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

Welcome to our third newsletter of the last term of learning in 2024. With only four weeks left of our academic year, we are very much gearing up for our end of year celebrations with our end of year Mass, Year 6 leavers evening,  Prizegiving, end of year outings and final assembly all coming up in rapid succession. Keep your eye on the calendar on our website and on our weekly Friday ‘events’ emails to make sure you are aware of all the activity in the weeks ahead.
This newsletter will be arriving in your in-box while many of our young ones are boogying away at our final Parents Committee Disco for the year – our Parents Committee do an amazing job of providing great extra experiences for our community – we are most grateful to Lara Teixeira, Praveena Sundram and the team for their extra hard work for our community.

Parish Connect This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, and straight after 9am Mass, Fr John will bless the graves of our loved ones buried around the church. This blessing concludes November’s month of Holy Souls. We also look forward with anticipation to the outcomes of the recent parish retreat led by Fr Richard Shortall ‘Speaking from the Heart, Listening from the Heart. A summary of the outcomes of the engagement will be available in our parish bulletin at this weekend’s Masses.

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

Keeping Our Kids Safe Online Parent Meeting Thank you to all families who prioritised this meeting in order to become more informed about the perils our children face in an online world and the impact on their still-developing minds, self esteem and templates for interacting in real life. I am sure you will all agree that Rob Cope’s messages were hard hitting and gave us all pause to think about the things we need to do to protect our children online. With over 235 adults present and committed to acting on the messages shared, this signals a real sea-change in our community and an opportunity for us to step up as parents and minimise our children’s access to an unfiltered online world. The QR code Rob shared on the night leads to an online resource that is filled with information, tips, videos to share with your children to help broach tough subjects and more – make the most of the 12 months free access that he has so generously granted to our community. If you missed the event or have misplaced the QR code, please email me directly at [email protected] and I will forward you the information. 

Our Lady Star of the Sea School Board – Casual vacancy for a parent representative. Second notice.
A casual vacancy has occurred on the school board for an elected parent representative. The board has decided to fill the vacancy by selection.
If 10% or more of eligible voters on the school roll ask the board, within 28 days of the first notice being published, to hold a by-election to fill the vacancy, then a by-election will be held.
Request for a by-election should be sent to:
Alina Hooper Presiding member
Our Lady Star of the Sea Board
14 Oakridge Way
Northpark 2013
by: 6.12.24

Looking Back Our Athletics team represented our school so well with great results at the HPPA Athletics Zone competition last Wednesday. We had several 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings in a variety of events on the day – congratulations to all those who represented us so well. Congratulations to those who represented our school at the Weetbix Tryathlon this Wednesday. A great day had by all! See later in this newsletter for more details about both of these events. Looking ahead to next year, the NZ Police were in training our Year 5 Road Patrol Team this week – a great service to our school community.

Looking Ahead we look forward to the final Parents Committee Meeting of the year on Monday 2nd December – all welcome. We also look forward to welcoming families new to our school at the start of 2025 and students starting school in the first part of the year at our Orientation morning on Thursday 5th December.

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

Christian Witness

This term, our children are learning through our connected curriculum that when we serve to create harmony, we can make a positive impact in God’s world. 

In Weeks 7 and 8, the children are invited to take on household tasks to raise money as part of our Term 4 Christian Witness Outreach. The funds collected will be shared among several charities supporting families during the Christmas season.

Charities include: 
Saint Vincent De Paul’s – Feed a Family this Christmas Appeal
Middlemore Foundations- Put Kidz First this Christmas Appeal 

At the start of Week 7, each child will bring home a recording sheet. Families are encouraged to discuss and plan the tasks their child will complete. These tasks, along with the amount raised for each, can be recorded on the sheet.

On Friday, 6th December, the funds will be collected and distributed to the chosen charities.

Thank you for your continued support of our Christian Witness Outreach Initiatives. Your kindness and generosity this year have made a meaningful difference to countless people in our community and beyond.

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” Mark 10:45

November, the Month of the Holy Souls

Throughout November, Catholics worldwide honour and pray for those who have passed away and are now resting with Jesus. This month, our school’s Memorial Book will be part of our school and class liturgies, allowing us to remember and celebrate the lives 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 Programme

This month, three families in our school community are preparing for the Baptism of their children. The Baptisms will be celebrated during the 5:30pm Mass on the first Sunday of Advent. Let us keep these children and their families in our prayers as they embark on this important step in their faith journey.

