Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Our thoughts have been with all of the families impacted by the tragic events of the past five days. We also share with the rest of Christchurch in our appreciation of the tireless efforts put in by the hundreds who continue to work together, in many different roles, to bring the fires under control.

While this afternoon had been planned to be our first House event where the children spent time on the park in their house groups, getting to know the younger and older children in their house group, the rain was so welcome that spending the time singing together in the hall was no hardship at all.

Today we saw the arrival of a large crane onto the West building site as the rafters were hoisted into place.

Citizen of the Week

Cooper Reddecliffe - Year 4

Cooper, you are growing into your role as a junior leader. You demonstrate the Beckenham School values "We love challenge" and "We get there together" by showing effort and enthusiasm for your learning and by helping others in the hub to complete tasks. You have shown persistence and resilience since the beginning of the term, demonstrating a growth mindset to your peers and teachers. Thanks you for all of your effort so far, Cooper. You are a superstar who makes our hub rock!

Sharing our Learning

Kowhai Team

 Inspiration Stations In Hub 7/8/9

We are now starting the day with Inspiration Stations which are proving extremely popular with the children in Hub 7/8/9. We have various stations for the children to work at ranging from Lego challenge stations to play dough creations to puppet plays. We have also managed to include a bit of measurement too. The children were challenged to find the right measurement tool to measure their feet, hands, ankles and wrists and they also compared their heights to one another. It was a bit tricky but they managed by doing it with their buddies and getting there together!

Key Values in Team Kowhai:

For the last two weeks the children have been focussing on our key values of “We care” and “We get there together”. This is really important as we get to know each other and begin to establish our ways of working together.

We have been using kind words like “Can I help?”, “Are you okay?”, “You are awesome!” and we have been practicing kind actions such as Hi 5s, smiling, looking at people when they talk and helping people.

We know how important it is that everyone feels safe and happy in our hubs. One of the ways that we have been practicing this is by participating in our hub Inspiration Stations. During this time the children are working co-operativley on a variety of different activity stations. When choosing a station, the focus is on the two school values, “We love learning” and “We love challenge”. The teacher’s role is to question what  the children are learning and for the children to be able to explain why they have chosen the task and how they know that they are thinking.
“I know when I am thinking because I have to do things much more slowly.” Zoe
“I am challenging myself by trying to make a 3D minion. I’m using my 2D minion as my guide.” Emma and Justine

Mindfulness

In Kowhai team, we believe in the importance of teaching the children how to stay calm and relaxed. Each afternoon we have time to give our bodies a time to stop and for us to think about being calm and relaxed. We are currently learning how to do belly breathing which helps us if we ever feel anxious or upset. This is when we have to breathe deeply so our tummies go right out!

Junior School Leaders

As we are on two sites, the Year 4 students in our team have been given the opportunity to become Junior School Leaders. We have been incredibly impressed with the high level of maturity and reliability the Year 4 children have demonstrated. At present we have children being responsible for being receptionists at morning tea, organising lunch monitors, being milk monitors and sport shed supervisors. Here are some of our Term 1 leaders. In Term 2, we will allocate new leadership roles to provide the children with the opportunity to become a leader if they haven’t already or to try a new role.

Staff Profile

School Notices

Congratulations

Congratulations to Amanda (our NE teacher in Hub 10/11 last year) and Callum McLean on the arrival of their bonny boy, Arthur.  Mum, Dad and Arthur are all doing well and loving being together as a family.

Lunchonline:

Pita Pit has amended their menu to include a mandatory size option. This is to accommodate the children who find the kids size pita a little small.
The two choices are Regular Size or Kids Size.
The Kids Size is the pita that is currently being supplied. The Regular Size are larger and the size you would order in store.
So, next time you order your Pita Pit, you will be prompted to select a size if you forget.

School Road Patrol:

We still require some more willing parent helpers to support our children by supervising morning road patrol on Sandwich Road. Please contact Michelle Maule on deputy,principal@beckenham.school.nz if you are able to help out with this and keep our children safe.

Sports News

Beckenham School Orienteering

The Beckenham School orienteering group are looking forward to another great year and welcome anyone who would like to come along.

We will be organising weekly orienteering training sessions on Monday afternoons starting on March 13th. We also take part in many events put on by the local orienteering club. These usually take place on Sundays but there is currently a summer series of Tuesday evening events underway. Orienteering is suitable for children from year 5 up to do on their and any age to do accompanied by an adult or older child. If you or your child are interested to try orienteering contact Jenni jennia.home@gmail.com to be added to the Beckenham orienteering mail list. You can come along to as many or as few orienteering sessions as you would like.

The highlight for 2016 was the trip by 5 Beckenham students to the Australian Orienteering champs in Queensland. The group achieved many excellent results with the best being in the relay championships. Seven teams representing various Australian states battled the two New Zealand teams in the 12 and under category; NZ1, including Kaia Joergensen, emerged the victors while NZ2 consisting wholly of Beckenham students, Rosie Zinzan-Dickie, Daisy York and Isaac Macdonald took out second place!

Community Notices

Girls Brigade:

The 5th ChCh Girls Brigade Company, part of Beckenham Methodist Church, is looking for new girls.
We meet every Wednesday during the school term at the Church Hall on Martin Avenue.  We enjoy fun activities to share, inspire and develop physical, art, craft social and educational skills.
5-8 yrs meet from 6-7pm and 9yrs and over meet from 6-7:30pm.
Please phone Dianne Claughton: 3322889 for further information.

Cashmere Netball Trials: 

Trials are being held on Sunday 12th March & 19th March for years 6-13. No trials for years 5 and below. Please visit www.sporty.co.nz/cashmerenc for more information.  All trials will be carried out at Hagley Netball Courts.

Highland Dancing Classes

Highland Dancing classes for Boys and Girls are held at the Caledonian Hall, 5 Michelle Road, Wigram, commencing on Saturday, the 1st April.   All new entrants should be at the hall by 9.30am for a starting time of 9.45am.    Boys and Girls from Age 5 years upwards plus any that are due to turn 5 in the near future will be very welcome.     This year we are making a special drive to attract more boys to join our many young female dancers.  The learning of Highland Dancing contributes to children’s bodily strength, musical appreciation and  co-ordination, as well as providing the opportunity to socialise with their peers. Highland Dancing can become a life-time interest. All information on our classes can be obtained by emailing calyhighland@paradise.net.nz or c.cole@clear.net.nz or visiting our facebook page – Canterbury Caledonian Society Highland Dancing or the Canterbury Caledonian Society website – Highland Dancing.   Our Caledonian Society Classes are kept at a minimal cost to accommodate family budgets. All enquiries will be welcomed.

Kia ora whānau

Today our thoughts continue to be with the firefighters and teams who are supporting them. 

Our focus at school has been to reassure our children of their safety and, once again, remind them that school is a safe place and we will look after one another here.

Before lunch we were made aware of the following health warning from the CDHB.

Based on that information, we made the decision to keep the children on the Beckenham site indoors at lunchtime. Champion St was less impacted and they continued on as normal.

We were advised at 1:55pm that the Champion St site had no power and we are aware that power has gone out in other parts of the city. Power was back on again by 2:25pm. Our Beckenham site has had continuous power.

Lack of power, particularly in summer, is not a reason we would usually close the school so we are continuing on as normal.

Our amazing PTA have contacted the fire service, and have posted the following message on the Beckenham School PTA facebook page today:

BOSCO will be carrying on as normal - and will keep the children indoors, using both the BOSCO rooms and the hall. If you need to contact BOSCO, pls call Yvette on 027 645 6632

Kind regards

Sandy and the Team