Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

The end of the school year is very rapidly approaching and end-of-year activities have definitely begun!
We have a big week and a half coming up... please check the calendar below to make sure you have all of the events noted on your calendar!

Kauri Whānau Musical Mashup

What talent we have in our Year 7 & 8 team! Come along on Monday or Wednesday night this coming week to see this talent in action on the stage. Our 45 min (ish) show starts at 7pm. A great night's entertainment for the whole family, all for a gold coin donation.

Farewell to Sherrilee - Wed 11th at 9:30am

On Wednesday morning (11th Dec) at 9:30am we are holding a very special hui to farewell Sherrilee Herangi-Harrison who has been our Te Reo Māori and Kapa Haka tutor for the past 25 years. All of our families are very welcome to attend. This will be followed by a morning tea. Current families, PLEASE BRING A PLATE, to contribute towards morning tea, as a way of to showing our thanks to Sherrilee, and our hospitality to all of the past students and whānau who will be returning to help us farewell her.

Important Dates

Citizen of the Week

Zoe Lewis - Year 6

Zoe, you display a positive attitude towards your learning, and quietly go about doing the right thing whilst trying your best. You enjoy working cooperatively in a group and happily work independently. You display beautiful manners and can be relied upon to be responsible and reliable. Tino pai mahi Zoe.

Bonnie Hopkinson - Year 3

Bonnie, your kind, caring and thoughtful nature shines in all that you do. You have a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards all areas of learning and you are a fantastic role model to other students. You are a self-motivated  and you constantly strive to be the best you can be. Thank you for living our school values each and every day!

Ilia Henderson - Year 6

Ilia, the kindness that you show to others and the environment is truly a wonderful way to show 'We Care'. You always demonstrate empathy to your team mates, give awhi to your friends and show respect to us all. Thank you for leading the way in showing how to truly show our kete values on a daily basis. Tino pai, Ilia.

School Notices

Outdoor spaces Update...

Members of the Outdoor Spaces Team will be on the library verandah every afternoon next week from 2:50-3:15pm, and before the Senior production on Monday evening from 5pm - 6pm,  to share about the next steps for the development of the main play space. They will share the plans and design for the new main play space, the timeline and working bees for 2020.               

The Community Dental Service

The Community Dental Service will be providing dental care for children enrolled with our service during the upcoming school holidays.  The clinics will offer treatment and relief of pain sessions by appointment only.   To make an appointment please call/email our Contact Centre which operates between the hours of 8am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday throughout the year (closed from 25th December to 6th January).
The following Dental Clinics will be open during these school holidays:

·       Woolston Clinic, 11 Hopkins Street, Woolston

·       Hillmorton Clinic, Hillmorton Hospital, Sylvan Street,

·       Ashburton Clinic, 38 Elizabeth Street, Ashburton

The clinics will offer appointments between 8.45am and 3.00pm for school-age and preschool children requiring treatment.
If your child has dental pain as a result of an accident please contact your dentist in the first instance.
To book an appointment at one of our clinics please:  call 0800 846 983
Or email commdental@cdhb.health.nz\

Mana Ake “Drop-Ins” are continuing…

A number of whānau have already made great use of the Mana Ake “drop-ins” that are available on Wednesday mornings from 8:30 – 9:30am. These drop-in sessions are here to provide parents with an opportunity to have a private, informal conversation around the well being of their child with one of our Mana Ake workers (kaimahi). If you feel like you would like to attend a drop-in session, please book in a time via the link here: Mana Ake booking  The code to use is ku2j6. Alternatively, you can contact Jacky in the office and she will make a booking for you.

We are excited to be undertaking a review of the delivery of our health curriculum.

Thank you in advance for helping us with this.

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy, Charlotte and Sue.

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

A slightly belated newsletter for last Friday...

Please remember that school will finish at 12:30pm on THURSDAY 19th December

You are invited to our "Thank you..."

There are many people within our school community who go the extra mile to help others and make our school the caring community that it is.  Many thanks to all those who recently made meals and baking for a school family who needed a bit of extra support, your kindness was truly appreciated. Thank you to the whānau who accompanied our children on the Farm trips this week! Thank you to the people who help on with trips, being on the PTA, serving on the Board, baking days, book sorting, junior playground duty, and many, many more varied activities around our school, that keep the school running and support our tamariki and our staff.

As a small token of our appreciation as a staff, for the work that parents, grandmas, grandads, aunties, uncles, neighbours, friends and others in our community do to support us, we will be hosting  Croissant and coffee on Tuesday December 10th in the staffroom from 8:30 - 9:15am.  We would love to see as many people as possible there.

