Monthly Archives: July 2017

Open Evening this coming Thursday

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We are looking forward to sharing the opportunities the Intermediate Hub at Beckenham has to offer in Year 7 & 8. Families are welcome to come along to our open evening on Thursday August 3rd, from 7pm. We will be holding this evening in our new hub. This is best accessed via Eastern Tce.


Pohutukawa Team Newsletter Term 3 Week 1

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Kia ora whānau!

We got off to an exciting start to the new term on Tuesday with an awesome science experience. The whole hub was quietly settling into the day when all of a sudden alarms sounded and the screens around the hub announced that a biohazard had been detected. How exciting!


A top secret transmission then came in, in which we were told that there had been a number of biohazards found around Champion Street.


All of the special agents rushed outside and searched in the areas highlighted on the map. 


Once all of the substances had been found, they were brought inside and Agent X (Nick) explained how to conduct experiments to identify the substances. Each group got a beaker or flask filled with a blue substance. Next, children carefully placed dry ice into their vessel. The reactions were amazing!








Learning about Change

 Our conceptual unit this term is 'Change'. Children will be learning about change in a range of forms across the curriculum areas of Social Sciences, Science, Technology and Drama. When learning about Social Sciences, children will learn about the way inventions have shaped the way that we live and made improvements to our lives.


They will be following the Inquiry process to ask questions, gather information, analyse to understand this new knowledge and then present their learning. So far, topics range from anaesthetic, air travel and elevators, to internet and the first PC.


Maths - Geometry

Our maths focus for the first few weeks of this term is Geometry, with a focus on identifying and classifying 2D and 3D shapes, and representing objects with drawings and models.


Coffee Cup Collection

One of our weekly challenges this term will involve the use of a coffee cup - just the cup. If possible, can the children each bring a clean, coffee cup to school next week (it can be used). We have spares if needed. 

Grass Seed

One of our other challenges this term involves grass seed. If anyone has any available can you please let Amy know - amy.buick@beckenham.school.nz . We are aiming for approximately 240 tablespoons.  


Kind regards,
Amy, Gayle, Nick, Katie and Kat




Fabulous Phrasing and Fluency. Our Reading Programmes

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Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We have had a really great start to the term in our new spaces.  The children have settled in and it feels as though we have been here much longer than a week.  

Thank you for all your support and the positive comments we have received.  Staff have worked really hard during the holidays to get the spaces ready for the new term and we appreciate your feedback.

This term, as well as the individual learning goals discussed with each child at literacy time, we are focussing on promoting  reading with phrasing and fluency on every book.  
Your child will bring home reading each night.  The reading could include poems, reader books read with the teacher or chosen from their browsing box. This reading will be familiar and enable your child to practise successful reading strategies, reading with expression, phrasing and fluency.

Image result for children reading booksYour child may bring home a book more than once.  This is an important part of learning to read as it enables them to practise all their skills.  Just as we, as adults, return to a favourite film, magazine or book, the children will choose books they are familiar with and give them pleasure.

You can support us by continuing to read with your child each night and praising them using phrases such as
  • I like the way you are reading like talking.
  • You made your voice sound very interesting when you read that piece.
  • Well done you are reading using the punctuation.
  • Your reading is getting more phrased and fluent (fast).

Hubs 1 to 4 have been reading lots of poetry this past week.  Next week the children will bring home a poem and a book from their browsing box each night.  Following this we will begin our guided groups with poetry coming home on Fridays.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3, Week 1

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It was lovely to welcome Kauri Whānau back to school today. We have another exciting term ahead. Highlights include:


  • Arts Academies get underway, as we work towards our music production of 'The Trials of Alice in Wonderland'. Auditions for speaking parts will be held next week. The show will be performed in December, on Monday 4th and Thursday 7th. 
  • Week 2: Monday 31st July, Winter Tournament and GTX Dance workshop for those not going to tournament.
  • Week 2: Thursday 3rd August, Open Evening for Year 5 & 6 families. You would have received an email if your child is one of the presenters.
  • Week 3: Wednesday Aug 9th, Becamath problem solving competition for all of Year 7 & 8.
  • Week 4: Monday Aug 14th, Cultural Festival.
  • Week 4: Thursday Aug 17th, Ski trip to Mt Hutt. 7am - 6pm
  • Week 5: Art week.
  • Week 5: Wednesday Aug 23rd, Cantamath at Horncastle Arena from 3:30 - 6pm. Teams yet to be selected.
  • Week 6: Learning conferences on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
  • Week 7: Friday Sept 8th Beckenham speech finals. 
  • Week 8: Tuesday Sept 12, possible trip to town.
  • Week 9: Monday Sept 18th, South zone speech finals at Cashmere Primary in the evening.
  • Week 10: Packing up for our move back to Beckenham.
Please keep an eye out for our weekly news and read this carefully, for updates on the events mentioned above.

