Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Now that we are at Alert Level 1, we are seeing the return of much more normality in the events that we are used to having at school and as part of our curriculum. It was with great excitement today, that we held our first full school Celebration Assembly since Friday 13th March. This week also saw the start of a different and more localised winter sport programme between our sports zone schools for our Year 5-8 students.  Next week we have more events back on the calendar.

The first of these events will be the school Cross Country which will be held on Beckenham Park this coming Tuesday, 16th June from 2-3pm.
The order of running will start with Year 8s and conclude with Year 3s.
All children in Years 5-8 are expected to participate unless there has been a prior notification to their teacher. Year 3/4 participation is optional.
Children are encouraged to wear their house shirt if they have one, otherwise wear their school polo shirt. Trainers are essential.
Adults who are available to help out - please meet Jenny on the field at 1:45pm.

Also,  next Friday will be the Mid-Winter Bring-A-Can Breakfast, and the following Friday will be the annual school Disco! Please scroll down for further information about both of these exciting events!

We had exciting news today that the Cultural Festival has not been cancelled, as was originally thought might happen. This year will be the final year of the Cultural Festival, so we are thrilled that it will happen, in the third week of Term 4 (27-30 October). Hannah Elliott will be sending important information home next week to the whānau of our Senior Kapa Haka group, Te Whānau Mahi Tahi, about this event. We will be asking for a commitment from you to ensure your tamariki attending the extra practices that they will need to commit to so that they can perform with confidence and pride.

Potentially Concerning Behaviour

We were advised by the Ministry of Education that there was an incident in Christchurch this week where school students were approached by a stranger asking for help to find his dog. See the Stuff article. There was also an incident yesterday where a man was behaving in an inappropriate way at the Beckenham Ponds, prior to school finishing at 3pm. Police arrested him, and anyone who has any information about that incident should contact the police.
Please do regularly speak to your children about staying safe on the way to school and remind them of stranger danger rules. It is also a good idea to organise for children to walk to and from school in pairs or groups whenever possible.

Reminder: Learning Conferences - last week of Term 2

During the last week of Term 2, we will be having Learning Conferences. This will provide an opportunity for you to talk with your child and their home group teacher about their learning and wellbeing at school.
If you haven't yet done this, please book a learning conference time for each child you have at school.
The learning conference bookings are for 15 minutes each (NOTE that in Year 7/8, even though you will be booking for 15mins, the conference will take 30 mins as your child has a bigger role in the discussion at the intermediate year level.) If you have more than one child to book for, please do not book back to back time slots, as you will lose some of your time in moving from one conference to the other.

The conferences can be booked by going to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and entering the code yseec

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki

Citizen of the Week

Emma Elphick - Year 6

Emma, your enthusiastic and positive approach to everything you do is contagious! All activities are confidently given a go and you persist until they are your very best work. You bring a bright smile and warm friendliness to our hub every day which is appreciated by everyone around you. We love having you in our team! Tino pai.

Kate Breitmeyer - Year 6

Kate, you are a joy to be around. Your enthusiasm for learning is second to none and indeed, you are a student who shows all of our kete values on a daily basis. Your creativity is an inspiration to many others, as is your desire to continue to add to your knowledge and skills. This will stand you in good stead for your future.

PTA News

Disco!

The annual school PTA disco is also ON!

Friday 26th June

4:30 - 5:30pm NE - Year 3 (Year 3 students can choose which Disco they want to attend so they can be with their friends)

6:00 - 7:00pm Year 3 - Year 6 (Year 3 students can choose which Disco they want to attend so they can be with their friends)

7:30 - 8:30pm - Year 7/8

Bring a gold coin for entry, your water bottle, and a more gold coins if you want to buy popcorn or other snacks.

Rainbow Theme - Be Bright, Be Bold, Be a Rainbow!

Christchurch Bird Club Bird Sale and Show

93 Orbell Street, Sydenham 11th July 12:30 - 4pm  Admission $2 per person or $10 for a family pass.

Cook up a Storm This Winter School Holiday

Give your budding chef the confidence to learn new skills and grow
their love of all things culinary with our Winter School Holiday or
Baking & Cooking Programme. A fun and interactive way to get
cooking from home, using common ingredients, and everyday
kitchen equipment. Submit your finished products online to get
feedback from our Chef Instructor.

International Culinary Studio 

Winter School Holiday Programme
Normally $49 now $30
https://www.internationalculinarystudio.com/product/junior-chef-
winter-holiday-programme/

To enrol, simply click on the link above, add to cart and use Coupon
Code Schoolswinter2020

Baking & Cooking Programme
Normally $80 now $40

https://www.internationalculinarystudio.com/product/junior-chef-
combo/

To enrol, simply click on the link above, add to cart and use Coupon
Code Schoolsb&c2020
We have been blown away with the level of skill on our
Facebook Kids Creative Cooking page during lockdown
and invite you to post your holiday programme results
here – at the end of the school holidays one lucky winner
will receive 2 x movie passes!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/KidsCreativeCooking/

Since we went into lockdown on 25th March, the Kōwhai teaching team has had some significant changes made to it. Paulette, who was the Team Leader, has moved on to a new position, and Tracey Maloney has started as the teacher of that home-group of learners. I have moved into the position of Team Leader, and Rob Proffitt-White has joined the team in a part-time capacity as our release teacher. He is working with each home group as that teacher takes their release time.

