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Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto, school newsletter, Friday 19 May, 2023

Posted on 20 May, 202320 May, 2023 by Reihana Dougherty

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Winter illnesses continue to be causing challenges for both our staff and families at the moment. Our worst day this week was Monday when we had 92 out of 490 children away, 80 of them sick. Thank you for keeping sick children at home.

If you have changed your address or contact details since the beginning of the year, please do check that you have updated them with Jacky by emailing office@beckenham.school.nz It is important that we have more than one contact for each child in the case of an emergency.

Information needed by the Council about how we get to school...

PLEASE do fill out this brief survey, if you can, as we are trying to work with the CCC around improving our bike storage capacity and this information will really help them to understand our needs... so if your children bike or scooter to school, click on this link NOW!

The Christchurch City Council annual School Travel Survey is now live! This 5-10 minute survey will improve understanding of school travel patterns across Christchurch. This will help with improving safety, especially for those using active transport. The survey is open to all school communities (students, parents/caregivers and one staff member per school), until 5pm Wednesday 31 May 2023. There are 10 $50 supermarket vouchers up for grabs.

The survey can be found here.

Learning Conferences 14 & 15 June

These are coming up in Week 8 of the term, on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th June.

Reports will go live on HERO at the end of Week 6, and these conferences will be an important opportunity to learn more about your child's learning progress and achievement.

School will close at the earlier time of 2pm on both days (not 1pm as indicated in a previous email). Children who are usually booked into BOSCO on those days will be able to attend from 2pm. We will provide supervision for children between 2-3pm IF NEEDED...

Each family need to fill out BOTH forms below, please:

First, please book a Learning Conference for each of your children by clicking on this link.

Then, please fill out this form, to let us know what you want to happen for your child at 2pm. We need this form filled out by EVERY family, please.

Strike Percussion visit

All of our tamariki were mesmerised by a visit from a very talented team of three musicians on Monday, who perform under the name of 'Strike Percussion'. Whilst their music couldn't be described as 'restful', it was very exciting and stimulating. Many of our children enjoyed the full soundscape and a small number of them found that having ear muffs on during the performance took the edge off the sound, and enabled them to still appreciate the skill and energy of the performance.

Ngā mihi

Sandy Hastings

Tumuaki - Principal

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Tue 23 May - Zone Cross Country - Y5-8 qualifiers, Hansons Park 9am-12noon

Wed 24 May - School photos!

Wed 24 May - PTA Mtg 7:30pm - Staffroom

Thu 25 May - Board Meeting 5:30pm - Staffroom

Thu 25 May - Winter Sport begins for Y5-8 students

Fri 2 Jun - Celebration Assembly 10am, All welcome

Mon 5 Jun - School Closed - Kings Birthday Weekend Public Holiday

Thu 8 Jun - Cashmere High Open Day 12noon - 4pm

Wed 14 Jun - Learning Conferences - School Closes at 2pm

Thu 15 Jun - Learning Conferences - School Closes at 2pm

Fri 16 Jun - Celebration Assembly 10am, All welcome

Wed 21 Jun - Whānau Matariki Hui, followed by PTA Hāngi

Wed 28 Jun - Board Meeting, 5:30pm, Staffroom

Wed 28 Jun - PTA Mtg, 7:30pm Staffroom

Term Dates

Click here to view 2023 term dates.

Citizen of the Week

Anika Wallbanks - Year 6

Anika, your desire to be the best version of yourself is impressing us no end! You have shown the kete value 'We Love Challenge' by embracing new challenges and have shown that when you put your mind to it, you can be brilliant! Whakamaua te pae tata kia tina - take hold of your potential so it becomes your reality.

School Notices

School Photos this Wednesday, 24th May

Our friendly, local photographer from Camera and Digital on Colombo St will be at school on Wednesday morning to take our annual school photos.

Please send your child in their best version of the school uniform.

Community Notices

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

Kauri Whānau Update: Term 2, Weeks 4

Posted on 19 May, 202319 May, 2023 by Thomas

In this post:

Winter sports reminder
Ski Trip reminder
Cheese rolls
Writing competition
Cashmere High Open Day

Winter Sports

Sports starts this coming Thursday. Please make sure that students have all the gear they need, and a full lunch box and water bottle on that day. Check the Hero notices for information specifically around specific sports if your child is in a competitive team.

