Newsletter – Outdoor Spaces Update 1

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Newsletter - Outdoor Spaces Update 1
November 2018

An Outdoor Spaces Committee has been established to help guide and oversee the development of the outdoor spaces at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. The PTA has done an INCREDIBLE job over the past 2-3 years dedicating their fundraising efforts to enable us to develop the outside areas across the school.

The committee comprises of: Matthew Macdonald (BOT), Paulette Newton (staff), Amanda Wolt (PTA), Natalie Doering (parent) and Carmel Wade (parent/architect).

The committee has been meeting each fortnight and so far has worked together to:
Develop a set of guidelines and processes to enable the school to achieve the best outcome for our students. 
Identified the purpose of the outdoor spaces so there is a natural ‘flow’ across the school. Criteria:

  • Reflect the school’s cultural narrative
  • Accessible for all
  • Fun and meet the needs of all students
  • Able to grow as the school grows. 

3. Identified areas across the school for development and begun to create a timeline for these.
4. Present and ask for school engagement in the process. We have met with the Student School Council about using the school logo - Matau (hook) - to influence the shape of the renewed play space at the centre of the school. They were very excited about this!

We understand that this will be an ongoing plan that will have a number of smaller projects within it. The costings for each of the projects will need to be worked through. The fundraising the PTA has done will be a wonderful contribution towards getting these plans underway, but we don’t assume for a moment that it will cover the total costs! We will be making grant applications and seeking further funding from a variety of sources. Ministry of Education operational funding that the school receives each year is not able to be used to support significant capital investments such as these.

As the children are the Kaitiaki (guardians) of the school grounds and will be the ones using the spaces, it is essential they have a strong voice in this process. Much of the planning and design work will be developed and generated by the students, which is an authentic learning experience. This is such an exciting opportunity, and one that we know will take time to plan to ensure we get the best outcome possible. 

The first area that we hope to develop with the students is Pūkaki (new entrants hub). The students have begun the process of generating ideas for this area. We hope to share the ideas before the end of term and work towards development early in term 1.

We will put regular updates in the school newsletter to keep you informed of proposed plans, and at times we will be seeking your input and ideas and offers of support for working bees as we action different areas across the school.





Koru News Term 2 Week 4

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Kia ora i te whānau,

We are continuing to make the most of working and playing both outdoors and indoors, as the balmy weather persists.
Long rope skipping: working as a team.

Expert skippers take flight!

Literacy in Learning Through Play:
Our Learning Through Play photos focus on portraying the children as they engage in literacy-based activities. Reading and writing in a play setting ensures that the literacy learning is absolutely authentic in relation to that situation. The Literacy, in such situations, is driven by the children and represents a need that has presented itself in the play.

The children love playing 'schools' (Yes! They come to school, and 'play' schools!) and at one point in the game, the question was posed: " Can we have our own modelling book, please?"

A part of playing schools: practising handwriting...


...and reading.


The children requested their own visual timetable, which they then trimmed and laminated for their own whiteboard easel.

Here we are, awarding house points!

A Focus on Respect:
As a whole school, we have been putting even more of an emphasis on 'respect', beginning 2 or 3 weeks ago. We asked our children in Koru, what this word means, what it might look like, and what being respectful might sound like too. We have discussed who and what we need to show respect towards. Here are some of the thoughts that the children have come up with:

  • Tidy as your go (showing respect for our learning environment)
  • Be polite and use good manners (showing respect for self and others)
  • Be kind and caring (showing respect towards others)
  • Work and play quietly indoors (showing respect towards others)
  • Be helpful towards others (showing respect towards others)
  • Be caring towards, and with, our resources (showing respect for our environment)
The children are very focused on the value of respect, and are making impressive efforts to display respect in many, many ways throughout the day.
Showing respect for our environment

Jacinda visits Beckenham:
What a treat we all had at Beckenham last Thursday, when Jacinda came to visit us. She actually came in order to meet and speak with Lucy Gray, one of our wonderful Year 8 students, and our Strike 4 Climate organiser, and we were all lucky enough to be present when Jacinda arrived, and was introduced to us all by Lucy. You may well have read the full article about Lucy, and her hopes and dreams for our planet, in The Press yesterday.  Our Koru children were incredibly lucky, because they were invited to sit at the very front of the area where Jacinda and Lucy were going to stand. The children all showed Jacinda their brightest smiles and most sparkling eyes (this, they practised beforehand!). Unfortunately in these photos you can't see the smiles or the eyes, but you may recognise the backs of some heads...


