Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The Beaconsfield School Board of Trustees and staff would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Beaconsfield School.  It is intended that the following information will answer some of the questions you may have about Beaconsfield School.  If there are any further information you would like clarified, please do not hesitate to ask.

All parents / caregivers are welcome to come into the school and observe their children at work or talk to the teachers.

In this day and age of busy life styles, major leaps in technology and competitive work lives, it is important that we prepare our children at school with basic work, study and social skills, which will carry them into the future successfully. School can be an important social and academic tool, where children learn to interact with others. This contact needs to be safe and non-threatening. Having a school that offers this, plus academic excellence and support is important to you and your children. At Beaconsfield School, we believe that we are a school that provides for quality learning for all in a caring community.

Our vision for teaching and learning - "Learning Today, To Meet The Challenges Of Tomorrow".

We offer:

*  Academic achievement for all, whatever their ability, not just in the "three R", but also art, drama, music and sport;
*  Children are taught sound work habits. There is an emphasis on quality and taking pride in your work;
*  Social skills and manners are taught and expected from all i.e. respect for self, others and elders;
*  A non-aggressive playground environment, with an emphasis on sport, co-operative games and peer support.

Beaconsfield School is a Decile 8 state full co-educational primary school catering for students from new entrants to Year Eight. In 2005 Beaconsfield School was established – the result of a merger of Beaconsfield School and Salisbury School. The school started with a roll of 105 children and the trend is for continual roll growth with the 2010 roll predicted to be 130. The building of relationships over the past few years has been critical to the positive learning environment which is evident today.

The school is close to the main business area of Timaru – a service town for a large rural district. Pupils are drawn from a wide socio-economic spectrum with 98 % of the children travelling to school by bus. The school community, while predominately European, includes 6%  Maori children as well a number of residents who have arrived from overseas particularly from Great Britain.

The school has large landscaped grounds, two adventure playgrounds and a solar-heated swimming pool. Other facilities include: a learning centre (library) , resource room, multipurpose building / hall.  An upgraded administration area including Principals Office, medical room and staff room. All classrooms, offices and library are networked.

A very active and supportive Board of Trustees and Parent Teacher Association ensure that the children of Beaconsfield School are given the opportunities to receive the best education possible. An enthusiastic and hardworking staff deliver a balanced curriculum with the aim of developing lifelong learners. Children with special needs are identified and receive appropriate support.

We work co-operatively with parents and children to set realistic and challenging child - centred goals, which provide the basis for their future learning, enhancing their skills and knowledge to become life long learners.

The outcome of these principles is to create the environment and atmosphere which promotes learning and enables our children to gain, maintain and use knowledge to become future thinkers, while always developing social skills of all our school community.  There is always the philosophy at Beaconsfield School that the school is about people.  Ultimately the success of our school depends on the quality of all relationships between children, staff, parents and the wider community.

Year 7/8 technology occurs every alternate Wednesday and the children travel by bus to the Timaru Technology Centre. Visits to the Timaru Library and swimming pool are undertaken during the winter terms, the latter to monitor swimming progress and build on swimming safety. Each class attends visiting exhibitions, drama productions and a wide variety of extra curricular activities.

The children attend a range of Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) experiences, involving day trips and local experiences around Timaru and environs and further away.  We are currently reviewing our “Camp” experiences.

Ski trips and/or ice-skating are arranged at Lake Tekapo and Roundhill during the winter terms.

Beaconsfield, St Andrews, Timaru Christian, St Josephs Pleasant Point, Cannington and Barton Rural are all part of the Rural School’s Cluster. These schools get together for many things, as well as various sporting events e.g. Y4 – 8 go to the Swimming Sports at Century Pool, Cross Country and Athletic sports. We also entered teams in the Top School competition this year.

Summer sport’s coaching includes: tennis, cricket, swimming, touch rugby, tee-ball, etc.  These are all played and coached regularly with teachers, parents or professional coaches.

Teachers and parents coach winter sports. The school has 3 girl’s netball teams playing the Timaru Primary Saturday competition and we also have 4 soccer teams, which compete on Saturdays in the local competition.

Children are transported to school by bus.  Three buses are owned and operated by the school and are used for school trips and excursions throughout the year.  Please contact your bus driver directly, if your child is not going to be on the bus in the morning.  Also ring the school, as soon as possible, if your child is not going to be on the bus, in the afternoon.

If your child is going to someone else’s house after school, bus seats are tight at the moment, so you may need to transport the children privately to accommodate this arrangement.  Each bus has a roll taken at the end of the day.  Your child needs to let the monitor know if they are not travelling on the bus.  Senior children act as Bus Safety Wardens on the bus and report any misbehaviour to the teachers.  Please let the school know if you have a concern about behaviour on the bus.  All children are required to sign the Bus Code of Conduct and abide by this code.  They are also required to wear the free vest for safety reasons.

Bus Driver’s cell phones numbers:

Any child experiencing learning problems has access to support with our Teacher Aides, or if necessary Reading Recovery with Mrs Cox. Parents are informed through our Special Needs Co – ordinator of any learning support that is required.

Health and Education Support Agencies liaise regularly (eg Health Nurse) with the school and children attending a Dental Clinic, once a year, at our school and may be referred on to other professionals, as required.

Staff are available for consultation regarding pupil progress at any time.

*  Parent interviews are scheduled in April and there is a written report in December.

*  Each pupil has a personal portfolio book containing significant benchmarks or exemplars or achievement which is sent home twice a year, once at the end of Term 2 and then again at the end of Term 4.

*  We also have a parent  / teacher requested interview session available in Term 3.

*  The staff and Principal work together to ensure parents are advised of any issues concerning learning and/ or behaviour.

*  School newsletters are issued each Monday and are available on our school website.

*  School assemblies are usually on Fridays, and are scheduled each term and notified in our school newsletter.  Parents are welcome to attend

Beaconsfield School is fortunate to be part of the local ICT cluster group. The BOT endeavours to keep abreast of technology and has recently purchased 10 new laptop computers. Wireless broadband is available school-wide. We also have a specialist ICT facilitator who works with children, in small groups, during each term.