Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto School Newsletter, Friday 21 July 2023

Another big 'Thank-you' to our PTA for the Mid-Winter Breakfast and to the Student Council for the City Mission Food Bank Can-collection this week. It was wonderful to see so many happy faces enjoying the porridge in the hall on Wednesday, and the huge collection of nearly 500 cans of food that was able to be delivered to the City Mission to supplement its Foodbank. As our roll hit 500 children this week, that is nearly one can per student! Thank you everyone who contributed to 'Make a Difference' for others in our community!

On Monday, another important PTA Fundraising activity begins - the annual 'Readathon'. Your child will bring home a Readathon card, which will invite you to help them to get sponsorship for engaging with Reading every day over the next three weeks. The aim of this is to both raise funds for the PTA to use to support the school with trips and equipment, AND, to encourage a daily reading habit for all of our children.

The final day of the readathon will be Friday 11th August, when there will be a 'Book Character Day' and everyone is invited to come to school dressed as their favourite character from a book. 

During the following two weeks, until Friday 25th August, the PTA will be collecting in the Readathon cards and money. This is one of the biggest fundraisers that our PTA does each year, and your support of it is very much appreciated.

Our Year 7/8 Team will be hosting an Open Evening on Tuesday 1st August, from 7:00 - 8:00pm. Whilst this is particularly targeted at the whānau of our current Year 6 students, all are welcome to come along and find out more about learning opportunities in our Year 7/8 Team.

From 7th August the New Entrant to Year 6 teams will be teaching the personal safety programme by New Zealand Police - Keeping Ourselves Safe. Years 7/8 will be doing a combination of the 'Keeping Ourselves Safe' and Choices' programmes. We cover this programme every two years as part of our Health curriculum. 

I will be away from Friday 28th July - Thu 3 August, attending the Australian Primary Principals' Conference, in my capacity as president of the Canterbury Primary Principals Association. Jo Smith and Sue Leadbetter will be sharing the leadership of the school in my absence.

The Board of Trustees have reluctantly accepted the resignation of Elizabeth Drummond in her permanent position as a full-time teacher at Beckenham, effective at the end of this year. Elizabeth has been on our staff since Term 1 1996 and there may even be one or two parents now at Beckenham who were students in her class when they started school! However, we are delighted to be able to confirm that Elizabeth has agreed to return in a fixed-term capacity during 2024 when we are ready to start our third New Entrant class, so we are not losing her skills and smile for good!

Another successful Midwinter Breakfast is done and dusted. Looking forward to seeing everyone again next year and thank you to our extra helpers! 

We have our Monthly Hui next Wednesday 26th July, at 7.30pm in the staff room. All welcome!