No 4 15 March 2019

 

 

 FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Families

This newsletter sees us at the end of our seventh week of the school year. The adage time flies when you’re having fun resonates with me at this time when considering that we are already well over half way through the first term!

Last week we marked the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday with a beautiful, solemn liturgy where we all received ashes on our foreheads. When we receive the cross of ashes on Ash Wednesday we hear the words ‘Repent and return to God’. This should be a mantra for us for the whole of the 40 day Lenten season which prepares us for the celebration and joy of Easter. In the combined acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in Lent we can bring ourselves back to basics and focus on our faith in God.

2019 Focus for Lent

Over the six weeks of Lent, our Director of Religious Studies, Detta Fairweather and our Liturgy Team have developed a weekly focus in order for us as a school to support Vailoa Primary School in Samoa and our Parish foodbank.

Vailoa Primary School is a village school in the district of Faleata in Samoa which was burnt down in January of this year. They are in need of much support as they recover from the devastating loss of their school buildings and resources. Our Parish foodbank supports local families in need with food parcels to assist in the reduction of stress on families who are experiencing difficulties. Both, very worthy causes, I am sure you will agree.

This weeks collection of pens and pencils will support Vailoa Primary school, as well as next weeks donations of highlighters and felts. We will add the collection of writing books and story books later in the lenten season to a shipment of goods heading over to Samoa to support this community in need.

Many thanks for your support of our Lenten giving focus this year and in advance of your continued support throughout the season of Lent.

Our Community – Our Support – Our Service

Since arriving in October of last year I have been struck by the sense of community here at Our Lady Star of the Sea. This sense of community is driven and enhanced by the connection, service and support offered to us as a school by members of our community. Ultimately, this makes OLSOS a fabulous place to be for our children, families and our staff.

This support comes in many shapes and forms; from service on the Board of Trustees, PTA, Helping Hands, parent help for trips, with cultural groups and in classes, parents offering help in our Information Centre to cover and accession books, participating actively in fundraisers such as the PTA chocolate fundraiser, or bringing in items for our Lenten appeal, bringing in items to support our Gala, volunteering at our Gala, through to attending discos, beginning of the year picnics, social events for children and adults, Masses, liturgies, assemblies and class prayers, as well as stopping to have a chat at pick up and drop off, just to name a few. All of these interactions and connections, the gifting of time and resource, be it large or small contributes to our wonderful sense of place, community and connection. This is what makes our school the great place it is.

This year, at this time in particular, I would like to highlight three important elements of community, support and service, and appeal to all of our families to consider whether they could contribute in some way shape or form to ensure the strength in these areas of our school continues to contribute strongly to our school culture. These three areas are the Board of Trustees, the PTA and the Gala Committee.

1. Board of Trustees

This year, in June, is our triannual Board of Trustees Election. This means that our current Board of Trustees will stand down after their term of three years of service, and we will elect a new Board of Trustees.

Our Board of Trustees consists of 5 Parent representatives elected by our community by vote and 4 Proprietors Representatives who represent the Bishop on the Board. These Proprietors Representatives go through a selection process with approval coming from the Catholic Diocese of Auckland. There is also a Staff Representative which is also elected by staff vote and the Principal that make up the constitution of the Board.

If you are interested standing for the Board of Trustees, or are keen to find out more about what it involves, please be in touch with our Board Chair Stephen McKenzie on [email protected]

This is a very rewarding way of serving the community and supporting the school.

2. PTA Committee

Our Parent Teacher Association is made up of members of our school community who offer service and a sense of community in many different ways in our school, from the welcome to school picnic held earlier this year, to fundraisers such as the chocolate selling that is happening at the moment, through to activities that build community and raise money such as the quiz night for parents later in the year, termly discos for the children and sausage sizzles and ice block selling throughout the year. The money the PTA raises this year will contribute towards technology, sports equipment and resources in our school. This year’s PTA AGM will be held as part of the next PTA meeting which is on Monday 1st April. I encourage you all to consider joining the PTA. As they say, many hands make light work, and this is so true in the case of the PTA! With lots of members, there is the ability to share the load which enhances the running of these vital community building and fundraising events.

