Please, follow this link to indicate if you are able to help out with sport this term.
The aim of our sports programme is to provide exposure to a range of different sporting pursuits. This allows the children to develop movement skills and sequences in a range of contexts while broadening their horizons and discovering their passions. There are a range of events throughout the year. Some of these involve all the children and there are many additional optional opportunities for those who want to extend themselves. Children who enjoy the competitive element of sport can strive to qualify for zone and Canterbury level competition through Primary School Sport Canterbury. If your child is not able to compete for any reason, there are a myriad of alternative ways to be involved. Inclusive practise is always at the heart of what we do. If there is anything that we can do to make an event more accessible for your child, please get in contact with Jenny or your child’s homeroom teacher.
For some optional events, children interested in competing should enter using a Google form, which is accessed through Google Classroom. We aim for the children to develop independence in entering events and we acknowledge that some children may need support with this. Conversations at home about upcoming optional events that may be of interest, and checking in to ensure that they have entered events you would expect them to, is advisable. I have attached the link to entry forms for both swimming and duathlon so that you can go through the process together if needed.
Term 1
Swimming Sports Thursday 27th February
This is an optional event, which takes place at Wharenui Pool. Children may enter one distance per stroke and as many different strokes as they wish. For example, they may enter 25m freestyle and 50m backstroke, but may not enter the 25m and 50m backstroke. The children enter this event via a Google form. This form has been made available to them through Google Classroom. Follow this link to get to the entry form.
Duathlon
Participating in the school duathlon is a fantastic way of showing our school value, ‘We love challenge’. It involves a run around the block, a bike around the park (2 slalom laps for Year 7/8), followed by a second lap of running around the block. The sense of achievement when crossing the finish line makes the hard work worth while. Children need to provide their own bike for this event. Here is the link to the Google form for entries.
Extra-Curricular Sports - Mountain Biking
There are two mountain biking relays that have been very popular in previous years. While these events are promoted by Beckenham te Kura O Pūroto and we are proud for the children to represent our kura, the responsibility of the transport and supervision of children at both events is with the caregiver. Entry for both of these events is done by the caregiver on the event’s website. Follow the link below. Please contact Jenny if you have any questions about either of these events. Email confirmation of your entry to Jenny.
Held at Mclean’s Island, this event is a super fun event where children strive to complete as many laps of the course as they can in the time, (1.5 hours for Year 5/6 and 3 hours for Year 7/8). Year 5/6 children must compete in a team of two, while Year 7/8 have the option of doing the event as an individual or in a pair. Children should be confident controlling the speed and direction of their bike on beginner level single track.
Note: This event is much earlier in the term than it previously has been.
Due to its popularity, this event is now being held over two days. Children from Beckenham should enter the South and Mid Canterbury zoned event on the 4th of March.
Hanmer 4 Hour Mountain Bike Relay - 21st March This event features a variety of options for many age groups. The Super Juniors (6 to 11 years) do a very friendly course through the Heritage Forest. This incorporates a green level single track. Every child must have their own tail end charlie, (an adult riding with them) on every lap. This is a fantastic entry into mountain bike racing for those children who are comfortable controlling their speed and direction on trails similar to those at McLean’s Island and Bottle Lake. Children aged 11 years plus ride the same course as the adults, (and at the same time). This course has more climbing and more technical riding, (think Loess Rider or an easy blue level trail). Children should be confident mountain bikers on easy blue trails. Children compete in a team of up to 4 children.
We are so impressed with how well our Year 7 & 8s have settled into the new year. Leadership positions have been established and a number of groups are up and running.
Bike raffle for camp
Huge thanks to Liz May, one of our parents, who won a mountain bike and has selected a model / size suitable for Year 5-8 to donate for our camp fundraising. We will be raffling the bike off this term. We would love one parent to volunteer to manage this raffle, with the support of a few senior students to sell tickets before school. Please send me an email if you are happy to take this on.
It has been fantastic to see our students starting their kete blogging for the year - we've had quite a few blog posts already and some students are already well on the way to earning a kete badge.
