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

It has been another busy fortnight at our kura! We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and learning. Have a safe and happy holiday time and thank you for your ongoing support.

Handwriting 

All Kōwhai teachers have undertaken in-depth training on the Kinetic Letters handwriting programme, and we're now implementing this daily with our students. These sessions include: 

• core and upper body strength exercises
• finger dexterity exercises and pencil grip practise 
• letter formation, using the letter family groups 

Safe Play 

Playing outside games safely and kindly has been an area of learning for many ākonga of late. This includes choosing kind thoughts, kind actions and kind words. This has been the case with football, cricket and Four Square games. We are noticing and celebrating all the kindness we see...that is a key part of our school value, We Get There Together! 

Enjoy watching and discussing this video at home. 

Athletics 

We have LOVED our athletics practises which started this week! Groups will participate in training sessions for sprint/running, shot put, high jump, discus and long jump. Warming up and down with stretches are also important elements of our learning. Athletics will take place on 26 October 2022, weather conducive. We will advise further details as they come to hand. Please ensure your child has good running shoes at school every day. Thanks a million :-) 

Hats 

Hats will be back on our heads to protect us from the sun from the start of Term 4. Please hunt your child's hat out ready to go in their school bag. Sunscreen is also recommended and can be applied before school. 

Assembly 

Congratulations to our Kete certificate recipients and thanks to Harriet for her informative cultural presentation on France and our awesome presenters, Lily and Paige.

Swimming 

In weeks 3 and 4 next term, we will participate in water safety sessions at Pioneer Pool. We will be in touch early next term with further information and to seek parent helpers (thanks in advance to those who can assist!).

Discovery Photos

Some of our Discovery sessions have had a values focus, in line with a Student Council promotion of the school values. We have been noticing our ākonga demonstrating each value, and commenting or praising them accordingly. Recently, we had a We Love Challenge task which involved designing a boat, and options included:

• Make a boat to hold the most weight and still float 
• Build a boat that will move by itself 
• Create a boat entirely from natural material

Kia ora koutou /  Mālō e lelei

Happy Tongan Language Week!

Kōwhai Talent Quest

Some of our tamariki have been rehearsing for the Kōwhai Talent Quest which will be held sometime at the end of term. It will be a wonderful opportunity for them to perform and the most striking performances will have the chance to perform at one of our Junior Celebration Assemblies.

Ukulele/Recorder

We will be finishing our ukulele and recorder lessons next week. Kōwhai children have done exceptionally well to learn a new instrument with our wonderful music teachers, Roger and Josie.

Discovery

Last Thursday, we had an amazing open-air concert at Discovery. Check out the photos below:

We have also been putting out a compliment box for everyone to write kind messages to other people in our hub. Anna read some of them out during our team hui and we have seen a lot of lovely reactions. 

Maths

We have been learning about probability and chance over the last two weeks. Here is a cool game called The Sludger that you can play with your child and practise thinking about the likelihood of something happening.

Junior Celebration Assembly

Congratulations to those who received their Kete certificate and/or Citizen of the Week award at our assembly last week.

Cyber Safety

This week, we have started our Cyber Safety unit for Inquiry. The children have enjoyed learning about keeping our online identity and private information safe.

Te Whare Tapa Whā

This week, we have been exploring our school's new wellbeing definition with our students. It is based on Mason Durie’s Hauora model. The students have completed a word sort to learn more about the actions and behaviour that comprise each element of the definition. We have also created role plays of how we show the definition in our own lives. 

Rākau 

The children have been designing and creating rākau (sticks) to perform traditional Māori stick games. Here is a photo of some of their rākau designs.

Book Character Day

Amazing Dancers