Wednesday 18 August 2021

Wednesday 18th August

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. We hope you are well.

Here we are again! Fortunately, we are familiar with what teaching and learning look like during Level 4, we have systems already set up, and our team has been in communication this morning. Today we are having staff Zoom meetings and getting our online learning programmes ready to go live tomorrow. If you are keen to have your child engaged in learning today - encourage them to do some of the regular online mahi that we engage with on a daily basis. This includes: Epic Reading, Xtra Math, Solve-Me Puzzles, Free Writing Docs, or our Olympic Inquiry Site. Our Learning at Home Site will be live tomorrow and you will receive a notification of this.

Hopefully, we can all make the most of this situation and use it to spend some extra unexpected time with the people in our bubbles. Our wellbeing, as always, takes precedence and our message to you is to do as little or as much as is suitable for your situation. Ahakoa he iti he pounamu - although it is small, it is precious. Noho ora mai, stay well.

Finally, we are using this as a chance to initiate whānau communication through our new management system HERO. Moving forward, Hero will be our primary way of making contact with you. We would like to ask you to please log on to HERO and open this communication there as well. We will call those who haven't been able to connect with HERO later in the week to get everyone on board. 

Tuesday 3 August 2021

Pōhutukawa News, Term 3, Week 2

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. 

We are off and racing! Pōhutukawa has gotten Term 3 off to a fast start. We are into the second leg of 10, going strong and looking good for a podium finish! Yes, well, as you may be able to tell, the Olympics is at the forefront for us at the moment. It has been great to listen to the students chatting amongst themselves about the Games, and seeing them embrace the rich learning experiences that are accompanying the event. Here is an update for you on the term so far.

School Duathlon Next Week

Our school duathlon will be held next Tuesday, August 10th (postponement day for rain will be the following Tuesday on August 17th). This is an optional event and the students have been invited to fill in a Google Form on 2021 Pōhutukawa Google Classroom to register. The duathlon requires each student to have a bicycle in working condition, a helmet, and a lock. Please take a moment to go over the course with your tamariki and decide whether they would be up for this challenge, nau mai te wero!

Code Club

This term we are lucky to have a member of our Pōhutukawa whānau Kate Allen visiting us on Friday afternoons to run Code Club. Kate, alongside Rae, will be teaching students who have elected to be part of this club about coding (extending what the children learn during our programme), robotics, and using circuit boards to make programmes. The interest in this club was so high that there will be 2 groups this term. Our first group had their first session on Friday, and our second group will start from Week 6.




Trading Cards

We have noticed an increase in students bringing trading cards at school - particularly Pokemon Cards. Unfortunately, due to the tendency of these cards to go missing, or trades to be regretted, we have asked all students to not bring trading cards to school. This includes trading cards before and after school. It is much easier for everyone if cards are kept at home. 


Thank you for your support, have a great week, kia pai tō wiki!


The Pōhutukawa Team.

Friday 30 July 2021

A Golden Moment!

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. 

We wanted to share with you all a 'golden' moment that we shared with the tamariki today in Pōhutukawa. We are loving the Olympics!

Enjoy your weekend, kia pai tō rā whakatā.







Tuesday 27 July 2021

Welcome to Term 3

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. 

We hope everyone was able to enjoy some extra family time over the holidays. We have another busy term ahead in Pōhutukawa. Here are some of the things we are looking forward to in the coming weeks.

Winter Sport

Winter sport for us at school will continue until Week 4. We love seeing the tamariki out there giving it their all as they represent our kura on Thursdays, or participate in our in-school Wednesday afternoon programme and develop their teamwork and skills. Our main focus is enjoyment and sportsmanship, which we will be reaffirming with everyone. Please take a moment to go through this slideshow about team sports with your tamariki if you have a chance.

 
"Cool Curriculum Classes"

Our "cool curriculum classes" are continuing with some changes again this term. Anna will still be teaching Social Sciences and taking the children through a project in which they create their own culture, incorporating this with our concept of Change as the term progresses. Steve is taking Te Reo Māori, and integrating this with Health through the lense of the Te Whare Tapa Whā wellbeing model. Gayle is teaching Visual Arts, and Rae will cover Digital Technologies and work with the tamariki on coding. There is a lot of learning that will be happening over the term in CCC, so we encourage you to keep chatting about what we are covering in these courses with your tamariki. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.

Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

We will be spending this term looking at these Olympics as part of our ongoing Inquiry into change. These games will provide us all with rich learning opportunities, as we discuss and explore with the students the major changes that are happening for the 2021 Olympics, including disruptions, challenges and controversies that have come with them. We will also be looking into how the Olympics have changed over the years by comparing and contrasting the Ancient and Modern Olympics. We encourage you to ask your tamariki what they have been learning about the Olympics via our Google Site "2021 Tokyo Olympics", which is available to view on Google Classroom, and engaging in all the aspects around this exciting, and evolving, topic.



Open Night

Coming up on Thursday, August 5th (Week 2) from 7pm to 8pm is our Open Night for the Year 7-8 Kauri hub. Come along and discover the learning adventure that awaits in Year 7 and 8 at Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto!



Friday 25 June 2021

Access to Free Period Products

 Access to Free Period Products

To be filled out by all parents/caregivers, with their young people who wish to access these products. 

Please use the following link: https://forms.gle/63B6QzmEpPSUckCEA

About the initiative: 

The access to period products initiative aims to provide free period products to children and young people in all state schools and kura across New Zealand during 2021.

Periods are a fact of life for half the population. Despite this, young people don’t always have access to the products they need to feel comfortable at school, engage in their learning, and manage what should be a normal and healthy part of life.

Access to period products is a necessity, not a luxury. The need to access period products exists for every young person who experiences menstruation including young women, girls, transgender, and gender diverse youth, in ways that meet diverse needs and cultural perspectives.

A variety of packs of pads and tampons will be provided. These products are easy to use and appropriate for a broad range of students’ age, developmental, and cultural needs. Enough product will be provided so that students can effectively manage their whole cycle and can take product home.

Friday 18 June 2021

Pōhutukawa News - Week 7, Term 2, 2021 (Part 2)

Kia ora ano, e te whānau. Here is the second part of the latest news from Pōhutukawa.

Shoes, Ngā Hū

Mud, glorious mud! We certainly have our fair share of it these days. The mud that is making its way into our learning spaces is always a challenge at this time of the year. Because of this, and for the time being, we are asking tamariki to remove their shoes, hū, before entering the Hub and to leave them outside the door, under the eaves. As mentioned before, we have wonderful underfloor heating to keep feet warm, and we will be having an explicit teaching lesson next week on how to pair our shoes neatly outside the door to stop them wandering off by themselves! If you'd like to supply your tamariki with slippers or warm indoor socks, you are most welcome

On the topic of shoes we would like to ask you, if possible, to ensure that your tamariki are wearing running shoes or sneakers on both Wednesday and Thursday. Although we do some form of fitness every day, Wednesday and Thursday is when we run our winter sports programme and suitable footwear is a must. This ensures that students are able to safely carry out the skills that the kaiako, teachers, and the winter sport coaches are teaching them. As always your support with this is greatly appreciated and please let us know if we can support you in any way with this.

BYOD

We are so lucky to have such a huge uptake of whānau signing up their children to bring their own devices to school. We'd like to ask these whānau to please remind your children to bring their devices to school, and fully charged. This enables the school Chromebooks to be used by those students who do not bring their own devices to school.

Ngā mihi, kia pai ō rā whakatā - have a great weekend!

Pōhutukawa News - Week 7, Term 2

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. 

 House Points

Our focus for this fortnight is our kete value of 'We Make a Difference". The whakatauki, proverb, that accompanies this value is 'Nā mātou he rerekē te ao'. This translates as 'The world is different because of us'. Kaiako, teachers are on the lookout for students showing co-operation , initiative and making a positive difference for one another in the playground, in the classroom, and around the Hub. 

Once more, we encourage you to talk about this value at home over the next week or so, reflecting on how we can all show that 'We Make a Difference' in our daily lives. 