Ski Trip

Thank you to those who have already signed up to volunteer for our ski day in Term 3. We have booked our ski day at Mt Hutt for Monday, August 28. This day has a very early start, meeting at school at 5:45am! We return by 6pm. At this stage we are looking for more parents/caregivers to help on this trip. We are after both experienced skiers, who can help on the snow, and people on foot to support around the base area. Please fill in this form if you are keen to join us.

https://forms.gle/nEdrGA6xtijwLNKXA

Cheese roll fundraiser, parent help needed.

Alongside the ski trip is the need to fundraise! Over the past few years we have made and sold cheese rolls. This system works well (with the children as the main workforce) and we have made lots of money in the past. Wednesday, June 7th will be our production day. Please read this form to see if you can help and fill it out if you can contribute in some way. Thanks team - 'We get there together!'

https://forms.gle/3TXuict9rvtubsku5

Of course we can only make cheese rolls if they have been ordered - it's great to see that nine families have ordered via the google form so far. This can only mean that we are soon to be inundated with paper forms filled with orders! Speak to your tamariki about the prize in play for those that sell the most! Orders close on Monday May 29th, so get selling!

https://forms.gle/ybLFKpvZiy43rBx78

Writing Competition

Cashmere High School Open Day

Pōhutukawa Update, Term 2, Week 4

Posted on 19 May, 202315 December, 2024 by Steve Cooke

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

A wet end to the week, with quite a number of tamariki absent due to illness. With coughs and colds, as well as of course Covid, doing the rounds, we are being extra vigilant with our ventilation practices in the team, and giving lots of reminders to cough into elbows, wash hands regularly, and be aware of personal space. We hope you all have a happy, healthy weekend. Please read on for some updates and reminders.

Winter Sports Starts Next Week

Our Winter Sports programme starts next week and will take place on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. The tamariki will be either participating in non-competitive or competitive hockey, netball, or football.

Non-competitive sports will take place at school on Wednesday afternoons and will be supported by the Year 8 House Captains.

Competitive sports teams will play in the South Zone Winter Sports competition on Thursday afternoons. If your child is on one of these teams, you will have received a Hero post with all of the information you need to know.

Muddy Months

As we head into winter we are noticing the inevitable increase of muddy shoes and clothes as students come back from play and lunch, having played sports and games on our beloved Beckenham Park. This week we incorporated how to show We Care for our school environment into our PB4L lessons. We will now be asking students to take off muddy shoes before entering the Hub and lining them up neatly outside the door. We are lucky to have wonderful underfloor heating in the classrooms, so feet stay nice and warm, and as an added benefit our carpet stays mud-free! In addition to this, we suggest that if your child is coming home with very muddy clothes, please consider supplying them with a spare pair of school shorts and a spare school top for them to change into once they finish their games. We appreciate your support with this.

Living Springs Camp Movie

Today at our Celebration Assembly, we were lucky to see the premiere of the Kauri Media Team's 'Pōhutukawa Camp Movie'. We have added it here as a link for you to watch and enjoy with your tamariki.

Noho ora mai

The Pōhutukawa Team

Kauri Whānau Update: Term 2, Weeks 2 – 3

Posted on 14 May, 202314 May, 2023 by Thomas

We've had a couple of full weeks to fill you all in on. In this post:

Cross Country
Life Changer
Ski Day
Cheese Roll Fundraiser
Code Club visit Tūranga
Math Clubs

Cross Country

The heavens opens and poured down on us, just as we gathered for the start of the 2023 cross-country. With the decision made to go ahead, we were impressed with the grit and determination shown by the vast majority of the team. Everyone had different measures of success. We were so impressed by those who managed to run the full course without stopping and those who maintained a regular run - walk - run pace. A special congratulations to the top 3 finishers in each section:

Year 8 Girls: Ella C, Zoe (tied for first), Charlie
Year 8 Boys: Cahlen, Dan, James
Year 7 Girls: Harriet, Isabella and Bonnie
Year 7 Boys: Jack, Finn, Rowan

A huge thanks to parents who came along to help with the running of the event.