I look forward to seeing lots of new faces at the PTA meeting on April 1st!

3. GALA Committee

This year our annual Gala will be held on Saturday 19th October.  This is an incredible community event that is a real celebration of all things OLSOS and raises substantial money which this year will be combined with last year’s Gala money to enable us to build a fabulous play space in our quadrangle.

Our children look forward to this event as do families, parishioners and locals who come along to pick up a bargain, sample incredible food, win raffles and have a great time on the rides and fun games around the school grounds.

This important community event and fundraiser can not happen without the commitment and dedication of our community.

We are seeking 4 or 5 parents who are keen to be part of the Gala Organising Committee. These people will then work with a team of parents on preparing different elements of our Gala so that on the day it all comes together for a fabulous day for all.

If you would like to be part of the Gala Organising Committee please email me on [email protected] .

As many of you will know, I started here at OLSOS 3 weeks before last year’s Gala and was astounded at the community spirit, comradery, support and effort put in by our community. I think it is fair to say that those who helped out in preparation and on the day found the hard work endlessly rewarding as the event brought the community together and raised an incredible amount towards the construction of the new play space.

I look forward to hearing from you!

 

PTA Chocolate Fundraiser

The effort and generosity of our community has also been evident in the way families have got in behind the PTA Chocolate Fundraiser in the last couple of weeks. To those families who have already sent back the money they have collected from selling chocolates and to those who have collected additional boxes to sell, we are truly grateful. The last day for bringing in chocolate money is Friday 22nd March. Thank you once again to all in our fabulous community for supporting this fundraising initiative. The PTA do such a wonderful job of supporting the school in both the creation of community events and raising money for added extras in our school. We are truly grateful to Michaela Telfer and Nicole Kelly and the team for their hard work in organising this fundraiser.

NZEI Paid Union Meetings

As you may know, the Ministry of Education and the NZEI Primary Teachers Union continue to negotiate over working conditions and remuneration in order to attract and retain amazing teachers to the profession. The latest round of paid Union meetings happen next week. We have arranged to buddy classes up for learning activities to enable teachers to attend meetings without the need to close the school. Thank you for your ongoing support as the teaching profession with the Union works towards providing conditions of work that will mean we can continue to attract and keep teachers ensuring the effective education of children in all of our communities.

Back Gate Reminder

The gate connected to the carpark outside the school hall (the back gate) is locked from 9.15am to 2.15pm for safety reasons. If there is a team assembly, the gate will be opened prior to the start of the assembly, however it will remain locked at all other times between 9.15am and 2.15pm. Thank you for your understanding.

There have been lots of great events and learning opportunities throughout the school adding to our robust classroom programmes, many of which are featured in our newsletter. I encourage you to enjoy reading about these in both the ‘news from the classroom’, ‘news from outside the classroom’, ‘information centre’ and ‘sport’ sections later in this publication, including swim carnivals, maritime museum trips, adventure walks, orienteering, fantastic cricket competition results and more!

Enrolment

A reminder …  if you have a child, turning five years old from now until December 2019 and wish them to attend Our Lady Star of the Sea School please collect an enrolment pack from the school office or download from our website www.starofthesea.school.nz    There is limited availability in other year levels.

Wishing you all a happy, blessed and safe fortnight ahead until our next newsletter.

Ngā mihi nui

Louise Campbell
Principal

 

DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES (DRS) REPORT

Joyfulness is the school wide overarching concept for 2019 with Adventure being the focus for Term 1. Our students will understand that – LIfe’s adventures challenge people to lead like Jesus, showing courage and resilience, bringing joyfulness to ourselves and others. Across the school adventures are taking place – visits to Murphy’s bush, the Maritime Museum, Northpark – along with the Year 5 and 6 camp earlier in the year. Now that we are in the second half of our first term at school it is a great time for you to ask your children, ‘How are you leading like Jesus? How are you bringing joy to others? When are you showing courage and resilience? This is also a great time to acknowledge your child when they are showing courage, being resilient, leading like Jesus and bringing joy to themselves and others. Promoting these ideas together will help consolidate our children’s learning.

