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

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