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

Happy Cook Island Maori Language Week!

How quickly a term flies by! Now that I have returned from my sabbatical, it feels as though the time I had away from school is but a dim memory!!! I am so pleased to have returned to Our Lady Star of the Sea feeling well rested, full of energy and keen to get stuck back into work. The learning I undertook in Term 2 around conditions at school to support students who have experienced trauma is of great support, helping us reflect on and sharpen our already robust systems and processes.

HUGE Thanks to Mrs Karen Noble-Campbell and the OLSOS Team! I am so proud of our team here at OLSOS! While I was away in Term 2 and the first two weeks of this term, Karen, Sue and the team did a phenomenal job of keeping all systems a-go here at school. I am so grateful to all of our staff, ably lead by Karen, who demonstrated their competence, commitment and faith filled efforts on a daily basis (and still do!) to bring the very best learning and growth experiences to our children. Thanks Team!!!

This weekend we celebrate alongside the 35 children who are receiving the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion. Bishop Steve is Confirming these members of our community on Friday evening, with the celebration of First Communion happening across all of the weekend Masses. Please keep these members of our community in your prayers; Freya Westerlund, Elijah Stowers, Chloe Sentch, Isla McKenzie, Indie-Rose Parker, Gabriel Kettoola, Bella Toplis, Aubrey Plan, Elden Zshornack, Arin Gwon, Nathan Beazley, Caden Ongkodjojo, James Roughton, Nahum Caparas, Alisha Luis, Paul Belleux, Arthur Morsink, Ashley Huang, Cassie Reilly, Leon Noronha, Zac Wood, Celestine Escobal, Shyla Burr, Waverley Granich, Isabella Bastian, Taliah Dang, Jessica Cui, Tobiah Chan Mow, Noah Davids, Elliott Rusi, Cooper Jina, Matthew Peterson, Xavier Smith, Daniel Ngere and Akatu Ngere.

Follow this link to read and discuss the messages within your family.

Catholic Caring Foundation Mass Last Thursday our Liturgy Leaders represented our school and were honoured amongst many of the other Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Auckland for the Christian Outreach activities that they champion through our programmes here at OLSOS. There were many recipients of grants from the Catholic Caring Foundation also present, so it was great for our Liturgy Leaders to see and further understand that the Christian Outreach activities that we undertake go towards supporting real agencies to do their best in supporting the marginalised and those in need in our community. Thank you to our DRS Mrs Detta Fairweather for her organisation and to Mr Fairweather with helping with transport on the day.

On Tuesday this week our school cross country team competed at the HPPA Zone Cross Country. The team did us proud with their conduct and their efforts. In races with around 100 participants, special congratulations goes to the following students who obtained top 5 places in their races. Ateca Loabuka who obtained second place in the Year 6 girls race, to Mya Hillerby who came fourth in the same race, to Callum Lee who came fourth in the Year 6 boys race and to Jensen O’Meara who came fifth in the Year 5 boys race. Thank you to Mrs Ailsa Thorpe for organising our team for this event and to Mrs Denise Bailey who accompanied her and the team on the day.

Our Senior Choir attended the Kids Sing Festival at Holy Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday of this week too. The setting was very special with amazing acoustics complementing the beautiful singing, both from our choir and the choirs from other schools. Thanks to Mrs Karen Noble-Campbell for her organisation and support of the choir on the day and to Mrs Gemma Lee, our choir tutor.

Enviro ‘Pestival’ On Tuesday evening our fabulous Enviro Team presented as part of the Auckland Council’s Pestival series held on site at our school. They did an amazing job with thanks to Miss Lee Marten and Miss Laura Bentley for their ongoing support and leadership in this space. See later in the newsletter for more information and photos.

Teacher Only Day Today Thank you for your support today while our teachers engaged in professional development delivered by the Ministry of Education around the new Mathematics and Statistics Curriculum. A very beneficial day was spent learning more about the new curriculum to ensure we are doing justice to the delivery of this alongside the new Literacy Curriculum – a very busy and challenging time for our teaching staff!

