Returning to school on Monday – Important information

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Kia ora e te whānau


We are in Alert Level 2 and preparing for school restarting again on Monday.

Thank you to the 280 families who have completed the 'Returning to school at Alert Level 2 Survey". We are still waiting to hear from around 50 families, so if you haven't yet completed this survey, there is still time to do this.

Today we had ALL of our staff back on site for the first time since 23rd March! What a lot of happy faces and excitement about getting out of their Lockdown bubbles, and seeing one another in person again. We all spent the day working very hard on planning and preparing for the return of children on Monday.

We were excited to welcome Sophie Mulligan who joined our staff today. Sophie will be our newest teacher in the New Entrant, Koru Team, with Jo, Elizabeth and Stacey.

We have had more information from the Ministry of Education since I last communicated with you on Monday. They have clarified that ALL visitors past our front gates MUST sign a contact tracing register every time they come on, including whānau. This means that we are going to be asking you to drop your children at the gate from Monday. Please watch the two videos below, one just for caregivers, and the other for you to watch with your children, about getting ready for school starting on Monday.

At this stage, we have not heard from LunchOnline, so there will be no lunch orders next week.

As our Drinking Fountains will be shut off during Alert Level 2, please ensure your child has a full water bottle at school each day. We will be sending them home for cleaning every day. 

We would love you to sit down with your child(ren) and watch this video together, to help prepare them for the return to school on Monday.

Special thanks to Shirley Serban, Principal at Lake Brunner School, for the 'Moist Breath Song' featured in this video.


Caregivers, we encourage you to watch this shorter video yourselves, about how our arriving and leaving school will work at Alert Level 2:



Please remember that we will be operating at Alert Level 2, which is not 'back to normal'.

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki


Returning to School – Please read and respond

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Kia ora e te whānau

As the Prime Minister has just announced, schools across the country will be re-opening on Monday 18th May.

Hooray!

We are all very excited about the prospect of seeing all of the children again, and returning to some level of routine at school. We hope you are looking forward to being able to send them back!

What will ‘school being open’ look like at Alert Level 2?

  • Everyone will go back to learning in their usual learning groups and teams
  • Everyone is expected to stay apart i.e. ‘not touching, or getting into another person’s ‘moist breath zone’
  • Playtime and lunch breaks will happen at the normal times
  • Regular handwashing and hand sanitising.
  • Playgrounds and sports equipment will be able to be used. 
  • Caregivers can come on site but not go into learning spaces. Please keep away from entrance areas and maintain 1m physical distancing from one another. 
  • Children should be dropped at school after 8:30am and collected by 3:15pm, as usual
  • Office on site will be OPEN. 
  • All staff will be working on site.
  • We will have LOTS of education in place for our children around safe distancing and healthy hygiene practices.
  • We will be allowing time throughout the day for handwashing and hand sanitising. Sports equipment will be cleaned after each use. 
More detailed information will also come out later this week.

The big question for you all is - Should we be sending our child(ren) to school?

The Ministries of Education and Health have given us excellent guidance on the health and safety measures we need to take to ensure that our school is a healthy place for your children to be.

Their overarching message is: "Schools are open for all students to attend, and it is safe to do so."

Here is a flow chart to help you with this decision:



Please complete this survey below as soon as possible, so that we have a clear picture of our numbers for starting school again on Monday. This has implications for us on our staffing and our planning, and your support is very much appreciated.

Please click on this: Survey Link for ALL Families to complete 

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy and the team.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter May 8th 2020

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Congratulations for making it to the end of Week 3 of Term 2, in Lockdown at Alert Level 3.

Below is our Celebration Assembly video for this week and, as you can tell just by the cover shot, lots of fun was had in the making of this! (When you click on the link, you may find that the option of watching it in YouTube gives a better viewing experience).


The celebration assembly video is a great example of the progress that both our staff and our learners have made over the past weeks in terms of their confidence in using new technology for both teaching and learning, and communication. No doubt many of you have had similar experiences in your bubbles, learning to use new technologies to connect with other bubbles, with workplaces, and with services that we are used to dealing with in face-to-face situations.

The good news this week is that we are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, and yesterday's descriptions of 'life at Alert Level 2' are particularly encouraging for us in Education.

After we hear the Prime Minister's announcement on Monday about 'when' we will be moving to Level 2, we will email you all again with more detailed information about what that will look like at school.

In the meantime, here are some key principles about what we know already:

  • Schools will restart properly for all children on the first Monday after we return to Level 2
  • Schools and Early Childhood Centres are safe environments for children, young people and staff. 
  • Additional public health measures are in place to prevent the spread of disease, and at school, this will include
    • ensuring those who are sick stay at home
    • maintaining physical distance (in schools this means children, young people and staff maintain a physical distance so they are not breathing on or touching each other)
    • focus on teaching children to practice healthy handwashing, coughing and sneezing
    • frequent use of soap & water, and hand sanitiser
    • keeping track of visitors to the school to support contact tracing
We are all very excited about the prospect of getting back to school, and look forward to giving you more information on Monday once we know when school will re-start.

