Just a very brief post today with important messages for the start of next week.
Literacy Presentations
Over the past two weeks, the children have been researching and creating 1-2 min presentations on a topic of their choice. These will be presented on Monday. Some practise over the weekend would be a great idea.
Sport
It felt so good to be underway with sport last week. The walking to local venues worked well and teams enjoyed their first round of competition on Thursday.
Our cross country is this coming Tuesday afternoon. We look forward to all children giving their best effort in this event. Please let your child's homegroup teacher know if they are unable to compete for medical reasons.
Well done to our basketballers for taking on the challenge of a new fast-paced 3 on 3 competition. They had a great first round on Friday.
Now that we are at Alert Level 1, we are seeing the return of much more normality in the events that we are used to having at school and as part of our curriculum. It was with great excitement today, that we held our first full school Celebration Assembly since Friday 13th March. This week also saw the start of a different and more localised winter sport programme between our sports zone schools for our Year 5-8 students. Next week we have more events back on the calendar. The first of these events will be the school Cross Country which will be held on Beckenham Park this coming Tuesday, 16th June from 2-3pm. The order of running will start with Year 8s and conclude with Year 3s. All children in Years 5-8 are expected to participate unless there has been a prior notification to their teacher. Year 3/4 participation is optional. Children are encouraged to wear their house shirt if they have one, otherwise wear their school polo shirt. Trainers are essential. Adults who are available to help out - please meet Jenny on the field at 1:45pm.
Also, next Friday will be the Mid-Winter Bring-A-Can Breakfast, and the following Friday will be the annual school Disco! Please scroll down for further information about both of these exciting events!
We had exciting news today that the Cultural Festival has not been cancelled, as was originally thought might happen. This year will be the final year of the Cultural Festival, so we are thrilled that it will happen, in the third week of Term 4 (27-30 October). Hannah Elliott will be sending important information home next week to the whānau of our Senior Kapa Haka group, Te Whānau Mahi Tahi, about this event. We will be asking for a commitment from you to ensure your tamariki attending the extra practices that they will need to commit to so that they can perform with confidence and pride.
Potentially Concerning Behaviour
We were advised by the Ministry of Education that there was an incident in Christchurch this week where school students were approached by a stranger asking for help to find his dog. See the Stuffarticle. There was also an incident yesterday where a man was behaving in an inappropriate way at the Beckenham Ponds, prior to school finishing at 3pm. Police arrested him, and anyone who has any information about that incident should contact the police. Please do regularly speak to your children about staying safe on the way to school and remind them of stranger danger rules. It is also a good idea to organise for children to walk to and from school in pairs or groups whenever possible.
Reminder: Learning Conferences - last week of Term 2
During the last week of Term 2, we will be having Learning Conferences. This will provide an opportunity for you to talk with your child and their home group teacher about their learning and wellbeing at school. If you haven't yet done this, please book a learning conference time for each child you have at school. The learning conference bookings are for 15 minutes each (NOTE that in Year 7/8, even though you will be booking for 15mins, the conference will take 30 mins as your child has a bigger role in the discussion at the intermediate year level.) If you have more than one child to book for, please do not book back to back time slots, as you will lose some of your time in moving from one conference to the other.
Tuesday 16 June - Cross Country for years 3 - 8. 2pm - 3pm in Beckenham Park Friday 19 June - PTA/Student Council Mid-Winter Breakfast from 8am in the hall Friday 26 June - Celebration Assembly 2:20 - 2:50pm in the hall. Everyone Welcome Friday 26 June - School Discos - see below for specific times Monday 29 June - Zones Cross Country event at Halswell Quarry. 9am - 12:45pm Tuesday 30 June - Learning Conferences - School closes 2pm Thursday 2 July - Learning Conferences - School closes 2pm
Friday 3 July - Final day of Term 2. School closes at 3pm
Emma, your enthusiastic and positive approach to everything you do is contagious! All activities are confidently given a go and you persist until they are your very best work. You bring a bright smile and warm friendliness to our hub every day which is appreciated by everyone around you. We love having you in our team! Tino pai.
Kate Breitmeyer - Year 6
Kate, you are a joy to be around. Your enthusiasm for learning is second to none and indeed, you are a student who shows all of our kete values on a daily basis. Your creativity is an inspiration to many others, as is your desire to continue to add to your knowledge and skills. This will stand you in good stead for your future.
Congratulations to...
... Henry for placing First in the Sustainable Ōtautahi Christchurch Year 7/8 Category of the 'Speaking 4 the Planet" Speech competition.
