Click on any of the sections below to scroll directly to it

• News from the Principal
• News from the DRS
• News from the BOT
• News from the PTA
• Financial Assistance
• News from the Classroom
• News from Outside the Classroom
• News from Information Centre
• News from the Enviro Team
• Quick Reference
• Key Dates
• Term Dates
• Community Notices

Dear Families,

Welcome to our third newsletter of Term 2, taking us past the half way point in our school term. The weather is definitely feeling more like winter. It is good to see our children arriving at school in their full winter uniform ready for learning.

Two Sunday’s ago our Middle Team supported our Parish in the celebration of Trinity Sunday. It was wonderful to see many school families in attendance. This Sunday, at Mass, we hear from the Gospel of Mark, reminding us that good things take time. Just as a seed takes time to grow into a productive plant, so too does it take time, love and support for our children, and ourselves to grow into the fullness of what God calls us to be. We ask our loving Father for the strength to live up to his model and support others to do the same. Please follow this link to Sunday’s readings.

VISION, VALUES AND DISPOSITION VISUALS You will have noticed the new visuals in our environment which have been installed over the last week. Alongside our ‘Jesus is the Reason’ and 2021 focus signage, there is no mistaking what our school is all about when you see these images in the environment. You will see the full rosary bead motif on the wall of the double story block by the hall, showing our vision statement, values and disposition ‘beads’ alongside a mercy cross which completes the rosary motif. The rosary configuration was selected to convey our vision and values as Mary is our patron. Each component of this full motif can be used individually or grouped by values, or dispositions. You will see these groups appear around the school and in classrooms as well as on our school certificates as time progresses. We are very proud of the updated visuals and hope that the imagery within each of the beads helps to convey the meaning within each. Story explanations of the features within each of the beads will be available shortly.

CAMP Last week the camp for Rooms 18, 19 and 22 took place down in Ngaruawahia. What a week it was! Full of challenge and opportunities to further develop communication, collaboration, critical and creative thinking. The problem-solving and resilience skills of all (adults and children alike!) were tested and developed across the week. This camp would not have been possible without the generous support of our Board who absorbed the financial loss due to the camp being postponed due to lockdown in February and funded the substantial additional costs to have the camp at a different venue. We are also very grateful to Karen Noble Campbell for her determination in sourcing and organising a full camp experience at a different venue. It was an absolute joy to see the enjoyment and growth of the students as a result of this experience, so to Karen, the Senior Team Teachers and parents who supported the camp, we are very grateful. You will read more about camp later in this newsletter alongside some photos of the fun and challenges that were had.

SANCTA MARIA BUS HELP NEEDED We are very grateful to the families who have been supporting the supervision of our students at the Sancta Maria site before and after school. Over time, as family circumstances change, the ability to continue in these support roles for some does change. If you are in a position to be able to help support this service, in order to keep our students safe while they are at Sancta Maria, please be in touch with Leanne Farmer who does a great job of organising the roster and supervising too. Her contact details are [email protected]

TEACHER ONLY DAY On Tuesday this week, our six Kahui Ako schools and six Early Childhood Education centres got together for a day of Professional Development focused on collaborating as professionals to grow dispositions in our learners. There were over 280 teachers and academic support staff in attendance with rich learning opportunities and sharing being the priority of the day. Thank you for your support of our drive to continue to improve the conditions for learning through such Professional Development days.

UPCOMING PAID UNION MEETING On Wednesday 30th June our teachers who are members of the NZEI Teachers Union are attending a paid union meeting. This meeting is scheduled for the morning with our teachers due to be back at school by 11am. School will be open as usual with a small number of teachers and academic support staff available to care for students in the morning, however usual classroom programmes are not able to go ahead. If you are in a position to support our school by sending your children to school at 11 am instead of for our usual 8.45 am start, we would greatly appreciate the support.

INTER-SCHOOL RUGBY Today, our rugby students attended their first round of inter-school rugby competitions. There are four such competition days in the coming weeks. I am sure you will join me in wishing our teams well in this competition.

LOOKING AHEAD Next week is another busy week with an ICAS Reach exam as well as a Chess Power Competition which we are hosting in our school hall on Tuesday for chess players from around our local schools. We wish our Chess Team the very best of luck in competing on this day. The PTA sausage sizzle is coming up on Thursday and we look forward to Pyjama Day on Friday (bring a gold coin). We are very much looking forward to the PTA Quiz Night next Friday night, with thanks to Tina, Nicole and the team for their organisation.

