No 7 10 May 2019

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Families

Welcome to our first newsletter of Term Two as we have reached the end of the second week of the term.

This month is a special month for our Church. The month of May is the month of Mary. This Christian custom of dedicating the month of May to the Blessed Virgin arose at the end of the 13th century. Paul VI wrote a short encyclical in 1965 using the Mary devotion as a means of obtaining prayers for peace. He urged the faithful to make use of this practice which is “gladdening and consoling and by which the Blessed Virgin Mary is honoured and the Christian people are enriched with spiritual gifts” (no. 2). In May of 2002 Pope John Paul II said, “Today we begin the month dedicated to Our Lady a favourite of popular devotion. In accord with a long-standing tradition of devotion, parishes and families continue to make the month of May a ‘Marian’ month, celebrating it with many devout liturgical, catechetical and pastoral initiatives!”

Mary is the Patron Saint of our school, with her name featuring in our school name ‘Our Lady Star of the Sea’. With a Marian connection in our school, Mary holds a special place of honour for us. We have started the month of May by praying the rosary in our classes as part of our morning prayer routine weekly. This will continue through the month. I encourage you to talk to your children about the rosary and take some time to pray this prayer at home too.

Our Term began with a beautiful Easter Liturgy, continuing the Easter story from where we left off at the end of Term One with the solemnity of the Passion of our Lord. Our liturgy began by reminding us of this solemn part of the Holy Week story and quickly moved into the celebration of the risen Christ on Easter Sunday. Our Liturgy Leaders did a great job with both the Passion Liturgy at the end of Term One and with our Easter Liturgy at the opening of Term Two, under the guidance of our wonderful DRS, Mrs Detta Fairweather and we thank and congratulate them for their efforts.

Term 2 Curriculum Focus – Harmony

As you know, this year our overarching theme for all of our curriculum design is Joyfulness: To lead like Jesus to make a difference to the world we live in and bring Joyfulness to our common home. This Term we take the concepts focused on during Term One through investigating Adventure, the dispositions required when adventuring and how we experience Joyfulness in self and others when conquering challenges, and turn our focus to Harmony. Through the term our learners will reflect on how our faith challenges us to respect and build harmony and bring joy to the world we live in. We will build on our understanding of harmonious relationships and how our values build harmony in our school and beyond. We will be engaging across all curriculum areas in this focus, with emphasis this term on the Science Curriculum, particularly around harmony within earth systems.

Community Dreaming Day Saturday 18th May 2.30pm to 4.30pm

Our fabulous PTA is providing afternoon tea for the adults as well as a sausage sizzle and iceblock for the children.

We would love to see as many families present as possible for this day of sharing and dreaming big about our vision for our school into the future.

Gala Organising Committee

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the Gala Organisation Committee:

Ross Ellswood is a parent in our Junior School who comes to the committee with 6 years experience on the organisation committee of the gala at Sacred Heart College.

Nicole Kelly is a parent in our Middle School. She also holds the position of PTA Chair this year. Nicole has had many years experience in gala organisation at several local schools, including our own.

Jane Kumitau is a parent with children in our Middle and Senior School. Jane is an ex-pupil of Our Lady Star of the Sea herself and has supported the organisation of our gala many times before.

Anne Marie Harvey is a Learning Support Assistant at our school and has been part of the organisation of the gala over many years, starting first as a parent supporter before becoming part of our school staff.

Sue Yandell is our Executive Officer at school, also with many years of experience in gala organisation for our school.

This team will work towards another incredible community and fundraising event on the first Saturday back in Term Three. We are all hugely enthusiastic and looking forward to your support in the months leading up to the gala.

Latest round of NZEI Paid Union Meetings

This week our teaching staff attended the latest round of paid Union meetings as the teaching profession continue to work towards an agreement with the Government in the provision of support for our young learners, effective working conditions and remuneration to recruit and retain great teachers. Teachers across the country who belong to the NZEI will have voted at these meetings over the course of this week as to whether to undertake further strike action and we will be notified on Monday 13th May as to whether this goes ahead. If the vote is to go ahead and strike, the date set aside at the present time is Wednesday 29th May. We will keep you posted on whether this will go ahead as we find out more information.

Thank you for your ongoing support as the teaching profession work hard to ensure there is effective resourcing and amazing teachers to teach our tamariki now and into our future.

Passion Project Update

We have 9 wonderful parents who have offered to support teachers in our Year 3 to 6 Passion Project Initiative on a Wednesday afternoons from 1.30pm to 2.30pm. With the organisation underway, we are anticipating being able to have our children select their top choices from the range of Passion Project activities, set up the groups and begin our Passion Project Wednesdays on the 5th June.

Road Safety Week Reminders

This week is Road Safety Week which is particularly important to us at school with children walking to and from school as well as lots of cars arriving in our small residential local streets twice daily for pick up and drop off.

We are very grateful to the parents who support our Road Patrol students on Oakridge Way and for those families who support their children when entering either through the front or back gate areas of the school.

