Kia Ora, Ni Hao, Malo e lelei and Bula Vinaka Whānau,

Welcome to the last newsletter of Term 2 2024. This newsletter marks the conclusion of the first half of our academic year, and what a busy, learning and joy filled first semester we have had!

Parish Connect We were most fortunate to celebrate our end of term Staff Mass in our school chapel before school on Thursday morning with Fr John, on his birthday! We wish Fr John all the very best for a wonderful year ahead filled with many blessings.

Parish Retreat Monday – Friday, 29 July to 02 August As we get closer to our Parish Retreat, those who attended Mass last weekend will have received a sign up sheet to indicate which sessions families will attend. The sessions will be held each week day at both 10am and repeated at 7pm for the convenience of those of us who work or are unable to attend during the day. Each session is only 30 minutes long. There is no obligation to sign up for consecutive sessions, however, that would be the ideal way to make the most of the experience. There is no cost for this retreat.
As shared previously, Father Richard Shortall SJ, Jesuit priest and Retreat Director from the Hamilton Diocese, will be leading us in this special experience. As a school staff, we are very fortunate that Fr Richard will be running a staff specific retreat that week at our staff meeting too.
We have made the decision to clear the week of school commitments (we have moved our Board Meeting and Parent/Student/Teacher conferences out of the week) in order to support our parish and ensure families don’t have any clashes that would be a barrier to attending our parish retreat.

I encourage you to fill in the sign up sheet or use this QR code to register and make the most of the opportunity to be lead through a retreat experience as a member of our parish and school community.

Book Week Celebrations What a week we have had this week, celebrating all things related to building and supporting a love of books! Our Librarian, Mrs Bronwyn Bell, has done a stellar job once again of organising Author visits to inspire our children, special workshops with authors and illustrators, our hugely popular book fair, picture book readings in the information centre at lunch times, competitions, our much anticipated book character parade, as well as a book fair dance party thrown in the mix!!! The week has been full of fun, enjoyment of reading and the promotion of a love of literature. Thank you to Bronwyn, her support teachers, the parents who assisted in the book fair and to our entire school community for getting behind this fun week of learning.

Mitey Mental Health Education Update Following on from our last few newsletter updates where we introduced you to the Mana Whānau, Mana Ūkaiapō, Mana Motuhake and Mana Tū elements of the Mitey Mana Model, this week we will focus on the last of the Mana Model concepts, Mana Tangatarua.
Children have the skills, knowledge and confidence to navigate, with mental wellness, two or more worlds. They become open to learning different ways of doing things and make decisions using integrity, appreciating other people’s values and needs.
Mana Tangatarua develops when children know:
– theirs and other people’s language, culture and identities are an asset.
– how to work alongside others to learn new knowledge and skills.
– they have something to teach others.
– everyone else has something to offer and teach them.
Children demonstrate Mana Tangatarua when they:
– are interested in learning about other cultures and communities.
– understand and reflect on Māori history, especially the history of their local area.
– have some ideas about what they would like to do when they leave school.
– try hard to pronounce people’s names and place names properly.
– are open to new ideas and doing things differently.
– make decisions with moral courage and integrity.
– are mindful of the values and needs of others.
Once again, when reflecting  our Catholic special character ethos, our wellbeing model of Te Whare Tapa Whā, our local curriculum design and delivery, the  emphasis on celebrating and respecting the diversity of cultures in our community, Mana Tangatarua is alive and well in our school.

Kapa Haka In moving our all comers Kapa Haka to Mondays from 2.30 to 3.30pm in Term 3, with an extended invitation to whānau to come along each Monday afternoon to learn about Māori tikanga and language alongside your children, we are most grateful to John Henry Smith, Matua Hone, who is so willingly sharing his knowledge and expertise with us.

Staffing update Last week we farewelled Mrs Heather Collins. Heather has worked at our school as team leader in our senior school for the past four years. We wish her all of God’s blessings as she begins at her new school and thank her sincerely for the amazing work she has done.

Our Lady Star of the Sea Twilight Market Save the date! Friday 1st November. This year, instead of hosting a Gala, our organising team are preparing for a fun community event with food stalls and entertainment for all the family. Watch this space for more information over the coming weeks/months.