Please note that the following Friday, 25th June is a Teacher Only Day. Should you require care for your children on this day, see below for details of the Bizzy Bodz programme running out of our school hall.

Wishing you all a happy, safe and blessed fortnight ahead.

Ngā mihi nui and cǐ zhì jìng lǐ,

Louise Campbell
Principal

TEACHER ONLY DAY FRIDAY 25TH JUNE – BIZZY BODZ CHILDCARE

Bizzy Bodz will run a special programme in our school hall from 7.30am – 6pm on Teacher Only Day, Friday 25^th June 2021. Please contact Bizzy Bodz direct should you wish to enrol your child.

Buddy Class masses in our school Chapel space are reliant on the availability of our priests. Unfortunately, due to different events and activities that demand our priests’ attention, they are not able to celebrate the Mass with us over the next few weeks. Please keep them in your prayers as they are called upon in so many different ways through their vocation and service to the Church.

Rituals are important. Each day there are things we do at the same time, in the same place and in the same order. These routine actions become rituals. Rituals help us understand ways of being and ways of doing, in our own particular culture and context. In the classroom context, routines and rituals may involve unpacking our bags, putting books away, gathering for morning prayer, collaborating in learning tasks, participating in playground games and activities. Rituals help us to join in and give us a sense of identity and belonging. They help us enjoy special times and activities and they remind us of people and times that are important. Rituals in our Catholic faith focus on the relationships between God, humankind and all of creation. Rituals such as prayer, lighting a candle, making the sign of the cross and blessing ourselves create an atmosphere of connectedness with God the Father, Son and Spirit.

An important ritual for all Catholics is the Sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is an invitation into a relationship with God. It marks the beginning of our journey in faith. Through Baptism we become members of Christ, and we are welcomed into the Church. Each year in conjunction with our parish, we offer a Baptism of School Aged Children programme, for children from Catholic families who have yet to be Baptised. Feel free to contact me, [email protected], if you would like any more information about the programme.

Students already enrolled in the parish Sacramental programme begin the final stage of the programme this weekend. For the next three weeks they will focus on the Sacrament of Eucharist – Holy Communion. On the weekend of 6 and 7 August these young people will be fully initiated into the Church as they receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion. Please keep them in your prayers.

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

The tender mercy of God has given us one another

Prayer Intention: God of Wisdom and Understanding, we pray you give us the courage to seek answers to our own faith questions in order to come to know you more.

Deputy Principal / Director of Religious Studies

ENTERTAINMENT MEMBERSHIP

LATEST OFFER – click on image to enlarge

ENTERTAINMENT MEMBERSHIPS are now 100% digital making it better than ever.

IT’S EASY JUST CLICK THE LINK TO PURCHASE https://nz.entdigital.net/orderbooks/990f07

Thank you for your continued support

Nicole Kelly

PTA Chairperson

Financial assistance is available to assist families who may need financial support with the payment of Attendance Dues for preference students attending Catholic schools in the 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/acfl-attendance-dues-financial-assistance/

PENECOST

Artwork from Room 16

SAMOAN LANGUAGE WEEK

Artwork from Room 22

Thoughts from camp…

Last week the Camp 2 classes traveled to Ngaruawahia and spent 5 days at the Christian Youth Camp. Many of us had a superb time enjoying all of the activities. First thing every morning we were woken up by the sound of the “dreaded music” and had to do the many fitness exercises before our action-packed day. Our days were filled with crate climbing, rock climbing, zooming over the river on a flying fox, raft building, mud sliding, relaxing in the hot pools, orienteering around the camp, and nerf wars. Nerf wars, raft building, and crate climbing were the best activities to grow our communication and collaboration skills. The BEST part of camp was the food that we consumed every day which was cooked by Anji and her co-chef. Many of the students thought that all of the food was top notch but the lasagne was the best meal by far! The camp concert really helped build whanaungatanga with our peers. It was a great time to socialise and make new friends and many of the students enjoyed it. Camp really helped us to grow and develop friendships and, for many of us, it helped us to try new things that we wouldn’t normally have the chance to do.

By Shiven Sureshkumar (Room 18)

Camp 2 reflections…

Thursday morning was very exciting for us because we knew that there was going to be a camp concert that night…we were very excited when we woke up that day! Moments later, breakfast was ready! For breakfast, there was hot chocolate, cereal, toast, scrambled eggs, and fruit. We then had 45 minutes to prepare for our camp concert skits. After we prepared for our skits, Mrs. Noble-Campbell announced that we were going on a bush walk. The bush walk was past the paintball shed and the mudslide slide which we were to experience later that afternoon and up into the field where the horses and cows were. Later that evening, it was finally “showtime”. We were nervous about performing in front of the huge crowd of kids and parents. The first act was the Activity parents! They did a ‘surgery’ on one of the teachers, which was Miss Evans! The rest of the acts were the other groups and the final act was the teachers re-enacting all of the cabins at night. Overall, the teachers were the champions. The camp was great! We hope we can go again sometime soon!

