Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Ready to roll for term 4!

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 In this post

  • Canteen at technology
  • Sunhats
  • Outdoor education
  • Quiz night tickets
  • Production
  • Year 8
  • Term dates overview
We hope you have had a pleasant two weeks with your tamariki at home. We have a busy term ahead! Please read the important messages below and records dates in your diary. 

Canteen at Technology

The canteen at technology will reopen this term. The children will be very excited about this! Just before it was closed last year, some purchasing habits were concerning, and we were about to address these when Covid stepped in and solved the issues. Please talk with your child about the following guidelines:
  • You must wear your own sunhat or you will not be served.
  • You must bring your own money and not ask other people for money.
  • You only purchase things for yourself, not for others.
  • Do not over-purchase. Two items max per person. This is just food for morning tea, not to be brought back to school for lunch.

Sunhats

Please dig out the sunhats and check that they are named. Children need to wear full-brimmed hats whenever outside in terms 1 and 4. If children do not have a hat they will need to go to a designated area at break times. 

Outdoor Education

We have several outdoor education events planned for this term and require parent help with these. Please fill in this form to indicate where you can help.

Wednesday, November 16 and Thursday, November 17: Two home-groups will head into town and two will head to Spencerville. Groups will switch the following day.
  • Town day (9:30 - 3:00): Waka on Avon (history, team skills and waka experience) and Art gallery tour 
  • Spencerville day (8:30 - 3:00): Adrenaline Forest and activities at Spencer Park and beach 
Monday, December 5 (1:15 - 3:00): Top Team event on Beckenham Park

Friday, December 9 (11:00 - 3:00): Corsair Bay trip. 


Quiz Night

We still have room for a few more quiz teams. If you have yet to purchase tickets, please consider joining us for this great night out. You may be able to put a team from your workplace together. Click here to book tickets.



Production

After a break of two years due to Covid, we are immersing ourselves in the arts this term as we put together our 'A walk through the 80s' production. This will see the children working in either singing, acting, dancing or props-making groups. All of this creativity will culminate in two performances on December 5th and 6th, starting at 7pm. The props group would welcome any parent support. If you are able to pop along some afternoons in October and November, please email Nicky.  

Year 8

No doubt you will find it hard to believe that your child has less than nine weeks left of their primary / intermediate years! At assemblies this term we will be acknowledging our Year 8s with prizes being awarded across the term. We will notify you if your child is to receive a prize. Last year we changed our approach to the Leavers' Assembly, with the aim of focusing on all Year 8s rather than the spotlight being on the prize winners. The new format met that aim and we will be going with a similar approach this year. 

Thanks to those who have sent in a photo of your child as a 5 year old. If you have yet to do this, please email your photo to Nicky ASAP or send in a paper copy for scanning this week.

Term 4 Dates:

October
  • Wed 26: Athletics day
  • Thur 27: Zone Speech Comp at St Peters. Good luck to Christopher and Fergus

November
  • Wed 9: 2023 House Captains and Student Council exec leadership day at Christ College
  • Mon 14: Zone athletics
  • Wed 16: Outdoor edn day
  • Thurs 17: Outdoor edn day
  • Fri 18: Reports go live
  • Fri 18: Student Council dress up day - either teacher swap or PJ
  • Wed 30: Canterbury athletics
  • Wed 30: Whānau picnic and kapa haka concerts

December
  • Mon 5: Top team afternoon
  • Mon 5: Production performance 1: A Walk through the 80s. 7pm
  • Tues 6: Production performance 2: A Walk through the 80s. 7pm
  • Fri 9: Corsair Bay trip
  • Wed 14: Leavers' Assembly and lunch. Year 8 finishes for the year after lunch
  • Thurs 15: Last day for Year 7, finished before lunch



Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto School Newsletter, Friday 30 September 2022

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

We wish you all a very safe holiday, and hope that you are all able to get some quality family time over the next two weeks.

