Thursday, 19 June 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 2 Week 8 2025


 


Ngā mihi e te whānau,

It was fantastic to see so many of you at our Learning Conferences last week, we really appreciate the whanaungatanga that comes as a result of these conversations. If you were unable to make it, we urge yout to touch base with your child's homeroom teacher for a quick update on learning. Mā tātou te katoa te waka e hoe, we are all rowing the waka together.

Mānawatia a Matariki

It was rawe, awesome, to see so many whānau at our Matariki celebration last week, and to see the kapa haka rōpu up on stage doing their thing. Matariki is an opportunity to reflect on the past 4 seasons, celebrate the present with whanau, and look forward to what is to come as the days get longer... if not warmer quite yet! We have been learning all about Matariki over the past few weeks. Of the 9 stars we acknowledge, 2 are associated with the natural elements of wind and rain. We certainly had those elements in play over the last few weeks and a lot of learning also came with them. It would be wonderful to reflect on this learning with your tamariki over the holidays. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.








Shoes/ Ngā hū

It has been really great to see the students 'stepping up' to show We Care for our school environment by removing their shoes during this wet and muddy season.  We are lucky to have wonderful underfloor heating in the classrooms, so feet stay nice and warm, and as an added benefit our carpet stays mud-free! 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. 

 BYOD/ Cyber Safety

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. Learning online continues to be a vital part of our learning at school, and the cyber safety of our tamariki is always at the forefront of what we do. At the beginning of the year, we held workshops on how to be cyber safe, and also expectations around using devices. We have recently been revisiting some of these ideas, and reminding our students that their school accounts are for learning purposes only. Mā tātou te katoa te waka e hoe, we are all rowing the waka together.

Winter Sports/ Hākinakina

Our Winter Sports programme is also now full steam ahead, with all of our students getting some amazing netball, football and hockey coaching and tautoko, support from our Year 8 student leaders on Wednesday afternoons. Our competitive teams are enjoying themselves in the South Zone competition and representing Beckenham admirably. A huge mihi, thanks to the parents who are helping out on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. We simply couldn't do it without your help and support.

Stationery

As we are at the halfway point in the year, we'd really appreciate it if you could check with your tamariki about their stationery and what they need. Essential and consumable items that all students require are: HB pencils, an eraser, glue sticks, a highlighter, and a blue pen. We have gone through the students' remaining stationery , and they will be able to tell you what they need. Thanks for your support with this, mā tātou kātoa te waka e hoe.

Lost and Found

These items have been handed into the office lately. If you recognise anything as yours please go and see the lovely ladies in Admin to claim them! 










Friday, 6 June 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 2 Week 6 2025




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

Week 6 was another busy week in the Pōhutukawa Team, here are some of the highlights!

Learning Conferences Next Week.

We are looking forward to meeting with you and your child(ren) next week during their Term 2 Learning Conference. 

School will finish at 1:00pm on both days, Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th June.

To support the availability of staff for these conferences we ask for children to please be collected from school on both days at 1.00pm. Supervision will be available until 3pm for a small group of children who are unable to be collected at 1pm.
 

We need EVERY FAMILY to fill in this form (click here) to let us know your plans for your child(ren) on Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th June. This includes letting us know if you need your child supervised at school on one or both of the Learning Conference days from 1:00-3pm.

Children will not be able to leave the school grounds to walk/bike home at 1:00pm if we have not been advised by you that you want them to do that.
 
Please contact the school office if you need any support with the form or if you have any questions.
 
We thank you for your support on these days.
 
Ngā mihi nui
The Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto team

 





Matariki Evening

Tēnā koutou e te whānau,

We would like to invite you to our Matariki Whānau Rōpū hui.

Matariki is the start of the Māori new year and a time of reflection, connection and planning for the year ahead. We would like to celebrate with you and your whānau on Tuesday the 17th of June from 5:00 pm. The PTA will be having a Sausage Sizzle on the night for a small koha (donation). We will also be having performances form our Year 3-8 Kapa Haka groups, and each hub will be providing different activities to do with Matariki. There will be more details to come soon. 

