Kia ora whānau,

We are very excited to see you on Monday. The teachers have been busy at work for the last two days preparing our hub for you to come in, making sure it is nice and clean for us all.

If you haven't had a chance to look at the video with some information about coming back, watch it now - it has lots of important things for you to remember. You may want to make it full screen to see it best.

Hi Everyone,
Here is the latest news from the Kōwhai team.

Learning at Home
We have loved engaging with you via Seesaw and our Home Learning page and seeing all the amazing things you are doing at home. Below is a picture of the engagement of students at Beckenham from Year 1-4 on Seesaw over the last week.

Here are some pictures of some of the activities students from Kōwhai have completed during their Learning at Home and shared with their teachers.








Welcome Assembly 
Here is our Welcome Assembly for Term 2. You may want to watch this in full screen so you can see it more clearly. 



This week Kōwhai celebrated 'We love Learning' for our Kete awards because of all the amazing work you have been doing at home. Well Done to Elijah Hakeagaiki, Alex Mackintosh, Mina Lazic and Flynn Mitchell!

Cyber Safety (when using school Google Logins)
As you may be aware from the school cyber safety agreement, Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto has various cyber safety systems in place in order to keep students safe. We have one system called "Highlights" that we would like you to be particularly mindful of during lockdown.

This system allows teachers to see Chromebook screens and/or Chrome browser tabs whenever that device or browser is signed into a school Google account during school hours. This is an important tool that teachers use to keep students safe and to offer support while students are learning. It also has privacy implications and is one of the main reasons we always ask and remind students to only use their school account for learning purposes. If you want you child to use their personal device/browser for others purposes or without the school cyber safety systems in place, then it is important that students sign out of their school account and sign into their personal account created by you. If your child has borrowed a school Chromebook, they should only be using this with their school login and for learning purposes.

We also utilise a specialised web filtering system to help keep our students safe online. This filter automatically alerts staff whenever a student account is potentially being used to access unsafe content on the internet. Like Highlights, this filter system is active whenever a student is signed into their school account, even if they are at home. If we receive a concerning filter alert during lockdown, we will contact you via email.
It is important to note that teachers never rely on just the filtering system. We work hard to actively monitor students' screens and always ask students to work in a place where their screens are visible. We strongly encourage you to adopt a similar approach at home by making sure children only use devices in a family area where they can be easily seen. We also encourage you to actively check that your child/children are using the device in a safe and positive manner.

Kia ora Kōwhai kids!
We hope you are settling into your second week of lockdown and school holidays!

Hi everyone!
Ben and I have been busy making a jump for him to practice his mountain biking skills. It's really awesome and he was even jumping over his toys to increase the distance he could go. I tried the jump, but was a bit too scared to go up and over as the jump is really big!
I've been busy in my garden too planting new vegetables, picking apples, figs and feijoas. Feijoas are my FAVOURITE so I'm pretty excited to have heaps to eat! I've been walking every day and it has been so cool to see lots of familiar faces when I have been out and about!



I am going to miss you all when I start my new job next week. It has been awesome to have been able to teach such a wonderfully kind, caring and creative bunch of children and know you will just love Tracey! Have a great Easter and I will pop in and see you all when the lockdown is lifted. Take Care xx




 Our cat DC has loved having us at home and spending time curled up on the couch. He loves it when I’m cooking as this means he has a chance to beg for scraps, he can be pretty persistent (very naughty)!


I have also started re-reading the Harry Potter series of books and am enjoying reading them while sitting out in the sun in my backyard!
Take care and I can't wait to hear about what you have been doing during this time.

Jeanette has been busy too. 
I have been making the most of the mild Autumn weather we've been having and enjoying a walk round the neighborhood every day (making sure I keep my distance from the other walkers out there!) I've also busy in the garden planting veggies such as broad beans, snow peas and bok choy which I need to protect from the many rabbits we have hopping around our place - I'm hoping one is the Easter Bunny and will leave us some eggs!


A  message from Rowe  :
Hi Kōwhai! You know how much I love painting and art. I suddenly felt inspired to start painting at home. As you can see I have also been making the most of sunny days and enjoying the vibrant colours of the Autumn leaves. Biking and walking around our local area have been part of my weekly routine too. I even tried a Les Mills fitness class on TV. I didn't know my legs were capable of bending so much. No photo included thank goodness! As you can see  I have been knitting my teddy a scarf to wear on those cold windy days. Missing you all!
Take care everyone. Bear hugs xxxx




A message from Nick:
Hi everyone! I miss you all and hope you are finding lots of fun things to do at home over the holidays.
This week, I caught up with family and friends via video conferencing, went for walks, did some art, constructed a pedestal, watched some movies and did some coding.


Here are some Kōwhai kids who have also sent through pictures of what they have been doing in the holidays.

Here is the latest from the Kōwhai team.

Kapa Haka

Last week, we began our Kōwhai Kapa Haka programme with Whaea Cath. She will be taking the whole team for kapa haka each Friday so all children can experience kapa haka. We are lucky to be able to provide this opportunity for our students. Here we are in action as we learn the actions to a new karakia.

Miniball

A huge thank you goes out to Nathan, Jamie and Mike who kindly offered to coach our three miniball teams this term. Without your support, we would not have been able to enter teams into the Pioneer competition. We very much appreciate the time you have given to encourage, coach and support our tamariki with beginner basketball skills. 
Due to the term, being cut short, please keep your child's miniball top in a safe place. We need these to be returned to school when it reopens next term.

Learning Through Play

We have seen many of the children lifting the level of their learning during our Te Taikario time each day. There has been a huge improvement across the team especially in relation to problem-solving, being creative, working co-operatively and asking questions for inquiry. Here are some of the activities the children have been undertaking.

Learning at Home

As Sandy explained in her post earlier in the week, the holidays have been brought forward to the start of next week. We understand that every family will be different and as you settle in to this new normal, schoolwork may be far from a priority for you. Below we have listed some learning activities that are part of the normal weekly routine for the children in our team. If you would like your child to engage in learning over the next few days, the list below could guide you. Prior to school finishing, we set the children up with a login book for them to be able to access their codes from home. Here are some options that your child might like to explore.

Maths
* Study Ladder
* Maths Games

Reading
* Epic
* Sunshine Online
* Ready To Read 

Writing
* Google Docs
* Google Classroom Literacy

That's all for now. Please stay safe and enjoy your time at home with your family. We are looking forward to seeing you after the holidays and Easter break via our new online learning programme! Until then...

Kia Kaha

Kōwhai Teaching Team