What a fabulous first week we have had back at school. The weather has been perfect, the children have been enthusiastic and the teachers have enjoyed getting to know the students in Pōhutukawa hub. As always, there is lots happening, and lots to look forward to during the first term.
Every Friday morning for six weeks this term, coaches from Canterbury Basketball are supporting our PE/sports programme, by teaching basketball skills and rules. This started in week one, with the students enjoying the quick paced, active sessions. Basketball is a sport which is becoming more and more popular, so we are very pleased to be able to provide the students with expert coaching in this manner.
Beginning this week, the Life Education van is at school. Each class will visit the van, and Harold, for two sessions. Our focus for these two sessions are friendship, showing empathy and the impacts of our decisions, which are all important concepts to explore, especially at the beginning of a new year at school.
Our major topic for this term is sustainability. We kicked this off by watching the Lorax, which highlighted the importance of looking after the environment and our natural resources. We will continue working on these themes during the week within reading, writing and art. To help us with our art, we would love any donations of wool or newspaper please. As a further motivation, we have planned a beach clean up trip. We will be visiting New Brighton Beach on Monday 26 February. The buses will pick us up at school at 10am and we will be returning before 3pm. We will require latex gloves and rubbish bags (both supermarket and big black bags) for picking up litter. If you have a surplus of any of these items, it would be great if you could send them to school with your child. We will not be picking up anything which puts your child at risk. We require adult help to make this excursion possible. Please email Tracy if you are able to join us on this fabulous day out. tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz
On Thursday 8 March, the Pōhutukawa whanau will be visiting Rapaki Marae. This is a fabulous opportunity for our tamariki to experience a powhiri and to hear local history about our surrounding environment. We will also be exploring around the marae and Rapaki Bay. We will be leaving school at 9:30am, and returning to school before 3pm. We require adult help to make this excursion possible. Please email Tracy if you are able to enjoy the day out with us. tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz
Have you heard about our new home group names? In the past, the four classes have been called rooms 14, 15, 21 and 22. This is historical, and related to the classrooms the year 5 and 6 classes used to be in. Now that we are in our new learning spaces, those numbers didn’t seem very logical, so now we are very happy to announce we have new home group names. Tracy’s home group is Beach (formerly R14), Gayle’s home group is Alpine (formerly R15), Nick’s home group is Jungle (formerly R21) and Katie’s home group is Lake (formerly R22). This may be tricky to remember initially, although the students seem to have got it sorted already!
We intend to have some water fun on Tuesday afternoon with the slip and slides, so long as the weather forecast stays sunny! If your child would like to participate in this they may bring along togs and a towel. If they would rather not, they will be able to play on the big adventure playground. The children must change back into their school uniform and put on footwear before leaving school.
Thank you to the families who were able to attend a learning conference with their child’s home group teacher. We appreciate having the time to be able to learn more about your child and family. It certainly gives everyone a head start when beginning the year of learning. We are always available through email, and are very happy to make an appointment to discuss any concerns.
There was an awesome positive vibe buzzing through the Kauri hub last week, as our year in the Intermediate Hub got underway for 2018. Please read the important messages below about what is coming up this week.
Technology gets underway this week. On the notice board in our hub are group lists; these include the technology they will be learning about this term. Please make sure your child is at school by 8:30am on Tuesday. Mrs Lynch, the fabric teacher who will be working with a Year 7 group this term has asked for and surplus clean fabric, zips, cottons, threads that parents no longer need.
Maths Club:
This year we will be running a maths club from 8:20 to 8:50 on a Wednesday morning in our breakout space. The purpose of this club is to extend our more able mathematicians. We will be working on the Otago Problem Solving Competition and solving Cantamath problems. If your child is interested, make sure they are at school by 8:20 this Wednesday.
Leadership:
We have a vast number of applications for leadership positions. Children should hear about their roles by the middle of the week, then training will get underway. Children generally get two or three leadership positions.
Learning in our hub this week:
Each home-group will have three Life Education visits this week. Our focus is looking at empathy and understanding, to support our leadership programme. Due to these sessions, we will be fairly home-group based this week, however maths and reading groups will get underway on Wednesday and we start our writing programme with our first writing motivation on Tuesday afternoon.
