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

Welcome to the penultimate newsletter of Term 3 2024.

Parish Connect We were pleased to welcome Bob Fe’ao, third year seminarian (training for the priesthood) to our school on Wednesday this week as he spends a couple of weeks at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish on Pastoral Placement, where he is learning about what Parish life looks like and feels like. Bob joined two of our classes for their buddy class liturgy and then visited some of the junior classes. Bob will also be back at our Parish next year leading up to Easter, so we look forward to seeing him around next year too. Please keep Bob and all of our seminarians currently at the National Seminary, Holy Cross in Ponsonby, in your prayers.
This Sunday at 9am Mass (and every 1^st and 3^rd Sunday of the month) is Children’s Liturgy.  Children between the ages of 5 years of age to 12 years of age head down to the Parish centre to listen to the Sunday Readings at their own level.   The parish is looking for parents who are interested in helping and invite you to email Linda, our Parish Secretary at [email protected] if you are interested. 

Please  follow this link to view this Sunday’s readings.

Parent, Student, Teacher Conferences + Parent Consultation – Environment Activity
As outlined in last fortnight’s newsletter, I will be sharing the content of the parent consultation which was undertaken at the same time as Parent, Student, Teacher Conferences earlier this term.
This week I will share a condensed version of our Enviro Consultation.
Over the past three years we have been working hard as an Enviroschool to raise awareness of how to care more about our people and our environment through a sustainable lens. To support this we have implemented a number of environment and people oriented initiatives. We have introduced initiatives ranging from adopting a reduce, reuse, recycle attitude, to such practices as rubbish free lunches, reusable packaging, growing food, composting and worm farming and garden pest/weed eradication. Amongst other initiatives designed to develop an understanding and caring attitude towards the people in our environment we have introduced the provision of more shade around our school, introduced and upgraded the nature play space and loose parts play space, built our graduate profile,  broadened our Christian outreach initiatives, introduced the wellbeing model of Te Whare Tapa Wha and implemented the Mitey mental wellbeing programme.
We are interested to know which of these initiatives our whānau and community are aware of as your children are transferring the messages between school and home. At the consultation during Parent, Student, Teacher Conferences, there was strong voice shared that families were hearing about these knowledge, skills and attitude development in their children, and families were active in adopting practices at home too. If you would like to share more about what you are seeing and hearing at home as a result of our environment and care of people initiatives please email me directly at [email protected].

Fathers Day liturgy Thank you to all the fathers, grandfathers, uncles, Godfathers and other father-like figures who attended our special liturgy last Monday so we could celebrate you and the love, care and modelling of how to live a Christian life that you show to our children.

HPPA speech finals This week we are proud to announce that Lucian represented us at the Howick Pakuranga Principals Association Speech Competition and took out first place! Congratulations to Lucian! Lucian will now go on to represent the HPPA at the Auckland Primary Principal’s Association Speech Competition later this term at Remuera Intermediate – well done Lucian – we are most proud indeed and wish you all God’s blessings as you continue to practice for the Auckland-wide competition.

Twilight Market update As we draw ever-closer to our Twilight Market on Friday 1st November, we begin our collective preparations. You will have seen, in your child’s school-bag details of what your class is doing to prepare for the big event – we are really looking forward to a fabulous night of food and entertainment for and by the children and cannot wait to see what comes in from our families over the next couple of weeks to contribute to class led stalls to make the evening a success – get your creative juices flowing!!! You will also see below a reminder of our Chocolate Mufti Day next Friday – we are repurposing the gala chocolate trailer for the Twilight Market and Mrs Noble Campbell will be there at this much loved stall to give you the chance to ‘win’ bars of chocolate as part of the stalls we have on offer on the night. 

Looking Back – Caritas Challenge Day Last Wednesday, as part of our Christian Outreach Programme we held our annual Caritas Challenge Day. Our Liturgy Leaders were at the gate to collect mufti money and our classes engaged in experiences to demonstrate the challenge of those less fortunate than themselves. Thank you to our families who supported us in raising money for Caritas. Last Friday OLSOS hosted the ACPPA Proclaiming the Word Competition where children from across the Diocese of Auckland came together to demonstrate their skills at proclaiming the Gospel. Mrs Crowe did a fabulous job of organising this prestigious event. You will be able to read more about these events in the DRS section of this newsletter.
This week has also been a busy week with our senior boys representing our school at the HPPA boys football over two days of tough competition as well as Nixcent representing us at the the APPA Samoan Speech Competition. We also had children from Year 3 to 6 represent us at the Catholic Schools Cross Country event, with special mention to Jensen who came first in his age group! Way to go Jensen!! Yesterday saw our qualifying gymnasts attend the Champion of Champions Auckland wide Gymnastics Competition. See later in this newsletter for more details about these exciting events.

