Welcome back to Term 4. We trust you and your children had a relaxing and fun holiday. Term 4 is always a very busy term and this year is no exception!

Dates of note:

Thursday 15th October

• Shake Out! Practice ( Earthquake drill) - your children did extremely well during this practice. Well done, Te Whanau Koru!
• Hub Photos- These will be available for purchase if you would like to purchase one. Information will be sent home with your child.

Friday 16th October

• Rugby World Cup Mufti day- what a wonderful day we all had! Children arrived at school wearing clothing with a french flavour (Hub 10 & 11) or (in Hub 12 & 13) shorts, t-shirts and jandals, as well as other Oz-related items!

Next Week:

• Monday 19th Oct- Keeping Ourselves Safe parent info session will be held at 2:15- 3:00 p.m. in the Staffroom;

• Tuesday 20th Oct- children will be attending a play performed by NZ Playhouse- 'Jack Flash and the Jumping Beanstalk';

• Friday 23rd Oct- School open day as part of the Centenary celebrations;

• Saturday 24th October- School Centenary Day- Children will be performing their folk dances. Please ensure you have informed your teacher if your child is unable to attend.

Kia ora whanau,

Spring has sprung...just in time for the upcoming holidays!  (We'll just hope this wee wet spell disappears as quickly as it appeared).  Next week is the last week of Term 3.  It has been a busy, happy term with lots of exciting learning.

A special warm welcome to all our new children starting school. It is lovely to have you and your families here with us.

Gymnastics
A big thank you to all the parents who have assisted with Gymnastics.  We have completed this unit now.  The children have made incredible progress with their skill development.  They may be able to demonstrate to you at home!

Pride Assembly
At Pride Assembly last week, Te Whanau Koru presented  the money that we made on our Cupcake Day to SPCA .  This was gratefully received.  The children did a wonderful job presenting the assembly.  

Band
On Wednesday 23 September our very own Beckenham School training and concert band will be performing for the whole school.  We cant wait!

Ice cream and Jelly
Ice-cream and Jelly are for sale on Wednesday 23 September.  The cost is $2.00.  Please pay this before school in exchange for a stamp.  This is fundraising for Year 7 and 8 camp.

Games Friday
To end the term on a high note, we will be spending the afternoon of Friday 25 September taking part in a games rotation.  We will be playing some out favourites including Cat and Mouse, What's the time Mr Wolfy, Midnight and relays.

School holiday reading
We would love to encourage you to continue to read with your children in the holidays .  If you have a chance, you might like to visit the South Library who have a large selection of really exciting Early Reading books, as well as many old favourites.  Books such as Dear Zoo, Brown Bear Brown Bear, and We're Going on a Bear Hunt, encourage lots of repetition and rhyming.  Nursery rhymes are also a wonderful way to encourage literacy learning.  These can be sung, recited, or read.  Have fun!

School Centenary
Over Labour Weekend, Oct 23-25, Beckenham School are holding the School Centenary. Our classes will be performing folk dancing on the Saturday event and your child will be involved.  Our children will be performing between 11.00am and 12.00pm.  This will be followed by open time in the classrooms when children are invited to share their art works and classroom environments with the many visitors on the day.  It is going to be a great occasion - and a time to be part of history making.

Reading Books
HELP- we are in desperate need of willing parents who may have 15-20 minutes available to help with the returning of reading books to the resource room.  If you have a few minutes after dropping your child at school, or prior to end of day pick up, we would love you to pop into Rooms 12,13, 11 and 10 to see if the teachers have any books to be returned.  The books are returned to the reading room which is situated upstairs in the junior block, between rooms 2 and 3.  This does not need to be a regular commitment, but just any time that you have a little spare time.  Thank you in anticipation.

Wishing you all a lovely last week of the term,

Gail, Jo, Cath, Andrea and Amanda.

