Kōwhai News Term 2 Week 7

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It has been another action-packed week in team Kōwhai, as detailed below!

Reminders:  

  • Matariki whānau evening next Wednesday, 22nd June at school - please come and enjoy crafts and other Matariki learning from 5-6pm. There will be a short performance by the Kōwhai Kapa Haka Group at around 6:20pm, followed by an optional Hangi. Hangi food can be ordered from the PTA. If your child is in the Kōwhai Kapa Haka group and they are coming to perform, could you please make sure they are in Pūkaki by 6pm in order to get ready for the performance.
  • Learning Conferences - to be held in the last week of term, on Monday 4th and Wednesday 6th June. Please note school finishes at 2pm both days. If you haven't already, please book online.

Cross Country 

Thank you to all those parents and whānau who attended and supported our Cross Country event on Tuesday. We were delighted to have families back enjoying a beautiful sunny afternoon. Congratulations to all participants. We were so proud of the way you embraced the challenge of completing the course!






The top 6 placed children for each year (top 6 boys and top 6 girls) will be invited to run in the Cross Country Challenge at Hillview on Tuesday 5th July. There will be more information on this to follow.

Structured Literacy in the Kōwhai Hub

Structured Literacy happens from 11-12.40 in our hub, and includes the following:

Oral Language 

Oral language features throughout the sessions, with lots of shared discussion, peer discussion, teacher-led groups, games and play reading on occasion.

Reading

  • Phonics warm-up (using the Heggerty Phonics Programme) 
  • Speed sounds: flash card reading and/or writing of key spelling patterns and sounds
  • Small group reading with the teacher (using the Little Learners Love Literacy range), which includes dictated words and sentences to practise spelling patterns
  • Follow-up tasks focused on specific spelling patterns: games, worksheets, sentence work
  • Dragon word spelling 
  • Heart word spelling 
  • 'Must do' and 'can do' tasks, such as reading, free writing, wordfinds, targeted work sheets, word challenges, cartoon drawing, Chromebook or iPad literacy games and more
Writing
We focus on different genres or text types for a few weeks at a time. We have just completed a focus on descriptive writing, and were blown away by the student's progress with using adjectives, verbs, similes, metaphors! We are now moving into narrative writing, and some groups are starting this with fractured fairy tales (or fairy tales which are mixed up or slightly twisted from the original!). Each writing session includes some or all of: 
  • Teacher modelling or shared writing (teacher and students working together to write a text) 
  • Reading good examples of a genre or text 
  • Planning writing using varied templates or strategies (e.g. a mindmap, picture drawing etc)
  • Independent writing and editing time 
  • Teacher conferencing and feedback to students 
  • Small groups working with the teacher on specific elements of writing 
  • Publishing 
  • ICT research 
  • Handwriting 
  • Spelling or grammar tasks


Kete Awards: Week 6 (last week)







Discovery Fun!












Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter Rāmere (Friday) 10 June 2022

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

We understand that winter illness, a city-wide vomiting bug and COVID-19 are adding up to very challenging times for most families. If children have been vomiting, please keep them at home for 48 hours after the last event. These bugs are highly transmissible, and we do want to keep everyone as well as we can. Thank you for supporting your child to continue to wear a mask at school. 

As you can see from the graph below, we have a low, but steady number of COVID cases in the school, with our 7 day rolling average currently sitting just under 2. We also know, that for every case, that is an entire household that needs to isolate for 7 days, which is extremely disruptive for everyone.

Not sure who needs to isolate when someone in your household tests positive for COVID? 

Go to this link on the covid-19.health.nz site to find out...

We DO love our Support Staff!


This week was Support Staff Week! What a great job our support staff do to support our tamariki, our teachers and our wider community! The daily interactions and support that they give to our students is so valuable and we know that they make a huge difference every day in the success of these students.

Ngā mihi mahana
Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki - Principal

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Tuesday 14 June - Junior Cross-Country
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

Term Dates

Citizen of the Week

Jensen Spence - Year 4

Jensen, you show a passion for learning every day at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. You put every effort into producing quality work and show great focus when completing any task. You are an extremely respectful and caring student and you are also a fantastic team player, able to work with others to get there together. Thank you for all the hard work you put in!

School Notices

Family Holidays during the school term

All children are legally required to attend school every day that school is open, unless there is a justified reason for their absence. Student absence for holidays within New Zealand or overseas during term-time is understood to be the prerogative of whānau to choose and, in those circumstances, whānau should advise the principal in writing/via email. 
We also understand that COVID has prevented some families from travelling to visit family overseas for a long time and we do understand that some families need to plan trips to reconnect with loved ones. 
Please note that the school is legally required to record this absence as an 'unjustified' absence. Teachers will not provide learning activities for children who are taken out of school for holidays or trips away.

Scholastic Lucky Book Club

Lucky Book Club issue number 4 is out now.
Thinking about our environment and the amount of paper waste that occurs we are no longer issuing Scholastic Book Club brochures to students. You can however view the Scholastic Book Club brochure online and place your order as usual.

You can access the brochure via the link below.

Have any details for your whānau changed recently?

The information we hold for each student includes:
  • home address
  • cellphone numbers for each Primary Carer(s)
  • emergency contacts - phone number and their relationship to the child, e.g. Grandparent 
  • email address for each Primary Carer(s)
  • home circumstances/custody arrangements
  • medical information for your child
If any of these details have changed for your child, please phone the school or come into the office to speak with Jacky or Reihana to update the details for your child.