Changes to the National Qualification NCEA This week the Minister of Education made a significant announcement about the future direction of our national secondary school qualification, NCEA. The Minister is keen to hear from communities to provide feedback and input on the final shape of this proposal.
The timeline for the proposal means that there will be no changes for students in Year 9 and above, however, our students will enter Year 11 and move into the new Foundational Award. Many of our families with older siblings have experience of the NCEA system and may wish to share their thoughts as part of the feedback process.
Have your say
– Visit: Consultation on proposal to replace NCEA – Ministry of Education
– Questions? Email: [email protected]
– Webinars available from 11 August – sign up on the consultation page here:  Consultation on proposal to replace NCEA – Ministry of Education
Through this consultation, New Zealanders have the opportunity to shape a qualification system that reflects our ambition, diversity, and commitment to success.

Looking ahead: Next week we are collecting lollies for the upcoming Twilight Market, an easy way to earn house points!!! On Monday we wish Tevin well as he represents our school at the HPPA Zones Speech Competition. Our Junior Team are heading to the Stardome for a visit over a couple of days next week too – very exciting for them! We are very much looking forward to our Feast Day on Friday 15th August where we will celebrate with Mass, spending time with buddy classes, our Taupu Ai House competition finals, and, of course, our much anticipated Star Idol competition. The following week we celebrate Tonga Language Week. We look forward to the PTA hot dog lunch on Tuesday 19th August and Buddy Mass for Rm 21 and Rm 4 on Wednesday 20th August.
Looking a bit further ahead – Tuesday 26 August – OLSOS Staff Paid Union Meeting after lunchtime – we are asking families who are able to, to collect their child/ren at 12.30pm on this day as we will have a drastically reduced staff due to a paid union meeting in the afternoon. Usual classroom programmes will not be in operation in the afternoon. Remaining children will be supervised in the hall by a skeleton staff after lunch, until 2.45pm that day. Thank you in advance for your support if you can, in keeping numbers manageable for remaining staff that day.

Have a safe and happy fortnight ahead until the next opportunity we have to share all of the great happenings at our special school.

Arohanui, Tōfa soifua, ‘Ofa lahi atu, Zhù hǎo, Cordialement, Loloma levu, Fakaue lahi, 안부 인사를 전합니다 

Louise Campbell
Tumuaki/Principal

                                                                          JUBILEE YEAR OF HOPE

         Mary you remain in the midst of the disciples as our Mother, 
         as the Mother of Hope.
         Holy Mary, Mother of God, our Mother,
         teach us to believe, to hope and to love with you.
         Show us the way to His kingdom.
         Star of the Sea, shine upon us and guide us on our way!

Our school Pilgrims of Hope Cross has begun spending time in classrooms. If your family would like to host this  special taonga at some point please contact me to arrange. [email protected]

Encounter with Christ:

The Feast of the Assumption is our school and parish Patronal Feast. It is the day we honour Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Mother of us all, as we remember how she was assumed into heaven, body and soul. Pope John Paul II presented Mary as a model of what it means to be a faithful disciple. She heard the word of God and acted on it. We too are called to do this as followers of Jesus. Her life would not have been an easy one. Like many today she knew hardship, poverty and heartbreak. Yet she also knew love, joy and peace. Her life story is a model for us of maia, manaaki, tika, awhina, and ngawari. We look forward to celebrating a special Feast Day Mass,  Friday 15 August, 11am in the Parish Church, Parkhill Road, Howick. Join us if you can.  Donations to the foodbank would be appreciated.

Around 35 of our children will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation tonight with Bishop Steve presiding. Across the regular weekend Masses, groups of them will then receive the Sacrament of  First Holy Communion. We congratulate them and welcome them into the church as fully participating members of the Church. 

