Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter 2nd November 2019

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

GRAB A CUPPA - THERE IS A LOT OF NEWS IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...

Gosh - November already! The year is flying by and, as you will see from the 'Upcoming Events' listed below, there is a LOT happening over the next seven weeks of the school year!
Please do take some time to add events to your diary, or to sync the Community Calendar with your personal digital calendar so you can keep up with what is happening.

Welcome to Sean Lake Ryan who is starting a five-week teacher training placement with Elizabeth Drummond in our Koru team on Monday.

Teams and staffing for 2020

We have been working hard over the past couple of months to try and confirm our full-time teaching staff for 2020.
We have reluctantly accepted the resignations of both Tracy Inwood, and Caitlyn Tinnelly from our permanent staff, effective from the end of 2019.
Tracy Inwood is planning to spend more time travelling to Auckland where her two adult children now live, with a view to eventually moving, with her husband Phil, to be nearer to whānau in the North Island some time over the next few years. Tracy has been part of our staff for over 7 years now, and has made many valuable contributions, particularly to our Year 7/8 team, and then to our Year 5/6 team as their team leader.
Caitlyn Tinnelly has been on maternity leave this year and has been fortunate to win a new permanent position at West Rolleston School, just minutes from where she lives. The Early Childhood Centre that her daughter Pene will attend, is adjacent to the West Rolleston School grounds, so this is a very positive move for her from the perspective of being a working mum. We are very grateful to Caitlyn for the energy and commitment she has given to Beckenham since she started here as a beginning teacher in 2015, and we wish her all the best in her new school.

We are excited to announce the appointment of an existing teacher to a permanent leadership position, two existing fixed-term teachers to permanent positions and the appointment of two new teachers to our staff:
Amber Donovan has been appointed to the permanent leadership position of Team Leader of the Kahikatea Team. Amber has been acting in this role since the beginning of 2018 when she willingly stepped up for what she initially thought would be just 6 months, and it grew into 2 years! Amber brings a wealth of experience to this role, both as a team leader in a previous school and as a member of the Beckenham staff for many years.
Jo Smith has been appointed to our newly created role of Assistant Principal, and Team Leader of our New Entrant/Year 1 team, Koru. Jo has worked in a variety of fixed-term capacities in our school for 4 years now, and we are very excited to have secured her leadership and teaching expertise on a permanent basis.
Jules May was appointed to a fixed-term position at the start of this year when she moved to Christchurch from Wellington. We are delighted Jules has accepted our offer of a permanent position. She brings much experience of teaching junior students, with a particular interest and strength in Māori and Pasifika education, and teaching ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages.
Anne Batchelor will be returning to her roots when she starts as our new Year 5/6 Team Leader in 2020 as she was originally a Beckenham student herself! Anne has been teaching at Alexandra School for the past few years and is very excited about returning to the Beckenham community.
Laura Williamson will be joining our permanent staff in the new year after teaching this term in Tauranga and, prior to that, a number of years teaching at an International School in Hong Kong. Laura is originally from Canterbury and is looking forward to returning home and joining us at Beckenham.

So..... with those appointments made, we can now look at our teaching teams for 2020. The caveat on this information is that we never know what is going to happen between now and the end of January! Whilst I would love to think this is completely set in concrete, we all have lives that change, and I am aware that our teachers' plans can and do change, and sometimes at short notice.

Koru
Jo Smith (Team leader)
Elizabeth Drummond

Kahikatea 
Amber Donovan (Team Leader)
Charlotte Verity
Jules May
Katie McFarlane

Kōwhai
Paulette Newton (Team Leader)
Nick Bruce
Rowena Barker
Laura Williamson

Pōhutukawa
Anne Batchelor (Team Leader)
Steve Cooke
Rae Marsh
Gayle McNaughton
Anna Reid

Kauri 
Nicky Dunlop (Team Leader)
Hannah Elliott
Jenny Diggle
Megan Culver

We will be looking at putting together the homegroups for our tamariki for 2020 over the next few weeks. If you have any considerations you want us to consider when putting your child in a homegroup (remembering that we do not take 'requests' for specific teachers!), please email me directly at principal@beckenham.school.nz.

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy Hastings

Principal - Tumuaki

Citizen of the Week

Kacey Pedersen - Year 4

Kacey, you are a wonderful role model in the Kowhai Hub. You are an incredibly kind and caring friend to others. You are extremely helpful and always willing to give a helping hand. Your positive attitude to learning is evident in everything you do. Tino pai mahi!

Olivia Hurford - Year 4

Olivia, you are an absolutely stunning role model in Kōwhai hub. You demonstrate all our school values on a daily basis, especially "We Love Learning", by consistently giving your best to every task you undertake. You are a kind and considerate friend to everyone in our team. Tino pai Olivia.

School Notices

BYOD - Bring Your Own Device - How does this work at Beckenham???

Mana Ake “Drop-Ins” are continuing…
A number of whānau have already made great use of the Mana Ake “drop-ins” that are available on alternate Wednesday mornings from 8:30 – 9:10am. These drop-in sessions are here to provide parents with an opportunity to have a private, informal conversation around the well being of their child with one of our Mana Ake workers (kaimahi). If you feel like you would like to attend a drop-in session, please book in a time via the link here: Mana Ake booking  The code to use is ku2j6. Alternatively, you can contact Jacky in the office and she will make a booking for you.

Parent Seminar on Digital Safety - Tuesday 19 Nov 7 - 8:30pm, Staffroom

Mana Ake will be offering the following important Parent Seminar in November - please put this in your diaries now. The digital world is here to stay. Come along and find out how to keep your children safe in the digital world. Learn how the digital world can affect children's well-being and how to support them in this environment.

