternoon for Year 7s, in a couple of weeks time.
In the past we have had several students take advantage of the following sailing leadership programme:

Message from Rudolf Steiner School:

Due to unprecedented interest in our school for Year 9 next year, we are opening a 2nd Year 9
stream for 2018. This means we can offer places for students who missed the opportunity for
enrolling earlier in the year. If you are interested to join our successful and integrated whole person
school, please ring the office and make an appointment to visit and chat. Ph 3370514.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Thomas Proctor
Principal
Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School

Athletic Sports this Thursday:

We have our fingers crossed, hoping for fine weather on Thursday and Friday for our athletics sports events. We are in need of a few helpers to run events on Thursday (10 til 2) and to assist with walking children to Hillview on Friday for our long jump event (12:30 til 2:30). Please let Jenny know if you can assist with any of these events. 

It is soooo good to be in our new hub. The children are adapting well to new routines. These include shoes off inside, feel free to have a set of school slippers, and storing lunch boxes in our maker-space, so that they don't heat up in the outside lockers.

There is lots happening this term. Here are a few key dates for your dairy:

• Wednesday October 18: Orana Park field trip
• Thursday October 26: Sports Day
• Monday November 13: Zone Athletics
• Thursday November 16: Top Team
• Thursday November 30: Carisbrook School visit for sports competition
• Monday December 4: First performance of 'The Trials of Alice in Wonderland'
• Wednesday December 6: Canterbury Athletics
• Thursday December 7: Second performance of 'The Trials of Alice in Wonderland'
• Thursday December 14: Corsair Bay fun day
• Monday December 18: Leavers' Assembly starting at 11am. Year 8 finish at 1pm.
• Tuesday December 19: School year ends for Year 1 - 7 at 12:30

We are still to schedule our Victoria Park walk and the Year 8 pizza and pool party.

Orana Park:

We are off to Orana Park tomorrow to kick off our science / literacy study around endangered species. The weather forecast is telling us the day will be cold, possibly with some early rain. Children need to come prepared with the following:

• wear school uniform, preferably with long pants and a thermal layer under their school shirt
• bring a jacket to go over their school jacket, preferably waterproof with a hood
• school sunhat
• beanie, warm hat
• lunch and water bottle
• asthma and other required medication, to be handed to home-group teacher, except for inhaler

Athletic Sports: