Kauri Whānau Term 3 Week 7 Update

Posted on by
At this stage we are hopefully two and a half weeks away from moving out of our hub, so as you can imagine things are pretty busy. Read on for celebrations and notices.

Celebrations:

Te Whānau Mahi Tahi performed at the Cultural Festival last Friday evening. They were sophisticated, original and awe inspiring. Beckenham parents and staff in the audience were glowing with pride. Click on this link to see a video of their performance.

Our speech finalists presented their stories with confidence and enthusiasm at the south zone speech competition on Monday evening. Despite not getting placed, we thought they were fabulous. Special congratulations to Oskar for getting an honourable mention.


Cashmere High School Testing:

Testing for Beckenham students takes place on Thursday Sept 15th.
Starts: 9.00am, in the Performing Arts Centre (PAC). 
Dismissed: 12.15pm (approximately)
Students need to bring: A pen, pencil, ruler and some food for morning tea.
Cycles: Students will be permitted to leave their cycles in a designated supervised area.   All cycles should be brought to the Performing Arts Centre.
All students need to be back at Beckenham by 1:10pm.

Parent help needed:

We would love to have some parents / grandparents helping with two parts of our programme. Firstly if you have knowledge/skill in athletics and are free to help on the next two Monday afternoons, Sept 12 and 19, please let Tracy know. Secondly, we have a large group of children in the wearable arts group for arts academies. This group currently meets on a Friday (Sept 9 and 16) afternoon. If you are free to help out with planning, problem solving and advising, please let Nicky know. Wearable arts creativity will continue next term. 

Writing:

We have started our next writing topic: movie reviews. By the end of tomorrow, Thursday, each child should have started this writing. They have until Sept 21 to complete it. Please ask you child to show you what they have written so far, at the end of this week. The success criteria are listed at the top of their documents. 

Champion Street Update:

We are steaming ahead with our countdown to starting at Champion Street at the start of next term. Earlier this week we got the exciting news that Class Furniture will be supplying fabulous furniture for the Year 5 - 8 hubs while we are based at Champion Street. Occasionally staff from other schools will come to see the furniture in our 'living showroom'. We are currently moving resources to Champion Street. Below are three important dates for this term:

Tuesday September 13: 

After technology finishes at South on Tuesday, the children will be bused to Champion Street to see the school, have lunch and play, before returning to Beckenham by 1:30pm. 

Wednesday September 14:

There will be a parent meeting in our school hall to discuss the logistics of Year 5-8 at Champion Street. This meeting starts at 7:30pm and should take an hour.

Friday September 23:

Our children go to technology on Friday instead of Tuesday this week, due to activities at South. After technology the children will be bused to Champion Street. Parents are invited to join us for a picnic lunch and look around the school. At 2:30 the children will be bused back to Beckenham. This will effectively be our first day at Champion Street.

Pōhutukawa News, 7 September 2016

Posted on by
Dear Parents and Caregivers


Thank you to everyone who has put their name forward to be a parent helper on camp. We will try and confirm the final number of parents early next term.


The Big Move!
You will have heard that our expected move to Champion Street will take place on the first day of Term 4. We are preparing for this now and we hope to see you all at the parent meeting on Wednesday 14 September at 7:30pm.

Year 5 & 6 Choir (Glee Club)
They Year 5&6 Choir (Glee Club) will be performing at the Christchurch Schools Music Festival on 27 October. On Tuesday 13 September they will be travelling by bus to Avonhead School for a massed choir rehearsal. They will need to be at school by 8.30 this morning as they need to be seated at Avonhead School by 9.15.

If you still need to purchase tickets for the Music Festival they will be available from Ticketek in mid September.

Market Day:
All the children are working very hard developing their products and stalls for our Asian inspired market day.  This will take place on Thursday, 15 September. The students in Team Pohutukawa will be opening shops at 11am and will sell lots of interesting and delicious items such as Asian food, baking, confectionery, drinks, games, challenges and more!


Tickets will be sold before school near the flagpole on the day. Each ticket is worth 50 cents and most students will want to buy multiple tickets. Most items will cost between one and three dollars. Look for our posters around to school to find out what each shop will be selling. We would love to see you there.


We will be purchasing the supplies that the children need for their products this week. If they are making their products at home they will bring the supplies home on Friday.  Thank you for all the support that you are giving them. It is very exciting to see them taking on the responsibility for their own businesses.


The money will be used to fund raise for camp.


