No 6 12 April 2019

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Families

This newsletter finds us at the end of our first term of learning in 2019. I stated in an earlier newsletter that time flies when you are having fun – this is certainly the case here at Our Lady Star of the Sea! We have had a term full of adventure, and joy as we learn together.

This Sunday we begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday. Holy Week is the week leading up to the celebration of Easter. We will hear the Passion of Our Lord read for the first time this Lenten/Easter season on Sunday. We are called on during Holy Week to remember how Jesus showed his love, mercy, kindness and great courage. Later in the week, we remember Holy Thursday, where Jesus shared the last supper with his Disciples and showed his servant leadership by washing their feet. On Good Friday we remember that Jesus was crucified died and was buried. We will hear the Passion re-read on Good Friday for a second time. Easter Saturday reminds us of when his loved ones waited in vigil outside his tomb and on Easter Sunday we remember that Jesus rose from the dead. In the act of remembering, we pass the traditions and beliefs of our Church on to the next generation. This week we remember the person of Jesus who gave his life in sacrifice for us. Please see Mass times for Easter included here.

Cultural Festival

Last night our Pasifika and Chinese Cultural Groups performed at the HPPA Cultural Festival held at Sancta Maria College. We are so proud of their confident and well-prepared performance and wish to congratulate the children, Shirley Johnston our Cultural Coordinator and Agnes Cuer, Jenny Matano, Randall Kumitau, Liyan Mitalauskas who coached the groups over the course of this term. Thank you to those who assisted with coordinating the amazing costumes. Thanks also to the parents of the children involved for getting the children to school ready for morning practices as well as their ongoing encouragement and support on the night.

New Website Layout

I hope you have been enjoying the new way that we are sharing school news and events with you as a community through our ‘Online News’ tab on the landing page of our website. On Friday evening of last week, and again this evening, you should receive an email summarising the events of the week with a prompt to ‘read more’ should you have missed the content of any of the postings that may interest you. If you have not received an email on Friday evening, please let the office know so that we can update our records, ensuring we have your current email address on file to enable this communication to go through.

You will also be receiving this newsletter via the same email address. Once again, should you not be receiving this correspondence, please let the office know.

Board of Trustees Election

A sincere thank you to those who have considered giving service to the community through representation on the Board of Trustees. With the election coming up in June, now is the time to ask questions of the board to find out what is involved and consider putting your name forward for representation. Please email Stephen McKenzie at [email protected] if you are interested or have any questions.

Community Dreaming Day – Saturday 18th May 2019

Here is your chance to have your say! Come along on Saturday, May 18th from 2.30pm to 4.30pm to work with our board, teaching staff and leadership team on our school vision. Have your say about what you think is important in an OLSOS learner, tell us what you value in our reporting formats and what else we could do. Find out about meeting the well-being needs of our children when working online and our developing philosophy of supporting our students when transitioning to school… and so much more.

There will be fun activities and games for the children, so there is no need to worry about finding child care while you participate in this important community meeting.

Please, save the date for this opportunity to be part of shaping the direction of the school for the next few years. More details to come closer to the time.

Thank you to all our families for your ongoing support this term. It has been a very busy term and we look forward to our return to the new term on Monday 29th April where we will launch ourselves into Term 2 with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Wishing you a happy, safe and holy Easter and school holiday break.

Ngā mihi nui
Louise Campbell
Principal

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

In the lead up to Holy week classes have been reflecting on Jesus’ journey to the cross and what that means for us today as Catholic Christians. The liturgy team has lead the Stations of the Cross at lunchtime this week as another opportunity for other students to experience this form of prayer. During prayer times classes have been reliving the last supper, from the washing of each others feet to breaking bread together. Each one of these actions are a reminder of how we can be of service to others. This afternoon the school gathered to re tell Jesus final days. Many thanks to the students who lead us in prayer.

At the Easter Vigil next Saturday evening, the mass will begin in darkness reminding us of Christ’s death and the darkness of the tomb. We enter the church with only the light of the Easter Candle to lead the way. Jesus tells us, ‘I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ The entrance of the Easter candle into the church is a powerful reminder of this. The light of this one candle is then shared with all present and very soon the darkness of the church is overcome. The church is filled with light, light that is strong in faith and hope. Catherine McAuley’s reminds us ‘to be a shining lamp, giving light to all around’ and share this light of faith and hope with all those we meet.

Lighting a candle at dinner time as you say grace together or at family prayer time is a simple way to connect your family to the light of the Easter candle.

While we recall Christ’s journey to the Cross at Easter time, we too remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives in service for their country.

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.’

The new term begins Monday 29 April with our Easter liturgy, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. You are all welcome to join us.

Ko te aroha o te Atua kua whiwhi whanau a tatou Katoa

The tender mercy of God has given us one another

Prayer Intention: E te Ariki, we pray for all those who are being received into the Church through the sacrament of Baptism this Easter season.

