Kauri Whanau: Term 2 Week 5 Update

Thank you for ensuring costumes were back at school last week, so that we could perform our J-Rock for the school on Monday. Walking down to Hillview and sharing our performance ran very smoothly and we have received more lovely feedback. Last week we received this email...

Dear Beckenham School

I just had to contact you and say how marvellous I thought your Stage Challenge performance was last Thursday night at Horncastle Arena. I was there supporting Cobham Intermediate but your J Rock performance was stunning! It brought me to tears watching your journey. It was very cleverly done and entertaining and just lovely.

Congratulations to all involved.

Ngā mihi

72 professional photos have been taken of our performance, thanks to Bluefire Media. I will let you know shortly how these can be accessed.

Home Learning:

New maths home learning was sent home on Tuesday. This is due next Friday, June 9th. There were a number of children who did not hand in home learning last Friday. Please check to see that your child is back on track with managing their home learning.

Leadership:

Congratulations to the following students who were presented with leadership awards on Tuesday.
Bronze: Jordan T
Silver: Joe, Fergus, Caleb, Vita, Saraya, Mitchell and Lennox
Gold: Jordan H and Amelia Ca. 
A special well done to our gold recipients, who will be re-presented with their awards at our Showcase evening on the last Thursday of term. 

Writing:

On Monday, we welcomed Shay Hooray to our hub to share his experience with setting world records, in particular the world record for the most rubber bands on one's face! Over the next fortnight the children will be writing a story about a world record attempt. The idea from this writing topic came from a student suggestion in our end of term survey. It would be great if you could chat with your child about the record they have chosen to write about. 'Great writing floats on a sea of talk'.

Choir:

The Kauri choir are preparing for the South Music festival being held on June 20th and 21st. Tickets will be made available for purchase from the office at the Beckenham site, within the next two weeks. The ticketing process is being finalised and will be shared with you as soon as possible. Please encourage your child to practice the songs at home. The festival will be here before we know it!

 Zones Cross Country:

Last Wednesday, 24 children from the Intermediate Hub represented Beckenham School in our South Zones Cross Country at Halswell Quarry. Despite being a fine day, the course was a little muddy, all adding to the fun and challenge of the day. The children gave it their all, demonstrating our kete value ‘We love challenge’.

Year 8 Girls: 1st place - Kaia, 2nd place - Millie, 4th place Daisy

Year 8 Boys: 2nd place - Alex Braun

Year 7 Girls: 5th place - Tilly

Winter Sport:

Our teams were blessed with another fine day last Friday afternoon for Winter Sport. The Beckenham Red netball team played a close game against Aidanfield, losing their game by just one point. Another close game was played by the Beckenham Red football team, who drew against the Bamford Jets. Our hockey team and second netball team both won their games against Sumner and Lyttelton respectively.

This week's draw:

Hockey - Beckenham Black v St Josephs Pap Gold on Nunweek 1c

Netball - Beckenham Black v Avonhead A on court 31 (Hagley)

Beckenham Red v St Josephs Pap Red on court 29 (Hagley)

Football - Beckenham Black v Riccarton on South Hagley 6

Beckenham Red v St Michael’s Dragons on South Hagley 7

Buses will return to Beckenham via Champion Street again this week. There was a hiccup last week, which we hope to have ironed out, so arrival at Beckenham can be 3pm. 

Kauri Whanau: Term 2 Week 4 Weekly Update

The first three weeks of this term were pretty full on, culminating in our J-Rock performance day last Thursday. What an awesome day we had. The feedback we have received about our performance was extremely positive: words like awesome, beautiful, professional and sooooo proud. For a twelve hour day, the children managed themselves extremely well; we were proud of them on many fronts.  We look forward to sharing this performance with all families at our showcase on the last Thursday evening this term. 

The children had fun applying makeup.

Morning rehearsal time.

J-Rock performance for school: 

On Monday next week, May 29, we will be sharing our J-Rock with the rest of the school. All children need to bring their costume box back to school this week. Thanks to those who have already done so. We will get the costumes to Hillview. On Monday morning, we would like the children to wear their black base under their red shirt and school jacket. We will meet by the ponds as usual at 8:30, and walk to Hillview. 