Wonder Project - The Rocket Challenge

Nau mai te wero! As part of our continuing inquiry into 'Change', we have been working alongside some wonderful ambassadors from Engineering NZ (including Pōhutukawa whānau's own John Aramowicz) in undertaking the 'Rocket Challenge'. So far in our STEM journey, students have discussed with our Ambassadors why Health and Safety is a fundamental part of the engineering world, undertaken test flights of bottle rockets, reflected on variables, discussed Newton's first law of motion, and designed and created prototypes of their very own bottle rockets. 

It has been great to see the children developing their skills of collaboration, problem solving, and innovation while creating their bottle rockets. We have suggested that they speak with you at home about their project, and students are welcome (but not expected) to bring in anything that may support the creation of their rockets. Suggestions include glue guns, lightweight plastic, or cereal boxes (for fins), washi tape, etc. Here are some photos of our journey so far, and a video of a first "test flight".




Shoes, Ngā Hū

Mud, glorious mud! We certainly have our fair share of it these days. The mud that is making its way into our learning spaces is always a challenge at this time of the year. Because of this, and for the time being, we are asking tamariki to remove their shoes, hū, before entering the Hub and to leave them outside the door, under the eaves. As mentioned before, we have wonderful underfloor heating to keep feet warm, and we will be having an explicit teaching lesson next week on how to pair our shoes neatly outside the door to stop them wandering off by themselves! If you'd like to supply your tamariki with slippers or warm indoor socks, you are most welcome

On the topic of shoes we would like to ask you, if possible, to ensure that your tamariki are wearing running shoes or sneakers on both Wednesday and Thursday. Although we do some form of fitness every day, Wednesday and Thursday is when we run our winter sports programme and suitable footwear is a must. This ensures that students are able to safely carry out the skills that the kaiako, teachers, and the winter sport coaches are teaching them. As always your support with this is greatly appreciated and please let us know if we can support you in any way with this.

BYOD

We are so lucky to have such a huge uptake of whānau signing up their children to bring their own devices to school. We'd like to ask these whānau to please remind your children to bring their devices to school, and fully charged. This enables the school Chromebooks to be used by those students who do not bring their own devices to school.


Friday 28 May 2021

Pōhutukawa News - Week 4, Term 2, 2021

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

Another busy week in the books! We finished the week on a bit of a wet and cold note, although it did give the tamariki a chance for an indoor-only Learning Through Play session to wind up our week. These sessions are such a nice way for us to spend each Friday afternoon as the students explore, experiment, discover, and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways. As teachers, we really enjoy guiding the children and encouraging them to display the key competencies in authentic and student-centred ways. 



House Points

This week we've been excited to reintroduce the use of House Points at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. We will have a fortnightly values focus, and house points are being given out to children who specifically display this value. The points accumulate in teams in a running tally and will culminate in a shield presentation at waiata assembly for the winning house every second Friday. Each morning excitement abounds as the tally is shared in the Daily Notices. Our focus for this fortnight is our kete value of 'We Care'. 

Teachers, kaiako, are on the lookout for our values in action in the playground, in the classroom and around the Hub. Happily, we have already noticed a huge lift in tamariki showing awareness of this important value. We encourage you to talk about this initiative at home over the next week or so, reflecting on how we can all show that 'We Care' in our daily lives. Arohaina te tangata me te taiao, we care for people and our environment.





Winter Sports

Our winter sports programme kicks off next week. Every student has elected to join, and will be involved in either competitive or development hockey, netball or football. We are still looking for parent assistance on Wednesday afternoons from 2pm - 3pm to help support our tamariki in the development groups. No expertise in any of these sports is required. All we would ask is to support the children in running some skills based activities with the support of our teachers. If you think you could help us at this time, please get in touch with your child/ren's home group teacher. Your support would be hugely appreciated.

Information for Competitive Winter Sport players

Competitive winter sport starts next Thursday and will run for ten weeks.

Children who are not in a competitive team will choose from three options back at school. 

Outcome

The desired outcome of our winter sport programme is to provide an opportunity for interested children to play sport. The primary aim is for children to have an enjoyable experience. It is awesome that we have children trying a sport for the first time or joining a team in a sport that isn’t what they would usually play on a Saturday morning. To accommodate for potential variance of ability, adults are instructed to be flexible and make adaptations to the game as necessary. 

