Koru News 1/03/2024 Term 1 Week 5

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Kia ora whānau,

Wow! We have been having so much fun in Koru and made it through the first 5 weeks of this term! 

Maths:

We are starting to learn some Rapid Routines to begin our maths lessons. This term, we have been learning about 'Notice, Think, Wonder' tasks. A photo is shown to the children and they are asked the questions: "What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder?" These tasks provide a visual stimulus for tamariki to discuss, notice, think, and wonder about. This could include graphs, puzzles, pictures or graphics. We are learning to act like Mathematicians, which means the children are learning to look for patterns; take a risk and explain their thinking. 

Here is the image looked at, and all the ideas the children thought about. 

  • I notice a big diamond in the middle
  • there is a pattern with the diamonds, they are red and white
  • the triangles go together to make a diamond
  • there are squares
  • the triangles fit into the pattern
  • the shapes are all joined together
  • I think it is a floor
  • I wonder if they are tiles?

What other ideas do you notice, think and wonder about at home when looking at this image? We would love to hear your ideas!
What do you notice?
What do you think?
What do you wonder?

We can find numbers everywhere around us. At the end of Little Play and Big Play, the bell goes and the tamariki come back to Hangare (this is the name of our classroom) and stand on a number. I wonder what numbers you can see? 






Our mornings:
Georgia and Stacey are so impressed with all the children unpacking their bags each morning independently. When the bell goes, the children leave what they are doing and come and sit on the mat. We talk about 'showing 5' when we are doing 'super school sitting!' Legs are crossed; hands are resting; eyes are looking at the front; ears are listening; and mouths are quiet (maybe even with a beautiful smile!) Each morning say good morning and check who is at school, begin with our karakia and sing our National Anthem. Then we look at our Daily Notices, where we find out what flag is flying on the flagpole each day, look at the word of the week and any other notices. 

On Mondays, our first block of learning is Learning Through Play. Then, after morning tea and Little Play, in our middle block, we have whole class and small group Literacy lessons. After Big Play and lunch eating, we have Maths, Kinetic Letters with Bounce and Skip (handwriting), and finish with a shared story. 


We hope you have a wonderful and restful weekend. See you all on Monday.
Stacey, Georgia and Paul

stacey.mclachlan@beckenham.school.nz
georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz

Pōhutukawa Update, Term 1, Week 5

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Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all,

Huge congratulations to all of the Swimming Sports competitors who represented themselves so admirably yesterday. Such a fantastic way to show 'We Love Challenge'! Keep an eye out for some photos of the event from our Media Team. Thank you also to the parents and whānau who supported the tamariki at the pool, and in the preparing them for the afternoon. A special mention to those who have qualified for Zones. Nau mai te wero! And so, on we swim into the second half of the term. Please read on for some important information about what we are learning in Pōhutukawa.

Pepeha

As part of our 2024 schoolwide focus on the concept of 'Identity', we are currently learning about our pepeha in Pōhutukawa. The tamariki have been learning about how and when people came to Aotearoa, New Zealand, and making a differentiation between 'tangata whenua' (people of the land', or people with Māori whakapapa/ancestry), and 'tangata Tiriti' ('People of the Treaty of Waitangi, or people with no Māori ancestry). You can read more about the differentiation here.
 
We will be leading all of the students through the process of writing and learning their pepeha using a template that reflects their ancestry, and respects our local mana whenua. We believe it's important to acknowledge the personal nature of pepeha and that it should reflect each individual, their whānau, and the story of their ancestry. We encourage you to discuss and look through your child's pepeha, and include whatever you think supports your child's identity.
 
If you have any questions or you would like to discuss anything, please get in touch. Mā tātou kātoa te waka e hoe, we're all rowing the waka together.

Maths and Reading Groups

Maths and Reading groups have now started and everyone has been allocated a teacher for these core subjects - the final stage of our regular daily timetable. We encourage you to take some time to ask your tamariki to show you what they are now able to access through their  Maths and Reading Google Classrooms and Sites. These are a great way to keep the learning going at home, too. The treasure is learning, he taonga te ako!

