Kauri Whānau: Final Wainui Camp Reminders

 Only two more sleeps and we are off to Wainui! Below are our final key reminders.

Camp is nut free! Please make sure there are no nuts in any baking.

Be at school at 8am:

1. Gear on buses (Eastern Tce)
2. Food donations and pre-prepared meals to the maker-space
3. Hand medications in labelled zip-lock bags to home-group teachers. Children with inhalers keep these
4. Go to homegroups with day-pack, ready to show teachers; raincoat, sunhat, sunscreen, lunch, water bottle

Be prepared:

• 2 sunhats if possible (a spare in case one goes missing)
• Raincoat - rain is forecast on Thursday and activities outside will go ahead
• Old lace-up shoes for water activities
• A book and a small game 
• Plenty of thermal clothing
• If sleeping bag is thin, bring an extra blanket
• And everything else that is on the gear list!
• Get plenty of sleep over the weekend
• Our first activity is tramp to camp, so be dressed for this on Monday

Don't bring:

• Sweets, bags of chips etc - we have plenty of food and with such a full programme do not want mid-night feasts planned, as sleep is so important.
• Any technology. Children can use our phones to call home if needed. If your child needs to bring a phone, then make sure you have communicated with their home-group teacher about this. 

Emergency contact:

If you need to get hold of us during the week, call Nicky on 0276229403

Transport:

We have made some changes to the transport arrangements that we explained to the children on Friday. See below for the updated plan.

Kauri Whānau: after school safety message

Today after school a group of children from our hub were playing at the rope swing along the river. A man in a car approached the group, took a photo and started following them. Three of the children ran to school to let us know and also took a photo of the car's licence plate. This was exactly the right thing to do. Tracy then accompanied them some distance from school and sent them off in groups to go home. The incident has been reported to the police. This is a timely reminder that children need to go home and touch base with whānau straight after school so you know where they are and what they are doing. 

Year 5-8 Swimming Sports: Change of time and final reminders

 This message is only for whānau with children at swimming sports.

Swimming Start Time and Reminders for Tomorrow

There is a chance that we will be able to have access to the pool earlier than initially indicated. If we can use this time, we will. Therefore, please be advised that we may be able to access the pool from 12:30 and start very soon after. 

If you are a parent help for this event please arrive at 12:30 if you are able. 

Reminders

• Togs should be on under the children's school uniform.
• Any children with personal medication such as inhalers should have these with them poolside.
• Children need a towel, water bottle and enough lunch to have an afternoon snack on poolside, and underwear to change into after the event.
• If you want to take your child home after the event, please sign them out with Jo. 

Kauri Whānau Wainui Camp: Social Story

 Kia ora everyone,

Camp is now just around the corner. Today the children saw which activities they will be doing on camp. We have also shared the camp social story, which is below, with the children. It would be great to view this again at home. We are very close to being able to share bunkroom groups. All children should now have a paper copy of their gear list at home. Please email your child's homegroup teacher if you need help sourcing anything on the gearlist.

Year 5-8 Swimming Sports Info

 This post is just for whānau with children involved in swimming sports.

Kia ora koutou,

Swimming Sports is this Thursday afternoon at Wharenui Pool. 

All children attending Swimming Sports will be having an early lunch at school on Thursday before boarding the bus at 12.15. In addition to our competitors, we have a few of our House Captains and deputy house Captains attending Swimming Sports to assist with the running of the event. There will be a Beckenham School staff member onboard each bus to supervise the children. 

• Children should go to swimming sports with their swimmers on underneath their school uniform. There is no time to get changed when we arrive at the pool. 
• Please ensure that your child has a packed lunch, a water bottle and a towel. 
• Children who carry personal medication, such as inhalers should have these on them. 
• We welcome you to join us and support our swimmers. We will have a space for spectators opposite the children, who will be sitting in house groups on the bleachers. To support us in running this event, we ask that you stay on the side allocated for spectators.  
• Should you wish to collect your child from Wharenui Pool, you must sign out your child with a Beckenham teacher. All other children will return to Sandwich Road by bus. We expect to be back by 3pm. 

We will start with freestyle, followed by backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and then the medley. The 25 m races will be done before the 50 m races. We will finish with a house relay. All races are straight finals with the exception of a few where the number of entries requires heats. There are also some occasions when multiple races of the same stroke and distance will be occurring at the same time. In this instance, the children will still be judged and placings recorded for their age. 

We are a little shorter on time than we usually are due to the pool not being available earlier. We will aim to be as efficient as we can and if necessary we may need to cancel the medley races if time does not allow. 

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions. 