It is really important that our children are supported to remember that the bus bay at the front of the school must be avoided when entering at the front of the school and that it is important to check both ways when crossing the long pedestrian crossing that sits across our staff car park. There have been a few close-calls with school staff entering or exiting the staff car park and our students running across that pedestrian crossing without looking. Our staff are always very alert and aware when entering or exiting the staff car park, however it is helpful on all of our nerves if our children are also reminded to be careful when crossing in front of the carpark!

Looking Ahead:

Book Week 2019

This term we have Book Week in the week of 10th to 14th June. In order for our Information Centre to be available to our classes during Book Week, this year the Scholastic Book Fair will be the following week from 17th June, coinciding with our parent conferences.

During Book Week, we have plenty of fun activities planned including visiting authors and illustrators, pyjama day, art competitions as well as our school hosting the book launch of David Riely’s book entitled ‘Leaping into History ‘ which is a book about Yvette Williams. This year we will not have a book character parade. The book character parade will be a bi-annual book week event to keep enthusiasm for this event high.

Teacher Only Day Tuesday 4th June

Don’t forget that on Tuesday 4th June, the day after Queens Birthday weekend, our school will be closed for tuition as we have a Teacher Only Day. Our staff will engage in professional learning and development alongside our colleagues in the 5 other schools that make up the South-East Christian Kahui Ako, furthering our understanding around developing 21 Century skills and learner agency in our students.   Bizzy Bodz will be on site for child care. Please see information flyer in ‘Community’ notices later in newsletter.   Please note that After School Classes have been cancelled on this day.

Staffing Update

We welcome Mrs. Darryl Lynn back to Our Lady Star of the Sea. Darryl is working alongside Mrs Lesley Benjamin in our shared learning space across Rooms 10 and 11 as our New Entrant numbers expand. Darryl has worked at Our Lady Star of the the Sea over many years and has wonderful experience to bring to the New Entrant/Year 1 learning space. Welcome Darryl!

We are fortunate to have three training teachers join us for a five-week practicum placement from Monday 13th May. Miss Robertson will be working in Room 14 with Mrs Tracey Elder, Miss Jacobs will be working in Room 21 with Mrs Leanne Newlyn and Miss Jazmine Taiaroa will be working in Room 23 with Miss Catherine Sheffield. I know that our training teachers will feel very welcome and supported in this wonderful learning environment.

Sunday Mass Readings

Please click here to view this Sunday Mass Readings.

This term has certainly begun with great momentum and there is plenty of exciting events happening for our learners. This week is NZ Sign Language Week and our children have been learning and sharing NZ Sign Language in classes. We have had students at an HPPA Soccer day, the National Young Leaders day, an HPPA Chess competition and of course we had the beautiful Mothers Day Liturgy this morning which was a wonderful celebration of the special place that our Mothers have in our hearts. We have a group of students at the Young Writers Festival and participating in the Otago Problem Solving event next week, so there is plenty to keep everyone busy! Keep looking at the ‘Online News’ section of our website for updates, and if you forget, you will get an email each Friday evening reminding you of the most recent posts and button to click to take a further look just in case you missed anything.

I wish all mothers, grandmothers, aunties and important female role models in our community a very happy Mothers Day on Sunday, and all in our community a safe and blessed fortnight ahead until our next newsletter.

Ngā mihi nui
Louise Campbell
Principal

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Easter is the greatest feast of our faith.  We are an Easter people, a people marked by joyfulness – smiling, cheerful, optimistic, upbeat, happy, agreeable, and positive! While Easter happens on one Sunday of the year, we are called to be Easter people all of the time. For Catholic Christians, every day is Easter!  Every day is a day to be joyful!  Jesus said, “People will know that you are my disciples by your love” (Jn 13:35).  This Easter season, may people recognise us as Jesus people through our joy and love for each other.

The Saint Vincent de Paul (SVDP) society is collecting pyjamas for children up to 18 years of age for Middlemore Hospital. The collection is starting in May to ensure there are enough pyjamas at the beginning of the cold season. SVDP thank you for your generosity last year with this initiative and are hoping for your support again.

The parish Sacramental Programme for those children already enrolled begins again this weekend at the 5:30pm mass. The focus for the next section of the programme is Holy Communion – The Eucharist. Please keep these children in your prayers.

During Terms 2 and 3 classes will celebrate mass with their buddies on a Thursday morning in the Information Centre. Everyone is welcome to attend at any of these masses. Notices will go home to advise when your child’s class will be directly involved. Fr John and Fr Terry will also be visiting classrooms during Terms 2 and 3. We thank them both for making time in their busy schedules to support us in these ways.

During the month of May classes will be praying the rosary, focusing on the Glorious Mysteries where we remember Jesus’ resurrection and the promise of heaven. Encourage your children to do the same at home during your own family prayer time.

Kia hari koa, ka uru tera wairua ki tena ki tena

Be cheerful and happy, generating life in those around you

Prayer Intention:

God of mercy and love, we pray that we may all hear your call to mission this Easter season and seek a deeper relationship with your Son, Jesus.

Detta Fairweather
DRS

FROM THE BOT

Board of Trustee Election

Nominations are invited for the election of 5 parent representatives to the board of trustees.

