Kia ora whānau,

Here we are at the end of the year and what a fantastic and busy year it has been! 

Ukulele Concert

In the last week, we had the pleasure of listening to a ukulele concert put on by Roger and his students from Kōwhai. 

Final Celebration Assembly

We also had our final assembly. Congratulations to the recipients of the end-of-year kete certificates for showing all the school values throughout the year. 

Hut Day

This week, we have been doing all sorts of fun activities to finish off the year, the favourite being our Hut Day on Monday. The children were brilliant at putting up all sorts of different hut creations and the hub looked incredible. Have a look for yourselves! 

Finally, thank you to you all for your continuing support throughout the year. We are truly grateful as we cannot get there without you! We hope you have a restful summer break and a Happy New Year!

From the Kōwhai team

Kia ora koutou,

This term has been full of excitement! We have recently had a big focus on transitioning in preparation for 2023. The Year 4 children have had a visit to the Pōhutukawa team and the Year 3s have had Discovery with the Year 2s. All the visits have been very successful so far and enjoyed by all!

Playground

Our new junior playground opened recently and is very popular. Here are some photos of the children's favourite playground activities. 

Concert

Kapa Haka Performance

Kia ora whānau

It has been a super busy start to the term...which is flying quickly past! Enjoy reading about our latest learning and activities. 

Quynh's News 

Quynh has leave, as of late next week, to go and visit her family in Vietnam. We wish Quynh a wonderful time with her family and thank her for all her hard work this year. We will miss her! Kathryn Moore will be covering for Quynh's class until the end of the year.

Cricket 

House of Science Learning

 

We have access to an amazing set of science kits from The House of Science, an educational organisation established to help teachers, students and schools teach and learn about key science ideas. This fortnight, we are learning about Plants, Pests and Produce. Our activities include learning about some key beneficial insects and pests in New Zealand, the six parts of a fruit/vegetable plant and their functions, transpiration, pollination and pest control such as pheromone traps. Many aspects of the living world, the nature of science and the material world are covered through the lessons.

Raised Garden Beds

The PTA has kindly given us funding to have two raised garden beds, like the ones by the hall, built in the garden behind our hub. Thank you, PTA! Tony will be constructing these over the coming weeks. We will then need to fill them with usable garden waste (tree clippings etc.) and soil. If you happen to be undertaking landscaping or maintenance at your house at present and have any usable garden waste or soil to donate, please email charlotte.verity@beckenham.school.nz.  

Swimming 

The children loved our water safety sessions at Pioneer. They learnt a range of key skills at their point of need. This included: 

• Floatation and water familiarisation
• Swimming strokes
• Kicking techniques
• Key water safety skills, including how to put on a life jacket, what to do if a boat capsizes, how to keep warm in cold water, how to stay in a group and how to signal for help

Assembly 

Congratulations to our Week 3 Celebration Assembly award recipients. A big thank you to Isaiah for creating and sharing his cultural presentation about Malaysia. 

Kia ora e te whānau,

We have had an amazing and busy couple of weeks. I think you would all agree that your tamariki demonstrated great skills, persistence and patience at our recent Athletics Day. It was lovely to see all the parents and grandparents who were able to make it. Thank you for your support. We have been so lucky with the weather lately!

SwimSafe Programme

We are delighted to have started the SwimSafe programme provided by Pioneer. Our tamariki are loving the challenge and have already grown in confidence. The very experienced tutors were able to group them according to their swimming ability and lessons got underway swiftly! It looks so much fun that the teachers would like to jump in too (particularly in this weather).

Laura 

As you may have noticed, our lovely Laura is expecting a baby and her final day of teaching will be on Thursday, November 10th. Laura will then be on maternity leave. We are all going to miss her 

so much but we know that she is embarking on a great life-changing adventure. We wish Laura and Steven all the best (including the perfect baby that always sleeps) and know that they are going to be wonderful parents.

We wish you a lovely weekend.

Ngā mihi nui.

The Kōwhai team

Kia ora e te whānau,

We had a lovely start to Term 4 this first week back. We hope you had a pleasant and relaxing holiday in the beautiful weather.

Hats

Now that summer is fast approaching, we need to make sure that we are SunSmart. Please make sure your child comes to school with a sunhat every day. If they don't wear a hat outside during break times, they will need to go to a designated area and stay in the shade.

SwimSafe Programme

We are excited to join the SwimSafe programme provided by Pioneer in weeks 3 and 4 this term (from 31st October to 10th November). It will run every day for these two weeks from 1pm to 3pm.

Please go through this social story with your child so that they know the expectations for when they go to Pioneer. It is also highly recommended that they practise getting changed at home to help the programme run smoothly.

Athletics

Our tamariki have been practising and showing our school values wonderfully at athletics practice. The main event will be on Wednesday 26th October, starting at 11am, weather permitting. The postponement date is Friday 28th October. 

Please make sure your child has a named drink bottle, sunhat and spare change of clothes (if needed) on the day. 

Discovery

We have been having fun with Discovery activities this week, including making corn flour slime, bug spotting, play dough and so on. 

Welcome Assembly

We had a whole school Welcome Assembly today. Nau mai, haere mai ki Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto. A warm welcome to our new students and whānau! :-)

We wish you a lovely long weekend.

Ngā mihi nui.

The Kōwhai team