Koru 12 were the first class to return all of their spellathon cards and money. The children enjoyed a morning tea in the staff room last Friday, put on by the PTA. Thank you to all Koru 12 Parents for helping us win this lovely treat. The children had beautiful manners- passing around plates of food to their friends and taking one thing at a time!

Cupcake extravaganza:
Our grateful thanks to you all for your generosity and willingness to help and support our SPCA Cupcake fundraiser event. Not only did the children have a fantastic day (full of lots of amazing learning, and fun to boot!), but also we managed to raise well over $200 and rising! This wouldn't have been possible without your support - we do appreciate you! We are hoping to invite a representative from the SPCA to come to the whole school assembly in Week 9, which is being led by Te Whanau Koru children, and this is when we would like to present the money we raised.

So please note:
In Week 9, 18th September, the PRIDE assembly will be led by Te Whanau Koru students. You are warmly invited to attend (10:00 - 10:30 a.m.)

Cricket training:
Tomorrow (Tuesday, September 1st), following on from the huge success of the Cricket World Cup, Christchurch Metro Cricket will be visiting us to run sessions with the children teaching basic skills prior to the start of summer cricket later this year. They will provide contact information for the children about local cricket clubs. Tomorrow's session times will be:
Hub 11: 11:30 -12
Hub 10: 12 - 12:30
Hub 12: 1:30 - 2
Hub 13: 2 - 2:30

Quaky Cat Dress up Day:
This Friday, your children are invited to dress either in orange or as a cat (or both!). We will be reading Quaky Cat Helps Out, which links to our school values of 'We care', 'We get there together' and 'We make a difference'. A gold coin donation is requested.

Our writing focus areas this week are:

• Room 12 - explanation writing (how to make a web) 
• Room 10- information report writing (All About Spiders)Room 13
• Room 13 - character descriptions
• we shall also be making thank you cards for the PTA who have recently gifted some amazing equipment to us (train set, block sets, and a great deal of wonderful outdoor equipment too

Farewell:
It is with sadness that we have said goodbye to Angela Phuyel of Hub 10/11. Angela's family have moved over to Woolston and this is to be her new school. We wish the family all the best as they move into a new neighbourhood and a new school community.

Term 3 Week 5 News

Kia ora whanau,

Next week is our Cupcake Day - excitement is brewing in the Te Whanau Koru team! This is a fundraiser for the SPCA.  We will be selling our cupcakes to staff and the Year 5 and 6 students of the school. A notice has come out to parents this week asking for donations of pre-made, un-iced cupcakes.  Thank you so much to the parents who have returned their notices. We are also looking for donations of empty ice cream containers with lids.  If you have any of these available, please send along to school this week.

Learning Conferences
Learning conferences are being  held next week, Week 6.  School closes on both Tuesday and Thursday at 2.00 p.m.  If you need your child cared for at school until 3.00 p.m., please let Jacky in the office know by the end of this week.  The Learning Conferences are a wonderful opportunity for the children to share their learning and their learning goals.  Your child will be supported to lead their own conference. We would appreciate Learning Conferences  to be booked online by this Friday.  Please check your emails for the link.

Pride Assembly
We have Pride Assembly this week at 10.00 a.m. in the hall.  Everyone welcome.

Mutukaroa
Thank you so much for the resources that are being returned to school.  Please keep these coming in, so that our new children have activities to use.

Spell-athon
All children will be completing their Spell-athon testing this Friday.  The children will be bringing their completed cards home on Friday afternoon so that the sponsorship money can be collected and then returned to school.  No pressure, however, just a heads up...there is a prize for the first class to get all their sponsorship money back to school!

Friday afternoons:
We have noticed that many of our wee ones are becoming very keen to be involved in soccer, and we are suggesting that if children own soccer boots (or even if they don't - but perhaps send a spare pair of shoes along rather than risk masses of mud on footwear at hometime!), they can bring them along on Friday and we shall have a group of children playing soccer on the grass outside Rooms 1 - 4, at Friday Funday time after lunch.

Kind regards,
Amanda, Andrea, Jo, Cath, Rowe and Gail