Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all,

Huge congratulations to all of the Swimming Sports competitors who represented themselves so admirably yesterday. Such a fantastic way to show 'We Love Challenge'! Keep an eye out for some photos of the event from our Media Team. Thank you also to the parents and whānau who supported the tamariki at the pool, and in the preparing them for the afternoon. A special mention to those who have qualified for Zones. Nau mai te wero! And so, on we swim into the second half of the term. Please read on for some important information about what we are learning in Pōhutukawa.

Pepeha

Maths and Reading Groups

Maths and Reading groups have now started and everyone has been allocated a teacher for these core subjects - the final stage of our regular daily timetable. We encourage you to take some time to ask your tamariki to show you what they are now able to access through their  Maths and Reading Google Classrooms and Sites. These are a great way to keep the learning going at home, too. The treasure is learning, he taonga te ako!

Kia tino pai ngā rā whakata. Have a great weekend, everybody.

The Pōhutukawa Team

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

We've now spent a wonderful and productive 6 days in Pōhutukawa establishing routines and building relationships. We've all been impressed with how quickly the Year 5 students have adapted to new ways of doing things, and we love when the Year 6 students show support and aroha to their peers. Arohaina te tangata me te taiao, We Care. Thank you for reading on for some very important updates about what we have been up to in Pōhutukawa, and what is coming up.

Swimming Sports Thursday, February 29

Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto Swimming Sports is being held at Wharenui Pool on Thursday 29th of February, (Week 5). 

This is an optional event open to children in Years 5 to 8. Races are held for freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. For each stroke, there will be a 25m and 50m event.  You may enter races in all strokes but may only enter one distance in each stroke. For example, you could enter 25m backstroke and 50m breaststroke but you can not enter 25m and 50m backstroke. Only competitors from the 50m events are eligible to be considered for Zones. You will race against your year group. Please click here to enter.

To take part, you must be a confident and competent swimmer for the stroke and distance you have entered. If you are unsure of your ability, please ask a teacher for advice. Parents and/or your swimming coach, (if you have one) are also great people to ask for advice.

Workshops

All the teachers have now had the chance to teach every student in our team through a series of workshops. Monday was spent acknowledging Waitangi Day with a day of workshops on the Treaty of Waitangi/ Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The learning that comes with this important topic is vast, and something that we see as very important for our tamariki to understand. 

This week we also started our beginning of the year 'Workshops/ Papamahi', in which we covered Using Google Classroom, Active Listening, UDL (Universal Design for Learning), and Lunchtime Games and Activities. It would be great to discuss with your tamariki about these workshops, and what they have learned. It was a lot of information, so  asking them to share what they remember is a good way to consolidate their learning. These Workshops aim to introduce important aspects of life in Pōhutukawa, which we will continue with next week with Cyber Safety, PB4L, Health and Wellbeing, and Diversity.

Learning at Home and Google Classroom

All of the students have now signed up for the Pōhutukawa 2024 Google Classroom and their Home Group Google Classroom. Students can also access the Pōhutukawa Learning Site via their Google Classroom. The site serves as an online hub of resources should you wish for your tamariki to continue doing some school work at home. We will continue to add material and build the students' knowledge around using Google Classroom and Google Sites in the coming weeks. As always, we encourage you to actively participate in this area of your tamariki's learning. Ask them to show you what is available to them online and what they can see and do. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.

CCC

You may have heard your child talking about our CCC "cool curriculum classes". This is how we start our day; they are a great way to ensure we are teaching all areas of our curriculum. We are planning to start the programme next week. Megan is teaching Performing Arts this term through Drama, Rae is covering Digital Technology with Coding. Steve is teaching P.E., while Gayle is teaching Visual Art. There is such a lot of learning happening over the term in CCC, so we encourage you to keep chatting about what we are covering in these courses with your tamariki. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.

Have a great weekend everybody, kia pai ngā rā whakatā!

The Pōhutukawa Team

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all,

It was wonderful to see, connect, and reconnect with you over the past 2 days at our Learning Conferences. We're all looking forward to a fantastic year in Pōhutukawa!

 Attached is a short movie all about the Pōhutukawa team, and some important information about the first day and the start of the year, superbly narrated 2 of our Year 6 students  Billy and Eva. There is also a Slides presentation containing the same information and the Welcome to 2024 newsletter if you need a digital copy. A reminder to students to bring their swim wear tomorrow if they'd like to enjoy some water play in the afternoon!

Kia pai te pō, have a great evening.

The Pōhutukawa Team

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

It's that time of the year when we reflect with the tamariki and enjoy the last few days together as a 2023 cohort. Our trip to Tough Kid last week was a wonderful way to celebrate with everyone by being part of a festive occasion full of colour, with lots of dancing, singing, and an exciting and challenging obstacle course! Thanks once again to all of the whānau who supported the trip. We hope you enjoy the musical movie montage we made of the day. Beckenham students also feature pretty prominently in the promo video for Tough Kid made by Sports Canterbury, which can be viewed here.

