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• News from the Principal
• News from the DRS
• News from the BOT
• News from the PTA
• News from the Gala Committee
• 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 final newsletter of Term 2.

This Sunday, at Mass, we hear in the Gospel of Mark 6: 7 to 13 that the twelve disciples were sent out to spread the good news to others on behalf of Jesus. The gospel calls on us and every believer to continue this ministry. To live as Jesus lived, love as Jesus loved, and serve as Jesus served. This resonates with our School Vision Confidently living, learning and serving with Jesus as our guide. Please follow this link to Sunday’s readings.

PASSION PROJECTS Our Term 2 PassIon Projects drew to a conclusion on Wednesday of this week. This is the third time we have engaged in the offering of activities designed to teach a new skill, push students beyond their usual experience, explore and potentially ignite a passion in our students, and grow learning dispositions and skills at the same time. We have definitely noticed an increase in persistence and resilience compared to when we began offering Passion Projects in 2019. This is wonderful to note. Our Passion Project offerings could not go ahead without the incredible organisation of our Year 4-6 Deputy Principal Karen Noble Campbell. Karen has mobilised wonderful parishioners, parents and school staff to offer a broad range of activities to challenge our students. Thanks Karen for your hard work and thanks also to our community for their support. You will see in the images below the full range of activities that were undertaken for the benefit of our student’s learning and skill development.

MID YEAR LEARNING REVIEW (REPORTS) Thank you sincerely to all our families who have contributed to our Mid Year Learning Review preparations by filling in the Dispositions Parent Survey for each of your children. Your parent voice will be combined with your children’s voice and teachers voice in your children’s Mid Year Reports alongside information about their academic progress, next steps and a review of the goals established earlier this year. These will be available for families on Friday 23rd July on the Parent Portal in preparation for the Parent/Student/Teacher Mid Year Learning Review Interviews which are being held in the first week of Term 3. Also being sent out on Friday 23rd July will be instructions on booking interviews for Wednesday 28 July from 1.30 – 5.30 pm or Thursday 29 July from 3.15 – 7.00 pm. Please reserve some additional time in your calendar on this night to visit our Information Centre where you will find parent information on keeping students safe online and information about our strategic direction and goals with the opportunity to contribute your ideas and opinion on this work. There will be house points awarded to students who bring their parents into the Information Centre, so make sure you set aside an extra 15 minutes or so to visit our Information Centre and contribute your thoughts.

GALA COMMITTEE UPDATE The Gala Committee are well underway with their planning for our Gala in October. You will have received a letter seeking sponsorship or donations from your business networks. We very much appreciate you sharing this letter with people in your family and social circle so we can have fabulous products and services to contribute to making our gala a great day that draws the crowds. You will also have received a newsletter yesterday giving you a ‘heads’ up of items we are looking to have donated. This is just in time for those holiday sorting out jobs that are on everyone’s list of things to do over the break time in your home – set aside items as you go and bring them into school either through the appropriate weekly collection scheduled days, or on container days for packaging and storing in preparation for the gala. Please note: The first container dates are Friday 30th July from 2.15pm to 3pm and Sunday 1st August from 2pm to 3pm. Thank you in advance for your support.

LOOKING BACK We have had a busy couple of weeks since our last newsletter with the HPPA hockey field day, Showquest Toi/Wearable Arts held in the city, where Ava Lily and Toby won prizes for stage presence and best use of materials. The Playhouse Theatre visited to perform their show “Chilled” and Heather Haylock, author from Storylines visited to speak to the junior team. On Thursday of last week, our choir and orchestra participated in the inaugural Combined Schools Music Festival with students from Sancta Maria Primary and Sancta Maria College in a celebration of all things music. This was a fabulous event that will form part of our ongoing calendar of events in future years thanks to the organisational efforts of Mrs Noble Campbell and our music tutor Mrs Jinny McNae. The crazy hat themed PTA Disco last Friday was a huge success thanks to Nicole and the PTA team. Yesterday we had three senior classes visit the Ruapotica Marae which was a fabulous opportunity to experience and deepen our understanding of Tikanga Maori, with more visits scheduled for next term. Today we celebrated the McAuley House Assembly marking our last day of the term.

LOOKING AHEAD We begin our Term with Book Week. Our Book Fair will be in Room 2 for the week. Remember, Book Character Parade is on Friday 30th July, so the holidays are the perfect time to think about and arrange a costume for your child/ren to wear. On Wednesday and Thursday, 28th and 29th July we are hosting Parent, Student, Teacher Mid Year Learning Review discussions. This is a valuable opportunity to meet with your class teacher and child to discuss progress so far this year, the mid-year report and establish goals for the next two terms. The following Friday 6th August is our school Cross Country, the culmination of the training that has been undertaken both at school and home in pursuit of a self-selected distance in support of PTA fundraising efforts. We are excited to explore the combination of training for Cross Country with the opportunity for fundraising at the same time – something new for us!