Farewell for Sherrilee Herangi-Harrison - Wed 11 Dec 9:30am

We have sadly received the resignation of Sherrilee as our Kaiako Te Reo Maori. Sherrilee has been on our staff for 25 years, and has made a huge contribution to our school through her teaching of te reo Māori, tikanga Māori and Kapa Haka. Sherrilee has been offered work in secondary schools which she is excited about taking up and we wish her all the very best for that.
We will be holding a farewell assembly next Wednesday morning, from 9:30am. We are inviting past students of Te Whānau Mahi Tahi to attend, along with our current whānau.
We would appreciate if parents of current students could bring along a small plate of food to contribute to the morning tea, as a way of contributing to the 'thank you'

Special visitors in town...

We were invited to send a group of eight senior writers to a writing workshop at Tūranga last week, where they learned from some professional writers and industry experts, and then had the opportunity to meet HRH The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. A very memorable day for those students!

Important Dates

Citizen of the Week

Lexi Penter - Year 7

Lexi, you have grown so much as a learner. You show initiative in all areas and you put forth great effort in reaching your learning expectations. You show the value "We Care" everyday by being such a kind and caring friend. You have developed confidence in yourself and it shows by how happy you are during class time. You love to learn new things, which is great to see. You are such an asset to the Kauri hub. Ka pai Lexi!

Alyssa Gilmour - Year 4

Alyssa, you are a star in our hub. You consistently demonstrate a positive and caring attitude and are a great friend to others. You are very responsible and are always willing to help out around the hub. You have excellent self-management skills and are a positive role model to others. Tino pai, Alyssa.

Henry Hood - Year 7

Henry, you are a larger than life character in our Kauri whānau, bringing enthusiasm and humour into all that you do, and you are so much more than this. Henry, you are an intelligent and perceptive young man. You intuitively step up and act to meet a need. You're inclusive and kind to those who need a friend, you are resilient and encouraging on the sports field, and you naturally step up to lead at appropriate moments. Thank you for all you do to make a positive difference to our team.

School Notices

Parking on Sandwich Road

Congratulations to...

Grace for winning the Queen's Essay Competition (Junior division). She was presented with her certificate last week at Tūranga by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.


To Malachy for completing his Paleontology Science Badge - following a passion and focussing on getting this finished to a high level.

Jack Kelly recently sat the London School of Music guitar exam and scored 92.5%, an outstanding result as it is rare to score above 90. Tino pai Jack!

Roxy Murfin recently competed in a Canterbury Under 13 Fencing Tournament. She earned a bronze medal for the individual competition and was the only female medalist. For the team event she led her team to Gold medals. Tu meke Roxy!

Beckenham Booty

Spots are filling up fast for the last Beckenham Booty of 2019.

Bookings are now open for Sunday 15th December 9-11am

Click on this link to secure your spot.

For those shoppers looking to lessen the stress at Xmas- why not grab one of these amazing Xmas Cakes from  Beckenham Booty 


One of our many talented vendors will be there selling these amazing cakes- be quick as they won't last!

And for those wanting to host a ‘Sustainable Christmas’ by purchasing second hand & taking advantage of some of the affordable sustainable products on offer. The PTA’s ‘We Care’ stock is very low but we do still have the following available for those family & friends who are hard to buy for at Christmas :

Assorted Beeswax Wraps- from $5- $20

String Vege Bags- $10

Jute Shopping Bags- $10

Recyclable Coffee Cups -$17

Flow Designed Beckenham Tea Towels- $10

Grid Designed Beckenham A2 Canvas- $30

Frozen Cheese Rolls- $8 per dozen or 4 dozen for $30.

Twilight Fair Sponsorship.

What are we fundraising for?

Funds raised will be used to update our school sports uniform collection for our children. Another major expense for the school is ensuring our digital technology is adequate for incoming curriculum changes set out by the MOE. We need to acquire equipment to enable our children to develop coding skills & utilise robotic tools.

What support are we seeking?

● Sponsorship of a major attraction on the day. (Rental fee costs approximately $300)

● Raffle Prizes

● Donation of services

● Silent Auction items

● Monetary Donations (to assist with set up costs, entertainment, food etc)

By donating upwards of $300, we will add your name to one of the major attractions where you can display your own signage. All of our sponsors’ names will be published on our PTA website, on our PTA Facebook page & at the Fair.

