Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

We hope you all had a lovely weekend. Please read on for more very important information regarding our Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme, and some updates from the Pōhutukawa team. Have a great week, everyone, kia pai te wiki.

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Thank you for the feedback about the Keeping Ourselves Safe activities that we sent home last week. These are such important topics to be discussed at home, too. We are continuing with the programme at kura this week, having our final session with Constable Meg today and having further lessons throughout the week.

One of the main messages of the programme is to encourage children to first identify and then take action in unsafe situations. The more conversations that the tamariki can have with trusted adults about this, the more confident they can be if they do find themselves in an unsafe or uncomfortable situation. Please find below 2 more 'homework activities' from the Keeping Ourselves Programme to do at home as a family. The first is a checklist from the 'Confident Me' lesson, and the second is a list of situations in which they could use the 'stop, walk, talk', strategy. 

Homework Activity: Confident Me

As part of Keeping Ourselves Safe, your child has been learning to value themselves and to be
confident. We have also talked about our feelings and how we can express these safely.
These skills help to keep children safe because:
● people who want to harm children are less likely to target a confident, assertive child
● being able to identify their feelings and tell people how they feel can help children to keep
safe and ask for help.

Please help your child to complete the following checklist. Ask them questions about what they have learned. 

Confident Me Checklist:

I feel confident talking to my teacher

I feel confident answering the phone

I can say how I'm feeling

I can say 2 positive things about myself

I know how to make safe decisions

I know who to ring in an emergency

Create a Culture Inquiry

As part of this year's concept of Innovation, students have been investigating how to create a unique culture by naming and designing the following: physical features of their country, flag, food, language, clothing, holidays, government, Laws and Consequences, sport, school, and artworks. It's proving to be a very popular project, with students even asking to work on their 'Create a Culture' booklets during wet break times. The next step will be for them to choose a way to display their 'Create a Culture' project. They have been given the task of choosing a non-digital form of presentation, such as (but not limited to) a poster, diorama, mobile, or brochure. Students are more than welcome to bring in any resources from home that may help them with their projects. Thank you for your support with this.

Winter Sports

Finally, we just wanted to once again express our sincere gratitude to all the parents who have helped make our Winter Sports Programme a success again this year - it simply couldn't happen without your support! We were fortunate to have some lovely weather over the past 2 Thursday afternoons, and the smiles on the faces of the tamariki at the end were ka rawe, awesome. 

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

It's been great to see us starting to get back to our usual numbers here at kura after a few weeks of unwellness throughout the team. Thank you again, whānau, for keeping tamariki at home who are unwell during this season of coughs and colds. It was just wonderful to see the sun out last Thursday and have everyone outside being active and playing sports. We have our final round of hockey, netball, and football this week both for the South Zone competition, as well as for the non-competitive teams. Let's hope for some more sunshine! We also have the Duathlon coming up this Wednesday. You can read the Hero Community post: School Duathlon for all the information regarding this exciting, optional event.

Please read on for some updates from the team, as well as some very important information regarding Keeping Ourselves Safe a comprehensive child abuse prevention programme for schools, which we begin teaching this week. There is a homework activity from the programme below that we would strongly encourage you to complete with your tamariki.

Our Amazing Teaching Assistants

Last week the Pōhutukawa team bid a fond farewell to Charmaine Pedersen, who has won a full-time position and finished up her time here at Beckenham. All the very best, Charmaine - we will all miss the care and devotion you gave our tamariki every day. In Charmaine's place, we welcome Matt Hastings to the team in a Learning Support role, nau mai haere mai, Matt!

Calendar Art

The students have been working diligently on their Calendar Art over the past month or so, and it has been wonderful guiding them through the creative process from preparation to production. Our concept this year was for akonga to use Van Gogh's Starry Night as inspiration to incorporate what we have learned about the Matariki cluster of stars (te iwa o Matariki) in a landscape that was significant to them. We hope you enjoy the end product as much as the students have enjoyed creating them. Keep an eye out for order forms, which will be available soon!

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Keeping Ourselves Safe is a comprehensive child abuse prevention programme for schools, which is delivered collaboratively with Constable Meg Moynihan, our Police Education Officer.

We had our first lessons with Constable Meg today, in which students learned: to understand what abuse is and know that any abuse is wrong, should be reported, and is not their fault. This week we will also be covering how to verbalise feelings confidently and practise a decision-making process that will help them to make safe decisions for themselves and others.

Homework activity: About abuse

In Keeping Ourselves Safe we have been talking about abuse. We worked with the following
definition:
Abuse is when anybody uses power over another person and causes them harm. This could include:
● hurting them physically
● ill-treating them
● not taking care of their everyday needs
● touching them in sexual ways
● showing them sexual materials
● hurting their feelings and their sense of wellbeing.
It also includes violence that happens in families.
Abuse can harm a child’s health, their dignity and may make it hard for them to learn and develop. 
● No one deserves to be abused.
● All abuse is against the law and should be reported.
● Abuse is never the victim’s fault.
Work with your child to come up with one example of each of the following types of abuse. Then for
each example, discuss how the child could use Stop, Walk, Talk – Who could they talk to? What could
they say?

Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Emotional abuse
Family harm
Neglect
Cyber abuse

Over the next two weeks, we will be sharing the focus areas that we cover here at school with you, so that you can also continue these very important conversations at home, as well. Mā tātou kātoa, te waka a e hoe - we get there together.

Have a great week, everyone, kia pai te wiki.

The Pōhutukawa Team

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

We hope that you are all keeping warm and well. We've been having a lot of students experiencing illness this week; it's certainly the season of coughs and colds. Thank you for continuing to keep tamariki at home who are feeling unwell. We can't wait to see everyone back again fit and healthy. Please read on for some updates from the team from the past 2 weeks. Enjoy your weekend, everyone, kia pai ngā rāwhakatā.

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's great to have our new squad 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. "Nā matou he rereke te ao, the world is different because of us."

Winter Sports

Disappointingly, due to the inclement weather Winter Sports was cancelled... again! Winter Sports will now continue until Week 6, instead of Week 5. Luckily on Wednesday the sun was out, and all of our students practiced netball, football, and hockey as you can see from the photos. They are getting some amazing coaching and tautoko, support from our Year 8 student leaders on Wednesday afternoons. A huge mihi, thanks to the parents who are helping out on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. We simply couldn't do it without your help and support.

Four Square

It's been great to have some new playground markings in our Courtyard and to see many of our students having a ball playing an old favourite: four square. There is also a painted chess board, which will be good to have up and running when we have chess pieces that are fitting for a life-size game! Constructive playground games like these never get old, and it would be fantastic to have a conversation with the tamariki at home about some games they could play at break times.

Readathon and Calendar Art

We trust the students have shared their Readathon sheets and goals they have set with the PTA Readathon and making the most of the impetus to do some more reading at home. We're looking forward to the Readathon culminating next Friday with Book Character Day; always a colourful and creative day. Also, students have been excited to start their Calendar Art by getting started with some sketches and ideas. More to come!

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

We trust everyone was able to make the most of the extra time with family over the holiday break. We were glad to see the sun greet us when we returned, although our luck ran out when our winter sports were again cancelled because of the change in weather. Winter is certainly making its presence felt this week, as well! We hope you're all keeping safe, dry, and warm. Please read on for some information about the beginning of the term.

Keeping Ourselves Safe

PB4L

Our PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) focus for the start of the term is “being an upstander”. We have been discussing how we can show the values ‘We Make a Difference’ and ‘We Care’ by being upstanders. We have discussed with the students the different actions we can take to be an upstander (as opposed to a bystander) if we see someone being mistreated. We have linked the Slideshow ‘How to be an Upstander’ here, and encourage you to take a look so that you can continue these very important conversations at home, too. You could also read Oat the Goat (bilingual interactive online storybook), which teaches how to show acceptance, empathy, and tolerance by being an upstander. Mā tātou kātoa, te waka e hoe, we are all in the waka together.

Cross ("Cool") Curriculum Classes

CCC classes continue with some changes for Term 3. Steve is continuing to teach the Arts this term this term Visual Arts. Rae is covering Digital Technology and continuing with Coding. Gayle is teaching Geography, and Megan is teaching Health with a look at conflict resolution. There is always 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.

STOMP!

As part of our concept of Innovation this year, we have launched into our Inquiry this term with a bang... and a thump.... and a rat-a-tat-tat! As you may have heard, we have been looking at STOMP: the inventive and invigorating stage show and the students have been working in groups to recreate and innovate with improvised instruments. It's been great to see the tamariki working together and taking different roles in their groups to create their own unique rhythms. We will be making an audio recording of their performances, so keep your ears open for that!

Kia pai te wiki, have a great week

The Pōhutukawa Team

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

What a busy few weeks we have had! We loved having the chance to connect with you at our Learning Conferences and also see many of you at our Matariki Evening this week, as well.  These connections, and the whanaungatanga that comes with them, are so valuable. They are wonderful chance for the students to reflect on their successes, as well as look ahead to the next two terms. We hope you enjoy some photos of life in the Pōhutukawa Hub over the past busy few weeks. Please take the time to read on for some important information.

Cyber Safety

Learning online continues to be a vital part of our learning at school, and the cyber safety of our tamariki is always at the forefront of what we do. At the beginning of the year, we held workshops on how to be cyber safe, and also expectations around using devices. We have recently been revisiting some of these ideas, and reminding our students that their school accounts are for learning purposes only. We have attached a Cyber Safety Guidelines @ Home for you to look at with your tamariki and discuss. Mā tātou te katoa te waka e hoe, we are all rowing the waka together.

Shoes/ Ngā hū

It has been really great to see the students 'stepping up' to show We Care for our school environment by removing their shoes during this wet and muddy season. Please click the link here to take a look at our latest Y-chart that was co-constructed with the students during our PB4L lesson. It really does make a huge difference to our learning space. Our next 'step' in this regard is to continue to work on keeping the shoes in a tidy way. Again, revisiting these expectations at ho'me, as well really helps us to get there together.

Winter Sports/ Hākinakina

Our Winter Sports programme is also now full steam ahead, with all of our students getting some amazing netball, football and hockey coaching and tautoko, support from our Year 8 student leaders on Wednesday afternoons. Our competitive teams are enjoying themselves in the South Zone competition and representing Beckenham admirably. A huge mihi, thanks to the parents who are helping out on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. We simply couldn't do it without your help and support.