Week 8 Update

Attitude Presentation: On Friday afternoon, Year 7 & 8 spent almost 90 minutes learning about the X-Factor; how to be a great friend. We learnt that being friendly will have a huge impact on our success in life. James held us in the palm of his hand, made us laugh (lots!) and gave us some invaluable advice on what we should and shouldn't do when it comes to friendship.
'To wish you were someone else or to pretend you are someone else is to waste the person that you are.'

Class Photos: These are happening on Monday. Please make sure you come to school sparkling in your tidiest uniform!

Good Luck: On Wednesday eight Year 8 students will represent Beckenham at the Blue Light Canterbury Schools PCT Competition. This is where teams of Year 7 & 8 students compete against each other as they challenge themselves on the same test the police must undertake as part of their training. James, Jacob, Teille, Emily, Jack M, Jimmy, Naquita and Briana, we know you will give of your best and make Beckenham proud.

Swimming Zones: Well done to all those who competed at the Zone Swimming Sports on Thursday. All the best to those who have now qualified for the Canterbury Swimming Sports.

Year 8 Leadership Camp: Thank you for getting all forms back. Keep an eye out for another notice early in Week 8.

Writer's Workshop: This coming Thursday and Friday, ten children will  be working with Elizabeth O'Connor, a fiction/scripting expert, to write a script suitable for a radio play. We look forward to hearing what they create. This workshop has been offered to some of our talented writers, unfortunately we were limited to just 10 children. 

Sausage Sizzle: Take a break from making sandwiches on Friday, we will be selling sausages for lunch to raise money for our Year 8 Leadership Camp. We hope you can support this fund-raising.

Many Thanks to the six mums who have spent two afternoons putting together spelling resources to be used in our Year 7 & 8 classes. We very much appreciated your time and look forward to using the cards in our spelling programmes. 

Duathlon: Look out for duathlon entry forms in Week 8. This event takes place on April 5th. We investigated  the possibility of having the cycle section on the road, so that we could run a full length event. Unfortunately the cost of setting up the safety systems required was way beyond our budget, so the event will take place on and around Beckenham Park. 


 

Week 7 Update

What a fabulous Purple Cupcake day we had today. A huge thanks to the Student Council, Mrs Inwood and all the people who baked cupcakes.This was an idea that came from the children, was developed by the children and carried out with style and oodles of fun.... and heaps of money was raised for children who are a lot less fortunate than we are!

J-Rock: Classes are about to leap into creating a dance presentation for J-Rock, a junior stage challenge that is performed in the second week of next term. Our presentation will be based around the learning we have done as part of our 'Sharpen the Saw' health topic. Each class will portray a different aspect: heart, body, mind and soul. We are looking for a parent with wood-work and basic electronics skills to construct a large prop that will be an integral part of our performance. Please contact your child's teacher if you are able to help us with this.

Leadership Camp: Please make sure that permission slips for the Year 8 Leadership Camp are in ASAP.Thanks to all those who have already returned these.

Sport: We have had our first session of gym, lawn bowls and mountain biking. Feedback has been very positive. This programme continues until the end of term on a Tuesday afternoon. Shorts are needed for gym and bikes and helmets for mountain biking.

Swimming Sports: What a fabulous swimming sports we had today. Well done to all those who made the effort to take part. A special thanks to the Year 7 and 8s who helped the event to run smoothly: the photographers, the head catchers, number runners and supporters.

Next week Mr Rodger will let students know who has qualified for the zone sports. These are being held on Thursday March 14th.

Leadership Week: Week 9 this term is a special leadership week for Year 7 & 8. On Monday the Year 7s have a leadership day and on the Wednesday and Thursday Year 8s have their leadership camp. A letter and permission for will come home on Monday. Please fill this out and return it by Friday March 8th.

Purple Day: The Student Council are running a Purple Cake Day this Friday to help kids in Haiti, Nepal and Kenya. There will be face painting and nail polish (each 50c), you can come dressed in purple mufti (gold coin donation), buy some delicious purple cupcakes ($1) or bake your very own cupcakes and donate these!

Nails: Speaking of nail polish. We are about to crack down on painted nails at school. Each teacher will have nail polish remover and people coming to school with painted nails will be asked to remove the polish. Please remind your daughters to make sure they come to school with 'nude nails'!

Sport: Mountain biking, bowls and gymnastics start this Tuesday. Children will find out about their option on Monday. They need to come prepared for action the next day.

Football: We also have our football programme starting this week on Thursday. Every class will spend 30 minutes with a football specialist, each Thursday for the next 5 weeks.

Mathletics: All Mathletics children now have their log in details. We have had a couple of problems which were quickly rectified once we knew about them. Please let us know ASAP if your child cannot log in.




 

Week 5 Update

Today we took time to remember Feb 22nd 2011. After 2 minutes of silence, Henry played 'Amazing Grace' on his bagpipes, a lovely (and very moving) way to send us off down to the river, to drop our flowers in remembrance of those who died 2 years ago. It was great to have so many parents and members of the community with us. Many thanks to Henry and to the parents who provided extra flowers.

Mathletics is go! In the last couple of days your child should have come home with their password and a parent information sheet, if they signed up for Mathletics home learning. If this hasn't happened, ask them to check in with their maths teacher. Any problems or queries, please email your child's maths teacher.

ICAS: Notices went home this week with children interested in sitting ICAS tests. If you didn't see this notice, class teachers have a supply. Please return filled in reply slips to the office ASAP, closing date is March 28.