Passion Friday (Shoe Art):

A third of the children in our team are involved in shoe art for Passion Friday this term. If your child is in this group, please speak with them and ask if they need to source anything to help create their transformed shoes. School is able to supply some of the materials, but the children are expected to try and find the majority of what they require. Most of what is needed can be found around the house. If you have any old newspapers, we would love it if your child could bring these in for using to paper mache their creations.

Zones Cross Country:

The forecast is looking good for our South Zones Cross Country at Halswell Quarry this Wednesday. The children will catch their bus at 8.40 from Sandwich Road and then be transported back to Champion Street once the event is finished. Please make sure all children have a warm layer or two a change of clothes, their drink bottle and any personal medication that they may need, (such as ventolin). We will have our school gazebo up and our school flags flying. The event will go ahead no matter the weather. We would love to see you there.

Event Timings:

9.55

10.50am Year 7 girls - 3km

11.00am Year 7 boys - 3km

11.10am Year 8 girls - 3km

11.20am Year 8 boys - 3km

Winter Sport:

There were many happy young sports players after Friday’s games. All the Year 7 and 8 teams, who played a competitive match, won their respective games. We love to see our Beckenham Kete on display in a sporting context.

To avoid disappointment, please ensure that your child brings all the necessary equipment to school on Friday. If your child is missing required safety equipment, we cannot allow them to play (this is in accordance with Primary Sports Canterbury rules). We can lend out equipment when necessary, but need to know about this in advance (not on Friday). All children should bring their sport uniform, a warm layer (jersey or jacket) and a drink bottle (there is often not a drinking fountain in close proximity to the court/field).

Football: shin guards, football boots

Hockey: shin guards, mouth guard

Here is this week’s draw for your reference:

Netball

Beckenham Black v Lyttleton B Hagley Courts 12

Beckenham Red v Aidanfield CS 1 Hagley Courts 9

Football

Beckenham Black bye

Beckenham Red v Banford Jets South Hagley 7

Hockey

Beckenham Black v Sumner Nunweek 1b

Passion Friday at St Albans ABC Preschool:

One of our passions this term is to help out at the preschool, which is two minutes walk from school. Our children are loving spending time with the little people, supporting them with their play based learning.

Last Minute J-Rock Reminders

Thanks to all the families who have filled in the end of night pick up form. Just 10 to go. Please click and respond if you have yet to do so.

The children have worked exceptionally hard over the past weeks to create, refine and perfect their performance. We are very proud of them all. For a number, just being on stage is a huge deal, with some anxiety involved. These children will probably get the most out of the experience. Tomorrow is a huge day, so an early night would be appreciated.

Reminders (some of these items are new, so please read carefully):

• Children are to come to school in their black base, with their school jacket over the top. I have most of the costumes in my car. Some children, mostly those with just one costume, have theirs at home to bring tomorrow. A number of children need a red school shirt for their performance. Please ask and make sure they pack this.
• Bring: a full water bottle, a large lunch including morning and afternoon tea, a small game or book, as there will be lots of downtime to fill. Optional; rug or cushion to sit on. 
• Dinner is an American hotdog, a muffin and a piece of fruit. If you think your child will need more, please pack extra food in their lunch box. Vegetarian and gluten free are also being catered for. A big thanks to the team of mums who are helping to feed the troops.
• Electronic devices may be brought, however there will be times when these will be left in our changing area, unattended. During our performance, we will lock all children's phones in a staff car. It is up to you as to whether you are happy for your child to bring their device. 
• Today we talked with the children about makeup. The children are welcome to bring this. A small mirror would also be handy. No pressure if they haven't got any; I'm sure their will be plenty of sharing happening. 
• Girls' hair: Old school children in pigtails or plaits. All other girls with long hair in a high ponytail, except Maddi who will need a bun, which we can do late afternoon.
• At the end of the evening, please come into the arena foyer to sign your child out. We have been asked to bring the children to the foyer in groups of ten, so it may take a few minutes for your child to show up. 

If you need to get a message to your child during the day, you can send Nicky a text 0276229403.

I think that's it. Can't wait for tomorrow! Kauri Whanau rock!!

