Dunedin photo book order link now working.

Jolly heck, sorry about the link to the Dunedin photo book order form that I sent out this morning. I have now fixed the settings and it should be good to go...

Click here to order your photo book.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 2 Week 5

Thanks for your support with our comedy evening fundraiser. The evening was a roaring success, full of hilarity and good times. Many thanks to Leigh for overseeing the event and to everyone who donated, baked and helped out on the night. We raised $3300! $2000 of this goes towards camp and $1300 towards our ski trip next term.

We are now taking orders for our Dunedin camp photo book. This will cost $25 and payment will be required before June 8th. Please click here to order your copy.

Treaty of Waitangi Workshops:

We are learning so much from Sharon in our treaty workshops. Last week we learnt about some laws that were passed after the treaty was signed and the history of Parihaka. We also learnt a couple of fun games, practising our Te Reo Maori. We finish off with two more workshops this week. 

40 Hour Famine:

We're less than two weeks away from Famine Weekend. By now, students will hopefully have already gathered some sponsorship and will be looking to collect a few more sponsors before their weekend of going without. Roughly 3.7 million people have been forced to seek refuge from the civil war raging in South Sudan, many of whom are children forced to flee without their parents. The conflict has had a major impact on food resources, with 50% of crops destroyed and wartime conditions causing food prices to skyrocket. Any support is greatly appreciated!
If you haven't already been approached for sponsorship by a student, Beckenham has its own fundraising page here - https://my.worldvision.org.nz/fundraising/support-someone/1c71bff9-6137-4ea2-9364-ae3e29ea01a9 . If your child is taking part in the Famine Weekend, we thank you in advance for your support.

Congratulations:

Well done to Maria, who has qualified for the national aerobic gymnastics competition in Tauranga later this year. Maria scored an outstanding result in the regional competition in Balclutha last weekend.

A brisk morning turned into a beautiful autumn day out at Halswell Quarry last week for our zone cross country event. Our competitors embraced the challenge of a muddy course, covering three km in their two laps of the park. As usual, our zone brought a high level of competition that encouraged our runners to push their limits. The tamariki showed our kete value ‘We get there together’, sometimes quite literally, by crossing the finish holding hands but also by encouraging and supporting others in their race.

A huge congratulations to all our runners. We noticed fantastic dedication by many tamariki in preparation for this event and this commitment to training showed during the race.

The following children have qualified for Canterbury’s on the 20th of June, which uses the same course at Halswell Quarry.

• Roxy Murphin (4th equal)
• Sophia Brown (4th equal)
• Charlotte Grey (6th)
• Tilly Harris (3rd)

Passions:

Thursday afternoons are a real highlight in our hub. The children have opted to learn about one of the following: coding, theatre sports, volleyball, following their own passion, felt making and working with younger children. Below are some photos of wet felting last week.

Comedy Night, last chance!

A big thanks to everyone who has brought Comedy Night tickets for tomorrow night. We have not sent any tickets home; these will be collected when you arrive at 7pm. Please bring money for drinks (we plan to have eftpos operating). Also bring loose change for our hamper raffles. We should be wrapped up by 9:30, so you can get home for the royal wedding.

If you have yet to book a ticket, we have a few left. Click this link.

Kauri Whānau: Weekly Update Term 2 Week 3

This week we welcome Sharon Tipene to our hub. Sharon will be working with our children to learn about the Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand history, over the next three weeks. Each home-group will spend six 90 minute sessions with Sharon.

We are now building time into our classroom programme each week for the children to work towards their kete badges. These were introduced at learning conferences at the start of the year. It would be good to talk with your child about what they have planned to do and which badge they are working towards. It is optional to continue working this at home.

Comedy Evening:

Many thanks to those who have purchased tickets and offered to help with our Comedy Evening on Saturday. We now have 33 tickets left to sell. A final promote and purchase would be really appreciated.  We have sent home flyers to those who can advertise at work today. If you have offered a hamper item, please send it along to school tomorrow. We have a box for collection on the spotty table. If you offered to make a supper plate, please check the instructions that Leigh emailed through today.
Still to book your ticket? Click here now.

Cubby Holes:

We've had a few instances of things moving around in the cubby holes outside the hub. If you see anything come home that doesn't belong to your child can you please let us know - we've had a sketchbook and drawing implements misplaced and the student who they belong to would really like them back!

It's a good idea for students to bring their lunch boxes inside at the start of the day and keep anything special in their bucket as only one set of cubby holes is easily visible from inside the hub.

