Soup and cheese roll lunch next week.

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On Monday and Tuesday next week we will be selling tomato soup and a cheese roll for lunch. $3 will buy a cup of soup and one cheese roll, or two cheese rolls. Koru and Kowhai's day is Monday and Pohutukawa and Kauri on Tuesday.

Children purchase their tickets by the flagpole before school.

To give us an idea of quantities to prepare, please fill in this very quick form.

Many thanks for supporting Kauri fundraising.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 1

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We have enjoyed welcoming everyone back to school this week. Unfortunately Hannah is unwell at the moment. We hope to have her back on board by Thursday. I will be in and out of the hub over the next four weeks. I will be teaching 50% of the time and will spend the rest of the time in the office as acting DP, while Sandy is away on a principal exchange in Australia. We are lucky to have Mel filling in for me. She is an experienced Year 7 & 8 teacher, with a multitude of skills and talents.

Cyber Safety:

Over the school holidays we were alerted to several Instagram pages that involved children from our hub. These pages had been set up anonymously and asked posters to request the owner give an honest opinion of what they thought of the poster. Accounts such as these have the potential to cause a lot of damage to the well-being of our children. One page started with warm fuzzy comments, but the 'honesty' promise led to some not so complimentary comments as well. Another page contained quite hurtful comments.  We had concerns on several levels, both for the person(s) who had set up the accounts and also for the many students who were asking for opinions of themselves. We have contacted the parents of the children we knew about who were involved directly. Due to the way the pages have been set up, we were not able to identify all of the children who posted. On Monday we had a very productive discussion about this at school, and will continue to revisit cyber-safety issues. It would be great to also have discussions at home to reinforce messages of safe on-line use.  One of our key messages is, if it is not something you would feel comfortable asking or saying to a person face to face, then don't say it on-line. Thanks for your support with keeping our tamariki safe on line.

Feedback:

We would like to gather some feedback from you on how this year is going for your child. We will use this information to continue to develop what we do in the Intermediate Hub. We would also like to use some of your comments at our Year 6 Open Evening which we will be holding in a couple of weeks time. Please click on this link to complete a brief feedback form.

Ski Trip:

Many thanks to everyone for filling in the ski info form. If you offered to loan ski clothing, please name this and sent it along to school in a named bag - preferably by the end of this week. We need to match gear to children who need it, next week.

Cantamath:

Your child will have brought home a sheet outlining the choices for their Cantamath project, on Monday. If you have yet to see this sheet, please check their bag. All children need to complete a project at home over the next three weeks. If they need inspiration, there is a slideshow with photos of past projects on google classroom, which they can access at home. If they need to discuss ideas, we encourage the children to talk with us before school, after school or at break times this week. We appreciate your encouragement from home, to make sure this project is completed well.

Speech Writing:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will be running our story telling speech motivation and start discussing ideas. Thanks to those of you who have already talked about this at home. The children will have the choice of retelling a traditional story, telling a story from the point of view of a different character, creating a fractured fairytale or telling a story of their own. On Thursday we will look at exemplars, then writing will begin next week. The more talking about the story before the children write, the better. Thank you for supporting them with this.

Winter Tournament:

Jenny now has enough coaches / managers for all Year 7 & 8 winter sport teams. Many thanks to those who are helping out.  All children involved in the tournament need to come to school with sports uniform, drink bottle, substantial lunch, shin pads and mouth guards - as required, on Monday, July 30th. The tournament takes place in the morning, with the children back at school in the afternoon.

Learning Conferences:

A reminder that school finishes at 2pm on Tuesday and Thursday next week for learning conferences. If you have yet to book, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz or click on this link and use the code z8vr4  In our hub, please allow 30 minutes for your conference. The children will share their learning with you and their home-group, maths and, possibly, reading teachers, will drop by to discuss progress and any questions you may have. This model has worked well for our older children since we started working collaboratively several years ago.

Soup and Cheese Roll Lunch:

Next Tuesday children can bring along $3 for a tomato soup and cheese roll lunch. We would love children to bring their own cups, but do have some disposable ones for those who need to use these. Funds will support future Intermediate Hub field trips.

Intermediate Hub Open Evening for Year 6 Families

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We look forward to welcoming Year 6 families into the Intermediate Hub on Monday August 6th, between 7 and 8pm. This is an opportunity to see what happens in the intermediate years at Beckenham, both in and out of our hub. There is lots to find out about. Come along with your questions and get informed!

New uniform supplier for Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto

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Kia ora koutou


As indicated at the end of last term we are happy to announce a new uniform supplier for Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.  This is effective immediately. 

Thanks to everyone who completed the recent ‘Uniform Survey’.
The responses were reviewed & consequently a new supplier was sought.
We are pleased to announce that Mainland Uniforms​ will be the NEW supplier of the Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto uniform.