Looking ahead to next week and the last day and a half of school, we will enjoy seeing the Year 8's Graduation Assembly on Monday, before saying farewell to 2023 and meeting our 2024 home groups on Tuesday. We will also be getting the water slide out on Monday afternoon, and doing some water play activities on the Park. Any children who want to bring their togs and towel to school and Monday can participate. Those who'd prefer to stay cool and dry can do so, too.

Finally, you'll have noticed that your child has started to bring home some of their books, extra stationery, and other belongings. If you know that your child still has a lot of stuff to bring home next week, it may be a good idea for them to bring an extra bag to school.  

Thank you to you all for a wonderful year, we hope you all enjoy a safe and relaxing summer with your families. We wish you a happy holidays. Ngā mihi o te tau hou, happy new year to you all.

The Pōhutukawa Team

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all,

We are now racing towards the end of the school year with 3 and a half weeks to go until the finish line! In keeping with that analogy we are just one week away from our trip to the  MASH Tough Kid Challenge fun run on Wednesday, December 6. Thank you very much to those parents who have offered to join us on the trip. We will be speaking to the tamariki more about the trip this week, and also sending out more information in a separate post. Please read on for some very important updates for you to discuss with your tamariki. We hope you also enjoy some photos, and a link to a news article featuring some of our akonga that is just awesome, tau ke!

Road Patrol

For our Year 6's, being a member of the Road Patrol is one of the key ways they can show leadership in our senior school. It is also a wonderful way to hone time-management skills, and perform a valuable service for both our kura and the community; rain, hail, or shine! It was great to have our Year 5 patrollers out completing their training with Constable Meg last week, and they are now on patrol before and after school until the end of the year. Thank you for your support in ensuring they are aware of their days on patrol.

We would also like to take this chance to acknowledge our Year 6 Road Patrol members for their service this year in keeping everyone safe at the crossing. Ngā mihi ki a koutou mo tō mahi, thank you all for your hard work.

Cycle Safe and Homelink Road Safety

It's been rawe, awesome to see our Year 6 tamariki out there on their bikes and embracing challenges with the Cycle Safe team from the CCC. Nau mai te wero!

It's always such a beneficial programme for our Year 6's to learn the benefits of cycling and how to ride with confidence and be road-wise. This year they were lucky to have the additional opportunity to sit in the cab of a large truck to get a front-seat view of a driver's blind spots when driving a large vehicle, and thinking about the implications of that when they are on a bike; a very cool experience!

In addition to Cycle Safe, all students have also been working through a Homelink Road Safety book in class. Home Link Road Safety introduced this programme for teachers to use in schools. The major emphasis of the programme is the pedestrian area, which accounts for approximately 50% of injuries to children on our roads. The following is a message to whānau from Homelink:

"It is unfortunately still true that road crashes are the number one killer of children in New Zealand. The Traffic environment was designed by and for adults. It is an adult responsibility to keep children safe. For that reason, Homesafe Educational Resources Ltd. and local sponsors are enabling the message to be taken from the schools into homes. Homelink will assist parents and caregivers in the development of safe road practices. Together we make a difference."

It would be a great idea to follow up on these important lessons with your tamariki at home as well to ask them what they learned and what they might need to remember about road safety.

Transition Visits

As busy as it is at the end of the year, we are also preparing our students for next year with 'Transition Visits'. For the past few weeks, we have been giving our incoming 2024 Year 5's a chance to be with the 2024 Year 6's as a cohort and have some Learning Through Play sessions together. This week our outgoing Year 6's will be spending the afternoon with next year's Year 8 students to get a taste of life in the intermediate Hub. These visits are a really valuable chance for the tamariki to get a feel for the learning environment, reconnect with some of their friends, and also get answers to some questions they may have about 2024. We encourage you to talk with your tamariki about these visits and start the conversations about 2024 if you feel they're ready. Any momentum we can build now to set everyone up for a successful start to next year is valuable indeed. Mā tātou katoa te waka e hoe, we are all rowing the waka together.

Kaitiaki Crew News Article

How wonderful, miharo to see the members of our hardworking and passionate Kaitiaki Crew given their 'moment in the sun' this week with the publication of an online news article on Newsline. The article, titled 'Beckenham Students Nurturing Nature' is about our ongoing partnership with the Council Community Partnerships Rangers and Community Waterways Partnership.  It's a wonderful way to promote and celebrate the taonga of our spring-fed ponds for which our school is named, and recognise the mahi of some of our dedicated 'kaitiaki'. Nā mātou he rereke te ao, the world is different because of us! You can read the article here.

Kia pai te wīki,

The Pōhutukawa Team