Now that we have come out of Lockdown and moved to Alert Level 1, we want to give the Kōwhai caregivers an opportunity to come into the hub and meet the new team. 

We will be holding an open afternoon in the Kōwhai hub for caregivers from 3pm - 4pm this coming Monday, 15th June.

All five of our Kōwhai teaching team will be there and we will spend some time introducing ourselves, then we'll be available for time for informal chats, and time for your children to show you anything in the hub that they want you to see.

Sue and Sandy will provide supervision on the playground (if fine) or in the Kahikatea theatre (if wet) for the children so you can engage with us. If you then want to collect them and go back into the hub with them so look at anything, you can do that too.

We look forward to re-connecting with you on Monday.

Ngā mihi nui

Laura Williamson and the Kōwhai Team

...for the work that we have done as a country, and as a school community, working our way calmly through the various requirements of the different COVID-19 Alert Levels. 

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy and the team

Do you need an internet connection at home?

As part of their goal to have all New Zealand students digitally connected at home, the Ministry of Education are rolling out a programme to support those families in the community who do not have an internet connection at their home address. The Ministry will be providing modems and 6 months of free internet to families who do not currently have the internet at their home address.
The Ministry have provided me with a list of families who they believe do not have internet, and we have the opportunity to add you to this (or check that you are on it if you need to be). If you do NOT have internet at home (having a data plan on your phone does not count as internet connected to your address), please let us know by emailing Jacky your name and your child's name, and we will make sure that you are added to the list. I have to have this data to send to the Ministry by next Thursday, 11th June. email: office@beckenham.school.nz

Playground opening!

We had a fabulous day on Tuesday afternoon, in spite of the misty, damp day, as the sun broke through the clouds for the opening of our our new outdoor spaces play area. Due to being at Level 2, we had only a very small number of guests present, and the whole school assembled around the play area to watch the proceedings.
Our thanks go to the PTA for funding $73,729.00 of the cost of the playground, from their Outdoor Spaces Fund. This fund was built up over many years of strenuous fundraising by many PTA members and we are so grateful to have been able to utilise this money for this wonderful explorative play space for our children.
The Outdoor Spaces Team, comprising original members of Carmel Wade (BOT), Amanda Wolt (PTA) and current members Nigel Easson, Paulette Newton, Matthew Macdonald (BOT), Nathalie Doering and Nicola Reddecliffe (PTA), have been the driving force for three years in getting the playground from concept to reality.
Our thanks also to the Greenscapes Landscaping team who have taken the design and brought it to life so successfully.
Our final thanks go to Carol and Graham Palmer who donated the money needed for the Ready-Lawn which was laid and will mean that the children should be able to access the grassed areas from the start of Term 3.
We were fortunate to also have Ministry of Education property funding become available in December 2019, which has contributed to this and meant that the PTA still has some Outdoor Spaces funding to use for further projects.
The playground was opened officially by two students - our oldest and youngest students at school on Tuesday - Lucky (Y8) and Ivy (on her very first day at school!).


After the opening, we took the opportunity of having both Paulette Newton and Nigel Easson present, to formally farewell them with all of our students. Nigel has started his new role as Principal at Sheffield School and Paulette has begun her new role as a Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour. We do wish them both all the very best and we will still see them around from time to time.

The children have been making the most of the playground, even in this cold and wet weather, and have been having an amazing time!





Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Principal/Tumuaki

Important Dates

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Celebration Assembly!

Outdoor Spaces

Excitement has really been building this week as the Greenscapes Team have been putting the final touches to our new outdoor playspace. It will be formally opened on Tuesday, and will be available for the children to play on from Wednesday.

Our huge thanks go to the Outdoor Spaces Team who have driven this project from the very beginning. They have included Carmel Wade (BOT) and Amanda Wolt (PTA) currently consist of Nigel Easson, Paulette Newton, Nathalie Doering, Nicola Reddecliffe (PTA) and Matthew Macdonald (BOT). We wouldn't have got to this stage without their amazing dedication and commitment.

Morning Drop-offs and Afternoon Pick-ups

Thank you all for the support you are giving at the school gates!
We are really appreciative of the way that our families and children are managing the new drop-off and pick-up procedures.
What has been interesting is the positive feedback from many parents, and from teachers too, about the benefits of children independently coming into the hubs in the mornings. Numerous caregivers have reported to staff about how they are enjoying having the extra 20mins or so each morning. The teachers have noted how much calmer the hubs are in the morning when they can focus on your children as they settle into the day.
We are also aware that caregivers do need time to maintain relationships with teachers. Many of you are making great use of email, in the first instance, and we know that face-to-face conversations are important too so we are considering how morning drop-offs might look going forward.

New Signage!

We are very excited to have new signage at our front entrance area. We have a large sign now at the front gate, and a sign showing our school values, next to the hall.

Learning Conferences - final week of Term 2

Due to the lockdown, we have had to reschedule our Learning Conferences for this term. We are now working towards these happening in the final week of term, on Tuesday 30 June and Thursday 2nd July. School will close at 2pm both days, to allow the learning conferences to take place. More information about booking a learning conference will come out next week.

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy and the team

Scooters

Have you lost a scooter?  These two are sitting in office area.  Please come and claim them if they are yours.