Food for Thought:
This free programme has been offered to us by Foodstuffs Ltd.  It consists of a classroom lesson about healthy eating and a supermarket trip with a free voucher to buy food for a healthy lunch.  It takes place in the first week of next term and will be a good opportunity for us to get to know the community around Champion Street.
The supermarket trips will take place on 13 October.  We will need parent support to walk with each class to the Richmond Street New World.  If you can help with this please let your child’s teacher know.  The time for each class is as follows:


Thursday October 13
  • Room 14: 9.30 - 10.30
  • Room 15: 10.30 - 11.30
  • Room 21: 11.30 - 12.30
  • Room 22: 12.30-1.30


Thank you for your continued support at this very exciting time.


Kind regards,


Katie Chapman        katie.chapman@beckenham.school.nz
Nick Bruce           nick.bruce@beckenham.school.nz
Caitlyn Downing       caitlyn.downing@beckenham.school.nz
Susan Walsh            susan.walsh@beckenham.school.nz
Kat Cotter             kat.cotter@beckenham.school.nz

Kahikatea Newsletter Week 6

Posted on by

Exploring Shapes during Discovery Time

Making a friend for Robot and a house for a dog and a mouse. So creative and a great way to make new friends.



How does learning make us feel?

Learning can feel so different, like when you think you are learning one thing, but you're actually learning lots of other things as well. - Aaria and Isabelle

I feel excited when I learn new things. - Vida

It depends on what kind of learning I am doing. Learning can be fun, exciting and challenging. - Taylor

When you get mixed up you sometimes feel challenged, but you can be creative and still do it. - Jayde

I normally get frustrated when something is hard and I sometimes panic, but I am learning to calm myself down. It helps because when I calm down, I can keep on going. - Katya

I normally get frustrated when I really really want to be able to do something. Today there were lots of people using the glue so I tried something different to make my spider and that worked really well. - Emma

Learning Conferences

Thank you to our families for coming in to school last week, to share in celebrating the children's learning ... and congratulations to the children themselves for stepping up to the challenge of leading their own Learning Conferences. Well done to you all - we're very proud of you!

Discovery Stations

Discovery Stations continue to be a big hit with the children, many of whom are doing their utmost to be at school by 8:30 a.m., so that they can embrace their learning as early in the day as possible! 
As the weeks progress, teachers will add in or withdraw different station activities for various reasons. This week, stations relating to Position and Orientation (our current Maths Strand focus) have been added in to the mix. The titles of some of these stations are: Direct Me, Turns and Maps, Robot Hands, Amazing Mazes ... very enticing! Other stations may be added as a result of student interest, for example, Paper Engineering, which has been an area of great interest in recent weeks.

Wednesday afternoon

A reminder to our families that we are requesting children be picked up at 12:30 tomorrow as teachers will be off-site at an NZEI Union meeting. If you are unable to pick your child up at this time please enter their details into the following document: http://bit.ly/2cA9Qsq. Thank you. 

Newsletter Week 6 Term 3

Posted on by
Firstly, it was so nice to see you all over the past couple of days at Learning Conferences. We were highly impressed with the way the children all spoke about their learning and discussed their next steps. As a team, we feel so fortunate to have such a dedicated parent community and know that this results in the children being supported by us all to achieve their best.

We hope you were able to also take the time to look at the building designs and have a talk with Michelle or Sandy about our future learning spaces. If you didn't get a chance to go into the hall, the display will be put up in the school office foyer for you to view. We highly recommend you doing so.

STOP PRESS!   Olympic Performance (Celebration of Learning)
Over the next two weeks the children are creating dances to share their learning about the Olympics with you. Each hub has discussed what aspect of Olympic learning they want to share and will be using dance as their method of communication. We are really excited about this performance and know that it will be a true visual extravaganza. At this stage, we anticipate the performance to be around 40 minutes long.
We will be putting on a matinee performance for the school and for any parents, grandparents of whanau that can't make it to the evening performance as well as an evening show:

'Matinee' - Tuesday 13th  September- 11.30am- 12.30pm
Evening Show - Wednesday 14th September- 6pm - 7pm

The children will need to be at school by 5.40pm to get organised for the performance. We need to take a roll of the children at school for safety reasons. Please drop your child at their hub room before heading to the school hall to get a great seat. A gold coin donation will be warmly appreciated.
On Monday, we will let you know what your child will need to wear for their performance. Don't panic - no sewing will be needed!

Home Learning
As we prepare for our Celebration of Learning, we will not be sending home spelling words for the next two weeks. Mad Maths Minute and reading will continue as normal. The focus in reading will be on reading for enjoyment so we would like the children to choose books from home or the library that they wish to share. This is an important part of reading and a great way to help introduce your child to different types of books.