Can you help? email Belinda if you can help: julianandbelinda@gmail.com

BOT Update

ReplaceWithBOTinfo

Community Notices

Child car seat recycling in Christchurch

Recycling isn't limited to the paper, glass, tins and plastic you put in your recycling bin each week.

In the Christchurch parents and caregivers can recycle their damaged, expired or unwanted child car seats through the SeatSmart programme, thus preventing highly recyclable metal and plastic from going to landfill.

The cost to recycle a seat in Christchurch is $25 RRP as some of the dismantling of the seats is done by social enterprises, which provide employment for people who have a disability or are disadvantaged or marginalised.

Christchurch has two collection sites where one can take a seat - Baby on the Move Christchurch North and Baby on the Move Christchurch Central. For more information please visit www.seatsmart.co.nz 

Beckenham Community Christmas Celebration

Come along to the Beckenham Community Christmas Celebration located in the grounds of Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto on Thursday 12th December from 5.00-7.00pm

Free BBQ sausages, Christmas sing-a-longs & a spot of Xmas shopping- just TWO WEEKS away!!!

Still spots available for those wanting to book a market stall -No charge

 Book a Christmas Market Stall, click on this link NOW

Organised by Beckenham locals for the Beckenham community.

BBQ provided by Beckenham Neighbourhood Association.

PIANO & FLUTE LESSONS

Hi my name is Aimee. I am a piano and flute teacher with 14 years experience. I have a few spaces next year on Wednesday afternoons (for children) and Friday mornings (for adults). My studio is in Cashmere. Please contact me on 021 136 2865 or aimeeaiken@gmail.com

Principal's Patch

Kia ora e te whānau

A huge thank you to everyone who turned out to the Whānau Rōpū picnic and 'Ki o Rahi' event last Friday evening on Beckenham Park. It was a beautiful evening, and really great to see so many children and their whānau out to learn a new game together.

Education News this week...

This week the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins has announced Supporting all schools to succeed, the government’s response to the final report of the Tomorrow's Schools Taskforce. Both reports were released at the same time.
Whilst some of the original proposals of the first draft of the Tomorrow's Schools Taskforce report have been changed, there are definitely some positive changes signalled in the government's response. The three key features of the changes being proposed are stated as being:

• More responsive, accessible and integrated local support to schools and early learning services
• Stronger arrangements to underpin principal leadership of the schooling system
• A better balance between local and national responsibilities for school property and network
• provision.

This is still a very aspirational document and the real change and detail of what that will look like is still to be drafted, negotiated and legislated over the coming years.

Final Reports for the year will be out next Friday, 22 November.

This year we have pulled back the date that we publish the final student progress and achievement reports for the year, from the final day of the term to the end of Week 6. There are many reasons why we think this will be a better way of doing this, two big ones being:
a) you get the opportunity to talk to teachers about anything in the report you aren't sure about before the end of the school year, and
b) teachers are not trying to write reports in the final 4 weeks of the year, on top of all of the other end of year activities that are going on.

We have made some changes to the report format, based both on feedback from families and from the move away from National Standards over the past 18 months. We look forward to getting your feedback on the new format. You can expect your child to bring home their report next Friday, 22nd November. Some of our children need two copies of their reports for parents who live in different homes. If we are aware of this need, we will accommodate it. If you need a second report and don't get one, please do let Jacky in the office know, and we will rectify that and make a note for future reports.

Students will still bring home stationery lists,  and information about learning groups for 2020 and 2020 Learning Conference bookings, in the final week of this term

I hope that you all have an enjoyable and safe Anniversary Weekend

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy and the team

Important Dates

Learning more about our Diverse Learners

Positive Behaviour 4 Learning - PB4L

Mana Ake News

Mana Ake “Drop-Ins” are continuing…

A number of whānau have already made great use of the Mana Ake “drop-ins” that are available on alternate Wednesday mornings from 8:30 – 9:10am. These drop-in sessions are here to provide parents with an opportunity to have a private, informal conversation around the well being of their child with one of our Mana Ake workers (kaimahi). If you feel like you would like to attend a drop-in session, please book in a time via the link here: Mana Ake booking  The code to use is ku2j6. Alternatively, you can contact Jacky in the office and she will make a booking for you.

Parent Seminar on Digital Safety - Tuesday 19 Nov 7 - 8:30pm, Staffroom

Mana Ake will be offering the following important Parent Seminar in November - please put this in your diaries now. The digital world is here to stay. Come along and find out how to keep your children safe in the digital world. Learn how the digital world can affect children's well-being and how to support them in this environment.