Maths Problem Solving:
The children are working extremely well as they challenge themselves and are challenged, at Maths problem solving time (or DMIC, which is the acronym for Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities). During this part of the day, we always place a big emphasis on our 'groups norms'. Our group norms are the ideas the children came up with at the start of the year, being those behaviours and attitudes which they believe they would need to display if they were going to be doing their best learning. Some of these behaviours include:

  • smile at your buddy
  • use your buddy's name when you are speaking to him or her
  • help your buddy to understand
  • be kind and caring
  • take turns and share
  • ask your buddy a question if you don't understand.
Two buddies smiling at each other!
A great way of solving a tricky subtraction problem.

Alex and Chester showed that this same problem could be written as an addition equation.

Kiko and Natsune used the 100s board to help, as they went about solving the problem together...

...and here is their recording.






Handwriting:
We love handwriting time! The children show amazing focus and always put in impressive effort, under the watchful gaze of Bounce and Skip. We begin with finger strength and dexterity exercises, then we move on to practising picking the pen up and ensuring that our grip on the pen is correct, before beginning our letter formation practice. We are very proud of the children's beautiful work, and the progress that they are making in this area of their learning.
















Ka kite koutou. We hope you have a wonderful week.
Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Stacey, Kristika and Elizabeth

Term 2 Week 4 in Pōhutukawa

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Zones Cross Country

Congratulations to all of the students who represented our kura last week at the South Zone cross country. This was held last Tuesday at Halswell Quarry. We had 24 students from our hub, and according to Jenny and Nigel they did a fantastic job of displaying our school value of  'We love challenge'. Special congratulations and good luck to Kever Thorley and Josh Breitmeyer, who have qualified for the Canterbury cross country competition.











The Christchurch School Strike 4 Climate Team

The Christchurch School Strike 4 Climate Team have notified us that there will be another student strike for climate change on this Friday.

In a bid to recognise the advancements that need to be made another strike will occur on May 24th from 1 pm in the Entertainment Triangle in North Hagley Park. We invite school students, teachers and staff to attend the strike in support of a local, national and international change to the system in order to ensure the future generations, the youth of today, and the leaders of tomorrow, will inherit a livable planet. 

In order to meet our sporting commitments on Friday afternoon, we need to know who will be attending this strike. Can you please email by the end of Thursday, either 
to let us know if your child will be involved in this strike. 

More fantastic emotion writing

The end of this week sees us finish our current writing topic on emotion. If you have yet to read your child's piece of writing, ask them to share it with you, or show you, through Google Docs.
Here are some more examples of fantastic writing:

My First Time Horse Riding

My stomach tightened with nerves as I led the pony to the mounting block. I stepped onto the block while someone else held the pony still. I put my left foot comfortably into the stirrup and bounced into the saddle. I screwed up my face in fear, if the pony moved but he stayed still. I aimed to get my other foot in the stirrup but I missed. I aimed again and got in. Phew. It reassured me that both my feet were in the stirrups. The pony felt enormous to me but he was tiny. I was only seven! I took a deep breath. “Are you good up there?” the helper asked. “Yup,” I said hesitantly. The truth was, I wasn't ready, but how do you learn without doing it? The teenager clicked on the pony and he walked forward. I wobbled around, trying to keep my balance. By the time we got to the round pen, I had found my balance. I never thought that animals aka horses are so comfortable to sit on! She led me around the small round pen, while we waited for Bonnie. When Bonnie and our instructor came, we kept being led around the pen. Then the instructor asked if we wanted to ride without being led. I felt my butterflies in my tummy as the teenager walked beside me but didn't hold me. We learned to turn, go, and stop, and then we played a game of sneak up granny. Of course, I won! I started having fun and relaxing, as it was only Bonnie and me in the lesson. It was soooooo much fun, and now I get riding lessons/pony club.