Kauri Whanau: Term 2 Week 3 Weekly Update

It was great catching up with so many of you at learning conferences last week. We now have enough transport for our ski trip next term: thanks to Liz, Terry and Bryan. This week is a very busy one with J-Rock on Thursday and winter sport starting on Friday. Please find in the post information about J-Rock, cross country, winter sport and collaborative writing.

J-Rock:

Only two more sleeps until we hit the big stage! Yesterday, Monday, we had a very good dress rehearsal at Hillview. We are hoping to have one more dress rehearsal tomorrow at the Beckenham church hall on Martin Ave, but this is still to be confirmed. Just to be sure, please collect your child from Beckenham, not Champion Street tomorrow afternoon. Below are important messages about Thursday.

• Children are to come to school in their black base, with their school jacket over the top. They will either bring their costumes with them, or these would have been loaded into Nicky's car on Wednesday afternoon.
• Bring: a full water bottle, a large lunch including morning and afternoon tea, a small game or book as there will be lots of downtime to fill. Optional; rug or cushion to sit on. 
• Electronic devices may be brought, however there will be times when these will be left in our changing area, unattended. During our performance, we will lock all children's phones in a staff car. It is up to you as to whether you are happy for your child to bring their device. 
• Below is an outline of how our day will look. We will not know our performance time until Thursday morning. 
• At the end of the evening, children will be collected from the Horncastle Arena foyer. 
• We need everyone to complete this form, so that we know the collection plan for your child.

8:30  Board buses at usual place. 

9:00  Check in at Horncastle
10:15 - 10:45   Morning production meeting for everyone
11:15  Student co-host meeting (Jordan H)
1:15 - 1:45 Our rehearsal time
Auditorium out of bounds between 1:45 and 2:45
2:45 - 3:15 Student rep meeting (Juliette and Sadie)
4:45 - 5:05 Afternoon production meeting for everyone
5:10 Dinner: one hotdog, muffin and piece of fruit per child. If this won't be enough, please pack extra.
5:05 - 5:30 Student co-host briefing (Jordan)
7:00 Show starts 
7:05 - 8:15 Our performance will start some time between these two times
9:00 Collection of children from foyer

During down time the children can go in and watch other schools rehearse; there will also be games to play in the foyer. We encourage them to bring coloured pencils to finish their pixel art and also to bring a book or small game. 

Cross Country

The children embraced our school values last Friday afternoon as they ran in our school cross country event. It was great to see the children supporting each other and competing with enthusiasm. All the children ran a race they can be proud of. Many children have commented on the benefits that they experienced through regular running in the lead up to this event. We encourage the children in continuing this healthy habit.

The Year 7/8 results are as follows:

	Year 7 Girls	Year 7 Boys	Year 8 Girls	Year 8 Boys
1st	Tilly	Joel	Kaia and Millie	Alex
2nd	Bonnie	Ayden		Fergus
3rd	Hannah W.	Gabe	Rosie and Daisy	Joe
4th	Bella	Santi		George
5th	Jess	Rohith	Hannah S.	Mitchel
6th	Portia	Tom W.	Juliette	Ayan

Good luck to the children competing at our South Zones Cross Country on Wednesday morning. We are still in need of a few parent helpers to ensure that our children are adequately supported during the event. Please email Jenny asap if you are able to join us. We are in particular need of helpers willing to course marshall.

Winter Sports

Our weekly Winter Sports start this Friday.

A huge thank you goes out to our  dedicated coaches and managers who have dedicated their time to up-skill the children and referee their games. We couldn’t offer this opportunity without your time, effort and expertise.

The children will leave Champion Street at 12.30 to travel by bus to their game location. Netball and football games will be held at Hagley Park, while the hockey players will be competing at Nunweek Park. All games start at 1.15.

Please make sure that the children bring the following things to school each Friday.

Football	Netball	Hockey
Beckenham football shirt Shin guards Football boots Water bottle School jersey/jacket	Beckenham netball dress Water bottle School jersey/jacket	Black Beckenham sports top Mouth guard Shin guards Water bottle School jersey/jacket

For safety reasons, all children’s nails should be kept short for the duration of Winter Sport. Jewellery cannot be worn while playing and it is preferred that these items are left at home on sport days to eliminate the risk of a treasured item being lost. Small studs earrings can be taped over.

The weekly draw can be found online through the following link.

From time to time the teams will incur a bye. When this happens the children will still travel to their game location and have a practise session with their coach.