Looking Ahead – Next week we celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, Maori Language Week. We are also very much looking forward to seeing our Junior School Production entitled ‘In the Beginning’ Our Year 1 to 3 classes have been diligently preparing for their two evening shows on Tuesday and Thursday and their matinee performance on Wednesday afternoon – we are all excited to see them shine on stage!!
Next Friday, 20th September is our Chocolate Mufti Day, in preparation for our Twilight Market. Wear your home clothes, and bring a large sized chocolate bar. Any money collected next Friday will be used to purchase additional chocolate to use on the chocolate trailer on Friday 1st November at our Twilight Market.
In our last week of this term we wish Cavan the best of luck as he represents us at the HPPA Mandarin Speech Competition and look forward to our McAuley House Assembly on the last day of term, Friday 27th September.

Wishing you all a happy, safe and blessed fortnight ahead until our next newsletter is published.

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

Louise Campbell
Principal

Christian Witness Outreach

Caritas Challenge and Mufti Day

This year our focus is on extending a helping hand to Holy Trinity Primary School in Vanimo, Papua New Guinea, where 350 students are learning. The school is currently facing challenges, they need essential classroom equipment, like desks and chairs for students. There is a shortage of textbooks, exercise books, and basic writing and art materials in the classrooms. 

The classes participated in activities designed to help them understand what life is like for people who have less than we do. The senior students played a game called “I Should Be So Lucky,” which explored how the unequal distribution of wealth affects people’s experiences and aspirations. The junior students went on a water hikoi, carrying buckets of water around the school to simulate what life is like for families who must walk long distances to collect drinking water. On this day we raised a total of $650 for Caritas Aotearoa NZ and Holy Trinity School, Papua New Guinea. For every $1 we raised, the New Zealand Government will add $3 more. This equates to a total of $1950.00. Thank you for your continued generosity. 

Auckland Primary School’s Proclaiming the Word Competition

On Friday, September 6th, students from 15 primary schools in the Auckland diocese gathered at our Parish Church to proclaim the Word of God. Nayra represented Our Lady Star of the Sea School, reading her scripture passage with reverence, precision, and clarity. Well done, Nayra! 

A special thank you to Year 6 students Christopher and Cavan for hosting the event. The winner, from St John the Evangelist Catholic School, received the trophy from last year’s recipient, a former student of OLSOS.

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

Board Matters

I hope this newsletter finds you all well as we enter spring and head into the final few weeks of term 3.

The board met on Tuesday 27^th August.

Your Board continued to view recordings from Manuel Beazley’s presentation from earlier in the year, on the theme of Authentically Catholic; Authentically Maori. We also continued discussion around the document,  The Catholic Education of School Age Children.

We were presented with the termly summary of attendance statistics from the Ministry of Education . It was pleasing to see that the statistics have improved by 10% from the same time last year.

The board were delighted to see so many students taking part in the sacramental programme and wishes to thank Linda Lehrke for the excellent work she does leading and coordinating the programme .

The board continues to review and update policies and a reminder that these can be viewed on the school website.

Regards

Lucy Rogers

News from the Parents Committee

As we near the end of Term 3, a reminder that all Spell-a-thon funds should be handed in. If you haven’t done so yet, you can make payments directly into the Parent Committee bank account.
Please include your child’s name and room number as the reference.

We’re excited for the Junior Production next week! The Parents Committee will be selling sausage sizzles, pizza, lollies, and water before the show on Tuesday and Thursday, starting at 4:30pm. Come hungry, as all profits will go toward supporting the production costs.

Looking ahead to Term 4, we will kick off with wine and cheese at our AGM on the 14th of October, followed by a short monthly meeting. The AGM will cover our activities over the past year, funds raised, and how the funds are used to support the school. We’ll also review officer roles. If you’re interested in a position or would like more information about officer roles, please contact the Parents Committee at [email protected] or your class rep. Everyone is welcome! Hope to see you there.

Twilight Market News

As we draw ever-closer to our Twilight Market on Friday 1st November, we begin our collective preparations.
We have awesome food lined up and fantastic entertainment including carnival rides for the kids and those young at heart. We will also have stalls selling items such as lucky dips, jolly jars, cakes, sweets, hampers and more! 

