Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 7

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We have had another busy week in the Intermediate Hub! Dunedin camp is just two weeks away. On Monday a separate post will be sent with many details including a gear list. One of the most important items of clothing to organise is a waterproof coat.

School Fair Leadership Opportunity

We would love to see as many of our senior students as possible volunteering to help out at the school fair this coming Friday. They will be rewarded with some extra leadership points. Students interested are to fill in this form. 

Cheese Rolls

Huge thanks to the parents who gave time and /or equipment to ensure our cheese roll fundraiser was a success. It looks like we have raised over $2500! Check out the photos at the end of the post.

Swimming Zones

Well done to everyone who competed at the zone swim event on Wednesday. It was heart warming to hear of the positive energy and great team support. Special congratulations go to:

  • Year 7 relay team (Fergus, Cooper, Zoe and Olive) - 2nd
  • Abby C - 1st freestyle
  • Zoe C - 1st freestyle and 1st breaststroke
  • Fergus - 1st Backstroke and 2nd Freestyle
  • Thomas - 1st Backstroke and 1st Butterfly
  • Cooper - 1st Breastroke

Duathlon

On Friday afternoon our school duathlon saw many children living our school value: 'we love challenge'. It was great to see some children giving this event a go, not expecting to gain a place, but just relishing the challenge. As children get older, they can become more reluctant to experience challenge for challenge's sake. This is something we love to encourage. The event was also another opportunity for students to step up as leaders, as marshals on the course and encouraging others. Congratulations to those who were placed and have qualified for the Canterbury duathlon on May 15th. 

Leadership Speakers

Last Tuesday Matt Reid spoke with our team about his experiences working with MSF (Doctors without Borders). This was another great example of self-leadership for our tamariki to learn from. We were really impressed with some of the questions that were asked. 
This coming week we have two more leadership talks arranged. On Monday Mark Inglis will be sharing is amazing life journey and on Tuesday Lucy Schrader-Manuera, an ex-student who is head girl at Cashmere High this year, will be sharing with our team. 
With lots of leadership stories and experiences under their belts, our children will have plenty of material to bring to their next writing assignment, as essay on leadership. 













Kōwhai News Week 6 Term 1

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Kia ora whānau,

Kōwhai Kid of the Week

Next week, on Friday, we will be handing out Kōwhai Kid of the Week certificates at our team hui. When a child receives a certificate, they get to make pizzas for their lunch the following Friday at school. We will provide the bases and the children just need to bring along the toppings (pre-cut) for them to put on their pizza. To ensure you know if your child is making pizzas, we will send an email to let you know.

FAIR

We are so excited! One week to go until our Twilight Fair 4.30-7.30pm on the school grounds on Friday 20th March. Today the children each brought home a plate for baking. These need to be returned to school next Friday with baking on them. There will be a table for the baking outside the hall. 

The PTA desperately need more helpers to make this epic night happen. If they don’t get enough helpers they will need to cut stalls and there will be massive queues, which will mean sad faces on the night :(. Click the following link if you haven't yet signed up to help on the night. As they say, 'Many hands make light work!': Would love to help at the Fair!


Inquiry- Identity 

Following on from the Life Education visit, we have been learning more about our body and how it works and learns. Over the next couple of weeks, the children will be conducting experiments to learn how our body digests food, what germs are and how they spread (keep an eye out on our experiments in the Maker Space), how our eyes work (children will explore real eyes and dissect them to learn how they function) and they will learn about the importance of water and our nervous system for learning and growth. In some of the sessions, the children will view actual organs to give them an understanding of what they look like and how they function. Please note: If any children feel squirmish and do not like the idea of working/handling/dissecting organs, they do not need to participate in that session.

Donovan Bixley
Next Friday, the children will be lucky to hear the wonderful author Donovan Bixley speak about being an author. We are excited to have him share his journey and we hope this will inspire some of the children to do the same!

School Photos
We have school photos next Wednesday 18th March. This will involve a homegroup photo and an individual photo. Please make sure your child is wearing their correct school uniform for this. Thanks.

Kapa Haka
Next Friday, we will begin our kapa haka sessions with Whaea Cath. All the children in our team will have the opportunity to participate in these sessions. For the remainder of this term, we will divide the team into two and each group will have 25 minutes with Whaea Cath, learning action songs. We are really excited about this opportunity and know the children will enjoy these sessions.

That's all for now.
Have a great weekend ahead

Kōwhai Teaching Team
Rowe, Nick, Laura and Paulette

Koru art trip to the Botanic Gardens

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Kia ora whānau,

WOW! What a fabulous trip we had to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. The weather was perfect and there was so much to see and enjoy.

The educator form the Art Gallery taught us how to find something we wanted to paint, how to lightly sketch a very simple outline and then how to use watercolours.