Collaborative writing:

Over the past week, the children have been writing collaboratively, in twos or threes, to describe a photo. We have been so impressed with their levels of collaboration and the quality of their writing.

Elise and Nathan:

One move. One move and I could win. The look on my opponent’s face says it all. Suspense hangs in the air like a bad smell. Make a wrong move, they win, and then it's all over. My heart is beating a steady rhythm, in time with my breaths. A bead of sweat rolls down my already damp forehead, begging to be wiped off, but the uncertainty makes it impossible to look away, even for a second.

My opponent’s face is in anger. I can see the lights get brighter. It is very quiet in the library. All eyes are on our game, no one could look away. Our pieces are standing still. Everyone is silent and no sound in the room could interrupt our tense moment.

Glancing around, some of the library staff have stopped their work to watch the tight game. I hear faint arguing outside. You could hear a pin drop, it's so silent. Even in this quiet, you can tell that everyone around us is practically bursting to say something. Books are piled miles high around us, threatening to topple under the weight of suspense.

Anxiety levels are very high in the room. Every single face in the crowd have their eyes on us. My body has started to feel very warm, like I’m boiling in my skin. It is so close that it is just going to take forever to decide my final move.

As my hand starts to move, the watchers lean in, closer and closer as my hand move closer and closer to the chessboard. Only a few pieces left, a few soldiers still battling. My pieces are very close to capturing the king. Slowly, I place my last piece, my last move. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Checkmate.”

Time for a Treat!

We all love a treat occasionally, and tomorrow, Thursday, a yummy treats lies in store for Year 5-8 children at Champion Street. It's jelly and ice-cream day! Bring $2 to order your yummy treat, when the 'ticket' sellers visit your class in the morning.

Thanks for supporting Year 7 & 8 J-Rock fundraising.

Kauri Whanau: Term 2 Week 2 Weekly Update

We are looking forward to catching up with many of you this week at learning conferences. Remember to allow 30 mins for the conference. When you arrive, come straight into the hub. Your child will start sharing their learning and we will join you to discuss progress and next steps. Your child's home-group, maths and possibly reading teacher will spend time with you during the conference. There will be a list of reminders of what to share on the whiteboard, for your child to refer to.

There are a number of important messages below about upcoming events. They are in order of when the events occur. Please read carefully.

Cross Country:

The children have been training regularly in preparation for our Cross Country Sports Event this Friday. We really appreciate your support. On Friday the children will have an early lunch before bussing back to Champion Street at 12.30. Teachers will led a course walk to ensure the children are familiar with their route. The first race is the Year 6 girls who start at 1.30. Please ensure all children are wearing suitable footwear and have a warm layer to wear for before and after their race. Any children who are unable to compete due to medical reasons should bring a note from home signed by a parent, or send an email to their home-group teacher.

• Year 7 Girls – 2:05 pm
• Year 7 Boys – 2:10 pm
• Year 8 Girls – 2:20 pm
• Year 8 Boys – 2:25 pm

Thank you to all the parents who have offered to be course marshals. Please meet Jenny by the cricket pavilion at 1.15 to be given a high visibility vest and to find out your position.

J-Rock:

In just over a week now we will be sharing our J-Rock performance at Horncastle Arena. Children are dancing, sewing machines are whirring and excitement is building! Many thanks to the parents who are helping with costume making and jelly fundraising this week. Later this week I will contact those who offered to help with the evening meal. 

We would like all costumes at school by this Friday, earlier if possible. If your child has more than one costume, they will need a small named box to hold their costumes. This will help quick costume changes run smoothly. If you have offered to lend flouro vests, checked shirts, overalls etc, please name these and send them to school ASAP, so we can match them with children. 

Next Monday afternoon, May 15, we will be having another rehearsal at Hillview in the afternoon. All children will be back at Beckenham by 3pm. 

Next Thursday, May 18th, J-Rock day, all children need to be at school, in uniform, with their costume box, a hearty lunch and drink bottle by 8:30am. We will be spending the day and evening at Horncastle. Please arrange to collect your child at 9pm from Horncastle. You will need to come to the front entry so that children can be signed out. If you are attending the performance, please let your child's home-group teacher know. Two of us will stay with your children, we have seats at the back of the arena, and get them to you at the end of the evening. 

