Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

This will be our final newsletter of 2018. Another very busy year is almost over. Today we farewelled our Year 8 leavers with their graduation assembly. It was a wonderful celebration of their achievements and successes at Beckenham over the past years. Some have only been with us from part way through this year, through to others who started as far back as 8 1/2 years ago. We wish them all the very best as they head off to high school in 2019.

Staffing update

In our 23rd November newsletter, we noted that we had decided to restructure our leadership team and were advertising for a second deputy principal. In the last newsletter, we advised that Michelle Maule, our current Deputy (on secondment to the Ministry) has won another leadership position. This left us with two Deputy Principal positions to fill.

We were fortunate to have an excellent field of candidates and are very pleased to have been able to fill both positions, ready for the start of 2019.

Sue Leadbetter (who has been the Acting Deputy Principal this year) has won one of these positions. We are delighted that she will be able to continue the wonderful work that she has been doing this year.

Sue Leadbetter

We are also pleased to announce that Nigel Easson (past principal of Kaikoura School) will be joining us as our other Deputy Principal. Nigel and his family will be moving to Christchurch over the holidays.

Nigel Easson

As some of you will have worked out, Sue being appointed to Deputy Principal leaves us with a teacher and team leader position vacant in our New Entrant / Year 1 area. We are very pleased to have Jo Smith taking up the role of Acting Team Leader for the Koru Team for 2019. Jo has been working in our New Entrant team this year, and also in 2016, and she brings previous leadership experience to this role, and to our Leadership Team.


So - to clarify, here are the teams (with the home group teachers) again for 2019:

Koru (New Entrants and Year 1)
Jo Smith (Team Leader)
Stacey McLachlan & Elizabeth Drummond (sharing a learning group)

Kahikatea (Year 1-3)
Amber Donovan (Team Leader)
Charlotte Verity
Jules May
Anna Reid

Kōwhai (Year 3/4)
Paulette Newton (Team Leader)
Rowena Barker
Nick Bruce
Kate Swan

Pōhutukawa (Year 5/6)
Tracy Inwood (Team Leader)
Gayle McNaughton
Katie McFarlane
Steve Cooke
Rae Marsh

Kauri (Year 7/8)
Nicky Dunlop (Team Leader)
Jenny Diggle
Hannah Elliott
Megan Culver

Reports and start of year information

Tomorrow your child will come home with their end of year report in an envelope. Also inside that envelope will be their 2019 stationery list and a letter explaining who their home learning group teacher and the teachers in their team will be. Also in that letter, will be the important information you need to book your start of year learning conference with your child's teacher for 2019!

Our staff have earned a very well-deserved break and are looking forward to taking some time out from tomorrow with their own whānau.

The office will be closed until Monday 21st January.

Our best wishes to you and all your whānau for a safe and relaxing summer.


Sandy, and the amazing team at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.

Citizen of the Week

Marlonique Wolmarans - Year 8

Marlonique, you bring positivity and tranquility to our Intermediate Hub. Throughout the year, you have demonstrated diligence that has supported your growth as a learner. Thank you for the thoughtfulness and consideration that you show each day. Your kind and caring nature makes a difference to others.

Sophie Macdonald - Year 4

Sophie, you are an outstanding role-model  learner in the Kōwhai team, where you always put in 100% to all you do! You are always eager to learn new things and have a genuine interest in space, wildlife and the environment, where you love to share your learning with others. You always show that you care for others by always being a courteous and kind friend, making you a delight to be around. Thank you for all your wonderful contributions that make our hub a wonderful place to be.

Max Graham - Year 6

Max, what a joy and inspiration you are to the Pōhutukawa team. You display impeccable manners, always holding the door open for us to enter the hub. Your creative and humourous comments entertain and often enlighten us. Max, you are kind, caring and so very flexible and you make a difference in our hub. 

Dental Care over the School Holidays

The Community Dental Service will be providing emergency dental appointments on the 20th and 21st December 2018.
 A service will also operate Monday, 7th January – Tuesday, 29th January 2019.

This service will operate by appointment only and if we are unable to see your child, alternative options will be given. If your child has dental pain as a result of an accident please contact your dentist in the first instance.

You can phone and make an appointment for these clinics by ringing 0800 846 983.

Julie Denton
Service Manager
COMMUNITY DENTAL SERVICE

Principal's Patch

Kia ora e te whānau

With less than two full weeks of the school year remaining, this newsletter has a LOT of important information and news in it. Please do take a moment to read it through.

2019 home groups

On the last day of term, children will be told who their 2019 home group teacher will be. During that morning all the children will be taken to their 2019 learning hubs to meet their new team of teachers. You will get that information in a letter that day with your child's report. Also in that envelope will be the information you need to book your start of year learning conference and a 2019 stationery list. Some of you will also get a letter about your child's attendance if it has fallen below 85%.

