Koru Team News – Term 2, Week 5

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 Kia ora e te whanau,

We hope you are all happy and healthy, and settling into this approaching winter weather. It is so lovely to see all the wonderful smiling faces as our tamariki are dropped off each morning. We really appreciate the support you all give in the mornings with positive goodbyes, and with encouraging your child to independently carry and unpack their bags when they arrive at school each morning. 

Reminders:

Literacy Folders: Please remind your children to pack their small literacy folders back in their bags once they have finished practising their learning at home each afternoon/evening. We use the items (books and letter cards) sent home, in our small group sessions, so it is really important that these come back to school the following day to help assist with the children's learning. 

Sandwich Road Crossing: If you are crossing Sandwich Road to come into the school entrance, can you please make sure you and your tamariki cross at the pedestrian crossing. We have noticed that families are crossing near to the pedestrian crossing but not at the pedestrain crossing, which can be dangerous with cars pulling in and out due to drop offs and pick ups. We want everyone to stay safe and for children to develop safe habits on and near to roads.

School Car park: Just another friendly reminder for parents to bring their child into school via safe entry points, rather than through the staff carpark. As well as being a carpark, this is also a drop off and pick up zone for our Ferndale students, so vehicles are constantly coming in and out throughout the day. There are three safe ways you can enter the school grounds: the first is through the school gates by the flag pole; the second entrance is down by the Sandwich Road and Eastern Terrace corner, where there is a gate which will need to be opened by an adult; and the third is off Eastern Terrace at the bottom of the pathway leading up to the courtyard outside Hangere, where the gate will also need to be opened by an adult. We really do appreciate support with this, in order to keep everyone safe. 

Junior Park Explorers Outing:

Throughout this term, we have been planning for an outing that fitted in with our schoolwide focus for this year: Sustainability. Unfortunately, Elizabeth's and Nicola's home groups' outing last Monday had to be postponed due to inclement weather, but a new date has been organised. A new Hero post has been sent out with the new date of Thursday, June 9th and seeking more praent help. Fortunately, the weather was perfect for Georgia's home group to attend the outing and tamariki and kaiako all had an absolute blast!  

We had the privilege of having an educator from the Christchurch City Council, Celia, come in and talk to us about being park explorers, and adventuring and exploring the area around the Beckenham Ponds. We learnt and experienced many new things: different birds and the calls they make; going on a bird walk to listen and hear for different birdlife that surrounds the ponds; how birds help the process of pollination and its connection with seed dispersal; the different insects that could be living around the ponds and investigating and exploring to try to find these; and playing a game known as Tumble Tree Forest where our tamariki had to find a solution for what our birdlife and insects would do if we ran out of trees. 

We saw many different birds and insects, and had the most amazing time. We are so thankful for our parent helpers, Roberta, Richard, Julia and Harpreet, who dedicated their morning to come and help and be involved with the outing. We wouldn't have been able to do this without you! We also want to thank Celia, our educator, for teaching us all these new concepts and making us more aware of how important birdlife, insects and trees are to our lifestyles. Please enjoy looking at the photos of our amazing outing and we can't wait to share some more when both Elizabeth's and Nicola's home groups are able to go on this outing. 


Walking over all together ready for a great day

Walking together (part 2)

Listening eagerly to Celia and showing 5!

Celia teaching us about pūtangitangi - paradise ducks

Finding our bird buddies

Are you a kererū like me?

We're all pūtangitangi

A fun game of listening to bird calls and trying to find our parent bird

Not my bird parent, off I fly to search again...

Yay - we've found our bird parent!

We've found ours, too!

So have we! 

Looking around at the different birds at the ponds

Bird walking 

Talking about how pollination and seed dispersal works

Our friend Betty, the praying mantis, came to visit

Learning about the different bugs we might find, while exploring

I think we found something!

We found a bug on this leaf

I wonder what's in here?

Celia talked to us about decomposition and how our insects help make this happen

Look at our great costumes for the Tumble Tree Forest game

Our birds are ready to fly

Ladybugs and bumble bees

Look at those colourful wings and red and black spots

Flying around the forest

Uh, oh! Here comes a woodcutter, ready to chop down our home!

Back to safety we go!

Our final flight around Tumble Tree forest

Finishing off the session, talking about how our trees grow, and recapping what we have learnt today.

Once again, thank you so much to our parent helpers for helping to make this trip possible. As you can see, it was such a terrific learning experience for all our tamariki and even as teachers we learnt something new. We can't wait for Elizabeth and Nicola's home groups to get to experience this outing soon!

