Celebrating the Arts - Memories That Last

A huge congratulations to our Kōwhai Hub Year 3/4 students and staff for their vibrant and entertaining production of Jukebox Journey, and to our Kauri Hub Year 7/8 students for their creativity and humour in Diary of a Beckenham Kid.

Both productions showcased the hard work, collaboration, and talent of our students and staff, supported by whānau and our wider school community. These experiences are not only a celebration of performance but an important part of the New Zealand Arts Curriculum, building confidence, creativity, storytelling, and teamwork. For many children, these are the memories that stay with them long after they leave primary school, and we are incredibly proud of the opportunities our learners have embraced.

The Great Migration - We Need Your Help!

As we prepare for our new hub configurations and learning spaces for 2026, we will be moving resources, furniture, and equipment across the school and we would love your help!

When: Thursday 11 December
Time: 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Who: Adults and children welcome: even 10 - 15 minutes makes a big difference!

Please report directly to the hub of your choice, and our staff will guide you on what needs to be moved and where it needs to go.

WE GET THERE TOGETHER!

Staffing Update for 2026

We would like to acknowledge Katie McFarlane, who will be taking one year of leave in 2026 to work as a Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB). This is a fantastic professional opportunity, and we wish her all the very best for the coming year.

We are pleased to announce that Kendall Skelton will join our Koru Team in 2026, teaching our newest learners in Homegroup 1.

Our full teaching teams for 2026 are listed below.

2026 Teaching Teams

Koru

• Homegroup 1 (NE): Kendall Skelton
  
  

• Homegroup 2 (NE): Elizabeth Drummond / Nicola Reddecliffe
  

Kahikatea

• Homegroup 1 (Year 1/2): Sarah Junghenn (Team Leader Koru/Kahikatea)
  
  

• Homegroup 2 (Year 1/2): Sarah Spence
  
  

• Homegroup 3 (Year 1/2): Amber Donovan
  
  

• Homegroup 4 (Year 1/2): Talia Garrick
  

Kōwhai

• Homegroup 1 (Year 3/4): Anna Reid (Team Leader)
  
  

• Homegroup 2 (Year 3/4): Gayle McNaughton
  
  

• Homegroup 3 (Year 3/4): Georgia McKenna
  
  

• Homegroup 4 (Year 3/4): Jordan Pollock
  

Pōhutukawa

• Homegroup 1 (Year 5/6): Chris Gaut (Team Leader)
  
  

• Homegroup 2 (Year 5/6): Chloe Wilson
  
  

• Homegroup 3 (Year 5/6): Nick Bruce
  
  

• Homegroup 4 (Year 5/6): Kate Meder
  
  

• Homegroup 5 (Year 5/6): Rae Marsh
  

Kauri

• Homegroup 1 (Year 7/8): Hugo Weaver (Team Leader)
  
  

• Homegroup 2 (Year 7/8): Megan Culver
  
  

• Homegroup 3 (Year 7/8): Kate McGregor
  
  

• Homegroup 4 (Year 7/8): Sarah Angelo

Additional Support

• Literacy Support: Lisa Collier
  
  

• Maths Support / ESOL: Georgie Jones
  

Release teachers: Nicky Dunlop, Rowe Barker, Megan Harris, Cat Noakes-Duncan, Stacey McLachlan

Wishing you a great weekend and an enjoyable final week and a half of school.

Ngā mihi

Cade

A huge thank you to our amazing Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto community for your incredible support of this year’s Colour Run! Together, we raised an outstanding $22,787.10 – an amazing achievement that will make a real difference for our school.

From the families who gathered sponsors, to the volunteers who helped run the event, to every child who took part with enthusiasm and colour, and to the staff who reluctantly agreed to be slimed – we are so grateful. 

We also want to extend a special thank you to all our corporate sponsors. Your generosity and willingness to support our school played a key part in the success of this event, and we are truly appreciative of your contribution to our community.

Thank you for backing our tamariki and helping make this event such a fantastic success. What an incredible effort from everyone!

Last PTA Hui of 2025!

We will be holding our last PTA meeting of 2025 on Wednesday, 10th December at 7.30pm in the Staff Room. We will be making plans for next year so if you’ve got ideas or want to get involved we would love to see you!

