Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

It's hard to believe that we are two weeks into this term already!
Harder still to realise that we are getting to the home stretch of the building programme, with both of our new buildings now opened and in use! We are still pinching ourselves at how gorgeous they are, and how very lucky we feel to be working in such warm, beautiful, and modern learning spaces. We are looking forward very much to having all of our school back on the same site at the start of next term.

The school holidays were some of the most intense I have seen with work happening on every aspect of the site, to ensure that the buildings were ready, the resources moved in, the admin area set up and the new part of the building site carefully fenced off. Our Ferndale colleagues have moved from their tiny Room 20 location into their purpose built space that is part of the East Hub too. Once again, a huge thank you to all of our staff who came in during the holidays, second week in particular, for long days, to ensure that we were ready for school to open for the first day of Term 3. Thanks to the parents who came in to help with the shifting and special thanks to Tony Lee, our caretaker, who has worked tirelessly and continues to be at everyone's beck and call. Because his garage is now within the building site, his job has been made even more challenging and he would surely win any staff 'steps' challenge we might have with the daily kilometres he is clocking up around the school.

A bouquet also to our New Entrants and their teachers who have worked under less than ideal conditions these past two weeks with the power continuing to trip out in their buildings and one heat pump out of action. Today they relocated to the new building for part of their day and had lots of fun learning in that space. We are working as hard as we can to get a replacement heat pump installed in this block.

Building update:

Cubbies for bag storage are not quite finished, but we are expecting them to arrive and be installed in both hubs in the next couple of weeks.

The asphalt courtyard at the end of the East Hub finally went down today! This area will eventually have a half basketball and half netball court painted on it.

Our internet fibre from Enable was shifted yesterday (accounting for no internet and no phones first thing this morning) and the demolition of the old admin block will now proceed sometime next week.

We have secured funding to relocate two native trees, a kauri and a totara, that are between R12 and Sandwich Road. These will be moved at the end of next week to a new location on Eastern Tce, behind R20.

We have identified that the wrong material  was used in the road outside the new East Hub as it contains crushed glass and should be used as a sub-base, not a top layer. Next week a new layer of more suitable material will be put down and compacted. The crushed glass does not pose a hazard, but is not what we want to have on that surface.

The old verandah block (Rooms 1-4) is currently being stripped out and a lot of work is going on inside as our new library, office and staffroom is developed. The foundations for the deck that will lead into the library (Rm 1) are being put down.

The Hall and foyer are continuing to be worked on. When the admin block is demolished, we should see the new foyer roof go on, and that work move much more quickly.

On top of all that, we have our painters in the school, beginning our 7 yearly repaint, changing the colours of our existing buildings to match the new buildings.

The best news we had today is that the park is reopened and we had children playing on it again today for the first time in ages! Hooray for the sun. Next week is looking warm and dry at the start of the week, so we hope that goes a long way to drying out our grounds even further.

Year 7/8 enrolments for 2018

Last night we had a fantastic turnout for our Year 7/8 Open Evening in the new building. A big thank you to the large group of senior students who shared their experiences of learning in our intermediate team, and to our teachers. We know that not all of you who might have wanted to attend will have been able to make it. Please do make contact with Nicky Dunlop (nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz) who is our Y7/8 team leader, or myself, if you would like to have a look around the new Y7/8 learning space and talk aobut how learning happens in this team. WIn a couple of weeks we will be sending out a request for Year 6 parents to let us know your intentions for 2018 so now is the time to be asking any questions you might still have.

Kind regards
Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki

Important Dates

Citizen of the Week

Levi Dixon - Year 2

Levi, we are so impressed with your initiative, creativity, enthusiasm and top quality work. You have embraced collaborative learning and we love how innovative and fabulous you are at solving a learning challenge! You are living the Beckenham School values every day. Arohanui!

Elise Lester - Year 8

Elise, you are a kind, caring and community minded member of the Kauri Whanau. Your interactions with peers and staff demonstrate empathy and integrity and a genuine desire to put other’s needs ahead of your own. You are generous with your time and energy and are intrinsically motivated towards social action. You possess strong personal values and stand up for what you believe is right. Elise, you are exceptionally dedicated in your pursuit of further learning, demonstrating a self directed approach and perseverance in the face of challenge. Thank you for your contributions to our learning community. 

