Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter 26 July 2018

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Welcome back to a new term.  The promise of longer days, hopefully more sunshine and the sight of daffodils appearing in the garden always raises the spirits.  We are looking forward to catching up with many of you at the learning conferences next week.  As always, if you have any questions or things you would like to share with your child’s teacher, during the year, please make a time to meet with them before or after school  to have a chat.
Independence and the ability to manage our time are lifelong skills that we look to begin to develop in our children from an early age.  As caregivers, we are instrumental in coaching our children to manage increasing responsibility and sometimes, in our busy lives, this is a challenge.
How many things do we do for our children that they could do themselves?
Are we setting our children up for independence and success?
Habitually doing things for our children, that they are capable of doing themselves, can send an inadvertent message that we don’t have confidence in their abilities.  The outcome is a child who lacks independence, self-esteem and problem-solving skills and who can’t—or won’t—do age-appropriate tasks. This is sometimes called “learned helplessness.”
As caregivers we want the best for our children and often, we are just trying to keep all those balls in the air. There’s a huge payoff for encouraging our children’s independence: confident, capable kids, and some tasks removed from our plates.
We would like to encourage you, as caregivers, to choose at least one of the tasks below to encourage independence in your child(ren).  Ask them to ...

• Organise their own breakfast each day, older child can organise an evening meal each week
• Carry their own bag to the classroom and do their morning jobs.
• Pack their school bag the night before so it is ready in the morning.
• Remember to take all they will need for the day. (An idea here is to make a list of what is needed for school each day, so the child can check they have everything needed for the day ahead.)
• Make their own lunch or part of their lunch each day.
• Do specific jobs around the house - “Here is a list of jobs you could do to help around the house - how many do you think you are old / capable enough of doing?”

At school, if a child forgets some special piece of equipment for their day, staff will try to help in any way they can.  If this is not possible e.g. forgotten swimming togs, forgotten specialist sports gear, we will refrain from phoning home to ask parents to come to school (unless it is an emergency).  Hopefully that will help our children to remember for next time.

Nga mihi
Sue Leadbetter
Acting Deputy Principal.

Citizen of the Week

Tiffany Shannon - Year 4

Walter McLoughlin - Year 6

Walter, we love the way you involve yourself so fully in the daily life of our hub. You grab hold of challenges and make the most of opportunities to develop new skills. Your self-management skills enable you to make the most of all learning experiences. You show that you care by treating others with respect and working proactively within groups. You humour and positivity brighten our day. Tino pai.  

School Notices

Welcome assembly 

This will be taking place on Friday 28th July from 10:50-11:20am in the school hall. This is a special assembly to welcome all those who are new to the Beckenham Te Kura community. Morning tea hosted by the PTA will follow this assembly.

Year 7 & 8 information evening for Year 6 families:

Please mark Monday August 6th, 7pm, in your diaries. We will be opening the Intermediate Hub for Year 6 families to come along and get a taste of what happens in Year 7 & 8. When you arrive, there will be a table with post-its and pens for you to write questions. The first 20 minutes will be an opportunity to talk with students and staff and view digital displays. The last 40 minutes will be a sharing session, where your questions will drive the discussion. We firmly believe that the Intermediate Hub at Beckenham provides a fabulous middle school education. Come along and find out why.

Lunchtime activities

Keeping ourselves safe

We are aware that one of our children thought she was being followed by a car yesterday afternoon after school.  The child involved did all the right things, not stopping, heading straight home, keeping calm and telling her parents when she got home.

Whilst we always encourage our children to walk home with others, sometimes this is not possible.  As parents we can equip our children to deal with situations that may arise, that make them feel unsure.  It is a good time to sit down and have a chat with them about a safety plan that will help them if this situation occurs.  There may be a friends house along the way home that could be a safe house they can go to if they need and returning to school is also an option.  The police have been informed.

The Drop Off Zone

Thank you to everyone who is using the drop off zone outside the admin block on Sandwich Road the way it is intended.  We have noticed that mornings are working particularly well.  In the afternoons please ask your child to meet you on the footpath, beside the zone, or, park elsewhere on the streets around the school so you can leave your car and walk to meet your child.  No parked cars in the drop off zone please.
The car park on school grounds accessed off Sandwich Road, in behind the New Entrant hub is for staff and service vehicles.  Thank you for remembering this, and for not using the area as a drive through drop off zone.

