Wednesday 31 July 2019

Bakery open at lunchtime tomorrow, Thursday

The Year 7 & 8 small business group will be setting up their bakery and opening at lunchtime tomorrow, 12:40. All items are being sold for $1. All profits are going to charity. Your child can purchase cookies, cupcakes, donuts and rice-bubble slice. Many thanks for your support.


Monday 29 July 2019

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 2

It was lovely to see everyone back at school last week. We missed Megan, who is still getting her life sorted and recovering from her ordeal with the gas explosion over a week ago. We may see her back at school towards the end of week 2, or it may take a bit longer. Fortunately, we have been able to have a consistent relieving teacher, Leanne, to fill in for Megan.

Many thanks to those of you who took the time to fill in the parent survey that was shared last week. We have pulled a number of things to work on from the survey results. If you would still like to fill in this survey, please click this link.

Wainui Camp Book:

Over 40 people have ordered Wainui camp books and those who have paid should have received these. We will be putting a second order in this coming Wednesday, 31st July. If you would still like to order a camp photo book, please click on this link and arrange payment by Wednesday.

Home Learning:

We have set up a calendar that all students have access to via Google Classroom. This calendar will include due dates for work this term (these will be put on this week and updated as the term progresses). It will be important that children check this calendar each week and ensure work is up to date. This may mean completing tasks at home.  We will be following up on incompleted work at school.

Current home learning is working on Canatmath individual projects and spending time on Maths Whizz, as well as daily recreational reading.

Common Sense Media

We'd like to draw this very useful website to your attention. Common Sense Media is a great place to check out the age-appropriateness of books, movies, and games.

What's coming up in term 3 for Year 7 & 8?


  • Literacy: Speech researching and writing will be our focus for the first part of the term.
  • Maths: We are currently working on class Cantamath projects. By week 4 we will be back into our regular problem solving with a focus on algebra to start with. There will be a slight reshuffle of maths groups.
  • Science: This term we are focusing on the Living World strand of science. We are starting with learning about classifying living things. 
  • Inquiry: Our technology and social studies focus will be investigating self-driven cars. As part of this inquiry, we are hoping to take students on a field trip. 
  • PE: We will be finishing off our football unit (a focus last term) with a football festival. Korfball, yoga, ski day, Koru Games and athletics are planned for this term. Friday winter sport continues until August 23rd. 
  • Health: Towards the end of term we will be teaching the DARE (drug abuse resistance education) programme. Every week we have circle time discussions on Friday mornings. These focus on current issues for the children. We are currently learning about being assertive.
  • The Arts: We start working on our end of year production very soon. This year we will be sharing a selection of well know musical theatre items.
Thursday, August 1st: Zone winter sport tournament. Bakery sale at lunch, items $1 each.
Friday, August 2nd: ICAS payments due (register your child here)
Thursday, August 8th: Peer mediator big day out
Friday, August 9th: Cantamath individual projects due.
Monday, August 12th: Teacher Only Day
Wednesday, August 28th: Cantamath trip in the morning. Team competition after school.
Monday, September 2nd: Speeches will be presented this week.
Tuesday, September 3rd: ICAS Digital Technologies test
Thursday, September 5th: ICAS Science test
Friday, September 6th: Mt Hutt Ski Day
Monday, September 9th: Hub speech final. DARE programme starts
Tuesday, September 10th: Cashmere High School Year 8 testing 
Monday, September 16th: ICAS English test
Tuesday, September 17th: Koru Games day 1. This will involve about 30 children.
Wednesday, September 18th: Koru Games day 2
Thursday, September 19th: Koru Games day 3
Friday, September 20th: ICAS Maths test. Sir Peter Blake leadership award will be presented at assembly.
Monday, September 23rd: Zone speech competition in the evening. 




Tuesday 23 July 2019

Open Night this Thursday: Year 7 & 8 at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto



We are looking forward to seeing our Year 6 whānau this Thursday evening, July 25th. 

ICAS Assessments


As you may have already seen in a previous newsletter, the University of New South Wales is offering your child to take part in the ICAS assessment programme.

ICAS is an independent, skills-based assessment program which recognises and rewards student achievement. Students compete against other students from all around the world. ICAS is unique, being the most comprehensive generally available suite of academic assessments for primary and secondary school students, and give students the opportunity to compete against students from all around the world.

Entries are administered by the school. For further information, please consult the ICAS website - https://www.eaa.unsw.edu.au/icas/about. Each participant will receive a certificate and a detailed report of their performance.

This year, we are offering the Digital Technologies, Science, English, and Maths assessments.

Each assessment costs $15.00 per assessment to enter (please note that this has increased from previous years, due to the transition from paper-based assessments to an online test). Payment for these competition fees will need to be paid in full by Friday 2 August 2019. You can pay with EFTPOS at the school office or online school's bank account (ASB 12-3148-0131641-000) with the reference ‘ICAS’ and child’s name as the code.

If you wish to enter your child, please fill in this form.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Hannah via email - hannah.elliott@beckenham.school.nz.

Friday 19 July 2019

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 0

Kia ora everyone and we hope you have had a great couple of weeks. Here are some brief reminders for the start of term 3.

If your child is signed up for BYOD, please remind them to bring their device to school every day.

Every child needs to have headphones or ear-buds (named) at school.

In the first three weeks of term, children will be working on a Cantamath project at home. This is due on Friday August 9th. There is a slideshow on Google Classroom that we shared with the children on the last day of term 2. This has heaps of ideas and the guidelines for each project. We will be handing out instruction sheets on Monday.

If your child is interested in competing in the Primary Schools Ski Competition on 18th of August this year at Mount Cheeseman, please email Jenny.

You may see Megan on the News tonight. Her house neighbours the property in Northwood that exploded today. Her husband, Brad, was one of the first responders. As you can imagine, this has turned their life upside down. They are unable to return to their house at present. We may see Megan on Monday, or we may have a reliever. We have sent her our love, best wishes and offers of support.

Enjoy the weekend and stay cosy. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday.




Monday 8 July 2019

Last chance for Camp Book order and payment

Last chance to order a camp book:

4pm today is the cut off time for Wainui camp book orders. All details on this form. A number of people have ordered, but still need to transfer payment.

A project for the holidays:

On Friday we shared ideas for Cantamath projects. This will be a home learning activity for everyone in the first three weeks of term 3 however, some children may like to get underway with this over the holidays. The slideshow that was shared with the children on Friday can be accessed by them via Kauri Google Classroom.

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Kauri Whanāu: Camp Photo Book

We have finally finished the 2019 Wainui Camp photo book. This is a 26 page hard covered book filled with photos and descriptive writing from our camp at the end of term 1.

A quarter of our children have written descriptive pieces that are included in the book: Eva, Gemma, Kate, Millie G, Millie J, Tessa, Ruby M, Paolo, Maddi, Charlotte Grey, Abby C, Lucy, Isla, Olivia K, Florence, Mia, Holly, Charlotte T, Daniel C, Freddie, Ben E, Ruby L, Joel, Meg, Emma, Ella C, Sumaiyah and Arran.

If you would like to order a photo book, you need to do two things.
A) Fill in this form.
B) Pay $30 either into the school account (Bank number, 12-3148-0131641-00, reference Camp book) or at the school office.

I will be placing the order on Monday, July 8th. Orders will be placed for those who have paid before 4pm on that date.