Writing:

We had a writing motivation this afternoon, for our next writing topic. The motivation involved a blindfolded trust walk. The children need to be thinking about a simple story outline, based around a theme from this experience: being lost, trust, darkness, having to be reliant on senses other than sight. Planning for writing gets underway tomorrow, Wednesday. 

Your feedback please:

We would appreciate you filling in this brief survey, so that we can continue to improve the teaching and learning in our hub.

Home Learning:

Over the next three weeks, all of Jarred and Nicky's and some of Jenny's maths class will be working on a Cantamath display project for home learning. Children have been given a sheet with all instructions to take home today. There is also a google presentation with ideas that children can access at home through google classroom. It is really important that they make a decision on their project and get underway this week. Anyone struggling for an idea should talk with their maths teacher before Friday. Three weeks will be needed to complete a quality piece of work. Jenny's class has the option of doing a Cantamath project or normal home learning. Most opted for the usual worksheets.

Ski Trip:

We nearly have information for all children for our ski trip. Some paper forms were sent home today, for those who have not completed the online form. Please return these tomorrow, Wednesday. Many thanks to the people who have offered to loan clothing and goggles. Please name these and send them along to school ASAP, so we can match children up with gear.

Language reports from Cashmere High School:

Language reports arrived at school after the children had left at the end of last term. Today these were handed to children to take home. Check your child's bag if it has not been produced.

Congratulations:

Congratulations to Daisy, Rosie and Kaia who competed in the NZ School Orienteering Championships in the first week of the school holidays. There were about 50 girls competing in the event and all three girls were placed in the top five for both the short and long events.
Short event: Kaia 1st, Daisy 4th, Rosie 5th
Long event: Kaia 1st, Daisy 2nd, Rosie 5th
What an awesome achievement. A shining example of girls who love challenge!

Our new hub:

Today our new hub was opened. At the moment, a lack of outdoor play space and the Year 5 & 6 hub being used for admin, delays our return for one more term. We can't wait!



Declaring the Year 7 & 8 and Year 3 & 4 hubs open.

Lovely outlook to the park.



Beckenham School Start of Term Update Monday 24July 2017

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Update for the start of Term 3

Kia ora whānau

We are so looking forward to seeing everyone back at school tomorrow for the start of Term 3. We are also extra pleased that we had today as a staff only day, after the flooding in the weekend, having Sandwich Road and Eastern Terrace closed this morning, and then having our power, water and internet each go off at different times during the day today, as the builders did their final work to get everything ready for tomorrow!

East Hub opening 8am, Tuesday 25th July

We will be having an opening for our second, new building tomorrow morning at 8am. We will gather on the park side of the new building at 8am for the opening ceremony. Everyone is very welcome. We are keeping these openings brief, with the purpose being to get into the building and use it. We are planning a big naming celebration for Term 4, when the building programme will be nearly finished, and the whole school will be back on site.

Entrances and Access points to school

The school site has significantly changed during the holiday period, particularly with regards to access. HRS have moved their site office to the staff carpark, and have almost finished 'making good' the park access road that they have been using up until now.

Because the front of the school is now the building site, getting into the school grounds becomes a wee bit more challenging this term.

We have four primary access points into the school.
  • Sandwich Road - between the bike park and the West Hub. This entrance will allow easy access to the office (in the Sandwich Road end of the West Hub), the Year 1/2 learning spaces, and BOSCO.
  • Cnr of Sandwich Road and Eastern Tce - this access has a number of steps, and will give easy access to the Year 3/4 area and New Entrants in Hub 10/11 (the buildings that were where Hub 7/8 & 9 were last term)
  • Eastern Tce - This is the main entrance for the New Entrant and Year 3/4 areas. Please note that there is no parking at this entrance due to the buses.
  • Norwood St - via the park road. This access will provide good foot access to all learning spaces, but should not be used by children with bikes, as they won't be able to access the bike park from this entrance. ALL BIKES need to come via Sandwich Road and go into the bike park that way.

Parking

We are very aware that parking is going to be even more challenging this term than it has been before with trade vehicles likely to be parking in Sandwich Road. Staff have been asked not to park on Sandwich Road and we will be parking in neighbouring streets and walking a short distance.
We encourage those of you who can, to walk to school, and prevent the parking chaos that is likely to ensue if everyone tries to bring cars and park as close to school as they can. 

The PTA are offering to hook people up with other interested families to get 'walking buses' going. Historically Beckenham School has had THREE walking buses operating- therefore the PTA would like to facilitate an opportunity for people who are interested in getting the ‘walking buses’ operational again an opportunity to connect. 
Fill out this survey & the PTA will match you up with a coordinator in your area: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdb91uwMhd4CfyUo2…/viewform
Want to know more about how walking buses work- read this information provided by NZTA: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/…/…/docs/wsb-coordinators-guide.pdf