Hi Beckenham whanau, This term we have been enjoying lots of outside play, baking and art and crafts. The children have enjoyed making posters, designing paper airplanes, making and decorating cupcakes and group games outside. A reminder to please bring a rain jacket on wet days.

We are looking forward to some fun indoor games and crafts next term as the weather gets cooler.

With thanks

The Beckenham team

Hi Barrington Family and Friends, We have started this year off on a bit of a bitter sweet note, as we say goodbye to Matt at the end of this week! It’s sad that he will be moving on but it means we will be welcoming a new staff member, which is very exciting! We have changed things up a bit this year in terms of afternoon tea, now getting the kids to make their own sandwiches in the afternoon which has been great! They have been enjoying our Thursday baking afternoons, having made brownie, French toast, and rice bubble slice so far. We have also been spending longer at the school playground after school and the kids have loved having the extra outside time. The biggest hit though has been the new Lego that Matt has kindly donated to our centre. In the way of craft, we have made Tuesday’s our main craft day and have made a sign for our nice new Daffodil room and glow-in-the-dark pictures. If you have any other suggestions of things we can try or things you feel aren’t working, please feel free to talk to Belle and we’ll see what we can do! Thanks, Belle, Matt, Kirsten, James, Luke, and Rose.

Kia Ora Cashmere HWC whanau. Welcome to the new families who have joined the HWC this year! We hope that your children have settled in and are enjoying the varied games, art, crafts, sports and activities and are making some new friends. One thing we are encouraged about at Cashmere is the way that our children interact across the age ranges. It is nice to see our older children take the younger ones under their wings and include them in their games and sports activities. We are enjoying baking and eating all sorts of delicious treats. Sport is always exciting and varied. We are playing a fair bit of cricket this term, badminton has also been popular as well as the usual soccer and basketball. We are trying to do some more long term art, craft projects this year. We have a new sandpit area at school which has a shade cloth over the top and we look forward to using it more during the year. I have been informed that more things will be added to the playground at a later date. Thanks you from the Cashmere staff Alison, Sara, Jono, Skye, Lucy and Katie

Hi Parents and welcome to St Martins HWC for Term 1 of 2020!

We’ve started off this year with the addition of our new staff member Tahlia! She will be working every day except Wednesday, so please make sure you introduce yourself and say hi when you pick up in the afternoons We continue to see many new faces, both children and staff, so 2020 is looking to be a very exciting year!

We’ve decided to shake things up a bit with afternoon tea and have incorporated a baking day where the kids help make afternoon tea. So far we have made cheese toasties and pancakes!! The kids are loving it.

We have also been taking advantage of the nice weather outside and spending most of our afternoons on the adventure playground and field and court. The children are enjoying playing football on the field with Sam, or basketball games out on the court!!

Craft wise we have made “spoonies” based on the character Forkie from Toy Story 4! (We couldn’t find and sporks). It has been an absolute hit!

If you have any other suggestions of things we can try or things you feel aren’t working, please feel free to talk to Lois or Sam and we’ll see what we can do!

Thanks,

Lois, Sam, James, Tahlia and Bella.

Dear St Martins Parents and Caregivers

Thank you for being so accommodating during our changes during level two and providing your children with afternoon tea during this time. We have added Lucy to our St Martins bubble this term, as she already works at the school. Tahlia is also our newest staff member who was added to our team at the end of term 1. We have purchased some equipment for the term and now have a convertible table football and pool game. We have also been playing the classic games such as UNO and Jenga and have introduced the children to some new group games this term. We are looking forward to level one when we can return to baking activities and more ball games.

With thanks

Sam, Lois, Tahlia and Lucy

Dear Beckenham Parents

Welcome to term 2! We have been enjoying settling back into our routines after the return to school.

When we can we have been having fun outdoors and on the playground. When the weather is cold and wet we have been busy with arts and crafts, group games and free play with a variety of fun activities. Please ensure your child brings a rain jacket with them on wet days as well as a drink bottle and afternoon tea. If your child is using a bike or scooter they must bring and wear a helmet.

With thanks

Liz, Ciru, Bella, Rose

Hi parents and welcome to Barrington HWC for Term 2 of 2020! What a crazy term it has been!! We hope you all are well and got through the lockdown okay. Returning to Homework Club after lockdown has been busy, but great with more cleaning in place and lots of our toys having to be put away, in order to keep everyone safe. We have tried to keep things as normal as possible for the children and are enjoying having them back! With no homework at the moment (which the children are loving!) we have space in the afternoons for free time. The children have helped us come up with ideas on how to fill the extra time. They are enjoying playing lots of games in the hall, making lots of crafts from our new craft drawers and are still able to take turns playing with some of our LEGO. They also are doing a lot of colouring in, with a weekly colouring competition up and running and we are making a new Homework Club sign for our daffodil room. If you have any other suggestions of things we can try or things you feel aren’t working, please feel free to talk to Belle and we will see what we can do! We can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring but we are sure it’s going to be great! Thanks, Belle, Luke, Khalil and Skye.

A BIG “WELCOME BACK” to all our HWC Cashmere families!

We are really enjoying having the children attending again and feeling like we are back to some kind of ‘normality’. Despite the first few weeks being somewhat restricted in what we were able to do, we endeavoured to make it as much fun as we could. However, we have all upped our skills in the cleaning sector!

Before we all returned we had a Working Bee up at the school and compiled some ‘craft packs’ for the children. These proved to be very popular! I think that all of the children have increased in their cutting out and gluing skills, we certainly were very impressed with how carefully and patiently they all were as they assembled their paper creations. Well done to all! I think this is something we will continue to do as they all enjoyed their individual folders and were able to keep their work in them as they worked their way through the activities.