LENT 2019

Lent has begun. It is a time to reflect and review our own relationship with God. Traditionally, during Lent Catholics receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. Students who are sacramental have the opportunity to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation at school. We thank Fr John and other local priests for coming to school and celebrating the sacrament with our students this week and the next. For those students in Years 3 – 6 who have yet to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and 1st Holy Communion, the parish sacramental programme will restart again towards the end of the year. I urge you to take advantage of this and enrol your child.  Children regularly tell me they want to receive Holy Communion during school and class masses but have yet to go through the programme.

Many thanks for your generosity towards the school’s lenten focus this week supporting our parish foodbank and Vailoa school in Samoa.   

Over the next two weeks, we would appreciate contributions of Highlighters and Felts (Week 3) and Writing Books (Week 4).

These collections are a simple way of saying we care.

Manaakitia te katoa

Share your gifts with others

Prayer Intention:   E te ariki, we pray for the community of Vailoa school, may they find comfort and peace in the knowledge of our support in their time of trial.

 

Mercy Ships  –   TVNZ ‘Sunday’ Programme

Every year a bunch of Kiwis head to West Africa to volunteer onboard an enormous hospital ship, run by a charity called Mercy Ships. Surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists and radiographers provide surgeries and treatment to thousands of patients from the world’s poorest countries.  Tumour removal, facial reconstruction, cataract removal/lens implants, cleft lip and palate reconstruction and orthopaedics surgeries (club feet and bowed legs). It takes a diverse range of skills to enable the ship to function. Half of the 450 crew are non-medical staff.  Teachers, Engineers, maritime workers, chefs and cleaners.

Yes the ship has a school for children of volunteer couples.  

TVNZ’s SUNDAY current affairs programme travelled to Guinea, West Africa, to profile this remarkable group of Kiwis.

The story screened SUNDAY – TVONE – 7.30pm on March 10^th .   However Click this link  https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/sunday  to view now on TVNZ On Demand.

 https://www.facebook.com/SundayTVNZ/  (LIKE us on Facebook to receive updates)   or     https://mercyships.org.nz/

Detta Fairweather

DRS

From Your Board of Trustees

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou.

It seems a long time since I wrote my last Board notes. I trust that you all had a relaxing Christmas break and that the new year has started well.

Your Board held our annual strategic planning day two weeks ago. We had a full day working on our strategic plan for 2019 to 2021 and our annual plan for this school year. Our strategic plan sets out four goals which we, as a school community, intend to achieve over the next three years and a detailed work plan which sets out what we, as a school community, are going to do to achieve those goals this year, next year and the year after. Our goals focus on ensuring our school is an authentic Catholic school that honours our unique heritage and continues to live and grow its Catholic special character, to implement a curriculum that is child centered and provides our children with rich learning challenges, to strengthen relationships and connections between and across whanau and the wider school community and to provide facilities that grow the wellbeing of our children, staff and families and meet the future needs of our School. We have posted our strategic plan for 2019 to 2021 on our website so if you are interested in reading it in detail you can access it here:

Strategic Plan

 

Your Board would like to thank our senior leadership team for the time that they have spent developing our strategic plan and our teaching and support teams for the time that they will spend working to implement our strategic plan through our school.

In addition to our work on our strategic plan, we have also been progressing our work on our covered outdoor learning area (COLA) for the upper Court over the holidays and are pleased that we have now submitted our request for consent to the COLA and to laying turf on the upper court to the Catholic Diocese of Auckland for consent. We are hoping that the Diocese will grant consent this term so we can sign the contract with our COLA and turf suppliers and get the building consent process underway early next term. We will keep you all up to date with progress in our regular Board notes.

God bless.