This year, we are trialling making the blogs slightly more public. While the blogs are set as being public, they have also been set so that they do not appear in search engine results (e.g. Google searches) or blogger listings. This will mean that students can email their blog posts to others and parents will be able to more easily see their child's blog. If you have any concerns or wish to discuss this further please email Hannah (hannah.elliott@beckenham.school.nz).
Genius Hour
This week the children have been formulating ideas for their first Genius Hour project. Some are choosing to work independently, while others are working in a collaborative pair. There is a wide range of interesting projects being developed. We strongly recommend asking your child about their project. Next Tuesday afternoon, the children will pitch their ideas to their homeroom teacher.
The aim of our sports programme is to provide exposure to a range of different sporting pursuits. This allows the children to develop movement skills and sequences in a range of contexts while broadening their horizons and discovering their passions. There are a range of events throughout the year. Some of these involve all the children and there are many additional optional opportunities for those who want to extend themselves. Children who enjoy the competitive element of sport can strive to qualify for zone and Canterbury level competition through Primary School Sport Canterbury. If your child is not able to compete for any reason, there are a myriad of alternative ways to be involved. Inclusive practise is always at the heart of what we do. If there is anything that we can do to make an event more accessible for your child, please get in contact with Jenny or your child’s homeroom teacher.
For some optional events, children interested in competing should enter using a Google form, which is accessed through Google Classroom. We aim for the children to develop independence in entering events and we acknowledge that some children may need support with this. Conversations at home about upcoming optional events that may be of interest, and checking in to ensure that they have entered events you would expect them to, is advisable. I have attached the link to entry forms for both swimming and duathlon so that you can go through the process together if needed.
Term 1 Swimming Sports Thursday 27th February
This is an optional event, which takes place at Wharenui Pool. Children may enter one distance per stroke and as many different strokes as they wish. For example, they may enter 25m freestyle and 50m backstroke, but may not enter the 25m and 50m backstroke. The children enter this event via a Google form. This form has been made available to them through Google Classroom. Follow this link to get to the entry form.
Duathlon
Participating in the school duathlon is a fantastic way of showing our school value, ‘We love challenge’. It involves a run around the block, a bike around the park (2 slalom laps for Year 7/8), followed by a second lap of running around the block. The sense of achievement when crossing the finish line makes the hard work worth while. Children need to provide their own bike for this event. Here is the link to the Google form for entries.
Extra-Curricular Sports - Mountain Biking
There are two mountain biking relays that have been very popular in previous years. While these events are promoted by Beckenham te Kura O Pūroto and we are proud for the children to represent our kura, the responsibility of the transport and supervision of children at both events is with the caregiver. Entry for both of these events is done by the caregiver on the event’s website. Follow the link below. Please contact Jenny if you have any questions about either of these events. Email confirmation of your entry to Jenny.
Held at Mclean’s Island, this event is a super fun event where children strive to complete as many laps of the course as they can in the time, (1.5 hours for Year 5/6 and 3 hours for Year 7/8). Year 5/6 children must compete in a team of two, while Year 7/8 have the option of doing the event as an individual or in a pair. Children should be confident controlling the speed and direction of their bike on beginner level single track.
Note: This event is much earlier in the term than it previously has been. Due to its popularity, this event is now being held over two days. Children from Beckenham should enter the South and Mid Canterbury zoned event on the 4th of March.
This event features a variety of options for many age groups. The Super Juniors (6 to 11 years) do a very friendly course through the Heritage Forest. This incorporates a green level single track. Every child must have their own tail end charlie, (an adult riding with them) on every lap. This is a fantastic entry into mountain bike racing for those children who are comfortable controlling their speed and direction on trails similar to those at McLean’s Island and Bottle Lake. Children aged 11 years plus ride the same course as the adults, (and at the same time). This course has more climbing and more technical riding, (think Loess Rider or an easy blue level trail). Children should be confident mountain bikers on easy blue trails. Children compete in a team of up to 4 children.
What a great week it has been, seeing everyone back at school. What's hard to believe is that we are into the second month of the year already! Our thoughts have been with our friends and the communities of Southland over the past few days. One of our past staff, Rebekah Stoop is now teaching in Tapanui and when I spoke to her on Wednesday they were on their second day of being closed due to the flooding. Not the way that you want to start the school year!