I wish you all a happy, safe and blessed holiday ahead and look forward to seeing everyone back at school to begin Term 3 on Monday 26th July.

Ngā mihi nui and cǐ zhì jìng lǐ,

Louise Campbell
Principal

This term has provided me, in my role as DRS, the opportunity to visit classes during Religious Education lessons and sit in on class prayer. Our dedicated teaching staff work hard to share the teachings and understandings of our Catholic faith with their students, empowering them to grow in faith and build a personal relationship with Christ. The Board’s prayer journal initiative for Year 2 to Year 6 students has been favourably received by our young learners. The students have recommended we keep this initiative going in the future. Ask your child about their journal – what do they do with it? What do they like about it? They might like to share their journal with you at some stage. You might like to start a journal yourself.

The Auckland Catholic Diocese website has had a revamp and is a wonderful site to visit. Just stopping to look at the photos of events and gatherings around our diocese is an eye opener. Take a peek. You will also find on the website some events coming up soon for you and your family to join in. The Auckland Catholic Festival is taking place at Sancta Maria College on October 16. Save the date. Bishop Pat is putting on a big party for us all. Not to be missed!! The website also has some suggestions for ways to enjoy family prayer time, beyond grace before meals and our usual traditional prayer formats. Ideas such as the 5 finger prayer, hand stack prayer, family prayer jar; are all worth checking out. Your children will be familiar with some of these prayer forms, building their confidence to lead prayer at home.

Another way to feel connected is to sign up to the Alpha Programme. Everyone is welcome. The Alpha Programme begins this weekend, Sunday 11 July 7pm, with a dinner in the school staffroom. Alpha is about the basics of Christianity helping to answer questions such as, Who is Jesus? or Why did Jesus die? Alpha deals with these things and many more. By the time you have finished the programme you will know the answers to many of the basic things about your Faith. There will be a Mandarin language group operating and the opportunity for a Korean speakers group.

Fr Terry extends an invitation to you to come along and bring a friend. Please contact the parish office 534 8710 or sign up on the parish website howickcatholic.org.nz/alpha.html

Prayer intention:

We pray that we gift ourselves and others the joy that comes from gratitude, laughter and faith, through what we say and do.

Deputy Principal / Director of Religious Studies

What a fun night was had by all !! Some Amazing creative crazy hats and some pretty fancy dance moves.

Our 3 Prize winners pictured here made some great hats !!

A special Thanks to the parents who helped out on the night.

ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS

THANK YOU! FREE UPGRADE OFFER EXTENDED!

One of the best things about the Entertainment Membership, apart from supporting Our Lady Star of the Sea School Howick, is that there is a Multi City Membership, which unlocks EVERY offer across Australia and New Zealand. How good! For the first time ever, anybody who purchases a $69.99 Single City Membership will be upgraded to a Multi City Membership valued at $119.99 for FREE! Hurry – this is for a limited time only. That’s a $50 saving and access to over 10,000 offers!!! 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

Matariki is …

A feast of hangi, kaimoana, and kina

A kite dancing on Tawhirimatea’s breath

A woven kete filled with kai for our feast

A kumara harvested from the ground for winter

A wooden carving standing straight and tall holding up the Marae

Families singing Maori traditional songs around the warm campfire

Looking at the seven sisters who are making the sky bright

by Locky Davis Kerr (Room 18)

Horse Riding

For the past few years Kayden Ng and Euan Pichay have been attending horse riding lessons once a week to help with their upper body strength, core strength and general communication and social skills. It was fabulous to receive the news that both boys have now perfected their skills so much that they are able to graduate from the programme. They were presented with rosettes and certificates for their success. Well done boys – we are very proud of you.

Showquest Toi/Wearable Arts

It was a privilege to represent Our Lady Star of the Sea at the Showquest Toi/Wearable Arts last Tuesday night. For the past two terms a small group of seven Year 5 and 6 students have been working on making two garments in their own lunchtimes to enter into the Showquest Toi/Wearable Arts.

They had to use creative thinking that required them to think outside of the box. They chose to create garments to feature in the Futuristic section and the Aotearoa section. The garments needed to have at least 75% of the materials used be recyclable. Ava-Lily, Lilly and Ahlizah-Jae worked on the Aotearoa Beauty and Lorenzo, Zion, Toby and Millie worked on Technology Advancement.

On the night Toby and Ava-Lily were the models for the designs and they absolutely rocked it on stage, so much so that they both took out a prize for Outstanding Stage Performance. Technology Advancement also won a prize for the garment that had the Best Use of Inventive Materials.

