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

Welcome to our first newsletter of the last term of learning in 2024. October is the month of Mary. Gathering as a school three times a week to start the day with a decade of the rosary is a beautiful way to pray together and honour the special place Mary has in our Catholic faith tradition, always pointing us to God. It has been lovely to have parents and whānau join us in prayer in the hall over October. All are always welcome to join us in the hall, especially next Wednesday 30th October for our final decade of the rosary in October.
Last week was Niue Language Week. The theme for Niue Language Week was ‘Leveki mo e Feaki e Vagahau Niue ma Anoiha – Protect and Nurture Vagahau Niue for the Future’. This theme comes from the overarching Language Week Series theme for 2024, ‘Sustainability’. Prayer and song is a wonderful way to share home language with class members and beyond. Those visiting the Information Centre would have seen our Niue library books proudly on display.

Parish Connect This week, the third element of our Parish spiritual journey over the past 18 months was undertaken. 18 months ago we began with a year of celebrating our 175th anniversary as parish and parish school. The journey continued with our Parish Retreat held in late July this year hosted by Fr Richard Shortall. With those solid foundations of celebration and prayer laid down, this week saw the next engagement in what the Church calls “the art of spiritual conversation”. Father Richard Shortall returned to help us do this.  Small group meetings entitled “Speaking From The Heart & Listening From The Heart” were undertaken in the parish centre as we looked to the future of our Parish.  Two simple questions were focused on: What do we do well as a Parish? And, what are our desires for our Parish into the future?
We are very much looking forward to the distillation of the voice gathered across the small group meetings with a keen eye on establishing the very best conditions for our parish to continue to flourish as our school is continuing to flourish.

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

Twilight Market update We are one week away from our much anticipated Twilight Market on Friday 1st November. Thank you to those families who have been bringing in the items that their class has been requested to make and/or donate – your class stalls will be a testament to your commitment and support, so I am sure that over the long weekend families will be extra diligent preparing their items so their class stall can be a success.
The last day to bring class collections in is Tuesday 29th October.
Today, cake boxes came home for you to fill with amazing home baked cakes. Please bring your filled cake box back on the morning of the Twilight Market, dropping it off at the Information Centre.
Many hands make light work! Please follow this link to  sign up to help on the night, by Monday 28th October. Many families identified at the start of the year that they would be available to help should we have a gala this year – the Twilight Market is in place of our usual gala, so if you stated you could help when you filled out the Get to Know Our Learner sheet at the beginning of the year, now is your chance! We anticipate, with grateful hearts, seeing your name as a helper for the Twilight Market.

Staffing Update It is with great excitement that we announce huge congratulations to Mrs Brooke Crowe and her husband who are expecting their first child in March of 2025. Brooke, may God be with you at this special time, you are in our prayers.

Looking Back Congratulations to our Mathex competitors who came 5th at the tough HPPA Mathex Competition. Congratulations also to our Touch Rugby team who competed well at the HPPA Touch Rugby competition, placing in the top four in the competition. See later in this newsletter for further details and photos. A huge thank you to our Parents Committee for the hot dog lunch on Thursday this week – a real treat for our children!

Looking Ahead We wish our 70+ strong Kapa Haka Rōpu all the very best as they perform at the South East Christian Kahui Ako Kapa Haka Festival next Thursday – they have been practicing hard under the guidance of Matua Hone who has done an amazing job in preparing them. We celebrate All Saints Day next Friday where we will bus up to our Parish Church for 11.00 am Mass together – all are welcome to join us. We are very much looking forward to our Twilight Market next Friday – the help and support of our school families has been incredible so far and with one final push we are sure to have a splendid evening next week. The following week we look forward to our Year 3 to 6 Athletics Day on Monday 4th November. Swimming lessons for various classrooms continue.

2025 Enrolments At this time of the school year we begin looking ahead to next year. We would like to remind parents who would like to enrol their children turning 5 in 2025, to please complete the provisional online enrolment form on our website and collect an enrolment pack from our school office. This will help us to ensure we are well prepared to accommodate all enrolments for 2025.
If, for some reason you are moving out of the area and will not be sending your child back to Our Lady Star of the Sea next year, knowing this would also assist us as we start to think about cohort numbers and class configurations for next year too.

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

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

Louise Campbell
Principal

The Feast of All Saints & All Souls 

All Saints’ Day is celebrated on the 1st of November. It is a time when we join Catholics worldwide to remember and honour all the Saints in our lives. The saints we know and those we do not know. While we have information about many saints, and honour them on a specific day, there are many unknown, or unsung saints who may have been forgotten or have never been honoured specifically.

On All Saints Day, we celebrate these holy men and women. When we were Baptised we promised to serve God and carry on Jesus’ work on earth, just as the Saints have done.  We ask them to pray for us, and through the model of their lives, recognise how Jesus wants us to be. 

We will celebrate the Feast of All Saints as a school with a Mass at Our Lady Star of the
Sea Parish at 11 am.
All are welcome to join us.

Throughout November, Catholics around the world remember and pray for those who have died and are now in the arms of Jesus. During this month, our school Memorial book will be included in school and class liturgies at appropriate times to honour the memory of our loved ones. 

