NEWS FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Families,

Welcome to our newsletter which sees us at the end of Week 10, our second to last week of Term 1.

Over the last fortnight, we have celebrated the most important time in our Church calendar: Easter.

Holy Week began, of course with Palm Sunday. We celebrated Palm Sunday together with a beautiful liturgy on Monday of last week. The students from Room 22 and Room 8 lead us through the journey that Jesus took, entering Jerusalem on a humble donkey. We remembered how Jesus showed us how to live as servant leaders when he washed his Disciples’ feet on Holy Thursday with a truly poignant, solemn liturgy on Thursday afternoon before we broke up for the Easter holiday. Those present will attest to how the students of Room 22 and Room 8 captured Jesus’ journey to the cross and the impact his death had on those present. We heard the Passion of our Lord read on Good Friday at our Parish Church where we remembered that Jesus died on the cross. Our parish Easter candle was blessed and lit at the vigil on Easter Saturday evening reminding us of when his loved ones waited in vigil outside his tomb. On Easter Sunday we remembered that Jesus rose from the dead. We celebrated this as a school at a liturgy held yesterday on our return from the Easter break. Room 16 and the Liturgy Team did a wonderful job of helping us feel the joy in the message that Jesus is alive.

In the act of remembering and participating in these special Masses and liturgies, we pass the traditions and beliefs of our Church on to our children.

Learner Profile: Communicator and Collaborator Dispositions
As part of our whole school focus on how strong academic outcomes are supported by learning dispositions, and continuing to share our learner profile in action, the Senior Team have been putting the dispositions of communicator and collaborator into practise this term.
Below you will see our students exploring and developing these dispositions.

Here are some other great examples of Communicating and Collaborating from the Senior Team students…

GALA Team Last night we had our first Core Gala Team Meeting. We are fortunate that Anna Burgess has volunteered to steer the Gala Team this year as we plan and prepare for our World-Famous-In-East-Auckland OLSOS Gala which will be held on Saturday 30th October. Thanks Anna! And thank you to those who have volunteered to sit on the Core Team – we are starting to finalise who will take the lead in different areas of the Gala, so it is not too late to let us know if you are keen to be part of the Core Team. Email me at [email protected] if you are keen to join this dynamic group.

Congratulations to our Cricket Team On Wednesday of this week our OLSOS Cricket team competed in the semi-final and final of the 2021 HPPA Cricket Competition. It is with great pleasure and pride that I congratulate our Cricketers on taking out the HPPA Cricket Cup for the second year running!

Congratulations to Cooper Telfer, Toby Stewart, Dimitri Poisson-Pereira, Cullen Chaytor, Sebastian Brownrigg, Liam Martin, Jake Preisig, Nyall Serrao, Maneet Singh, Shiven Sureshkumar, Max Tay-Morrison.

We are very grateful to Kendall Evans for her organisation and to Barry Vernon for coaching the team, unbeaten through 17 games, which led them to the final. Well done boys, we are very proud of you!

Looking Ahead With one week remaining of our school term we have Girls Quick Hit Cricket to look forward to next week as well as the PTA Sausage Sizzle which is on next Thursday. Our PTA AGM is on Monday evening at 7pm, our next Board meeting is via zoom on Tuesday evening at 6.30pm (this is a public meeting, so if you wish to attend please email me and I will send you a link), and our Pasifika Cultural Group will be performing at the HPPA Cultural Festival at Sancta Maria College on Wednesday evening. We wish them the very best of luck with their performance.

Wishing you a happy, safe and blessed week next week and then through into the school holidays. We look forward to sharing more news with you in our newsletter next term.

Ngā mihi nui and cǐ zhì jìng lǐ,

Louise Campbell
Principal

NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Kia hari koa, ka uru tera wairua ki tena ki tena

Be cheerful and happy, generating life in those around you

Easter is the greatest feast of our faith. We are an Easter people, a people marked by joyfulness – smiling, cheerful, optimistic, upbeat, happy, agreeable, and positive! While Easter happens on one Sunday of the year, we are called to be Easter people all of the time. The Easter season lasts for the 50 days leading up to Pentecost. It is the time for us to embed practices undertaken during Lent. It’s our time as Catholic Christians to shine, by being the face of Christ to ALL we interact with, by showing mercy, being compassionate, sharing, caring AND giving that great gift of time – time to listen, time to be, time to do. For Catholic Christians, every day is Easter! Every day is a day to be joyful! Jesus said, “People will know that you are my disciples by your love” (Jn 13:35).