Growth and Development: 
Proclaiming the Word is a skill students in years 5 and 6 have been working to develop. It links closely to the progress outcomes of the NZ English Oral Language curriculum. Currently, an in-class competition has been underway.  Finalists from each room will compete to represent us at the Catholic Schools Proclaiming the Word competition in September. The in-school Proclaiming the Word competitions will be held Friday 22 August. We thank the teachers for helping students to develop this life long skill and look forward to seeing these students grow their skills as Ministers in our parish.

Christian Witness:
Time has flown by. The Parish Centre renovations are near completion. Many, many, members of our parish school community have gifted donations in different ways to support with this project. With great anticipation we look forward to being able to use the centre again for regular meetings, morning teas after Mass and more. Bishop Steve will celebrate the 9am Mass with us, and then will bless and officially reopen the Parish Centre. Please mark this date in your calendar. 

The Parish Foodbank will be up and running once the centre is operational again. Currently the cupboards are empty and they are desperately seeking donations of food and toiletries to restock the shelves.  A donation to the foodbank is a simple act of Christian Witness your children will learn from. Hopefully none of us are ever put in the situation of having to rely on food parcels to survive, but if we do, knowing that our parish family will support us is a blessing.

We have received a request for donations of stretch material, cotton, fur fabric, poly fleece, polyfil stuffing, batting, cushions or pillows. These items are used by a community group that makes clothing and toys for Kidz First and Middlemore Hospital Breast Cancer patients. Donations can be placed in the yellow boxes in the school foyer. Thank you.

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

From the Board for Our Lady Star of the Sea School 

Time is flying by and winter feels like it’s half over as we come to the end of the fourth week of the term 3.

We recently received a report from the Ministry of Education regarding the school’s attendance for term 2. Our school’s regular attendance rate for the last term was 74%, which is a significant improvement from 67% in the term 2 of 2024. The board would like to thank families for their efforts to keep attendance high, balanced, of course, with being supportive of the school in keeping your child/ren home if they are unwell. A reminder, if you are seeking to take your child/ren out of school for a holiday during term time, a leave request needs to be sent to the Principal. The Principal will always consider attendance as part of the approval process.

At the end of last term, a Ministry of Education reviewer came to the school to review our work around the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programme process and supports, and now the official written report is in. The reviewer was highly complementary of the school’s implementation of the ESOL programme. They also identified our enrollment process and the time school staff take to get to know our families and learners as well as the time given to the programme as real strengths. The reviewer randomly selected six students to view their assessment data, work samples, and English Language Learning Progress (ELLPs) scores. Once again, the reviewer saw the consistency of all the data, the high calibre programme, and student records collected, which again reflects the strong support provided to ESOL students in the classroom, with our ESOL teacher in small groups, as well as the excellent work our ESOL teacher does with teachers to help English language learners make progress. Mrs. Karen Waters, our ESOL teacher, is to be commended for the work she is doing with the ESOL programme, with the support of our SENCO Mrs Karen Noble-Campbell, the leadership team and teachers.

Pajama Day last term was a fantastic event. There was a wide variety of pajamas on display and the children were dressed in cozy, warm clothes. Our parish school community donated 108 pajamas and raised $1,000 to purchase more. This Christian Witness outreach means that more children will be warm this winter, which helps to reduce the number of illnesses suffered by those less fortunate than us. Thank you all again for your generosity and love!

Finally, Principal Louise Campbell, who is loved by all, has returned to school from her sabbatical and her gracious smile can be seen at the school gate and her hearty laugh can be heard once again. She is full of renewed energy to lead the entire community forward. We would also like to thank Acting Principal Karen Noble-Campbell once again for giving more of your time and energy to watch over our big family during the Principal’s absence, you have done an amazing job alongside our committed and skilled team of staff! Thank you!

Kind regards,

David Wu
Parent Representatives

Our Lady Star of the Sea School Board Elections

Parent & Staff Elections Results Declaration

As the number of candidates nominated was less than the vacancies – I hereby declare the following duly elected.

