Living Springs Camp Health Form and Gear List

Posted on 14 October, 202014 October, 2020 by Anne Batchelor

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Planning is well underway for the Pōhutukawa camp at Living Springs.

The programme is challenging, stimulating and safe. The activities include: archery tag, “Balanz” bikes, zipline, swimming (heated pool), group initiative challenges, low ropes course, bouldering wall, orienteering, animal survival and recreational activities.

All children will be well supervised and all risks well managed in accordance with our Camp Safety Action Plan and the Living Springs Risk Management Strategies. It will be an exciting learning opportunity for your child. The children will be sleeping in carpeted bunk rooms, which can be heated if required. As well as regular meals, there are two snack times during the day.

We will be leaving from the Pōhutukawa Hub on Wednesday 25th November shortly after the 9:00 am bell. After the camp, we will return to school between 2:30 and 3:00 pm on Friday 27th November. We will wait in the hub for you to pick your child up, along with their gear.

Essential Tasks to Prepare for Camp

Medical Forms

Please complete the Health Profile & Medical Consent Form by Monday 2 November by clicking on the link below and completing the online form. One form needs to be competed for each child who is attending camp. A separate health form will be emailed to our parent helpers soon.

Health Profile & Medical Consent Form

Medication

If your child requires personalised medication on camp, please complete the Medicine Authority Form. We will print a copy of the form to be stored with your child's medication whilst on camp. Please put your child’s medicine in a small, clearly named zip lock bag or plastic container and hand the bag/container to Anne Batchelor on Wednesday, 25th November when you drop your child off at school.

If your child has medication that should be kept with them (e.g. an inhaler or travel sickness medication), please put this in your child’s backpack and let your child’s home group teacher know where it is on the morning we leave for camp.

What to bring to Camp

A light backpack for the first day containing:
A snack
Lunch
Drink bottle
A warm and waterproof coat
Sunscreen
Sunhat
Medicine that must be kept with the student (e.g. an inhaler or travel sickness medication)

A larger bag or suitcase containing:

Toiletries – soap, toothbrush, toothpaste etc.
Insect repellent
2 towels (shower and pool)
A pair of walking shoes
A pair of slippers or inside shoes
Socks
Underclothes
Long pants
Shorts
T-shirts
Warm jerseys or bush shirts
A warm hat
Pyjamas
Swimming togs
Lightweight bags for dirty clothes
A pillow
A single fitted bottom sheet for your bed
A warm sleeping bag
A book to read (optional)
Games (small board games or cards only) (optional)
Soft cuddly toy (optional)

If applicable, a plastic container or ziplock bag containing:

Personal medication for the camp medic to look after and administer
Medicine authority form

The following items will not be required and should not be taken on camp:

Money
iPod or MP3/MP4 players
Computers/iPads/tablets
Handheld electronic games
Torches
Chewing gum
Radios
Cell phones
Cameras
Toys
Knives

Please make sure all items are clearly named and that your child will be able to carry their bag themselves. A good idea is to bring the gear list to camp so that they can be checked off when we leave. A paper copy of the gear list will be sent home closer to our departure. If there is something you don’t have, we encourage you borrow it from someone rather than buy it.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's home group teacher.

Kauri Whānau: Term 4 Camp Update 2

Posted on 9 October, 20209 October, 2020 by Nicky Dunlop

Whoops - forgot one more important camp message. If your child would prefer to travel by car, rather than on a bus to and from camp, please email Hannah to let her know ASAP.

Kauri Whanāu: Term 4 Camp Update 1

Posted on 9 October, 20209 October, 2020 by Nicky Dunlop

We trust you have had an enjoyable two weeks with your children at home. We teachers have had a great break and are busy getting sorted for our upcoming camp in week 2: Oct 19-23

Food

We appreciate everyone sending along some baking to get us through the week at camp. This will be collected on the Monday morning before we jump on the buses.

We are looking for a large number of volunteers to prepare pasta bakes and cottage pies. We are also needing to borrow some chilly-bins. Please click on this link to indicate how you can help out.

Departure time on Monday

On Monday Oct 19, all children are to arrive at school by 8am. We have food to box up, buses to load and things to check before we hit the road at 8:30.

Bunk-rooms

The allocation of bunk-rooms is always a tricky job. We are confident that the following plan takes into account the children's requests.

There will be another post next week with more details. We are sharing a presentation with the programme and many other details with the children on Tuesday. This presentation will then be uploaded to google classroom. The children will be able to access this at home and share it with you.

Cycle Safety Term 4

Posted on 7 October, 20207 October, 2020 by Anne Batchelor

Kia ora whānau,

If your child is a year 6 student they will be taking part in the Cycle Safe Programme at school, during week's 1-3 of term 4.

The Cycle Safe programme is run by the Christchurch City Council and is a cycle skills education programme for schools. Students learn the benefits of cycling and how to ride with confidence and be road-wise. Students will be riding their bike on the road, supervised, around Beckenham School.

Your year 6 child/ren will be participating in this course on one of the following sessions:

Session 1 - Friday 16th & Monday 19th October
Session 2 - Tuesday 20th & Friday 23rd October
Session 3 - Tuesday 17th & Wednesday 28th October

More information as to the session that your child/ren will be participating will come home via a reminder notice, with your child, at the beginning of term 4.