Kia tino pai ngā rā whakata. Have a great weekend, everybody.

The Pōhutukawa Team

Kahikatea Team News T1 Week 5

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Kia ora Whānau, 

Wow, we are now halfway through the term! Our tamariki are truly demonstrating our school kete values as they learn new routines, get to know new friends and challenge themselves to meet new learning goals. We are so proud of everyone for all their amazing mahi, ka rawe koutou! 


Word of the Week

Our word of the week is RESPECT. 

Respect is an attitude of caring about people and treating them with dignity. Respect is valuing ourselves and others. We show respect by speaking and acting with courtesy. When we are respectful, we treat others as we want to be treated. 


Structured Literacy 

Teachers are in the process of completing literacy assessments. You may notice that your child has not yet come home with a decodable text. Once we have the most up-to-date information about your child's literacy needs we will resume sending books home. 

When you have time these videos show what our literacy stages look like for our Year 1 and 2 tamariki. 


Learning Through Play 

Our tamariki are highly motivated to play and explore new learning as independently as possible. When planning for our LTP sessions we try to provide diverse play options.  We are always looking for new things to engage our tamariki, including: 
  • Water play toys
  • Craft and construction (wool, boxes, buttons, lids, containers etc) 
  • Magazines, coloured paper or card, posters, old calendars
  • Stickers/labels 
  • Good dress-up costumes (including hats, accessories, shoes) 
  • wrapping paper
  • ribbon or string
  • boxes for box construction (cereal boxes, biscuit boxes, small paper bags, egg cartons etc


Photos

Photos from... learning through play, maths, and fun with our Year 7 leaders and all things fun here in Team Kahikatea. Enjoy! 





















Reminders: 

  • please name your child's belongings
  • please remind your child/ren they do not need to bring toys to school
  • hats are to be worn during break times

If you need to korero with your child's teacher please remember you can email us: 

sarah.angelo@beckenham.school.nz
ella.rainbow@beckenham.school.nz
quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz

Arohanui, from Team Kahikatea 

Amber, Quynh, Lisa, Sarah, Ella & Katie 



Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 5

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Kia ora whānau,

Welcome to our Week 5 blog! Here is some information on what's been happening over the last two weeks and what is coming up. 

Native Nurturing Learning Trips to Victoria Park

We are very excited about our trips to Victoria Park on the 13th and 14th March. Children will definitely need their hats, water bottles, jumpers and lunch box. 

Schedule  

Weds morning: Anna M's group      Weds afternoon: Anna R's group
Thurs morning: Nick's group           Thurs afternoon: Rowe's group
Krystal's group will go in smaller groups with one of the groups above.

We will:

  • Explore the different habitats that exist in Banks Peninsula and identify why they are valuable.
  • Explain how plants and animals that live in native forest and tussock lands are interdependent.
  • Explain how pests impact our native forests and explore some solutions to these problems.
  • Identify actions that they can take to encourage sustained growth of native animal and tree species.

Learn more about New Zealand nature with this booklet from DOC, designed for caregivers and their children.

Maths 

We're so impressed with how quickly students are getting to their maths class and embracing all our different types of learning. All groups are working on place value, number knowledge and basic facts. Each week, students complete exercise and application tasks, open-ended and unfamiliar problem-solving tasks, games and teacher focus groups. The akōnga especially love our introductory 'Rapid Routines'. These are fun maths thinking tasks, such as Which One Doesn't Belong.

Science: Gathering Data by Listening 

During the afternoons, we're enjoying tasks from other curriculum areas, such as social sciences, sport and P.E., science and interpersonal learning. Some classes loved an activity which involved listening to and testing sounds in science recently!




Discovery 

Enjoy looking at our recent Discovery pictures!