Weetbix TRYathlon

There's still time to register for the Weetbix TRYathlon, which is happening on Sunday, February 22, 2026. Open this link to register with our school group.

Entertainment Book 

Entertainment books are still for sale and available to buy here. There are heaps of savings for lots of school holiday activities, and membership would make a great gift for one of those hard-to-buy-for family members! 20% of the cost of the book comes straight back to school, and there are bonus Visa gift cards with each purchase. 

Please join us for the Beckenham Community Christmas Celebration this coming Friday (5th December)! This FREE family event starts at 5pm on the grounds of Beckenham School Te Kura o Puroto. We will have the BBQ, market stalls, a bicycle smoothie maker, face painting, a concert by the school band, and other favourites.

What an incredible end to our Colour Run fundraising campaign! Thanks to the enthusiasm and generosity of our community, we not only reached our fundraising goal - we exceeded it. Together, we raised over $16,000 to support the new sports turf project. This is an outstanding achievement and a testament to the strength of our school whānau.

A huge acknowledgement goes to our amazing PTA, whose organisation, commitment, and energy brought this event to life. From planning and preparation to creating a vibrant and joyful atmosphere on the day, their work ensured the Colour Run was a highlight of the year for our tamariki.

It’s also important to recognise the cultural roots of this celebration. Colour runs around the world draw inspiration from the Indian festival of Holi, a joyful celebration of colour, renewal, and community. At its heart, Holi is about togetherness, and we are grateful for the opportunity to participate in an event inspired by such a rich cultural tradition. Our Colour Run reflected that same spirit - a sense of collective joy, belonging, and celebration.

And of course… reaching the fundraising goal meant I had to uphold my end of the deal! The students were absolutely delighted to see me slimed at Assembly, and I’m not sure who enjoyed it more - the crowd or the students holding the buckets. It was a messy, memorable moment and a fun way to acknowledge the community effort behind the fundraising success.

Thank you once again to everyone who contributed, whether through donations, volunteering, cheering from the sidelines, or helping your children get involved. This was a true community effort, and the positive impact will be felt by our learners for years to come.

Luminaires Summer Theatre Camp!

For Ages 10-15

Auditions November 29th & 30th

Rehearsals December 7th & 14th

Camp Dates January 12th -17th

Successful participants will stay at a local camp venue for a week, during which they will sing, dance, act, create props, design costumes, and apply makeup, among other activities. 

Culminating in public performances of ZOOM! By Craig Hawes

Follow the link here for more information and to sign up!

general@luminairescharitabletrust.org

Win the Ultimate Australian Open Experience!

Your child could win the tennis trip of a lifetime with Tennis Hot Shots and Tennis New Zealand, plus win tennis equipment for our school!

The prize includes:

• Return flights from your nearest international airport to Melbourne for one child and one adult

• Australian Open tickets

• Two nights’ accommodation

• The chance to perform the official coin toss before a big match on Rod Laver Arena and grab a photo with the star players

• A $500 tennis equipment pack for the winner’s school

The competition is open to all children aged 8-13 across New Zealand — no tennis experience required!

Enter now at: www.tennis.kiwi/win

Entries close 8th December!

Colour Run

This week I attended the PTA meeting and heard about all the fantastic work underway to support our school.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, running a school is an expensive business, and we often have to make careful choices about resources within tight financial constraints. The PTA plays a vital role in providing additional fundraising that enables projects which would otherwise not be possible.

Currently, the PTA is seeking grant funding and running fundraising events to create an all-weather turf surface on the court beside the Kōmanawa building. To help raise funds for this project, they are also facilitating a Colour Run.

If your family hasn’t signed up yet, this is a great opportunity to get behind the PTA and support a project that will benefit all our tamariki. Apparently, if enough funds are raised, I’ll be getting slimed!

To register your family’s support for the Colour Run, please use the QR code or link below.

Staffing News - 2026 

Next year we will have two new teachers joining our team at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.

Kate Meder will be joining us from Christchurch South Karamata Intermediate, where she is currently teaching. Kate brings eight years of teaching experience and a wide range of skills and strengths.

Sarah Spence is joining our team from BestStart Barrington, where she is currently a Head Teacher. Sarah brings diverse experience and particular expertise in supporting pathways to school for our youngest learners.

We look forward to welcoming Kate and Sarah in the new year.