We also want to say a big thank you to Amy. Amy has been a student teacher in our Koru team for the past 7 weeks and has taught multiple groups across different curriculum areas. Amy has created such wonderful and positive connections and relationships with all our tamariki, and we are all so sad she is leaving us. She has been an amazing addition to our team and we are going to miss her immensely. We wish her all the best on her teaching journey and we can't wait to have her back and visiting again soon!

We hope you are all having a wonderful, safe and restful Queen's Birthday weekend. We cannot wait to see all the smiling faces back at school tomorrow, ready to experience lots of fun and exciting learning!

Ngā mihi mahana and take care,

Georgia, Elizabeth, Nicola, Stacey, and Jeanette









Kahikatea News Term 2 Week 5

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 Kia ora e te whānau, 

We are halfway through the term already! We have been having a blast in the Kahikatea Hub, and we have some exciting events coming up soon for our tamariki.

Digital Tech with Kate

We have had the amazing opportunity of having Kate, from Digital Future Aotearoa, come and spend some time with small groups. She has been working on building tech and coding skills during our Wednesday Learning Through Play Sessions. Kate and the students have been working with Blue Bots and Spheros. Here are some lovely photos of the tamariki enjoying themselves. 


  





Positive Behaviour for Learning

As part of our school-wide Positive Behaviour 4 Learning (PB4L) program, we have been focusing on a Word of the Week. This week our word is KINDNESS, and all Kahikatea learners have spent time in their homegroups discussing what this words means to them and how they can demonstrate kindness.

Last week the word was RESPECT. Katie's homegroup produced some fantastic writing on what respect meant to them, and some students shared their writing with the students from Koru, Kahikatea and Kowhai during our Junior School Assembly last Friday. They did a wonderful job, and we were all very proud!



Mathematics Focus

This term, alongside our work on number, addition and subtraction, we have been focusing on problem solving during our mathematics lessons. We have been working on solving open-ended problems where there can be more than one solution. We have been working in groups, as well as independently, to solve these problems. Below is one of the problems that we have worked on. We used the visit from Bob Bickerton to form a real-life application to the problem.



Winter Clothing

As the weather starts to get colder, we are seeing lots of our tamariki dressed in lovely warm coats, jerseys, beanies and gloves. This is fantastic and it keeps them nice and warm. Please ensure that all items of your child's clothing are clearly named to assist in the event of an item being lost or misplaced.

Up coming Events:

Cross Country

Our Junior Cross Country is taking place on Tuesday June 14th. It is an event for students in New Entrants up to Year 4.

Some important points about the event:
  • parents are welcome to join us at this event on June 14th.
  • the afternoon will start at 1:00 p.m., with the oldest year group levels running first, on through to the New Entrants towards the end of the afternoon
  • practices will be taking place regularly between now and the Cross Country event: if you wish your child to be exempt from practices due to health reasons, please email your child's HG teacher as soon as possible to let them know
  • please send your child to school in appropriate footwear for daily running practices
  • please ensure that your child has their water bottle at school each day, including on the day of the event
  • children will be able to wear their house T-shirts on the day of the Cross Country
  • the postponement date for our Cross Country is Monday, June 20th.

The Christchurch Antarctic Centre

We are very excited to be visiting The Christchurch Antarctic Centre on the 23rd June. 
Thank you to all those parent/whanau who have volunteered to assist. We now have sufficient numbers of parent/whanau helpers. Thanks everyone! 

Katie and Emma's home groups will leave school at 9am and return by 12:15pm, and Amber and Krystal's home groups will leave school at 11:45am and return by 3pm.

Please ensure that your child is dressed in their school uniform and wear warm, comfortable footwear.


That's all for now,

The Kahikatea Team

amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz,  katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz, krystal.hunt@beckenham.school.nz, emma.hayes-smith@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz,


 



















Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter Rāmere (Friday) 3 June 2022

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Principal's Patch

Talofa tagata uma!

Learning Conferences coming up in Week 10 on the 4th and 6th of July

Teachers are currently writing reports in HERO and these will be made available to you on Friday 1st July. Learning Conferences will happen the following week, and school will finish at 2pm on Monday 4th and Wednesday 6th of July to allow time for these.
A booking system for learning conferences will be in next weeks newsletter.

Messaging Teachers

If you need to get a message to school about a child's absence (or any other important message) please ALWAYS contact the office either by email or by phone. Please do NOT text teachers as they may be away, or may not check their phone and then your message doesn't get through.

office@beckenham.school.nz
03 337 1404
Text only - 02102794107

Winter footwear options

With winter here, we encourage children to wear gumboots to school (especially on particularly rainy days, and to have a pair of slippers or an extra pair of socks in their bag for wearing in the hub. 

Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki - Principal

Term 2 Dates

Monday 6 June - Queen's Birthday - School closed
Wednesday 22 June - Whānau Hui & Hāngī
Wednesday 22 June - PTA Meeting (7.30-8.30PM in the Green Room)
Friday 24 June - Matariki - School closed
Monday 4 July - school closes at 2pm for Learning Conferences
Wednesday 6 July - school closes at 2pm for Learning Conferences
Friday 8 July - Last day of Term 2

Citizen of the Week

Lillie Neame - Year 8

Lillie, you are a ray of sunshine within Kauri hub! You wear a smile wherever you go and as a learner, you show fantastic determination and drive. Not only this, but you are also an incredible friend to so many and we admire the way you are so inclusive of everybody around you. Pai tō mahi Lillie.  

School Notices

Toys and trading cards at school

We have noticed an increase in children bringing both toys, and trading cards (especially Pokemon cards) to school recently. We know that all of these items are extremely precious and that if they get lost, or accidentally given away or misplaced, it causes very real distress.

Our policy ​has always been to ask that toys (including trading cards) are left at home. 


Talking with your child about 'stranger danger'

For many years the rule for children has been "Don't talk to strangers". The messaging to children has changed over the last few years to focus on "Adults who can help us". As part of the Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme (New Zealand Police), there is a lesson with the children about Adults Who Help. The lesson covers:
  • Children need to learn who they can trust to help them if they are scared or worried about something, or if they feel unsafe. 
  • This person may well be someone they know, but they may also need to ask someone they don’t know for help. 
  • It is also important that children, and the people they live with, work together to develop safety rules and strategies that will help children keep themselves safe.   
As a whānau, these conversations are important to have with your children. The Kiwi Families website (click here for the link) has a page to support caregivers on how to talk with your child about strangers. This page may help you decide what are the key things you want your child to know if they are interacting with someone they don't know. ​

Sushi Meets Dumplings Lunch Order

Lost Property

Please take a look at the below images to see if they belong to your child. These items are in the Lost Property. This is out on the Library Deck during school hours.

In addition to this, we have a large watch collection building in the office from this year and last, as well as glasses - both prescription and sunnies. Please feel welcome to pop in to the Office to check if we have yours/your tamariki.

Kupu Māori o te wiki

whakapono: believe

PTA News

DJ Needed



The PTA would absolutely love to chat to any of our school parents who would be keen to volunteer their evening to help us DJ the school disco on Friday 5 August. Sound system & play-lists will be provided- we just need the support of an enthusiastic & knowledgeable parent to make this happen! We would be very grateful for the help.
Please email PTA@beckenham.school.nz

Hāngī Fundraiser (Matariki)


The PTA is having a hāngī immediately following the whānau hui at kura (school) on the 22nd of June at 6.30pm. Matariki is the start of the Māori new year and a time of reflection, connection and planning for the year ahead.
We would like to celebrate with you and your whānau with a hāngī and sharing kai (food) together. 

YOU NEED TO PRE-ORDER HĀNGĪ ($15 each). Be quick as portions sold fast last year. We only have 120 servings available.
 Please order through the link below:

Our traditional hāngī will come in their own individually wrapped trays and will all be cooked together in a big kai cooker. We will have the traditional hāngī which includes meat, vegetables, and stuffing. We are also offering a gluten-free option and a vegetarian option. These portions can usually feed an adult and a child.

Thank you for your support!

BOT Update

School Board of Trustee Elections 2022

Nomination round

Our kura will be undertaking a parent election for 3 School Board vacancies. This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver community by Friday 15th July 2022.

We have employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf. This year with legislative change, our nomination form and full instruction on how to place your nomination into our own School’s Election website will be emailed to you if we have your email address in our database or you will receive it by post if we don’t have your email in our database.

Nomination papers will also be available at the school office. The school will send those on to CES for processing upon receipt from candidates. 

Nominations close on Wednesday 3rd August at 12 noon.
Election day is Wednesday 7th September.

We look forward to your participation in this process.

"I am enjoying my time on the BoT. It gives me an opportunity to give something back to the community. It offers me an insight as to how the school is run. I have had the opportunity to offer a different perspective and have had the chance to hear others' perspectives as well. I have learnt a lot and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I encourage other parents to consider if this is something they could also do." - Matthew Macdonald, Current Board Chair

Community Notices

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

Cashmere High School Open Day – Cancelled

Due to staff absences we are unable to host our Open Day 9 June 2022. This is very disappointing for us as our Open Day is a wonderful opportunity to welcome our community to Cashmere High School.

We are investigating ways in which we can provide families with information about our school.



Clothing Sale - at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Hall




Swords, spam, cheerleaders, spam, singing, spam and did I mention spam - a lot?

