Kōwhai News Term 4 Week 6

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Kia ora Kōwhai Whānau!

We are having a fabulous Term 4. 

A reminder that all students need to have a hat at school each day or they will not be able to play in the sun. 

Thank you to all the families who have clearly named their hats. This makes them so much easier to be returned to the correct person should they go missing.

Word of the Week

Our word of the week is RESILIENCE. Resilience is the ability to bounce back after challenges and through tough times. It is a skill that we frequently revisit with the students as they tackle new challenges daily at school and in life in general. 

Nau mai te wero! (We Love Challenge)

Swimming

Last week was our final week of school swimming for the term. Our students had a great time learning new water skills and how to be safe both in and around water. The life jackets and inflatable boat were a big hit with the students.










Poetry

During our literacy lessons, students are currently exploring different types of poetry. Poems are a great way to express yourself in written form and the topics and types of poetry are endless. We are having so much fun exploring this genre.

Maths Learning

Here's a notice, think, wonder picture to get your math brain activated.

In regards to the picture:
- What do you notice?
- What do you think?
- What do you wonder?
- Where is the maths / what maths could you explore from the picture?

Cyber Safety

Staying Safe Online: Online Grooming 

As young people become more independent online, they can connect and communicate with people they don’t know.

Often this is a positive experience, but sometimes your tamariki could be being groomed or talking to someone who

isn’t who they say they are. Netsafe’s advice explains how unwanted contact works, including grooming and what

\whānau can do to educate kids.


Check out the link here.


Thanks!

Team Kōwhai,

Anna R, Rowe, Nick, Anna M, Krystal and Tracey

Kauri Whānau Update: Term 4, week 6

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 In this blog post:

  • Production
  • Victoria Park Walk
  • Year 8 Pool Party
  • Cass Bay
  • Leavers Farewell

We have an extremely busy time ahead; here are some important dates and information for you.



Production: Held in the school hall Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th December-7pm!
We are busy gearing up for our production-'A walk through Aotearoa, New Zealand History.' This production has got our tamariki fizzing; it is student-led, and everyone has been very engaged. We are currently busy learning lines, dances, songs, and making props.
More to come from homegroup teachers about what students will need for costumes.
Students will need to be at school by 6:30pm both nights.


Victoria Park Walk:

We are carrying out our annual hike up to Vic Park on Monday the 9th December. Thank you to all of the parents who have said they can come and help. If you would like to accompany us please fill in this parent helper form HERE.

We will leave school at 10am and leave Vic Park to return at 1:30pm.

I have attached the SOCIAL STORY link, which has all of the relevant information. We will start to go through this with our homegroups over the next couple of weeks.



Year 8 Pool Party:
This is also happening on Monday, 9th of December, and is for our Year 8 students only.
We are going to meet at Waltham Pool from 4-6pm; students need to make their own way there and home.
Students' need to provide pool entry of $3.80 and $2 for the use of the hydroslide if they choose.
We will provide a sausage sizzle on the BBQ.
They will sleep well on Monday night!



Cass Bay:
We are heading to Cass Bay on Thursday, 12th of December. We will leave school by bus at 11pm and return at 3pm.
Students are encouraged to wear their togs underneath their activewear so that they can quickly get changed at Cass Bay.
Students need a big packed lunch; they can organise to share a lunch with friends. Please make sure all sharing food is nut-free.
They also need a sunhat (compulsory) sunscreen, any medication such as inhalers, a towel, and a warm jacket.
Optional: A book, card game, water shoes, long-sleeved rashshirt are a great idea, and shoes for around and on the rocks.
Phones are to be left at school as normal.
We will be working through a social story around this trip over the next couple of weeks.
We still need a few more parent helpers for this trip; we're not quite there with numbers for our student-to-adult water ratio. Please use the above form linked in the Victoria Park walk blurb if you can come!