Basic Facts Support:
If your child needs to work on their basic multiplication facts, we have put together a pack of worksheets that they can make use of at home. If you would like a copy of this pack, please send an email request to your child's home-group teacher. This would be a great SMART goal to work towards for the 'We Love Learning' kete award.
Gardening Request:
If you have any spare gardening gloves lying around home, Hannah would love to use these for her gardening passion group. Please send any you can spare along to school.
Swimming Sports:
We are delighted to have just under 80 children entered for our School Swimming Sports, which will be held at Wharenui Pool next Thursday. For each stroke the children have had the option to compete in either a 25 m or 50 m event. Only swimmers from 50 m events have the opportunity to qualify for zones. Please discuss with your child the events that they have entered to ensure that they are appropriate for your child’s ability. We would love to see you on poolside cheering on our competitors as they demonstrate a love of challenge. To support the running of the event, we are looking for some amazing parent helpers to assist us with a few jobs on the day. If you are willing and available to help out, please email Jenny on jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz. Below are some pictures from last week. Highlights included passion sessions starting on Thursday and basketball on Friday.
Music Creation Passion
Code Club
Passion photography explored camera angles.
Buddy time with Year 3 & 4.
Basketball sessions got underway with three awesome coaches.
Welcome back to the start of 2018! I hope you have all managed to have some holiday time with your whānau and caught some of the wonderful weather along the way.
Welcome to our 16 New Entrants who have started school this year, along with the 19 other new students from Years 1-8 who have also joined us. Welcome also to the 6 new students in the Ferndale unit, bringing their total numbers now to 12.
We also welcome new staff to the school: Hannah Elliott in the Year 7/8 team, and Jess McColl, Margaret Billett, and Sumiko Pollock in the Ferndale Unit.
Start of Year Learning Conferences
It was wonderful to see whānau and tamariki at Learning Conferences last week. We held 413 Learning Conferences over the two days for the 428 children on our start of year roll. That's over 96% - thank you all for your commitment and presence. We listened to the feedback that you shared with us from the mid-year learning conferences and, whilst the purpose of the start of year conferences is different, we used that feedback to inform and modify these latest conferences. We hope you found them informative and worthwhile. We would appreciate you taking a couple of minutes to give us your feedback on your learning conference experience, by clicking on this link.
Mathematics - a problem-solving focused approach
During our three staff only days at the end of January, we were fortunate to have a day with Dr Bobbie Hunter from Massey University. The focus of the day was on "Developing a Community of Mathematical Inquiry" Dr Hunter's research and approach was originally targeted at low decile schools with high Māori and Pasifika populations and the short introductory video below was produced two years ago. The results of this methodology have been so successful, that the Ministry of Education are now supporting schools around New Zealand to work with Dr Hunter, and to use this approach in their teaching of mathematics. As a Community of Learning, Beckenham, along with St Martins and Cashmere High School, will be working with Bobbie this year, funded by the Ministry of Education, to develop our understanding of this approach. We are very excited to be working with Bobbie and her team and introducing this mathematical inquiry approach to our teaching and learning.
Senior Leadership
As most of you will know, Michelle Maule is on secondment to the Ministry of Education for the first half of this year. I am delighted to have the leadership support of Sue Leadbetter in the Acting Deputy Principal position during this time. Sue and I look forward to supporting all of our students and staff through the year ahead.
2018 looks set to be an exciting year, and we are all looking forward to working together with you and your children.
Ngā mihi Sandy Hastings Principal - Tumuaki
Important Dates
Upcoming Events
Mon 12th - Thu 22nd Feb: Life Education visiting the school Wed 14th Feb - first day of CSM band programme Thu 15th Feb - first day of String lessons Wed 21 Feb - Walk or Wheel Safely to School Thu 22 Feb - School Swimming sports for years 5 - 8
Nika, you are an outstanding role-model in our team. The way you have started the year in Kōwhai has been incredibly impressive. You are kind and thoughtful and always on task. Tino Pai Nika!
School Notices
Life Education
From 12th February we will have the Life Education mobile classroom at school, with Harold the giraffe visiting to help teach us about our feelings, being unique and working as a team. Each home group will have two lessons in the classroom over the two week visit.
Life Education is a charity that educates and empowers children to make healthy choices so they can live full and healthy lives. Every year they teach over 250,000 children about their body, friendships, their identity, food and nutrition and helpful and harmful substances.
