No 10 31 July 2020

 

NEWS FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Families,

In this newsletter, our first for Term 3, you will see we are very much back into business as usual post lockdown.

Our Parish is a place of celebration as you will read in our Director of Religious Studies section of this newsletter, with a new statue of Our Lady of Peace being blessed by bishop Micahel Gielen two Sundays ago, recent Baptisms including members of our school community, many of our young learners involved in preparation for the celebration of the Sacraments of Confirmation and Communion and the Alpha programme beginning again on August 23.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading is well-known; the feeding of the 5000. In reflecting on the miracle of Jesus sharing the loaves and fish, we are called on to reflect on this loving act. He saw a need in the hungry crowd who had followed him and with the grace of God did something about it. We are challenged to consider ways we can share our gifts and talents with others in support of their needs. Click here for this Sunday’s readings.

Term 3 Learning Focus

This term our concept focus is ‘Innovation’ where our students will gain an understanding that innovation is the result of creative thinking and problem solving. We will be connecting the exploration of patterns in our world last term into an inquiry into innovations that can protect and nurture the patterns that are taonga in our common home.

Mid Year Reports

We reached the conclusion of our mid reporting cycle last week with the posting of Mid Year Learning Review reports on the portal for parents. This document pulled together the parent, student and teacher responses from the learning disposition information gathered last term, the goals established at the Parent/Student Teacher Mid Year Learning Discussions which were held the week before the end of last term and an update as to where each student is working in relation to the curriculum in literacy and numeracy. We have had a lot of positive comments about the process and the depth of information shared, particularly around the learning dispositions which enable our learners to be successful across the curriculum. Undertaking the mid-year sharing of learning in this way looked different to how families have been accustomed to mid-year reporting in the past, however, this process has been a great step forward in meeting community desire around reporting as established through our consultation last year. We are keen to gain a more in-depth understanding of how our community found this new form of mid-year reporting so will shortly send a survey asking for your voice. This will assist us in planning for reporting into the future. Thank you in advance for contributing your thoughts.

Walking to/from Orangewood Dr or Chapel Rd

It is pleasing that many families are parking on Orangewood Dr or Chapel Rd and allowing their children to make the short walk either along Oakridge Way or Stella Maris Way into and out of school. This supports traffic and parking congestion as well as continuing to foster the independence of our children. Thank you for your ongoing support in this way.

Friendship Fridays

It was great to see lots of families in school last Friday afternoon and this afternoon to meet and catch up while enjoying a coffee thanks to the services of the coffee van while exploring the information centre and exchanging library books. Thank you to those members of our community who have embraced this opportunity, it is lovely to see and feel our community connections growing again after COVID hindered our chance to gather. In gathering and sharing in this way on Friendship Fridays, we can make the most of the opportunity to be community together while we also continue to embrace the independence our children have in entering and exiting the school on their own on other weekdays. Thanks to Rebecca Sentch and Bronwyn Bell our Information Centre coordinators for their support in this effort, keeping the library open for families to enjoy.

Kahui Ako update

As you are aware, we are members of the South East Christian Kahui Ako, a group of 6 schools that work together to share professional learning and development, collaborate over effective teaching and learning and work cooperatively to shift student achievement. On Thursday of last week, our Board of Trustees had the opportunity to join with the Boards of the other schools involved to hear from the 4 Across School Teachers who work across all 6 schools on the work that the Kahui Ako is engaging in. Our Board heard about the focus on advancing learner agency through teaching and learning as inquiry. We were very proud of Andrea Begunk who, as an Across School Teacher for our Kahui Ako, shared the work that has been undertaken to bring Early Childhood Education centers on board in order to investigate transitioning practices across the Kahui Ako and share ideas around making the transition from ECE into school as smooth as possible. We also heard how the investigation of play-based learning has advanced and supported transition into school and learning programmes beyond, as well as how the implementation of the new Digital Technology curriculum has been supported by professional development across the Kahui Ako and about the engagement of local Iwi. If you are interested in finding out more follow this link to our Kahui Ako website.

Staffing update

This term we welcome three new staff to our learning community I am sure you will make them feel very welcome when you see them around school.

Mrs Emma Forbes and Mrs Joanna Hey who are working in our New Entrant/Year 1 class alongside Mrs Lesley Benjamin as we welcome new learners in the second half of the year.

We also welcome Mrs Heather Collins who has joined our senior school as class teacher in Room 21 and Team Leader of our Year 5/6 team.

Looking back

In the fortnight since our term began, there have been some wonderful additional experiences for our learners that sit on top of their usual classroom programme. These experiences include our chess team attending a chess tournament at Pt View Primary (read on in this newsletter to find out more), our netball teams engaging in grading rounds, we held our first whole school assembly in almost 5 months where we shared liturgy, song and learning. We were blessed with good weather which enabled us to enjoy our school cross country this week (see results and photos later in this newsletter) as well as had our school soccer team represent us at a local soccer tournament (read more later in this newsletter). Our Passion Project Wednesdays began this week which included 9 members of our parish supporting us in sharing their passions with our learners (read on to find out more). We have also begun a series of tennis lessons with a coach from the Cockle Bay Tennis Club for our senior students which will continue over the next 4 weeks.