By Tabea

 Fear factor!!

The last name gets pulled out of the bucket, but it isn’t me. Applause thunders through my ears as the challenge gets announced. You have to eat an eyeball, eeeeeww!!!! It sounds gross but I still want to do it. I hear that there are still more eyeballs to be eaten, so I shoot my hand up straight away. Katie is coming with metal tongs plopping sticky eyeballs into people's hands. I am getting even more excited. As she comes  closer and closer she gets to me and drops a sticky, squelchy eye ball in my hand waiting there 

I walk up to the humongous line of people waiting to eat the eyeball. Once everybody who wants to do the challenge has an eyeball to eat my anxiety kicks in. Then the countdown starts: 5,4,3,2,1! I hesitate for a second then reluctantly stuff it in my mouth. It tastes revolting! I am disgusted. I instantly ask Rae if I can get a drink from the drinking fountain by the classroom. She says yes so I race over as fast as I can. I have never run this fast, not even in cross country. Sluuuuuurp, I drink as much as I can to try to wash the taste out. 

The water just makes it worse. Now I feel nauseous - worse than ever. I go back to the line to be applauded for the task I have achieved. Now I am grateful that I have done it.

By Quinn

Splash

I clung to the side rail as we entered the dark gloomy cave. The only noises I could hear were screeching tracks, screams and trickling water. As we walked down the wet path I saw broken bars and caution tape. Now I was getting scared. Eventually we got a cart. I jumped in. Finally I thought.

Erch, the cart screeched up the track then when we got to the top of the hill edge we jerked to a stop. I felt worried. What if the track was broken? But that was exactly what the ride wanted me to think because next screech the cart wheeled down the track at top speed. Ahh! Where is this going? Curving, wurving, up, down, left, right. Then suddenly the cart dropped down and we splashed through a giant curtain of water. Woosh! It was over.

I got out of the cart sopping wet, took off my dripping headband and jersey and wrung them out. I looked up at Dad and asked him hopefully, “Again?”

By Julia

Special visitor

Today, just before lunch, we were very privileged to have the Rt. Hon. Jacinda Adern visit our school. She was here to speak with Lucy Gray and 5 other students from surrounding schools about the Climate Change Strike happening tomorrow. It was all very exciting, and a great experience for the students to see, hear and speak to our prime minister up close!









Kauri Whānau Urgent Message

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Kia ora everyone,

The Christchurch School Strike 4 Climate Team have notified us that there will be another student strike for climate change on this Friday.

In a bid to recognise the advancements that need to be made another strike will occur on May 24th from 1 pm in the Entertainment Triangle in North Hagley Park. We invite school students, teachers and staff to attend the strike in support of a local, national and international change to the system in order to ensure the future generations, the youth of today, and the leaders of tomorrow, will inherit a liveable planet. 

In order to meet our sporting commitments on Friday afternoon, we need to know who will be attending this strike. Can you please email either nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz or jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz  to let us know if your child will be involved in this strike before midday tomorrow, Thursday.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter May 17th 2019

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

This week we celebrated Support Staff Day on Thursday with a lovely morning tea.  We are so lucky to have such a wonderful team of teaching assistants and support staff supporting us all at Beckenham.  We also welcomed two new teaching assistants to our staff this week.  Scott Baker and Jamie John join us for term two to work in Kowhai and Koru.   

We ended the week with a couple of very special highlights.  The first was our first session of Waiata for the school for the year.  Steve Cooke and our Tuakana Team led the session which included some new waiata and revisiting some favourites.  A wonderful opportunity for our whole school to get together to learn Te Reo and sing together.


