What a Brilliant Term 2! 

We've had an absolute blast this term! Our Koru Hub has been filled with laughter, deep learning, and wonderful moments of collaboration. It's been incredible watching our tamariki strengthen their friendships and work so beautifully together. Looking ahead, we are thrilled to welcome our third home group to the Koru team next term. Thank you for a fantastic term!

A massive thank you to everyone who joined us in the Hall last Wednesday for our PTA Midwinter Breakfast! It was wonderful to see so many cosy pyjamas and smiling faces sharing a morning meal together.

We want to extend a special shout-out to:

• Our Generous Community: Thank you to everyone who brought along a canned food donation to support those in need.
• The Incredible PTA and Volunteers: An extra-large thank you to the amazing team who arrived in the dar, early hours to set up the hall and whip up bowls of delicious warming porridge!

Digitech

On Thursday, we were incredibly fortunate to be able to welcome Kate Sutherland from Digital Future Aotearoa to spend the morning with us.

As part of our Matariki learning, we explored our kura from a different perspective and reflected on the places that are special to us. We began by wondering what our school might look like from above, like a bird in flight, before comparing our ideas with a real aerial view through a drone flight over the kura and park.

Tamariki noticed familiar places in a whole new way and shared their ideas about where we learn, play, and care for our environment. Back inside, they added their own reflections to aerial images of our kura, as well as creating their own bird's eye view drawings, celebrating Tūrangawaewae, our place of belonging.

We also explored digital citizenship and the responsibility that comes with being a safe and ethical drone pilot. We learned to look out for manu (birds), kurī (dogs), and people in the park, while Kate shared some of the Civil Aviation rules that help keep everyone safe.

It was a wonderful morning of noticing, wondering, reflecting, and connecting with our kura through a different lens.

Term 3 information:

Matariki - Wednesday 22 July

Matariki is the start of the Māori New Year and a time of reflection, connection and planning for the year ahead. We would like to celebrate at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto, with you and your whānau on Wednesday, the 22nd of July, 5:30 - 7:00 pm. There will be a welcome and performance in Māpuna, the Hall by Te Whānau Mahi Tahi. Then Matariki workshops and activities in the Hubs for whānau to make, play and experience together. Pōhutukawa and Kōwhai Kapa Haka will perform in Māpuna, the Hall, to finish the evening. 

Scooter-athlon - Friday 7 August

Next term, our Koru Team will take part in an exciting Scooter-athlon on Friday, 7th August, from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. This is the first time this event will take place at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto! Whānau are invited to come along and cheer on the tamariki. The Scooter-athlon will follow a run - scooter - run format. Students are encouraged to wear their House T-Shirts, bring their own scooter and helmet, wear closed-toe shoes, and follow safety rules. The Year 7/8 students will act as marshals to help run the event safely. Please note: if it is raining, the Scooter-athlon will be postponed. Any changes will be shared via Hero. Please let your homegroup teacher know if your child does not have a scooter, or if you have a spare one you are happy to lend. We can't wait to see the tamariki scoot, run, and have fun - nau mai te wero - We Love Challenge!

We look forward to seeing you all next term,

Kendall, Nicola, Elizabeth and Stacey

 Kia Ora e te Whānau, 

Junior Park Explorers Adventure at Beckenham Ponds

Kia ora, e te whānau,

Welcome to our Week 7 news, and isn't it hard to believe that we're over half way through Term 2 now?! 

We're loving hearing your tamariki complement each other as they notice our school values being put into practice by their friends, throughout their days at school. We even hear gorgeous stories about this taking place at home too! Tino pai, tamariki - you're awesome! 

The children continue to put impressive effort into their learning across all curriculum areas. Our Literacy programme in the Koru team includes: small group reading and writing (individual letters, heart words, short words at their level, and then leading to short and gradually longer sentences), shared writing (whole class), handwriting, phonemic awareness, Narrative Intervention and a weekly library visit.

Some of the following links have been shared in previous posts, however they're well worth resharing, for new families as well as a reminder for the families of children who started in Term 1:

• The Sounds of New Zealand English
• How to Help at Home
• Stage 1 
• Stage 2 
• Stage 3 
• Stage 4 
• Stage 4+ 

What’s coming up:

• Junior Park Explorers: June 18th (Hooray, and thank you so much to those of you who have offered to help. We really appreciate that!)
• Reports shared: June 19th
• Learning Conferences: June 23rd and 24th

Congratulations and thank you:

We would like to acknowledge our very own Izzy Sepie, who recently amazed us all by single-handedly raising a very large sum of money in response to Cade's request for support for those families who might be struggling to provide food, stationery and/or uniforms for their tamariki. Izzy's response to this request for help was to hold her very own bake stall, and all of the money she raised, she donated to the fund which the school holds to support these families.

Izzy, you're a superstar and we say, "Thank you!" Tino pai tou mahi.

Photo Gallery:

Koru Team News 2026

Term 2, Week 5

Kia Ora e te Whānau, 

This week we welcomed 3 new children, and their whānau, to our hub. It's great to have you part of our team! 

Thank you so much for helping your learner bring back their literacy folder each day! We have been loving hearing about all the practice they are doing at home with their soundpack, practising their heart words, and sounds, and then blending them to make little words!! Ka pai!!

Kinetic Letters

Kinetic Letters is the name of the handwriting programme we follow here at Te Kura o Pūroto. Each letter of the alphabet is grouped according to how we form the letter. We then practise the letters as a group. We start with the Jumper family where each of the letters, m, n, h, b, r, p,  start with a down, bump back up, push over. Our focus for the next few weeks is the abracadabra family of letters, c, o, a, d, g, q, s. These letters all begin with a magic c, pull around and push along the ground. Bounce and Skip are part of this programme and they help us to focus on our handwriting and remind us where the letters start. Are they a Bounce letter (start at Bounce's branch, top of the line) or are they a Skip letter (start at Skip's branch, half way up)? Bounce and Skip love watching the children practise their handwriting and often find it difficult to choose someone to have a sleepover with. We love seeing what adventures they get up to when they come to your house for a sleepover!!

 Kia Ora e te Whānau, 

It has been an exciting start to Term 2! We have quite a few new faces who have joined the hub in the last three weeks. It has been so nice seeing the children come together as a hub in their learning and play.  

Cross Country 

Last Friday, we had our whole-school cross-country. The Koru children showed our school value of 'We Love Challenge' when they gave it their best go and ran all the way around the park. The Koru teachers were so impressed and proud of everyone giving it a go. 

Inquiry Topic 

Our focus for this term is based on the Social Science curriculum, specifically Geography. We have started our learning close to home, looking at our school environment and what makes our place special. As the term progresses, we will move our lens wider to more of our city, island and then country. This week we learnt about our school logo, our full school name and the cultural narrative of our school.

Cultural Narrative 

Coming Up This Term: 

Friday 15th May - Book Character Dress Up Day - Children may come to school dressed as their favourite book character. 

Friday 29th May - Staff Only Day - School will be closed.

Monday 1st June - King's Birthday Holiday

Have a wonderful weekend, 

Kendall, Nicola, Elizabeth and Stacey