Monthly Archives: September 2020

Cyber safety in Pōhutukawa

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 Kia ora e te whānau,

There has been a lot of discussion among the children this morning about the viral Tik Tok video that has been in circulation online and that Sandy alluded to in her email to you this morning. Sandy came in and talked to all of the children after morning tea and reminded them of the importance of keeping safe online.  We reiterated to them that talking to their peers about this isn't a healthy thing, and that talking to their parents is important. We encouraged them to talk to you if they have any concerns about anything they may have seen, or heard other children talking about. 

We are always monitoring the searches and material that the children are accessing using their school accounts, and will continue to do so. If your child is bringing a phone to school, please remind them to drop it at the office before school starts, and to collect it again at the end of the day.

This is a timely reminder to us all that the minimum age for most of these platforms is at least 13 years old.

We know there are a number of you who have said to your children that they are too young for a phone and / or any of these online social media accounts. Please do not think that you are alone in taking a firm stand on this, many parents in the Pōhutukawa Hub have told us that their children do not have a phone or social media accounts, even though your child may tell you otherwise!

 As always, please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any concerns or would like to discuss anything further.

Ngā mihi,

Sandy and Anne

Re TikTok: IMPORTANT information for Families regarding a video currently circulating on TikTok

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IMPORTANT information for whānau re TIKTOK 

The Ministry of Education sent the email below to principals late last night - if your child has a TikTok account, it is very important that you are aware of this so you can support your child... There was also an article in the Herald about this yesterday. 



Kia ora koutou katoa

Thank you to everyone who contacted us this morning about a very disturbing clip portraying a sudden death which has gone viral on Tik Tok. We understand that some students have viewed the clip and are understandably distressed by its content. We have contacted Netsafe who are working on removing the clip from sites where possible.

Netsafe have advised the following:

For now, we recommend that students are being made aware not to share or view the footage as it can be highly distressing content. Our webpage (Netsafe) has information about helping tamariki exposed to upsetting content that you may find useful. We have also provided some support lines for students and staff if they need to reach out for support below.

·        Need to talk -. Free call or text on 1737 and there is support available 24 hours a day

·        0800 What's Up - Available Mon-Fri 12pm-11pm Sat/Sun 3pm-11pm on 0800 942 8787

·        Lifeline - call on (0800 543 354) or text HELP (4357) for confidential support.

This content can have an impact beyond those immediately engage with it. It is likely to have had a range of impacts on each person – some may be severely affected and others may not be affected at all. It is important to be aware of the need to talk with young people who have heard about it and to encourage them to express their feelings in response to the video. We recommend that having regular, open conversations at home around online safety is important to help young people navigate the myriad of digital challenges they will experience. 

You can read more on our parental control advice page here. There is an option to switch to Safe Search when using Google search or alternatively, you can consider looking into this article to block Google images without blocking Google search.

This staying safe online guide and some of our printed resources may be useful.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 8 (B)

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 In this post:

  • Cantamath
  • Phones
  • Sport

Cantamath

The latest victim on our current Level 2 status is Cantamath. We heard yesterday that this event will be cancelled. The children who attend maths club had been working hard towards the teams event and the creativity, precision and maths content in many of the Cantamath projects are evidence of many hours work. We know there will be lots of disappointed children. This morning we have marked all of the Cantamath projects and decided which work we would have sent through to Cantamath and what we believe would have earned a highly commended or excellence award.

Work by these children would have been sent to the Cantamath competition, had it gone ahead:

Abby, Ava, Ben, Caleb, Connor I, Cooper, Devina, Erik, Eva, Fergus, Frances, Grace H, Henry M, Holly, Ilia, Isla, James, Kate, Layla J, Layla W, Lexi, Lurandt, Mac, Mahli, Marcellus, Meara, Mia, Morgan, Rosie, Ruby, Tabea, Thomas, Walter, Zara M, Zoë C

We have given these children a highly commended award:
Holly, Meara, Henry M, Ava, Grace H, Erik, Eva and Lurandt

The projects completed by these people were of a very high standard and we have awarded them an excellence:
Devina, Ruby, Caleb, Abby, Kate, Zoë C, James, Mia and Mac

All Cantamath projects are currently on display in Sth Hangere - the building that is closest to the old dental clinic by the river. You are welcome to come in and take a look between 8:30 and 9am or 3 and 3:30pm this week. 


Phones

We are now collecting phones in a tub each morning and sending them to the office for safe-keeping during the day. Since we started doing this a week ago, there are less phones being handed in. Here is a photo of the tub today. If your child brings their phone and it is not in the tub photo, please have a conversation with them about following this rule. If you think your child would benefit from a daily reminder, please let us know.  