We are also very privileged to be able to use the new sandpit, this proves to be a very exciting part of the day for all! We even have a new swing which we are enjoying, taking turns is also an ever evolving skill, being able to be outside in the Winter for ¾ of an hour is wonderful! We are so thankful for wonderful weather, long may it continue!

Kinetic sand, a recently introduced game, ‘Flick’, are also proving to be very popular. Despite not being able to bake during the earlier days the children enjoyed making plasticine cupcakes, some of them literally looked good enough to eat! Great job guys!

Now that we are in level 1, we hope to be able to begin our baking again, something we are all looking forward to. We continue to use the field while it is dry, football is still a favourite.

Nga Mihi,

Cashmere Homework Team

Cashmere HWC have been enjoying being able to finally use the field again, over Winter it is often closed so that the grass gets a chance to recover and regrow. Our football enthusiasts are making the most of it!

Due to being back at level 2 with Covid -19 we are doing more painting, last week our theme was “Spring is Coming”. We also had our older children making bead geckos, they did a great job! This week the older children have also been making ice cream stick structures.

We purchased some plastic soldiers and some army tanks and planes. This has been very popular with a lot of the children. They are enjoying creating bases and battling one another.

Unfortunately we are not able to bake at this level but we have had some enthusiastic children who have already researched their ‘wish list’ for future baking opportunities.

Prior to being back at level 2 we also introduced Play Dough to the afternoon activities which surprisingly has been very popular with all of the children, our seniors have requested that we keep it as an ongoing activity, we are guessing that it is relaxing and therapeutic at the end of a hard day at work!

During level 1 we took advantage of doing baking this term. The kids have really been enjoying making loom band creations and have also been making jewellery with beads.

We have also been enjoying the more mild weather and spending more time outside.

We have also have sadly said goodbye to our staff member Lucy last week but she will still be working at St Martins School so you may see her around.

We have welcomed two new casual staff members in the last few weeks; Sophie and Chelsea who you may see over the next weeks as Tahlia goes on teacher placement.

With thanks

The St Martins team

Hello and welcome to Barrington HWC for Term 3 of 2020! With things settling down a little on the restrictions front, we have been able to return to some form of normality, bringing some of our toys back out of storage. Homework time is back in place, with our juniors doing their reading each afternoon. Free time is still filled with open choice for the children, with most choosing to play games in the hall, colour in for our colouring competition, or play with our ever growing amount of LEGO. We also have made the most of the few fine days we have had by having homework time outside and the kids playing with the chalk. Our sign for the Daffodil room is still in progress but is looking great!

Please feel free to let the staff know if you have any suggestions, questions, or queries and we will see what we can do for you. We are looking forward to the rest of the year and hope you are too! Thanks, HWC Barrington team, Belle, Luke, Khalil and Skye

It has been the coldest term of the year, so we have had to spend more time indoors but we have been keeping busy and enjoying it! We have done many more crafts and it has been fun seeing the children’s creativity.

We have also been playing with lots of LEGO, building blocks, train sets and loom bands. When the weather has been fine, it has been great being outdoors and we have been doing lots of movement activities to keep warm.

We are looking forward to the warmer and lighter days.

With thanks

The Beckenham team 

Hi Parents and welcome to Barrington HWC for Term 4 of 2020! We are on the home stretch now! This year has been a busy one and has flown by!

Homework time is still in place and free time is filled with open choice for the children, with most choosing to colour in for our colouring competition, do a craft, play a game in the hall, or play some board games. We are waiting on some more consistent sunny days eagerly and are hoping to be allowed to play at the school playground again for a little bit after school. Our morning care children are enjoying the variety of card games Khalil has introduced them to, with most mornings getting quite competitive. Our sign for the Daffodil room is still NEARLY finished and is looking amazing thanks to all the children’s hard work. Unfortunately at the end of this term we say goodbye to Belle, as she is leaving to have a baby. Please feel free to let the staff know if you have any suggestions, questions, or queries and we will see what we can do for you. Thanks, HWC Barrington team, Belle, Luke, Khalil, Skye, Rose, Dani.

Dear Parents

As the weather has been warming up we’ve been enjoying spending it outside as much as possible.

This term the children really got into the Halloween crafts as well.

We have continued to split into seniors and juniors when it is possible which the children seem to enjoy.

We have been trialling a new reward system during homework time which seems to be working well so far.

Kayley will be leaving us at the end of this term as she will be starting a new high school next year. Kayley will be greatly missed by the staff and children at Homework Club.

With thanks

Sam, Lois, James, Sophie

The children have been enjoying a mixture of both indoor and outdoor activities and enjoying the nice weather - when we have had it! We are all looking forward to having some special Christmas activities planned for the children before the term finishes. Despite the challenges we have faced throughout 2020, we hope that you are all looking forward to the holidays just as much as we are! Thanks, The Homework Club Beckenham

Welcome to term 4!

We have had a busy start to the term and are so pleased we are in level 1 and can bake again! We have been taking turns baking and sharing our treats with the rest of the group.

The children love going outside and we make sure to spend time outside when the weather is fine and are spoilt with our spacious school grounds.

We had a lovely parent evening last Friday the 27th and enjoyed chatting to our lovely families.

We are looking forward to the end of the year and making some Christmas crafts and activities.

We wish all of our families a lovely and restful break.

With thanks

Alison, Sara and Chelsea