Monthly Archives: May 2021

Monday 31 May 2021 – School is open – and it’s your call…

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School is open... and it's wet and wild out there


Yes - we are open this morning. Apart from the playground and the crossing on Sandwich Road being underwater, learning spaces are dry and cosy.



Gumboots are a must today, along with extra socks and other extra clothes for those who are likely to get wet in spite of requests to stay out of puddles!

It's likely to be an inside day all day - so children may bring a quiet activity from home to help pass the time during morning tea and lunch breaks.

If you decide to keep children at home today, please email office@beckenham.school.nz or send a detailed text to 021 027 94107

If you are driving to school - please be patient and take extra care on Sandwich Road. Please do not get out of cars in the 3min drop off area. We need this area to keep moving to help everyone.

Stay safe everyone.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter Friday 28th May

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Rain warning - implications for Monday!

Given how dry the past months have been, and the predicted rainfall, Monday could be a tricky day with plenty of challenges to navigate!

courtesy of Sarah Webber photography

Based on the current Red Alert weather forecast, Monday, is going to be a gumboots and raincoats kind of day! We would urge all students to come to school on Monday with a change of socks at the very least, and extra pants and tops for those who are prone to not noticing that they are getting wet, or who can't resist a puddle! We will keep you up to date with any issues on Monday morning through the school Facebook page and through the email system.

We don't know how the Ōpāwaho Heathcote river will manage given all the recent work that has been done to improve it however, previous events like this have caused it to burst its banks and close Eastern Terrace by the ponds. If your children are walking to school, please talk with them about the safest way to do this to avoid areas of dangrous flooding. If Eastern Tce is closed, Sandwich Road will require ALL drivers to be super patient and careful. Please remember our neighbours and don't park in driveways. Please only cross at the crossing - having children and parents running out from between parked cars in the rain is extremely dangerous.
Consider allowing more time for drop-off. 

Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki - Principal

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Week 5:
Thu 3rd Jun - South Zone Winter Sport
Fri 4 Jun - Koru Art Gallery Trip

Week 6:
Mon 7 Jun - Queens Birthday (School Closed)
Tue 8 Jun - Staff Only Day (School Closed)
Thu 10 Jun - South Zone Winter Sport
Fri 11 Jun - Celebration Assembly 12.00 - 12.30
Fri 11 Jun - School Disco

Week 7:
Wed 16 Jun - South Zone Basketball Tournament Yr 7/8
Thu 17 Jun - South Zone Winter Sport
Fri 18 Jun - PTA Mid-Winter Breakfast 7.30 - 9am

Term Dates

Click here to view 2021 term dates.

Citizen of the Week

Keira Allen - Year 6

Keira, we love the positive and cheerful attitude that you bring to our team. You show perseverance and determination in your learning and have approach challenges with a open, inquiring mind. Thank you for being a great example of how we aim to be a better version of ourselves every day. Tino pai, Keira.

PTA School Disco

It’s that time of year- the much-anticipated school disco! This year the students are taking over; prepare for student DJs, playlists and artwork. We are so thrilled to see them be a part of one of the school year’s highlights.

You’ll need to bring coins to buy snacks, a drink bottle and if kids want to a pop star or rockstar outfit.
See you at the disco!

Mana Ake “Drop-Ins” are continuing…

A number of whānau have already made great use of the Mana Ake “drop-ins” that are available on Wednesday mornings from 8:30 – 9:30am. These drop-in sessions are here to provide parents with an opportunity to have a private, informal conversation around the well being of their child with one of our Mana Ake workers (kaimahi). If you feel like you would like to attend a drop-in session, please book in a time via the link here: Mana Ake booking.  The code to use is 88t39. Alternatively, you can contact Jacky in the office and she will make a booking for you.

Student Council Fun Run - support KidsCan



Our Student Council team are organizing a fun run for Year 0 - 8, to be held during school hours on Friday July 2nd. The fun-run will be held on Beckenham Park and will involve children getting sponsored to run for every lap they complete. A google sign-up form for Year 0-4 children has gone out to whānau and is also here again. Year 5-8 children can sign up themselves and they have been sent a google sign-up form which is also here if you want to help them sign up (they will need to use their school login). 
Sponsorship sheets will be distributed next week to those who have signed up.

ESOL News

This week in ESOL sessions, the Kahikatea and Kōwhai students completed their helicopters this week and demonstrated their flying skills! They practised using positional language, such as above, below, higher, lower, first and last. They also practised using movement language, such as fast, slow, float, fall and fly.


Sports News

Zone Cross Country


Early morning fog cleared into a beautiful day on Tuesday morning for the South Zone cross country. The children arrived in great spirits after the double-decker bus ride to Halswell Quarry. Wet ground upped the challenge in the 2 km and 3 km courses, but this did not deter our runners. The children represented our kura exceptionally well, both in the way they embraced the challenge of the course and the way that they encouraged and supported each other. 

Jack Sayer (5th), Torun Joergesen (3rd) and Jonty Mitchell (4th) qualified to represent our kura at Canterbury's on Wednesday the 23rd of June back at Halswell Quarry.

Congratulations to all our runners. You all deserve to feel proud of your achievements. 

PTA News

Thanks for all that have filled in the PTA survey – we have had a great response so far 😊

Get ready to hit the dance floor!

The disco theme is "Popstars" so the children are welcome to dress up as their favourite rock or popstar!
(We wont be selling bling, but kids are welcome to wear it if they have it at home.)