Sporting Events in Week 9

Volleyball

Tuesday 15th September
The three Koru Games volleyball teams will be playing in a one day tournament at Hillview Christian School.
Meet: 8:00 in the Kauri Hub
Children should be dressed in a black BTKP polo top
Children need:
  • Water bottle
  • Morning tea and lunch
  • Any personal medication such as an inhaler
  • Children may bring a book, sketchbook or small game for between games

There will be an optional after school practise on Monday next week where we will be joined by some Year 9s and 10s. This will go from 3:15 until 4:15. If children need to leave early for other after school commitments, that is fine. 

This event will go ahead in Level 2


Mixed Sports Tournament with St Martins


Wednesday 16th September
Children who wanted to participate will play in a fun focused one day tournament with St Martins in the sports of football, ultimate frisbee and touch. 
This is being held on the Beckenham Park.

This event will go ahead in Level 2, weather permitting.


Canterbury Winter Tournament - This event will only go ahead in Level 1


Jule’s hockey team and Anna’s netball team from weekly winter sport have qualified to play in the Canterbury Winter Tournament. 
Hockey - Nunweek Park
Netball - Hagley Netball Courts
Meet: at school at 9:00
Children will be travelling to these venues by car. If you are able to support by providing transport, please email Jenny. 
Children need:
  • Water bottle
  • Morning tea and lunch
  • Any personal medication such as an inhaler
  • Children may bring a book, sketchbook or small game for between games

Weekly Winter Sport


We would like to acknowledge the following children from our weekly enter sport programme. Our adult coaches were asked to select a person from their team for each of these two awards.

Most improved Player - recognising children who showed coachability by taking on feedback and putting exceptional effort into improving their skill level over the course of the season.

Mia, Mila, Tabea, Eddie, Eli, Sachit,

Sportsmanship - recognising children who showed exceptional respect for their opposition, their ref and encouragement of their team.
Henry M, Eva, Lurandt, Syesha, Olive, Layla W

All coaches commented on how difficult it was to choose three awards. We recognise the commitment and effort that all children have demonstrated over the season. 


Koru News Term 3 Week 8

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 Kia ora e te whanau,

What a lot of interesting and fun Learning Through Play has been taking place over the past couple of weeks!
The children continue to be reminded about why we call it Learning Through Play ("because while we're playing, we're learning") and the kinds of things we might be learning and practising during our play. This is especially as we have new children starting school, and we're noticing that many of our older children are really stepping up to model these behaviours for our 'newbies'.

Using these images, the children were asked to relate the relevant ideas below to the school values which were being displayed.

The children brainstormed these ideas about their Learning Through Play.

Learning Through Play:
For our topic this week, we have been looking at restaurants, eating out and cooking. During Learning Through Play, we have been amazed by how creative the children have been, building restaurants, 'creating' food, designing menus and taking our orders in their cafes and eateries. We will continue with this theme during this coming week, and our focus will be working as teams to create shops and restaurants, and to problem solve the variety of challenges that can arise as the children play together.

We Care

We Get There Together

We Love Learning

We Love Challenge and We Get There Together




We Get There Together

Wacky Hair Day:
We had so much fun admiring the wacky hairdos that arrived at school on Friday. What impressive effort and creativity families put in that Friday morning - we suspect that many of you were up well before the crack of dawn, judging by the impressive results that walked through the gate, between 8:30 and 8:55! Thank you to all of those who supported the child cancer society and donated a gold coin for this wonderful cause.























Wellbeing and Friendship:
We have been having a big focus on continuing to build and develop friendships in Koru. This week we introduced an activity, whereby the children needed to work together to solve a problem. Using their index fingers only, they had to solve how they could pick up and carry an object. It was great to see the children working together in pairs, communicating, problem-solving, and taking on a challenge, while at the same time having fun.
Some of the objects the children tried picking up were:
  • A pen
  • A glue-stick
  • An eraser
  • A thick book
  • A block
  • A soft toy
All children displayed our kete values of We Get There Together and We Love a Challenge, as they participated with their buddies to successfully pick up each item.










Tricky! How did they manage that?

Talent Quest Auditions:
The teachers in Koru had the pleasure of auditioning the children for our Talent Show, which is going to be held on the last day of school for this term (25th of September). We were delighted to see how confident and talented our Year 0 and 1 children are. As always, it is so difficult to make a choice as we would obviously love to send all children who entered through to the finals, however we are delighted to let you know that Moana, Vienna and Joseph will be going on to the finals at the end of this term. 

