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Kahikatea News Term 1 Week 3

Posted on 19 February, 202319 February, 2023 by Katie McFarlane

Kia ora e te whānau mā,

It has been lovely to see our children continuing to settle into the new school year! 'We Love Learning' has been a value that the teachers have noticed in action, with children enthusiastically approaching their learning. Nau mai te wero, bring on the challenge!

Hats

Students are required to wear hats outside in Terms 1 and 4. Please make sure that your child has a clearly named wide-brimmed or bucket hat. We recommend leaving hats at school in your child's home group hat tub. This helps minimise the possibility of losing or forgetting hats and it supports us in ensuring smooth transitions to breaks during the day.

Toys at School

We have noticed that some children are bringing toys (including soft toys) from home to school. We have reminded tamariki that their toys need to stay at home. We find that if children bring a toy from home it can become a distraction during learning, and sometimes these special items become lost or broken during the day. If your child needs extra support with settling into school, please speak to your child's home group teacher, and together, we will come up with a plan.

Celebration Assembly and Team Hui

We had the first Celebration Assembly and Team Hui of the year last Friday with many parents/caregivers joining us. Congratulations to Kahikatea children who received a Kete award or a certificate for showing our school values.

Sharing our Learning

We had some special visitors in the Kahikatea hub this week! It is butterfly season, so we were thrilled to get the chance to learn about the life cycle of butterflies this week when a learner brought their chrysalises in to share. Even more exciting were the obvious changes in the chrysalises throughout the day and then the appearance of butterflies.

Literacy at home

Your child's literacy teacher will send home resources to support your child's structured literacy learning at home by the end of this week. These resources align with your child's current structured literacy stage. As your child moves through the stages, these resources will be updated. Please keep an eye out for them in your child's reading folder and let your child's teacher know if you have any questions.

Maths

In Kahikatea so far this term, we have been working on an NZ Maths unit called ‘All about us’. We have explored:

Different ways to count groups of objects
Creating and interpreting picture graphs
Features of 2D shapes
The language of position
Ordering objects by mass (weight)
Creating sequential patterns

Here are some photos of some of the fabulous mathematical thinking that our tamariki have displayed...

That's all for now!

Team Kahikatea

quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz

lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz

krystal.hunt@beckenham.school.nz

amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz

katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter Rāmere (Friday) 17 February 2023

Posted on 17 February, 202317 February, 2023 by Sandy Hastings, Principal, Beckenham School

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Our thoughts are with the people of those North Island communities who have been devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle. I know that many of you will have whānau, friends or colleagues impacted. Expect to hear something in next week's newsletter about some action that we can take to show our support to schools in the impacted areas.

Our thoughts are also with the Turkish community as the scale of the devastation from their earthquakes continues to grow. Those of us who experienced the Canterbury earthquakes understand some of the sense of helplessness and loss that is felt when a natural disaster strikes at the heart of a community.

Reminder: Early Finish on Thursday 2nd March - please fill in the survey link below (if you haven't already done this)

As you may be aware, the teachers' union, NZEI, are still in negotiations with the Ministry of Education around a new collective agreement. There is going to be a paid union meeting that all union members are expected to attend, on the afternoon of Thursday 2nd March. As the vast majority of our teachers belong to the union, we need to stop classes at 1pm on this day.

If you are NOT able to arrange for your children to be collected at 1pm on Thursday 2nd March, we will arrange supervision here at school. If your child normally attends BOSCO on a Thursday, we will make sure they get to BOSCO as usual.

EVERY FAMILY needs to fill in this survey, please, to let us know what your plan is for this day so that we know where every child is going to be at 1pm, and we can plan adequate supervision for those who need to stay at school.

Reminder: 2023 Whānau feedback on reporting through Hero

During 2022 student reports were provided to whānau through Hero. As this is a new process for our school community, we would appreciate your feedback as we look for ways to improve the experience.

We would appreciate it if you would be able to take a few minutes to complete this survey (click here).

If you are new to Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto in 2023 there is no need to complete the survey.

We will be closing reports for viewing from Monday morning. This is to allow teachers to begin to update student records. They will be opened again when mid-year reports are ready in Week 6 of Term 2.

Request for Annual Donation

Today you will have received an email requesting your contribution in the form of an annual donation.