Staff update:
It is with great regret that I have to advise that Paulette Newton will be finishing her tenure at Beckenham at the end of Term 1. Paulette has been a member of the staff at Beckenham for many years, in both full-time and part-time capacities, and currently is the Team Leader of the Kōwhai Team.
Paulette has been successful in winning a position with the RTLB (Resource Teachers of Behaviour and Learning) Service where she will be able to both utilise and continue to grow her expertise in supporting diverse learners, not just in one school but in many schools. Whilst we are extremely sad to be losing Paulette to our staff, we are very excited for her and the new challenges and growth that she has ahead of her. As a member of the Beckenham Community, and a parent of a child in the school, we know that she won't be a stranger to us. The position of Team Leader is currently advertised, and we will keep you updated when we have new information about this.
Health Curriculum Review - meeting Mon 17th Feb, 2:30pm
At the end of 2019 we circulated information about our current Health Curriculum review. Thank you to those people who have already engaged with this. We promised to recirculate this at the start of the year, and to also provide a time that you could come and talk with us about it. We will be holding a meeting on Monday 17th February from 2:30-3pm in the staffroom and invite you to attend.
The review material can be accessed via this link, and we will be going over this and discussing it at the meeting.
Annual Donations
Earlier this week you should have received a special newsletter from the Board of Trustees about the new annual donation request. You can find a copy of that information on our website if you need it. Please note that we will NOT be requesting further donations from you this year (except for Camps) and plan to budget and work with the single, annual donation requested for each child. We appreciate whatever contribution you feel that your whānau can make towards supporting the rich educational experiences that we aim to provide for our children's learning.
School Website
Our server is being upgraded this weekend, so the school website will be offline from 4pm today until 9am Monday morning.
Ngā mihi nui Sandy Hastings Principal - Tumuaki
Important Dates
Upcoming Events
Fri 14 Feb - Celebration Assembly, 11- 11:30am in the hall. All welcome. Mon 17 Feb - Health Curriculum Review Meeting in the staffroom 2:30 - 3pm Mon 17 Feb - Fri 28 Feb - Life Education Bus at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Sat 23 Feb - Weetbix Tryathlon, co-ordinated by the PTA Wed 26 Feb - PTA Meeting. 7:30 - 9:30pm Thu 27 Feb - Years 5 - 8 School Swimming Event at Wharenui Swimming Pool. 12 - 3pm Thu 27 Feb - Board of Trustees meeting 5:30 - 7:30pm Fri 28 Feb - Celebration Assembly, 11- 11:30am in the hall. All welcome. Sun 1 Mar - Beckenham Outdoor Spaces Working Bee. 8:30am - 1:00pm Wed 11 Mar - Zone Swimming Sports - qualifiers only - more details to come Fri 13 Mar - School Duathlon (Y5-8) Beckenham Park - 1:15-3pm Fri 20 Mar - TWIGHLIGHT FAIR! from 4:30pm
Elsie, what a stunning role model you are! You strive to do your very best in all situations and show our school values in all you do. You willingly help those around you to achieve their best and we love the focussed and persistent way you approach any challenge or learning task. You regularly take on extra responsibilities and can be relied upon to fulfil these a high standard. You are a star, Elsie, and we are so proud of you. Tino pai!
School Notices
Allergies
Across our school, we have several children with different food allergies. To support the wellbeing of these students, we have the following guidelines in place which we ask you to follow:
For 2020, we have no specifically excluded foods. As always, we ask that no child shares their food with another, due to the anaphylactic risk for some our students. Whenever children bring food to school for shared kai occasions, please follow the guidelines provided by the teachers for that event.
We will inform you during the year if specific guidelines for your child’s hub change. If you have any questions or concerns, please discuss them in the first instance with your child’s homeroom teacher.
Playground Update
Our playspace is beginning to take shape thanks to The Greenscape team. The double slide is sitting in the Library ready to be installed on the mound. The concrete river is flowing nicely with some natural rocks to be placed throughout. The digger has been in for the past couple of days getting ready to extend the sandpit, and extra drainage will be in place before our sensory play area is finished. Later in the term, we will need a little help from our children and community with the planting of a few hundred trees and shrubs before our official opening day.
We are all looking forward to having a play (including all the teachers!)