Listen to his speech here:
... Otis (Year 7) who has been taken on as an illustrator for Toitoi, a NZ magazine that publishes the writing and art of young people. Over 1000 submissions were entered for the upcoming issue. What a fantastic achievement!
... Rosie (Year 7)has been awarded 2nd place in the School for Young Writers monologue competition. Grace H (Year 7) achieved a Highly Commended for her monologue.
School Notices
Canterbury District Health Board Community Dental Service
Free Dental Care for Children - including special information regarding Year 8 students One of our Community Dental Service vans will be making a visit to our school soon.
Only the children who currently require a check-up will be seen at this visit. Please do not be concerned if your child is not called for a check-up this time.
The dental therapist will provide a regular check-up and preventative care which may include:
Cleaning/Scaling (to remove plaque from teeth)
Dental x-rays (to check for decay in teeth, or presence and position of teeth)
Fluoride Varnish (painted on teeth to help prevent decay)
Fissure Sealants (coating put on teeth to prevent decay) if required.
If your child requires any other dental care, they will bring home a ‘Care Plan’ which will explain what dental care and appointment times are required. When you receive the ‘Care Plan’ please contact our Call Centre as soon as possible as you will need to arrange a time to bring your child to one of our Community Clinics for this dental care. Please contact our Call Centre if you want further information on the Community Dental Service, to enrol your child or if you have any specific questions about your child’s dental care (a dental therapist will call you back) Year 8 students: all year 8 students enrolled with the Community Dental Service are transferred from the Community Dental Service to a FREE private dentist from year 9 until their 18th birthday. To help with this transition please ensure you have informed your child of their family dentist (not orthodontist). This will enable us to transfer your child onto the correct dentist for year 9 onwards. More information will be sent home after their year 8 check-up.
A number of whānau have already made great use of the Mana Ake “drop-ins” that are available on alternate 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.
Thinking ahead.
Many of the children really enjoy playing in the sandpit areas at school. It would be really helpful for our younger tamariki if they came to school with a spare set of clothes for those occasions when they have made wonderful creations in the sandpit and have fully immersed themselves in the process!
PTA News
The PTA and the School Council are excited to bring you the Mid-Winter, Bring-A-Can Breakfast this coming Friday, 19th June from 8am - 8:40am in the hall. Porridge or weetbix (incl gluten free weetbix).
Disco!
The annual school PTA disco is also ON!
Friday 26th June
4:30 - 5:30pm NE - Year 3 (Year 3 students can choose which Disco they want to attend so they can be with their friends) 6:00 - 7:00pm Year 3 - Year 6 (Year 3 students can choose which Disco they want to attend so they can be with their friends) 7:30 - 8:30pm - Year 7/8
Bring a gold coin for entry, your water bottle, and a more gold coins if you want to buy popcorn or other snacks.
Rainbow Theme - Be Bright, Be Bold, Be a Rainbow!
Community Notices
(Notices placed here are contingent on space and do not reflect the views or opinions of the school.)
Christchurch Bird Club Bird Sale and Show
93 Orbell Street, Sydenham 11th July 12:30 - 4pm Admission $2 per person or $10 for a family pass.
Cook up a Storm This Winter School Holiday
Give your budding chef the confidence to learn new skills and grow their love of all things culinary with our Winter School Holiday or Baking & Cooking Programme. A fun and interactive way to get cooking from home, using common ingredients, and everyday kitchen equipment. Submit your finished products online to get feedback from our Chef Instructor.
To enrol, simply click on the link above, add to cart and use Coupon Code Schoolsb&c2020 We have been blown away with the level of skill on our Facebook Kids Creative Cooking page during lockdown and invite you to post your holiday programme results here – at the end of the school holidays one lucky winner will receive 2 x movie passes! https://www.facebook.com/groups/KidsCreativeCooking/
We are now nicely settled back into our routines in the Kōwhai hub. This week we have been enjoying creating our Miro inspired sculptures, reflecting on them and getting ready to show them to you at our learning snapshots.
During Discovery this week, we have seen many children start to learn some new skills with Pip as they learn how to make vegetable soup. This included cutting vegetables up, learning how to prepare for cooking and cleaning up after we have completed our cooking. These are great self-management skills for the children to learn and bring home!
The children have also been taking the opportunity to take part in a variety of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities. These have included using Lego to create their own rainbows and using paper folding skills to create boats and see how long/far the boat will float for.
There have been many other creative activities being completed during Discovery as usual as well.