Sportsmanship

We set high expectations for our tamariki around sportsmanship. A model we often use is The 3 Rs:
Respect for my team
Respect for the opposition
Respect for the referee and the rules of the game

Game Locations

Most games start at 1:45 and children should be back at school for 3:00. 

Hockey - Beckenham Park (The 7/8 A grade team will play at Sydenham Park on turf) 

Football - Hansens Park 

Netball - a variety of local schools. 

All travelling teams will be walking to their game, (the ⅞ A grade hockey team will travel by car). They will be accompanied by teaching staff and/or parents. A huge thank you to the parents who have volunteered their time for this. 

Covid- 19 Guidelines
All schools will be keeping records of children and adults at each location in case we need to do contact tracing. 


Safety Gear and uniforms

Uniforms will be issued by Anne Chin at the library. Instructions will be given via the daily notices. 

Essential safety gear

Hockey - mouth guard and shin guards are essential

Football - shin guards and football boots.

Netball - short nails and no jewellery.

If your child needs shin guards or football boots, these can be lent out from school if required. Hockey players will also be able to borrow a hockey stick if needed. 

ALL CHILDREN WHO CARRY PERSONAL MEDICATION, SUCH AS AN ASMTHA INHALER MUST CARRY THIS WITH THEM TO THEIR GAME. ANY MEDICATION USUALLY HELD AT THE OFFICE WILL BE COLLECTED BY A TEACHER.

If you have any questions, you can contact myself or the teacher in charge of the sport that your child is playing. 

Football - Jenny and Steve
Hockey - Gayle
Netball - Caitlin and Anna


Thursday 13 May 2021

Pōhutukawa News - Week 2, Term 2, 2021

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

School Cross Country

What a fantastic day we had for our school cross country on Tuesday afternoon. As it turned out, the weather was perfectly planned and it was lovely to see so many whānau come along to tautoko, support the tamariki. It was so pleasing to see the students giving their best and supporting each other to achieve their goals. You, and they, can feel very proud of their efforts. Congratulations to all of our young athletes who have qualified for the Zone cross country. More information about this event will follow


The Wonder Project

This term as part of our continuing inquiry into the concept of  'Change' for 2021, we are taking up the Rocket Challenge as part of the Wonder Project, which is run by Engineering New Zealand. Students will work with their homegroup teacher and a Wonder Project Ambassador to design, build and launch their very own water rocket! We are lucky to have John Aramowicz (Luka's dad) as one of our ambassadors, along with 3 other volunteers, all of whom are STEM professionals. This project teaches students about Newton's laws of motion, the engineering design process, and also promotes creative thinking and teamwork. This project aims to get the tamariki excited about a career in science, technology, engineering and maths. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning! To enable our project to take off, we are asking for your help. Each student is being asked to bring along a clean, washed 1.5 litre plastic bottle with the lid attached from which we can create our bottle rockets. Your help with this is greatly appreciated.

Muddy Months

As we head into winter we are noticing the inevitable increase of muddy shoes and clothes as students come back from play and lunch, having played sports and games on our beloved Park. We have spoken as a hub about the need to show We Care for our school environment by taking off muddy shoes before we enter the Hub and lining them up neatly outside the door. We are lucky to have wonderful underfloor heating in the classrooms, so feet stay nice and warm. In addition to this, we suggest that if your child is coming home with very muddy clothes, please consider supplying them with a spare pair of school shorts and a spare school top for them to change into once they finish their games. We appreciate your support with this.

Upcoming Dates

Wednesday, May 19 - School Photos

Friday, May 21 - Staff Only Day

Tuesday, May 25 - Zone Cross Country at Halswell Quarry

Monday, June 7 - Queen's Birthday (School closed)

Tuesday, June 8 - Staff Only Day

Monday 10 May 2021

Help Needed for Winter Sport

Winter Sport

Winter sport starts in Week 5 of this term. We would love to be able to provide every child who wants to participate in competitive winter sport a place in a sports team. To make this possible, we are still looking for adults to accompany teams. Ideally, this adult would be comfortable having a go at refereeing a game. This is something we can support you in learning how to do if you are new to it. If you are not comfortable refereeing but would be available to support a team, please do still get in touch. The most important thing we need is for the children to be adequately supervised.  