Looking ahead

Over the next fortnight, we look forward to continuing our maths professional development, our senior gymnasts will compete in the primary schools gymnastic qualifying competition, we have our U45 rugby team participating in a rugby fun day and our junior classes making a trip to the Botanic Gardens as part of their concept learning this term. Our successful school cross country runners will represent us at the HPPA Cross Country and our juniors will participate in gymnastics sessions run by the Howick Gymnastics Club. Our PTA are meeting on Monday 10th August and Friday 14th August sees us celebrate our Feast Day with Mass at 11.15am and Feast Day Idol in the afternoon amongst other fun activities on the day. As you can see, there is lots to look forward to over the next couple of weeks.

Wishing you a very happy, safe and blessed fortnight ahead until I have the privilege of sharing the fun of learning at OLSOS in next fortnights newsletter.

Ngā mihi nui

Louise Campbell
Principal

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Recently…

Bishop Michael Gielen, the auxiliary Bishop of Auckland, blessed the new Our Lady of Peace statue for our parish. The statue now stands in Our Lady’s chapel towards the entrance of the Church. Please do take the time to visit her.

Our Liturgy team attended the Caring Foundation Mass last week and were acknowledged for their work in support of our parish foodbank.   

Congratulations to Hyo Sung Lee (Rm 9) and his mother Hyun Soo Kim, who were Baptised at the 5:30pm Mass last weekend. During the mass Father Terry talked about how much he enjoys helping people to discover the treasure that faith is. 

Alpha Programme starts on Sunday, 23 August with a dinner in the Parish Centre at 7 p.m. Our cooks will prepare a scrumptious meal; you may meet fellow parishioners you didn’t know before & learn their names; we tell you what Alpha is all about & answer questions, and invite you to the next programme. Bring a friend.

It is often said, ‘The family that prays together stays together.’ Pope Francis promoted the 5 finger prayer as an easy reminder of who to pray for. This prayer practice assigns each finger a prayer focus. 

The thumb is for those closest to us – pray for your family and friends. 

The index finger is for those who point the way and guide us – pray for leaders, teachers, doctors, priests, coaches, police etc. 

The middle finger, our tallest, is for our leaders – pray for the leaders of our county, community, parish, work place. 

The ring finger, our weakest finger, is for those who are in need – pray for the sick, the homeless, the poor, those in need today. 

The pinky, the smallest finger, is for ourselves  – pray for your own needs

Manaakitia te katoa

Share your gifts with others

Prayer Intention:  We pray for the spirit of generosity enabling us to reach out to others by sharing what we have with those in need. 

Keep safe. God Bless

Detta Fairweather

Deputy Principal / Director of Religious Studies

 

A MESSAGE FROM THE CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE DUES COVID-19

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Financial assistance is available to assist families who may need financial support as a result of the Covid-19 Virus with the payment of 2020 Attendance Dues for students attending Catholic schools in Auckland Diocese, both primary and secondary.
Families facing financial difficulties can contact their school office, their Parish Priest or the Revenue Manager on 09-360-3069 at the Catholic Diocese of Auckland for further information.
Application forms for this assistance are available from school and parish offices, or can be down-loaded from the Catholic Diocese of Auckland Website: https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/catholic-schools/covid-19-attendance-dues-assistance/

NEWS FROM BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Kia ora Whanau, 

This month we held the Board of Trustees meeting virtually. 

This meeting focused on the annual financial report for the 2019 year, which has come back from the accountants and been signed off for audit. It will be posted on the School’s website.

Last month I advised of the resignation of Stephen McKenzie as one of our elected members of the Board of Trustees. The Board has decided that the current vacant Board position will be ‘filled by selection’ and we will be managing our obligations for this method appropriately.

We also had the dispersion data presented to the Board which has shown how we as a school community, have done supporting our learner outcomes over the first half of the year. The home / school partnership commitment has generated great outcomes for our students, so well-done Community. 

The Cola update: No update.

In closing, as a Board we are always humbled at the level of commitment to the school by the community and the reflection this has on our children’s outcomes.

Until next time.

Kia ora korua & kia manaaki ati atua koutou

Vaughan Fraser

BOT Chairman

NEWS FROM THE PTA

EARLY NOTICE (note your diary)

UPCOMING SAUSAGE SIZZLE:       WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020 –  lunchtime

A reminder notice will be sent via School Links the week of the sausage sizzle.

Nicole Kelly

PTA Chairperson

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK MEMBERSHIP

We are selling Entertainment Digital Memberships as part of this year’s fundraising and we would love your support.

Entertainment Digital Memberships are convenient, easy to use and packed full of valuable.  2 for 1 and up to 50% off offers for you to use over 12 months from activation.  Buy online to support us today.

Just scan the QR code below or  order through our school link                   https://www.entertainmentbook.co.nz/orderbooks/990f07

To VIEW what offers are available. …     https://www.entertainmentbook.co.nz/

 

NEWS FROM THE CLASSROOM

Last term in Room 17 we were looking at the patterns which form part of our Cultural Taonga.  We chose a pattern to draw and paint.  We have many Cultural backgrounds in our classroom and this is reflected in the patterns we chose to try and create.

SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY REPORT – ROOM 19 

It was no ordinary start to the day, today was cross country day! 

House captains and PE monitors arrived early to assist the helpful teachers to set up for this big day. We set up Gazebos, house banners and roped off areas for parents to stand. After setting everything up, we all got changed into our house colours, and were starting to prepare for our race. Our hearts were racing and pounding in our chests. There were butterflies in our stomachs. We were all nervous for this huge event but we had been training extremely hard for weeks!

As Mrs Bailey called our race out over speaker we all started to shiver with anxiety. While we walked to the starting line the nerves set in.“BANG!”

went the clappers and we dashed at top speed around the track. As we ran we kept an eye on others around us and tried our very best. Before long the finish line was in sight. Using the last of our energy we sprinted through the shoot. We were filled with joy and happiness since we had finally completed this course. 

By Tayla Kay, David Li and Andrew D’Silva 

 

SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS 

Year 1 Girls	Year 1 Boys
1st Carla Shaw 2nd Mya Hillerby 3rd Maria Sandoval	1st Jackson Lawrence 2nd Luke Stewart 3rd Cruz Smith
Year 2 Girls	Year 2 Boys
1st Adele Jablonski 2nd Maddy Roger 3rd Harper Williams	1st Charlie Bongiovanni 2nd Tristan Devey 3rd Clevon Fernando
Year 3 Girls	Year 3 Boys
1st Isobella Evans 2nd Hannah Baek 3rd Tamia Tavita-Falesiu	1st Eric Xue 2nd Charlie Faulkner 3rd Caleb Hooper
Year 4 Girls	Year 4 Boys
1st Carla Lin 2nd Ruby Burnnand 3rd Chloe Kendrick-Jones	1st Luke McLaughlin 2nd Nathan Lo 3rd Rafael Smith
Year 5 Girls	Year 5 Boys
1st Havanna Smith 2nd Madison Beagley 3rd Samantha Bongiovanni	1st Liam Martin 2nd Zion Bidois 3rd Nico Taurima
Year 6 Girls	Year 6 Boys
1st Tayla Kay 2nd Lydia Ellis 3rd Helena Brinker	1st Ryan Smeath 2nd Matthew Mills 3rd Luke Preisig
Congratulations to all of our runners. We are very proud of you. Those who have qualified for the HPPA interschool competition will be notified.

 

 

NEWS FROM OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

CHESS TOURNAMENT

On Wednesday the 22nd Our Lady Star Of the Sea played in a chess tournament in Point View School this is a recount on what happened.

As we arrived at Point View school doors swung open as our school, Star of the Sea proudly walked through the doors. We played a few warm-up rounds before the big tournament started, because warming up is a very important part of playing chess. But soon the moment came, it was time to start. The principal of Point View introduced himself and let the Arbiter takeover who explained all the rules.  After that we were ready to go. The pressure was then on as our first round began. We all pushed to our max but sadly not all of us achieved a point. As Round Two came and went, we all quietly shouted a big cheer as most of us won a point. Round Two was a big success for our school. We played five more rounds. In the end we came 5th place out of six schools. We had a whole lot of fun, improved our chess skills and most importantly, learnt about good sportsmanship.

By Christian Lianto and Luca Dreaver

Room 18

 

SOCCER INTER SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

This Wednesday Year 5 & 6 students participated in their first field day of the HPPA Interschool Football Tournament held at William Green Domain, Pakuranga.  They played 3 back to back matches – 1 loss, 1 Draw, 1 win.  The Tournament runs until the end of Term 3 with two more field days.

PASSION PROJECTS

Passion Projects started this week with students involved in a number of projects e.g. knitting, building, balloon creations, Kapa Haka, cybersmart, kitchen chemistry, hospital dolls and many more.  Tutors volunteer their time and skills over a 6 week period in teaching new and exciting skills.   We could not run this programme if it wasn’t for our volunteers so thank you for passing on your knowledge and skills.

 

NEWS FROM THE INFORMATION CENTRE

Author visits

Four fantastic authors will be visiting us plus we will be tuning into a virtual live show with best selling kiwi author and musician Deano Yipadee.

Costume parade

A fun morning where children and staff will be dressed in their favourite book character or  jungle animal costume.

Bring family and friends to watch this amazing parade!

Friday 28th August 9am

Lunchtime fun

Jungle I spy around the school

Art and craft in the Information centre

Story reading

Competitions

Fun competitions with the chance to win prizes!

Class activities

Online jungle bingo activity boards to be completed in class and lots and lots of stories!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRIDAY FRIENDSHIP INVITATION

 

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT OUTSIDE SCHOOL

Congratulations to Samantha Bongiovanni on receiving a Volunteers Award from Bucklands Beach Association Football Club.

Well done Samantha for being involved and helping in the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMMUNITY NEWS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEASONS FOR GROWTH  – VOLUNTEERS NEEDED