2026 Koru Team News – Term 1 Week 2

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Koru Team News 2026

Term 1, Week 2

Kia Ora E Te Whānau, 

We have had a wonderful and positive first two weeks of school. We have been so impressed with how our tamariki are coming into school and organising their belongings and choosing something fun to do to start their day. 






Literacy - Letter Learning

We have started our literacy learning and you may have seen some letter learning coming home and up on the wall. We are practising the letter name and the sound it makes as a key skill for reading. 



Kinetic Letters Handwriting

This week, we started our Kinetic Letters Handwriting Program. The first stage of this involves strengthening our bodies, ready for writing. You will see in the photos below that we have been crawling and holding different animal poses to get our muscles strong. Can your child show you the meerkat or gorilla pose? Or maybe the lizard or lion pose? A much-loved part of this program is our monkey friends, Skip and Bounce. Some of you may have had a visit from them already. If not, there will be one soon! The monkeys come with a book, with all the instructions on the front, so you and your child can prepare a story to share with us.





Art

This week we read about Greedy Cat, a cheeky little ginger cat who is always hungry! The tamariki had a lot of great knowledge about colours and mixing primary colours to make secondary colours. We put this into practice, making Greedy Cat's gingery colour for our own paintings.



 

Friendship List 

If you would like your phone number and email address to be included in a friendship list, please email Nicola (nicola.reddecliffe@beckenham.school.nz). This is a great way to get in contact with other families and organise play dates. A new list will come out each term.

Cyber Safety - Staying Safe Online

As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s important parents and whānau help them
stay safe. Now is a great time to talk to them about how we use the internet and digital
technology.

Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have
all the information they need to talk about online safety.

If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.


Have a fantastic weekend. We look forward to seeing all your smiling faces next week. 

Ngā Mihi, 
Kendall, Nicola, Elizabeth and Stacey

Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 2

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Kia ora e te whānau,

Welcome to our 2026 blog! We have had a fantastic start to the year in the Kōwhai hub. Everyone is settling in well and becoming familiar with new routines in our new learning space. This year, each child has their own cubby for bags, and after a few early teething problems, we are all remembering where our spots are!

Over the first few weeks, we are focusing on getting to know one another within our homegroups and establishing our daily routines. This time is important for helping the children build a strong sense of security and belonging in their learning environment.

Girls Smash Cricket

Yesterday, all of the girls in the Kōwhai team had the opportunity to take part in a cricket session to encourage them to give the sport a go. They practised their bowling and batting skills through a range of fun games and activities, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

If your child is interested in joining a cricket club, they were given a leaflet with further information. The closest club is based in Beckenham, making it a very convenient option.





Top Team

This is a friendly reminder about our Top Team event next week. Weather permitting, it will be held on Wednesday 18th February in the afternoon at the park and will feature a variety of fun team-building activities.

As some water activities are planned, please ensure your child brings a change of clothes (including shoes) and a towel in their bag to use afterwards.

A big thank you to the parent helpers who have kindly offered their support — we truly couldn’t run events like this without you!

Construction

During Discovery time, many of our children love getting creative and building all sorts of things using cardboard boxes. At the moment, our supply is running low, so we would greatly appreciate any donations of small to medium cardboard boxes or containers.

Thank you for your support!

Water Play

Last week, we managed to squeeze in 2 sessions of water play with the weather not being altogether reliable! The children had lots of fun using their water blasters and sliding on the water slides with washing up liquid added for extra speed!







Discovery

Over the first couple of weeks, we have enjoyed plenty of Discovery time, giving our tamariki the opportunity to explore a wide range of activities while getting to know one another. Outdoor options have included giant checkers, four square, hula hooping, and chalk art. Indoors, children have been busy with marble runs and magnets, construction and Lego building, card making, and Zendoodle art. It has been wonderful to see everyone exploring the choices available and giving new things a go!










Hats

Thank you for ensuring your children bring their hats to school, we really appreciate your support. As you know, staying sun smart is important. Any children who forget their hat will need to remain under the hall verandah during break times, with duty teachers supporting and reminding students as needed.

Cyber Safety

Staying Safe Online


As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s important parents and whānau help them stay safe. Now is a great time to talk to them about how we use the internet and digital technology.


Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have all the information they need to talk about online safety.


If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.


We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Pōhutukawa News Term 1 Week 2 2026

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Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

We've now spent a wonderful and productive first couple of weeks in Pōhutukawa establishing routines and building relationships. We've all been impressed with how quickly the Year 5 students have adapted to new ways of doing things, and we love when the Year 6 students show support and aroha to their peers. Arohaina te tangata me te taiao, We Care. Thank you for reading on for some very important updates about what we have been up to in Pōhutukawa, and what is coming up.

"Girls SMASH" Cricket













Swimming Sports Thursday, February 29

Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto Swimming Sports is being held at Wharenui Pool on Thursday 29th of February, (Week 5). 

This is an optional event open to children in Years 5 to 8. Races are held for freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. For each stroke, there will be a 25m and 50m event.  You may enter races in all strokes but may only enter one distance in each stroke. For example, you could enter 25m backstroke and 50m breaststroke but you can not enter 25m and 50m backstroke. Only competitors from the 50m events are eligible to be considered for Zones. You will race against your year group. 

To take part, you must be a confident and competent swimmer for the stroke and distance you have entered. If you are unsure of your ability, please ask a teacher for advice. Parents and/or your swimming coach, (if you have one) are also great people to ask for advice. More information will become available via HERO from our Sports Coordinator Kate McGregor so keep your eyes peeled! 


