2018 Week 2 in Pōhutukawa

Week 2

What a fabulous first week we have had back at school. The weather has been perfect, the children have been enthusiastic and the teachers have enjoyed getting to know the students in Pōhutukawa hub. As always, there is lots happening, and lots to look forward to during the first term.

Every Friday morning for six weeks this term, coaches from Canterbury Basketball are supporting our PE/sports programme, by teaching basketball skills and rules. This started in week one, with the students enjoying the quick paced, active sessions. Basketball is a sport which is becoming more and more popular, so we are very pleased to be able to provide the students with expert coaching in this manner.

Beginning this week, the Life Education van is at school. Each class will visit the van, and Harold, for two sessions. Our focus for these two sessions are friendship, showing empathy and the impacts of our decisions, which are all important concepts to explore, especially at the beginning of a new year at school.

Our major topic for this term is sustainability. We kicked this off by watching the Lorax, which highlighted the importance of looking after the environment and our natural resources. We will continue working on these themes during the week within reading, writing and art. To help us with our art, we would love any donations of wool or newspaper please.  As a further motivation, we have planned a beach clean up trip. We will be visiting New Brighton Beach on Monday 26 February. The buses will pick us up at school at 10am and we will be returning before 3pm. We will require latex gloves and rubbish bags (both supermarket and big black bags) for picking up litter. If you have a surplus of any of these items, it would be great if you could send them to school with your child. We will not be picking up anything which puts your child at risk. We require adult help to make this excursion possible. Please email Tracy if you are able to join us on this fabulous day out.
tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz

On Thursday 8 March, the Pōhutukawa whanau will be visiting Rapaki Marae. This is a fabulous opportunity for our tamariki to experience a powhiri and to hear local history about our surrounding environment. We will also be exploring around the marae and Rapaki Bay. We will be leaving school at 9:30am, and returning to school before 3pm. We require adult help to make this excursion possible. Please email Tracy if you are able to enjoy the day out with us.
tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz

Have you heard about our new home group names? In the past, the four classes have been called rooms 14, 15, 21 and 22. This is historical, and related to the classrooms the year 5 and 6 classes used to be in. Now that we are in our new learning spaces, those numbers didn’t seem very logical, so now we are very happy to announce we have new home group names. Tracy’s home group is Beach (formerly R14), Gayle’s home group is Alpine (formerly R15), Nick’s home group is Jungle (formerly R21) and Katie’s home group is Lake (formerly R22). This may be tricky to remember initially, although the students seem to have got it sorted already!

We intend to have some water fun on Tuesday afternoon with the slip and slides, so long as the weather forecast stays sunny! If your child would like to participate in this they may bring along togs and a towel. If they would rather not, they will be able to play on the big adventure playground. The children must change back into their school uniform and put on footwear before leaving school.



Thank you to the families who were able to attend a learning conference with their child’s home group teacher. We appreciate having the time to be able to learn more about your child and family. It certainly gives everyone a head start when beginning the year of learning. We are always available through email, and are very happy to make an appointment to discuss any concerns.