Whānau Rōpū Hui this coming Friday, 8th November, 5 pm - 7:30 pm

Kia ora, e te whānau,

For our Whānau Rōpū Hui this term we are excited to be having a shared kai/ potluck picnic at school from 5:00pm to 7:30pm on Friday 8th November.  We are looking forward to getting together again to celebrate Te Ao Māori, share some kai and enjoy some games - including the exciting sport of Ki o Rahi. (Click on this link for a quick introduction to this fun and fast-paced game



Nau mai haere mai, welcome. These hui, get-togethers, are a great opportunity to get to know other tamariki, children and whānau, families in the school community. More information will be sent home next week, we hope to see you there. Hei konei rā!

Steve Cooke and Sampson Karst

Senior Jackets

Our school in the news...

There have been two articles on Stuff and in The Press in the past 10 days about the University of Canterbury research on "Juniors Settling Into School" by Dr KAthleen Liberty. Our school was one of the original five schools that participated in this 5-year study of the effects of post-traumatic-stress on our young children who were starting school. As a result of being part of the study, we have, over time, introduced a number of the recommended strategies that came out of the study, to support all of our children with wellbeing and emotional regulation. These include:

• flipping our lunchtimes from Eat-Play-Learn to Play-Eat-Learn, with instant benefit.
• ensuring that our new buildings and refurbishments were fitted out with neutral or calming colours (pale blues and greens) rather than 'pops' of bright colours (reds, oranges, bright blues) that interior designers often suggest for 'effect'  
• removing hanging items from learning spaces, that may catch a child's peripheral vision as they move and flutter and cause increase anxiety (this was particularly important after the earthquakes when we couldn't rely on our world to stay still the way we had previously expected it to)
• educating children about hydration - 'Drink to Think'
• educating children about the importance of sleep - in 2018 we ran a 'Be a Sleep Detective' programme with children from Year 3-8. We will continue to run this at Year 5/6 every alternate year going forward.

Lunchonline

Last Lunchonline orders on Friday 13th December 2019. Orders restart on Feb 10th 2020.

Congratulations to...

Congratulations to Thomas who placed third in the National Judo Championships in Rotorua last weekend. The points he earned during this competition place him as the second-highest-ranking judo player for under 14-year-olds in NZ.


Over the holidays, Winni and Boyd competed in the National Mountain Bike Championships in Dunedin. Over three days, they competed in enduro, cross country and downhill events. Rain on the Saturday increased the challenge of an already very technical course in the downhill section. Congratulations to Winni who placed 2nd in the under 14 grade. 

...our school Theatre Sports Team of Max, Ben, Meg, Archie, Dom and Maia, who competed today (Saturday 2 November) at the Christchurch Schools Theatre Sports Competition. They were amazing.  They came 1st in the blind round (where they were given a game pulled out of a hat) and were awarded 3rd place overall. Fantastic result, especially considering all the other teams were high schools. Their team name was "New and Improv'd"

'New and Improv'd' who won 3rd place at the Theatre Sports Competition today at the Court Theatre.

PTA News

Have you got your free Giant Atlantic Pumpkin Seed yet?

We are so excited that many of you have taken up the challenge to grow a Giant Atlantic Pumpkin for the Twilight Fair in March 2020

Now that you have your seed here are some tips for starting your seed off, it’s not quite as simple as just planting your seed in a pot...Click on the following link to get some great ideas:  Giant Pumpkins NZ . Their video is also very informative & helpful- we strongly encourage you to watch it.



 King Seeds also have some valuable tips.



And remember if your pumpkin doesn’t quite grow to plan there will be other categories to enter your pumpkin into, such as the Best Decorated Pumpkin....or even the Smallest!!

Please keep us updated with how your little pumpkin is growing, we love to see progress pics - send us your images via the Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA Facebook Page

If you haven’t already grab your seed, don’t delay as stock is running out. Grab your seed, one free seed per family, from the Office before or after school.

Good luck and happy growing.

Beckenham Booty: Sunday 24th November, 9-11am

Everyone needs to be pro-active with recycling nowadays. Things that one person no longer needs are just what somebody else is looking for.
Pop on down to our next Beckenham Booty car boot sale, grab a coffee, be environmentally friendly & start shopping for a sustainable Christmas. Or better still book a space for $20 & declutter.
Beckenham Booty - Car boot Sale, located in the Beckenham Te Kura o Puroto staff Car Park at 71 Sandwich Rd - we'll be there, we would love to see you! 

Summer Flags art competition. 

Open to all ages, your students may be interested in participating. This competition is seeking designs for summer-themed street flags using a specially crafted colour palette. Six winning designs will be selected to display on 125 street flags around our central city from January to end of March 2020.
Winning entries will receive a voucher worth $150 to spend in the central city!
Competition entry criteria and the submission template can be downloaded on our webpage: https://ccc.govt.nz/culture-and-community/enliven-places-programme/how-the-council-is-enlivening-places/design-a-summer-flag/

SURFKIDS

Childrens Surfing  Programme.
Learn the skills of Surfing in a fun, safe environment. All equipment provided and professional instruction from Aaron Lock and team. For kids 8 - 14 years.
Sundays 10am to 12pm.
Dec / Jan Holidays : from 16th Dec, 10am -12pm
Cost $35 per day or $145 for five or $270 for ten lessons. Bookings essential.
Venue :Sumner.

Call Aaron on 0800 80 SURF (7873) or register online at surfcoach.co.nz