Workshops

This week we started our beginning of the year 'Workshops/ Papamahi', in which we covered Using Google Classroom, Active Listening, UDL (Universal Design for Learning), and Lunchtime Games and Activities. It would be great to discuss with your tamariki about these workshops, and what they have learned. It was a lot of information, so asking them to share what they remember is a good way to consolidate their learning. These Workshops aim to introduce important aspects of life in Pōhutukawa, which we will continue with next week with Cyber Safety, PB4L, Health and Wellbeing, and Diversity.







Learning at Home and Google Classroom

All of the students have now signed up for the Pōhutukawa 2026 Google Classroom and their Home Group Google Classroom. Students can also access the Pōhutukawa Learning Site via their Google Classroom. The site serves as an online hub of resources should you wish for your tamariki to continue doing some school work at home. We will continue to add material and build the students' knowledge around using Google Classroom and Google Sites in the coming weeks. As always, we encourage you to actively participate in this area of your tamariki's learning. Ask them to show you what is available to them online and what they can see and do. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.








Staying Safe Online

As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s important parents and whānau help them. stay safe.

Now is a great time to talk to them about how we use the internet and digital technologyNetsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have

all the information they need to talk about online safety.If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.

Have a great weekend everybody, kia pai ngā rā whakatā!

The Pōhutukawa Team

Kahikatea News: Term 1 Week 2

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 Kia ora Te Whānau,

Welcome back to school!

Our tamariki are thriving; they are so settled and eager to learn. It is fabulous to see how independent our ākonga are, with quick and easy drop-offs and students showing responsibility by putting away their own bags and lunch boxes, etc.

Thank you for your ongoing support in ensuring students have a sunhat each day.


Te Tiriti o Waitangi:

Last week, our tamariki learnt about the Treaty of Waitangi. In homegroups, we then co-constructed our own set of guidelines (treaties) as to how we want to treat others, our environment, and how we want to be treated. Once we ensured that everyone understood and we all came to an agreement, students signed the class treaty. Pop in and have a look at what we came up with!



Literacy:

We are currently working on our literacy groupings, and students will be told next week who their literacy teacher is, as this may differ from their homegroup teacher. Literacy tuition is run in small groups, usually 4-8 students, and students are grouped at the level they are working at.

In Kahikatea, reading folders come home on Thursdays with a new decodable reading book for the week. Students bring their reading folders back to school on Thursdays so that the book can be swapped for another. Reading folders can stay home and come to school on Thursdays only. No reading folder, no book home.

We are aiming to start literacy group teaching in the next few weeks.

Library:

Library days are:

Tuesdays-Amber and Talia's homegroup

Thursdays-Both Sarah's

Tamariki need a library folder and no overdue books out to be able to issue new books.


The Lorax:

I am sure you have heard all about the Lorax learning we have been doing. Our reading, writing, maths, and inquiry learning have all been based around the story of The Lorax as we engage and learn about the topic of Sustainability.

Here is some of our amazing artwork:




Cyber Safety:

As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s important that parents and whānau help them

stay safe. Now is a great time to talk to them about how we use the internet and digital

technology.

Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families, and whānau have

all the information they need to talk about online safety.

If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.

Toys at school:

A friendly reminder to please leave all toys at home during the school day. They can be very distracting to other students, particularly when on the mat. We have had a couple of incidents this week where toys have been brought to school and have gone missing, causing upset. Thanks for your support with this.


Have a wonderful weekend and we will see you all next week,

Sarah J, Talia, Amber and Sarah S







Kauri Blog, Week 2, Term 1 2026

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 Welcome back to 2026!


Tēnā koutou! Team Kauri teachers have been excited to welcome back our Year 7 students as Year 8’s and to integrate our new Year 7’s into the team for the first two weeks of school. It has been a calm and settled start to the year.


New Space, New Team


We are now located in a new space as a team. We are utilising Hangere and Kōmanawa as our classroom spaces and we are very happy to have such lovely classrooms for our learning this year 🙂.




Upcoming Events

Week 3

  • PSC Triathlon - Tuesday

Week 4

  • House Games - Wednesday

  • BTKOP Swimming Sports - Thursday

  • Whole School Learning Celebration - Friday

  • Passions begin - Friday

Week 5

  • House Games - Wednesday

  • SZ Swimming Sports - Thursday

Week 6

  • Leadership Week - including Kauri Day Out & sleepover

  • School Photos - Wednesday

  • House Games - Wednesday

  • Whole School Learning Celebration - Friday

Week 7

  • House Games - Wednesday

Week 8 

  • PSC Swimming sports - Thursday

  • Whole School Learning Celebration - Friday

Week 9

  • Huxster mountain biking - Wednesday

  • Last Day of Term - Thursday


Technology & Languages


Tuesday was our first technology session for the year. The Tech team at Christchurch South Intermediate commented on how awesome our kids were from the start and the students loved attending their first tech sessions diving into some amazing hands-on activities. The new technology programme includes: Digitech, Coding, Food technology, Textiles, and Hard Materials.





We also had the pleasure of having our first language sessions with the specialist teaching staff from Cashmere high school. We enjoyed our first experiences of French and Spanish with Debbie and Victoria.


Leadership opportunities


Our new house captains had some opportunities in the first couple of days to setup and lead activities for Team Kōwhai and Pōhutukawa for their water play. The rest of the team have been learning about some of the Leadership opportunities available. The selection process for these leadership opportunities will be happening over the next week and students will be learning about how and what this will involve.


Congratulations!

Congratulations to Ben Stoney for completing Grade 5 Violin. We are very pleased for his achievements!




We look forward to the opportunities coming up this term and cant wait to get stuck into the new learnings and experiences we will all have.


Please do not hesitate to contact any of the teaching staff if you have an questions about the upcoming term.


Ka kite!


Hugo, Sarah A, Kate McG, and Megan C.