Cross Country Update Now that we are at Level, 1 we are happy to announce that some children will be taking part in the school Cross Country event next Tuesday, the 16th of June. This year for Kōwhai is an optional event. The children chose whether they wanted to sign up and have been training throughout the week. The details of when the Cross Country are as follows:
When: Tuesday 16th June Time: 2:30 for Kōwhai kids Course: Two laps around the field and by the ponds. Please ask your child if they have signed up. If they have, please help with their training by reminding them to wear their sneakers/trainers, rather than school shoes or boots to school. We look forward to seeing you there!
Headphones in the Hub We have a limited number of headphones in the hub. Theses are in high demand, especially during our reading rotations when many devices are used. If your child would like to bring their own set of headphones in to use with our devices, then please do. They will be kept in their tray and will need to be named. We recommend that they have a case or named bag to keep these in. It will be the children's responsibility to look after their headphones and take care of them.
Parents Volunteers for Reading We are looking for some parents to volunteer to help with reading with students during the day and putting reading books away. Putting reading books away can be done before school, during school or after school. If you would like to help out, please email Laura: laura.williamson@beckenham.school.nz
We look forward to catching up with you over the few weeks.
Ngā mihi, The Kōwhai Team Nick, Rowe, Tracey and Laura
Since we went into lockdown on 25th March, the Kōwhai teaching team has had some significant changes made to it. Paulette, who was the Team Leader, has moved on to a new position, and Tracey Maloney has started as the teacher of that home-group of learners. I have moved into the position of Team Leader, and Rob Proffitt-White has joined the team in a part-time capacity as our release teacher. He is working with each home group as that teacher takes their release time.
Now that we have come out of Lockdown and moved to Alert Level 1, we want to give the Kōwhai caregivers an opportunity to come into the hub and meet the new team.
We will be holding an open afternoon in the Kōwhai hub for caregivers from 3pm - 4pm this coming Monday, 15th June.
All five of our Kōwhai teaching team will be there and we will spend some time introducing ourselves, then we'll be available for time for informal chats, and time for your children to show you anything in the hub that they want you to see.
Sue and Sandy will provide supervision on the playground (if fine) or in the Kahikatea theatre (if wet) for the children so you can engage with us. If you then want to collect them and go back into the hub with them so look at anything, you can do that too.
We look forward to re-connecting with you on Monday.
A very warm welcome to those families whose children have started school over the last few weeks. The children are to be congratulated for the very happy and smooth way that they have transitioned (back) into school life. Congratulations to all for showing such amazing resilience and independence!
Learning Conferences Please note that we will be holding Learning Conferences here at school in Week 12 of this term. In the Koru team:
for those children who started school prior to and including March 6th, parents please make a Learning Conference booking (at which time we will be discussing your child's literacy and numeracy goals in particular)
for those children who started school on or after March 9th, parents please also book a Learning Conference time, and this time will be used for a transition to school meeting with your child's teacher (at which time we will discuss your child's transition, also getting your perspective, along with initial goals)
please note that children attend these meetings with you.
For more information and instructions on how to book a time with your child's Home Group teacher, please refer back to last Friday's school newsletter.
Morning Routine You will have all read Sandy's newsletter about Level 1 at school and the morning routine. We continue to be so very proud of the tamariki, in how they are starting each day at school. They are confidently walking from the gate to the hub and are independently unpacking their bags and sorting out their belongings, ready for the day. They are spending that first part of the day before the bell, connecting with their teachers and classmates, and settling calmly into the school day. Over the coming days, we shall continue to have a teacher at the gate to welcome the tamariki and support the drop off. Please feel free to pass on any messages to the person at the gate, and they will then pass the message on to your child's Home Group teacher.
Just a reminder that reading folders need to be returned with the reading books every day, while library folders and poetry books need to be returned by the following Friday morning, as Friday is the day we visit the school library and focus on poetry during our Literacy time.
Learning Through Play Our current Learning Through Play 'theme' is Space, and this theme the children are finding highly motivating. This theme also ties in with what the children have been writing about last week, and again this week.
Sight Word and Alphabet Practice It is really valuable to put regular time aside to support your child with their alphabet and sight word practice. For our new children, parents please check this link which will take you to some resources on our school website: New Entrant Resource Pack. Please print off the alphabet and number resources which will be of most value for your child. Feel free to contact your child's Home Group teacher if you are unable to access a printer. We hope you have fun with your child as they learn, using these resources. And remember... praise, praise, praise. It's crucial that these learning times are kept positive.
Have a wonderful week, everyone, and keep warm! Ngā mihi mahana, Jo, Stacey, Sophie and Elizabeth
