The last two weeks in Pōhutukawa, 2018

Sexuality

The majority of our students eagerly await the afternoon Health lessons in sexuality, having overcome nervousness. It's great to see their understanding of their bodies and puberty issues growing. We hope that you are having some interesting discussions at home! We will finish this topic at the end of the week.

Football fun

On Tuesday Tyler Logan from Cashmere Technical AFC will be running small football games for our team. We have a solid relationship with the club, and are grateful for their support during the year.

Building completion celebration day

As you will have read in the latest newsletter, we are having a 'Building Completion Celebration Day' this coming Thursday, 13th December.

The celebrations will begin at the first bell, at 8:55am on Thursday. Children will hang up their bags, then come over to the hall where we will be welcomed in by Te Whānau Mahi Tahi, and will then have a short time of reviewing the building journey and the naming of our new buildings through stories and pictures. This will take about 20 minutes and we invite our families to stay and enjoy this celebration with us. 

At 1:20 pm, the PTA will be providing a sausage sizzle (or vegetarian, gluten free falafel) for each of the children, (and they will still need to bring other lunch items to eat as usual). Then we will all go out to the park for celebration games in houses. Following that, we will provide a lemonade iceblock for every child as a very special treat. If you do not wish your child to be given this food, please let your child's teacher know.

Final celebration assembly and thank you morning tea

On Friday 14 December at 9:30 - 10:30 am it will be our final celebration assembly. 

Following the assembly, there will be 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. 

Monday 17 December (Week 10) - Hut day!

On the last Monday of term, we have chosen to allow the students to be have a day where they show our school values and the key competencies of the NZ Curriculum (key competencies are the capabilities people have, and need to develop, to live and learn today and in the future - thinking,
relating to others, using language, symbols, and texts, managing self, and participating and contributing). Hut day! In groups, the students will plan their hut (location, resources needed, decorations and letter box) on Friday, and then bring along all they need on Monday. Together they will construct their hut, completing added challenges along the way. They need to also create a letterbox, as they will be making 'happy holidays' cards for others. The huts will be deconstructed at the end of the day, with all materials being returned home, or recycled. We suggested that some of the best materials would be sheets, pegs and string. All materials being brought from home must have the permission of the owner/s, and must be returned! We envisage the day to be a lot of fun.

The hut making materials will be required only for Monday.

Waltham Pool

On Tuesday 18 December our team will be visiting Waltham Pool. Thank you to the adults who have volunteered to help us on that day. Katie will be in touch shortly with regards to expectations. The children will need with them a big packed lunch, a water bottle, a bag with their togs and towel, goggles if they wish and sunscreen. They will be wearing their school uniform and their school hat. We will be walking to Waltham Pool, leaving school at 11am, and returning before 3pm.



Passions on Thursday

This week, the Pōhutukawa Team's passion learning session will be held on Thursday instead of Friday. If your child needs to bring anything special for their passion learning project (e.g. Lego or other toys), please remind them to bring it to school on Thursday.

T4 W7 in the Pōhutukawa Team

Sexuality Road

On Tuesday we will be starting our Sexuality Road topic as part of the Health curriculum. 
We will be teaching the unit in pairs. Tracy and Katie will be taking the Year 6 students, while Gayle and Nick will be taking the Y5 students.
The Y4 students will be joining in with Kōwhai for the afternoons we have Health.
As discussed at the parent meeting at the beginning of the term, we will be covering the following topics:
 
 
Year 5
Year 6
Changing bodies and feelings
Puberty - exploring changes
Identifying external body parts
Being unique
Puberty - exploring changes
Identifying external body parts
Reproductive systems
Hygiene
Relationships
Friendships
Respect and tolerance
Personal opinions
Gender stereotypes - impact on relationships, roles and behaviours
Defining relationships
Communication & decision making
Decision making - demands, practise, thinking ahead about possible consequences
Media - remaining unique and individual
Passive, assertive, aggressive communication
Reproduction
Conception
Eggs and sperm
Explain conception and stages of pregnancy
Where can I go
Support networks
Support networks

We will be encouraging the students to talk about their learning at home with whānau.

Staff Only Day on Monday 26 November

Tomorrow school will be closed due to a staff only day.

Camp helpers' reflections

Many thanks again to our fabulous camp helpers. Your assistance on camp was invaluable. If you have completed the reflection sent home with your poppet, it would be great to have that returned to Tracy at school. Thank you to the four parents who have already returned theirs. It is really helpful to have different perspectives on how the camp went.

Waltham Pool trip

We now have enough support for our trip to Waltham pool in the last week of school. Thank you so much to the volunteers!

Lost property from camp

We would love to reunite this property with owners!! Numerous socks, a single, blue, fitted sheet and a sleeping bag cover.








Beach Education trips cancelled

Unfortunately, due to not having enough adult supervision for both days of our surf safety trips, we have had to cancel.

Thank you so much to the adults who offered to help.

It will be school as normal, after the staff only day on Monday 26 November, on both Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 November.

Urgent request for adult helpers

Urgent request for adult helpers

We urgently require adult helpers for our Beach Education surf safety trips next week, on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 November.

At this stage we only have one volunteer, so need 19 more, 10 adults per day! If we don't have the required number of adults to support us on these trips will have to cancel, costing us over $800.

Please contact Tracy if you are able to help to make this learning possible for our students. Helpers will be required to stand in the water to ensure the safety of the children.
tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz

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