The process taught all the students a lot about collaboration, communication and creative and critical thinking. All were very proud of their efforts. A special thanks goes out to Mr Craig Berry who found hidden talents as a make-up artist and chauffeur on the day.

Combined Schools Music Festival

Thursday 1st of July was a night to remember. Our school joined forces with Sancta Maria College and Sancta Maria Primary School to share their gift of music and song with members of all school communities. Our school performed their own set consisting of two pieces by the orchestra and two songs sung by the choir followed up by a marvellous bucket drumming performance. This was the first time we have held such an event and it filled us with pride to see Our Lady Star of the Sea Students singing and playing with such passion. These things don’t just happen by chance. The students have had to work together as a team to learn the songs and musical scores as well as collaborate with our music teacher, Mrs Jinny McNae to put all the pieces together. The school would like to thank Mrs McNae for all she did to prepare our students for the festival. They were a delight to watch.

Basketball

What an amazing term the three basketball teams have had. The finals were held on the 1st of July and we are proud to announce that the Blue Stars won the grade. Our Yellow and White Stars played like troopers all term and, given that most of the players were new to the game, placed incredibly well in the overall table. Nyall Serrao, a Blue Star, has written a great report of the final game which is a joy to read.

Dribble…..pass…..shoot! We played our championship basketball finals against Waakaranga Warriors who are top of their pool table. Both teams hadn’t lost a single game during the round robins. We had a tough game ahead especially since we were 3 team members down but we all played our best. At the end of the first half, both teams were tied.

The second half was a nail biter at the beginning, but we managed to get slightly ahead of our opponents. A few fouls got our opponents closer to our score. Huffing and puffing we still carried on. A few more hoops and the timer went off. I checked the scoreboard – WE WON 15-9. A superb game, terrific teammates, committed coaches and fantastic opponents.

by Nyall Serrao – Blue Stars

2021 BLUE STARS

Rugby

Update on the second rugby round-robin competition; The Stars (U50kg) are still undefeated with impressive wins over Sunnyhills and Cockle Bay. The Mercy Sisters won both of their games by default after scaring off the competition in the last round and The Seas (U40kg) were held to a draw against Cockle Bay and overwhelming won against Pigeon Mountain. We’re looking forward to Friday 13th August and round 3. Congratulations to players of the day…Sebastian, Marcus Cuer, Tyler and Micah.

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

Scholastic Book Fair

Make sure you visit the Scholastic Book Fair in Room 2 to see all the latest new releases in children’s publishing. 

The Book Fair will be open for purchases before and after school

Monday :  8.30 – 9 a.m. and 2.30 – 3 p.m

Tuesday:  8.30 – 9 a.m. and 2.30 – 3 p.m

Wednesday:  8.30 – 9 a.m. and 1.30 – 5.30 p.m

Thursday:  8.30 – 9 a.m. and 3.15 – 7.00 p.m.

Friday:   8.30 – 9 a.m.

Every purchase will go in the draw to win an amazing gift basket of books!

Another Book Week author presentation

We are thrilled to announce that another author will be visiting us during Book Week to speak to our senior children. This visit has been made possible through her fantastic publishers Penguin Random House.

Leonie Agnew is a teacher, former copywriter and award winning author who grew up in Howick! We can’t wait to hear more about her writing and wonderful fiction books.

https://www.penguin.co.nz/authors/leonie-agnew

Costume parade

• 9am Friday 30th July in the hall
• Children can come to school dressed as their favourite book character or jungle animal
• Family and friends are invited to watch this fun parade

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 FRIDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2021 – BIZZY BODZ CHILDCARE

Bizzy Bodz will run a special programme in our school hall from 7.30am – 6pm on Teacher Only Day, Friday 17 September 2021.

JOB VACANCY 

The Catholic Caring Foundation is looking for a community-focused database/grants and administrator co-ordinator to join their busy team on a fixed term 11-month (August 2021 to July 2022) contract period for 20 hours per week.

The Foundation is the philanthropic trust of the Bishop of Auckland, and annually gives out grants to social service agencies who care for the poor, the marginalised and the vulnerable.

To help us with our mission, we need a co-ordinator who will make sure that our office runs smoothly and that our team are well supported in grant making, fundraising and donor care.

You’ll have great attention to detail, demonstrate excellent customer service, have experience of working with a CRM system, and have well-developed organisational skills to help us successful connect with our donors and provide grants to our partner agencies.

Please visit our website www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz, Diocesan Services, Staff Vacancies for a full position description and how to apply.

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” for adults. The retreat will help you work through your painful loss. The participants find new hope, increased emotional health and renewed energy. Date Friday evening to Sunday afternoon 13-15 August. Cost $350 or early bird price of $325 if paid by 2 July.  Includes accommodation, meals and materials. Contact Lynda 0274898003 and (09)478-9742 or Kelly 027-686-4416 www.beginningexperience.org.nz