Smart Watches
We have had a number of queries this week from whānau about Smart Watches. We are aware that the availability of these is increasing and that children may have been given one that was intended to come to school. Because Smart Watches have the ability to be 'connected devices' they come under our cybersafety guidelines which were published and discussed at Learning Conferences. Whilst some of you may not have activated the 'connected' features of your child's Smart Watch, teachers are not able to make individual dispensations for these devices. We prefer that these devices stay at home, however, if you need your child to bring them to school so that you can contact them after school, then, like cell phones, they need to be handed in to the office at the start of each day, and collected at 3pm.
Thank you for your understanding and support in this matter.
CSM Outreach Band Programme
... starts this coming Wednesday, 12th February! 8am Training Band - in the hall, with your instrument and book. 3pm - Concert Band - in the hall, with your instrument and book(s). Our new CSM Outreach Band co-ordinator is Jody Keehan, and she will be making contact with all enrolled students over the next couple of days. If you have any queries, or haven't heard from her and you think you should have, please email her at outreachband@csm.org.nz
School Policies - Concerns and Complaints
It is always our goal to work with you to resolve any concerns before they reach the 'complaint' stage, and it is also important that our processes are transparent for you to follow. You can access all of our School Policy documents through the 'SchoolDocs' website by entering the username: 'beckenham' and password: 'pride' (all lower case) and searching for either 'Concerns' or 'Complaints'. You can also see a simple flowchart of the process below (also available on the SchoolDocs site:
Uniform and belongings
Some uniform reminders:
Please do ensure that children come to school in full uniform each day. This means black on the bottom (other than the checked skorts) and red on the top, or the dress. On Fridays, children have the option of wearing the House shirts (available from the office for $25). If you don't have enough uniform for children to have 'one on and one in the wash', please remember that our second-hand uniform shop, run by our PTA has very cheap and good quality uniform items available. Hats are compulsory in Terms 1 & 4 when children go outside. Please ensure that they have a hat at school each day.
Please name all uniform and belongings
It's barely the end of week 1 and the lost property is beginning to accumulate! PLEASE make sure that all of your child's belongings (uniform items, hat, lunchbox, drink bottle) are ALL clearly named so that they can be returned to your child rather than ending up in the lost property.
Student Health & Wellbeing
Our review of Health and Wellbeing teaching is underway. If you have not yet contributed your feedback and would like to do so, please go to this link before the 12/02/2020. - We also welcome interested whānau to attend a Community Consultation session on our Health and Wellbeing teaching, to be held in the Staffroom on Monday 17/2/2020 at 2.30pm. Click here to view the new Health and Wellbeing section of our website for parents. It is packed with useful links, information and YouTube clips you can watch with your child. Parenting resources from the Canterbury Mental Health Group Alright?: Handy tipsheets on sleep, helping children manage worry, helping children keep calm and lots more.
PTA News
Let the Countdown to the Fair Begin!! 6 weeks today!
Mark your calendars - Friday 20th March 2020 will be our Twilight Fair. Let's showcase our new playground & celebrate with our community!
Calling all Artists, Musicians, business owners & generous souls…..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 go towards much needed new school sports uniforms and for purchasing digital technology equipment such as beebots and spheros for our children to learn coding concepts and how to program robots so that they can become creators of digital technology - not just users.
Thanks to wonderful Gail Harris from Platform Design Ltd for our fabulous poster design.
BOT Update
Enrolment Zone Update
The final documentation is being prepared in readiness for consultation on the proposed enrolment zone amendments for St Martins, Thorrington and Beckenham schools. This documentation is expected to be sent out to you no later than Monday 14th February.
Community Notices
(Notices placed here are contingent on space and do not reflect the views or opinions of the school.)
Mindfulness for Children
Does your child struggle with anxiety or stress? Would you like to support them to learn skills to enhance their wellbeing?
The Psychology Centre is offering Pause Breathe Smile (PBS) a group for children (age 8-11 years) who struggle with stress and anxiety and their parents to develop skills of mindfulness. PBS is an evidence-based program, developed by the Mental Health Foundation, found to improved focus and attention, enhance self-awareness and reduced stress. Our recent pilot group at the Psychology Centre also found that PBS is effective at reducing anxiety and improving coping in children.