Mainland Uniforms are a local company that have been supplying Christchurch schools uniform for over 100 years. They have recently opened a city store, conveniently located at 189 Peterborough St (next to Knitwear) with ample off-street parking.
Opening hours are as follows: Monday - Friday 9am-5pm & Sat 10am-1pm.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto uniform will be stocked at this store & available for purchasing from the beginning of Term Three.
Generic items of the uniform (plain red polos, plain black track pants, culottes & shorts) can still be sourced from other stores but Mainland Uniform will be the only supplier of our logo items (red polar fleece zipped jacket, red polycotton sweatshirt & the senior jacket)
They can also supply these generic items & are at comparable prices to the previous supplier, conveniently providing a one stop shop.

Mainland Uniforms also offer an online service for those unable to make it to the shop. A direct link can be found on the school website OR via http://www.mainlanduniforms.co.nz/ -click on Beckenham ​Te Kura o Pūroto​ link & the relevant uniform menu will drop down for selection.
The uniform will remain the same and logoed items will display the NEW school logo. Your current uniform stock can be continued to be worn even if it displays the “old” logo.
Responses from the survey also indicated a “natural fibre” item would be appreciated.
Mainland Uniform will be supplying a thick red plain merino top, to be worn as a jersey.
A plain black skort has also been added to the uniform list along with double-kneed plain black fleece track pants.

Layby will be a service that can NOW be offered over the whole year. A 10% deposit will be required & direct debit can be set up. From September, every year, Mainland Uniforms also offer a 10% discount on layby items in preparation for the new school year. On completion of the layby, if the child has outgrown the item it can be easily swapped for the correct size.
Mainland Uniforms have assured the school that stock levels will be kept high & if there isn’t a particular size, it will be sourced & available within 1-2 weeks (including logo items).

We are very excited to be working with Mainland Uniforms & encourage you to visit the City Store or check out their online store.

Mainland Uniforms @ City
Opening Hours
Mon-Fri: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sat: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Address: 189 Peterborough Street 

Phone: 03 377 6771

Email: city@mainlanduniforms.co.nz

Learning Conferences: Book now for 31 July and 2 August

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Learning Conferences

Kia ora whānau

At the end of this newsletter is the information you need to book your child's next Learning Conference on Tuesday 31st July or Thursday 2nd August - Week 2 of the coming new term.

Feedback from Learning Conference review 2017

Following the learning conferences in Term 3 last year, we asked for your feedback on a number of aspects of the learning conference process and outcomes. Thank you very much to the 120 people who responded to this survey. This was a significant response to a request for feedback.

Some trends became very clear and we learned that the new format of children directing the learning conferences and a fluid approach to meeting with all of the teachers working with your child (particularly from Years 1-6) had mixed responses from whānau.

This is seen by the results of the graph below (where 1 = not beneficial and 5 = extremely beneficial)



There was also a mixed response to the statement: "There was enough time to talk with the teacher about the learning." seen on the graph below:



We were heartened by the response to the following question about whether the purpose of the learning conference had been met (where 1=not met and 5= completely met):

We were also heartened by the response to the statement "The teacher(s) really knew my child and his/her next steps" 


What was the most helpful were the 71 individual 'additional comments' that you took the time to write. These really captured the individual stories we needed to hear and helped explain in more detail why you had responded to the questions above in the way you had.

We have done lots of reflecting on the feedback that we received on the process we used last year, and the opportunities and challenges that it provided for whānau, children and the teachers.

Whilst finding a model that works perfectly for every child and their whānau would be wonderful, it is not realistic. What we have done, is taken all of your feedback, and tried to improve the areas that were causing the most concern.

We have focused on improving the following areas:
  • ensuring that you have guaranteed time with your child's point of contact teacher
  • consistency within and across teams 
  • scaffolding the process to better support all children to be actively engaged in the conversation about their learning
  • making sure that the learning conference is a 'conversation' about learning and next steps, not just a 'show and tell'
  • having the learning conferences for Years 1-6 be 15 minutes with just the point of contact teacher and more support in place for the child, teacher and whānau to each be able to lead the conversations.
  • keeping the learning conferences at Year 7/8 longer (30mins) with the students expected to take more leadership in their conferences with all three of their teachers

Please book a Learning Conference for each of your children now...

The next Learning Conferences will be taking place in Week 2 of the new term, on Tuesday 31st July and Thursday 2nd August. Note that school will finish at the earlier time of 2pm on both days to allow for Learning Conferences to happen.

If you want your child to stay at school between 2pm and 3pm on one or both of those days, please remember to let Jacky in the office know (office@beckenham.school.nz) so we can arrange supervision.

To book, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz or click on this link and use the code z8vr4

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy and the team.