Mānawatia a Matariki!


Working in and around the hub for CCC!







Citizen of The Week: Cora Nuttall

Congratulations Cora on receiving Citizen of the Week! We are super proud of you! 



Only 1 day to go until our Book and Clothing Sale. Doors open at 8am Saturday!

Thanks for all your donations, we are really impressed with the quality of books and clothing we have received, and we know you will be too.

We have been busy getting it all sorted into book genres and clothing sizes to make your shopping easier and all at amazingly low prices, so come take it off our hands.

Entry to the hall will be through the side doors off the playground with paying and exiting through the hall foyer. We will have signage out.

We will have 1 Eftpos checkout and hopefully 3 Cash checkouts if it gets a bit busy.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA



Back by popular demand. The PTA are selling CookieTime Rookie Cookies. Look for an order form in your child’s bag or Online Order Here. Extra forms are available at the office.

This CookieTime Fundraiser features the 25g Rookie Size version of the famous Original Chocolate Chunk Cookie. Made with real Chocolate and real ingredients, this size is ideal for lunchboxes, handbags and coat pockets. 
 
$20 per bag for 20 Individually wrapped delicious cookies.
 
Orders close Thursday 26th June 2025
Collection will be the 1st week of next term at the School Hall. Date to be confirmed and advised.

This year the PTA is working to fundraise towards the school bus trips, more sports uniforms and replacing the broken projector and blinds in the hall. We thank you all for supporting us as we try to reach this goal.

Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA


Have a great weekend everybody, stay warm! kia pai ngā rā whakatā!


The Pōhutukawa Team

Chris, Gayle, Nick, Megan, Rae, Georgie and Viv.



Friday, 23 May 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 2 Week 4 2025


Kia ora all, 

For the last fortnight the focus certainly has been on whats happening outside of the classroom rather than whats happening in it! Winter Sport has had the children pumped up and ready to go and throw the school Cross country on top of that they have been about ready to explode! The news this week is a lot of sport and some colder weather notices to keep things ticking over. 

Winter Sports

Our first outing yesterday for Winter Sport and it was awesome to see all of the students heading out in their Beckenham colours to represent the school! We had a great time and are looking forward to getting 10 weeks of solid sport in on a Thursday afternoon. We have scheduled in practice times for Wednesday afternoons so please remind students the will need their winter sport equipment on both of those days. 

For those who do not head off site for sport, there are plenty of options at school in the non competitive sports. We had Jump Jam, Dance, Skipping, Korfball, Table Tennis and Badminton on the go! Again, just fantastic to see everyone trying something new or giving something a go, getting active and blowing out the cob webs from being inside on some of these wet  days! 



Cross Country

We were blessed with beautiful sunny, but chilly! weather for this year's Cross Country, and it was so great to see the students out there giving it heaps!  A huge congratulations to all of our students who embraced the opportunity to push themselves and got stuck into the event, it is such a great opportunity to live our value "We Love Challenge". Results of the Cross country will be posted soon to Hero, fingers crossed we could have some amazing representatives form the Pōhutukawa Team heading to Zones! 






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 the Park. We will be asking students to take off muddy shoes before entering the Hub and lining them up neatly outside the door. Slippers are most welcome to be worn inside only as well. We are noticing many students wearing very little in the cold mornings as well. Can you please remind them to be wearing their school polar fleece to keep 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.



Have a great weekend everyone, whatever you get up to. Kia pai tō rā whakatā.

