Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Newsletter April 24th 2020

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Stones painted by Sandy's sister, and donated to veterans at Rannerdale Veterans Rest Home

What a strange, and busy term this has been so far!

Some very exciting news this week was the starting of five New Entrant students! Avery special lockdown welcome to them! What a story they will have to tell their children about how they started school without leaving their front doors! We send out a very warm Beckenham welcome to these new students and their whānau and look forward to welcoming you on-site in person once school begins again.

We'd like to send huge congratulations to you all at home, juggling the challenges of being in lockdown and supporting your children with online learning. We absolutely take our hats off to you all for the extra time that you are giving your children with their learning and we have loved seeing and hearing about all the different ways that families have chosen to take on board the different learning possibilities over the past couple of weeks.

With the long weekend coming up, and a move to Alert Level 3 on Tuesday, we are all shifting gear again and will be adapting to the adjusted requirements on us all in this new level.

As you have probably heard, via various sources, Monday is the public holiday associated with ANZAC Day, and on Tuesday, schools across the country have been given a Staff Only Day for preparation for moving to Level 3.

Whilst our staff won't be setting new learning challenges for Tuesday or commenting on children's learning, we know that some of you will want your children to continue on with selecting from the learning options that are available through our website, through Google classroom (seniors) and through Seesaw (juniors).

New learning challenges and videos from staff will be posted ready for Wednesday morning.

What will school and learning look like next week, under Alert Level 3?

Online learning and connection with teachers will continue throughout Level 3 for all children.

From Wednesday 29th April, we will have a skeleton staff on-site during normal school hours and we will be operating two separate school bubbles of learning for children who have no adults at home to support them. Thank you to everyone for responding to our survey and for letting us know about your particular circumstances and needs. We have been able to limit the number of bubbles of children at school to two bubbles. This shifts 4 teaching staff from the online role that they have had so far, to a school-based role. This means that through Level 3, your children may be being supported by a teacher who is different from their usual home group teacher, as their home group teacher may be at school.

From next week, teachers will be focussing on giving feedback to, and engaging with the children in their learning, and won't be making as much contact with caregivers, unless you request it. If you would like to talk with a teacher, please DO get in touch via email or through phoning Jacky on 03 337 1404 and requesting that the teacher calls you back.

We understand that this next two weeks puts new challenges onto some families with workplaces expecting more of people turning up to work in person or online. We do want all caregivers to remember that you have complete say over how much, or how little you decide for your children to engage with the online learning... so that your family can continue to function successfully. Our staff are completely here to support you and will provide more or less support, as you need and request it.

As we will have children on-site during school hours next week, please do not come onto the school grounds during school hours if you are out for a walk. We will be working extremely hard to maintain the small school bubbles that we are creating, and thank you for staying away during this time to keep everyone safe.

On Monday or Tuesday, there will be a special email going out to the families of children who will be at school during Level 3, including more detail about school bubbles and how they will operate, drop-off and pick-up times, emergency contact information and procedures, and what children need to bring with them.

The office will not be open during Alert Level 3. Inquiries can be made by phone 03 337 1404 or by emailing office@beckenham.school.nz and Jacky (from her virtual office at home) will answer those calls and respond to emails during normal school hours.

We are very excited to be planning our first 'virtual' Welcome Assembly! Staff are secret-squirrelling away to create something new and special, which will be posted in Google Classroom and Seesaw on Friday 1st May so keep a lookout for that!

Thank you all again for your support through this pandemic.

Our thoughts are with you all, and we wish you all a safe ANZAC weekend.

Ngā mihi nui

Sandy and the team

PTA News

Hello from our bubbles to your bubble. Not much PTA action this term, but we do have a few thank yous to give. Firstly, we wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive thanks for all the wonderful support from our school whānau in the lead up to the Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Twilight Fair. We were blown away by the kind and generous donations of time, service and prizes. It was so disappointing that it couldn’t happen when we had done all the hard work - and almost all we had left to do was enjoy it, but given the clusters that were brewing all over NZ, we are glad the Fair wasn’t one of them!!

We also wanted to give a massive shout out to all the staff at school, who are working super hard getting the online “school” up and running so that learning opportunities and connection with teachers can continue despite our lockdown.

We want to acknowledge as well you, the parents and caregivers! We are all dealing with unique challenges: managing work, preschoolers, school children, high school children, grandparents, supermarket shopping, all while we are juggling massive amounts of uncertainty: some days with more success than others. Thank you for your patience, your time and your kindness. Like everything else our community has dealt with, we will get through this together. Kia kaha - keep up the awesome work!

Lastly for a wee bit of fun, visit our Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA Facebook page to have a look at the Guess the Baby Competition. Click the link - Guess the Baby and check out how cute our lovely teachers were as babies! We have a few spot prizes to give away to random guessers - so it may be worth your while :). Competition is closing on 29 April 2020.

Following the Prime Minister's announcement, at Alert Level 3 Mainland Uniforms will only run through contactless shopping. Though our physical stores are closed, we will be able to process and courier online orders and orders through phone or by email daily from 28th April 2020.
 Online shopping as usual. https://www.mainlanduniforms.nz/
 Ordering through phone or email and payment by Credit Card
City Store: 03 3776771 Email: City@mainlanduniforms.co.nz
All orders are delivered via courier. Free delivery for over $50.00 purchase.
$5.00 delivery fee for purchase under $50.00.
Thank you very much for your understanding and your support.
Stay safe.
Best regards,
Mainland Uniforms Team
21042020