⭐Popstars Disco Friday 11 June⭐

So we can fit everyone in the hall we have three sessions:

5pm - 6pm: New Entrants and Years 1, 2 and 3

6:30-7:30pm: Years 4, 5, and 6

8pm-9pm: Years 7 and 8

Community Notices

(Notices placed here are contingent on space and do not reflect the views or opinions of the school.)

Marching Canterbury

Don’t knock it until you try it!
We cater for all ages 4yrs- 30yrs+ We are currently looking for more members to join our teams.

Marching encourages teamwork, discipline, and friendship. It’s great for coordination, posture and brain development. If you would like to see what we are all about and give it a go, get in touch with us at publicitymarchingcanterbury@gmail.com or Kylie Dowers 021930434.

We have teams in all areas of Christchurch.

Pōhutukawa News – Week 4, Term 2, 2021

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 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

Another busy week in the books! We finished the week on a bit of a wet and cold note, although it did give the tamariki a chance for an indoor-only Learning Through Play session to wind up our week. These sessions are such a nice way for us to spend each Friday afternoon as the students explore, experiment, discover, and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways. As teachers, we really enjoy guiding the children and encouraging them to display the key competencies in authentic and student-centred ways. 



House Points

This week we've been excited to reintroduce the use of House Points at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. We will have a fortnightly values focus, and house points are being given out to children who specifically display this value. The points accumulate in teams in a running tally and will culminate in a shield presentation at waiata assembly for the winning house every second Friday. Each morning excitement abounds as the tally is shared in the Daily Notices. Our focus for this fortnight is our kete value of 'We Care'. 

Teachers, kaiako, are on the lookout for our values in action in the playground, in the classroom and around the Hub. Happily, we have already noticed a huge lift in tamariki showing awareness of this important value. We encourage you to talk about this initiative at home over the next week or so, reflecting on how we can all show that 'We Care' in our daily lives. Arohaina te tangata me te taiao, we care for people and our environment.





Winter Sports

Our winter sports programme kicks off next week. Every student has elected to join, and will be involved in either competitive or development hockey, netball or football. We are still looking for parent assistance on Wednesday afternoons from 2pm - 3pm to help support our tamariki in the development groups. No expertise in any of these sports is required. All we would ask is to support the children in running some skills based activities with the support of our teachers. If you think you could help us at this time, please get in touch with your child/ren's home group teacher. Your support would be hugely appreciated.

Information for Competitive Winter Sport players

Competitive winter sport starts next Thursday and will run for ten weeks.

Children who are not in a competitive team will choose from three options back at school. 

Outcome

The desired outcome of our winter sport programme is to provide an opportunity for interested children to play sport. The primary aim is for children to have an enjoyable experience. It is awesome that we have children trying a sport for the first time or joining a team in a sport that isn’t what they would usually play on a Saturday morning. To accommodate for potential variance of ability, adults are instructed to be flexible and make adaptations to the game as necessary. 

Sportsmanship

We set high expectations for our tamariki around sportsmanship. A model we often use is The 3 Rs:
Respect for my team
Respect for the opposition
Respect for the referee and the rules of the game

Game Locations

Most games start at 1:45 and children should be back at school for 3:00. 

Hockey - Beckenham Park (The 7/8 A grade team will play at Sydenham Park on turf) 

Football - Hansens Park 

Netball - a variety of local schools. 

All travelling teams will be walking to their game, (the ⅞ A grade hockey team will travel by car). They will be accompanied by teaching staff and/or parents. A huge thank you to the parents who have volunteered their time for this. 

Covid- 19 Guidelines
All schools will be keeping records of children and adults at each location in case we need to do contact tracing. 


Safety Gear and uniforms

Uniforms will be issued by Anne Chin at the library. Instructions will be given via the daily notices. 

Essential safety gear

Hockey - mouth guard and shin guards are essential

Football - shin guards and football boots.

Netball - short nails and no jewellery.

If your child needs shin guards or football boots, these can be lent out from school if required. Hockey players will also be able to borrow a hockey stick if needed. 

ALL CHILDREN WHO CARRY PERSONAL MEDICATION, SUCH AS AN ASMTHA INHALER MUST CARRY THIS WITH THEM TO THEIR GAME. ANY MEDICATION USUALLY HELD AT THE OFFICE WILL BE COLLECTED BY A TEACHER.

If you have any questions, you can contact myself or the teacher in charge of the sport that your child is playing. 

Football - Jenny and Steve
Hockey - Gayle
Netball - Caitlin and Anna


Kōwhai Team News – Term 2 Week 4

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Kia ora whānau,

 As part of our science inquiry we have been investigating chemical changes. Below are some photos of our " Moving Milk " experiment and the reactions of our little scientists in action.  The children were asked to predict what they thought would happen. They conducted the experiment and made ongoing observations. 








Another investigation we conducted was mixing oil and water. We found out they did not mix! However, when dish soap was added it changed the molecules so oil and water did combine. 





In our technology inquiry we have been learning about creating algorithms and debugging them. 






During literacy some of our tamariki read an article about GAP (Greyhounds as Pets) which is an organisation that finds homes for ex-racing greyhounds. We then had a very special visit from Frida's greyhound Millou! 

In Te Reo lessons we have been researching and writing our pepeha to share our cultural backgrounds. 

 






Have a lovely weekend!


Laura, Rowe, Nick, Meagan, Quynh