The Pōhutukawa Teaching Team

Chris, Rae, Nick, Gayle, Megan and Georgie

Thursday, 8 May 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 2 Week 2 2025

 Ngā mihi e te whānau,

Warm greetings to you all. We have had a wonderful 2 weeks back in Pōhutukawa. The weather has been mostly welcoming, apart from the wet blast last week, and the students in great spirits! We've hit the ground running this term (literally) with some Cross Country practice. We all noticed how enthusiastic the students have taken to their practice. long may it last! Please read on for some news from the team, and some updates on the term. Have a great weekend everyone, kia pai ngā rā whakata.

Cross Curriculum Classes

We love alliteration in Pōhutukawa, and our "cool curriculum classes" continue with some changes for Term 2. Gayle is delving into Science and looking at The Human Brain this term, Rae is covering Digital Technology and continuing with Coding. Chris is taking a closer look into Art History with the A-Z of Visual Art, Megan is continuing with well being and Nick with his ever creative take on Digital Technology. There is a lot of learning 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.

Winter Sports

Our winter sports programme kicks off in Week 4. Every student has elected to join, and will be involved, in either competitive or non-competitive hockey, netball, or football. We still need parent assistance both on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons (approx. 1:30 pm - 3 pm) to help support our tamariki in the winter sports programme. In particular this year we have a large number of students who have signed up for the football competition and require parent help to make sure every team is supported at their games. If you think you could help us at this time, please get in touch with your home group teacher. Your support is hugely appreciated. We get there together, mā tātou kātoa te waka e hoe!

Legacy Dance Group


We are really excited to announce the availability of some hip hop dance classes, run at school for once lunchtime per week during Term 2. These dance sessions are taken by Legacy Dance Studio dance teachers. There will be a Year 3 and 4 class and a Year 5 and 6 class.

All contact information for Legacy Dance Studio can be found on the flyer attached. Please contact Tash at Legacy Dance for more information.


Book Character Day


Time to get creative and dress up as your favourite Book Character! As part of our readathon, we are excited to have a book character dress up day on Friday 16th May. We are looking forward to seeing everyone having fun and getting creative with their characters! I wonder what Cade will be this time around? Remember it is a book character dress up, not a movie dress up. If your unable to dress up, then the school uniform is to be worn, as it is not just a mufti day. 

Have a restful weekend
Nga Mihi

The Pōhutukawa Teaching Team
Chris, Nick, Rae, Gayle, Megan and Georgie





Friday, 11 April 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 1 Week 11 2025

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

We have come to the end of the first term of 2025! What a jam packed term is has been with all the new routines, teachers, learning and CAMP! Surely camp was the highlight of the term! For those who missed the CAMP VIDEO you can see this on HERO. We are super pleased to have been able to take the entire hub, 146 students, 26 parents and 5 teachers, in total,178 people went on camp for this epic experience, thank you to all the parent helper for their hard work in making the three day experience a memorable one for our Tamariki. 





We look forward to both a restful and busy term break, getting ready for Term 2 with a lot to look forward to! Winter Sport will start up in week 5, if you are keen to coach or take a team, please let us know ASAP! We are always on the look out for more parents to take sports teams, without you many will miss out! 

Keep an eye on the HERO notifications for more information of whats happening including parent teacher interview information and more Winter Sport info coming out soon. 

REMINDERS

Cyber Safety

Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have all the information they need to talk about online safety.

If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.

Learning at Home and Google Classroom

All of the students have access to the Pōhutukawa 2025 Google Classroom and their Home Group Google Classroom. Students can also access the Pōhutukawa Learning Site via their Google Classroom. The site serves as an online hub of resources should you wish for your tamariki to continue doing some school work at home. We will continue to add material and build the students' knowledge around using Google Classroom and Google Sites in the coming weeks. As always, we encourage you to actively participate in this area of your tamariki's learning. Ask them to show you what is available to them online and what they can see and do. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.