The best Kidsfest activity this July is the hilarious kids version of the broadway hit musical MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT YOUNG@PART.

Specifically adapted by Eric Idle for kids to perform to kids, this wonderfully wacky adventure of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table is based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  There’s outstanding singing, dancing, prancing with coconuts, French taunting and of course the Knights of Ni! As the Knights journey on their search for the holy grail they come to realise that the grail is about finding that thing that truly feeds your soul. From swords to cheerleaders there’s something for everyone in this one hour adaption.

You’d be crazy to miss it!.  Tickets $15. At Nasda Theatre during Kidfest these July Holidays!

Bookings https://events.humanitix.com/spamalot-young-part


Marching Canterbury

Don’t knock the sport of Marching, until you try it!

We cater for all ages 4yrs- 30yrs+ We are currently looking for more members to join our teams.

Marching encourages teamwork, discipline, and friendship. It’s great for coordination, posture and brain development. If you would like to see what we are all about and give it a go, get in touch with us at Publicitymarchingcanterbury@gmail.com or Kylie Dowers 021930434.

We have teams in all areas of Christchurch.

Kōwhai News Term 2 Week 5

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Kia ora e te whānau / Talofa lava,

Happy Samoan Language Week! / Manuia le vaiaso o le Gagana Sāmoa!

We have enjoyed learning a few Samoan phrases and greetings this week. Did you know that there is an ancient pyramid in Sāmoa?

Discovery

We have been continuing to do a lot of purposeful Learning Through Play activities such as Stop Motion Animation, making our own Top Trump cards and creating world flags.










Mask Reminder

Please remember to send your child to school with a named mask each day, as we have now run out of child-sized masks. Please also encourage them to re-use and look after their masks to make sure we are staying environmentally friendly.

Frost Dragon Spelling Book

We sent this home last term as something you can use to practise reading and spelling at home with your child. It is a valuable resource for revisiting what they have been learning at school. Please make sure to use it when you can.

Please contact your child's homegroup teacher if you would like to have another copy or would like information on which stage your child is at for Structured Literacy.

Junior School Cross Country - Tuesday 14th June

Some important points to remember:

  • Parents/Caregivers are welcome to join us at this event on June 14th.
  • The afternoon will start at 1:00 p.m., with the oldest year group levels running first, on through to the New Entrants towards the end of the afternoon.
  • Practices will be taking place regularly between now and the Cross Country event: if you wish your child to be exempt from practices due to health reasons, please email your child's HG teacher as soon as possible to let them know.
  • Please send your child to school in appropriate footwear for daily running practices.
  • Please ensure that your child has their water bottle at school each day, including on the day of the event.
  • Children will be able to wear their house T-shirts on the day of the Cross Country
  • The postponement date for our Cross Country is Monday, June 20th.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you on the day of the Junior School Cross Country.

Junior Celebration Assembly

We had our second Junior Celebration Assembly last Friday. Congratulations to the students who received their Citizen of the Week and Kete certificates!




We wish you a fun and relaxing long weekend. 

Fa'afetai lava,

The Kōwhai Team.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 2 Week 5

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 In this post

  • Winter sport begins
  • Cross country video
  • Cashmere High open day
  • Ski Day Term 3 - parent help request
  • Cheese Roll fundraiser
  • VelocityKarts photos

Winter Sport

Our local competitive winter sports programme gets underway this Thursday. Many thanks to the parents who have put up their hands to be involved. This opportunity could not go ahead without you. 

Cross Country

Our cross country event took place three weeks ago, with many children really taking on the challenge and pushing to give their very best. Well done to our zone competitors who gave their all at Hansens Park last week.

This video of the school event has been put together by Keira from our media team.



Cashmere High Open Day

Cashmere High School has their open day on June 9th. Check out this timeline for 2023 enrolments.

Ski Day Term 3

We are very much looking forward to taking the team to Mt Hutt for a day in the snow, especially after Covid cancelled this trip last year. We are all booked in for Thursday, September 1st. If you would like to join us on this trip as a helper, either on skis or on foot, please fill in this form. 

Cheese Rolls

With a number of outdoor trips this year, we need to raise some funds. Later this term we will be rolling out our very popular cheese rolls. Order forms will come out next week. The children are the workforce for this fundraiser, with guidance from a small group of parents. Our making day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 29th. If you are able to help by supplying equipment, ordering or picking up ingredients or helping on the day, please fill in this form.

VelocityKarts

Lots of fun was had at VelocityKarts in week 3. The highlight for many was the thrill of the blokarting, with human foosball a close second. It was fabulous to see our tamariki embracing this new challenge with huge smiles and whoops of joy. A huge thanks to the parents who joined us on these days.