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.”