LifeChanger

Starting in Week 2, we have been taking part in LifeChanger sessions with visiting facilitators from Auckland. LifeChanger empowers young people to live thriving, resilient lives by developing their social, emotional and resilience skills. The children have been engaging really well with the learning, and we have two more to wrap things up in Week 4.

Ski Day

We have booked our ski day at Mt Hutt for Monday, August 28. This day has a very early start, meeting at school at 5:45am! We return by 6pm. At this stage we are looking for parents/caregivers to help on this trip. We are after both experienced skiers, who can help on the snow, and people on foot to support around the base area. Please fill in this form if you are keen to join us.

https://forms.gle/nEdrGA6xtijwLNKXA

Cheese roll fundraiser, parent help needed.

With our ski trip coming up next term, we need to raise some funds. Over the past few years we have made and sold cheese rolls. The system works well (with the children as the main workforce) and we have made lots of money in the past. Wednesday, June 7th will be our production day. Please read this form to see if you can help and fill it out if you can contribute in some way. Thanks team - 'We get there together!'

https://forms.gle/3TXuict9rvtubsku5

Also important is that you can order cheese rolls via the form below:

https://forms.gle/ybLFKpvZiy43rBx78

World Vision Junior Youth Conference

Grace, Stella, Scarlett and Alyssa attended the World Vision Junior Youth Conference on Thursday of Week 2. The girls had a great day learning about the amazing work that World Vision does and came back feeling very inspired. The 40 Hour Challenge is coming up so stay tuned to hear from our leaders in the coming weeks about this great cause.

A huge thank you to Katie for taking the girls to the conference!

Code Club visit Turanga

On Wednesday, a number of students from the Friday Code Club passions group had the opportunity to head into Turanga. Find out all about what they got up to via the link below to the video they created.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ACM_5NRukVM5AcoPmFR_qHr0L8ZavE47/view?usp=sharing

Maths Clubs

Maths Clubs are proving to be popular on a Thursday morning. A reminder that we have two Maths Clubs this term, both taking place on Thursdays from 8.20 to 8.50am. Nicky will be running an extension club in the Breakout Space, and Bridie will be running a Times Tables club in Kōmanawa for those who want to improve their multiplication facts knowledge. All students are welcome.

Kahikatea News Term 2 Week 3

Posted on 12 May, 202312 May, 2023 by Quynh Nguyen

Kia ora e te whānau,

We had a great week with our tamariki despite some challenging weather and the Cross Country and School Disco being postponed. We would like to thank you for your understanding.

Nuts / nut-based products at school

This is another reminder that the Kahikatea team has students with nut allergies, one of these is life-threatening. Therefore, we are asking that nuts and nut-based products are NOT brought to school by your child. Nut-based products include items like Nutella, peanut butter, muesli bars containing nuts etc.

The team is also aware that some children may have other dietary requirements. Please talk with your child’s Homegroup teacher if this is the case so that they are aware and we can create a specific plan to support your child if need be.

Our policy at school is that children only eat their own food and not share. Teachers are reminding children about this, along with reminders about handwashing and putting food wrappings in their lunch boxes to take home.

If you have any questions please contact your child's Homegroup teacher.

Thank you for your support as 'We Get There Together'.

Music unit

The children have been super excited and engaged with our Music unit, which has focused on various elements of music, and different types of musical instruments. Most tamariki have designed and made their own instrument and today finished these by decorating them. Children who have been absent due to illness will have an opportunity to work on this next week.

On Monday, there will be a percussion performance called 'Strike to School' at our kura. We will get to see how people use body percussion and handmade instruments to create music.

Cross Country

We have re-scheduled our Junior Cross Country event to be on Tuesday 16th May. Children will gather on the park at 2pm and the races will start shortly after, starting with Year 4 and finishing with Year 0/1.

Please feel free to come along and support your child/ren if you are able. Tamariki may wear their house tops on this day. Please ensure that they are wearing appropriate footwear.

Thank you for your support!

Learning Through Play

This term, we have continued to explore and engage in different activities for Learning Through Play, including water play, body movements with music, chalk art, drawing using Arts for Kids Hub videos, and so on. The children have had lots of fun!