Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter Friday 20 August 2021

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Principal's Patch

Kia ora e te whānau

What a week! We have all been asked to be flexible and adaptable once again, as we join together to ensure that we keep our community free from COVID-19.

I would like to start today by thanking our staff for the way they sprung into action on Tuesday evening, after the sudden announcement of lockdown, to ensure that they had everything they needed to be able to work from home for an unknown period of time.

Thank you all, too, for what we know you will be doing to support your families at home. We know that there are so many different situations in our homes including welcoming home brand-new babies, essential workers who might be finding child-care very challenging, supporting sick whānau, and worries about family members in or away from Christchurch who may have been at 'places of interest' in this latest Covid outbreak. We send you all our very warmest wishes as we go through this lockdown. Further on in the newsletter is an extensive list of support links that you, or someone you know, might find helpful during this time.

Hopefully, you have all been able to access our 'Learning at Home' site (https://learningathome.beckenham.school.nz/) which is linked to our school website.


When you open the link, you should find this site, which has menus for each team that I mentioned in the message that went out on Wednesday evening, but understand some families haven't been able to find easily.
Hopefully the following images will make the menus (one for each team) a little easier to find. These menus take you to a wide range of learning activities that have been put together by each team, specifically for the children in that team.

Cellphone view

computer view

This website has been designed so that you and your children can select activities from it that are going to be appropriate for your situation. If you don't have access to lots of wifi or devices, there are plenty of 'non-digital' learning options available, particularly for the younger students. Remember that every opportunity to write, to read, or to have a conversation is an opportunity for learning with your child. 

Following the announcement today that we remain in Level 4 until Tuesday evening, we will not be looking at loaning out any devices on Monday. Once we hear Monday afternoon's announcement, we will review the option of going into school and organising devices to issue and we will keep you updated on that. Thank you to the people who have signalled that they would like to borrow a school device. We will let you know what will be happening about this again at the end of Monday.

Until then, stay safe in your bubbles. Encourage your children to help around the home and live that school value of 'We Get There Together"!

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki - Principal

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

(Note - all of these are subject to change as covid levels change)

Sun 22 Aug - Treemendous Working Bee (postponed)

Term 3, Week 5: 
Wed 25 Aug - PTA Meeting (7.30 - 9.30pm)
Thu 26 Aug - Canterbury Winter Tournament
Fri 27 Aug - Staff Only Day SCHOOL CLOSED

Term 3, Week 6:
Mon 30 Aug - Canterbury Duathlon
Fri 3 Sep - Celebration Assembly (12.00 - 12.30pm)

Term Dates

Click here to view 2021 & 2022 term dates.

Citizen of the Week

Thomas Zinzan - Year 8

Thomas, you are such a kind and diligent member of the Kauri hub. You are a fabulous role model for all of our school values. Whether it in is the classroom or on the sports field you enhance each team that you are part of with your strong sense of fairness, great ideas and by giving 100%. Tu meke Thomas!

School Notices

Agencies you can contact for assistance

Many families may find it tough going back into Alert Level 4. It can be challenging having children at home, being cut off from family and friends, trying to making ends meet and have high stress levels.

For people with disabilities or autism and their support people, the Explore 0800 000421 phone service available to provide advice or support. This includes advice or support around challenging behaviours. To access this service, you don’t need a referral and it doesn’t matter whether you’re new to Explore, currently on their waitlist or you’ve worked with them previously. The service is available Monday to Friday 9.00am–5.00pm. When you phone the 0800 number you will be connected with an administrator who will then book you an appointment with one of the specialists.

If you or anyone you know wants some advice or support over this time here are some further options that might be useful.

Support services that remain open:
  • Women’s Refuge 0800REFUGE or 0800 733 843
  • Shine 0508 744 633
  • Alcohol and Drug Helpline 0800 787 797
  • Oranga Tamariki call centre 0508FAMILY
  • CADS 0800 367 222
  • Narcotics Anonymous 0800 628 632
  • Alcoholics Anonymous 0800 229 6757
  • Lifeline 0800 543 354 or free text 4357
  • Youthline 0800 376 633 or free text 234
  • Samaritans 0800 726 666
  • Outline (LGBT) 0800 688 5463
  • Depression Helpline 0800 111 757
  • Suicide Prevention Helpline 0508 828 865
  • The Fono West (Social Services) 09 837 1780
  • Counselling Free Call or Text 1737
  • Healthline for COVID-19 health advice: 0800 358 5453
Work and Income services centres are closed. However, you can apply for assistance via MyMSD or phone the contact centre on 0800 559 009.
 
If you know someone who needs financial assistance, please tell him/her to call the free government helpline 0800 779 997 (8am–1am, seven days a week). 
 
If you know someone is feeling anxious, frustrated or needs a listening ear, they can call or text 1737 to talk with a trained counsellor. It is free 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

ESOL Happenings

The Kōwhai and Koru students enjoyed working together and making soup. They learnt and named the vegetables and used sequential language (first, next, then, after that).