Have a lovely, well earned term break everybody, kia pai ngā rā whakatā! We look forward to seeing you all again soon for another jam packed term at 





 

The Pōhutukawa Team

Chris, Nick, Rae, Megan and Gayle

Friday, 28 March 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 1 Week 9 2025

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

Camp

On Wednesday next week, we are going to Living Springs Camp. Now is a good time to make sure your child has all the equipment needed for camp. Please check the previous camp notices for a list of what to bring.

On Wednesday morning, please remember to bring the following into the hub:
  • a backpack that will be worn during the 1 hour+ walk in which contains their lunch, a drink, a coat and any medication they need for the walk in (e.g., an inhaler).
  • a clearly name zip-lock bag/container containing your any other medication your child may have. Please make sure it has clear instructions on how and when to administer it. We will have a lot of medication to give out so please make the instructions really clear and simple to follow. Please hand the medication to your child's teacher on Wednesday morning. 
  • a suitcase/large bag containing their clothing and other items that will be delivered directly to the camp.

AI Art

During CCC (Cool Curriculum Classes), the children have been creating some AI-enhanced artwork. Here are some of their creations:





We are all very excited about camp next week. Thank you for all your support and aroha. 

Warm regards

The Pōhutukawa Teaching Team

Chris, Rae, Gayle, Megan, Nick, Georgie, Stacy and Laura

Sunday, 16 March 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 1 Week 7 2025

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all


As the term races on it's time to catch up on what we've been up to in Pōhutukawa, and also let you know some information about a couple of upcoming events. Please read on!

CCC: "Cool Curriculum Areas" have been running all term and we are string to see some fantastic outcomes from these classes! The students skills in coding and technology are super impressive and it is awesome to see how enthusiastic they are to be heading to these classes, not that we thought they wouldn't be popular! Mindfulness, PE and visual art in full swim and the routines have been flawless. We are really impressed with how well things have been ticking over. Kai pai all! 

Mathematics and Literacy is taking off and the real mahi is beginning to show as well. We encourage your child to show you around our learning sites and all the awesome support activities they have at the fingertips for you to be able to engage in your child's learning. Ask for a tour today! 

Living Springs Camp 2025 planning is well underway, keep an eye out on HERO for the upcoming parent evening. Only three weeks to go! Very exciting! 

STOMP Percussion has been a hit! Literally. There has been some very noisy afternoons in the Pōhutukawa hub, so much we have had to move most lessons outside in order to cope! Students have been very inventive with their instruments and their sounds. The toughest challenge is to try to record them! Multiple sessions have been required but we are slowly getting there and they sound amazing! An update on this will be coming up!

We look forward to yet another great fortnight ahead and hoping for some settled warm weather of course. Thank you for all your support and aroha. 

Warm regards
The Pōhutukawa Teaching Team
Chris, Rae, Gayle, Megan, Nick, Georgie, Stacy and Laura

Friday, 28 February 2025

Pōhutukawa News Term 1 Week 5 2025

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

Week 5 was another busy week in the Pōhutukawa Team, here are some of the highlights!

Groups and Adjustment/Program
After having had two full weeks of our learning rotations, it has been fantastic and all students have picked this up very quickly and settled well. We will face a different problem when the wet weather sets in later in Term 2. We have really appreciated the flexibility of students while implementing these routines. Ka Pai! 

Inquiry Learning
For our inquiry in week 4, we have looked at STEAM. This integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. 

Classes looked at Rube Goldberg for inspiration for one of the tasks. A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction–type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.

This involved creating our own machines and tracks to run marbles through. We had a blast, chewing through biscuit boxes and sellotape making some marvelous contraptions. Watching students experiment with these materials was very rewarding and made for some very funny moments! Attached are some photos of some of the groups and their creations.

Other stations involved matchstick towers with Blu-Tac, newspaper bridge building, paper plane designs and popsicle stick catapults. 





Music/STOMP
This week we have been looking into music for our inquiry. This has involved creating our own rhythms by using everyday items, forming a beat and focusing on timing. Your child may ask to bring items to school to assist with this. This unit is based on STOMP. We look forward to sharing the finished product with you very soon! 