Parent representatives:                                                                                  

CHIAM, Bernice
DANG, Shasta
HOOPER, Alina
YEH, Sharon

Staff representative:                                                                                                                                   

THORPE, Ailsa

Signed

Sue Yandell
Returning Officer

I can’t believe it is already August. The term is already flying by, and we’re so grateful for all the support from our school community.

Here’s what’s happening this week and beyond:

Math-a-thon
A big thank you for supporting our learning fundraiser! Please return your Math-a-thon money – payments can be made directly into the Parent Committee bank account. Star of the Sea PTA 12-3011-0760201-01. Please use your child’s name and room number as a reference.

Hotdog Lunch – 19 August
Orders are now open at www.olsos-pta.co.nz.
To help us avoid waste, please make sure to get your order in by 17 August.

Howick Santa Parade
Planning is underway for our walking float! If you can help with costumes, banner painting or organising, we’d love to hear from you – email [email protected].

PTA Meeting – 11 August, 7pm in the staff room
All are welcome – come along and be part of the fun!

Room 8

This week, we read “The Rainbow Fish” to learn about the importance of kindness, sharing, and being a good friend. After the story, we created our own Rainbow Fish, each with a shimmering scale to remind us how special it is to share with others. We also wrote our own retellings of the story, using our own words to show what we understood and enjoyed the most.

SENIOR TEAM PRODUCTION

Dance success:

Mya from Room 22 was in Christchurch over the school holidays for the New Zealand Dance Awards. Her team ‘Mighty Zoo’ won junior Contemporary and came second in junior Jazz.
Mya’s junior Musical Theatre team ‘Pocket Rockets’ won their competition and the Senior Musical Theatre team ‘Chant’ won also.

On the 27th of July her dance troupe performed at South Auckland Performing Arts Competition (SAPACS) and they won all four of the categories that they entered.  

Taliah from Room 5 was also in a troupe called ‘Makeda’ and they won the age 7-8 Petite Jazz and were 2nd in Petite lyrical in Christchurch. Taliah’s team were selected to represent their studio at the Gala event. At the SAPACs they came first and second in the under 10 years open category.

Both girls put in hours of training to have the success they do. We are very proud of both of these dancers and know that we will see them in even brighter lights in the future.

This week the Environmental team were invited to host a ‘Pestival’. This was following the great work they participated in with Ethan from Pest Free Howick.  The team presented their learning on pest animals and plants and shared of the recent Enviro projects the school has been working on. We were very proud of the way our students hosted visitors and presented their information to the visitors.  Great work team.   We then heard from guest speakers who shared information about local projects such as the mangamangaroa pest plant eradication project and pest animal control initiatives along the coast line of Howick. It was all very inspiring.  Thank you to our families who joined us for the evening. 

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Local Youth Ministers Wanted!

The Catholic Diocese of Auckland has launched a new initiative in 2025 to support young people on their faith journey. We are looking for self-motivated relationship-builders to become full-time and part-time Local Youth Ministers, working in a secondary school and/or parish. This is a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people! To learn more and to apply, please visit: www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/staff-vacancies/

Pastoral Coordinator St Patrick & St Joseph Cathedral

The Cathedral wishes to employ a person part-time for 25 hours per week as the parish Pastoral Coordinator.   This role is to assist the Cathedral Dean to ensure that the pastoral and administrative needs of the parish are met.  The role provides pastoral assistance and is responsible for the coordination of the Parish Education Programmes and assisting with Sunday morning Masses.  Applicants should be active Catholics able to partake in the full sacramental life of the church, with theological formation (preferred) and ministerial experience. Good communication, planning and organisation skills are essential.

Applicants for this position must have NZ residency or a valid NZ work permit.

To view the full advert, position description and how to apply, please visit the Diocesan website www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/staff-vacancies/

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