Looking Ahead: Grandparents Day Friday 26th July We are looking forward to celebrating our Grandparents and Grandparent figures in our children’s lives on the Feast Day of Jesus’ Grandparents, Anne and Joachim. Festivities will begin with a Mass at 11.15am in our hall after which Grandparents are welcome to classrooms until lunchtime. Grandparents are welcome to share lunch with their grandchildren (they can bring a picnic!). Grandparents Day will conclude at the end of lunchtime at 1.20pm, as I am sure our grandparents will be ready for a cup of tea and a rest after a busy morning!

Wishing you all a happy, safe and blessed holiday. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 22nd July.

Ngā mihi nui, Tōfa soifua, ‘Alu ā, cǐ zhì jìng lǐ and Vinaka vaka levu,

Louise Campbell
Principal

Religious Education Curriculum

The Catholic Religious Education Curriculum recognises faith in two ways:

• the faith in which people believe;
• the gift of faith from God by which they believe

When planning the Religious Education programme for our learners, we are conscious that God works with us as we create and plan engaging learning experiences that provide an effective way of sharing the faith in which we, as the Church, believe. At the same time, we continue to be aware that faith is a gift from God — it is not our mahi to ‘create’ faith but to support, model and nurture its growth. 

This term our focus has been on the Being Church theme. Being Church encompasses Catholic Christian practice; how we should live our best life, one which embeds and lives out the teachings of Jesus. The aim of the Being Church theme is for our learners to understand what it means to be Catholic in the world today in terms of faith, discipleship and sacramental living. Please encourage your child to talk about their learning this term.

Next term we will be learning about the theme of Te Atua God. The children will develop an understanding of what the Church teaches about God in terms of the nature and persons of the Trinity, and God’s relationship with humanity and all of creation. In Years 1 & 2 the children will be introduced to the concept of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who loves us and is present to us. The Year 3 & 4 children will explore how God is a Trinity of 3 Persons who overflow with love and will grow an understanding that each Person of the Trinity is special and shares gifts with us. In Years 5 & 6 children will gain an understanding of how Jesus shows us how to be, and how to serve God. They will explore how Mary and other Saints show us that they can be like Jesus. We look forward to the learning that will take place next term. 

Grandparent’s Day 

On Friday the 26th of July we will be celebrating Grandparent’s Day. A liturgy will be held at 11:15 am in the school hall to honour our grandparent community. This liturgy will be followed by an opportunity for the children to show their Grandparents or a Grandparent-like figure their classroom and learning.

Parish Retreat 

From the 29th of July to the 2nd of August, (Monday-Friday) Fr. Richard Shortall SJ will be running a prayer retreat for our parish. Daily talks will be held at 10.00am (one hour) each morning and repeated at 7.00pm in the evening to cater to all schedules. The following link will take you to a Google form which will allow you to highlight which days you would like to attend the retreat. This will give the parish a good idea of the numbers for each session- https://howickcatholic.org.nz/retreat/ 

Foodbank 

Our orange trees have been bursting with fruit this term, allowing us to donate three harvests to our parish food bank. It has been great to provide fresh fruit for their food parcels. It is another important way we can reach out to those in need. Thank you to the staff members who continue to look after our fruit trees, allowing them to flourish.

Thank you to Fr. John and Fr. Terry for celebrating Mass with our buddy classes this term. The children have enjoyed the opportunity to pray and encounter Christ. Also, thank you to the families who have donated items to the parish food bank during this time. This form of support is greatly appreciated. 

“We are a Christ centred community
fostering belonging (whanaungatanga)
and outreach
through selfless giving (manaakitanga)
in Mary’s Way”.

The June meeting of the Board incorporated papers from the May meeting which had to be cancelled because a significant number of trustees were unable to attend because of illness.