A nomination form and a notice calling for nominations will be posted to all eligible voters.

You can nominate another person to stand as a candidate, or you can nominate yourself. Both parts of the form must be signed.

Additional nomination forms can be obtained from the school office.

Nominations close at noon on 31.05.2019 and may be accompanied by a signed candidate statement and photograph.

The voting roll is open for inspection at the school and can be viewed during normal school hours.

There will also be a list of candidates’ names, as they come to hand, for inspection at the school.

Voting closes at noon on 14.06.2019

Sue Yandell

Returning Officer

INFORMATION CENTRE

Term 1 whizzed by in the Information Centre. Student librarians settled in well to their new role, learning lots of new routines and having fun organising and promoting lunchtime initiatives.

Children are enjoying their weekly class visits and it is fantastic to note just over 5,000 books were issued throughout the term!

The following authors and series are hugely popular and their books are always issued or reserved:

Liz Pichon – Tom Gates series
Jeff Kinney – Dog man and Diary of a wimpy kid
Meredith Costain – Ella diaries
Andy Griffiths – Treehouse book series
David Walliams
Geronimo Stilton series
Minecraft

Term 2

We are excited about our upcoming Book Week and Book Fair this term!

Author and illustrator presentations, writing and drawing workshops, class art competition, NZ book launch, lunchtime competitions, sharing favourite stories and lots of reading!

More information will follow over the coming weeks but some important things to note:

Book Week will be in Week 7 10-14th June
Scholastic Book Fair will follow in Week 8 17-20th June
No book character parade this year (this is held every second year) but there will be an opportunity for everyone to ‘dress up’ in their PJs/onesies with their favourite bedtime story
More details to follow …

HEAD HELD HIGH

We are very pleased to be continuing our Head Held High speech and drama programme.  The lessons are on Wednesdays during school hours.

Head Held High speech and drama lessons are a wonderful way to build character, confidence and communication skills, and lessons include public speaking skills, acting skills, reading aloud, body language, vocal skills, manners, building self-esteem and confidence. Importantly, all lessons are designed to be as fun, interactive, and imaginative as possible.

Lessons come highly recommended, students enjoy and get a lot out of them! In the words of a current student, “Head Held High lessons are awesome. I’m much more confident about speaking in front of people than I was. The teachers are really fun.”

If you have any questions, or for information about how to book a free trial lesson, please contact Janita; janita@headheldhigh.co.nz

FROM YOUR PTA

• Sausage sizzle Thursday 16 May
• Disco  Friday 7 June
• June 3  (Queens Birthday) PTA  meeting postponed 

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT OUTSIDE SCHOOL

Congratulations to Madeleine Hunter who competed at and won the BMX Oceania Continental Championships in January and also competed at the BMX NZ National Championships in Auckland over Easter and won the title for the 10 year old girls category. We are very proud of your achievements Madeleine!

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Sancta Maria College 2020 Enrolment Closing Date

KELLY SPORTS WINTER SPORTS

Kelly Sports are once again offering a fun filled  after school programme here at our school.

The programme will start next week SO DON’T MISS OUT.  Contact    ….

https://www.kellysports.co.nz/east-auckland

BIZZY BODZ SCHOOL CARE  –   TEACHER ONLY DAY

HOWICK CHILDREN AND YOUTH THEATRE

ALONE AGAIN?  Widowed, Separated or Divorced?   

The Beginning Experience is a non-profit organization with the motto a “Weekend Away for a Lifetime of Change”.  The retreat will help you work through your painful loss. The participants find new hope, increased emotional health and renewed energy.  Date Friday evening 14 to 16 June Sunday afternoon. Cost $32 includes accommodation, meals and materials. Contact Carol evenings 0210169-0222 or Bev (09)298-9943.  Visit www.beginningexperience.org.nz

Marriage Encounter  Non Residential Weekend

25th & 26th May at St Francis Retreat Centre, Mt Roskill, Auckland.  A special enrichment weekend encouraging married couples to focus on each other, their communication, priorities, lifestyle and relationship.                              

Phone 0800 ENCOUNTER (0800 362 686) for more information and BOOK NOW!

Grief and Loss Support Services  – Children

Time to enrol for Seasons for Growth, a peer support programme for children and young people experiencing loss and grief, perhaps through a bereavement, separation or other major change. It will run for 6 weeks every Wednesday  afternoon from 4:00pm to 5:30pm, starting 15th May 2019 at the community rooms, Howick. For enquiries please contact Lesley 0220697384, or ph: 5330222 or email [email protected]

English Language Partners Auckland South

We run a twenty five hour home tutor course to train volunteers.  The course content covers:

• Intercultural awareness;
• Understanding other cultures and relating to other cultures and relating to people from different backgrounds;
• Adults as learners;
• Current TESOL approaches to language learning;
• Identifying learner needs and setting learner goals;
• Planning tutoring sessions, using different approaches, and use of resources;

Evaluating learning sessions and reporting on learners progress toward their goals

We have many potential learners unable to attend our community classes for various reasons. A home tutor can make a real difference by supporting a non- English speaking person to learn English.

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