If you need any assistance logging into Hero to view your statement or wish to find out more about the school donation or setting up payment instalments, you can refer to our website https://www.beckenham.school.nz/ and follow the “Finances and Annual Donation” link in the “Information” dropdown menu. You will also find information on applying for Donation Tax Credits from the IRD on this page. This scheme entitles you to claim back 33% of your donation payments, if you meet the eligibility criteria. Receipts for donations payments (including camp donations) made to us before 31st March this year, can be submitted as part of your application for the financial year ended 31 March 2023.

If you have a student in Year 7 or 8, a Camp donation request will be going onto your account next week and the Year 5 & 6 Camp donation request will be added in a few weeks time. If you have chosen to pay your donations in instalments over the year, please consider increasing these to allow for the cost of camp.

We greatly appreciate all contributions you are able to make towards donations. These go a long way towards providing a rich and diverse programme for our tamariki.

Payments may be made in part or full to the school bank account -

ASB Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Board of Trustees 12 3148 0131641 000 using the child's name as a reference. The school office also has Eftpos facilities available.

If you have any queries, please email accounts@beckenham.school.nz

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy Hastings

Principal - Tumuaki

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Term 1

Wed 22 Feb - PTA Meeting; All Welcome (7:30 – 9:30pm in The Green Room)
Thu 23 Feb - BOT Meeting (5.30-7.30pm- Staffroom)
Fri 24 Feb - Celebration Assembly (10.00 - 10.30am in the Hall)
Mon 27 Feb - Year 5-8 Swimming Sports - Wharenui Pool 12:30-2:30pm
Thu 2 Mar - School Closes at 1pm for Teachers to attend Paid Union Meetings
Mon 6 - 10 Mar - Walk or Wheel to School week
Mon 6-Fri 10 Mar - Year 7/8 Camp - Wainui
Fri 10 Mar - South Zone Swimming Sports (Y5-8), Wharenui Pool
Wed 22 Mar - PTA Meeting - All Welcome (7:30 – 9:30pm in The Green Room)
Thu 6 Apr - Last day of Term 1
Fri 7 Apr - School Holidays begin (School closed)

Term 2

Mon 24 Apr - Staff Only Day (School closed)
Tue 25 Apr - ANZAC Day (School closed)
Wed 26 Apr - First day of Term 2
Mon 1 - Wed 3 May - Year 5/6 Camp - Living Springs
Mon 5 Jun - King's Birthday (School closed)
Fri 30 Jun - Last day of Term 2Continue reading→

Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 3

Posted on 17 February, 202317 February, 2023 by Koru R

Kia ora Kōwhai whānau,

We have had a great Week 3 in the Kōwhai Hub - our first full five-day week! We have been very busy establishing routines, engaging in learning activities and having lots of fun along the way. We have also started going to kapa haka with whaea Cath. Every homegroup will be given the opportunity to try kapa haka this term. Anna R, Rowe and Nick's homegroups are going to kapa haka from weeks 2-5 and Charlotte and Anna M's homegroups are going in weeks 6-9.

Home Learning

Our literacy groups are well under way. We will be sending a letter home soon informing you of how our home learning programme works. It is separated into two parts, depending on whether or not your child takes home a structured literacy reading book.

Once your child has completed the Structured Literacy programme, home learning will consist of reading a chapter book or non-fiction book of their own choice each night. Some students will bring home a journal story or article that they have read in class. All students visit the library once a week.
Optional spelling activities are also outlined.

Library days are as follows:

Rowe and Nick's literacy groups on Mondays
Anna M and Anna R's literacy groups on Tuesdays
Charlotte's literacy group on Wednesdays

Geometry

Currently, our students are enjoying lessons and activities based on the geometry strand of mathematics. These activities are based on learning 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. The students are being introduced to vocabulary associated with these properties, e.g., faces, edges and vertices.

There is a Geometry section in Mathematics Games on the intranet which they can use as well. Try getting the children to identify the names of common household shapes or send them on a scavenger hunt to locate shapes.

Butterflies

We were very fortunate last week when we were given 2 monarch chrysalises for us to observe. The students were spellbound, waiting and watching as the monarchs emerged from their chrysalises. Many rich discussions about the process of metamorphosis took place. The children also discussed the process of monarch butterflies drying off their wings before they could fly.

Art

The focus this week for Art has been creating a self-portrait. The children have been following the rules of facial proportion and have achieved some outstanding results.

Have a lovely weekend.

Ngā mihi,

The Kōwhai Team - Anna R, Anna M, Nick, Charlotte, Rowe and Megan.