Leavers' Farewell-Year 8 parents only:
This is to be held on Monday, 16th of December, at 11am in our school hall. It is followed by a luncheon. This is the final day for our Year 8 students.
Please indicate on this FORM whether you are able to attend  and if you have any dietry requirements.


Thanks for reading to the bitter end; there is a lot of information, and I will keep sharing it until closer to the time.












Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Schoolwide Newsletter, Rāpare (Thursday) 14 November 2024, Week 5

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Reminder that Friday is a Public Holiday and school will be closed. 
Monday is a Curriculum Day (Staff Only Day) and school will also be closed for all tamariki. 
BOSCO will be open on Monday to support - if you wish to sign your tamariki up for BOSCO on this date, please head to bosco.aimyplus.com to make a booking.

The end of year summary reports are now available through the Hero Portal.  The end of year report reflects aspects of your child's learning for the second part of the year.  Please take the time to sit with your child and share their report with them celebrating their learning.

To find your child's report open Hero, click on their name and then click "2024 report".
Please see the Hero post from Katie for more details.

It has been an incredible last couple of weeks with all sorts of happenings around kura.  Enjoy the long weekend and we look forward to seeing tamariki back on Tuesday.


Ngā mihi nui
Sue Leadbetter and Katie McFarlane 

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Fri 15 Nov - Canterbury Anniversary Day (kura/school closed)
Mon 18 Nov - Curriculum Day (staff only - kura/school closed)
Wed 27 Nov - PTA Meeting, 7:30-9:30PM, Green Room
Wed 11 Dec - BOT Meeting, 5:30-7:30PM, Staff Room
Fri 13 Dec - Final Celebration Assembly, 9.45-10.30am, in the Hall
Mon 16 Dec - Year 8 Graduation
Tue 17 Dec - Last day of Term 4, School finishes 12.30PM

Term Dates

Click here to view 2024 term dates

Citizen of the Week

Isabella Frei - Year 7

Isabella, it is fabulous to see your confidence blossoming. You are such a switched on learner who has great ideas to share. You are a fine role model showing all of our school values and it has been so great to see you stepping out of your comfort zone and try new challenges. Keep shining, Isabella!

Ashreya Naidoo - Year 6 

Ashreya, your delightful sense of humour makes you fun to be around! Your enthusiasm and committment to being the best you can be, in everything you do, is truly inspiring. You are a wonderful example of a student who uses all our school values daily. Ka rawe, excellent!

School Notices

Recycling Station

Kia Ora,

 I am Hanna and I’m in year 7.

A few weeks ago my family and I went for a walk in the Red Zone. In the Red Zone, there is a fantastic recycling station. I would like to help them collect as much recycling as possible. There is going to be a box for plastic lids (any colour lids with a 2 or 5 on) or aluminium lids and caps that will be put in the reception for students, teachers, and parents to drop their recycling into. 
At the end of the month, I will take it home, sort it, and drop it into the recycling station at the Red Zone. The people at the Red Zone will then melt down the plastic and turn it into jewelry. The jewelry will then be sold and the money will go to buying new plants in the Red Zone.

Ngā mihi nui,
Hanna

Pilgrims Panforte

Sports News

Athletics

On Thursday the 26th of October we enjoyed our whole school Athletics Day out on Beckenham Park. The park was a hive of activity all day, starting at 7:45 am when a crew of dedicated senior students arrived to help set up. A huge thank you to this amazing group of tamariki, (children).

The event kicked off with the mid-distance run, an optional event for children in Years 5 to 8 who were keen to take on the challenge of a longer distance run. This year saw a record number of our tamariki, (children), take on this challenge! 
The seniors spent the rest of the day rotating through discus, shot put, sprint heats and high jump. The junior tamariki came out at various times in the day to participate in their rotations of run, jump and throw events. Our youngest tamariki from Koru were supported by some buddies from the Kauri Hub. 

