Kauri Whānau Update: Term 3 Week 6

So much to celebrate and lots of messages too. Please read these important messages carefully.

We have enjoyed being part of learning conversations with you and your child yesterday and are looking forward to more of this tomorrow, Thursday.

Speech Finals: 

A big congratulations to all of the speech finalists who shared their entertaining stories with us on Monday afternoon. We were lucky to have Daniel Pengelly, assistant artistic director from the Court Theatre as our guest judge. Next Monday evening starting at 6:30pm, Jordan and Oskar will represent Beckenham at the South Zone Speech Competition, being held at St Peters School on Fisher Ave. It would be lovely to see some of our children in the audience to support our fine speakers.




Cantamath:

Last Wednesday our Cantamath teams competed against 90 other schools, solving maths problems 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. Wow!



Cultural Festival:

Te Whānau Mahi Tahi take to the stage on Friday evening at Horncastle Arena as part of the cultural festival. We know they will will be stunning and wish them all the best for a fabulous performance.

Year 8 testing at Cashmere High School:

A reminder that due to swimming lessons, our Year 8s who are enrolled at Cashmere High School for 2017, have their testing morning on Thursday September 15th. They are to wear school uniform and return to school for the afternoon.

Swimming:

We are now into the swing of our swimming programme. Some adjustments have been made to groupings so that each child's needs are being met. It is great to see nearly all children making it to school on time to catch their buses. We need to see that 'nearly all' become 100%.

Year 7 Camp 2017 Fundraising:

In term 3 we have the opportunity to run the sausage sizzle on Thursdays from 4:30 - 6:30pm at the touch competition at Waltham Park. We did this last year and raised quite a bit of money for our camp. This will be a good way to fundraise for our 2017 camp, which will be in term 1 of next year at Wainui. We need a small team of parents who would be happy to help with these sausage sizzles. Please let Nicky know if you would be happy to be part of this team.

The next three and a half weeks:

Hopefully you have or will take the opportunity to look at the rebuild display in the hall during learning conferences. On Tuesday we spoke to the children about the current timeframe that we are working towards. The plan is that we will be busing to the Champion Street site from next term. We are in the process of finalising dates for visits to Champion Street this term and an information / question answering evening for parents. We will let you know once these dates have been set in concrete.

Writing movie reviews:

We started our new writing topic this week, with a drama based motivation. Tomorrow we will be watching a short movie and looking at an exemplar to learn about writing a review. On Monday we will be offering a choice of three movies for the children to view and take notes on in preparation for writing their movie review. The movies are:
Remember the Titans - An American football story with a strong focus on leadership. (PG)
Cool Runnings - The story of the Jamaican bobsled team at the winter Olympics, with themes of persistence and overcoming adversity. (PG)
El Dorado - A cartoon movie with messages about what makes a good friend and the importance of friendships. (PG)

Wheelchair Rugby:

Last Friday the opportunity arose to try out wheelchair rugby. What a blast we had! The children had lots of fun and are hungry for more.









Learning Conferences

Learning Conferences

As you are aware we have Learning Conferences this week. School will finish at 2pm on Tuesday 30th August and Thursday 1st September.

The children are really excited to share their learning with you. At the conference the children will work through a learning reflection booklet. They will discuss the following:
1. What they like doing at school.
2. Reading, Writing, Numeracy and Inquiry
 * What they are proud of.
 * What they need to work on.
 * What they would like help with at home.
3. They will share their learning using examples from books and demonstrate strategies.
4. They have also completed a School Value self assessment.

We will share relevant data with you throughout the conference or as needed. If you have any specific questions about your child's learning, please discuss this at the beginning of the conference so we can ensure your questions are answered.

We are really looking forward to seeing you all over the next couple of days and know there is a lot for us to celebrate!

Kowhai Team

Kahikatea Newsletter Week 5

Cricket 

We all had a great time playing cricket on Wednesday afternoon. We played a fun warm up game called 'Snowball' and then got into a real game. We had to hit two balls off their stands as hard as we could and then run around the wickets until the fielding team replaced both balls back in their starting position.



Amazing Asia

A range of cultural immersion activities have been occurring across the team. We have been making sushi, learning to count in Japanese, making friendship bracelets to celebrate Raksha Bandhan (Brother and Sister's Day), learning mandarin and playing the madal (a traditional drum from Nepal).