Ka kite anō

Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki

Citizen of the Week

Devina Dev - Year 8

Devina, you are such a self-motivated and responsible learner. This has been even more evident during our time of learning at home. You seek feedback on your next steps, you ask clarifying questions and you are always polite and appreciative. You are seizing learning opportunities and making the most of this time to further your knowledge and skills across the curriculum. He taonga te ako.

Ella Newton - Year 8

Ella, we have seen such positive growth in you as a learner. You put thought and effort into all of your work and you are showing more confidence in sharing your ideas with others. You are a kind and caring person and it's obvious that you enjoy being with your circle of friends. Your writing skills are shining through and the Kauri teachers look forward to seeing you blossom even more this year. You are a star Ella! Ka pai!

Community Notices

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

Forest Run Fest: Frost Edition 2020 

The Forest Run Fest is a morning for all levels of walkers and runners to get out there, compete and breathe in the fresh winter forest air with your family and friends. It's a fantastic opportunity for families to set goals and work towards a challenge to achieve together!
There's a distance to cater for all abilities and ages!

Half Marathon
10KM
5KM
Kids 2KM (10 years old and under)
When: Sunday 5th July
Where: Bottle Lake Forest, Christchurch
For more information and to register click here

See you at the start line!

Circus Quirkus

The live performance of Circus Quirkus NZ 2020 had to be cancelled due to the unique situation we are all experiencing.
Here is the Link for Episode 1 of 3 of Circus Quirkus NZ - 2020 Online.

https://vimeo.com/415323817 - (Password = Rotary)

This has all been made possible by the Rotary Club of Christchurch Sunrise, our local Business Community, and Individuals to allow your clients and their families to enjoy our wonderful online show from the comfort of their own bubble.

Viewing is currently available.




Pōhutukawa Learning Week 4 , Term 2

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Kia ora whānau,

Here we are at the end of another week of distance learning!  Thanks again for all of your great work supporting your child(ren) in their distance learning. Keep on sending that work through to us - we love to receive it!

We will be having our second social Zoom call for our Pōhutukawa Hub Learners on Monday May 11th at 11am.  If your child would like to join us and their friends for a catch up, please email your child's home group teacher and we will send you the link. Just to clarify, the reason we do not automatically send out the Zoom link to all our learners is because we want to ensure that they have your permission and support to be on the call. Please also ensure that the username that your child will be using to join the call clearly has your child's name or family name visible. As an extra security measure we use a waiting room in Zoom, so that we can ensure that only Pōhutukawa learners are able to join the call. If we cannot identify a potential attendee, we cannot admit them. We appreciate your support with this.

Here is this week's celebration assembly, we hope you enjoy watching it!


Enjoy your weekend whānau!

Koru Week 3, Term 2 newsletter

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Kia ora e te whānau,

We are all so proud of you all. What you are doing for Learning at Home is impressive. Through Seesaw posts, phone calls and emails we know you are doing your best.

Our Seesaw interactions show us that you have been very busy. We love seeing what you have been doing, so please keep sharing via Seesaw.



Sharing our learning
This week we also shared some of the student work with the team. Have a look for this post on Seesaw, if you haven't already, and see what your teammates have been up to.

We can see many of you have been working with numbers to 10, learning your alphabet letters and sounds, learning your sight words and reading Sunshine Online. Ka Pai tamariki.

Koru Learning at Home web page
From next week our Koru Learning at Home page will look a little different. The same information will be available but will be displayed differently. We hope this will make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Welcome Assembly
Below is a link to the Term 2, 2020 Welcome Assembly. This assembly is a chance to welcome all the children who started part way through Term 1 until this week. A wee hint: it will be easier to watch the assembly if you adjust it to fullscreen.





For those who may be interested in a Lego competition
Junior Neighbourhood Support Canterbury challenges you to…
Make a Stop Motion Lego Movie!
You can use lego or other toys to share one part of your Covid-19 isolation time. Some ideas for the experience to share include (but are not limited to):
Keeping 2m away
Going to the supermarket
Staying at home
Leaving the house for exercise
Easter or ANZAC Day 2020

Send your entries to jns@canterburyns.net before Level 2 ends and we’ll put them into a movie that everyone can watch.

If you need some help getting started with Stop Motion, have a look at https://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-Motion-Animation-for-Kids/
Stop Motion Studio is a popular Apple and Android app to use to film and you should only need the free version. If you are using a Chromebook, you may like to try Stop Motion Animator (from the Chrome Web Store).

We hope you all have a lovely weekend in your bubbles.

Ngā mihi mahana,

Elizabeth, Stacey and Jo