Stephen McKenzie

NEWS FROM OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Maritime Museum Trip

Last week Rooms 13 and 15 went for an adventure to the Auckland Maritime Museum.  Not only did we get to go on a tour around this fabulous museum to see and learn about the different ‘Hero’s of the Sea’, but we also went on our own adventure out in the Auckland Harbour on the Ted Ashby Sailing Boat.  The weather wasn’t the kindest to us, but this just added to the excitement of the day. The other Middle Team classes will be experiencing this adventure over the next two weeks.

Middle Team Swimming Carnival  

Last week the Middle Team spent a wonderful day at Shelly Park School where the children had the opportunity to join in a range of different novelty swimming races.  

Senior Team Swimming Sports

On the 12th of March the Senior Team and some selected Year 4s headed to Lloyd Elsmore Pools to hold their annual swimming sports. This was a first time holding the event at Lloyd Elsmore Park and both the students and the teachers agree that this will be a regular venue from now on given the success on the day. The students took part in both competitive and novelty races and a great day was had by all. Our sincere thanks go out to the fabulous parents that helped us with recording and timekeeping on the day – you were fantastic!

The results of the races are as follows:

50m Freestyle 10 year boys 1st place Wesley Lau 2nd Place Aaron Santoso 3rd place Luke Dougherty	50m Freestyle 10 year old girls 1st Emily Chan 2nd Leanna Park 3rd Maia Tay-Morrison
25m Freestyle 8 year old boys 1st Zion Bidois 2nd Jake Preisig  3rd Liam Martin	25m Freestyle 8 year old girls 1st Izabella Chetty 2nd Chloe Ting 3rd Anaiah Smith
25m Freestyle 9 year old boys 1st Hugo Dougall 2nd Yool Kim 3rd Ryan Smeath	25m Freestyle 9 year old girls 1st Paige Beagley 2nd Jua Lee 3rd Leona Yao
25m Freestyle 10 year old boys 1st Wesley Lau 2nd Aaron Santoso 3rd Luke Dougherty	25m Freestyle 10 year old girls 1st Leanna Park 2nd Emily Chan 3rd Maia Tay-Morrison
25m Backstroke 8 year old boys 1st Zion Bidois 2nd Max Tay- Morrison 3rd Jake Preisig	25m Backstroke 8 year old girls 1st Payton Williams 2nd Izabella Chetty 3rd Ruolin Xiao
25m Backstroke 9 year old boys Hugo Dougall 2nd Yool Kim 3rd Geoffrey Cai	25m Backstroke 9 year old girls 1st Paige Beagley 2nd Amelia McKenzie 3rd Millie Kirilo
25m Backstroke 10 year old boys 1st Wesley Lau 2nd Aaron Santoso 3rd Jordan Payne	25m Backstroke 10 year girls 1st Emily Chan 2nd Maia Tay-Morrison 3rd Lola Penfold
25m Breaststroke 8 year old boys 1st Zion Bidois 2nd Jake Preisig 3rd Nyall Serrao	25m Breaststroke 8 year old girls 1st Athena Luo 2nd Chloe Ting 3rd Ruolin Xiao
25m Breaststroke 9 year old boys 1st Hugo Dougall 2nd Yool Kim 3rd Ryder Brownrigg	25m Breaststroke 9 year old girls 1st Jua Lee 2nd Millie Kirilo 3rd Brooke Phipps
25m Breaststroke 10 year old boys 1st Wesley Lau 2nd Aaron Santoso 3rd Noah Kato	25m Breaststroke 10 year old girls 1st Leanna Park 2nd Emily Chan 3rd Marina Chen
Overall Placings
8 year old boys champions 1st Zion Bidois 2nd Jake Preisig 3rd Nyall Serrao 4th Max tay-Morrison 5th Alex Baek 6th Liam Martin	8 year old girls champions 1st Chloe Ting 2nd Izabella Chetty 3rd Ruolin Xiao 4th= Payton Williams, Athena Luo 6th Anaiah Smith
9 year old boys champions 1st Hugo Dougall 2nd Yool Kim 3rd= Ryan Smeath, Ryder Brownrigg 5th Kadyn Serrao 6th Geoffrey Cai	9 year old girls champions 1st Paige Beagley 2nd Jua Lee 3rd Brooke Phipps 4th Millie Kirilo 5th Leona Yao 6th Amelia McKenzie
10 year old boys champions 1st Wesley Lau 2nd Aaron Santoso 3rd= Luke Dougherty, Fletcher Telfer 5th Roman Andrews 6th Jordan Payne	10 year old girls champions 1st Emily Chan 2nd Leanna Park 3rd Maia Tay-Morrison 4th Lola Penfold 5th Marina Chen 6th Elsa Cai
House Relays	1st Barbier    2nd Maher     3rd McAuley     4th Garin

