Kia ora e te whānau,

Wow, it is so hard to believe we are at the end of the year and this is our final blog post for 2025! What an incredible and busy year it has been with lots of achievements, positive moments and exciting adventures. 

Highlights of 2025

Term 1 was an awesome introduction to our 2025 year. We started our year with water play, getting to know everyone, activities, an awesome Top Team event, exciting science experiments, house games, a special visit from Police Officer Jo, and the wonderful Kōwhai Service Club began. 

Term 2 was a shorter term, filled with lots of fun events. We began our special Pizza Fridays, went to a performance from Strike percussion group, had a Book Character Day, participated in the school cross country, created Miro sculptures, began our technology inquiry unit, followed recipes and instructions during our procedural writing topic, performed at our school Matariki evening, and went on an amazing trip to Ferrymead. 

Term 3 started with a hiss and a roar. We welcomed Jordan into the Kōwhai team, celebrated Maths Week, began learning about Keeping Ourselves Safe (a unit taught in collaboration with Constable Meg from the New Zealand Police), there was a whole school four square tournament, gymnastics sessions at the School of Gymnastics, and we finished the term with Beckenham's Got Talent.

Term 4 has been another busy and fun term. We began the term with a new event, the Scooter-athlon, started hip-hop dance and ukulele sessions, competed in our whole school athletics, took part in our whole school colour run, worked really hard in production groups, leading to a stellar performance, and finished off the term with the school chicks spending time in our hub. 

As you can see, it has been an action-packed year full of wonderful memories being made and some awesome adventures being had. 

Production

On Thursday 4th December, our Kōwhai tamariki shone on stage as they showcased their talents in our Kōwhai Jukebox Journey. It was wonderful to see all their hard work come together in such a vibrant performance, and it was extra special to be able to share this moment with our school community and whānau. We had a special "Production Screening" on Thursday this week to show the tamariki their magical performance! We just want to say thank you to all the whānau for your support, and a massive congratulations to our tamariki for showing 'We Love Challenge' for being brave and giving the performance a go!

End-of-Year Admin

Kia ora whānau!

This week has been a busy week getting ourselves ready for production. The children have been working together and sharing ideas. It has been great to see the collaboration. 

Production

We have had two full rehearsals and it has been excellent to see all our hard work put together. Next week, we have 2 dress rehearsals before performing for the whole school on Wednesday and then we look forward to performing for whānau on Thursday at 11:30am in the hall. The children are all so excited! 

Please can you make sure that your child/children bring their costumes on Monday, ready for the dress rehearsals. If your child is not sure what their costume is, you can either email your homegroup teacher or the dance group teacher. Thank you for your support with this!

Pizza Friday 

Our Pizza Friday has continued to be a highlight for many children. We are so proud of our students for all their hard work in earning this great experience. 

Moving Spaces 

As you may have read from the school newsletter, our hub is moving to Parenga. While this may feel like a big change, we have been drawing similarities between Parenga and the current Kōwhai hub. We are excited to be alongside the Pōhutukawa team next year! The move will be taking place on Thursday 11th December after school hours. This will mean that we will be in our new hub from Friday 12th onwards until the end of term.

Transitions 

We have begun transitioning our students in preparation for next year. The students have had the chance to reconnect and build new connections with the younger/older students who will be in their learning space. Yesterday afternoon, our Year 3's stayed in Kōwhai and the Year 6 children came to join them for a session of Discovery. Meanwhile, the Year 4 children went over to the Pōhutukawa hub to spend time with the Year 5 children whom they will be joining next year. We will have one more session like this in Week 10. On Monday next week, the Year 2 children will be coming to join in a Discovery session with the Year 3's so they can reconnect. Again, there will be one more session like this in Week 10. The children have really been looking forward to this and are embracing the opportunity.

Colour Run 

The colour run last Friday was a highlight for many. It generated such a community feel that was great to see and the children had such a lot of fun! It was also fantastic the way the Kōwhai children also ran with the younger children and helped them round the obstacle course. Congratulations to the PTA for running such a successful event and raising so much money!