By Grace Tan and Alexis Kumitau (Room 18)

Yellow Stars Basketball Team

On Thursday 3rd June, the Yellow Stars team had an amazing game against Macleans Primary. We knew it was going to be hard to play with no subs due to half the team being on camp, but playing for three quarters of the game with only four players owning the game was epic! The end score was 7-2 to Yellow Stars!

Everyone played really well and picking a player of the night was hard. Alex was a real anchor in defense collecting rebounds, intercepts and blocks and so was very deserving of player of the night. Special mentions need to go to Simon for scoring all our points, Toby for being all over the court and intercepting balls. Logan played an amazing game, alternating great support in attack and defense. It was a shame that Marcus was fouled out so early on in the game but you four boys steadied the ship really well. I was very proud of the way you all played.

Coach Yohann Cuer.

YELLOW STARS BASKETBALL TEAM

We are excited to be celebrating Book Week in week one next term!

Make sure you visit the amazing Scholastic Book Fair to see all the latest new releases in children’s publishing.

The Book Fair will be open for purchases before and after school from Monday 26th July to Friday 30th July.

Please note : TEACHER ONLY DAYS

Wednesday 7 April 2021

Tuesday 8 June 2021

Friday 25 June 2021

Friday 17 September 2021

Friday 19 November 2021

TEACHER ONLY DAY 25 JUNE – BIZZY BODZ CHILDCARE

Bizzy Bodz will run a special programme in our school hall from 7.30am – 6pm on Teacher Only Day, Friday 25^th June 2021.

Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees Concert

Sunday 20^th June this year has been named by the Catholic Church in New Zealand as a Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees. It is fitting therefore on that day to hold a concert to raise funds for the people of India where the Coronavirus has caused such devastation.

The concert will be presented at

St Joseph’s Catholic Church,

118 Church St. Otahuhu at 2pm,

by the Otahuhu Catholic parish and school communities.

Pope Francis calls the earth “Our Common Home”, asking us to stand together globally, in solidarity, to care for each other as sisters and brothers.

Junior Mathex Competition

What is Junior Mathex?

Junior Mathex is an exciting and fun mathematics problem solving activity for Year 3 to 8 students to participate. A team of four students work together to answer as many questions as they can, as fast as they can, in a set amount of time.

There is a twist: teams only get one question at a time, and the runner must run a lap to the markers to submit one answer at a time, at which point they receive the next question, but only if their answer was correct. The result is an exhilarating atmosphere and an event that is very fun to watch!

If you have not taken part in this kind of activity before, do not worry – we will go through the rules and walk you through how it works on the day.

Goals

• To enrich the student’s experience of Mathematics being fun

• To inspire the student to learn Mathematics

• To improve the student’s mathematical problem-solving skills

• To enhance the students’ teamwork

Date and Venue

Sunday the 15th August, at Barfoot & Thompson Stadium, 203 Kohimarama Road, Auckland

Divisions and Schedule

There will be five divisions: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7 and 8. Division Start Time No. Qs Duration

Year 3 10:00am 15 20 minutes

Year 4 11:00am 15 25 minutes

Year 5 12:00pm 20 30 minutes

Lunch Break

Year 6 1:30pm 20 30 minutes

Year 7&8 2:30pm 20 30 minutes

Prize Giving 3:30pm 20 30 minutes

Registration

Prospective participants must register at https://events.skykiwi.com/2021mathgame

Every student can join only one team. Each team should have four participants including a runner. You can name your team creatively and dress up to the name!

It is recommended to register a team with the students in the same year level.

A student can join a team in higher year level, but not lower one. For example, a Year 5 student can enter in the Year 5 division or a higher year level (such as the Year 6 division), but not in Year 4 division.

Bring

Participants should bring pen/pencils. Working paper will be supplied. Runner must wear running shoes.

Organiser

This event is organised by SkyKiwi and AA Education. It is not affiliated with the AMA, which runs the Auckland Mathex Competition.

Lovely affordable FIRST COMMUNION AND CONFIRMATION GIFTS from Let’s Pray Rosaries

PRICED from $4 to $10 Ph: 02102642303 or Email enquiry: [email protected]. (Brochure at school office to view)