Unfortunately, at the moment we still do not have enough adults for a competitive winter sport to go ahead, and we are still looking for support to help with football, netball, and hockey.

Please get in touch with Jenny Diggle directly at jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz or with your child's homegroup teacher. Mā tātou kātoa te waka e hoe, we are all rowing the waka together!

Friday 7 May 2021

Cross Country Times

 Kia ora e te whānau,

We have received the timetable for the Cross Country next Tuesday from Jenny, who has given us the approximate times that each race will be starting. The first race will be the Year 8 race from 1:35pm and the races will on a staggered start at 10 minutes from that point.

For us in Pōhutukawa the races are expected to start as follows:

Year 6 - 1:55pm

Year 5 - 2:05pm

Please note that the time is different than that on the Community Calendar. Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Wednesday 5 May 2021

Welcome Back/ Important Dates

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

We hope everyone was able to enjoy some extra family time over the holidays. The tamariki have come back looking rested and revitalised, and we are ready for another fantastic term in Pōhutukawa. 

Wellbeing/Hauora

We have also started the term with some stunning weather -very chilly mornings and very warm afternoons! With some similar weather forecast, our message to the children is around the importance of drinking plenty of water and taking off jackets and polar fleeces in the afternoon as we are noticing a big variance in temperatures through the day.

In saying that, the colder weather is ahead, and with it comes the inevitable surge in coughs and sniffles.  We will be vigilant (particularly at the start of the term) in promoting good hygiene practices. Reminders about regular hand washing, sneezing into elbows and using and discarding tissues are all good discussions we will be having at school and would be great to have reinforced at home, as well. Mā tātou kātoa te waka e hoe, we are all in the waka together.

"Cool Curriculum Classes"

We love alliteration in Pōhutukawa, and our "cool curriculum classes" are continuing with some changes this term. Anna will still be teaching Social Sciences and investigating World Cultures, incorporating this with our concept of Change as the term progresses. Rae is delving into Te Ao Māori with a look at comparing and contrasting Myths and Legends, as well as learning Te Reo Māori. Steve is continuing the Science investigation we started last year with the Urban Eel Project/Te Tuna Tāone and looking at how we can use the findings to make a difference to the health of the Heathcote/Ōpāwaho te awa. Finally, Gayle is covering Digital Technologies and working with the tamariki on coding. There is a lot of learning that will be happening over the term in CCC, so we encourage you to keep chatting about what we are covering in these courses with your tamariki. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.

Cross Country - Tuesday May 11th

More alliteration, this time our whole school cross country, which is coming up next week. It was so great to see many of the tamariki hit the ground running - literally - and come back to school having done some training over the holidays. We are gearing up for the event by having daily training on the park, which the students are tracking on their cross country training goal sheet. Nau mai te wero, bring on the challenge! We are also encouraging the students to think about some of these goals, depending on their level of confidence, as we lead up to Cross Country next Tuesday:

  • I can run until I get too puffed and then 'walk a cone, run a cone' until time is up.
  • I can jog for the whole time without stopping.
  • I feel more comfortable running 
  • I feel great doing regular exercise
  • I feel great challenging myself
  • I feel great achieving my goals
  • I have shown a positive attitude towards cross country training

Winter Sport

Winter sport starts in Week 5 of this term. We would love to be able to provide every child who wants to participate in competitive winter sport a place in a sports team. To make this possible, we are still looking for adults to accompany teams. Ideally, this adult would be comfortable having a go at refereeing a game. This is something we can support you in learning how to do if you are new to it. If you are not comfortable refereeing but would be available to support a team, please do still get in touch. The most important thing we need is for the children to be adequately supervised.  

At the moment we do not have enough adults for competitive winter sport to go ahead this year. 