Sharing our Learning

Koru Team

In Team Koru, we love our new learning space! We have been exploring the different areas and establishing what we use them for.
Discovery learning happens every morning. During this time, we can choose to work on lots of different things – games, writing, construction with blocks or lego, play with the Sylvanian families or dolls or reading. We also have a maker space (kitchen area) with lots of materials including fabric, tape, scissors, paint, dye, crayons and much more!  This area is perfect for art and creating – some of us have made costumes, puppets and even masks this week.


The construction zone has also been very popular. Some of us have met and made new friends from other classes. We are fast becoming one, big, happy family, all learning together. In the construction zone, we tend to work in small groups. We have made mini shops, enjoyed dramatic play with Lego and doll families, and some of us have created a dinosaur city! The cars and trucks are always a hit too, and we like working on towers together.
At times, some of us like to work on our own and the new space is perfect for this. It is a lot quieter than our old classrooms thanks to the new sound proofing, and it is quite easy to find a nook or spot for drawing or reading. Mindful colouring has been especially popular.


The theatre is where we gather altogether for a morning korero, singing or presentations from the teachers.


We have also written protocols and responsibilities for the different areas and our teachers are very impressed with how we are caring for resources. We are putting things away and tidying up speedily.
Most important, a HUGE thank you to all of the parents, grandparents and other friends who helped with our moving process.

School Notices

Coffee Cart and Children's Hot Chocolates

Nick has started bringing the coffee cart onto the park access road, near the junior playground on her coffee morning days (Mon, Thu, Fri) to hopefully make it accessible from both ends of the school, whilst the building is happening on the Sandwich Road side.
We have asked Nick to stop making hot chocolates for children after 8:45am so that any drinks that are made are able to be consumed before the school day begins at 8:55am.

All Right Parenting

To check out the All Right Parenting, go to www.allright.org.nz/parents.
 You’ll find:
A page dedicated to as many parenting courses and groups available in the Greater Chch area - around 70!
Helpful guides on the most common parenting questions we hear - how to help your child: keep calm, manage worries, be grateful and kind and feel good and have fun
Guides on how mums and dads can look after themselves too
Downloadable routine charts for younger kids and tweens and teens
Weekend and school holiday ideas
And loads more…

The Parenting Place

The Parenting Place is a superb resource for parents and educators, they provide support, advice, educational courses and workshops to help make family life enjoyable and fun. The website is extremely comprehensive, we encourage you to take some time to orientate yourself around the website; the ‘articles’ are a great place to start.
Here is a link to a recent article on ‘The working parent’s school survival guide’.

Wellbeing Update

A huge thank you to those who gave feedback for our school Wellbeing definition. We are now promoting the definition across classes, and focusing on one aspect (dot point) each fortnight/week. We will also feature information in upcoming newsletters. Talking with your child about the definition will grow their understanding of what wellbeing is…feel free to discuss at home.
Beckenham’s Wellbeing Definition:

Sports News

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 their event and all three of the Beckenham 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!

Canterbury Primaries Verse Intermediates Cross Country

Following a fantastic qualifying run in the Canterbury’s Cross Country, three children from the Kauri hub represented Beckenham at the Canterbury Primaries verse Intermediates Cross Country. The standard of competition was extremely high and the course a challenging 3 kilometres over varied terrain. Still, our runners worked hard to achieve a fantastic result.

Alex Braun - qualified -  Year 8 Boys
Amelia Cunningham - qualified - Year 8 Girls
Kaia Joergensen - qualified - Year 8 Girls

PTA News

Staff Profile - Kerilea Quinn

My name is Kerilea, I come from a country background living out toward Burnham all of my childhood (not many neighbours/public buses or tar sealed roads at that stage, now it's a bit different). Pet day involved taking goats, lambs and ponies to school. Once the teenage years arrived, my interests somewhat changed to alternative desires and challenges, pulling me townward. I started my working career in Wholesale & Retail Sales, lastly being lucky enough to travel around the South Island organising corporate apparel as a Sales Manager. I then had my children.....which saw me alter my vocation to fit alongside being 'A Mum'. I began to grow a keen interest to work in a classroom environment and am now a teacher Aide at Beckenham. I have two boys, one is a current Beckenham Year 4 student, the other is 18, flown the coop and doing an apprenticeship in the Building Industry. I enjoy working as part of a team here, to promote everything great amongst our students. It's a pleasure to work in such a friendly, family focused school and community, all holding such a passionate vision of happiness, wellbeing and success.

Gayle McNaughton

Community Notices

Music Lessons

After school music lessons available in St Martins area.
Piano, Clarinet, Saxophone and recorder.
All levels and ages. Please call Josie on 0224103616 for more information.