Sign Language Lessons

Hub 1 and 2 are lucky to be learning Sign Language each Thursday - the children not involved in Kapa Haka are learning about how to communicate without talking out loud. Thank you to Cheryl and Benazier from Van Ash for their knowledge and willingness to share their expertise.




Our Ideas About RESPECT

Levi - A group of friends
Isaac - being kind with our words
Blake - respect is caring for people
Arthur - being, like, nice to each other
Juri - caring about people
Ally - reading to someone can show respect
Charlotte - you being nice to other little students at school
Bobbi - looking after people
Claudia - take people to the sick bay when they are hurt
Stella - trusting people
Lakiehsa - shaking someones hands when you meet them
Alexandra - making new friends
Cian - handshaking and hugging and sharing can show respect
Tahere - by not breaking someone's things
Torun - shaking peoples hands
Louie - picking people up when they have fallen over
Luigi - sharing with other people, coming back to class with each other
Petal - sharing with other people
Taylor - Culture is something that deserves respect
Emma - When I go to the office I wait patiently and say "Excuse me."


We are enjoying learning about RESPECT and showing everybody what respect can look like and sounds like.

Library

The library is currently being packed into banana boxes to re-locate in the dental clinic over the next 2 weeks. So, there will be no issuing of books over this time. 
Great work, Anne! Have a look at the progress:


Stationery Request

We are asking that all children have an A4 plastic pocket folder in which they can store 'work in progress' in and 'finished work' from Discovery Stations. If you already have a folder at home please bring it school before the end of Week 6 (next Friday). If you do not have one, your child's teacher will organise it and add it to your account.  


Swimming Lessons

On Tuesday 30 August we begin two weeks of swimming lessons at Aquagym. Children need to come prepared every day with togs and towel in a plastic bag. We have three buses travelling to Aquagym each day. On Tuesday 30 August the first bus will depart at 8.30am, the second will depart at 9am and the third will depart at 9.30am. Every day after that the first bus will depart at 9.30am, the second at 10am, and the third bus will leave at 10.30am. There is no swimming on Tuesday 6 September.
 Please check below to see which bus your child will be on:


GROUP 1GROUP 2GROUP 3
Bus leaving:
8.30am 30 August
9.30 am all other days
Bus leaving:
9am 30 August
10am all other days
Bus leaving:
9.30am 30 August
10.30 am all other days
Boyd GoldsburyJack BartonJoshua Allen
Declan AllenJordy BoonDelana-Mae Areli
Bradley PyeAva Winstanley-HTamryn Bately
Sophia BrownTheodore ClancyTyler Chesterman
Georgina CockfieldOskar CooperLydia Coombs
Helena SiceEmily EadeKate Cornfoot
Maia DavisTessa FoleyFrankie Ebert
Michael FaircloughElla FreemanBenjamin Evan
Charlotte TindallRiley FrenchJoel Fergusson
Winnifred GoldsburyEthan GillerJordis Flynn
Charlotte GrayMillie GrahamKeira Tough
Jess HancockMaddi GrantRiley Walsh
Aaron KumarLucy GrayAlexander Howarth
Gabriel LyallCharlotte GreyZachary Knowles
Gemma YorkNoah Harmer-CMatthew Moore
Jimmy MiddleditchTilly HarrisAbbie Murray
Santiago MontejoJessie LeaskCharlotte O'Connor
Flynn Moses-JRohith ThonyConnor O'Leary
Ayden MustyMeg MacdonaldLiam Price
Portia PascoeMorvern McDaidBella Reddecliffe
Caleb PodmoreArran RobertsonChristopher Reynolds
Aliya PhiskieOlivia WilsonVienna Scott
Paolo ReidRoxanne MurfinFreya Pratt
Samuel RogersFlorence GerardAaliyah Ranguhuna
Matilda HindinElla ClarkeRekha Thony
Nadia RussellLily Cummins-NCallum Lucas
Fynn SkeltonMorita DuaneAdam Barton
Daniel SmithEdward FeryaginTom Woodhouse
Imogen Stevenson-FIzak JohnsMurphy McCabe
Sama AhmedReid CraigSamantha Maule
Anton AdamsonCharlotte StrahlFelix Morgan
Hannah WinchesterEmily RoweNina Callaghan
Kwahli BeauchampKaty AgarDuncan Moulin-G
Tash BoonAmber JaiswelThom Bell
Gemma CampbellJoel KinghamSophia Ramirez
Bonnie BrooklandRuby LovelockMillie Jameson
Daniel CowieAsha LewisConstantin Gorny

Madeleine McIvorOlivia Kneale