Monthly Archives: January 2023

Start of 2023 – Whole School Newsletter

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

A Happy New Year to you all!

Less than a week to go and school will be starting again, with Learning Conferences on Tuesday 31st January and Wednesday 1st Feb, followed by classes starting on Thursday 2nd February.

There is some key information noted below to ensure a smooth start to the year for all:

Learning Conferences - Please book yours now if you haven't done so already.

Each child needs to have a learning conference with you and their teacher for 2023 on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. You need to book a 30min time with your child and their teacher by going to 
www.schoolinterviews.org.nz/code and entering the code f69qr
If you need assistance with booking, please call the office on Thursday morning or during the day on Friday and someone will be able to assist you.

Cyber Safety and BYOD Agreements

To help keep students and our technology safe, we ask that all students and caregivers review and complete the Cyber Safety Agreement each year.

Please read through and complete the 2023 Cyber Safety Agreement with your child/children, explaining it at a level that is appropriate for them. If you are unable to complete the form online, a paper version will be available during learning conferences. Please ensure the (digital or paper) form is completed and returned before the first day of classes.

If your child is in Year 5-8 and will be bringing their own device to school for learning, please also read through and complete the 2023 Bring Your Own Device Agreement with your child/children. A paper version will also be available at Learning Conferences, if required. Please complete and return the (digital or paper) BYOD form before the first day of classes.

Stationery 

If you haven't yet organised stationery, or can't locate the list, you can find the stationery lists here, on the school website. Please only name those items that the list asks to be named.

Sunhat and Drink Bottle

It is important that every child starts school with a named sunhat and water bottle. Sunhats are compulsory when outside during Terms 1 and 4.


Uniform

Please find information about the school uniform here.
The PTA will be opening the Uniform shop at the following times next week:
Opening times next week: 
Tuesday 31st January 2pm to 3pm
Wednesday 1st February 8.45am to 10am
During Term 1 2023: 
Tuesday afternoon 2.45 to 3.15pm
Friday morning 8.45 to 9.15am

They would love to have more donations of uniform items that are no longer needed, and are always looking for people who could help out at the uniform shop. Please contact pta@beckenham.school.nz if you can offer assistance.

Welcome Assembly - Friday 3 February 9:15am

This is a very special assembly where we welcome everyone back to school, and particularly welcome our new students and their whānau. Families are welcome to attend, and a very special welcome goes out to the families of our new students (including those who started after Week 1 of Term 4 last year). Our PTA will have a cup of tea or coffee available in the hall foyer from 8:45 - 9:15am, After which the assembly will take place. This lasts about 20mins. 


Medication at school?

If your child needs to have any medication held and /or administered at school, we will need you to come into the office and sign a plan for us to do that. A good time to do this is when you come in for your learning conference. ALL medication plans need to be re-signed for the new year. 



Transiton to a new school year...

Finally - by clicking on the document attached to this email, you can scroll through a visual document about the school, and meet all of the staff for 2023.  This will be especially helpful for some of our younger children, and for children who are new to the school or those moving into a new team.

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Tuesday 31 January - Learning Conferences

Wednesday 1 February - Learning Conferences

Thursday 2 February - School starts, 8:55am

Friday 3 February - cuppa (from 8:45am) followed by Welcome Assembly (9:15am)

Term Dates

Click here to view 2023 term dates.

We are all looking forward to seeing you again next week!

Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki - Principal

Pōhutukawa Update Term 1 Week 3

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


We are now 10 days into Term 1 for 2023! We've enjoyed building relationships with the tamariki and establishing routines over the past few weeks. Please read on for more about what we have been up to, and a look at what's coming up - including an article contributed by three budding journalists: Chester Gardiner, Billy Hudson, and Jensen Greig. Have a great weekend everybody, kia pai ngā rā whakatā.


Workshops


We have now finished our beginning of the year 'Workshops', in which we covered Cyber Safety, Being a Good Sport, Our Kete Values, PB4L, Active Listening, and more. It would be great for you to have a chat with your tamariki about the workshops, and what they have learned. It was a lot of information, so don't be surprised if the feedback is less than forthcoming! The purpose of these Workshops was to introduce important aspects of life in Pōhutukawa, which we will keep revisiting throughout the year.


Learning at Home and Google Classroom


All of the students have now signed up for the Pōhutukawa 2023 Google Classroom and their Home Group Google Classroom. Students can also access the Pōhutukawa Learning Site via their Google Classroom. The site serves as an online hub of resources should you wish for your tamariki to continue doing some school work at home. We will continue to add material and build the students' knowledge around using Google Classroom and Google Sites in the coming weeks. As always, we encourage you to actively participate in this area of your tamariki's learning. Ask them to show you what is available to them online and what they can see and do. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.


CCC


You may have heard your child talking about our CCC "cool curriculum classes". This is how we start our day; they are a great way to ensure we are teaching all areas of our curriculum. Megan is teaching the Arts this term through Drama, Rae is covering Digital Technology and continuing with Coding. Steve is delving into Health/Hauora with a look at our Wellbeing/Hauora, while Gayle is teaching Geography. There is a lot of learning happening over the term in CCC, so we encourage you to keep chatting about what we are covering in these courses with your tamariki. 


The Wonder Project


There was much excitement and anticipation around the arrival of some "mystery boxes" in Pōhutukawa this week. Yesterday, we revealed their contents and introduced our topic of Inquiry for this term: the Rocket Challenge, which is part of the Wonder Project.


The Wonder Project is Engineering New Zealand’s free programme for schools, designed to get young Kiwis excited about science, technology, engineering and STEM.  Students blast off into STEM by designing, building and launching a water rocket. They’ll learn about Newton’s laws, the engineering design process, and working as a team. We are very fortunate to have engineers Kate Macdonald (John's mother), Kylie Hills (Quinn's father), Darren Webster (Noah's father) and Richard Scott (Alex's father) all helping us out during the term. We get there together, mā tātou kātoa te waka e hoe! Here is an article written by some of our students to tell you more. 


 


Mystery Boxes are revealed.  It is the exciting time we have been waiting for!!

by Chester Gardiner, Billy Hudson, Jensen greig


People think it is:                        


A supernatural active volcano...Cookies...Lollies...A rocket...A microscope...Science related...Poppets...PE Equipment


Unboxing in 3, 2, 1!


It is a… ROCKET!!!!   The rocket is a Wonder Project Rocket Challenge.


It will be teaching us physics and science. 4 or 3 people will come in (kids' parents) that are engineers to help us and teach us about rockets and their jobs. Inside the rocket there is safety glasses, wonder project stickers, a clipboard, 3 hi-vis vests, one is a ‘Rocket Safety Officer’, one is ‘Rocket Chief Scientist’, and the last one is a ‘Chief Engineer’, and there's also a StratoLauncher and a StratoChute.


Reminder


If you want to, you should bring an ice cream container for fins. Or a bottle for the rocket base.


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