The Koru students got into the spirit of the Olympic Games with their own mini Olympics. They made their own medals and ran relay races, an obstacle course and bowling.


Community Dental Service

The Community Dental Service has created a Facebook page to provide easily accessible information on our service and how to access care.

Our aim is to engage and educate local communities and whanau in an online space about oral health.

Click here to visit the Facebook Page: Healthy Smiles Every Day - Mene Ora Mai - CDHB  

Student Fundraiser

Four Beckenham students, Sophie M, Sophie C, Tabea and Heidi, are planning on shaving their heads in September to raise money for Child Cancer.  They have set up a givealittle page for their fundraising (click here)

The girls are planning on donating their hair to Freedom Wigs to help others in need as well.

Sport News

Primary and Intermediate Ski Competition

Five children from Pōhutukawa and Kauri represented our kura on a glorious sunny day at Cheeseman Ski Field last Sunday. Recent snowfall made for some awesome skiing conditions. The children had fun bombing down the course. Well done to Zoe, Jonty, Isabelle, Flynn and August. 

School Duathlon

We got this event in just in time!

The park was a hive of activity on Tuesday afternoon as 60 students from Years 5 to 8 competed in our school duathlon. This is a challenging event that requires its participants to dig deep to complete the course. It was awesome to see the children out embracing the challenges of the event. We were really impressed with the way the children encouraged each other. We get there together! Thank you to all the parents and students who took on marshalling and other leadership jobs. 


School Duathlon Results
Year 5 champions: Anabelle and Jack
Year 6 champions: Archie and Jayde 
Year 7 champions: Torun, Quinn and James
Year 8 champions: Jonty and Zoe

Winter Sport

We know that many children will have been disappointed to miss their last winter sport game that would have been on Thursday afternoon. We'd like to take this time to recognise the children's commitment to their team and all the positivity and teamwork that they showed throughout the season. 

We'd also like to give a huge shout out to the parents that coached and managed teams and supported with transport and supervision. We are so grateful to you for giving your time and expertise to support this sports programme. We absolutely could not do it without you and we are very appreciative of your mahi. This season, we had a number of parents who supported teams even though their own child was off playing a different sport elsewhere. A mammoth thank you also goes to Paul who worked outside of his usual hours to manage a Year 5/6 football team. You are all amazing. Thank you!


Community Notices

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

RESILIENCE IN ANXIOUS TIMES 


If ever there was a thing as work-life balance, COVID19 took care of that. 

The stresses have never been greater, and the obstacles never more plentiful. So how do we look after ourselves in the middle of all this fuss? Human brains are amazing, but they are not really optimized, or the modern world let alone COVID19 times. So how do we keep ourselves in one piece while the whole world around us is literally falling apart? In this session Nigel will reveal some simple things we can do to manage stress, reflecting on the hard-won wisdom of a Jewish psychiatrist and some even older wisdom from the very old porch which has long since vanished from our modern world. 

VOYCE Whakarongo Mai - Support for Rangatahi & Tamariki in care


If you find that you are in a bit of a jam and could do with assistance to help get you unstuck, please do not hesitate to reach out. Click this link to see some of the services available to children & young people, and those in care.

Wednesday 18th August

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 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. We hope you are well.

Here we are again! Fortunately, we are familiar with what teaching and learning look like during Level 4, we have systems already set up, and our team has been in communication this morning. Today we are having staff Zoom meetings and getting our online learning programmes ready to go live tomorrow. If you are keen to have your child engaged in learning today - encourage them to do some of the regular online mahi that we engage with on a daily basis. This includes: Epic Reading, Xtra Math, Solve-Me Puzzles, Free Writing Docs, or our Olympic Inquiry Site. Our Learning at Home Site will be live tomorrow and you will receive a notification of this.

Hopefully, we can all make the most of this situation and use it to spend some extra unexpected time with the people in our bubbles. Our wellbeing, as always, takes precedence and our message to you is to do as little or as much as is suitable for your situation. Ahakoa he iti he pounamu - although it is small, it is precious. Noho ora mai, stay well.

Finally, we are using this as a chance to initiate whānau communication through our new management system HERO. Moving forward, Hero will be our primary way of making contact with you. We would like to ask you to please log on to HERO and open this communication there as well. We will call those who haven't been able to connect with HERO later in the week to get everyone on board. 

Moving to Level 4 – Update.

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Kia ora e te whānau

As you will all be aware by now, school will be closed for the next three days.

Nearly all of our staff have been in this evening picking up resources and items that they will need to support learning from home.

Tomorrow our staff will be working together online to put up the learning sites that you and your children will be able to access from Thursday.

We are trying to get the office phone diverted to the school cell phone, however, if you need to call school, please call the cellphone on 021 0279 4107 between 8:15am and 3:45pm.

We appreciate what a challenging time this will be for many of our families, as you try to juggle competing needs of work and immediate and wider family. Many of our staff will also be in this position in their homes too.

