Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all,
We are now racing towards the end of the school year with 3 and a half weeks to go until the finish line! In keeping with that analogy we are just one week away from our trip to the MASH Tough Kid Challenge fun run on Wednesday, December 6. Thank you very much to those parents who have offered to join us on the trip. We will be speaking to the tamariki more about the trip this week, and also sending out more information in a separate post. Please read on for some very important updates for you to discuss with your tamariki. We hope you also enjoy some photos, and a link to a news article featuring some of our akonga that is just awesome, tau ke!
Road Patrol
For our Year 6's, being a member of the Road Patrol is one of the key ways they can show leadership in our senior school. It is also a wonderful way to hone time-management skills, and perform a valuable service for both our kura and the community; rain, hail, or shine! It was great to have our Year 5 patrollers out completing their training with Constable Meg last week, and they are now on patrol before and after school until the end of the year. Thank you for your support in ensuring they are aware of their days on patrol.
We would also like to take this chance to acknowledge our Year 6 Road Patrol members for their service this year in keeping everyone safe at the crossing. Ngā mihi ki a koutou mo tō mahi, thank you all for your hard work.
Cycle Safe and Homelink Road Safety
It's been rawe, awesome to see our Year 6 tamariki out there on their bikes and embracing challenges with the Cycle Safe team from the CCC. Nau mai te wero!
It's always such a beneficial programme for our Year 6's to learn the benefits of cycling and how to ride with confidence and be road-wise. This year they were lucky to have the additional opportunity to sit in the cab of a large truck to get a front-seat view of a driver's blind spots when driving a large vehicle, and thinking about the implications of that when they are on a bike; a very cool experience!
In addition to Cycle Safe, all students have also been working through a Homelink Road Safety book in class. Home Link Road Safety introduced this programme for teachers to use in schools. The major emphasis of the programme is the pedestrian area, which accounts for approximately 50% of injuries to children on our roads. The following is a message to whānau from Homelink:
"It is unfortunately still true that road crashes are the number one killer of children in New Zealand. The Traffic environment was designed by and for adults. It is an adult responsibility to keep children safe. For that reason, Homesafe Educational Resources Ltd. and local sponsors are enabling the message to be taken from the schools into homes. Homelink will assist parents and caregivers in the development of safe road practices. Together we make a difference."
It would be a great idea to follow up on these important lessons with your tamariki at home as well to ask them what they learned and what they might need to remember about road safety.
Transition Visits
As busy as it is at the end of the year, we are also preparing our students for next year with 'Transition Visits'. For the past few weeks, we have been giving our incoming 2024 Year 5's a chance to be with the 2024 Year 6's as a cohort and have some Learning Through Play sessions together. This week our outgoing Year 6's will be spending the afternoon with next year's Year 8 students to get a taste of life in the intermediate Hub. These visits are a really valuable chance for the tamariki to get a feel for the learning environment, reconnect with some of their friends, and also get answers to some questions they may have about 2024. We encourage you to talk with your tamariki about these visits and start the conversations about 2024 if you feel they're ready. Any momentum we can build now to set everyone up for a successful start to next year is valuable indeed. Mā tātou katoa te waka e hoe, we are all rowing the waka together.
Kaitiaki Crew News Article
How wonderful, miharo to see the members of our hardworking and passionate Kaitiaki Crew given their 'moment in the sun' this week with the publication of an online news article on Newsline. The article, titled 'Beckenham Students Nurturing Nature' is about our ongoing partnership with the Council Community Partnerships Rangers and Community Waterways Partnership. It's a wonderful way to promote and celebrate the taonga of our spring-fed ponds for which our school is named, and recognise the mahi of some of our dedicated 'kaitiaki'. Nā mātou he rereke te ao, the world is different because of us! You can read the article here.
Kia pai te wīki,
The Pōhutukawa Team
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