2019 enrolments

We have a record start-of-year roll for 2019 and are continuing to turn away all out-of-zone ballot applications, other than siblings. If you do know people who live in-zone and are planning on enrolling their children to start school during 2019, please encourage them to get their enrolment forms in before the end of the year as this helps us immensely in our forward planning.

Congratulations to Michelle Maule

As many of you will be aware, Michelle Maule, our Deputy Principal, has been working on secondment with the Ministry of Education this year, in the Severe Behaviour Team. Michelle advised us yesterday that she has been successful in winning the position of Cluster Manager for the Te Paeroa RTLB (Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour), Cluster 34.


Whilst we are very sad to see her moving on permanently from Beckenham, we are very proud of her achieving this wonderful promotion. This is the cluster of RTLB who cover our school, so we are extremely excited that Michelle will have continued contact with us, in her new role. This position will give her the opportunity to use her skills and capabilities to make a difference for staff, families, and children in many Christchurch schools, rather than just in our school.

A celebration of the end of the Building Project - this Thursday 13 Dec

Year 7 & 8 Production

Throughout the year the Year 7 and 8 Hub have been participating in an inquiry under the conceptual understanding, ‘People must act to sustain what is valued’. Continuing with this theme, our production is based around the human race being accused of destroying planet Earth. This is an original production; the script was written by Duncan Moulin-Gower and the children have been very involved in the conceptualisation and choreography of the show, as well as in the creation of some rather impressive props. Lawyers, witnesses, and groups of singers and dancers will help you, the jury, to decide whether or not the human race should be held accountable for the destruction of our planet.


We invite you to come along for an evening of thought-provoking entertainment in "Court For Thought". Performances will be this coming Monday 10th and Wednesday 12th December, starting at 7:00 pm. Admittance is by a gold coin donation at the door. Everyone welcome.

'We make a Difference' in our local community...

This morning I had the great pleasure to observe a small group of our Year 2 and 3 students speak to the Spreydon/Heathcote Community Board about their solutions for cleaning up the Beckenham area and preventing litter from entering our Ōpāwaho River system. Supported by their teacher, Charlotte Verity, the children represented their classmates and our school so well and their idea of having signage around the Beckenham area to encourage people to keep the area litter free was well received.


Many of you will have also noticed that the public toilet block by the Beckenham Ponds on Eastern Terrace has been getting a major makeover! A group of Year 7/8 students, as part of their 'passion learning', have been working with a local artist, Ira Mitchell-Kirk, to paint a wonderful mural on the toilet walls. There will be a formal 'unveiling' of the mural this coming Thursday 13th December, at 2:30pm for those who would like to attend. Thanks to the Spreydon/Heathcote Community Board for agreeing to the project and contributing $250 funding for the paint.


Ngā mihi

Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki - Principal

Important Dates

Citizen of the Week

Sophie Macdonald - Year 4

Sophie, you are an outstanding role-model learner in the Kowhai team, where you always put in 100% to all you do! You are always eager to learn new things and have a genuine interest in space, wildlife, and the environment, where you love to share your learning with others. You always show that you care for others by always being a courteous and kind friend making you a delight to be around. Thank you for all your wonderful contributions that make our hub a great place to be. 

School Notices

Gift giving at the end of the year.

We are aware that gift-giving is one way that people often choose to show appreciation and that this is especially common as we head towards the end of the year and Christmas. We are also very aware that not all of our families celebrate Christmas and teachers are talking with children about the different ways that families celebrate cultural and religious festivals and traditions.

This year at school we have talked about the value of showing that 'We Care' through words and actions. Our teachers are talking with the children about the value of making and writing cards, and of doing or making something special to show appreciation or goodwill that doesn't involve buying 'presents' and where the focus is on the joy of giving and the kind thoughts that are being shared.

In line with this thinking, staff very much value a card or email of appreciation from parents and students and they do not expect gifts.

Many children often enjoy giving their friends a card at this time of the year, and sometimes add a candy cane or other treat with the card. To keep in line with our school values and healthy food policy, please refrain from sending sweets to school. If your child is wanting to give sweet treats to their friends, this can be arranged between families out of school hours. This will enable our tamariki to keep their focus on their learning for the last two weeks of school.

Uniform 

A quick reminder that our school uniform supplier is Mainland Uniforms who are located at 189 Peterborough Street.  They stock the full range of our uniform, including the senior jacket.  Layby facilities are available and there is ample parking at the shop.
When you have a spare moment or two over the holidays please check that your child's uniform items are clearly named!