Elwing Voyages: Last year we offered our Year 7 students the opportunity to be selected to go on a leadership voyage with Elwing Discoveries, a sailing ship  based in Bluff. Jess Lange took up the opportunity and had a fabulous time, during the first week of this term. We received glowing feedback from Elwing about Jess's contribution to the voyage. The school partially subsided this trip and we plan to do the same next year. Watch out for details in term 4.

Swimming Sports: This event takes place on Friday at Jelly Park. Children have opted to take part. Please make sure permission forms are returned to class teachers on Monday.

Sharpen the Saw: We have finished our Life Education visits and the children have gained valuable knowledge on how the food choices they make impact their well being. Next we move on to look at physical exercise choices and how we can improve our fitness. Please make sure your child brings shoes suitable for running on Thursday.

Library: This coming week it is the turn of Room 18 and 19 to visit the South Library on Thursday. Please make sure your child packs their library card.

Check out the photo gallery for pics of today's 'River of Flowers'

Week 4 Update

Home Learning: It was wonderful to see the huge number of children who remembered to hand in home learning books and maths home learning today. If your child is one of the few who forgot, please make sure they pack it to hand in on Monday. The last Science Badges Sheets and Action English books arrived today. I have just rung the Mathletics people, they are about to process our school, so we should be up and running with this in a few days.  If your child is missing something for home learning, please contact their teacher. We would love to hear some feedback on how our new home learning system is working for your child, please click on the comment tab below.

Leadership: We have now allocated all leadership positions and training is underway. Badges for Student Council, House Captain and Pride Ambassadors will be presented in PRIDE assembly later this term.
Our Student Council Exec for 2013 is:

• Chairperson: Leni Frampton
• Secretary: Niamh Menzies
• Treasurer: Andrew Proud

Our House Captains for 2013 are:

• Fisher: Thomas Flynn & Justine Bennett 
• Heathcote: Jack McMecking & Sabine Grey
• Waimea: Jimmy King & Teille Gaines
• Tennyson: Jacob Budgen & Briana Steven

Library: Room 18 and 19 had a successful trip to the South Library on Wednesday. Room 16 and 17 need to remember their library cards this coming Wednesday, 20th.

Reading and Maths Tutor: If your child needs some extra help with reading or maths and you are looking for a tutor, contact Kay Harris 3323912 or 0273800050. Kaye is a primary teacher who is taking a year away from the classroom. I know Kaye and highly recommend her.

Life Education: We started our Life Education visits this week. Try asking your child how many servings of: vegetables, fruit, rice - cereal - pasta, meat /or meat replacement and milk products we should be eating each day. The first visit was information and activity packed, we are looking forward to the next two sessions.

 

Week 3 Update

Passion Friday got underway today. The Enviro-Busters checked out the school gardens and dreamt of what could be, Around the World shared their personal travel experiences and explored their NZ mapping knowledge, Drama Workshop ... I'm not sure, but it was bound to be creative and full of laughs(!) and ICT Workshop became members of Edmodo, learnt about Sweet Home via video tutorials and designed homes of the future.



ICT Workshop designing houses using 'sweet home' software.

 

Library: As our school library builds it's resources up we are going to visit the Christchurch South Library once a fortnight. In our first visit a librarian will talk with the children about what their service offers, then the children will be able to browse and borrow books. Children need to remember to bring their library cards to school on Wednesdays. This week (Feb 13) rooms 18 and 19 will visit and next week will be the turn of rooms 16 and 17 (Feb 20).

If your child is not a member of the library, you can join them up at your nearest library. The library in our school community is South Library on Colombo Street and the opening hours are 9am-7pm on weekdays and 10am-4pm on Sundays. You can locate your nearest library at www.christchurchcitylibraries.com. To join up your child, you will need to take two forms of identification with you and a letter you have received within the last month, for example, a bank statement or power bill. If you have any questions before you go, you can phone 941-7923.

Our maths interchange classes are underway for the year. We will be observing the children closely over the next week and expect there will be some reshuffling by week 4, to ensure children's needs are being well targeted.

Life Education visits start for our team this week. The focus is 'WOF', looking at nutrients in foods and how they help the body, 'energy in - energy out' and body image. This ties in nicely with our 'Sharpen the Saw' theme for the term which most classes are about to launch into.

Technology is underway, check out the tab above for a message from South Intermediate.

Leadership positions were announced today, Friday. We were impressed by the number of positions children applied for. Most children got 2 or 3 positions, a few got 4. There will also be points given for choir, te whanau and band. Every term there will be bonus jobs that children can do to earn extra points.

Week 2 Update

We have had a great start to the year in Year 7 & 8. I think learning conferences played a big part in this. Thank you for prioritising these meetings and for the contributions you made.

Home Learning: This afternoon I have ordered maths and science badges, literacy workbooks and started the Mathletics enrolment ball rolling. It will take a few days for these things to arrive at school. If your child has opted for one of these programmes, they should be ready to go by the start of week 3. Home learning books with contracts inside and maths home learning clear-files should come home on Monday. The first day the home learning books are due back at school by Friday Feb 15.

Technology: This gets underway on Tuesday.Children need to take; pencil cases, sun-hats and morning tea. They can bring money to spend at the tuck shop.

Languages: These start on Monday of week 3. Cashmere has just contacted us to say that Japanese will be replaced by Spanish this year. The other language is French.

Sun-hats: These are compulsory from Monday. They are available for purchase at the school office before or after school.

Leadership Positions: We have been flooded with applications. Children will know positions by the end of week 2.

Books for the library: Barrington Paper plus is the place to visit if you would like to purchase a book to donate to our library, at 30% off the full price.