If you are unsure what information we currently have for your child, please contact the school office and we can let you know what we hold.

Cheese Roll Fundraiser

The Year 7/8 Kauri whānau are fundraising for their outdoor education trips this year. They are selling delicious cheese rolls (one dozen per pack). 1 pack costs $10, or 4 packs for $35. Please fill out and submit the form linked here to order. This form must be submitted or the paper form completed and handed into the Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto office, by Sunday 19th of June. Orders will be made up on Thursday June 29th and will be ready for collection after school. If you would like to supply your own container, please clearly name it and drop it off into the collection box outside the hall from Tuesday June 21st. 

 Unfortunately our cheese rolls are not dairy free or gluten free. 


 Thank you for supporting the Kauri Whānau. Enjoy your cheese rolls.

Te kupu Māori o te wiki

pukapuka: book

Sports News

Junior School Cross Country (Y0-4) - 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.

Swimming Sports

Wharenui Pool was a hive of excitement, anticipation, and very loud house chants for our school swimming sports. We appreciated being able to hold this event after it was postponed in Term 1 due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

We are proud of all the tamariki who chose to participate in this event. We know many children will have had butterflies in their tummies leading up to this event and they showed great courage in stepping up to this challenge. Tino pai! 

Swimming Champions
Year 5 - Kawa and Lily
Year 6 - Olivia and Jack
Year 7 -  Alfie and Emma V
Year 8 - Stella G and Tahere

The house relay that concludes our swimming sports is always a highlight. This year Tennyson took a convincing win for the second year in a row with Heathcote coming in second.

We wish our qualifying swimmers the best of luck for South Zone Swimming on Monday the 20th of June at Wharenui.

PTA News

Peanut Butter Update

We anticipate delivery of the Peanut Butter anytime now.  It will be available outside the hall from 2.45 to 3.15 as soon as we have it, hopefully, this will be Monday to Wednesday as originally planned.  If it doesn't arrive additional days will be available on Thursday and possibly Friday.

Hāngī Fundraiser


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!

PTA Survey

Please find below our 2022 Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA survey. It's a great chance to hear what we have planned for the year, to share your ideas for future fundraisers, and to find out how you can support us. It will only take a couple of minutes to complete.

Many thanks for your time.

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.

Community Notices

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

Kea Kids

Kea Kids News is a NZ On Air-funded news programme where kiwi kids get to present the news, and we're back on the air for a fourth season!

You can catch new episodes Wednesdays and Fridays at 12 noon, at www.keakids.news, YouTube, TVNZ On Demand, or at stuff.co.nz.

 'Swing for the Fences' 

A jazz night featuring swing, samba, funk and jazzy pop with award winning Big bands and special guests, 7pm Thursday 16th June in the McCombs Performing Arts Centre, Cashmere High School.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 2 Week 6

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 In this post:

  • Basic facts
  • Cheese rolls
  • Parent help for term 3 ski day
  • Theatre sports
  • Reports for high school applications
  • Good luck!

Basic Facts

Each week the children complete a basic facts challenge in their maths class. As they meet targets they are assigned new challenges to move through the basic facts progression. Last term we sent home a list of the basic facts progression. Let us know if you need a copy. The more the children work on their basic facts at home, the more speedy their progress. It would be great to have a conversation at home about what their current 4 challenges are. The video clip below is a suggestion of a regular basic facts activity that should support your child with their learning at home. 




Cheese Rolls

Yesterday the cheese roll order form went out via Hero. You can access it through this link.  We will also send paper forms home, as these are particularly handy when you are gathering multiple orders. We would love you to gather multiple orders if possible. Ask family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues. The more orders we get, the more money we make and the more money we have, the greater our scope for outdoor opportunities this year. 

Thanks to the four people who have offered to help by lending equipment or giving some time on our production day. We need some more helpers, please. Fill in this form if you can help. I am particularly looking for someone to contact Pak'n'Save and Couplands to source ingredients. 

Ski Day Parent Help

Thanks to the seven parents who have so far offered to help on our ski day next term, on September 1st. In order for the day to go ahead, we need around 15 parents. Please fill in this form if you can help. You do not need to be a skier.

Theatre Sports

Congratulations to the 2022 Theatre Sports teams! We are raring to go with our practices to get ready for the competition in November. The team members are:
Competitive Team: Zoe Winsor, Oliver Mclachlan, Cleo Hopkinson, Lachy Mcleod, Stella English and Ashlyn Taffs
Competitive Team: Emma Reedy, Katya Atlas, Lauren Maule, Niamh Wolt, Haile Harmer-Campbell and Charlie Price
Non-Competitive Team: Willow Day, Grace English, Ella Coleman, Rose Bethwaite, Mia Taylor and Aine Smyth
Congratulations everyone!

Reports for high school applications

We are into high school application season. While some open days have been cancelled, a few are going ahead. Please check the website of the high school your child is planning to attend in 2023 for open day and application details. Some applications require copies of the latest school report. We are in the midst of report writing at the moment. These will be available to you via Hero on Friday, July 1st. If you need a copy before then, you should use the report from the end of 2021. Please contact Jacky or Reihana in the office, if you need a printed copy of your child's end of 2021 report.

Best of luck!

Next week we have 2 events, out of school, for groups of our tamariki. On Wednesday two basketball teams are competing in the zone basketball competition at Hillview. On Friday our ShowQuest passion group takes to the stage to record their dance performance. We wish both groups all the best in their respective competitions. 

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