Thank You Morning Tea

A thank you morning tea, where we say a huge THANK YOU to all those parents, caregivers, grandparents, volunteers and everyone else who has helped out in some way at our school, has become a welcome tradition at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.

If you have volunteered, provided a helping hand, read books, donated books, been on a school trip, helped out with cooking in a hub or any other one of the myriad of ways that support our school community during 2019, then this invitation is for YOU.

Come and have a drink and bite to eat at the school hall from 10:30am onwards, this Friday 14th December. This morning tea follows the final Celebration Assembly which is from 9:30-10:30am in the school hall. You are also very welcome to also attend this assembly.


There is no need to RSVP, please just turn up on the day.

Sports News

On Wednesday, 11 children from Year 5 to 8 completed at the Canterbury Athletics Event, held at the new sporting stadium, Nga Punawai. It is a massive achievement to get to this level of competition and we are so proud of the way you represented yourselves and the school at this event. A huge congratulations to Tilly Harris, who competed in the 100m sprints and long jump. She finished 2nd in sprints and 1st in long jump. Tu meke Tilly!

Congratulations to...

Harper Ford - 

We received these wonderful comments in a letter this week from Pioneer Basketball:
"I am writing to commend one of your students, Harper Ford, who volunteered as a referee in our junior club competitions this year.  The programmes that our club provides for local families would not be possible without the valuable input from young people such as Harper.  Harper is an excellent role model for the children that he works with."
Well done Harper!

Debating Success

On Monday evening, our three debate teams from Year 7 and 8 participated in the second round of our competition against St Martin’s School. The motive up for debate was, ‘There is never a reason or excuse good enough to go to war’. On this occasion, we had one team taking the affirmative and two teams negating. Many strong arguments were raised in each of the debates, mostly focusing on short-term harm versus long-term gain. In the end, Hannah, Chis, and Adam secured a win, making the final score over the two round series 4 wins and 2 losses to Beckenham. The debate process has been a fantastic opportunity for the teams to develop their research, writing, presenting and collaborative skills.

Community Notices

Edible Garden Awards 

...recognise and celebrate those who are growing their own food, and all entrants receive a certificate.
Spreydon-Cashmere Edible Garden Awards 2019
The Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board is holding Edible Garden Awards for 2019 in partnership
with the Canterbury Horticultural Society.
Entry is free and open to individuals, groups, organisations, schools, early learning centres, communities, and businesses in the Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board area.
Enter your garden, or nominate someone else's garden (with their permission).  All entrants are recognised for their efforts.  In addition, there are Special Awards for:

• Sustainability
• Organics
• Use of rainwater
• Outstanding yield

Gardens will be assessed in March 2019.  Entrants are encouraged to take photos of their garden
throughout the summer for inclusion in the photo presentation at the award ceremony in April 2019.
Entries close 5pm, Monday 11 February 2019
Enter online at: Spreydon-Cashmere Edible Garden Awards 2019

My very humblest apologies to two of our staff members for 2019 who are part of  our teaching teams... 

Dorinda Hampton missed out on being in a photo on Monday, and was subsequently missed out by me when sharing the teaching teams with you!

Dorinda will be teaching in Kōwhai (Y3/4) and in Pōhutukawa (Y5/6) - providing release in both of those teams.

Rae Marsh is one of our new teachers who will be in the Pōhutukawa Team - I mistakenly named her as Rae Smith in the Pōhutukawa Team photo.

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy Hastings

Principal - Tumuaki

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

It has been very busy at school these past weeks as we have been working through a number of changes to our staffing for 2019. We are very excited to have such talented new staff coming on board to compliment our current practice and work alongside us to help our tamariki to grow and succeed. We believe that we have put together some fabulous combinations of talent, new teachers with existing teachers, and we have some teachers moving around our teams too. This enables teachers to share the experiences and learning that teachers in different teams have gained with others and to enable all of our teachers to continue to learn from one another.

In 2019 our roll is expected to be slightly bigger next year than this year, and we have decided to go back to having five distinct teams again. This means that our NE team will be called Koru, and our Year 1/2 team will take on again the name of Kahikatea (a name that they had about 3 years ago before we combined the teams).

The Pōhutukawa (Year 5/6) team will be our biggest team in 2019 so they will be moving over to Parenga next to the Year 7/8 Kauri team (where the Year 3/4 Kōwhai Team are currently). This will allow them to utilise the three classrooms of Kōmanawa and Hangere as break out spaces. Kōwhai (Y3/4) will move into the space in Tahaki currently occupied by the Pōhutkawa Team.

This map may help!