Swimming Sports
Our annual school swimming sports is on Wednesday 5th March at the Wharenui Swimming Complex. We Love Challenge at Beckenham, and look forward to a fantastic event and seeing the tamariki literally leap out of their comfort zones with a splash. Nau mai te wero! 

Camp
The first notice went out on HERO this week with information about the Pōhutukawa team camp to Living Springs. Please check HERO for details. A reminder that the medical Google form and if applicable, the parent help Google form are past due. These are needed for our planning. If you have not done this could you please log into HERO and complete this as soon as possible. More information regarding parent help will come out next week. 


Have a great weekend everybody, kia pai ngā rā whakatā!

The Pōhutukawa Team

Chris, Gayle, Nick, Megan, Rae, Georgie and Laura.


Friday, 14 February 2025

Pōhutukawa Team Update Term 1 Week 3

Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all

We've now spent a very busy and productive 2 weeks in Pōhutukawa establishing routines and building relationships. We've all been impressed with how quickly the Year 5 students have adapted to new ways of doing things, and we love when the Year 6 students show support and aroha to their peers. Arohaina te tangata me te taiao, We Care. Thank you for reading on for some very important updates about what we have been up to in Pōhutukawa, and what is coming up.

Swimming Sports Wednesday, March 5

Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto Swimming Sports is being held at Wharenui Pool on Wednesday 5th of March.

This is an optional event open to children in Years 5 to 8. Races are held for freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. For each stroke, there will be a 25m and 50m event. You may enter races in all strokes but may only enter one distance in each stroke. For example, you could enter 25m backstroke and 50m breaststroke but you can not enter 25m and 50m backstroke. Only competitors from the 50m events are eligible to be considered for Zones. You will race against your year group. Please click here to enter.

To take part, you must be a confident and competent swimmer for the stroke and distance you have entered. If you are unsure of your ability, please ask a teacher for advice. Parents and/or your swimming coach, (if you have one) are also great people to ask for advice.

Workshops

All the teachers have now had the chance to teach every student in our team through a series of workshops. Our beginning of the year 'Workshops/ Papamahi' covered Using Google Classroom, Active Listening, UDL (Universal Design for Learning), and Lunchtime Games and Activities. It would be great to discuss with your tamariki about these workshops, and what they have learned. It was a lot of information, so asking them to share what they remember is a good way to consolidate their learning. These Workshops aim to introduce important aspects of life in Pōhutukawa, which we will continue with next week with Cyber Safety, PB4L, Health and Wellbeing, and Diversity.

Learning at Home and Google Classroom

All of the students have now signed up for the Pōhutukawa 2025 Google Classroom and their Home Group Google Classroom. Students can also access the Pōhutukawa Learning Site via their Google Classroom. The site serves as an online hub of resources should you wish for your tamariki to continue doing some school work at home. We will continue to add material and build the students' knowledge around using Google Classroom and Google Sites in the coming weeks. As always, we encourage you to actively participate in this area of your tamariki's learning. Ask them to show you what is available to them online and what they can see and do. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.

CCC

You may have heard your child talking about our CCC "cool curriculum classes". This is how we start our day; they are a great way to ensure we are teaching all areas of our curriculum. We are planning to start the programme next week. Megan is teaching Midfulness, Rae is covering Digital Technology with Coding. Chris is teaching Visual Arts via visual Mihimihi and Pepehas, while Gayle is teaching PE and Games, Nick is teaching Digital Technology . There is such a lot of learning 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.
Staying Safe Online

As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s important parents and whānau help them stay safe. Now is a great time to talk to them about how we use the internet and digital technology.

Cyber Safety

Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have all the information they need to talk about online safety.

If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.





Have a great weekend everybody, kia pai ngā rā whakatā!

The Pōhutukawa Team

Chris, Nick, Rae, Megan and Gayle