School of Gymnastics
This week and last week, we went to the Christchurch School of Gymnastics. The children had a fantastic time exploring new gymnastic equipment and it was wonderful to see many of the children demonstrate our key school value of 'We Love Challenge' by going on apparatus that they had never been on before. Many of these items were high and required courage to complete the task given by the instructors. Here we are in action...

 



Football - Beckenham vs Thorrington
As part of our P.E. programme, the children have been playing a variety of winter sports. This afternoon, a group of children from our team played against Thorrington School.
Forget 'Match of the Day'... Beckenham produced 19 keen football players to take to the field for two 8-a-side games against year three and four teams from Thorrington School, on home turf.
The friendly games were hard fought, and both schools showed a lot of heart and determination.  Congratulations to all the Beckenham players, you definitely showed our school values, ‘We get there together’ and ‘We love Challenge’!

Thank you so much to our two senior school students, Henry McMeking and William Hanlon for the time you spent with the Kowhai students helping to referee the games and showing excellent leadership skills.  Also, a big thank you to the Kowhai team for coming out to support your team mates and cheering your friends on with pride.


CSO visit
Yesterday we were fortunate enough to have four musicians from the Christchurch symphony Orchestra perform for us and teach us about the instruments they play. We learnt about the different sections in the orchestra as well as how some instruments are played and how they can be used to tell a story or portray characters.

That's all for now.
Have a wonderful weekend ahead
Kowhai Teaching Team

Beckenham School Newsletter September 2nd 2016

Posted on by

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

It was a real pleasure for teachers to have dedicated time with each family and their child this week, to celebrate the learning achievements that the children have made, and to share their next steps. i am always in awe of our teachers during these weeks; they put in very long days, and appear in the staffroom at the final bell full of smiles and expressing how much they enjoy learning conferences and the 1:1 conversations that they have had time to have with you all.
Thank you to all of the families who were able to visit the building display in the hall. We have put up a slightly smaller version of the display in the office foyer, so that you can revisit it at your leisure, and those of you who didn't get to see it can pop in and have a look.
Please do email me, or come and knock on my door if you have any questions about the programme.

Move to Champion St

At this stage (still not 100% confirmed, but looking probable) our Year 5-8 students will be moving to Champion St on the last day of this term, with our fully fledged start at Champion St being from the first day of Term 4.
We have plans to take our Y5/6 and Y7/8 students over in the next couple of weeks for a visit, and to then have all of the Y5-8 students there on the final day of this term, along with a picnic lunch that Y5-8 parents will be welcome to attend. More information will come out about the details of this next week.
We are also planning to have a meeting for parents of Year 5-8 students here at school on Wednesday 14 September at 7:30pm to talk through the details of the move.
During Term 4, once we are up and running, we will arrange a time for the Year 4 students and their families to visit Champion St in preparation for them being Year 5's there for the first three terms of 2017.

Cultural Festival Performance tonight

Our best wishes go out to our senior kapa haka group, Te Whānau Mahi Tahi, as they represent all of our whānu and tamariki at the Christchurch Primary Schools Cultural Festival tonight at the Horncastle Arena at 6:45pm. Our special thanks to Sherrilee who ensures that this group is prepared to perform at their very best.

Ngā mihi

Sandy Hastings
Principal / Tumuaki

Important Dates

Upcoming Events


Fri 2 Sep, 6:45pm
Cultural Festival Performance at Horncastle Arena

Fri 9 Sep
Y5/6 students to visit Champion St - pm

Tues 13 Sep
Y7/8 students to visit Champion St (immediately after Technology)

Wed 14 Sep
6-7:00pm.  Kowhai Performance - Celebration of Learning
7:30pm - Champion St Meeting for Year 5-8 parents

Thu 15 Sep
11am-12pm.  Pohutukawa Market Day
6-8:20pm.  Board of Trustees Meeting.

Thu 22 Sep
1:30-3:00pm. Talent quest

Fri 22 Sep
Y7/8 technology at South Int (instead of Tuesday this week)
Y5-8 students at Champion St
End of Term 3.  School finishes at 3:00pm

Term Dates

Click here to view the 2016 and 2017 term dates.

Citizen of the Week

Name Aidan Henderson - New Entrant

Aidan, you are a self directed learner who demonstrates a love of learning throughout your day. The way you are learning to embrace mistakes as a part of your learning journey shows that you love a challenge, what an amazing attribute! You are always willing, and take care, in setting up learning areas to share with your peers, you also gently support others in joining in with this learning. You are a gentle and caring class member who looks out for others.  Kia kaha Aidan!

