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

We are rocketing toward the end of the term now, with our Wonder Project finishing up next week. A massive thank you to our amazing ambassadors Kate, Darren, Kylie, and Richard. The expertise and knowledge that you brought to the Wonder project were invaluable and engaging and got our students excited about a future STEM career. The project will culminate in the final launch of our bottle rockets on Monday next week. That will also enable us to switch our focus to the upcoming Living Springs Camp, and we will be unpacking that with the tamariki over the final 2 weeks of Term 1. More on our camp below, as well as some other important updates.

Living Springs Camp

Thank you to the people who have already filled in the Health and Medical Consent Form that is required for each child to attend camp. The deadline for this form to be completed is Thursday, April 6.

ASB GetWise Financial Literacy Programme

Last week we welcomed the ASB GetWise programme to kura, which taught tamariki about how to become "cash clever". Through the workshops tamariki learned the fundamentals of money in four different stages - from identifying needs and wants and learning to save, right through to budgeting - giving them a solid foundation to build on. It would be good to reflect on what they took away from these workshops at home, too. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.

Kapa Haka and Te Reo Māori

It was fantastic to see Kapa Haka practice a couple of numbers for us at Celebration Assembly today. You can catch a video of the performance here. Whaea Cath Milio continues to be a fantastic kaiako for our tamariki who get so much from their kapa haka sessions both in terms of their performance skills, and also with Cath's wonderful use of "teachable moments" to teach the students some te reo Māori, or explain the purakau, stories, behind the waiata they are learning. This term we have decided use this time to teach te reo Māori tamariki who do not attend kapa haka, so that everyone gets the chance to learn about te ao Māori, the Māori world at the same time.

Term 2 Winter Sports 

Next week we will also be giving the students the options for Winter Sport, which begins in term 2. Everyone in Pōhutukawa will do a sport of their choosing next term. They can either choose to do competitive or non-competitive football, netball, or hockey. If students choose to be competitive, there will be a trialing process and teams will be selected to participate in the interschool competition. Non-competitive players will learn the basics of their chosen sport in a fun way at school with their classmates. It would be a great idea to have a chat with your tamariki at home about the sports they would like to do, and whether they would enjoy to be competitive or non-competitive. Any questions, please let us know.

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

5 weeks down and 5 to go in the term! We have had another busy, eventful week in the Pōhutukawa team. Reading groups have now started and everyone has been allocated a Reading teacher, which is the final piece of our regular daily routine. We encourage you to take some time to ask your tamariki to show you what they are now able to access through their Reading Google Classroom and Reading Site; a great way to keep the reading mileage up at home. Yesterday and today we practiced our emergency evacuation drill. We were very proud of the tamariki who were exemplary in how they left the Hub immediately in a calm, quiet manner. Tino pai rawa atu. Please read on for some updates and news from the past couple of weeks.

Swimming Sports

Congratulations to all of the participants who embraced our kete value 'We Love Challenge' and entered the Swimming Sports. The excitement was palpable in the team, and the tamariki should be proud of themselves for having the courage to step up and jump in to such a competitive event! We hope you enjoy some photos, and keep an eye out for a movie from the afternoon... coming soon. A special mention to those who have qualified for Zones next Friday. Nau mai te wero!

Wonder Project - Blast off!

As part of our concept of Innovation for 2023, this term our Inquiry topic is rocketry! Specifically, designing, building and launching a water rocket. The Wonder Project is Engineering New Zealand’s free programme for schools, designed to get young Kiwis excited about science, technology, engineering, and STEM.

This week students have been exploring what rockets need to get off the ground by watching informative videos, having discussions, and making gliders. We have also been learning about the health and safety rules for launches. We're looking forward to Monday with our Ambassadors to launch the first test flights and play with variables.

We are still in need of 1.5 litre plastic bottle and ice cream containers to use to build the rockets. If you are able to supply a bottle or a container for our project that would be "wonder"ful.

Living Springs Camp Parent Help

Planning is underway for Pōhutukawa's Term 2 camp at Living Springs (1 - 3 May).  If you are able to be a parent helper at the camp, please complete the online form by clicking here.  Responses will need to be collected by Wednesday, 8 March. We require the help of approximately 15 parents if the camp is to go ahead. If you are able to help, your role will involve direct supervision of groups of children (inside/outside activities, evening bunk room duty, setting tables, supporting children during the bushwalk into camp), serving meals, operating the dishwasher, helping with the cleaning of all areas used at the end of the stay. You will need to be able to stay the entire camp. As the cost of parent helpers is covered in the camp fee, we will only take the necessary number of parent helpers in order to minimise costs. If we have more volunteers than we need, we will select first based on the skills needed and then names will be drawn from a ballot.  Finally, if you are selected as a helper we'll require Police vetting and relevant health and emergency contact information from you.

We're looking forward to your responses! Ngā mihi mō tō tautoko, thanks so much for your support. Enjoy your weekend.