2019 learning spaces:

On Monday this week, at our Staff Only Day, we were fortunate to have our new staff for 2019 join us. Each 2019 team spent the day working together, beginning to learn about the strengths and opportunities that their new team will be able to offer the children. 

We are excited to introduce you to the teams for 2019:

We are currently finalising the home groups for 2019, ensuring that they are balanced within each team. Some teams have already begun a transition process for children - visiting the new hubs that they will be learning in next year, and getting to know teachers around the school who are not currently so familiar to them. This will continue over the remaining weeks of the term. We understand that for some of our learners, change can be a time of heightened uncertainty, so our goal is to smooth this journey as much as possible over the next three weeks.

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy Hastings

Principal - Tumuaki

Library Stock Take December Monday 10

It is time to look under your beds, in your closets, your school desk, behind cupboards and dark places to get those books back to the school library BEFORE December 10.

Congratulations to...

2019 Student Leaders:

Earlier this month we interviewed Year 7 students who applied for House Captain and Student Council Exec positions for 2019. We had 30 people applying and the group interviews saw fabulous attitudes and ideas. Actually, the whole year has been a bit of an 'extended interview', as we have watched how the children responded in a wide range of situations.
Our current Year 7 cohort has an interesting gender distribution, with 18 boys and 41 girls. 3/4 of the people applying for positions were girls. This year we have decided to move away from our traditional approach of having one boy and one girl as captains/deputies of each house.
Being selected as a House Captain means that students may need to change house for your Year 8 year.

House Captains for 2019:

Freddie Winsor
Ben Evans
Emily Eade
Vienna Scott
Maddi McIvor
Gemma York
Sophia Brown
Meg McDonald

Deputy House Captains for 2019:

Jack Barton
Arran Robertson
Dom Hamilton
Ella Clarke
Roxy Murfin
Morvern McDaid
Samantha Maule
Matilda Hindin
Student Council Exec:
Chairperson: Lucy Gray
Secretary: Paolo Reid
Treasurer: Helena Sice

Te Reo Champion (new role): 

Maia Davis

One area our school will be giving more attention to in 2019 is the use of Te reo Māori in a simple and integrated way, so that whānau, staff and students can learn and use it together.  Our Te Reo Champion will play a pivotal role in supporting us all to make this happen.

We have many more leadership positions that will be sorted at the beginning of the school year in 2019.

Sports News

Canterbury Triathlon

The rain poured for the duration of the Canterbury Triathlon at Pegasus this week. Extremely undesirable conditions for a swim, bike and run but this added challenge did not deter our competitors nor did it dampen the smiles. We are incredibly proud of the determination and physical endurance of our six competitors from Years 5 to 8.

Aquagym

459 Cashel Street, Ph: 3810299.  Learn to Swim & Coaching.  Aquagym and Sumner Pool.  Book now for January Holidays and Term 1.  Leaders in Aquatic Education.

The committee comprises of: Matthew McDonald (BOT), Paulette Newton (staff), Amanda Wolt (PTA), Natalie Doering (parent) and Carmel Wade (parent/architect).

The committee has been meeting each fortnight and so far has worked together to:

• Develop a set of guidelines and processes to enable the school to achieve the best outcome for our students. 
• Identified the the purpose of the outdoor spaces so there is a natural a ‘flow’ across the school. Criteria:

1. Reflect the school’s cultural narrative
2. Accessible for all
3. Fun and meet the needs of all students
4. To grow as the school grows. 

• Identified areas across the school for development and begun to create a timeline for these.
• Present and ask for school engagement in the process. We have met with the Student School Council about using the school logo - Matau (hook) - to influence the shape of the renewed play space at the centre of the school. They were very excited about this!

We understand that this will be an ongoing plan that will have a number of smaller projects within it. The costings for each of the projects will need to be worked through. The fundraising the PTA have done will be a wonderful contribution towards getting these plans underway, but we don’t assume for a moment that it will cover the total costs! We will be making grant applications and seeking further funding from a variety of sources. Ministry of Education operational funding that the school receives each year is not able to be used to support significant capital investments such as these.

As the children are the Kaitiaki (guardians) of the school grounds and will be the ones using the spaces, it is essential they have a strong voice in this process. Much of the planning and design work will be developed and generated by the students, which is an authentic learning experience. This is such an exciting opportunity, and one that we know will take time to plan to ensure we get the best outcome possible.

The first area that we hope to develop with the students is Pūkaki (new entrants hub). The students have begun the process of generating ideas for this area. We hope to share the ideas before the end of term and work towards development early in term 1.

We will put regular updates in the school newsletter to keep you informed of proposed plans, and at times we will be seeking your input and ideas and offers of support for working bees as we action different areas across the school.