Considerations for home group placement for 2023

As we start to put together home groups for 2023, we know that you may hold particular information or insight that you want to share that will support the placement of your child for next year.
Our teachers have a lot of understanding around the needs of our children, and we are keen to also know if there is something particular we should be aware of as we make these decisions.
As you will appreciate, putting home groups together is a hugely complex puzzle where the needs of all children need to be carefully considered. This means that we are not asking for 'requests' for teachers or for friendship groups as we would never be able to meet all of those. What we are wanting, is to be made aware of anything we need to consider. We will add your considerations to ours, and do the best we can to make sure that everyone's needs have been considered.
If you have anything you want us to know, please email it to me (not to the teachers) so that I have all the information in the one place. We will need this information by the end of Week 2 next term - Friday 28th October.
email: principal@beckenham.school.nz

Junior Playground Rebuild - Work is finally beginning!

We have had this plan on our radar for up to three years and it is extremely exciting to be able to confirm that work is actually beginning on the replacement of our Junior Playground!
The fencing went up this afternoon and demolition will begin on Monday. The new build is expected to begin in Week 2 of next term. 



Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki

Important Dates

Fri 30 Sep - Last day of Term 3
Mon 17 Oct - First day of Term 4
Mon 24 Oct - Labour Day - (School Closed)
Tue 25 Oct - Netsafe Workshop for all whānau - St Martins School, 7pm
Wed 26 Oct - School Athletics Day
Fri 11 Nov - Canterbury Anniversary Day - (School Closed)
Thu 15 Dec - Last day of Term 4 - School closes 12:30pm

Term Dates

Kahikatea Athletics

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Kia ora whānau,

We made the most of the lovely weather today and got outside to practice our four athletics stations. The tamariki were amazing - so focused, motivated, and energised! 

We are really looking forward to our whole-school athletics event on Wednesday 26th October. Kahikatea's events are from 11:00 - 12:40. We would love to see you there if you can make it!

Training for this event will continue in Week 1 of Term 4, so please ensure that your child wears appropriate footwear to school each day.

Here are some photos of our children in action today...



















Koru Team News: Term 3 Week 9

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 Kia ora e te whānau,

We hope you are all having a lovely weekend together with your families! We have been very busy in the Koru team over the past fortnight: 

  • we've had some very exciting new outdoor equipment arrive, and the children have been having fun experimenting with its use
  • we've had two fun Learning Through Play themes: 'Puppets' and 'Shops' 
  • and the children are continuing to make great progress in their Literacy and Maths learning! Thank you so much for your support with this at home - it makes such an enormous difference. 
It has also been wonderful to see our tamariki independently unpacking their bags, putting away their lunchboxes and drink bottles, and putting their folders in the correct reading folder containers each morning. We appreciate and thank you for your continued support with this.

We would like to say a very warm welcome to Finley who started school last week. It is so lovely to have Finley in the hub with us. He has settled in beautifully, and our 'Golden Oldies' have made him feel very welcome and at home. 

Word of the Week: Throughout the year, each week we have a school-wide 'Word of the Week'. Some of our focus words this term, have included: Determination, Empathy, Resilience, Respect, and Kindness. This week we have been focusing on Co-operation. We have been discussing and reflecting on what our play and relationships will look like, sound like, and feel like when co-operation is being incorporated into what we say and do. You'll see some impressive examples of cooperation in the photos below! We encourage you to talk with your children about these values and to ask them what they believe each of these words means.

Learning Through Play: During each school day, our tamariki are involved in Learning through Play activities incorporating different social competencies, all while the children are engaged in play. This can involve:

  • improving social skills, such as turn-taking, sharing, negotiating, and ensuring that things remain fair
  • being aware of the use of our school kete values in the classroom environment
  • learning new tricks and skills, as well as being inventive, with the outdoor equipment 
  • role playing within some of the different play areas like the family corner, the puppet theatre and the shops display, and 
  • learning how to work together with others and practise the skills needed to work collaboratively and to be a team player. 

We also have different themes to help spark interest in the Learning Through Play. Throughout Term 3, our themes have included: obstacle courses, cafes, vets, puppets, and shops. These themes have provided tamariki with endless opportunities and new ideas for their play. In the photos below, you will see how creative and imaginative our tamariki are. The children have been very creative in their use of the new outdoor equipment which has arrived.

Awesome balancing on the new 'stilts'!

What a cool creation for Bounce and Skip, and what a wonderful example of cooperation!

That's a tall tower team (and more fantastic cooperation).