Top Team

Today Top Team came to Beckenham and the Kōwhai children had a great time trying lots of different team-building activities out on the park. They worked in teams of 6-8, competing against other teams as they rotated around a variety of tasks. They showed amazing co-operative skills and really embraced the school value 'We Get There Together'. It really was wonderful to see and we are so grateful that the weather turned out so well for us. Have a look at the photos below:




















Have a great weekend!

From the Kōwhai team





Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Schoolwide Newsletter, Rāmere (Friday) 23 February 2024, Week 4

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

On Tuesday we hosted a whānau workshop on 'Parenting in the digital age'.  Rory from an organisation called Attitude, spoke to whānau about supporting tamariki as they negotiate the online world: Social Media - messaging, scrolling or watching, and gaming. The overarching message was to take time to understand the forums your child wants to use, learn how they work and what works well and what are the challenges. Have coaching conversations with your child before they use social media about what would they do if...? How would that make them/others feel? Just as we teach our children to swim and be safe in the water, what do we need to prepare them for before the online world?

He also emphasised the importance of monitoring how long they have screen time. Just like eating food, what are our tamariki consuming/watching? What is too much or just right for your whānau? Screentime can affect the amount of sleep we get so where are devices kept at night time in your house? Do they have a centralised location to get them out of their bedrooms? What are the natural stopping cues in your house? Just like credits on a programme/movie what are the indicators that it's time to switch off? No phones at meal times, no phones before school, what else could you do before going on a device etc.

Rory shared online places to get support such as Netsafe and the Parenting Place websites. He also suggested a Digital contract that whānau could have together and shared this example which can be printed or used for ideas to come up with your own whānau contract about devices.

Overall, stay actively involved. As we coach our children through so many aspects of life as we prepare them for the world ahead, we need to do so with digital literacy.

Leadership Week
The Year 7 and 8 team have spent time this week learning about the 7 habits that can support leadership. They have had activities to support good communication and coming together as a team. Thank you to all the adults who supported these learners with the programme this week. We look forward to them sharing more about what they did and what they learned with the rest of the tamariki. 

Good luck to our tamariki who are taking part in the Weetbix TRYathlon this weekend. We have had just over 60 entrants from our kura alone!

Ngā mihi nui
Jo Smith - Tumuaki (Acting Principal)

Important Dates

(you can also find the Community Calendar on our website here)

Wed 28 Feb - BoT Meeting, 5.30-7.30PM, Staffroom
Wed 28 Feb - PTA Meeting, 7.30-9.30PM
Thu 29 Feb - School Swim Sports, 12.30-3PM, Wharenui Pool
Mon 11 Mar - Zone Swimming, 9-12.30PM, Wharenui Pool
Wed 27 Mar - Canterbury Swimming
Wed 27 Mar - BoT Meeting, 5.30-7.30PM, Staffroom
Wed 27 Mar - PTA Meeting, 7.30-9.30PM
Fri 29 Mar - Good Friday (kura/school closed)
Mon 1 Apr - Easter Monday (kura/school closed)
Tue 2 Apr - Kura/School closed
Fri 12 Apr - Last day of Term 1
Mon 29 Apr - First day of Term 2
Fri 3 May - Welcome Assembly, 9.15-9.30am, Hall
Tue 14 May - School Cross Country TBC
Wed 22 May - PTA Meeting, 7.30-9.30PM
Wed 29 May - BoT Meeting, 5.30-7.30PM, Staffroom
Fri 31 May - Staff Only Day (kura/school closed)
Mon 3 Jun - King's Birthday (kura/school closed)
Wed 26 Jun - BoT Meeting, 5.30-7.30PM, Staffroom
Wed 26 Jun - PTA Meeting, 7.30-9.30PM, Staffroom
Fri 28 Jun - Matariki (kura/school closed)
Fri 5 Jul - Last day of Term 2

Term Dates: Click here to view  2024 term dates

Citizen of the Week

Daniel McKean - Year 6 (Week 3)

Daniel, thank you for always being the best you can be! You encapsulate our kete values with your diligence, your determination, your curiosity, and your subtle sense of humour. You have tremendous mana amongst your peers and it's wonderful to see how you quietly lead the way for others to follow in our team. Tino pai rawa atu kia koe, Daniel.

