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

It's been great to see us starting to get back to our usual numbers here at kura after a few weeks of unwellness throughout the team. Thank you again, whānau, for keeping tamariki at home who are unwell during this season of coughs and colds. It was just wonderful to see the sun out last Thursday and have everyone outside being active and playing sports. We have our final round of hockey, netball, and football this week both for the South Zone competition, as well as for the non-competitive teams. Let's hope for some more sunshine! We also have the Duathlon coming up this Wednesday. You can read the Hero Community post: School Duathlon for all the information regarding this exciting, optional event.

Please read on for some updates from the team, as well as some very important information regarding Keeping Ourselves Safe a comprehensive child abuse prevention programme for schools, which we begin teaching this week. There is a homework activity from the programme below that we would strongly encourage you to complete with your tamariki.

Our Amazing Teaching Assistants

Last week the Pōhutukawa team bid a fond farewell to Charmaine Pedersen, who has won a full-time position and finished up her time here at Beckenham. All the very best, Charmaine - we will all miss the care and devotion you gave our tamariki every day. In Charmaine's place, we welcome Matt Hastings to the team in a Learning Support role, nau mai haere mai, Matt!

Calendar Art

The students have been working diligently on their Calendar Art over the past month or so, and it has been wonderful guiding them through the creative process from preparation to production. Our concept this year was for akonga to use Van Gogh's Starry Night as inspiration to incorporate what we have learned about the Matariki cluster of stars (te iwa o Matariki) in a landscape that was significant to them. We hope you enjoy the end product as much as the students have enjoyed creating them. Keep an eye out for order forms, which will be available soon!

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Keeping Ourselves Safe is a comprehensive child abuse prevention programme for schools, which is delivered collaboratively with Constable Meg Moynihan, our Police Education Officer.

We had our first lessons with Constable Meg today, in which students learned: to understand what abuse is and know that any abuse is wrong, should be reported, and is not their fault. This week we will also be covering how to verbalise feelings confidently and practise a decision-making process that will help them to make safe decisions for themselves and others.

Homework activity: About abuse

In Keeping Ourselves Safe we have been talking about abuse. We worked with the following
definition:
Abuse is when anybody uses power over another person and causes them harm. This could include:
● hurting them physically
● ill-treating them
● not taking care of their everyday needs
● touching them in sexual ways
● showing them sexual materials
● hurting their feelings and their sense of wellbeing.
It also includes violence that happens in families.
Abuse can harm a child’s health, their dignity and may make it hard for them to learn and develop. 
● No one deserves to be abused.
● All abuse is against the law and should be reported.
● Abuse is never the victim’s fault.
Work with your child to come up with one example of each of the following types of abuse. Then for
each example, discuss how the child could use Stop, Walk, Talk – Who could they talk to? What could
they say?

Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Emotional abuse
Family harm
Neglect
Cyber abuse

Over the next two weeks, we will be sharing the focus areas that we cover here at school with you, so that you can also continue these very important conversations at home, as well. Mā tātou kātoa, te waka a e hoe - we get there together.

Have a great week, everyone, kia pai te wiki.

The Pōhutukawa Team