Soup Soup Soup

Remember to bring your bowl or cup for soup on Monday and Tuesday next week when Kauri Hub students will be selling tomato soup and a cheese roll for lunch. $3 will buy a cup of soup and one cheese roll, or two cheese rolls. Koru and Kowhai's day is Monday and Pohutukawa and Kauri are on Tuesday.

Children purchase their tickets by the flagpole before school.
To give us an idea of quantities to prepare, please fill in this very quick form.

Many thanks for supporting Kauri fundraising.

Allergy information

Across our school we have a number of children with different food allergies.
To support the wellbeing of these students we have the following guidelines in place which we ask you to follow:
For 2018, there are to be no peanuts in the Kauri (Year 7/8) or Kowhai (Year 3/4) teams please, due to the extreme anaphylaxis risk for one of our students who learns in Parenga.
Whenever children bring food to school for shared kai occasions, please follow the guidelines provided by the teachers for that event.
We will inform you during the year if specific guidelines for your child’s hub change.  Our full allergy policy and guidelines in this booklet, are also available on the Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto website under “Information - Policies - SchoolDocs” then search ‘allergy’, or alternatively use this link to go directly to the allergy page: https://bit.ly/2LCfQ3N  .  If you have any questions or concerns, please discuss them in the first instance with your child’s point of contact teacher.

Sleep inquiry

 Last term, a school-wide focus was on sleep, with the students learning the benefits of  sleep and finding ways to improve their own sleep. Research has shown that as little as 10 minutes of lost sleep a night can lead to symptoms similar to ADHD. The purpose of the inquiry, which was run in partnership with the University of Canterbury, was to equip the children with the knowledge and skills required to make positive changes to their own sleep.

Initially the students learnt about the benefits of sleep and positive sleep hygiene. Then they were given the opportunity to monitor both the duration and quality of their sleep. Once the children had gathered that data they chose a goal to focus on. These goals ranged from establishing a set routine for bedtime, to ensuring their room temperature was comfortable, to not watching any screens before bedtime. Once a week these goals were assessed, and if they had been achieved, new goals were set. The overall process was very empowering for the children, as they felt equipped to make a difference to either the quality or duration of their sleep, They also understood the importance of having a good sleep, providing the motivation needed to make a difference.

When reflecting upon the programme, it was fabulous to hear from the children and some of their parents about the success the children had experienced with changing their sleeping habits.
‘I used to have trouble sleeping at night, but now I have been having a much better sleep.’
‘It was a really good idea focusing on improving your sleep because you get more sleep and it is good for your health.’
‘I now have a good sleep routine so I get to sleep quicker.’
‘It was a good idea to learn what stops you from having a good night’s sleep so that you can change some things.’
‘It’s really good to focus on things that you can improve on.’
‘The sleep inquiry provided rich learning for my daughter. She enjoyed researching and sharing interesting facts with us. She developed a good awareness of the importance of a healthy sleep routine and how it impacts on wellbeing.’
‘Before the sleep programme my child would try to stay up as long as he could each night and then, in the middle of the night, come through and crawl into bed with me.  A dreadful sleep for us both.  As the sleep programme has progressed he has asked for darker curtains in his bedroom so he can sleep more soundly, he takes himself off to bed at the same time each night so he is getting what he now knows is enough sleep and he stays in his own bed all night.  Thank you very much for this amazing programme it has really made the world of difference to our whole family.’
‘I was so impressed with the latest sleep study learning in Pōhutukawa. Not only did my son learn about the importance of sleep and the benefits for the body, but he also started to manage his sleep more effectively. I was impressed with his motivation to meet his sleep goals each night and this saw him putting himself to bed earlier to ensure he got the required sleep hours. As a family, we now talk about sleep and we have all started to make small changes to ensure that we all get a good rest each night.’

Sports News

Small Sticks - Physical Education utilising professional coaches.

From Weeks 1 - 5 this term our whole school will be involved in the small sticks programme run by Hockey New Zealand coaches.  The Small Sticks In-School programme includes teacher training, five coaching sessions in school time with an accredited coach, a resource kit for the school to use after the programme is finished, a festival day at the completion of the programme, recruitment material to help engage children and their parents.
The children will develop
Hand eye coordination skills,
Fitness
Understanding of the rules of hockey
Skills to play a team sport.
Sportsmanship skills.

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