Writing Utensils Recycling Programme

Te Mana Raupō Kahui Ako Update

The Te Mana Raupō Kahui Ako is our local cluster of schools who work together for the improved achievement of our children. The schools in our Kahui Ako are Cashmere High, St Martins, Waltham, Thorrington, Ōpāwa, Beckenham, St Mark's School and Diamond Harbour, along with over 30 Early Childhood Education centres.

In the past two weeks, the maths teachers from Cashmere High, along with most of the teachers from the primary schools, got together at St Mark's School for an after school hui on Maths teaching. It was really worthwhile to connect with the other teachers and to begin conversations sharing the good practice we each have in our maths programmes and teaching. We expect this to be the first of many conversations like this, going forward.

Another change that has come about from our strengthening relationships within the Kahui Ako, is closer conversations with the staff at Cashmere High about transitions from our various primary schools into the high school environment. This has resulted in Cashmere High making some significant changes to the way that it gathers information from both teachers and whānau about incoming Year 9 students and we have been very impressed by these changes. The greater depth of knowledge and understanding of the diverse needs of our students that Cashmere High is getting should enable them to better support students with a positive transition from Year 8 through to Year 9.

Congratulations to...

During the school holidays Katy Agar took part in the Christchurch Gang Show. This was a fantastic, highly entertaining variety show put on by the Scouts and Guides of Christchurch. The show had singing, dancing and some very funny skits. There was 6 months of hard work put into rehearsals and 5 full-on performances which were held in the auditorium of Christs College. The cast gave it their all to entertain and Katy was delighted to see some of her friends in the enthusiastic audience. Katy was a little nervous at first with having a big solo but shone like the rainbow in the song she was performing. Well done, we are very proud of you!

PTA News

Beckenham Booty

Spots are filling up fast for the last two Beckenham Bootys of 2019.

Bookings are now open for Sunday 24th November & Sunday 15th December 9-11am

Click on this link Beckenham Booty to book for either or both of these events.

For the shoppers, we are offering the opportunity to host a ‘Sustainable Christmas’ by purchasing second hand & taking advantage of some of the affordable sustainable products on offer. The PTA’s ‘We Care’ stock is very low but we do still have the following available for those family & friends who are hard to buy for at Christmas :

Assorted Beeswax Wraps- from $5- $20

String Vege Bags- $10

Jute Shopping Bags- $10

Recyclable Coffee Cups -$17

Flow Designed Beckenham Tea Towels- $10

Grid Designed Beckenham A2 Canvas- $30

Frozen Cheese Rolls- $8 per dozen or 4 dozen for $30.

We would love to have buskers singing Christmas Carols at our next Beckenham Bootys- if this interests you, please email Email Rachel: rachelwiscombe@gmail.com

Twilight Fair Sponsorship

Our little helpers have been busy this week posting out the Twilight Fair Sponsorship letters. Cross fingers & toes they recoup lots of support from our amazing Beckenham community & beyond to make this the best Twilight Fair ever!



What are we fundraising for?

Funds raised will be used to update our school sports uniform collection for our children. Another major expense for the school is ensuring our digital technology is adequate for incoming curriculum changes set out by the MOE. We need to acquire equipment to enable our children to develop coding skills & utilise robotic tools.

What support are we seeking?

● Sponsorship of a major attraction on the day. (Rental fee costs approximately $300)

● Raffle Prizes

● Donation of services

● Silent Auction items

● Monetary Donations (to assist with set up costs, entertainment, food etc)

By donating upwards of $300, we will add your name to one of the major attractions where you can display your own signage. All of our sponsors’ names will be published on our PTA website, on our PTA Facebook page & at the Fair.

Can you help? email Belinda if you can help 


Mark this date: FRIDAY 20th MARCH 2020: 4:30pm-7:30pm for the PTA's Biennial Twilight Fair. Huge thanks to Gail Harris from Platform Design Ltd for her continued support, generosity & wonderful designs- we love our poster & hope you do too.

Community Notices

ReplaceWithCommunityNotices

Come along to the Beckenham Community Christmas Celebration located in the grounds of Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto on Thursday 12th December from 5.00-7.00pm

Free BBQ and/or bring a picnic.

Come and join the Choir, join in or just listen to some community carol singing.

Organised by Beckenham locals for the Beckenham community.

BBQ provided by Beckenham Neighbourhood Association.

Community Choir (aka anyone who wants to sing).

We will also have Christmas Markets-if you are interested in  booking a Christmas Market Stall, click on this link NOW No charge.