The Pōhutukawa Team

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

We are now 10 days into Term 1 for 2023! We've enjoyed building relationships with the tamariki and establishing routines over the past few weeks. Please read on for more about what we have been up to, and a look at what's coming up - including an article contributed by three budding journalists: Chester Gardiner, Billy Hudson, and Jensen Greig. Have a great weekend everybody, kia pai ngā rā whakatā.

Workshops

We have now finished our beginning of the year 'Workshops', in which we covered Cyber Safety, Being a Good Sport, Our Kete Values, PB4L, Active Listening, and more. It would be great for you to have a chat with your tamariki about the workshops, and what they have learned. It was a lot of information, so don't be surprised if the feedback is less than forthcoming! The purpose of these Workshops was to introduce important aspects of life in Pōhutukawa, which we will keep revisiting throughout the year.

Learning at Home and Google Classroom

All of the students have now signed up for the Pōhutukawa 2023 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. Megan is teaching the Arts this term through Drama, Rae is covering Digital Technology and continuing with Coding. Steve is delving into Health/Hauora with a look at our Wellbeing/Hauora, while Gayle is teaching Geography. There is 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. 

The Wonder Project

There was much excitement and anticipation around the arrival of some "mystery boxes" in Pōhutukawa this week. Yesterday, we revealed their contents and introduced our topic of Inquiry for this term: the Rocket Challenge, which is part of the Wonder Project.

The Wonder Project is Engineering New Zealand’s free programme for schools, designed to get young Kiwis excited about science, technology, engineering and STEM.  Students blast off into STEM by designing, building and launching a water rocket. They’ll learn about Newton’s laws, the engineering design process, and working as a team. We are very fortunate to have engineers Kate Macdonald (John's mother), Kylie Hills (Quinn's father), Darren Webster (Noah's father) and Richard Scott (Alex's father) all helping us out during the term. We get there together, mā tātou kātoa te waka e hoe! Here is an article written by some of our students to tell you more. 

Mystery Boxes are revealed.  It is the exciting time we have been waiting for!!

by Chester Gardiner, Billy Hudson, Jensen greig

People think it is:                        

A supernatural active volcano...Cookies...Lollies...A rocket...A microscope...Science related...Poppets...PE Equipment

Unboxing in 3, 2, 1!

It is a… ROCKET!!!!   The rocket is a Wonder Project Rocket Challenge.

It will be teaching us physics and science. 4 or 3 people will come in (kids' parents) that are engineers to help us and teach us about rockets and their jobs. Inside the rocket there is safety glasses, wonder project stickers, a clipboard, 3 hi-vis vests, one is a ‘Rocket Safety Officer’, one is ‘Rocket Chief Scientist’, and the last one is a ‘Chief Engineer’, and there's also a StratoLauncher and a StratoChute.

Reminder

If you want to, you should bring an ice cream container for fins. Or a bottle for the rocket base.

bspressnz.wordpress.com 

 Covid related disruptions and extra challenges meant that communication and relationship-building were a little trickier this year. We would like to express our thanks to you all for navigating these challenges with us. We are so proud of how the tamariki rose to new challenges in 2022 with determination, resilience, and perseverance.

Last week we capped our year off with a trip to MASH Tough Kid 2022. The excitement of being able to jump on a bus and head to a fun-filled event was a joy to see, and the tamariki represented our kura with pride and were terrific ambassadors for Beckenham on the day. Once again, we faced a challenge, and every one of the students embraced it. They once again needed to call on all of their determination, resilience, and perseverance in order to meet their point of challenge and finish the course, through obstacles, mud, gunge, and even fire hoses! A fitting finale to our year of challenge.

When we reflect on this year, we celebrate the resilience and adaptability that your tamariki showed in the face of challenges. We wish our Year 6 students all the best as they head into their intermediate years, and we are looking forward to seeing our Year 5 cohort flourishing in their role as tuakana in Pōhutukawa next year. We hope you all enjoy a lovely holiday season with your tamariki, and we look forward to the fresh and exciting challenges of 2023. Nau mai te wero!

We wish you all a safe and happy festive season, ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te tau hau

The Pōhutukawa Team

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. We hope you are well.

Here we are again! Fortunately, we are familiar with what teaching and learning look like during Level 4, we have systems already set up, and our team has been in communication this morning. Today we are having staff Zoom meetings and getting our online learning programmes ready to go live tomorrow. If you are keen to have your child engaged in learning today - encourage them to do some of the regular online mahi that we engage with on a daily basis. This includes: Epic Reading, Xtra Math, Solve-Me Puzzles, Free Writing Docs, or our Olympic Inquiry Site. Our Learning at Home Site will be live tomorrow and you will receive a notification of this.

Hopefully, we can all make the most of this situation and use it to spend some extra unexpected time with the people in our bubbles. Our wellbeing, as always, takes precedence and our message to you is to do as little or as much as is suitable for your situation. Ahakoa he iti he pounamu - although it is small, it is precious. Noho ora mai, stay well.

Finally, we are using this as a chance to initiate whānau communication through our new management system HERO. Moving forward, Hero will be our primary way of making contact with you. We would like to ask you to please log on to HERO and open this communication there as well. We will call those who haven't been able to connect with HERO later in the week to get everyone on board.