The second highlight was watching the Intermediate Hub’s dress rehearsal for their Showquest performance on Tuesday evening in the Town Hall.  The performance, which is approximately 5 minutes long, evoked a range of reactions, smiles, sighs, gasps and claps from the children.  Many of the adults in the audience also reported goosebumps and tears.  An incredibly powerful performance.  Thank you to the Kauri Team for their creativity, persistence and all the extra hours that go into making costumes, the choreography and planning.  We are all so proud of you.

Happiness is Autumn leaves!!!!


Have a happy Autumn weekend and we will see you on Tuesday after our Staff Only Day on Monday.

Nga mihi nui
Sue, Nigel and Paulette

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Thu 23 May -  PTA Meeting, All Welcome
Fri 24 May -  Celebration Assembly 11 - 11:30am.  All welcome
Fri 24 May - Weekly winter sport
Sun 26 May - Beckenham Booty Car boot sale.  9 - 11am
Mon 27 May - Kahikatea start fortnight of swimming
Wed 29th May - Possible one day strike by Teaching staff.  The school will be closed on this day if the strike goes ahead.
Fri 31 May - Weekly winter sport
Mon 3 June - Queen's birthday, public holiday

Note that school will be CLOSED on both Monday 20th May and Monday 12th August for Teacher Only Days

Term Dates

Click here to view 2019 term dates.

Citizen of the Week

Caleb Clancey - Year 6

Caleb, you are an awesome role model in our hub.  You settle to tasks quickly and put in your best effort.  You love to help others to succeed and you show empathy for others.

School Notices

Bingo Comedy Night

Dabbers at the ready, Jack & Kitty are looking forward to meeting you all on Saturday 18th May for the Kiwiana comedy Bingo Night.  Book your $20 tickets NOW.
https://forms.gle/sjYH8az6qr4MUz9QA

PB4L

PB4L–SW is one of a range of initiatives within the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) portfolio led by the Ministry of Education. PB4L came out of the Taumata Whanonga behaviour summit in 2009, which was convened in response to concerns about student behaviour in New Zealand schools.
PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) will be implemented over several years - this is not a quick fix.

What have we achieved over the past two terms:

The Ministry of Education is holding various workshops throughout the year, some for the PB4L Leads (Anna and Nigel) and some for the PB4L Team (we will introduce them in the next newsletter). This ensures that we are keeping on track with our goals and making sure the whole team is involved and informing the rest of the staff and the community.

At the end of the last term, we had the Ministry of Education carry out the School-Wide Evaluation. This evaluation aims to determine how accurately PB4L School-Wide is being implemented and was carried out to gain baseline data at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. We will provide feedback about our result later in the term.

During a full staff meeting (including support staff), each member completed the EBS (Effective Behaviour Survey) to identify what strategies are ‘in place’ and ‘not in place’ within our school. This is setting us up with the evidence to support positive behaviour in our school and links to our results.

We will be updating the school website with the PB4L Purpose Statement (soon) and some information about what PB4L-SW means at Beckenham.  We will also be sending out information regularly in the school newsletters.

If you have any questions about PB4L, please see Anna or Nigel.

Parking outside the School

When picking up your child from school, please ensure you stay off the painted yellow lines. These are there to ensure drivers and our road patrollers have a clear view of the road. There is a lot of parking on Eastern Tce and on Norwood Street if the drop off zone is busy or alternatively, you might need to make a circle of the block.  Please respect the purpose of these lines especially on wet days to maintain the safety of all our children and their whanau.

REMINDER Teacher Only Day Monday 20th May

School will be closed this coming Monday 20th of May for a Teacher Only Day.  If you need childcare, BOSCO is taking bookings.

Lost Property

We have an ever-increasing amount of lost property at school. When clothes are named, it is very easy to return items to students. We appreciate that purchasing school uniform items can be costly and naming clothing will prevent clothing being lost. Thank you so much for your help with this.