Congratulations also to Anna McNeill, who last term was appointed to a position at Halswell Primary School for 2026. Anna began her teaching career at our school, and we are very excited for her as she takes the next step in her career. We know that Halswell will benefit greatly from the experience and skill she brings to their team.

2026 Class and Team Organisation

I wanted to share an update on the decisions we’ve made regarding class and team placements for 2026. Following a review of how our teams are organised, we’ll be structuring the school a little differently next year. 

The key thinking behind this change includes:

• Taking the next step towards establishing phase-based teams in line with the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum.
  
  

• Creating a clearer line of sight for teaching and learning across the school.
  
  

• Providing opportunities for our Year 7/8 learners to work in spaces that more closely reflect the environments they’ll experience at high school.
  
  

• Aligning team sizes with available learning spaces to make best use of our facilities.
  
  

These changes are designed to strengthen collaboration across teams, support smooth transitions for learners, and set us up well for the next stage of our curriculum journey.

Koru: New Entrants, Kahikatea Yr1/2, Kōwhai Yr 3/4, Pōhutakawa Yr 5/6, Yr 7/8 Kauri

Garden Transformation 

The garden area behind Tākaka has been transformed! I’d like to give special thanks to Lucy, one of our Teaching Assistants, for her work alongside students to develop this space. It has become a beautiful area where students can learn about and interact with the natural world.

I’m also pleased to share that next week our long-awaited chicken coop will be constructed. Cook Brothers Construction, who are currently building the new South Library, have generously donated their labour for the build, and Mitre 10 is providing all the materials for the project. We are very grateful for this wonderful support of our school.

Meanwhile, the incubator in our office is counting down - only five days to go until the eggs begin to hatch! Excitement is certainly building.

Class Placements for 2026 - Reminder

If you have any considerations you would like to share for your child as part of this process for your children please email me at principal@beckenham.school.nz 

Have a great weekend. 

Ngā mihi

Cade

Only 2 weeks until the Colour Run!! Sign up now!

A huge thanks to those who have already signed up and started their fundraising for our upcoming Colour Run. We are off to a great start. Don’t forget to share your link with all your friends and family! For those who are yet to sign up, please try to do so ASAP as we have some awesome prizes to give away in the coming weeks!

Sign up here to register your family!

More details for event will be out soon. Every child at the school will be able to participate and how it works is Tamariki will run/walk one lap of the field and choose to go over, under or through a series of fun obstacles while getting colour powder thrown at them. There will be some water and maybe some slime too! All parents are invited to come and watch the event or even better get involved by helping us throw dye! Sign up to help out by following this link to the google form.

Remember every $1000 we earn one teacher will be slimed! Next Wednesday at the end of the school day the first group of teachers will be slimed!!!

Thanks very much and happy fundraising!

HELP NEEDED - Year 8 Leavers' Lunch!

We are moving quickly through the final term of 2025. With the warmer weather, it’s been great to see students actively engaged in athletics through the Health and Physical Education curriculum - developing their skills and applying them across a range of events.

Class Placements for 2026

This week, we have begun transition conversations to support students as they take their next steps within our school. Our focus is on ensuring these conversations identify and build on each student’s strengths as they move to their next teacher and learning environment.

As part of this work we will begin the development of homeroom classes for 2026. If you have any considerations you would like to share as part of this process please email me at principal@beckenham.school.nz 

End of Year reporting 

As you may be aware, we have been working hard throughout 2025 to implement the refreshed New Zealand Curriculums in Mathematics and English. I would like to acknowledge the work of all our teaching staff for their enthusiasm and professionalism in refining their practice to align with this new direction.

This week we received confirmation from the Ministry of Education about how we should report students’ end-of-year achievement against the year level they are in.

We will be using these new common descriptors in our end-of-year reporting. The descriptors we will be using are:

Emerging - The child requires support to meet curriculum expectations for their year level and/or goals as described in their personalised learning plan.

Developing - The child is making some progress towards curriculum expectations for their year level.

Consolidating - The child is meeting many curriculum expectations for their year level and are steadily strengthening their understanding across learning areas.

Proficient - The child is meeting curriculum expectations for their year level.

Exceeding - The child is exceeding curriculum expectations for their year level.

Judgments will be made in your child’s report for Reading, Writing and Mathematics. As with previous reporting structures, it is important to remember that all children develop at different rates, and our reporting processes will continue to focus primarily on progress and the celebration of learning.

