Hi everyone,

We hope you have all had a great break despite the weather! Let's hope the temperature picks up as the term progresses. Here are just a couple of reminders for the start of the term as there are some changes due to the building starting.

Building at Beckenham: Over the holidays, Rooms 5,6,7,14 and 15 were relocated to Hornby High School so our school site looks remarkably different from the end of the term.  Where the buildings once stood, there are fences to protect the children and to prepare for the new build site. On Monday, we will be taking the children on a safety tour around the school to show the areas that the children are to move around the school to enable them to keep safe. The fencing that is up will ensure that the children stay well clear and safe while the buildings are in construction. We know the children will be really interested in watching the building as it progresses and keeping them safe is our number one priority.

Classroom/ Learning Spaces: Just a wee reminder of our new learning spaces for the term. Hub 8/9 are now in the old Room 21 and 22 block. Hub 7 is in the old Room 19 Library and Hub 5/6 are now in the old staffroom.  All our new learning spaces have retained our original Kowhai Hub names. Please note: Over the holidays new bag hooks were put up outside Hub 5/6 for the children to put their bags on Monday.

Adaptability: Our inquiry this term is investigating the concept of adaptability. Over the next couple of weeks the children will be learning about animal habitats and how animals adapt to their environment. We will be making connections with how we need to be adaptable in our changing school environment.

Hats: A reminder that during Term 4 all children need to wear a hat whenever they are outside. Please have a hunt over the weekend for your child's hat and if you need to purchase a new one, Jacky can help you out at the school office.

Water: As the weather heats up and with limited water fountains outside, we need all children to have a water bottle at school every day. Hydration helps with focus and increases our ability to think. Please make sure your child has a drink bottle at school on Monday.

Parent Help: We would still love the willing help of parents to assist us with our class programmes. We would be interested to hear from anyone that would like to take a small group of children to Thorrington Resthome every Friday from, 11am-12pm.

Newspaper: We would love some donations of newspaper for our team as we embark on a sculpture unit for art. Any donations can be given to your Hub teachers.

Well that's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Kowhai Teaching Team

Hi everyone,

The children need to be in their home rooms from 5.30pm- 5.45pm to enable them to have time to get ready for the show. This will also provide you time to get a premium seat in the hall. As BOSCO is using the hall foyer, entry to the hall will be via the hall doors on the Junior side of the hall. We will have programmes for you to read prior to the performance to help you understand the meaning behind each of the dances. Please remember to bring along a gold coin donation for each person attending the performance. We are aiming to start at 6pm sharp and the performance is approximately 50 minutes.

The feedback we have had so far have included:
"The dancing and music was awesome. It was so entertaining!" Isla Year 7
"Was I just dreaming? That was so good!" Dartanyan Year 1
"I was astonishd at how professional the dancing and costumes were. It was simply incredible." Oskar Year 8

Firstly, it was so nice to see you all over the past couple of days at Learning Conferences. We were highly impressed with the way the children all spoke about their learning and discussed their next steps. As a team, we feel so fortunate to have such a dedicated parent community and know that this results in the children being supported by us all to achieve their best.

We hope you were able to also take the time to look at the building designs and have a talk with Michelle or Sandy about our future learning spaces. If you didn't get a chance to go into the hall, the display will be put up in the school office foyer for you to view. We highly recommend you doing so.

STOP PRESS!   Olympic Performance (Celebration of Learning)
Over the next two weeks the children are creating dances to share their learning about the Olympics with you. Each hub has discussed what aspect of Olympic learning they want to share and will be using dance as their method of communication. We are really excited about this performance and know that it will be a true visual extravaganza. At this stage, we anticipate the performance to be around 40 minutes long.
We will be putting on a matinee performance for the school and for any parents, grandparents of whanau that can't make it to the evening performance as well as an evening show:

'Matinee' - Tuesday 13th  September- 11.30am- 12.30pm
Evening Show - Wednesday 14th September- 6pm - 7pm

The children will need to be at school by 5.40pm to get organised for the performance. We need to take a roll of the children at school for safety reasons. Please drop your child at their hub room before heading to the school hall to get a great seat. A gold coin donation will be warmly appreciated.
On Monday, we will let you know what your child will need to wear for their performance. Don't panic - no sewing will be needed!

Home Learning
As we prepare for our Celebration of Learning, we will not be sending home spelling words for the next two weeks. Mad Maths Minute and reading will continue as normal. The focus in reading will be on reading for enjoyment so we would like the children to choose books from home or the library that they wish to share. This is an important part of reading and a great way to help introduce your child to different types of books.

School of Gymnastics
This week and last week, we went to the Christchurch School of Gymnastics. The children had a fantastic time exploring new gymnastic equipment and it was wonderful to see many of the children demonstrate our key school value of 'We Love Challenge' by going on apparatus that they had never been on before. Many of these items were high and required courage to complete the task given by the instructors. Here we are in action...
 



Football - Beckenham vs Thorrington
As part of our P.E. programme, the children have been playing a variety of winter sports. This afternoon, a group of children from our team played against Thorrington School.