Principal's Patch
Kia ora koutou
Our thoughts have been with all of the families impacted by the tragic events of the past five days. We also share with the rest of Christchurch in our appreciation of the tireless efforts put in by the hundreds who continue to work together, in many different roles, to bring the fires under control.While this afternoon had been planned to be our first House event where the children spent time on the park in their house groups, getting to know the younger and older children in their house group, the rain was so welcome that spending the time singing together in the hall was no hardship at all.
Today we saw the arrival of a large crane onto the West building site as the rafters were hoisted into place.
By Wednesday next week, there will be a bigger crane on site, lifting the pre-fabricated wall and roof panels into place.
Kia kaha
Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki
Important Dates
Upcoming Events
Tue 21st Feb - Training Band starts today at Hillview Christian School at 8am. Children need to make their own way there and the bus will collect them for Champion St at 9am.Wed 22nd Feb - Board of Trustees Meeting (was postponed last week) - Staffroom - All Welcome
Thu 23rd Feb - Yr 5-8 Swimming Sports at Wharenui Swimming Pool. 12:30-3:00pm
Mon 27th Feb - Fri 3 Mar
Yr 7 & 8 Camp at Wainui
Fri 10th Mar
1:30-3pm School Duathlon
Tue 14th Mar
Zone Swimming sports at Jellie Park Recreation
Wed 22nd Mar - School photos at Beckenham School (class and individual)
Term Dates
Click here to view the 2016 and 2017 term dates.Citizen of the Week
Cooper Reddecliffe - Year 4
Cooper, you are growing into your role as a junior leader. You demonstrate the Beckenham School values "We love challenge" and "We get there together" by showing effort and enthusiasm for your learning and by helping others in the hub to complete tasks. You have shown persistence and resilience since the beginning of the term, demonstrating a growth mindset to your peers and teachers. Thanks you for all of your effort so far, Cooper. You are a superstar who makes our hub rock!Sharing our Learning
Kowhai Team
Inspiration Stations In Hub 7/8/9
We are now starting the day with Inspiration Stations which are proving extremely popular with the children in Hub 7/8/9. We have various stations for the children to work at ranging from Lego challenge stations to play dough creations to puppet plays. We have also managed to include a bit of measurement too. The children were challenged to find the right measurement tool to measure their feet, hands, ankles and wrists and they also compared their heights to one another. It was a bit tricky but they managed by doing it with their buddies and getting there together!
Key Values in Team Kowhai:
For the last two weeks the children have been focussing on our key values of “We care” and “We get there together”. This is really important as we get to know each other and begin to establish our ways of working together.We have been using kind words like “Can I help?”, “Are you okay?”, “You are awesome!” and we have been practicing kind actions such as Hi 5s, smiling, looking at people when they talk and helping people.
We know how important it is that everyone feels safe and happy in our hubs. One of the ways that we have been practicing this is by participating in our hub Inspiration Stations. During this time the children are working co-operativley on a variety of different activity stations. When choosing a station, the focus is on the two school values, “We love learning” and “We love challenge”. The teacher’s role is to question what the children are learning and for the children to be able to explain why they have chosen the task and how they know that they are thinking.
“I know when I am thinking because I have to do things much more slowly.” Zoe
“I am challenging myself by trying to make a 3D minion. I’m using my 2D minion as my guide.” Emma and Justine
Mindfulness
In Kowhai team, we believe in the importance of teaching the children how to stay calm and relaxed. Each afternoon we have time to give our bodies a time to stop and for us to think about being calm and relaxed. We are currently learning how to do belly breathing which helps us if we ever feel anxious or upset. This is when we have to breathe deeply so our tummies go right out!Junior School Leaders
As we are on two sites, the Year 4 students in our team have been given the opportunity to become Junior School Leaders. We have been incredibly impressed with the high level of maturity and reliability the Year 4 children have demonstrated. At present we have children being responsible for being receptionists at morning tea, organising lunch monitors, being milk monitors and sport shed supervisors. Here are some of our Term 1 leaders. In Term 2, we will allocate new leadership roles to provide the children with the opportunity to become a leader if they haven’t already or to try a new role.
Staff Profile
Anna Reid
I have now been teaching for 4 years at Beckenham and enjoyed every minute of it! I love the fantastic community spirit at Beckenham and the way that the children are at the heart of everything we do. I have taught New Entrants up to Year 4 and just love developing relationships with these wonderful children. I am passionate about teaching children to be open-minded and to celebrate and embrace each other's differences. I live in St. Martins with my husband and three daughters. My husband, Ben, is an IT consultant and works at the EPIC centre in Christchurch. My eldest daughters, Maia (16) and Holly (14) go to Cashmere High School and my youngest daughter, Cara (11), goes to St. Martins Primary. As a family, we love to go for tramps and to go swimming and paddle boarding at the beach. I, myself, do a lot of running and have completed 4 half-marathons so far. I also love to just relax and read or do some crosswords and sudoku puzzles.
School Notices
Congratulations
Congratulations to Amanda (our NE teacher in Hub 10/11 last year) and Callum McLean on the arrival of their bonny boy, Arthur. Mum, Dad and Arthur are all doing well and loving being together as a family.
Lunchonline:
Pita Pit has amended their menu to include a mandatory size option. This is to accommodate the children who find the kids size pita a little small.The two choices are Regular Size or Kids Size.
The Kids Size is the pita that is currently being supplied. The Regular Size are larger and the size you would order in store.
So, next time you order your Pita Pit, you will be prompted to select a size if you forget.
School Road Patrol:
We still require some more willing parent helpers to support our children by supervising morning road patrol on Sandwich Road. Please contact Michelle Maule on deputy,principal@beckenham.school.nz if you are able to help out with this and keep our children safe.Sports News
Beckenham School Orienteering
We will be organising weekly orienteering training sessions on Monday afternoons starting on March 13th. We also take part in many events put on by the local orienteering club. These usually take place on Sundays but there is currently a summer series of Tuesday evening events underway. Orienteering is suitable for children from year 5 up to do on their and any age to do accompanied by an adult or older child. If you or your child are interested to try orienteering contact Jenni jennia.home@gmail.com to be added to the Beckenham orienteering mail list. You can come along to as many or as few orienteering sessions as you would like.
The highlight for 2016 was the trip by 5 Beckenham students to the Australian Orienteering champs in Queensland. The group achieved many excellent results with the best being in the relay championships. Seven teams representing various Australian states battled the two New Zealand teams in the 12 and under category; NZ1, including Kaia Joergensen, emerged the victors while NZ2 consisting wholly of Beckenham students, Rosie Zinzan-Dickie, Daisy York and Isaac Macdonald took out second place!
Community Notices
(Notices placed here are contingent on space and do not reflect the views or opinions of the school.)
Girls Brigade:
The 5th ChCh Girls Brigade Company, part of Beckenham Methodist Church, is looking for new girls.We meet every Wednesday during the school term at the Church Hall on Martin Avenue. We enjoy fun activities to share, inspire and develop physical, art, craft social and educational skills.
5-8 yrs meet from 6-7pm and 9yrs and over meet from 6-7:30pm.
Please phone Dianne Claughton: 3322889 for further information.