Have a wonderful weeekend!

From the Kōwhai team.

Kia ora everyone!

Welcome to the Kōwhai blog for Term 4, Week 6! The term is rapidly disappearing and while we have achieved so much already, there is still much to do.

Production

Chicks Hatching

Colour Run

The PTA have organised a Colour Run event to take place next Friday afternoon. So far, the PTA have raised around $9,000 which is absolutely amazing! If you would like to help raise money for this fundraising event, just click on the following link and hit the red “Set Up a Fundraising Page” tab: 

https://beckenhamschoolcolourrun.raiseit.co.nz/.

In order to drum up some more support for this event, we are also sliming teachers, one teacher per $1,000 raised. Yesterday, at the end of the school day, we slimed 8 teachers in total with Chris getting slimed twice! The children absoltuely loved witnessing this and are looking forward to seeing more teachers get slimed next Wednesday. We will have to see if any Kōwhai teachers get included next time round! 

Have a great long weekend!

From the Kōwhai team

Kia ora e te Whānau, 

The date and time for this will be: Thursday 4th December, 11:30am.

Athletics Day 

On Thursday, our students had an action-packed Athletics Day. Students rotated through 5 different events, which included sprints, shot put, long jump, high jump, and discus. It was fantastic to see students showing resilience, celebrating success, and demonstrating great sportsmanship throughout the day. What wonderful examples of embracing the ‘We Get There Together’ and ‘We Love Challenge’ kete values. A huge thank you to our staff, whānau, and awesome ākonga for helping make the day such a positive and successful event!

Dance and Ukulele 

Over the last 4 weeks, students have been attending weekly hip hop dance and ukulele sessions. It has been wonderful to see the way students have been engaging during these classes and subsequently developing confidence when learning the dance routine and playing the chords. We certainly have some very talented Kōwhai kids who are really making the most of this awesome learning opportunity!

Here is the link to the audio that students are dancing to!

Hats

We are now well into term four and as we get closer to summer, it is important that we stay sun smart. Could you please support your tamariki to make sure they are wearing their hat when they are outside. If they have forgotten their hat, they need to go under the hall verandah at break times. Duty teachers will be supporting with reminders. 

Headlice

Unfortunately, we have had more cases of headlice reported in Kōwhai Hub. Can you please check your child's head for eggs and live lice regularly and treat accordingly if detected. The link below has very helpful information about headlice and how to treat it.

https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/head-lice#main-content

Kia ora e te whanau, 

We hope you have all had a fantastic week. We have had a busy week leaping into a busy and exciting Term 4.

Dance and Ukelele Lessons

Through weeks one and two we have started both our dance and ukulele lessons. It has been amazing to see 'We Get There Together' and 'We Love Learning' in these sessions as everyone starts to learn these new skills. Everyone has been trying new things and having a go! We will be doing both dance and ukulele until the end of the term and we look forward to see the progress. 

Scooter-athlon

On Wednesday, we had our Scooter-athlon. It was an action-packed afternoon with a lot of speed, cheers, and enjoyment. It was great to see everyone participating and enjoying some friendly competition between peers. Well done everyone on such an amazing event! Thank you too for the parent support. It made the event really special for our tamariki.

Hats

We are now well into term four and as we get closer to summer, it is important that we stay sun smart. Could you please support your tamariki to make sure they are wearing their hat when they are outside. If they have forgotten their hat, they need to go under the hall verandah at break times. Duty teachers will be supporting with reminders. 

Athletics

In weeks one and two, we started our athletics training. We have been working hard on training for shot put, discus, high jump, long jump, and sprints. It has been wonderful to see all the mahi that has been put in so far. We will be continuing our training in weeks three and four in preparation for the big day on Thursday in week four. We look forward to seeing everyone out there giving it a go and displaying 'We Love Challenge'.