Throughout the day, cheers could be heard drifting across the park as the children celebrated each other's achievements. We were so impressed by the childrens' skill, effort and encouragement of each other. 

At the end of the day, the whole school came together to watch children give it their all on the track for the sprint finals and house relay. There were some incredibly determined faces and some very close races.  

Thank you to all the staff for their mahi in this event and to the parent helpers who gave up their time to make the event possible. 

On Monday 83 tamariki from Pōhutukawa head to South Zone Athletics at Hansen's Park. We wish them all the best. 

"Humble in victory, Gracious in defeat"

PTA News

Bingo Night

What an awesome night! Hope everyone had as much fun as we did!!

Thank you to everyone who came along to Bingo Night or bought raffle tickets, "Jack and Kitty" for entertaining us and all the parents who supplied supper plates and helped on the night. 

We raised $7,229.84 towards Kapa Haka uniforms.

Congratulations to our lucky raffle winners:

Foodie Hamper - Andrea Norton

Family Fun - Christelle Burger

Tekapo Getaway - Caitlin Munro

Calendar Art

Art work has arrived for orders received in October, your child should have bought home this week.

If you missed the cut off and still want to order some art work we have a final ordering day.

Orders close MONDAY 18th of November at 9.00am.

Use your childs unique ordering number and you will be able to access your child’s art work (on www.kidsartworks.com).

Weetbix Tryathlon

Entries are open for the Weetbix Tryathlon on 23rd February 2025 at Jellie Park. Early bird entries get a discount so sign up today.
The TRYathlon is all about giving it a TRY and is a rewarding and fun day out for you and your child. Every child gets a t-shirt and medal. We have the school gazebo set up where children and parents can meet and each year the PTA usually have an offering for the children.
Children 6 years old on event day can complete in the Splash & Dash
Children aged 7-15 years old on event day, can complete the TRYathlon as an individual or in a team of two.
Our school has created a School Group which you can join when you enter from home. Search for Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto when prompted. By linking to our school group it will give us the chance to win some great prizes.


Community Notices

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

The Extravaganza Fair

24 Youth Summer orienteering camp for school Years 5-8


What? A parent-led 4 day residential orienteering training camp
Who? All keen young orienteers, of any level / experience, up to and including Yr 8
When? Thursday 19th - Sunday 22nd Dec
Where? Teapot Valley Camp, near Wakefield, 25 min South of Nelson
Cost? $225 per person including all accommodation, food, coaching and maps.
What do I do now? Fill in the registration forms here:
Parents/helpers: https://forms.gle/iTof9AvrouqmMW3T7
Child form (fill in one for each child please): https://forms.gle/cfU3CkTeavBQAsSC7
Email nzyouthocamp@gmail.com to receive further info.

Koru Team News: Term 4 Week 4 (8/11/2024)

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 Kia ora, e te whānau,

We have all been enjoying these warm days and the opportunity to spend some of our Learning Through Play sessions playing outside. There has been lots of activity in the sandpit, a favourite this week has been excavating ponds and filling them with water from the outside tap. You may have noticed some sandy shoes coming home! As the weather continues to warm up we will be involving more water play during Learning Through Play, so please make sure your child has a change of clothes in their school bag, incase they do get a bit wet when playing.







Cyber Safety

During the afternoons in week 3 (last week), we completed a unit on Cyber Safety. This unit focused on sharing personal information online and thinking about what kind of people we can trust when sharing our personal details online. We followed Hector the Dolphin, and his friends, as they navigated their way through some different online situations. During week 6 we will continue with Cyber Safety with the focus on understanding that their emotions can be a powerful tool to assess unsafe situations, the importance of checking with an adult before going online, and being open about their online experiences with a trusted adult.