Sharing our Learning

Kahikatea Team

What’s been happening in the Kahikatea Team this term?
We have been learning a lot of new skills through our Discovery Stations. We have been focusing on these key questions:

  • How does this station help my learning?
  • How are our school values being shown?
  • What can I choose to challenge myself?
  • Can I teach a buddy something new?

“This was helping me learn picture words. I can draw words.”



“We are writing the story of the Gingerbread Man together. We are all doing different parts.”

Each week we develop our learning and skills around gymnastics, target and invasion games. We have been focusing on:

  • Moving our bodies in a variety of ways
  • Developing large ball and target  skills
  • Developing effective communication within a team


“I’m keeping the ball in circle using one hand.”


We have been very lucky to have Mandarin and Japanese lessons to develop our understanding of Asia. Our learning has been focused around cultures of people living in New Zealand. We are looking to make a difference by finding ways to help someone who has just moved to New Zealand from Asia. 
Here is a fantastic piece of writing based on the story ‘Birds on a Wire’. We were focusing on retelling the story, adding detail and using interesting words for the reader. 

Birds on a Wire

First, some birds came and they started to peck and fight. Then, a huge light blue bird came and they started to tease him so he would go away. 
They hurt him and made him go upside-down. Then they started to peck at his toes so he would fall off and go away. But then a little bird saw how low they were and thought they were going to fly up in the air. And they absolutely did!
When they flew up their feathers went off them because they went so fast. Then they came back down pink naked (ugh!). Then the big, light blue bird honk laughed so very hard! 

Author: Maggie

School Notices

Celebrating our stunning mathematicians

On September 24th our Year 7 and Year 8 Cantamath teams competed against the best mathematical brains in Canterbury, as they frantically solved as many problems as they could within the 30 minute competition. There were over 90 schools competing in the Competition at Horncastle Arena. Those of us in the audience were worked into a frenzy of enthusiastic support, as we watched the runners put their thumbs up for correct answer after correct answer. The Year 7 team answered every question correctly within the 30 minutes, earning a golden ticket (displaying their 100 points) and coming in sixth place! And then it was Year 8s turn to stun us with their mathematical talent. They also earned a golden ticket and were placed 9th. This was a fabulous achievement and very much a team effort.
The other part of Cantamath is the display competition. Again a number of our children were commended for their superb efforts.
Excellence awards went to: Gabriel Lyall, Alex Braun, Isaac Macdonald, Sadie McLoughlin, Ailie Robertson, Georgia Tindall, Daisy York and Nicky’s maths class.
Highly Commended awards went to: Joel Kingham, Declan Allan, Kristy Winchester, Rosie Zinzan Dickie and Caleb Jorgensen

Speech Competition Winners:

On Monday afternoon we were treated to a superb afternoon of story-telling from our Year 7 & 8 speech finalists. From a tear jerking tale about puppy farming to a side-splitting yarn about insane Aunt Shirley, the stories were superbly written and delivered with confidence. We wish Jordan and Oskar the best of luck for the South Zone speech competition on Monday evening.
Congratulations to:
Year 7: 1st, Jordan Hardwick; 2nd, Daisy York; and 3rd George Ryan.
Year 8: 1st, Oskar Frampton; 2nd, Vita Hindin; and 3rd William Hanlon.

Sports News

Winter tournament

After a bitterly cold day last Wednesday, we were glad that Thursday warmed up a little for our last visit to Hagley Park for winter sports.
The Year 7 & 8 hockey Red team and the Year 7 & 8 football Red team, along with four students who were playing for St Patrick’s Bryndwr rugby team, headed off to the park, as they had qualified for the Canterbury Winter Tournament.
The hockey team played at Carlton Corner, and were coached by Jenni Adams. The tournament was 6 a-side with a mix of girls and boys. The team played six games in the pool round. They won three, lost two and drew one. This meant they rated third in their pool. They drew their final game which meant they came about tenth equal overall, out of 28 teams.
The football team played at South Hagley, and were coached by Fred Simpson (Cashmere Technical’s Junior Development Officer). The tournament was 5 a-side, which is a very different game from the 9 a-side they normally played on a Friday. The team experienced mixed results, and then ended the day with a win.
The rugby boys were successful in their first game. However, coming up against tough opposition who were much bigger than they were meant that the remaining games were very challenging. They had fun and were very supportive of each other.
Many thanks to our two fabulous coaches, and the lovely parents who provided transport - Jo Barnett, Mike Hanlon and Rachel Wiscombe.