Winter Sport:

We have now finalised teams for Winter Sport and communicated these to the children. The interest in playing sport was really encouraging and making up teams was a challenging task due to the level of skill and positive sportsmanship displayed by all the children. Unfortunately, we are limited to entering a maximum of two teams per sport in each age group and so can not take all the children who want to go.

Children participating in Winter Sport will have an early lunch each Friday (starting in week 3). They will be bussed to their game location at 12.30. Games start at 1.15 and should be finished by 2.15. On completion of their game they will be bussed back to Sandwich Road via Campion Street, arriving back at Beckenham by 3 pm.

Locations for matches are as follows:

• Netball, Rugby and Year 7 and 8 football - Hagley Park
• Hockey and Year 5 and 6 football - Nunweek Park

Children attending Winter Sport should ensure that they bring a warm jersey or jacket and a water bottle to their game. The following safety gear is also required:

• Hockey - shin guards and mouth-guards
• Football - shin guards 
• Rugby - mouth-guards

Mouth-guards can be purchased from the Beckenham office and we have some shin guards available to lend.

All players should have short nails and are not permitted to wear any kind of jewellery.

Of the children competing we have a mixture of highly able, competitive players and children who are trying out the sport for the first time. While there is a competitive element to Winter Sport, the primary focus is on participation and good sportsmanship. We look forward to seeing our school kete values on display.

Cashmere High Open Day:

On Monday May 22nd, Mark Wilson, the principal of Cashmere High, will be visiting our hub, with two ex-Beckenham Year 9s, to talk about transition to high school. The following day on May 23, Cashmere High will be holding it's open day from 4:30 - 6pm.

Showcase:

On the last Thursday of term, July 6th, we will be holding our annual Year 5-8 Showcase evening, starting at 7pm. As our hall is out of action at present, we will be showcasing in the Hillview Gym on Wilsons Rd.  All children will be involved in this evening, as we will be sharing our J-Rock performance, choir, Te Whanau Mahi Tahi, a band group, as well as Year 5 and 6 performance groups. This will also be a chance to celebrate leadership, with presentation of awards. Please mark this date in your diaries.

Ski Trip: 

Many thanks to the parents who have offered to help on our ski day, on August 17th in term 3. Matthew, Rod, Shaun / Katherine and Glen have all offered to take cars. We need one more parent, who has experience driving on a mountain road, to join us and help transport children. If you are able to help out, please fill in this form. 

Kauri Whanau: Term 2 Week 1 Update

We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back later this morning, when the children return from tech. We've spent part of our break planning another exciting term of learning in the  Intermediate Hub. Please read the messages below carefully.

J-Rock: 

Please click this link to indicate your child's costume situation.
Tickets for J-Rock and Stage Challenge can be purchased through Ticketech. They are rather expensive at $34.50 each for adults, plus booking fee. It is a very entertaining evening. We will be performing our J-Rock for the school community later in the term, venue to be announced. This date will be set shortly.

Sport:

Tomorrow we start training for cross country. Please make sure your child brings a t-shirt to change into for running. Roll-on deodorant would also be handy, no aerosol please. Our school cross country is next Friday afternoon, at Beckenham Park.

Trials are underway for winter sport teams this week. Many thanks to the parents who have offered to help; without you we cannot enter teams. Our winter sport programme gets underway in week three, the day after J-Rock!

Basketball starts for the Friday team, the Breakers, next Friday, May 12th, and the Monday team, the Bulls, on May 15th.

Learning Conferences:

Learning conferences will be happening next week on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at Champion St. Children will return to Beckenham by 2pm these days. If your child has their learning conference between 2 and 3pm, they can wait at Champion St for you to arrive. If you are yet to book an conference, please click www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use the code: b5quc. Please note that you will need to allow 30 minutes for your child's learning conference.

Home Learning:

During the holidays we have been marking the children's inquiry learning on the '7 Habits'. Your child will share this with you at learning conferences. We noticed that a number of children did not really understand habit 7, 'Sharpen the Saw'. As a result we have designed the next two weeks home learning around this habit, in lieu of the usual maths home learning. Their assignment is on a google doc, which they will need to access at home. This is not one to leave to the last minute, as it is about 'little and often'. Please encourage your child to fill in the diary section of this assignment regularly.