• Between races, children must stay seated on the bleachers. As they will have had an earlier lunch than what they are used to, they may eat while seated. 
• Children may start in the pool, or may dive from the poolside or the starting blocks. Children who are not confident in performing a shallow dive are advised to start in the water. All backstroke competitors must start in the water. 
• The starting procedure is as follows:

Whistle - enter the pool, step up to the side of the pool or step onto the blocks

“On your marks” - Get into starting position and then stay still

Clap - Swim

• A false start will be indicated by two more claps and the dropping of a rope. Swimmers should then immediately return to the start.  
• If a child gets into difficulty, they should grab onto the lane ropes from where they will be assisted by the lifeguard. 
• Children can stop and stand if they need to (where depth allows). 
• 25 m races are one length, 50 m are two lengths and the medley is three lengths
• Children should do a one-handed turn/finish for freestyle and backstroke and a two-handed turn/finish for breaststroke and butterfly
• No disqualifications will be made.
• On completion of their race, they will be handed a token that represents their placing, which they then take to the recorders. Children should then go back to their seat.
• Children should get changed after their last event and return to the bleachers to cheer on their peers. 

We look forward to seeing many of you there!

Kauri Whānau: Wainui Camp Info

What you need to know:

• We are off to Wainui on Monday, March 1st, until Friday, March 5th.
• Children need to be at school by 8:15am on Monday. We will be back by 3pm on Friday.
• Below is important information about camp cost, gear and food. Please read it carefully and let us know urgently if you need help with any gear for your child.
• We will have a paper gear list for the children to take home on Friday.
• On Monday and Tuesday, we will be sharing a camp social story with the children. This will have information about a wide range of things, including our programme and menu. We will share this with you early next week.
• We are currently busy allocating activities to each child. We hope to be able to give the children their activity groups early next week. 

Camp Cost:

We have set an achievable target of $5000 for fundraising, which will take place after camp. Taking this into consideration, we are requesting your contribution of  $165 per child to cover the costs of camp.  This will be added to your next account. This can be paid on a small weekly payment basis if that better suits your family. Please contact Rachael in accounts if you want to arrange a drip payment.

Camp Gear List (supplied by Wainui)

Please ensure all of the items below are named. Gear needs to be packed into a sturdy bag.

 Warm Sleeping Bag or Bedding

 Fitted sheet

 Pillow

 Pyjamas

 Toiletries: toothbrush, toothpaste, soap,  deodorant (not spray), shampoo etc.

 3 towels

 Tea towel

 Raincoat

 Warm waterproof jacket

 2 warm jerseys

 6 T-shirts

 3 pairs of shorts

 3 pairs of trousers

 Socks and underwear

 Thermals longs and tops

 Swimming togs

 Warm hat / beanie

 Sunscreen

 Sun hat (and a spare if you have one)

 2 pairs of lace up shoes

 If doing coasteering - an old pair of lace-up shoes that can be worn in the water

 If doing raft building or kayaking - water shoes or old lace-ups that can be worn in water

 Gumboots or jandals

 Torch

 Small Backpack

 Water Bottle

 Any Required Medication

 Plastic bags for transporting wet clothes and shoes home

 Lunch for the first day

 A book

Optional Items

 extra clothes, bedding, toiletries, cards, diary, wetsuit, camera etc

Do not bring

 Money or valuables

 Spray deodorant

 Pocket knives

 Sweets or energy drinks (stipulated by Wainui)

 Electronic equipment*

* We would prefer that cell-phones are left at home. As the road is windy, we do not want devices for use on the bus. If you would like to make contact with your child, we can arrange for them to call you on a teacher's phone. If you really want your child to bring their cellphone, please email your child's teacher. We will look after their phone and they can use it in the evening to make contact with you. We will be taking plenty of photos and will aim to put together a photobook after camp.

Camp Food

We will be self-catering at Wainui to help keep costs down and would like your help with the following.

• Jenny and Nicky's homegroup - a bag of fruit (10 -12 portions)
• Caitlin and Megan's homegroup - some baking. We would love to get more nutritious and less sugary baking, lots of oats, etc would be great. We are going totally nut-free on camp, so please avoid putting any nuts in baking.

If you can help by preparing a cottage pie for our first night, please click this link.

We are also in need of freezer space to store food we are purchasing for camp. Please email Nicola if you can help. One more thing we need is a heavy duty camping chilly bin that would keep frozen goods frozen on the way to Wainui. Also contact Nic if you can help.

We are looking for someone who has a contact for cheap fruit and vegetables. Please contact Caitlin if you have a contact.

Kauri Whānau: reminders for tomorrow

 We had an awesome leadership day with Year 7 today. Below are reminders for the next two days of our leadership adventure!

Year 7

Either tomorrow or Friday the Year 7s will have their day as a leader in a junior hub. They need to come prepared with any equipment and materials for their activity. It is great to see that some have already brought what they need to school. Children should go to their homegroups at the start of the day and from there they will be dispersed to where they need to be. 