We also explored some of the gardens. We saw large trees, a friendly fantail, saw flowers and plants of various colours and sizes, enjoyed the scent of the rose garden and made the most of the playground.

Thank you to the parents who were able to give their time and come with us. We couldn't have gone without you. We hope you had as much fun as we did.

We were very sun smart, so there are a lot of hats in the photos.... can you guess who is who?










































Twilight Fair 

Our school fair is next week, 20 March, 4.30 - 7.30pm.

The tamariki have been working very hard on our canvas art auction pieces. There is one for each Home Group. Thank you to Elizabeth, who has worked closely with the tamariki to complete our works.

The canvas art will go to auction on the night of the fair. 







Ngā mihi mahana,

Elizabeth, Stacey and Jo

Cheese Roll Wrap-up

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Phew, we got there. 600 dozen cheese rolls made and distributed! Today we had an extra production run to fill slip-ups in the ordering and distributing systems. If you are still missing any of your order, please email me.  I do have some spares in the freezer. We had a very upbeat and enthusiastic production team!





Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA Newsletter

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Twilight Fair News #One Week to go



We are so excited!!! One week to go until our Twilight Fair 4.30-7.30pm on the school grounds on Friday 20 March. Remember we desperately need more helpers so that we can make this epic night happen. If we don’t get enough helpers we will have to cut stalls and there will be massive queues, which will mean sad faces on the night :(. Click the following link: Would love to help at the Fair!

Fair HQ is still open, we will be busily sorting all the awesome high quality clothes, books and toys this week, but we will still be there with our sign up sheets and taking mystery bottles. Clear out your cupboards, send us a bottle - just needs to be unopened and in-date :) We will also still be selling raffle tickets. The prize team have done some amazing work and the prizes in the raffle are brilliant!


Enough admin, let us tell you about what fun activities we have in store!!

Attractions: There will be fabulous games and fair ground attractions, no matter what your budget we hope we have found something fun for everyone- Hair wrapping, corn toss, spin art, bouncy castles and orb football, dunk a dad, cash cube, chocolate wheel, to name just a few.


Food: Do Not Cook  on Friday. The food team have been hard at work and they have prepared a menu to suit everyone. The Barbeque will be sizzling with sausies and Stag burgers, we have beautiful curries and rice, kid friendly nachos, sushi and of course the best thing on an autumn night Hot Chips!!! To finish off we will have gorgeous cakes, with coffee and hot drinks on sale from our loyal supporter Wheelie Good Coffee. And for those who like their sweets cold and creamy, we have sundaes, slushies and spiders!

Pumpkin Competition: It’s been a tough season for growing Pumpkins, but don’t despair, you can buy a pumpkin and decorate or carve it. So Whether your pumpkin is large or small, painted or carved we have competitions galore.

To enter complete the online form - Pumpkin Competition or come to Fair HQ to register.

Art Auction: Ask your children about the Fair Art Canvas they are working on- there are some amazing collaborative artworks that will be auctioned off during the Fair. 

We hope to see you in the Auction house where we will also house the silent auctions, raffle and the Beckenham Blokes cake and the Pumpkin competitions.

Raffle & Silent Auction: Our raffle and silent auction this year are fabulous! The Mohair store have generously donated a gorgeous throw, amazing local jeweller Love Fool have given us some amazing earrings and another local business Power Built Tools have also given a prize package that includes a creeper seat and socket set!


Entertainment: We have members of the school Whānau performing including our very own international stars!

Amanda Atlas: Amanda embarked on her international career in 1999, spending ten years singing leading roles for various opera companies and orchestras in the US and Europe. She will be performing some Musical theatre numbers and has some of her students coming along to perform for us too.

Stephen McDaid: Stephen performs in New Zealand and Ireland as a solo artist and with a variety of original acts on both guitar and bass. He is a highly skilled performance artist who straddles all styles of music. Stephen will be performing cover songs and if we are really lucky we will enjoy listening to his daughter and ex pupil Morven.

Christchurch Samba band: Brazilian percussion Music, lead by Doug and his big Drum! It’s loud, has an infectious rhythm and will have you shaking your booty!
The Samba band has a current staff member (Jacky ❤) and other members have children who used to attend Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.






















Stalls: If shopping is your thing, we have, through the generosity of our sponsors, a wonderful array of silent auctions to bid on. There will also be a produce stall, a massive bake sale, plants, toys, books and some very nice clothes.


All of this work is to make-sure you have a great night, meet your community and our children have some fun. The bonus is that all the money we raise goes straight to school to update our sports uniforms - including getting some sizes appropriate for our smallest whānau, and to buy equipment to support the school in teaching the new digital curriculum.

We can't wait to see you there!!