On these days, students should bring the following to school:

Their bicycle (in good working order)
Their helmet (in good working order)
A lock to secure these items to the school bike racks

Please ensure that your child/ren come/s to school on these days wearing suitable
clothing for the weather. If it rains and it is unsuitable for the children to go out on their bicycles, the remaining sessions will be either rescheduled at a suitable later date or be classroom-based.

For those who do not have their own, ten bicycles and helmets are available through the programme.

The Cycle Safe team have recently created some 3-5 minute videos about their programme. We welcome you and your students to view them.
Here is a link to a Helmet Fitting video. You can also look on the Cycle Safe page under the videos heading.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter Friday 25th September 2020

Posted on 25 September, 202025 September, 2020 by Sandy Hastings, Principal, Beckenham School

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

What a lovely warm week we have had for the final week of this term. Yesterday, this warm weather was further celebrated as the tape was finally removed from the grass areas of the playground and the children rushed out with their morning tea to take advantage of sitting on the lush grass!

We were fortunate to be visited by 7 members of the New Zealand Army Band on Wednesday this week. They played a wonderful half hour concert for the children, hopefully inspiring many to begin or continue with their music lessons and practice in the goal of being a professional musician in the future!

We saw some of that wonderful talent on display this afternoon in our Annual Talent Quest! Congratulations to all of the children who performed, and who auditioned. Thanks to all of the staff who helped with the auditioning process, and to the team of staff and students who supported this today, back stage, judging and doing the sound desk.

Considering home groups for 2021

Next term we will be working on building our home learning groups for 2021. Our staff spend a lot of time carefully considering the needs of each child, and take into account a range of emotional, social, behavioural and academic considerations. We do NOT ask parents to choose a home room teacher that they would like for their child. We do know, however, that you hold information about your child's wellbeing at school that may be relevant when we are putting these groups together. Therefore, if you have any considerations about your child for us to add to our home group placement discussions for 2021 - please email these to Sandy by Friday 30th October (the end of Week 3 of next term).

Reminder - Term 4 begins on Tuesday 13 October.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday!

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy Hastings

Principal - Tumuaki

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Sun 11 Oct: 10am - 3pm Te Whānau Mahi Tahi Wananga - School Hall

Mon 12 Oct: Staff Only Day - School Closed

Tue 13 Oct: Term 3 begins

Thu 15 Oct: Canterbury Swimming Championships - Selwyn Aquatic Centre

Fri 16 Oct: Welcome Assembly 9:15am - All family of new students this year who haven't yet been to a welcome assembly - Welcome!

Mon 19 - Fri 23 Oct: Kauri Team Camp to Dunedin

Mon 19 Oct: Canterbury Duathlon - Ruapuna Speedway

Mon 26 Oct: LABOUR DAY School Closed

Wed 28 Oct: Christchurch Schools Cultural Festival - Te Whānau Mahi Tahi performing

Fri 30 Oct: Whole School Athletics - Beckenham Park

Term Dates

Click here to view 2020 and 2021 term dates.

Citizen of the Week

Cortana Mee - Year 4

Cortana, you display a positive attitude to all aspects of learning with your persistence and enthusiasm. You are a role model in our hub who naturally demonstrates our school values and this has seen you always willing to lend a hand or help others who need it. This helps to make our hub a wonderful place to be. Tino pai, Cortana !
Max Page - Year 6
Max, you are an extremely positive and enthusiastic member of the Pōhutukawa hub. You consistently demonstrate the school values and you approach everything with a great sense of humour. You are respectful of all those around you and you work hard to achieve your goals. Tino pai!

School Notices

Claiming back 33% of your School Donations and Contributions from the IRD

A reminder that via IRD you can claim back 33.33 cents for every dollar you donate to the school. This includes both school donations, and 'contributions' towards activities and camps. You can submit a receipt to IRD at any time within the past 3 tax years.

This means that right now, you can claim for:

2017 tax year (ending 31 March 2018).
2018 tax year (ending 31 March 2019)
2019 tax year (ending 31 March 2020)

One of our parents did this recently – it took 20 mins of her time and $400 was deposited in her bank account a week later (4 years of donations for 2 children).

The steps are easy:

1. Email Sandra Rauch (accounts@beckenham.school.nz) to request a tax receipt for your school donation and contributions for the past three years.

2. Go to the IRD Website and search ‘Submit a Donation Receipt’ and follow the steps.

3. Attach the receipts online and submit.

NB. You’ll have to wait till after Mar 31 next year to claim back this year’s donations.

Congratulations

Here are two YouTube clips of the recent concerts that were held at Hillview Christian School and Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. Great to see some of the emerging talent in both the Jazz band and the Training Band.

The PTA will be running a sausage sizzle from 10am - 2pm in addition to a bake stall. Wheelie Good coffee will also be there so bring some coins and catch up with the community when you cast your vote.

BOT Update

School Board of Trustee Mid Term Elections 2020

Nomination round

Our school will be undertaking Mid Term Elections for our Board of Trustees this year. This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver in our community by Friday 9th October 2020.

The Board of Trustees has again employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf. This year with legislative change, our nomination forms and full instruction on how to place your nomination into our own School’s Election website will be e-mailed to you by Friday 9th October 2020. Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Board of Trustees election site

For those that do not have access to the internet, nomination papers will be available at the school office and those nomination papers should be returned to the school office. The school will send those on to CES for processing.

Nominations close on Sunday 1st November 2020 at 12 noon.

We look forward to your participation in this process.

Wayne Jamieson