We are working with the information we currently have which is that Level 4 goes through to the weekend. We are preparing for multiple scenarios at school and will be in touch later tomorrow with more information about accessing some learning for your children by Thursday. There will also be a survey out tomorrow to find out if any of you need devices for your children. If the lockdown continues beyond the weekend, we will do our best to make devices available to those who need them.

Whilst we know that staying connected for our young people is important, they also need your guidance and active supervision in this digital environment during this tricky time.

From our staff, to you and your whānau, stay safe.

Kauri Whānau – getting prepared for level 4

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 Kia ora everyone,

I am back at school gathering resources for learning at home - however long that may be?? There are 5 BYOD devices still at school. Two are out of charge and are not named and the others belong to Tahere, Jonty and Rory. School will be open until 10pm tonight. Let me know what you need from kids' buckets - books to read, pencil cases - anything else. If I am not in the hub, I will leave things in the office where Sandy will be until 10pm.  Please email with what you need - nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz

Ngā mihi

Nicky


Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 4

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 In this post:

  • Cantamath
  • Beckamath
  • Congratulations
  • Ski Trip
  • Sports news
  • Year 8 girls' self defence
  • Photo Gallery

Cantamath

It was so exciting to see all of the fabulous Cantamath projects arrive at school on Friday. We are hoping to see some last-minute arrivals on Monday. Well done to the 90 children who completed their projects on time. On Friday after school, the teachers marked each project and identified those that will be going through to the Cantamath competition at the Christchurch Arena on Wednesday, August 25th. 

We would love to give whānau the opportunity to view these projects. A display has been set up in East Pukaki, the old new entrant hub that is across the courtyard from our hub. This will be open before school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and after school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. All work that is not going through to Cantamath will need to be taken home on Friday. 

Cantamath problem-solving teams will be announced early next week. These teams will compete at the Christchurch Arena on August 25th, at 4pm for Year 7 and 5pm for Year 8. 

Beckamath

On Wednesday afternoon last week, we held our annual Beckamath competition. Children competed in homegroup teams to solve tricky maths problems. The hall was filled with excitement, focused energy and the heat of competition. Below is the top part of the results table. See photos at the end of this post.


Congratulations

A special congratulations to Zoë Clarke, who has been awarded a leadership scholarship for Cashmere High School in 2022. 

Ski Trip

Many thanks to everyone who has completed our ski trip form. We nearly have all of these completed. As part of the preparation for our day on the mountain, we will be going over a ski safety contract with the children and viewing a slideshow to give them an idea of what to expect. We will also be having lessons looking at the snow safety code, dressing for a mountain environment and familiarisation with equipment for first-time skiers. 

A reminder that our ski day is on September 2nd. The buses will be leaving from Sandwich Rd at 6am and will return at 6pm.

Gear

For those of you who indicated on the ski form that you would like help to get clothing for your child, we will start matching children up with gear and sending this home next week. If you offered to loan clothing - I will contact you if we need it. If you are looking for a good place to hire clothing and goggles, Snowmania rents gear at very reasonable prices: 4 Dalgety Street, Riccarton Phone: 03 961 6747. Remember that we arrange the skis, boots and helmets through Mt Hutt; you don't need to sort this equipment. 

Being dressed for the mountain conditions makes such a difference to the enjoyment of the day. Below is a reminder of what your child will need. 

  • Several thin layers are much better for keeping warm and comfortable than a bulky layer. Cotton is not great for the mountains; thermal clothing is what’s needed.
  • Polypro or woollen thermal top
  • Thermal ‘long-johns’ or tights
  • Fleece or woollen top / jersey
  • Waterproof pants
  • A warm weatherproof jacket
  • Woollen or thermal socks, not too thick. Socks need to come up to mid-calf at least.
  • Weatherproof gloves or mittens
  • Either sun glasses or ski goggles
  • A scarf is optional, but must be tucked into their jacket, to avoid dangling ends.
  • Hats are not needed as all children will be given a helmet
  • Sunscreen, for the face
  • A substantial lunch, including a drink. The mountain cafe is very expensive. Children may bring some money for a hot drink or snack, but please also pack a lunch. They are responsible for looking after any money they bring.
  • Long hair needs to be tied up. Children who get asthma should have their inhalers with them.

Sports news


Our fingers are crossed for a fine day on Tuesday so that we can go ahead with our Year 5-8 duathlon. For those who have entered, bikes need to be placed in the stands which will be by the Norwood entrance to the park before 8:30am. Remember to lock the bike to the stands as this area will not be supervised in the morning.

Our final winter sport session is this Thursday.

Self-Defence


This coming week we welcome back Lynda Maindonald from the Girls’ Self Defence Project. This project has been set up to equip girls with the skills and strategies to keep safe. Our Year 8 girls will have 8 hours of tuition with Lynda over 3 sessions. We are organising this in two groups with the first group starting on Wednesday. 

Photo Gallery


Speaker boxes under construction at hard materials technology.


Wednesday's Beckamath Competition





A selection of photos from the many fabulous Cantamath projects.