A significant item at our June meeting was the comprehensive update provided on the progress made with the school’s Strategic Plan. I wish to share the update on 2 of our goals:

1.  The Middlemore Foundations ‘Jammies for June’ Mufti Day was an action for the goal to “Imbed Christian Witness/ outreach and service development processes.”  Our sincere thanks to you for your support and generosity of this initiative.  The children wearing their pyjamas to school raised a total $529 and collected 107 pairs of pyjamas.  The school used the money to purchase 44 pyjamas and a total of 151 pairs of pyjamas to give to the Middlemore Foundation. These pyjamas will be given to children at Kidz First and the 76 primary schools the Foundation supports through the Mana Kidz School Health programme.
2. The goal to “Strengthen Te Whare Tapa Wha wellbeing model through engaging with the Mitey Programme.” The Mitey programme is being effectively delivered, with positive feedback being received for the community. The Board is committed to including mental and emotional wellbeing in the curriculum being delivered to the children.  

As you will be aware the current government has placed an emphasis on students regularly attending school. Regular attendance is essential for children to make progress in their learning and the ministry of Education has set a target of 80% of students “regularly attending school”

The Ministry of Education define 

The Board receives regular updates on student attendance and we thank parents for the efforts they make to ensure their children attend regularly. We however also ask you to think seriously about taking your children out of school for family or overseas holidays.

Our thanks and congratulations to the Parents Committee on the recent most successful and enjoyable Quiz Night. We are grateful for the contribution made by the Parents Committee.

Linda McQuade
Bishop Appointee on the Board.

The Parent Committee met on Monday to close off Term 2 and look ahead to the second half of the year.
Term 3 brings Milo Morning Tea on 8th August, a Spell-a-thon and a disco!

We are registering a float for the Howick Santa Parade and would love your help! We need to design and make a float, costumes for the children involved and have a vehicle to pull it along. If you are bursting with ideas, please contact the parent committee on [email protected]

Thank you to our communication tree for helping at the book fair this week. Have a wonderful and safe holiday!
Our next meeting is on 5th August at 7pm in the staff room, hope to see you there.

Congratulations to Briella Roberts for competing in the Auckland Schools Go Karting Competition last weekend. After a day of tough racing, she took out 6th position overall for her age group – way to go Briella – we are so proud of you!

We would also like to wish Georjia Pou-Edwards all the very best as she heads over to Sydney for the international BMX competition in the holidays! Go Georjia!!

Book Week

What a fantastic week we’ve had celebrating books and the joy of reading! 

As always the Book Character parade was a highlight. We were amazed by the thought and creativity which had gone into costumes and the parade was a fun, loud and joyous celebration of everyone’s favourite books.

Author Visits

We loved the engaging presentations by visiting author Melinda Syzmanik and author/illustrator Vasanti Unka. They stressed that ideas are everywhere, words are your super power and the importance of reading for pleasure.

Scholastic Book Fair

The children have loved the pop up shop in the Information Centre. Thank you to everyone who supported this and bought some of the wonderful books and a big thank you to the parents who helped with book sales, it was very much appreciated.

Commencing Week 2 Term 3, plus5 are offering two after school classes to be held at school from 2.45pm – 4.30 pm on a Wednesday and Thursday.   For information and to sign up, see the information below.

SOS – Term 3 2024 (1)

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Administration Assistant to the Leader Pastoral Services Group

The Catholic Diocese of Auckland is seeking a methodical, cheerful, dedicated, and highly efficient person for the role of Administration Assistant to the Leader PSG to provide administration and operational support.  This is a part-time role of 20 hours per week, Monday to Friday, with flexibility of hours between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills, along with proficient IT competency in Word, Excel, Free Source Design e.g. Canva and knowledge of websites (WordPress), Facebook. Can work under own initiative be creative and have a can-do approach to work and is efficient, accurate and organised.

For more details, and a full position description, please visit the Diocesan website https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/staff-vacancies/

Applications close on 23 July 2024

Marriage and Family Life – Administration Assistant

Marriage & Family Life are seeking an exceptional hardworking administrative assistant to join their team of marriage educators.  This is a Part – time role of 16 hours, working 4 hours a day 10am -2pm Mon, Tue, Wed and Fri every week (with some evening and weekend work in venues) at the Pompallier Diocesan Centre in Saint Mary’s Bay.

For full details and requirements please visit the Diocesan website www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz, under Diocesan Services and Staff vacancies.

Closing date 23 July 2024