Dear Families,

This newsletter finds us at the end of our sixth week of the term. And what a term it is turning out to be. Omicron has touched just about every class in our beautiful school, with many children isolating due to members of their household testing positive. The 10 days isolation period is being felt keenly by all those involved. The move to a 7 day isolation period at midnight tonight will reframe timings for many of our isolating families. We will be in touch with the implications on a case by case basis.

Once again, I am in the position of feeling huge gratitude to our community, all of whom have responded with understanding and respect through the challenges that have presented all of us as we move through this phase of the nationwide pandemic.

We continue to navigate the challenges of students and staff in and out of school due to isolation requirements and will continue to do so as we work towards what the government is anticipating will be the peak of the latest outbreak in a few weeks time. We continue to do our best with the layers of mitigating factors at school such as strong hygiene practices, masks Y4-6 and encouraged in our Y1-3 classes, ventilation, staff vaccination, teams rostered to different parts of the school for break times, defined gates for entry and staggered exits to reduce the number of interactions and congestion in order to keep our community as safe as we can while still being open for face to face learning. We pray that we avoid the need to shift into online learning at home for certain classes or as a whole once again.

I wish to thank our staff for their incredible support and resilience in handling the swiftly changing covid landscape. All of this while setting up beginning of the year classroom systems and routines, relationship building with their students, assessing their students after we have been away for so long at the end of last year due to the covid lockdown, and working hard on planning, preparing and delivering lessons as students move in and out of their classrooms due to isolation requirements. The resilience and hard work of our staff cannot be underplayed – they are all incredible practitioners and continue to truly have the best interests of their students at the heart of all they do. God bless them all.

Looking Back

Last week we celebrated Ash Wednesday in our classes with the liturgy being led via Zoom by Room 19. Ash Wednesday begins our Lenten season where we spend 40 days preparing for the celebration of Easter by examining our lives, taking stock and looking at what we can do in prayer, thoughts and actions to become Catholics that live even closer to the example of Jesus.

Looking Ahead

You may have seen in our online calendar on our website that we had originally scheduled parent curriculum goal-setting conferences for next week. We have made the decision to shift these conferences back by two weeks (29th to 31st March) in order to give our teachers more opportunities to work with students ahead of these meetings. Covid isolation requirements have meant many of our students have not been in full attendance over the last month to enable our teachers to fully assess their learning needs and be truly ready to discuss learning goals moving forward. I am sure you will understand the necessity of shifting these interview dates.

We are all hoping and praying that the number of cases in our community and through our school will ease in the next few weeks. Please be safe, and if you have queries or concerns please email anytime.

Ngā mihi nui and cǐ zhì jìng lǐ,

Louise Campbell
Principal

Manaakitia te katoa 

Share your gifts with others

The season of Lent is upon us. It is the time for us to consider how we respond to God. Lent is more than just saying ‘I’m giving up chocolate’ or ‘I’m giving up TV’ or going without something for 40 days, proving our strength in will power and then going straight back to it at Easter. Lent is a time of change, of ‘cleaning up.’ The Church encourages us to spend more time talking and listening to God through prayer; to share what we have with those who are less fortunate and being of service to others; to go without the things we might want but don’t really need; to improve our spiritual well being. St Ignatius suggested we spend time at the end of each day asking ourselves ‘when did God speak to me today and how did I respond?’ 

In our parish, there will be a 6am Mass each week during Lent  so that working people might have the opportunity to attend a weekday Mass. Also, every Friday night the parish will gather to reflect and pray the Stations of the Cross. 

Our school’s Lenten Challenge of ‘We Can Bring A Can‘ continues this year. All of the donated goods go to the Saint Vincent de Paul Foodbank which operates in our parish. Donations of dry goods such as flour, sugar, rice, tea and coffee as well as shampoo, toothpaste and soap are all very welcome. Donating food to the parish foodbank, is a simple way for us to model to our children how we can show Mercy and support families in and around our areas who are finding it hard to put food on the table. Donations this week were enough to make 19 food parcels that will be distributed through the parish foodbank. Thank you for your generosity. We will continue our weekly collections and aim to feed 100 families this year. 

‘We can not all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.’

                                                                                                                                                   Mother Teresa

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development – an official agency of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference. The theme for Lent 2022 is – “Called to be Peacemakers” based on the Beatitude reference in Matthew 5:9 and inspired by the writing of Pope Francis in his recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. As we journey towards Easter, the theme Called to be Peacemakers highlights our encounter with God in building peace. We will hold a Mufti Day for ‘Peace’ on Friday 25 March. Children may wear white or pastel colours to school that day as a sign of peace. All children wearing mufti / home clothes to school are to bring in a gold coin donation for the Caritas ‘Peacemakers’ appeal.

Prayer Intention : E te Atua help us to be active in our faith and share Your love in word and deed 

Detta Fairweather
Deputy Principal / Director of Religious Studies

Nicole Kelly

PTA Chairperson

Our Information Centre is a place where the whole school can share, interact with and enjoy spending time in this learning space.

New to the Information Centre is a beautiful prayer focus area and stunning artwork from Room 18 who have studied the taonga of NZ native birds.

ST MARY’S COLLEGE    –   VIRTUAL WELCOME EVENT

Chief Executive wanted: Te Kupenga-Catholic Leadership Institute

Te Kupenga-Catholic Leadership Institute combines academic, leadership, faith formation and bio-ethical research and advocacy responsibilities for the Catholic church in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Board is looking for a Chief Executive with relevant leadership experience, possibly gained in a faith-based, non-profit or secondary/tertiary education setting. The role will probably be based in Auckland. Full details and how to apply, go here: https://www.tekupenga.ac.nz/uncategorized/seeking-for-tumuaki-chief-executive/

Applications close on Monday 28 March 2022.