Winter Sport:

At last we are underway with winter sport this Friday. A huge thanks goes out to Jenny for her many hours of work to coordinate and prepare the teams, and also to those parents who will be giving their time to support teams. Without you our children would miss out on this opportunity. On Friday your child needs to come to school with their sport uniform, drink bottle, asthma inhaler, boots, mouthguard and shin pads, as appropriate.

Ski Trip

Many thanks to those who have offered to come on our ski trip. We now have plenty of helpers.

High School News:

Cashmere High School Open Day is on Tuesday May 22 from 4-6pm

Christchurch Steiner School Open Day is on Thursday May 24 from 9am - 3pm

Kauri Whānau: Weekly Update Term 2 Week 2

Comedy Evening:

We need everyone to click on this link to indicate how you can support the Comedy Night. This is our last major camp fundraiser and could also provide some funds towards ski trip next term.

Self Defence:

Our Year 8 girls have started their 5 week self defence course. They are working with Lynda Maindonald from Self Defence NZ. This is a programme that our Year 8 girls have been involved in for a number of years. Past feedback has been extremely positive, and no doubt the girls are practising their moves and responses on you at home already!

Sport:

The inaugural whole school cross country event is this Thursday. Our team will be the first to run, with the event starting at 1:40. Following their race the Year 7 & 8s will be supporting our younger tamariki. They may wear their house t-shirt on this day.

Winter sport starts next Friday. Information can be found in last week's school newsletter. Those not travelling to Hagley Park will be involved in a sports programme at school. If you have any shin guards or football boots that your whanau have out grown or no longer require, please consider donating them to the school for children who don't have their own gear to borrow.

Basketball games get underway this week. On Friday we have the zone competition at Hillview in class time. If your child is involved in this you would have already received information. We are still looking for a couple of cars to call on for transport if it is raining. Please email Jenny if you can help. Pioneer competition starts next week. The draw for the first three weeks of competition will be emailed to you within the next day. Next week our Monday teams play each other at 5:30pm and our Friday team plays at 4pm.

40 Hour Famine:

Last week our famine leaders spend a day with World Vision, learning about the 40 Hour Famine and how they can support and encourage tamariki at school. Famine packs have been sent home with those who are interested and permission forms need to be returned to Hannah this week. If you have any questions about the famine, either check out this website, or contact Hannah.

Leadership Awards:

At our assembly this Friday, starting at 11:00, we will be awarding bronze and silver leadership awards to the following children. You are most welcome to attend.
Bronze: Jordy, Kate and Lucy
Silver: Gabriel, Joel K, Marlonique, Tilly, Rekha, Thom and Constantin

Kete Programme:

We are excited that our first Kete Badge has been earned and will be presented in assembly on Friday. A big congratulations to Lucy. We are currently looking at offering more support and encouragement to work towards these badges. It will be an expectation that all children are working towards a badge. Each Monday they will have 35 minutes of class time to focus on this, as well as 45 mins of self directed learning time on a Friday, when this can be a priority. Of course giving some time to this at home will result in more speedy progress.

Sleep Programme:

Over the next few weeks our classes will be taking part in Yes, I can! Sleep. This is a learning unit based around sleep and finding ways to improve your own sleep. Research has shown that as little as 10 minutes of lost sleep a night can lead to symptoms similar to ADHD. Our school is doing this unit in partnership with the University of Canterbury to try to improve the duration and quality of children’s sleep. We would like to equip children with the knowledge and skills required to make positive changes to their own sleep.       

The tamariki will have the opportunity to learn about sleep. They will conduct their own research and present their information in unique ways. Together we will learn about the benefits of sleep and positive sleep hygiene. Tamariki will then be given the opportunity to monitor both the duration and quality of their sleep. They will be given a clock to put near their bed so that they can track the duration of their sleep. During this time, we encourage you to talk to your child about sleep and support them if they would lie to make small changes to their sleep environment and routines.

If you would like sleep support or to share your own knowledge on sleep, please join the parent Facebook group….

Yes, I can! Parent Page

Ski trip helpers:

Our next big outdoor education experience is our ski trip on Thursday August 9th, next term. We will have a very early start this day, with buses leaving school at 6:30am. At this stage we need offers of adult help, both on the snow skiing and around the base lodge and beginners slope, on foot. If you are willing to help, please fill in this form.

High Schools Info:

Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School

OPEN DAY  on May  24^th. We have only 5 places for students in our Year 9 class next year, so if any are interested, this is a  perfect opportunity for them to see our school in action, watch what  students do and even interact with potential class mates for 2019.