We have had a twintastic day at school today! Thanks to the parents who supported their children to get their matching outfits together. Check out the photos at the end of this blog.

Between now and the end of term there is lots happening for our students. The events are listed below, along with details and requests for parent help. Please click each link to record if you can help.

Thursday November 30: Carisbrook School sports exchange (morning)

20 children and a crew of parents / teachers will be arriving from Carisbrook School in Dunedin, at 9am, for a morning of sport. The children will play basketball, football and touch. At the end of the morning we will provide them with lunch, before they make their way back to Dunedin. If you are able to help with lunch preparation, please click on this link.

Monday December 4: The Trials of Alice in Wonderland (7pm start for everyone)

Our show is getting to the exciting stage now, with wonderful singing and a hive of creative activity in our hub this afternoon. Opening night is just over a week away! All children are required at both shows. Bring your whānau along for a highly entertaining evening, all for the cost of a mere gold coin. Come along and enjoy the opening night.

Wednesday December 6: Canterbury Athletics

We have a team of eight from Year 7 & 8 travelling to Ashburton for this event. Jenny will be contacting you directly with details.

Thursday December 7: The Trials of Alice in Wonderland (7pm start for everyone)

Our final show will be preceded by a whole school picnic. Families are invited to come to the picnic and carry on to the show afterwards. We could end up with a bumper audience for our final show.

Year 8 Pool and Pizza Party

This is a special afternoon for the Year 8s to have fun together. Jarred will be hosting this party at his place. Start time is 4pm and collection time is 6pm. Children are welcome to bring their togs if they would like to swim.

Wednesday December 13: Walk to Victoria Park

We will be leaving school at 10:15am to walk up the hill to Victoria Park. Once there we will have lunch and play, before heading back down. We will be back at school by 3pm. Children wear mufti on this day. We need a small team of parent helpers to accompany us. Please click on this link if you can help.

Thursday December 14: Trip to Corsair Bay

We have our fingers and toes crossed for a warm and sunny day on the 14th for our trip to Corsair Bay.  Children again come in mufti and bring their togs and towel. We will have supervised swimming in the bay, games on the beach, a walk around to Cass Bay and chilling with friends. We are looking for parent helpers, both for on the beach and in the water. Please indicate on the form how you would prefer to help. We will be departing from school at 10:30 and will be back by 3pm.

Monday December 18: Leavers' Graduation Assembly

There will be an invitation sent out to Year 8 families next week for this event. Children come to school at the usual time, dressed in their best clothes. The assembly starts at 11am and generally runs for around 80 - 90 minutes. After the assembly there will be a luncheon provided by the PTA for Year 8 children and their parents. After the lunch, primary/intermediate school is all done and dusted for the Year 8s. Year 7 continue until 12:30 on the following day.

Home Learning

A reminder that home learning this week is finishing off information reports and presenting these. All instructions are on google classroom. Children are welcome to come to school early, or stay after school if they need access to the internet. Work is due to be completed by Friday.

Fun at our multiples day...

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.