Kete Awards:
As we are unable to hold our assemblies at level 2, the Koru team held a hui in Pūkaki on Friday, August 28th. Congratulations to the children below who received kete awards. We are incredibly proud of how you uphold the Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto values.


Peter Rabbit:
It was with enormous sadness that we have had to farewell Peter Rabbit, who has been a faithful and loyal friend to hundreds of children at Beckenham te Kura over the past 9 years. Peter has been cuddled and loved by children, read to, played with, taken out to the park for time on the grass, and has helped children who have been feeling sad or upset by simply allowing them to hold him, and most children at Beckenham will know him really well. Something that Peter did incredibly well was to help children who were having trouble saying goodbye to their families at the start of the school day - Peter was worth way more than his weight in gold.
Peter Rabbit died of old age last week. In human years, he would have been about 85. He will be greatly missed, and remembered by all with enormous fondness.

Peter, aged nearly 9 years.

Have a lovely week, everyone. We look forward to another wonderful week of learning with the wee ones!

Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Sari, Stacey, Sophie and Elizabeth

Koru News Term 3 Week 7

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Kia ora e te whanau,

What a lot of interesting and fun Learning Through Play has been taking place over the past couple of weeks!
The children continue to be reminded about why we call it Learning Through Play ("because while we're playing, we're learning") and the kinds of things we might be learning and practising during our play. This is especially as we have new children starting school, and we're noticing that many of our older children are really stepping up to model these behaviours for our 'newbies'.

Using these images, the children were asked to relate the relevant ideas below to the school values which were being displayed.

The children brainstormed these ideas about their Learning Through Play.

Learning Through Play:
For our topic this week, we have been looking at restaurants, eating out and cooking. During Learning Through Play, we have been amazed by how creative the children have been, building restaurants, 'creating' food, designing menus and taking our orders in their cafes and eateries. We will continue with this theme during this coming week, and our focus will be working as teams to create shops and restaurants, and to problem solve the variety of challenges that can arise as the children play together.

We Care

We Get There Together

We Love Learning

We Love Challenge and We Get There Together




We Get There Together

Wacky Hair Day:
We had so much fun admiring the wacky hairdos that arrived at school on Friday. What impressive effort and creativity families put in that Friday morning - we suspect that many of you were up well before the crack of dawn, judging by the impressive results that walked through the gate, between 8:30 and 8:55! Thank you to all of those who supported the child cancer society and donated a gold coin for this wonderful cause.























Wellbeing and Friendship:
We have been having a big focus on continuing to build and develop friendships in Koru. This week we introduced an activity, whereby the children needed to work together to solve a problem. Using their index fingers only, they had to solve how they could pick up and carry an object. It was great to see the children working together in pairs, communicating, problem solving, and taking on a challenge, while at the same time having fun.
Some of the objects the children tried picking up were:
A pen
A glue-stick
An eraser
A thick book
A block
A soft toyAll children displayed our kete values of We Get There Together and We Love a Challenge, as they participated with their buddies to successfully pick up each item.










Tricky! How did they manage that?

Talent Quest Auditions:
The teachers in Koru had the pleasure of auditioning the children for our Talent Show, which is going to be held on the last day of school for this term (25th of September). We were delighted to see how confident and talented our Year 0 and 1 children are. As always, it is so difficult to make a choice as we would obviously love to send all children who entered through to the finals, however we are delighted to let you know that Moana, Vienna and Joseph will be going on to the finals at the end of this term. 

Kete Awards:
As we are unable to hold our assemblies at level 2, the Koru team held a hui in Pūkaki on Friday, August 28th. Congratulations to the children below who received kete awards. We are incredibly proud of how you uphold the Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto values.


Peter Rabbit:
It was with enormous sadness that we have had to farewell Peter Rabbit, who has been a faithful and loyal friend to hundreds of children at Beckenham te Kura over the past 9 years. Peter has been cuddled and loved by children, read to, played with, taken out to the park for time on the grass, and has helped children who have been feeling sad or upset by simply allowing them to hold him, and most children at Beckenham will know him really well. Something that Peter did incredibly well was to help children who were having trouble saying goodbye to their families at the start of the school day - Peter was worth way more than his weight in gold.
Peter Rabbit died of old age last week. In human years, he would have been about 85. He will be greatly missed, and remembered by all with enormous fondness.

Peter, aged nearly 9 years.

Have a lovely week, everyone. We look forward to another wonderful week of learning with the wee ones!

Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Sari, Stacey, Sophie and Elizabeth