Detta Fairweather
DRS

FROM YOUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Dear Family and Friends

It’s hard to believe that the first term of 2019 has come and gone. I trust that all of you have a had great first term. A particular highlight of this term for me was going on one of our year five and six camps. Thanks so much to Sue Kubala and Karen Noble-Campbell for their amazing organisation and to all of the year five and six teachers and parents who gave their time to make the camps such a wonderful experience for our year five and six akonga. Another highlight was going on our year three and four trip to the New Zealand National Maritime museum where our children had the opportunity to build on their classroom inquires about heroes by learning how everyday people can do things that are truly heroic in the service / maanaki of their communities. Thanks too to our year three teachers who made this amazing learning experience possible for our year three and four students. Ka mau te wehi.

Your Board is continuing to make good progress with the canopy and turf for the upper court. The Diocese have advised that they are happy to consent to the canopy subject to our canopy provider supplying them with a satisfactory drainage plan for the canopy. We are currently working with our canopy provider and an engineer to provide this to the Diocese. I will keep you all up to date as we progress towards signing the contract to build the canopy and turf the upper court with our providers.

Your Board is also progressing our play spaces intiaitive. You would have all received an e-mail from Karen Noble-Campbell asking for donations of all sorts of items that our children can play with in a safe, imaginative way. These could be anything from old noodles, old steering wheels, old hubcaps, cones, old pot lids, small plastic reels, to small tyres, plumbing parts, and plastic pipes, elbows and joiners. If you do have something that you no longer need and can donate please let Karen know at e-mail: [email protected] so we can decide whether your items are safe and suitable and, if so, make arrangements to add them to our shed. A big thank you to all of you who have already donated items or helped out with our shed (particularly Ian McEnteer who has spent hours cutting up conduit into play items). We know that our children love the mud kitchen (the mudholes and mud cakes are witness to that) and your Board is really looking forward to taking the next step in this initiative by opening up our loose parts shed to our kids.

In the last newsletter Louise wrote about one of our school’s five gospel values – aawhina / service – and the ways in which you as a community contribute to making our school such a special place by giving freely giving your time in service. One of the ways that you can serve our school is by becoming a trustee. This year is board election year so if you are interested in standing for the board and would like to know more about what the role of board member involves please get in touch with me at e-mail: [email protected].

Blessings to you all for a happy holiday.

Stephen McKenzie

Chair

INFORMATION CENTRE

Author visit

Last week we were thrilled to welcome local author Vanessa Hatley-Owen to speak to the senior school about her newly published picture book When Dad came home. This tells the very moving story of the difficulties faced by a returning WWI soldier to normal family life in New Zealand. Vanessa gave students an insight into her research, ideas and the writing process as well as her lifelong passion for reading and writing.

Vanessa was very impressed by our students thoughtful questions and delighted by the warm welcome from our Head librarians Emily Chan and Marli O’Hagan.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT OUTSIDE SCHOOL

Congratulations to Ashley Ip from Room 18 who has been selected as one of twelve NZ representatives to attend the Synchronised Development Camp in Sydney during the Easter break. Well done Ashley – we are very proud of you!

FROM YOUR PTA

On behalf of our PTA team, students, parents and staff I would like to acknowledge and thank Michaela Telfer for her dedication, tireless hours and the incredible job she has done as Chairperson for the past 3 years and also co-ordinating our last Gala! Our school will be forever grateful for your incredible contribution.

AGM 2019

At our recent AGM the following officers were elected for the upcoming year.

Chairperson – Nicole Kelly
Secretary – Tina Moulynox
Treasurer – Donelle Nunes

We look forward to seeing some new faces at our next meeting to help make this year even bigger and better !!

“Many hands make light work”

CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER
Thank you to everyone for your amazing support with our recent fundraiser. This was extremely successful and has made a huge amount of money to benefit our school. A big thanks and congratulations to our Top sellers.
Lyla Latay ( 26 boxes !!)
Caleb Hooper
Rocco Gribble
Alessandro Zyzalo
Joshua Donovan
Marcus Cuer
Cullen Chaytor

Also to our 3 winning classes Room 2, Room 17 and Room 23 who enjoyed a Pizza lunch on Tuesday to celebrate their efforts.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday

Nicole Kelly
PTA Chairperson

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Easter work Panmure Roundabout – Road Closures

The Easter holiday weekend is a time for many people to head away to relax.

With traffic volumes significantly lower than normal, it is an ideal time for us to carry out major work on Panmure Roundabout. Between 19 and 29 April, we will be carrying out intensive work on Panmure Roundabout including removal of the Panmure sign (see the latest AMETI newsletter for more on the sign) along with removing trees along Lagoon Drive in preparation for retaining walls to be built. The walls are imperative to the project as it will allow the road and footpaths to be widened for construction of the busway and shared path.

Road closures will be implemented as a safety measure while work takes place during this the Easter and ANZAC Day period (see diagram below). Access to Lagoon Drive will be maintained for residents, staff and customers of Lagoon Pools and Leisure Centre. This access will be open via the Lagoon Drive / Church Crescent end of the closures.

Throughout this work, an east-west traffic flow (Ellerslie Panmure Highway – Queens Road) across the roundabout will be maintained. A left turning option will also be available out of Ireland Road.

If you would like to come and talk with a member of the Eastern Busway team, drop in to our information centre in Pakuranga Plaza – Tuesday and Thursday 2pm – 6pm.

Plan a better journey through the construction: AT.govt.nz/travelplaneast

Have a safe and happy Easter! The AMETI team