Currently, we are still looking for:

Netball: 2 x year 5/6 and 2 x year 7/8

Hockey: 2 x year 5/6 and 1 x year 7/8

Football: 1 x year 5/6 and 1 x year 7/8 

Important Dates

Tuesday, May 11 - School Cross Country, 11:45 am 

Friday, May 21 - Staff Only Day

Monday, June 7 - Queen's Birthday (School closed)

Tuesday, June 8 - Staff Only Day


Friday 16 April 2021

End of Term 1 and Start of Term 2

Urban Eel Project/Tuna Tāone

Last Friday we spent a fantastic day of scientific inquiry down at our river/ awa investigating the health of our river and discovering many things about the habitat. Thank you once again to all of the whānau that made it possible by being there as tautoko, support, and guidance for the tamariki. Jenny Bond from the Waterways Trust made a follow-up visit on Monday this week and the students were able to reflect on their findings and look carefully at the data that they had collected from the immersion day. Our next step in Term 2 will be to analyse the health of the Ōpāwaho river and look at ways we can make positive changes to the health of our local waterway and its surrounding habitat.


Learning Conferences

It was fantastic to connect with so many of you at Learning Conferences this week. These conferences provided a valuable opportunity to be able to update you on how your child/children are going at school, as well as to give you an insight into the learning that we are doing. As a follow-up to these short catch-ups with your child's homegroup teacher, we do encourage you to have regular chats with your child/children at home about what they are doing, and the things we are learning about at school. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning. To help facilitate this, here is the link to our Pōhutukawa Learning Site for you once again. This site is a one-stop shop for a lot of the learning we do in the team; you can access our other learning sites from here, too! Remember, you will need to be logged in to a Beckenham email account to access the links so it's a perfect chance to sit down and take a look together.

Cross Country in Week 2

Our school cross country is coming up on Tuesday May 11th at 11:45am , which is in the second week of Term 2. We will be doing some cross country training every day in week 1 and going over the course. All students will participate in the cross country and we will be working together on basic running skills and personal goals for the event. Nau mai te wero, bring on the challenge!

Have a safe and happy school holidays, kia pai tō hararei. See you all in Term 2!

Wednesday 7 April 2021

Reminder: Learning Conferences Next Week

 Learning Conferences

Week 11 - Monday 12th April and Wednesday 14th April

School will close at 2pm on both days, to allow Learning Conferences to begin at 2:15pm.

Please go onto the School Interviews website and use the code kk64k to book your learning conference. The Learning Conferences are for 15mins each, except for Year 7/8 where you need to book a 15-minute slot, but allow 30 mins (it works!)

The focus of these Learning Conferences will be to update you on how your child has settled into the school year, and to give you a picture of the areas of focus they are working on, particularly in numeracy and literacy.

Tuesday 30 March 2021

Urban Eel/ Tuna Tāone - WE NEED YOU!

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

 Parent Help Needed: Te Tuna Tāone - Urban Eel

We are still looking for parents or family members to help us with our Urban Eel/ Tuna Tāone activity day on Friday April 9 from 9am - 2:30pm. The activities will be based around measuring water flow and quality, riparian zone habitats, macro-invertebrates and will include an 'eel encounter' with longfin eel/tuna from our  Opāwaho/Heathcote River. No previous experience or prior knowledge is needed. In fact, we expect to learn as much as the students from these activities and gain a much better appreciation of our local environment.

We will spend the day down at the Heathcote River beside our Ponds, learning about stormwater pollution and habitat destruction of the native longfin eel, and teaching students about the need to take action now to care for our unique ‘Tuna Tāone', or 'Urban Eels'. 

If you are able to help us, please get in touch with your child's homegroup teacher by email as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you! 

Friday 26 March 2021

Upcoming Events

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

It's hard to believe that Easter is just around the corner. We have some exciting educational events coming up to finish Term 1. Please read on to find out how you can be involved!

Parent Help Needed: Te Tuna Tāone - Urban Eel

As part of our concept of  'Change' for 2021, we are excited to have the chance to work with the Working Waters Trust on the Te Tuna Tāone - Urban Eel Project on Friday April 9 from 9am - 2:30pm. We will spend the day down at the Heathcote River beside our Ponds, learning about stormwater pollution and habitat destruction of the native longfin eel, and teaching students about the need to take action now to care for our unique ‘Tuna Tāone', or 'Urban Eels'.