Showing We Love Challenge with this incredibly challenging jigsaw puzzle.

"Come with me - let's go play!"

Practising our fancy footwork before the disco.

Playing shops: "I would like this one, please."

"Thank you for shopping, and have a lovely day!"

What an awesome hut you've built - so cosy!

Trying out the Hungry Hippos game and using excellent turn-taking skills.

Woohoo! What impressive balancing!

Look at all the different little things in here.

Teamwork makes the dream work. What amazing balancing skills!

What a fantastic tower you've built out of the hexagons.

Disco: On Friday afternoon, we had our school disco. What a fun time the children all had practising their dance moves and enjoying spending time with friends and having a boogie! We loved seeing them in their amazing and beautiful disco outfits. Here are photos of some of our tamariki at the disco!











We hope you are all having a safe, happy, and relaxing long weekend and we can't wait to see you all back at school on Tuesday!

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Georgia, Elizabeth, Nicola, Stacey and Jeanette




Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 9

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 In this post:

  • Cashmere High Testing
  • Fundraising for 2023 Camp: Quiz Night
  • Sports uniforms
  • Leadership 2023 applications - Year 7
  • Year 8 photos - when I was 5
  • Koru Games
  • Code Club

Cashmere High Testing

A reminder that this testing is happening this coming Tuesday morning. The children make their own way to and from the testing. They need to be back at Beckenham by 1:20pm. Today we spent a session with the Year 8s talking about what to expect and some tips for testing. The slides below outline what was covered. We have at least eleven Year 8s going to other high schools in 2023. These children come to school as normal, by 8:30 on Tuesday to catch the tech bus.





Fundraising for 2023 Camp to Wainui:

We have our Comedy Quiz Night coming up on October 29th. We have already sold almost half of the tickets - so get in quick and book your team in using this link. 

Many thanks to the Year 7 families who have already sent in a luxury supermarket item for our hamper prizes. Please do not send in alcohol. If you have yet to send in an item, please do so next week.


Sports Uniforms

All sports uniforms should be finished with for now. Please get these washed and returned to school early next week. The children put them into a returns box just outside the library. There are lots of outstanding tops and dresses from basketball, winter sport and Koru games.

Leadership Positions for 2023

Next term we have the opportunity to send a small group of our Year 7s to a leadership event in the middle of November. We will be sending our 2023 House Captains and Student Council Executive.  The application process for these positions begins now. We talked with Year 7 about this today and they know to fill in the form on Kauri Google Classroom. They have access to this at home, or could do it at school. This form needs to be completed by the end of this term: Friday Sept 30th.

Year 8 'when I was 5' photos

For parents of our Year 8 tamariki, no doubt it is hard to believe that your child has just one more term before heading off to high school. As part of our farewell to our leavers we put together a leavers' book. We need you to send in a photo of your child when they were 5 for this book. It could be a first day of school photo, or it could be any photo of them when they were 5. You can either email the photo to Nicky or bring in a hard copy and we will scan it and return it that day. Please start sending these in now. 

Koru Games

What an awesome week of learning we have had this week. Here at school we have been engaged in literacy, maths, athletics, STEM challenges, science learning about rockets and technology.

Around 40 of our tamariki have travelled to Lincoln on three days to take part in the Koru Games. They have had a blast! All teams were very competitive and displayed great sportsmanship. Jenny was impressed to have teachers from other schools come up to her to say how impressed they were with how our children supported the opposition during games. A huge thanks to Jenny and the team of adults who gave of their time to coach and support teams. Photos coming next post.

Code Club

As part of our Friday passions, Kate Allan runs a code club for our tamariki. These children have loved their sessions and today they headed into town to experience the life of a coder at Verizon Connect. They had a fabulous day getting an insight into the projects that coders work on, doing a collaborative project and enjoying the vibe of this inspiring workplace. They quite enjoyed the hot lunch too! Next term Kate is planning a code club trip to the university, as the children were keen to find out what they needed to do to get a job like the ones they saw today!

Kate is keen to expand the code club next term. She has someone else coming to join her, so there will be two tutors, with coding being taught at a beginner and more advanced level. We would love to see all genders involved in the club. Passions will be explained and selected next week. We are hoping to see more children keen to explore coding.