Chickens have arrived!

As you may be aware, eggcitement has been building across the school about the arrival of our chickens! On Wednesday, our first delivery of eggs arrived, and the incubator has now been set up ready for the hatching of our very first chicks.

We are working closely with Cook Brothers Construction, who have generously offered their labour free of charge to help build our chicken coop. We’re currently on the hunt for materials - if you have any contacts or are able to help with this, please get in touch with Sue. She would be most grateful to hear from you!

We really appreciate the community we work with to make our school the best it can be. Have a great weekend.

Ngā mihi

Cade

Principal / Tumuaki

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto

PTA News

Next week is 'Walk or Wheel to School Week', this is a fun week that encourages primary school children and their whānau to walk, cycle, scoot or skate to school.

This takes place from Monday, 13th October to Friday, 17th October 2025.

Your child will have a small card that they can get signed off by their teacher each day that they "walk or wheel" to school. This will put them in the draw to win some cool prizes!

Whether you join us for one day or the whole week, we’d love to have you walking and wheeling with us.

Here are the themes:

Move it Monday - Let’s get moving! Start your Walk or Wheel to School week with an active way of getting to school!

Travel Together Tuesday - Let’s celebrate walking or wheeling to school with friends and whānau!

Wacky Wednesday - Display something bright; Look Bright, Be Bright, Stay Bright!

Thoughtful Thursday - Walking and wheeling helps create a healthier planet! How else can you help our environment? Maybe you could collect some rubbish on your travels!

Funky Feet Friday - Dress your feet - wear your funkiest socks or jazz up your trainers with glitter, tinsel, feathers - whatever you’re thinking!

Sunhat and Drink Bottle - Reminder

Kia ora koutou,

This section of our newsletter is dedicated to highlighting the successes and challenges our students are experiencing in sports outside of school. It’s fantastic to already have three Kauri students sharing how they are embracing We Love Challenge - Nau Mai Te Wero beyond the classroom and pursuing their passions. If your child has had a sporting success that you’d like to share with our community, please email me with a short blurb and photo to: kate.mcgregor@beckenham.school.nz - We’d love to feature it in our next newsletter!

Ngā mihi nui,

Kate McGregor

Sports Coordinator

Laura Stoney - Interregional Cross Country 

 A huge congratulations to Laura for placing 7th in a highly competitive race at Ascot Park! She was the second-best runner from Canterbury, with the top five spots dominated by Wellington athletes. It was a chilly day, and the 3km course, complete with small hills and hurdles, was no easy feat. Laura's determination and skill were on full display, and we couldn’t be prouder of her outstanding effort among such tough competition. Well done, Laura!

Jacob Hamilton - Basketball Success 

 We are incredibly proud of Jacob and his team for finishing 3rd overall! Jacob has worked hard throughout the season, and it’s been fantastic to see how much his game has improved. He was also recognised with a special award for consistently demonstrating the league’s values—a true testament to his character, teamwork, and commitment. Congratulations, Jacob, on a fantastic season! 

Kawariki Taylor - Pool Rescue Competition

A huge well done to Kawariki for his impressive results at the Southern Regionals Pool Rescue Competition! Competing in the Under 14 Boys category, Kawariki placed 3rd overall, with standout performances across multiple events:

• 1st in the U1 Mixed Obstacle Relay
• 2nd in the U14 Mixed Brick Relay
• 2nd in the U14 Patient Tow
• 3rd in the U14 Brick Carry
• 3rd in the U14 Swim with Fins

Zach Guise - Cycling Success 

 A huge congratulations to Zach, who took out first place in the U13 Cycling NZ Schools Cross Country Mountain Bike Championships held in Nelson on Wednesday! What an incredible achievement — well done, Zach, for your hard work, determination, and outstanding performance on the track! 

Save the date for our next big fundraiser - a Colour Run Friday 21st November! We are currently looking for local businesses or corporate sponsors who would like to support this exciting and fun event, taking place in Beckenham Park.

If you can help, please complete this form. 

Entertainment books are still for sale and available to buy here. There are heaps of savings and 20% of the book cost comes straight back to school.

There's still time to register for the Weetbix TRYathlon which is happening in February. Click here to register with our school group.