Gift Vouchers for Saint Vincent De Paul for Christmas

Our Parish St Vincent de Paul group are looking for donations of Warehouse or Kmart gift vouchers in denominations of $10 and $20 to give to the people who come to collect food parcels. Please put the vouchers in a marked envelope in the SVDP basket or in the drop box outside the Parish Centre. Thank you for your continued support of St Vincent De Paul. 

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

News from the Parent Committee

Join us tonight for our last disco for the year. To celebrate we are having a glow in the dark party!
Wear white and glow all night! We will have pizza, drinks, lollies, ice blocks and glow sticks on sale. We hope to see you there.

In December we are celebrating our Year 6 students at the leavers evening. The Parent Committee will provide a free sausage sizzle for Year 6 students and their families. To make this event special, we’re asking Year 4 and 5 parents to help run the BBQ, so families of our Year 6 leavers can enjoy the evening together. Let us
know if you can lend a hand! Email [email protected]

Help us plan next year’s calendar at our next meeting on 2nd December at 7pm, everyone is welcome!

PRODUCTION 

The moment many of you have been waiting for is here.  The video of the Junior Production ‘The Beginning’ is now available! Wednesday and Thursday’s shows are ready to view or purchase. Tuesday’s show is almost ready and should be up by the end of the weekend.The cost to view or buy the show is $US5 (around $8.40NZD).This cost goes towards hosting the video on the website.  

Click on the link below to access.

https://www.departmentofgroove.com/projects-8 

Enjoy! 

Twilight Market

What a wonderful evening we had on Friday 1 November at our Twilight Market.  After reporting in our newsletter the initial figure of $15,100 we are pleased to advise the final profit is $17,500.

And the excitement is high for the family who sold the most raffle tickets.  Leticia Guinares in Room 8 will be coming to school in a police car as soon as we can make arrangements.  Congratulations.

Swimming

Room 8 had our first swimming lessons last week, which were a great success! Everyone enjoyed being in the water and learning different swimming skills, from floating to basic strokes.

It was wonderful to see such enthusiasm as we practised and encouraged one another. We also discussed the importance of swimming and water safety, which helped everyone feel more confident in and around the water.

We’re excited to keep building on these skills in our upcoming lessons!

HPPA Athletics

On Wednesday the 13th November a group of 34 students represented our school in the HPPA Interschool athletics meet. 

The students were amazing to work with on the day with each one reflecting the Our Lady Star of the Sea values and managing themselves effectively. Every student gave their very best to their selected disciplines.

We had the following success…

Year 4 Boys Relay team – 3rd place
Year 5 Girls relay team – 4th place
Year 5 Boys relay team – 4th place
Luke Yu – 2nd place Year 6 boys 70m age and 3rd place 100m age
Mya Hillerby 1st place Year 5 girls 100m age
Tevin Tavita-Falesiu – 1st place Year 5 boys Shot Put
Josh Arnott – 2nd place Year 4 boys Long Jump
Callum Lee – 3rd place Year 5 boys 100m champs
Jacob Faulkner – 3rd place – Year 5 boys 70m champs
Amelia Davies – 1st place Year 4 girls High Jump
Carla Shaw – 2nd place Year 5 girls High Jump
Amber Vakadranu – 3rd place Year 5 girls High Jump

Congratulations to all our athletes.

Weetbix Tryathlon

Summer Reading 2024

After a successful Summer Reading programme last year, we are excited to offer this opportunity once again for our students.

• By giving permission to take part, parents agree to ensure books are cared for and returned in the first week of Term 1 2025.
• Only students who have had a form signed will be able to borrow books. Borrowing will be available in Week 9.
• Registered students will be able to borrow up to 10 library books for the summer.

Why sign up for Summer Reading? The best way to improve literacy skills is to keep practising. This is particularly important over the long summer holidays, and it helps to keep students reading levels up. Plus, it is a fun thing to do!

Notices will be issued next week for interested Year 1-5 students who are returning to OLSOS in 2025.

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 $1,068 per child per year (i.e. $267 per term).

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

A reminder that fees for 2024 are now due and unless arrangements for payment have been organised, all fees should be fully paid by the end of term.   Students leaving Our Lady Star of the Sea at the end of 2024 will still be required to pay Attendance Dues in full.

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