Citizen of the Week

Daniel Crump - Year 3 (Week 4)

Daniel, you are a role model student, demonstrating the school values each and every day. You have a thirst for learning, an exceptional work ethic and work diligently to achieve goals. You are friendly. Ka pai, Daniel! Keep up the fantastic work!

School Notices

Kia Kaha Waitaha

Our Year 7/8 students decided to send a message of appreciation to the firefighters working in the Port Hills this week. Our thoughts are with them and everyone affected by the fires. 

Walk or Wheel to School Week


In week 6, from Monday 4th March to Friday 8th March 2024, our school is participating in Walk or Wheel to School Week, brought to you by Christchurch City Council. This fun and action-packed week is to promote walking and wheeling to school. There are daily themes and prizes up for grabs for students who participate. For more information head over to the Christchurch City Council webpage. We can’t wait to get started next week!

If students walk or wheel to school 3 mornings or more during the week they will go in the draw to win spot prizes.  Cards that students need to fill out if they are participating will be sent home (pictured below). Tamariki (children) need to write both their name and hub on the back of this card. 


PTA News

Request for help!

If you are available to help set up the tent at Jelly Park Stadium on Saturday night or Sunday morning for the Weetbix Triathlon, please contact Carol at: pta@beckenham.school.nz

Order your yummy hot cross buns now! 

Ordering for our fundraiser is up and running - Our PTA are raising money to help update the Kapa Haka uniforms and replace the school's gazebo which was broken last year.

You can fill in the paper order form which should be in your child's bag (spare forms will be kept in the school office).   Paper forms can be returned to the box in the school office,. Please make sure any cash is in an envelope, or note clearly the date paid.

OR - order online here.


If you have any questions please contact pta@beckenham.school.nz or via Facebook Messenger.

BOT Update

Term 1 Policy Review

In term 1 we are reviewing topics in the Governance and Management, Parents and Whānau, and Documentation and Self-Review Policy sections. 
Who reviews our policies and procedures?

All reviews are open to board, staff, students, and the school community (parents/caregivers/whānau).
Anyone can review any policy/procedure that has a review button. The board is responsible for board-level overarching policies. 

To start reviewing, click on a topic name above, then click the Start your review button. If a link is inactive, our school doesn't have the topic.

When we review our policies with SchoolDocs, we are reviewing each policy for its content as well as how well the school implements it. To share your comments and rate its implementation, click the "Start your review" button, or see detailed instructions below.
  1. Visit the website https://beckenham.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
  2. Enter the username (beckenham) and password (pride).
  3. Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.
  4. Read the policies up for review.
  5. Click the Start your review button at the top right-hand corner of the page.
  6. Select the reviewer type.
  7. Enter your name (optional).
  8. Follow the prompts to show that you've read the topic and enter your feedback if you'd like to comment.
  9. Agree to the privacy statement and click “Submit review”.
If you don't have internet access, school office staff can provide you with printed copies of the policy and a review form.

Community Notices

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

Christchurch City Council Speed Changes 


Christchurch City Council have let us know they're making it safer for our ākonga (students) to get to and from kura (school) in our area. You'll notice speed signs changing to 30km/h in our area, as well as some changes to line markings in areas around our school neighbourhood.

It's important that everyone takes responsibility for safety on our roads. We can all do this by adjusting our speed to the conditions and speed limits, especially around schools and surrounding suburbs.

To learn more about this project, you can visit the Council's Safer speeds webpage, where there's also a map of which streets will have speed limit changes.




Sea Week is coming up, 2-10 March, and there are heaps of fun ways you can get involved. Activities and events range from creative craft sessions through to beach clean ups.
https://seaweek.org.nz/