Parent Bookshelf

Many parents often request books to support them at home with parenting.  Historically we have kept these parent support books in the library and now they have been given a new place to live - the parent bookshelf in the school office. There are some incredible titles about reading, Growing Boys into Great Men, Raising Great Girls, dyspraxia, understanding ADHD,  understanding ASD, to name just a few. Feel free to pop into the office to take a look. Books can be issued at any time via a sign in/out book which is found on the shelf.


Possible Strike Action 29th May

New Zealand’s principals and primary teachers have just voted about what to do to get further government action on the current crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers.

We’re agreed – we can’t in good conscience accept the Government’s latest collective agreement offer because it does not begin to address the crisis. We have therefore voted for another course of action, this time involving secondary and primary teachers on May 29th.

Our school will be closed for instruction on Wednesday, May 29th. While we recognise this inconvenience we know this will cause, however, we need to send a clear message to the Government that we are standing strong for our students.

Already children’s education is suffering because of the difficulty in recruiting teachers, having enough support to cater learning differences and giving teachers time to effectively plan lessons, and complete the high administration requirements. We must take bold steps to turn this around.

Through our union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, we are asking for:

Time to teach. More resources and staffing to adequately support children with additional learning needs – this will benefit all children because teachers will be freed to spend more one-on-one time with every student.
A significant increase in teachers’ salaries so that they are properly valued for their qualifications and responsibilities, and as a country, we can recruit and retain teachers.

We appreciate your continued support on this important issue. For more information, please go to http://campaigns.nzei.org.nz/time/ or talk with your child’s teacher.

Ferndale News

This term we are focusing on Team game skills and sharing.


Here we are playing balloon tennis and making lego cities.


Sports News

Cross Country

We had a fantastic day of participation at our whole school cross country event. The sportsmanship and leadership displayed by our children was outstanding. Thank you to everyone who came along to support the children, it certainly added to the atmosphere.

Year 1 Champions: Laura Stoney and Ben Stoney
Year 2 Champions: Eadie Jenkins and Ollie Karst
Year 3 Champions: Cameron Inglis and Spencer Ingram
Year 4 Champions: Jade Inglis and Archie Arnott
Year 5 Champions: Torun Joergenson and Billy Murfin
Year 6 Champions: Mahli Boreham and Josh Breitmeyer
Year 7 Champions: Ruby McNiven and Erik Cassels-Brown
Year 8 Champions: Roxy Murfin and Ben Evans

We recognise the achievement of every child who participated in this event; all the competitors who ran their hearts out, those who supported others and those who took on important responsibilities to assist with the running of the event.

Since then, the top six placegetters from each race have competed at zone level. The event, which took place at Halswell Quarry this week, adds an extra layer of challenge, which our tamariki all took in their stride. All children ran a race to be proud of. The following children have qualified to represent our kura at Canterbury level on the 19th of June, Ben Evans, Erik Cassels-Brown, Lucky Lasiyal, Josh Breitmeyer and Kever Thorly.

Winter Sport

Today was our first day of winter sport. Some children in Years 5-8 travelled to Hagley and Nunweek Park for competitive games of hockey, football and netball, while other children had an introductory session to school-based winter sport. We also have 5 Year 7 and 8 boys who are joining St Martins to play rugby in a combined team on Thursdays.

Our first games were fantastic. The atmosphere on the bus home was buzzing as the children regaled the highlights of their game.

Congratulations to our players of the day who impressed their coach with their technical skill and sportsmanship.
Roxy Murfin, Cooper Reddecliffe, Eli McGuigan, Zoe Winsor, Helena Caunter, Zara McIvor, Sophia Brown and Charlotte Grey

PTA News

Beckenham Booty

Booty Bookings are NOW open for the Sunday 26th May Car boot Sale, located in the staff car park.  LIKE @BeckenhamBooty Facebook f\page for the latest updates.  Book NOW: https://forms.gle/WyierMvY94zHcaDK6

Disco

Save these dates -
Friday 14th June: Kids Disco
Saturday 15th June: Adults 80s/90s Disco.
More info to come, start practicing those moves!!!

Community Notices

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