The activities will be based around water flow and quality, riparian zone habitats, macro-invertebrates and will include an 'eel encounter' with longfin eel/tuna from our  Opāwaho/Heathcote River. We will need the support of a number of parents to make this day possible. If you are able to help us, please get in touch with your child's homegroup teacher by email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Parents and caregivers workshop - understanding how our children learn to read.

The structured literacy approach. Join us in the staffroom at 3.15 pm or 7:00pm on Tuesday 30th March 2021. Caroline Morritt, our Resource Teacher of Literacy will explain our new approach to teaching reading and writing. Based on the science of reading, Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto uses an explicit, systematic structured literacy approach to build a strong literacy foundation. Decodable books support targeted classroom teaching of phonological awareness and blending and segmenting skills for accurate, automatic reading and spelling. 

Sunday 7 March 2021

2021 Canterbury Triathlon Entries

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

The Canterbury Triathlon is an awesome event for children who have a good level of fitness and are after a challenge.  We are restricted to the number of entries that we can make and these will be done on a first come first-served basis. Entries close on the 10th March at 5pm.

This year, the event has a new venue at a private property close to Clarkville and will be held on Tuesday 23rd of March. Please note, the swim component is in a lake therefore it is very important that children are confident and capable swimmers. 

Due to the small numbers of children who compete in this event, we are unable to send a teacher to this event. Transportation and supervision of the children need to be arranged by each whānau. 

We are also required to provide an adult for set up or pack down in addition to marshaling duties. This person must be free of any responsibility to children at the event.  

Please fill out his Google Form if you are interested in entering your child/ren for this event:

https://forms.gle/E4PBaJZKMsQ9quVJ6

More information on this event can be found on the following link: 

https://www.sporty.co.nz/asset/downloadasset?id=948bff1b-3529-4668-a41b-29f5e1a434a8


Sunday 28 February 2021

Pōhutukawa News - Week 4, Term 1, 2021

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

Week 4 was another busy week, here are some of the highlights!

Canterbury Earthquake Commemorations

Last Monday 22nd February, Pōhutukawa joined the other teams at Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto in commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the Canterbury Earthquakes by filling our footpaths with images and messages of aroha and togetherness. We Care, Arohaina te tangata me te taiao.





Swimming Sports

It was great to see many whānau at our annual school swimming sports on Thursday. The event is always a lot of fun and the nervous energy on the bus on the way to the pool was palpable! We Love Challenge at Beckenham, and it was fantastic to see the tamariki literally leap out of their comfort zones with a splash. Nau mai te wero! Here is a message from Jenny Diggle to the competitors:

"Congratulations to all our swimmers who competed in the school swimming sports.
You embraced an opportunity to get involved and challenge yourself in friendly competition. Wharenui Pool wanted me to pass on how impressed they were with how clean you left the bleacher area. When I did a check after you had all left there was not one bit of rubbish and there was no lost property left behind in the changing rooms. These seemingly small things do make a difference. Thank you!"


Maths Groups

Our maths groups started this week. The tamariki have all started to engage in independent activities and think about goals they want to achieve for the term. It's wonderful to see many children wanting to improve on their basic fact knowledge. All the groups spent some group time engaging in activities that require justifying their answers and reasoning by using mathematical language. One example of the questions that were used to promote this mathematical reasoning was the following question in a "Move and Prove" activity:
 I am 9 hundreds and 100 ones. Am I 900, 999, 1000, or 9100? Be prepared to justify your answer. 

We Love Learning. He taonga te ako. Why not ask your child/children to justify their answer to you?

Friday 12 February 2021

Pōhutukawa News (Swimming Sports and Huxter) - Week 2, Term 1, 2021

Kia ora e te whānau, it was great to catch up with many of you at the PTA picnic this evening. Here are a couple of notices regarding some upcoming sports events. (Please note the entries for swimming sports close on Monday!)

Swimming Sports

Here is a link to an information slideshow about our upcoming Swimming Sports, to be held on the afternoon of  February 25th. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vbhbd7jLy4F8aMK09Bdz0hxBCMuTuSDnnDVic8qyt74/edit?usp=sharing

We spoke with all of the students as a team about the day and have explained to them how they can go about entering. We have also encouraged them to speak with you before choosing which events to enter if they are unsure. The information on this Slides presentation outlines this same information and should clarify any questions you may have. 