Year 8

• Please check our last post for the detailed gear list
• Bring bedding and overnight bag into the Nook on arrival at school tomorrow
• Take medication in a labelled bag to home-group teacher
• Remember $2.40 for bus fare, or a metro card
• Thanks for all the food donations! If you are yet to bring yours, please have it tomorrow
• We stay at school all day and night tomorrow. 
• Bring lunch for tomorrow. We have the dinner, breakfast and lunch for Friday sorted
• Any problems, call Nicky on 0276229403

Watch out for another post from me in the weekend with lots of details about Wainui Camp, which is just around the corner!

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 2: Lots of Important Info!

 In this post:

• Swimming sports - parent help request
• Technology and slideshow
• Leadership week messages and slideshow
• Hanmer 4 Hour Mountain Bike Relay
• Tent request
• Photo gallery

Early next week we will put out a post with heaps of information about Wainui Camp.

Swimming Sports

Our swimming sports are on Thursday Feb 25th and we are in need of some parent help. Please check out this form to let us know if you are available.

Technology

Tech starts on Tuesday, Feb 16th.  Children need to be at school by 8:30am every Tuesday in order to catch the bus. They are allowed to bring some loose change to spend at the canteen. Below is the slideshow that we have gone through with the children.

Leadership Week: Feb 15 - 19

What you need to know:

Year 7s:

Wear mufti to school for their leadership day on Wednesday Feb 17.

Year 8s:

Thursday 18th - Friday 19th of Feb: two day leadership camp, with a sleepover at school on Thursday night.

We would like families of Year 8 children to send along food donations, by Wednesday Feb 17, as follows:

• Te Maunga (Nicky's home-group) - a packet of breakfast cereal
• Te Awa and Te Tai (Megan and Jenny's home-groups) - a bag of fruit (6 portions)
• Te Ngahere (Caitlin's home-group) - some baking

The cost per child for attending the Year 8 leadership camp is $25.00. Please pay this at the office as soon as possible. This is a cost that is separate to the school donation, as it involves an overnight camp. We also need the children to bring $2.40 for bus fare (or a Metrocard if they have one), as we are catching the public bus into town.

Gear list: Your child needs to come to school on Thursday dressed in clothes suitable for physical activity, i.e. track pants or shorts, t-shirt, polypro if cold, a warm top and sports shoes, suitable for running. The following needs to be packed in an overnight bag:

• Sleeping bag, pillow and something to sleep on, e.g. sleeping mat, stretcher or lilo (please let us know if you need help sourcing something to sleep on)
• PJs
• Toilet gear
• A face-mask for wearing on the public bus
• A change of clothes for the next day, again suitable for physical activity
• Bus fare: $2.40

These things should be packed in a day pack:

• Packed lunch and refillable drink bottle
• Sunhat
• Waterproof jacket
• Optional: camera, cell phone (these will be collected in)

Please make sure asthmatic children have inhalers with them and that medication is in a labeled bag. This needs to be handed to the home-group teacher as soon as your child arrives at school.

If you need to contact us outside of school hours or on Friday when we are at Spencer Park, please contact Nicky on 0276229403

Hanmer 4 Hour Mountain Bike Relay

We would like to promote the above event to keen mountain bikers. Children compete as a team to complete as many laps of the course as they can in 4 hours. Children 11 years old and younger ride a mellow loop that goes through the Heritage Forest. Children 12 years and older ride an intermediate level track, (it’s worth noting that this course is the same one that adults compete on and so it is a little busier). Whānau are responsible for entries and for supervising children at the event. There are already a number of children entered and we will have a Beckenham te Kura O Pūroto base area set up for all our teams to use. If you enter this event, please let Jenny know so that we can share information and coordinate plans for race day. 

https://www.hanmerevents.co.nz/48mtb

Tent Request

We need to take a tent on Wainui camp that can sleep 8 people. If you can help us out, please contact Nicky.

Photo Gallery

Passion photography, exploring camera angles.

Te Tai challenging themselves with the lap-sit.

Loving challenge at lunchtime.

Cooking passion: chicken noodle salad - yum!

Science badge passion

Art passion

Kauri Whānau: Ready to start!

 It has been fabulous meeting with you all over the last two days and we are excited to get underway tomorrow. Below is the video from learning conferences in case you wanted to recap on any information. 

Key reminders for children:

• Come with a positive mindset and a big smile
• Please bring BYODs tomorrow
• As soon as you arrive at school,  go and say good morning to your home-group teacher
• If you have a phone, hand it into the blue tub and tick your name off on the chart
• If you don't want your lunch to be heated by the sun, put your lunchbox on the shelf in the maker-space when you arrive
• Remember your sunhat
• Bring your stationery if it is not at school yet
• If you took forms home to be signed and filled in, please return these to the labelled boxes on the spotty table