The group will run from 4 - 5pm, starting Wednesday 19 February for 8 weeks at the Psychology Centre, University of Canterbury and requires both child and parent/ caregiver to attend and learn together. The cost of the program is $125.
It was lovely to welcome everyone to our Intermediate Hub for 2020 yesterday. There was plenty of enthusiasm, lots of smiles and eager anticipation for the learning journey ahead. We were also very appreciative of the new air conditioning - very!
Camp:
As we mentioned at learning conferences, we have camp coming up in week 9 of this term, March 30th - April 3rd. We are seeking offers of parent / caregiver help for joining us on camp and also for help with two fundraising projects. Please click this link to indicate how you can get involved.
Swimming Sports:
Our school swimming sports, an optional event, will be held on Thursday February 27th. Jenny has shared a google form with the children via google classroom for them to submit their entries.
Forms and Devices:
We are excited to see the large number of children who have indicated they will bring a device to school for learning this year. This morning we got a number of children set up on the school network. We really want to get this all sorted by Friday, so if your child is yet to do so please encourage them to bring their device tomorrow, Wednesday, and see Hannah before school to get it linked to our school network. Once their device is set up, it needs to come to school every day.
A reminder to get all forms signed and returned to school this week: Cyber-safety, Bus permission and BYOD. Many thanks to the large number of people who got this sorted at learning conferences.
Supporting the cost of your child(ren)’s education in 2020
Kia ora e te whānau
In New Zealand we are told we have a ‘free education system’. Whilst, in theory, that sounds amazing, in reality, schools rely significantly on families’ contributions to enable them to offer a rich and broad curriculum to students.
We acknowledge these contributions have an impact on your family’s finances and really appreciate your help in funding your children’s education. In the past, we have asked you for a $60 annual donation per student at the beginning of the year, plus a contribution each time we organised activities, plus your contribution to the costs of running overnight camps. Activities include the costs of swimming, visiting speakers to the school, trips, transport for school cultural and school sports events, some software licences, and so on.
This year, the Board of Trustees have decided to try a different approach. We are going to ask you for a flat donation of $150 per child, for all trips and activities. This approach is based on the new government scheme (2019) for Decile 1 to 7 schools which, as a Decile 8 school, we are not eligible to receive because the government believes that Decile 8-10 communities will receive this funding and more from their whānau and community.
The only other separate request we’ll be asking you (Y5-8 whānau) for, will be for overnight camps (Y5/6 every second year, and Y7/8 annually) which are impossible to fund from the $150 request and still offer all of the other rich curriculum options.
For most families, the amount we ask per year will be close to the same, or less than it was last year. The big difference will be that we will not be asking you contributions frequently during the year, activity by activity, and you will be able to budget your family’s school costs from the start of the year. It will also make it simpler for our staff to budget and account for funds coming in as well, and our administrative costs will also be significantly reduced, resulting in more savings.
You can pay in full, in instalments, or set up a regular automatic payment which would need to be:
weekly $3 per child = $156 /yr ($6 per Y5-8 child if you want to pay for most of camp across the year
fortnightly $5.75 per child = $149.50 /yr ($10-$12 per Y5-8 child if you want to pay for most of camp across the year)
monthly $12.50 per child = $150 /yr ($25 per Y5-8 child if you want to pay for most of camp across the year)
To set up an automatic payment, please copy the school’s bank account number: 12-3148-0131641-00 into your internet banking and use your child’s name as the reference. Please set up a separate payment for each child.
As the costs of camps are not known until closer to the time, budgeting for $150 per camp is a good guide. More detailed cost information will be sent out closer to the time.
Please note that uniform, stationery, the take-home component of Technology (South intermediate charge), and optional activities such as mini ball, music lessons, etc have always been, and will still be, chargeable (goods and services) and need to be paid in full before the activity takes place.
You can claim your school donation from IRD as part of the 33.3% tax credit each financial year, making the real cost of the donation only $100 per child if you claim this back. These donations can be claimed for up to 3 years previous years, so please contact Sandra Rauch by emailing accounts@beckenham.school.nz if you would like a tax receipt for previous years.
Thank you all for continuing to support the education of our tamariki.