This year class collections will look a little different – You will have seen, in your child’s school-bag this week, details of what your class is doing to prepare for the big event. Class stalls will be run by the families of the children in the class.

Our classes will also be creating items to sell at the Twilight Market through their technological practices connected curriculum learning – what better way to learn than with a real-life context such as the Twilight Market to prepare for! These items will also be sold at the class stalls on the night.

We are really looking forward to a fabulous night of food and entertainment for and by the children and cannot wait to see what comes in from our families over the weeks leading up to the Twilight Market night to make the evening a success – get your creative juices flowing!!!

Your support is greatly appreciated.

Mandarin Speech Competition

Our Mandarin Speech competition was held last Monday and we had some very high quality speeches presented. Congratulations to the following children who took part in this event. 

Year 6 students Cavan & Tiffany and Year 5 students Mason, Cara & Hyo Sung.

It was lovely to see you all standing tall and being proud of your culture and speaking with such confidence. Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who supported the children in preparing their speeches. 

A special thanks to our judge for this event Sophia Xia – your feedback and expertise were greatly appreciated. 

Our winner of this competition was Cavan who spoke about why unity is important. He will represent Star of the Sea at the HPPA competition later this term – we wish him all the best for this. Our runner up was Cara. Well done to all of you for a fantastic performance. 

New Zealand National Kung-Fu Wushu Championship 2024

We would like to congratulate Domi, who finished second place in the Group C Male Traditional Barehand at the New Zealand National Kung-Fu Wushu Championship 2024 held at the Auckland Netball Centre last Sunday. We are super proud of you Domi!

APPA Samoan Speech Competition

Congratulations to our year 6 student, Nixcent,  who represented our school with pride in the recent APPA Samoan speech competition. While he was nervous, Nixcent shone like the star that he is. We are very proud of him for taking on this challenge and representing both his culture and our school.

Auckland Catholic Cross Country Competition

On Wednesday 11th September, 35 Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students represented Our Lady Star of the Sea School at the Auckland Catholic Cross Country competition. There were 15 schools in attendance at this event. Our students represented our school with pride and enthusiasm on a very challenging course. A massive congratulations to all participants, especially to our younger students where this was the first time they had ever represented our school at a sporting event. 

A special mention to the following students for placing in the top 20 in their event: 

1st Place Year 4 Boys- Jensen O’Meara

19th Place Year 4 Boys- Tobiah Chan Mow

11th Place Year 4 Girls- Emily Crouch

14th Place Year 4 Girls- Amelia Davies 

19th Place Year 5 Girls- Mya Hillerby

19th Place Year 6 Girls- Tiffany Chen

16th Place Year 6 Boys- Cavan Reilly

Schools’ Champion of Champions Gymnastics Competition

Congratulations to the 12 gymnasts who represented our school with pride on Thursday 12th September at the Schools’ Champion of Champions gymnastics competition held at Tri Star gym club in Mt Roskill. Every gymnast displayed excellent behaviour and gave their very best to each apparatus. 

A special congratulations to Nahum who placed 8th in the Year 3 boys and Kara who placed 4th in the Year 5 girls. 

We are very proud of all our gymnasts. 

Thank you especially to the parents who helped us with transport –  without you we would not have been able to field a team. 

HPPA Literacy Quiz

Over the last two terms, our group of Year 5 & 6 Literacy Quiz students have been working hard to prepare for the Literacy Quiz against 19 local schools which was held at Baverstock Oaks School recently. They were required to read 10 books by top NZ authors and focus on their knowledge of characters, settings and plots.

The quiz was fun and challenging and while we didn’t place in the competition, our students were full of high spirits and all enjoyed the event.

Well done to Bryn, Harper, Amber, Rach, Isla & Emma.

Production 

The Junior team is ready to go and we look forward to entertaining you next week! Reminder of the show dates and times: 

Tuesday 17 September 6PM

Wednesday 18 September 1PM 

Thursday 19 September 6PM 

Please refer to the letter and seesaw posts from your classroom teacher with specific information about your child’s class requirements.  

Sausages, pizza and drinks will be available for purchase from around 4.30/4.45pm outside the school hall on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Thank you to the Parent Committee for organizing this. 

Junior children will need to be in their classrooms by 5pm.  Please see your child’s classroom teacher if you have any questions. 

Our Senior students will have the opportunity to see the show on Monday afternoon during our dress rehearsal.  

Thank you again to the many hands that have helped to make the show a success.  We could not have done it without you.   

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