Week Two:

Next week on Monday we have two events happening. First thing, the children meet by the ponds (usual bus meeting place) at 8:50am. From there they will walk to the Beckenham Methodist Church to spend an exciting hour playing drums with Rhythm Interactive. We will then bus to Champion St. Lunch will be early that day, at 12:15, so that we can be on the buses by 12:45, to travel to Hillview School. They have kindly allowed us to use their gym so we can rehearse for J-Rock. Children will be back at Beckenham by 3pm.  No drops offs or pick ups from Champion Street that day please.

Sharing Our Learning:

We have been blown away by the insightfulness shown by some of our students in their '7 Habits of Highly Successful People' inquiries. Below are just three examples...

Habit 1: Be Proactive:

Mark Inglis

You display habit one when you don’t sit around and wait for things to happen to you, you search out greatness.

As soon as Mark Inglis began to speak I knew that he was a proactive person.He lived by the trait get up and do it. After having both his legs amputated. The average re active person would have sat down and thought, ”Well that's the end of my life climbing mountains.” But not Mark Inglis.  He had a dream. It had been a goal from childhood to stand at the top of the tallest peak in the world. Mount Everest. And being Mark Inglis he was going to fulfil that goal. Inglis did not sit around and wait for it to happen he made it happen. And in the process he raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Cambodia Trust.

Getting up mount everest is one thing but getting down is another.He struggled to keep going but mountaineering is not like other sports,because  if you give up you die.  And that wasn't an option for him. The stumps that had once been saved from frostbite where bleeding to the bone and his fingers were turning black and icy. But that proactive trait kept him going. He kept his cool. The pain throbbing through his body he fought on. Finally he made it down.

Mark Inglis is brave and determined he strive to live life to its best.He is is not the kind of person who gets agitated easily. He is very dedicated to having the best attitude that he can have, “attitude determines your altitude”. He now travels around giving speeches about his journey to greatness. So everyone else can learn and aspire to seek out challenges and find ways to make life your adventure.

By Kaia Joergensen

‘The best way to predict the future is to create it’ Peter Ducker.

This is like armchair activism. This quote means not to sit on your armchair watching the thing you want to become, get out there and train for it. That’s what you would do if you wanted to become a professional rugby player. Train train and train. Ben Atkinson showed that when he saw Ben Campbell Live Episode he was inspired to end Christchurch poverty. Ben Atkinson started 'Fill Their Lunchbox' after seeing kids with empty lunch-boxes. Ben Atkinson was a chef at Joe’s Garage and he grabbed a few people who were rehabilitating to work for him.

‘The comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there’ Unknown.

This quote means that everyone does like their comfort zone and they feel embarrassed if they jump out of it, but your dream is unlikely to come true if you don’t take a step out of your comfort zone. Just belive in yourself. But if you take that leap out you will go further in life then if you just stay in your comfort zone feeling safe. You do feel really safe in there and you know nothing will happen to you, but if you stay in there you might become a much different person than you want to become.

By Joe Flynn


Habit 3: Put First Things First:

‘Put first things first and second things are thrown in. Put second things first and you’ll lose both first and second things.’ - C.S.Lewis

What this quote really means is that you will always succeed if you put first things first and leave the second things to when you have finished the first things. ‘Put second things first and you'll lose both first and second things’ what Lewis is saying is that if you put second things first and first things second is that you are bound to fail both things. So it is always good to do the hard things first and the fun stuff of your choice second in order to succeed in both. And if you put the fun things first you will most likely fail both.

Set priorities for your goals in life. A major part of success living lies in the ability to put first things first. Indeed, the reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.’ - Robert J.Mckain

What Robert is telling us is that we must prioritize our goals in live. ‘A major part of success living lies in the ability to put first things first’ means that a major part of success is to be able to put first things first. ‘Indeed, the reason most major goals are not achieved is what we spend our time doing second things first’ what this means is when you set goals and they are not achieved this is mainly because you have delayed work on it to do a more fun thing first.

This habit will affect the people around you because if you are focused on what is important then you could support others and they will then be able get things done and be more successful. When you use this habit it will help with organising your life and you will do better when it comes to completing tasks and achieving goals.

By Hannah Smith