The students can access the entry form (a Google Form) by logging on to 2021 Pōhutukawa Google Classroom. Please let us know if you do have any questions, we are happy to help.


Hanmer 4 Hour Mountain Bike Relay

We would like to promote the above event to keen mountain bikers. Children compete as a team to complete as many laps of the course as they can in 4 hours. Children 11 years old and younger ride a mellow loop that goes through the Heritage Forest. Children 12 years and older ride an intermediate level track, (it’s worth noting that this course is the same one that adults compete on and so it is a little busier). Whānau are responsible for entries and for supervising children at the event. There are already a number of children entered and we will have a Beckenham te Kura O Pūroto base area set up for all our teams to use. If you enter this event, please let Jenny Diggle know so that we can share information and coordinate plans for race day.

https://www.hanmerevents.co.nz/48mtb

Monday 8 February 2021

Pōhutukawa News - Week 2, Term 1, 2021

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all. We had a great start to the year last week getting to know each other and learning about some of the routines in the Pōhutukawa team. Thankfully, the sun came out on Friday afternoon and we could finish off the week by having some water play in the Park. Those who weren't so keen on getting wet were still able to get outside and spend some time exploring our local flora and fauna down at the ponds or getting creative in the sandpit. It has been so good to reconnect with our returning Year 6 students, as well as make connections with our Year 5's and our students who are new to Beckenham. We are looking forward to an awesome year ahead!

This week we will be starting our ever-popular CCC (cross-curriculum classes) as well as the workshops/ papamahi, which will be covering the following topics:
  • using devices, with Rae
  • goal setting using WOOP, with Gayle
  • book setup and bookwork expectations, with Anna
  • being active listeners, with Steve

Thank you as always for your support, and please do get in touch if you have any questions. We understand there is a lot of information to take on board, particularly for students new to our team, and we are all more than happy to explain or clarify any queries you might have. Mā tātou katoa te waka e hoe, we are all in the waka together! On that note, here are a few notices for the start of the year.

BYOD and Cybersafety Forms

It is great to have so many students bringing their own devices to school. Please remember to send along the signed permission slip for the BYOD agreement in order for your child to be able to access the BYOD network at school. If you have not yet returned the signed Cybersafety agreement, please do so as soon as possible. Every child MUST sign the Cybersafety agreement regardless of whether they are bringing their own device to school or not. Both of these forms are available at school if you need them.

Stationery

A big thank you to all of you who either brought $5 to your Learning Conference or paid by eftpos at the school office for your child's/children's two maths books for the year. We have received the books and we will be giving them out this week. If you are still to pay for these, please contact Jacky at the office to arrange payment.

Pōhutukawa Learning Site 

Our Pōhutukawa Learning Site is up and running for 2021! Please use the following link: https://sites.google.com/beckenham.school.nz/pohutukawalearningsite2020/home 
Here you will find the 'Pōhutukawa 101' video that we watched at Learning Conferences. If you find you are having trouble accessing any of the Google material it might be because the privacy settings have been limited to users with a Beckenham school email address. This is to ensure that materials relating to your child's/children's learning cannot be shared out into the wider world. Signing in together with your child will mean you can see everything that we have on our learning sites and on Google Classroom for this year.

Sunhats, sunscreen, and hand sanitiser

Thank you for ensuring that your child comes to school prepared for the sun. A named sunhat is a compulsory uniform item in Terms 1 and 4 and students who do not have a sunhat are required to stay in the shade during break times. A full drink bottle is another key item for these hot days. There is plenty of shade on the netball court, where we eat lunch, although it's a good idea for students to be wearing their hats whenever we are outside. The school supplies sunscreen and students can also bring their own sunscreen and keep it in their bag should they need to apply some during the day. We are making sure we sanitise and wash our hands throughout the day, so if your child has sensitive skin, please give them their own sanitiser to use. 

Important Dates

25 February - Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Swimming Sports (Y 5-8) - 12 - 2pm at Wharenui Pool
18 March  - South Zone Swimming Sports
23 March -  Canterbury Primary School Triathlon 
More information about the above events will come home closer to the time.