Beckenham School Newsletter 28th October 2016

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Another week of the term has gone by and we are settling in to our new 'normal', both at the Beckenham and the Champion St sites.

Today we saw the large oak tree adjacent to Hub 11 get felled. Several of the classes were able to stand on the park and watch. Whilst it is always very sad to see a mature specimen tree go, it wasn't very healthy due to its roots being significantly compromised over the years of being too close to a building and paving. We are very thankful for the shade that it has provide our children for many years. We have ensured that the large logs are retained to be used in landscaping.
You can watch it below:

Planning for 2017

As we get closer to the end of 2016, we are busy preparing for 2017. This week we have been conducting interviews for full-time teaching staff, and will be able to share that information with you very soon.
We are also working on learning groups for next year. If you have any considerations for your child's placement in a learning group for 2017 that you think will assist us, and that we won't necessarily be aware of, please email me principal@beckenham.school.nz by next Wednesday 2nd November. We will add your considerations to the picture we already have, and work out the best way to put together learning groups that are going to be successful for all children.

Digital safety
It's important to remember that children need to be taught to be safe and responsible users of digital communication and devices. There are lots of online tools available for parents who might be wondering how to navigate this territory, especially when it can feel that the children are one step ahead of the adults in terms of their knowledge of the digital environment. Just because a child can navigate their way confidently around the internet and numerous apps, it doesn't mean that they have the maturity and skills to be able to use the applications safely and responsibly, or that they will know how to recognise, or what to do, if this environment starts to become dangerous or unsafe in any way.
Vodafone, NetSafe & The Parenting Place have joined together to develop a set of resources they have called "Digi-Parenting: A one-stop shop of advice to help families make technology decisions". I encourage you to make a visit to this site, and have a look at what might be relevant for where you and your family are at with this important topic.

Have a great weekend - we are looking forward to having all of our students on site together at Beckenham for the day on Monday as the Year 5-8 students have their Athletic Sports day on Beckenham Park.

Ngā mihi
Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki

Important Dates

Citizen of the Week

Rohith Thony - Year 6

Rohith, you are a superstar in our hub. You are a self-motivated learner who can always be relied upon to do the right thing. You are a thoughtful and caring role model and are an excellent friend to others. Well done for always putting 100% into your learning. We are so proud of you! Tino pai.

Sharing our Learning

Kauri Whānau

Year 7 & 8 are loving the learning at our new school environment on Champion Street. The layout of our hub and having a breakout space, creates an even better learning space than we previously had at Beckenham. With a number of different areas making up the outdoor space, there are lots of options for play, including full sized hoops on the basketball court.


One of our weekly highlights in Kauri is Passion Friday. This term we are cooking; learning how to knit, crochet and make felt; and creating a vegetable garden. The gardening group are having a lovely time digging over the raised garden beds, preparing plants and creating wooden tags to label the garden areas. When we arrived, a rather saggy and tired looking scarecrow was watching over the shabby garden. One of the gardening team’s project will be to give him a makeover. We look forward to watching the garden flourish as the term progresses.




Part of the attraction of being based at Champion Street is the lovely new furniture that we are trial
ing courtesy of Class Furniture. This was one of the aspects that we shared in the video that the media team put together for our first celebration assembly this term. Click on this link and ‘Daniel Attenborough’ will take you on an adventure through the Champion Street environment.

Sports News

School Notices

Wanted:We would like to develop a composting system at Champion Street and are proposing to use packing pallets....5 of them.  If you have access to these can you please contact Jacky at the office 3371404, office@beckenham.school.nz

RUDOLPH STEINER SCHOOL FAIR

Saturday November 19th
Come and join us for an old fashioned spring time fair!
Indulge in scrumptious food for lunch from a diverse range of delicious options,
stock up on plants and beautiful handcrafts for Christmas,
or just enjoy the fun and games at the sideshows.
-- Stunning handcrafts
-- Organic food - with plenty of vegetarian options
-- Secondhand clothing, books and a huge White Elephant stall
-- Farmers market with organic veges, honey, flowers, plants and more
-- Fairyland - including a cafe and a craft stall full of child sized goodies at child sized prices
-- Carnival games, pony rides

New Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club:

New Brighton surf lifesaving opens its doors to the community nd members to celebrate ther start of this summer's season.  Juniors start at 10am with an intro to surf and first training of  summer.  At 12pm we have the officil opening of the season. Anybody that is interested in finding out about surf lifesaving at New Brighton is very welcome to come down and find out more about us.  www.newbrightonslsc.org.nz, info@newbrightonslsc.org.nz

Hororata Highland Games

5th November.  Toss the caber, Stone Putt, Farmers Walk, Highland Dancing, Pipe bands plus much more.  Visit www.hororatahighlandgames.org.nz for more details.