 

Congratulations to all our winners. Our next challenge is the Interschool sports on the 21st of March which many of these students will be attending. Watch this space for our next update.

 

Orienteering –  Howick College and Bucklands Beach Intermediate courses

I was shivering. It was my first time doing orienteering. I was asking “What do you have to do? How do you do orienteering?” Then soon it was time to start. So I lined up. When it was my turn, I took a deep breath as I went to grab the map in the box. Then it was time to go. I took a very good look at the map, I couldn’t understand anything. My mind was blank. I had a feeling I was lost. I needed help. A few seconds later, Wesley came to rescue! He told me to follow him and even Joseph tagged along. Wesley was fast so he was dragging us around the whole school in the boiling hot weather. It was very tiring for me. I felt so hot. I tried my best to get this finished. After a few minutes later we had one more left, it was the finish. Huffing and puffing, I raced my hardest towards the end. Sweat was dripping down my cheek. My throat was very dry. I was exhausted. I could barely breathe slowly walking to get my time. I was staring at it looking for my time. There it was, my time was around 26 minutes. Then I gulped litres of water down my dry throat, it was a really refreshing. The following week I tried orienteering by myself. It was harder alone and even Sancta Maria was a huge school. I got a little lost because the map was quite confusing for me, so I got a little help. My time was 30 minutes. The week after was my third time doing orienteering. This time I got almost an hour because Howick college was a big school and I got no help. I was very happy because I completed it by myself. Orienteering is really fun but tiring!  

by Noah Kato

 

FIRST DISCO FOR 2019

Disco for all Star of the Sea School students

 Junior, Middle and Senior School are ALL welcome!

Date:  Friday 22nd March 2018

 Time:  6.30pm until 8.00pm

 Entry fee:  $3.00 per student – Parents are free!!!

 Rule for our school disco:

Any unaccompanied children being dropped off to the disco will need to be signed in and out by their parent/guardian

Glow Sticks – $2.00 each

Sausage Sizzle – $1.50

Drinks (Water/Juice)  – $1.50

Chocolate – $2.00 per bar

D.J. Mel will be there with everyone’s favourite songs to dance to

Spot prizes and tons of fun to be had

We’ll even ask the Coffee Guy to come along so that parents can buy a coffee or hot chocolate!

 

INFORMATION CENTRE

This is exciting – children voting online for their favourite junior fiction book (8-12 years).

The Storylines Notable Books list 2019 has recently been announced and this year Storylines are excited to partner with TV show What Now in presenting a KIDS PICK Award.

Using the junior fiction titles on the list, which we have many of in the Information Centre, children will be able to vote for their favourite and be in to win.

Follow this link to find out more about the competition.

https://www.storylines.org.nz/Awards/Storylines+Notable+Books+Awards/Kids+Picks.html

 

SPORT 

Interschool Cricket Competition

Results from Wednesday 13 March were:

WIN :  Our Lady Star of the Sea   62 runs  –  Maraetai  17 runs

WIN :  Our Lady Star of the Sea  83 runs    –  Mellons Bay  34 runs  

WIN:   Our Lady Star of the Sea  70 runs    –  Wakaaranga  47 runs

 WIN:   Our Lady Star of the Sea  82 runs    –  Beachlands  37 runs

Congratulations team on another wonderful cricketing success.