'Today children and adolescents face a lot of challenges, including: obesity, substance use, mental health and well-being and bullying. The decisions we make as children can dramatically affect how we live our lives in the future – and this is why Life Education exists. Through education we help students to understand how decisions they make today can affect their future health and well-being.'
Lunchonline
Lunchonline have advised us that Sydenham Bakery are no longer able to supply lunches on Mondays and Tuesday. This is due to very low order numbers which make it not viable to continue this service. Lunch orders can still be made on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Pita Pit continues to be available through Lunchonline on Thursdays.
Sunhats
A reminder that sunhats are required to be worn when outside during the school day. Please ensure that your child's hat is named so that, in the event it is misplaced, it can be returned to them. Sunhats can be purchased through the school office.
Building Update
We are so close to being finished the excitement is electric!
It's hard to remember back to when we first began this journey over 3 years ago, and even to Oct 2016 when the builders first arrived on site, but we are, fingers and toes crossed, about 4-6 weeks away from completion now. All of our buildings are basically finished and the final work is now happening in the car park extension.
This weekend a pump is being put into the ground (in the rainwater retention system that was dug into the grass area adjacent to the junior playground) so that excess water can be pumped away. We hope that this will improve the 'swamp' that develops in this space after any rain. There will still, unfortunately, be some time where we are not yet able to access this area, as there are now stones coming up through the grass, and there are sump covers (required for the rainwater retention system) that are hazards for children running through the area. A new landscaping plan is being considered, which is exciting, and will take some time, so our continued patience is required in this area.
Our next step is to get new signage up around the school.
Bike Stands
It is great to see so many of our children biking and scootering to school. The challenge that this has created, that you are no doubt aware of, is the enormous overcrowding issues in the bike stand area. Whilst we are working on doubling the size of the bike stand area, there is no fast fix for this, and we ask for patience and care from everyone using the bike stand each day to ensure that all the spaces are used and that all bikes are treated respectfully.
Parking on Sandwich Road
There continues to be pressure on parking spaces on Sandwich Road. Please be considerate of residents on Sandwich Road and do not block their driveways. Residents need to be able to enter and exit their properties at any time of the day.
PTA News
We are sooooooo EXCITED!!!! Mark your calendars- Friday 23rd March 2018 will be our first TWILIGHT FAIR since 2014. Let's showcase our NEW school & celebrate with the best fair ever!!! Thanks to wonderful Gail Harris from Platform Design Ltd for another stylish poster design
Calling all Artists, Musicians, business owners & generous soles…..We are on the hunt for donations of prizes, vouchers, cash, food, services & acts to help us to create an amazing Twilight Fair
All funds raised from the Twilight Fair will be added to the PTA ‘OUTDOOR SPACES’ FUND
Community Notices
(Notices placed here are contingent on space and do not reflect the views or opinions of the school.)
CHRISTCHURCH UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB OPEN DAYS
Sunday 25th February & Sunday 11th March at Spreydon Domain. 11am -1pm Spreydon Domain - Domain Terrace. A welcome back to our club members and welcome to all new players. Inflatable Pitch, Target Shooting, Fun Games, Sausage Sizzle and Coffee Fun for all the family!
Guitar Tuition
Want to learn to play guitar? Want to play your favourite songs? Want to be able to play in a band? Joe Jutha, a qualified musician would love to teach you! Have you tried to learn before but it seemed too hard? Joe has developed many different and exciting ways to teach students so don’t give up! Give it a try! $30/Half hour (Monthly deals are available). Contact Joe for available times or to have a chat about what he can offer you!Guitar tutor Joe: 0221932976
Aquagym
459 Cashel St Ph:381- 0299 Learn to Swim & Coaching AquaGym and Sumner Pool Bookings still open for Term 1 Leaders in Aquatic Education
Today we had our first buddy session with the children in Kauri Whanau. Most big buddies had 2-3 children each. The aim of today's session was to learn more about each other. We created fortune tellers showing special things about us. To demonstrate the school value, We Care and We Get There Together, we made sure we looked at our buddy, listened carefully, used our manners and we put in our best effort into our learning! We opened the doors up so we could work right across the building too.
Creating our fortune tellers.
Listening to our buddy as they explained what to do.
We have had a great start to the week with the children demonstrating strong self management during our Discovery Learning.
We have been impressed with the how the children have lived most of our school values especially, We love learning, We love challenge and We get there together during this time. Here are some examples...
