Kauri Whānau: Celebration Assembly

 Kia ora everyone,

As it was wet today, we held our celebration assembly inside with just our Year 7 & 8 team.  We acknowledged our bronze, silver and gold leadership recipients and presented sports cups. Below are photos taken from the presentations.

Bronze Leadership Recipients

Silver Leadership Recipients

Gold Leadership Recipients

Swimming Cups

Athletics Cups

Cross Country Cups

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 4 Week 1

 In this post:

Relationships and Sexuality Education

Parent help

Cantamath canceled

Sunhats and masks

Year 8 photos

Relationships and Sexuality Education

Many thanks to everyone who has indicated they will be coming to the Relationships and Sexuality Education parent meeting this this evening (Thursday) in our hub. If you intend to attend and have not let us know yet, please fill in this form. Lessons will start next Wednesday.

Parent Help

Many thanks to the parents who will be helping with our passions programme this term. I am also keen to have a helper or two to join our 'Sustainable Gifts' passion. This will involve supervising a small group in a making activity each Friday afternoon. Even if you could just make some Fridays, that would make a difference.  Please fill in this form if you can help.

During this term we have two events planned where we will require parent help, Top Team on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 16th, and a trip to Corsair Bay on Thursday, December 9th. If you can help with either of these events, please complete this form.

Over the past six or so years we have had a Year 8 pool and pizza party in the last week of term, from 4 - 6pm. In the past, this has been hosted by a teacher or a parent at their homes. We would love this tradition to continue. We organise the pizza and provide supervision, however, none of us live at a property suitable for hosting such a gathering this year. If you think you could host such an event or if you have a good idea for an alternative, please email Nicky.

Cantamath

We received an email from the Cantamath organisers yesterday to say that despite exploring many possible options they are unable to go ahead this term. There were a large number of outstanding projects that we were going to send through to Cantamath. These are in Pukaki and will need to go home, some via car - looking at their size. 

Sunhats and masks

It was fabulous to see a huge number of our team prepared with masks for the tech bus on Tuesday. Please keep checking that these are packed for all Year 7 & 8s on Tuesday mornings.

We have a small number of children who are yet to bring a sunhat to school. This makes things really tricky for breaktimes and PE. We realise that Year 8s may not want to purchase a red hat if theirs is missing. Any fully brimmed sunhat will suffice.

Year 8 Photos

Many thanks to those who have already sent me a photo of your Year 8 as a 5 year old. If you have yet to do this,  can you please email me (nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz) a photo of your child when they started school. This can either be an 'at / going to school' photo or any photo of them as a 5-year-old. If you cannot email a photo, please send in the hard copy next week and I will scan and return it the same day. I'd love these pics ASAP.

Kauri Whānau: Year 8 Yearbook

 Kia ora,

No doubt you are finding it hard to believe that your Year 8 youngster has only 8 and a half weeks of primary / intermediate education left! As part of our farewell, we put together a yearbook with photos and memories for the Year 8s to treasure. To do this we need your help.

1. Can you please email me (nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz) a photo of your child when they started school. This can either be an 'at / going to school' photo or any photo of them as a 5-year-old. If you cannot email a photo, please send in the hard copy next week and I will scan and return it the same day. I'd love these pics ASAP.

2. Talk with your child about the memory they might write about (a Beckenham memory from the past 8 years) at school next week. They also need to choose a friend and a teacher who they would like to write a memory about them.

Ngā mihi

Nicky Dunlop

Kauri Whānau: End of Term 3

 In this post:

• Celebrating our Year 8s
• Sexuality and relationships education 
• Zone speech competition
• Athletics

Celebrating our Year 8s

Some years ago, we changed the name of our Year 8 end-of-year formal event from 'Year 8 Prizegiving' to "Year 8 Graduation'. The intent behind that was to make more of a celebration of every Year 8 student who was leaving the school. To some extent, we have achieved this and we would like to make some further changes to support this graduation being about all of our Year 8s and the end of their primary schooling.

Another factor in the change is that the graduation ceremony has grown in size, as our numbers in Years 7/8 have increased over the past few years, leading to a ceremony that seems to be getting longer with each passing year.

To that end, we are going to remove the 'prizegiving' part of the programme from the Year 8 Graduation, and, for this year, spread the acknowledgment of Year 8 prizes through a series of whole-school Celebration Assemblies that we plan to hold weekly through Term 4. The prizes and awards that are given out will be the same, it will just be the timing that changes. 

If your child is going to be getting a prize or award, you will be notified in advance, so that you will be able to attend if you would like to (subject to us being at Alert Level 1).

Sexuality and Relationships Education

Next term, starting in week 3 we will be teaching our health unit on sexuality and relationships education. On Thursday October 21st, we will be having a parent information evening, starting at 7pm in our hub. 

Zone Speech Competition

Zoe and Lola represented our kura extremely well at South Zone Speech Competition on Monday evening. They both spoke superbly and their speeches were very well received. Congratulations to Zoe who was placed second.

Athletics

Our athletic sports will be held on Thursday October 28th, from 9 until 3. If you are able to help, even for part of the day, please email Jenny.