 

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT OUTSIDE SCHOOL

Congratulations to Jason Cooper from Room 18 who continues to do well in his mountain biking efforts. Jason recently entered a competition against 13 year olds and came from well behind to finish the race in 4th place. What determination and perseverance Jason. Well done!

 

HELPING HANDS

Helping Hands has been part of Our Lady Star of the Sea’s culture for quite some time.  It is where our school community comes together to help those in stressful situations i.e. a parent or grand parent being very ill, a family bereavement or a new born baby to the family.

We would like those in need to know we care!  If you would like to be a part of this wonderful group of caring people who are called upon once or twice a year to either make a meal, bake a cake, transport children to/from school or utilise your gardening skills please fill out the form (click the word ‘form’) and return to the office.   Please add your contact number.

As we all know – “we are in this together”.

If we can assist your family or if you hear of any family in our school community please let the office know.

Thank you

Helping Hands Team

 

Bell Times and Routines

8.30am	Hand Bell – children can enter class only if teacher in room
8.45am	School Commences
8.45am – 9.00am	Prayer
10.40am – 11.00am	Morning Tea
12.30pm – 1.20pm	Lunch
2.45pm	School Concludes

 

Late for School

If you are held up and late for school please bring your child to the office first to sign in and then go to the classroom. After signing in, a slip is printed and the slip is required to be taken to the class teacher.

A reminder that children who catch the bus down to Sancta Maria College Campus in the afternoon need to be collected as soon as possible.  Some of our children are being left unsupervised for a length of time.

FRIENDLY REMINDERS

Drop off and pick up

Please be courteous to all when you are dropping your child off or picking them up after school.  We have been disappointed to hear that not everyone is showing respect to other parents. We all need to be good role models and at our school we do this through our shared values of Service, Respect, Courage, Resilience and Justice.  THERE IS NO DROP OFF OR PICK UP IN THE SCHOOL GROUNDS.

If your child is absent from school for any reason you must either complete an online report an absence form or phone the office and leave a message or use the school website ‘Absence’ line. Please leave a specific reason for the absence i.e. if the child is sick please specify the sickness e.g. cold, vomiting etc. If the child is absent from school due to sickness for more than three days, a medical certificate is required. For any holiday or overseas travel please email our  Principal Mrs Louise Campbell at [email protected]

Car parking
Please be considerate when street parking near the school. We have received complaints from neighbours regarding parking across driveways.  We have been working with Auckland Transport and you will notice that the extra yellow no parking lines have now been removed.

Lost Property
The lost property cupboard is by Room 1 entrance. You are welcome to check this at any time as it is open all day.

Uniform shop
Open every Thursday 8.15 – 8.45 a.m.  (please note earlier opening and closing times)  and 2.30-3 p.m. (during school term)

Bizzybodz
Before and Afterschool care – 021837977 for bookings

 

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Parent Cyber Safety Presentation at Sancta Maria College

John Parsons is one of New Zealand’s leading authorities on safeguarding our children online.

NEXT Tuesday 19th March Start Time: 7.00pm he will be presenting his ‘Parent Cyber Safety Workshop’ at Sancta Maria College.

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• Edventure Outdoors- School Holiday Camp

Based in Pauanui but with pick up points throughout Auckland. We will be surfing, snorkelling, Hot Water beach & Cathedral cove, fishing, tramping and much more. Our camps aim to teach kids about bush and water safety through immersing them in high interest activities with qualified and experienced staff.   April 15th – 18th, OSCAR available, $425, 8-14 yr olds, book at www.edventure.co.nz

• HCYT Holiday Programme – from Monday 15^th – Thursday 18^th April – 4 days of art/craft and drama activities around the theme of EASTER DELIGHTS & PUPPET FUN.  $25 per child per day.  The programme runs from 9am till 3pm, but children can be dropped off any time from 8am at no extra cost.  Please contact HCYT on 537 4943 or [email protected] for more details or to make a booking.