Life Education

We enjoyed our first visit to meet Harold in the Life Education classroom this week. This weeks session was on Big Emotions, learning that all emotions are important but we don't want to get stuck in some emotions for too long. After we identified some different emotions and how they make us feel, Helly the Educator, in the van, showed us a few things we could do to try to move out of being in a 'stuck' feeling back into a 'stay' feeling. More information about the second lesson (next week) and some photos will be in our next blog.

We have a couple of short weeks coming up:

  • Next Friday, 15th November, is Canterbury Anniversary Day
  • Monday 18th November is a Staff Only Day so school will be closed to students 

Thank you so much for sending your children to school with sunblock and their hats each day.
All best for a lovely weekend together.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia and Nicola

Pōhutukawa Update, Term 4, Week 4

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

Another whirlwind couple of weeks has flown by, with lots of things happening in the team to keep everyone busy! A hearty congratulations to all of the 41 students who competed at the Zone Athletics on Monday. It was a fantastic day out, and there were some terrific results! Keep an eye on the newsletter next week for the rundown. Tau ke, awesome work! Back at kura, we have a large focus this term on the Health area of the New Zealand Curriculum, which started this week with a visit from Helly and the famous giraffe Harold. Please read on for a summary of what the tamariki learned about in these lessons, a couple of other highlights of the past two weeks, and a look ahead to what else is to come as we head into the second half of Term 4.

Life Education

You have probably noticed the Life Education trailer parked in the car park over the past couple of weeks.  Life Education Trust is a charity that educates and empowers children to make healthy choices so they can live full and healthy lives. 

The tamariki enjoyed 2 sessions with Helly and Harold and focused on 2 key concepts relevant to their age and stage. The first lesson’s key question was:  How do we know how others are feeling? The key concepts discussed were: 

- Conflict Resolution- Friendships- Decision Making- Emotional Safety- Peer Pressure- Peer Pressure- Feelings and Emotions- Emotional Changes and Grow

Our second lesson focused on the key question: What is peer pressure and how can we deal with it?  Peer pressure has both physical and emotional effects. Students explored what those are, related them to different real-life situations, and formulated strategies to deal with them.

The lessons provided valuable learning about these topics for the tamariki. Thank you for continuing these discussions at home, too.

Navigating the Journey

Continuing with our focus on health and wellbeing this term, we will be participating in the Navigating the Journey programme over the next 3 weeks. The Navigating the journey Te takahi i te ara resources use the metaphor of navigation to describe a person’s lifetime journey of  physical, social, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of hauora (wellbeing). 

Navigating the Journey is a comprehensive age-appropriate programme about relationships and sexuality developed by Family planning for delivery in primary and secondary schools. This programme is aligned with the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for relationship education and sexuality education. This programme is also aligned with the health and physical education learning area of The New Zealand Curriculum. 

The key concepts that will be covered for 2024 can be found on Hero. If you wish to find out more detail about any specific lessons please get in touch with your home group teacher.

William Stedman

We had the honour of hosting NZ Paralympic Athlete #208 William Stedman at kura today. William joined us to speak with the tamariki about his experiences at the recent Paris Olympics and about what it took to get there. The students were captivated by William's journey as a para-athlete. We got to hold his medal (surprisingly heavy!) and he then joined us for a game of Crossover. An awesome visit.

William has Cerebral Palsy, and  was the youngest member of the Para athletics team to compete at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games at only 16 years of age. He has always loved sport and clearly remembers watching the London 2012 Paralympics. This is where his dream started. William was so inspired by watching the Paralympics he decided he was going to become a Para athlete.

William is the embodiment of our kete value 'We Love Challenge'. It was exciting and  inspiring for the tamariki to get to meet a real-life Olympian.

String Ensemble

Yesterday we were treated to some fantastic music from the string ensemble as they performed for us at school. It was heartwarming to see the pride that the tamariki showed in performing for their peers and for us all to have a chance to hear the fruits of their labour from the past year of music lessons. Also amazing to see so many whānau there supporting, and also taking part as learners themselves. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning. Ka rawe, awesome job!