If you would like to have the name of someone special to you recorded in our school memorial book please email the school office for further information. – [email protected]  

Baptism of School-Aged Children 

If your child has yet to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, a programme is being offered at our Parish Church this term. Please send a letter of interest to Mrs Brooke Crowe – [email protected] who will provide further information.

Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish Children’s Choir

Does your child like to sing? Would your child like to develop their voice, learn some new songs and give back to our parish community? If so, would they like to join the Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish Children’s Choir?

Everyone is welcome – there are no auditions.

Rehearsals are every Saturday afternoon during term time. Juniors train 4.00-4.30pm  (Years 1-3) and 4.30-5.15pm for the Seniors (Years 4-8). The Seniors sing in 2 or 3 parts and sing more challenging parts in all the music sung.

The Children’s Choir sings at around eight Masses per year, has shared meals from time to time after Mass and is a lovely way for children and their families, particularly post-First Communion, to be involved, serve and stay connected to their Parish Church.

For more information, please contact the Choir Director, Jennifer Maybee on 022 169 1030 or [email protected]

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

News from the Parent Committee

It’s wonderful to see the warmer days, shorter nights, and blossoming trees as we kick off Term 4. The Parent Committee is buzzing with activity as we approach the end of the year. We started the term with our Cheese and Wine AGM, a lovely evening where we reflected on the highlights of the year, lessons learned, and welcomed Olivia Kelly as our new Secretary to the committee in 2025.
Thank you for supporting our hotdog lunch this week, and a special shout-out to the volunteers who made it happen. We’re so excited for the Twilight Market next week, the Parent Committee will be selling hamburgers and sausage sizzles. Please pop past to say hello and grab something to eat!

Looking ahead, we have a school disco in November and the leavers picnic in December. If you would like to be part of our communication tree, please do reach out to [email protected]

Our next meeting is on 4th November at 7.00pm in the staffroom – all welcome, we’d love to see you there!

Twilight Market News

Today, cake boxes came home for you to fill with amazing home baked cakes. Please bring your filled cake box back on the morning of the Twilight Market, dropping it off at the Information Centre.
Please follow this link to  sign up to help on your class stall.

Raffle Tickets should now all be returned.  The 1st prize is an amazing $1,000 in cash, with 2nd – 5th prizes $100 in cash.  We need the raffle butts to include you in the raffle draw for first prize. Raffle will be drawn on Friday 1st November about 7.00 pm.

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! 

We are really looking forward to a fabulous night of food and entertainment for and by the children.

Your support is greatly appreciated.

Term 4 is summer uniform – short sleeve shirts and blouses; sandals with no socks; sunhat.     All students must be in summer uniform and wearing their sunhat after Labour Weekend, Tuesday 29 October.  A new stock of sunhats will be available mid November.

Mathex

Congratulations to Year 6 students Bryn, Cavan, Nathan and Samantha who competed in the HPPA Mathex competition on Tuesday. They worked well as a team and managed to walk away with an impressive score of 5th equal. 23 schools competed. Competitors were required to answer 25 questions in 30 minutes with each correct question earning the team 5 points. 

Our team answered 22 of the 25 questions giving them a total of 110 points. 

We are hugely proud of the team’s achievements and thank them for representing our school with such pride.

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Touch Rugby

Congratulations to our Touch Rugby team who competed in the HPPA Touch Tournament on Thursday. The team came up against some very tough competition and pushed through to come out smiling. It was an extremely demanding day requiring full energy, commitment, personal resilience and collaboration.

Overall the team placed in the top four narrowly missing out on the finals by losing in the semis 4 – 3 to Owairoa Primary. The students won their pool games 5 – 0 and won the quarter final against Bucklands Beach Primary 5-1

Our very special thanks to Dave Grant who gave of his own time to coach the students leading up to the day and guided the team on the day. Thanks also to Karl Bailey who refereed every game, and supported on the sideline with words of wisdom and transporting the students. Thanks too for the awesome family support on the sideline cheering on the team and lifting spirits.

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Swimming success

Special congratulations to Cavan, for his success in a recent wider Auckland swimming meet. Cavan placed 1st overall in the 400m Freestyle event and the 200m medley event. Such an awesome super power Cavan – we are very proud of you!

The Auckland Catholic Diocese has recently advised us of a $16 per year increase to the compulsory Attendance Dues for 2025. Further, as the cost for school trips and other expenses supporting the smooth operation of the school are increasing over time, there will be a $4 per year increase to the General Purpose voluntary contribution for 2025.

 A full letter of explanation will come home in February 2025, however we wish to advise the fees for 2025 will be increasing by a total of $20 to a $1,068 per child per year (i.e. $267 per term).

 As usual, financial assistance is available if required, by contacting us in confidence.

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What do Caleb Clarke, Portia Woodman and Rieko Ioane all have in common? They all did athletics while they were at school. The skills you learn in athletics are the perfect foundation for almost any sport. Our local athletics club Pakuranga Athletic Club Lloyd Elsmore Park, 36-38 Cascades Road, Pakuranga Website  or [email protected] is welcoming new members now. They provide everything that you need to give it a go.