Swimming lessons for Years 5 - 8

Swimming lessons started this week at Aquagym for the Year 5 - 8 students. The students will be having eight lessons in total, busing four times a week for two weeks to Hereford Street, to the swimming pool. Shea Crotty is our contact there, and she and her staff have been absolutely fabulous at accommodating the needs of our students. Much shuffling has been going on to ensure each child is in the appropriate ability group, with the prospect of more movement as the lessons go on. Each session sees five or six tutors catering for all the levels the groups present. The students are loving the opportunity to learn with their peers and are enjoying the aquatic setting. If you have any queries about the swimming programme, please contact Tracy Inwood at school.

PTA News

The PTA needs YOU!

For the last FOUR years we have been lucky enough to sell Tip Top packaged ice creams at the A & P Show across the three days it is open. We provide the labour & in exchange we keep the profit on every ice cream sold. Over one hot Show Week we have managed to raise $13,000 profit. Last year the weather gods were unkind but we still managed to raise a profit of $7,500. This is the MAJOR fundraiser for the PTA in 2016. All funds raised will go in to the growing 'Outdoor Spaces' fund. This fund will be used to landscape & create outdoor spaces for the children to play in after the school has been rebuilt. Currently the MOE have allocated NO budget towards this. If you can help with this fundraiser in any way please click on this link. We need 80+ helpers across the three days.Extended family, friends & ex-students are welcome to help.
Thanks for your support & you will enjoy FREE entry to the Show with a chance to shop, meet other caregivers & have lots of FUN!!!

Thank you!

A big thanks to everyone who attended the Comedy Kiwiana Bingo Night- it was a HUGE success!
Thanks to our hosts “Jack & Kitty”, you were wonderful & very entertaining.
And to all the generous sponsors who donated prizes- thanks, we couldn’t have done without your support.
Check out the PTA FB page for photos of the night- it was a HOOT!
Payment is now due for those people who were successful with their silent auction bid.
The profit will be announced once all accounts have been finalised
If you left a supper plate behind, please collect from the Office Foyer

Community Notices

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

CASPA is now taking enrolments for the Sept/Oct Holiday Programmes, for more information go online to www.caspa.org.nz or phone 03 3499260.

NEW MEMBERS & COACHING OPPORTUNITIES BECKENHAM TENNIS CLUB
Beckenham Tennis Club Motto is to be family friendly our goal is for families to play tennis together
We are open for NEW members to play tennis.
Registration interest on our new web site: beckenhamtennis club
Pee Wee Junior First Day Saturday 3 September 8.30am (already had some coaching), 9.30am class for beginners.
Junior/Intermediate TEAMS (children can serve a ball) free coaching for three weeks in September.
ADULT – EASY TENNIS COACHING for beginner adults coming back into tennis or learning. Tuesday morning group or Saturday afternoon (after 4pm).
Contact: Leanne Dunbar cell 0275 316 026 landline ph 9606021

SURFKIDS:
Childrens Surfing  Programme.
Learn the skills of Surfing in a fun, safe environment. All equipment provided and professional instruction from Aaron Lock and team. For kids 8 - 14 years.
School Holidays  10 am -12 pm. 26, 28, 30 September 3 - 7 October.
Sundays 10am -12 pm from 30 October.
Cost $30 per day or $135 for five. Bookings essential.
Venue :Sumner.
Call Aaron on 0800 80 SURF (7873) or register online at www.surfcoach.co.nz

Aquagym: 459 Cashel Street, Ph: 3810299.  Learn to Swim & Coaching.  Book now for October Holidays and Term 4. Leaders in Aquatic Education. info@aquagym.co.nz

Buildback Smarter:  The Christchurch City Council is now providing a FREE healthy home advice service called Build Back Smarter.  Visit: www.buildbacksmarter.co.nz for details re home insulation, heating options, lighting, ventilation, smoke alarms, water heating & conservation and grants /subsidies you may be eligible for.

Vintage Fashion Show:
Remember when studies and hotpants were the 'must haves' in any wardrobe? Halswell School is giving you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the '50s, '60s and '70s as you marvel at over 100 stunning outfits with matching hair and accessories. Visuals and music from each era will accompany the shows to get your toes tapping. You will be treated to a delicious retro afternoon tea/supper and a bar is available at the evening show.
Date: Saturday 10 September
Time: 2pm (adults and children), 7pm (adults only)
Place: Halswell School
Duration: Approximately 2 hours
Ticket prices: $25 adults, $15 children
Online purchasing: Email carmeltutty@hotmail.com   Tickets can be collected when you attend the show
Dust off your purple jumpsuit, orange flares or brown cable knit vest, we hope to see you there!