We have been approved to be a ‘beta’ school of the draft Religious Education Curriculum for years 1 – 13, which is being developed by the National Centre for Religious Studies (NCRS). This is an exciting opportunity for our school to be part of the professional group leading the way forward in this curriculum area. The recent Teacher Only Day was used by staff to become familiar with the content of the document and unpack the teachings within the context of our localised curriculum. Our young learners will engage with the new curriculum in Term 3.

Prayer Intention: God of mercy and love, we pray that during this Easter season, people recognise us as Jesus people through our joy and love for each other.

Detta Fairweather

Deputy Principal / Director of Religious Studies

NEWS FROM THE PTA

UPCOMING EVENTS

  • PTA AGM 7.00 p.m. Monday 12 April 2021 – Staffroom . All Welcome.
  • Sausage Sizzle :   This coming Thursday 15 April 2021.

FUNDRAISERS :

Entertainment Memberships are now 100% digital making it better than ever, here’s why:

Each year we run our very successful fundraising campaign by selling Entertainment Memberships.  This is a very worthwhile way of supporting our PTA fundraising efforts with 20% of your membership coming back to our school.   Entertainment Digital Memberships are convenient, easy to use and packed with full of valuable 2 for 1 and up to 50% off offers for you to use over 12 months from activation.

  • Offers are now valid from the date of purchase allowing you to fully maximise your membership.
  • Delivered instantly to your inbox (perfect for gifting!)
  • Something for everyone with thousands of savings across family activities, hospitality and retail.
  • The new app has a map so you can bring up all the deals that are near to you, or in the area, you want to go.
  • New offers and deals get added all the time.
  • Purchase through us and 20% of every Entertainment Membership goes directly toward supporting our school.
  • You will also receive a BONUS $10 or $20 eGift Card on memberships purchased before 11:59pm Thursday 15th April 2021

ENTERTAINMENT MEMBERSHIP  … IT’S EASY JUST CLICK THE LINK TO PURCHASE  https://nz.entdigital.net/orderbooks/990f07

Nicole Kelly

PTA Chairperson

TAX DONATION RECEIPTS

Tax receipts for the financial year 01 April 2020 – 31 March 2021 have been emailed out today.

A reminder that accounts for Term 1 are now past due.

If you would like to discuss your account in confidence, please contact Sue Yandell.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Financial assistance is available to assist families who may need financial support with the payment of Attendance Dues for preference students attending Catholic schools in Auckland Diocese, both primary and secondary.

Families facing financial difficulties can contact their school office, their Parish Priest or the Revenue Manager on 09-360-3069 at the Catholic Diocese of Auckland for further information.

Application forms for this assistance are available from school and parish offices, or can be down-loaded from the Catholic Diocese of Auckland Website:

https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/acfl-attendance-dues-financial-assistance/

NEWS FROM THE CLASSROOM

LOST PROPERTY

There is a large amount of school uniform items in the lost property. All the items are unnamed or the name is not able to be read. We are hoping the following photos remind you if your child is missing clothing, this includes school uniform, pairs of school sandals and shoes, “home” clothing, swimming togs and a number of “home” pairs of sandals and sneakers. There are also a number of lunch boxes and drink bottles.

The lost property cupboard will be cleared out once the school term ends. If at any time during the year you are looking for lost property items and are unable to find them in the cupboard, please check back several times as often items are returned after a few days.
ANZAC DAY POPPY APPEAL

The annual RSA (Returned Services Association) Poppy Day Appeal is running through April. We are supporting the Howick Branch by selling poppies.
We will have poppies for sale for a gold coin donation. Students and parents can bring coins to the office and collect a poppy either before school or after school all next week.

NEWS FROM OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Congratulations to Ariane Cordeiro (Room 18) who has been selected to be a part of the Auckland Girls Choir. Her first performance with the choir is being featured in Bach Musica NZ’s opening concert performance of Bach’s spine-tingling masterpiece, “St Matthew Passion”, conducted by international conductor and Baroque expert Rita Paczian.

This is a great opportunity for Ariane and for many of the choir will be their debut performance. A lot of hard work has been put into rehearsals under the stellar leadership of the Music Director Ms Gina Sanders. Ms Gina Sanders who is one of the top Sopranos in Auckland and an international opera singer is training the choir so that Auckland City can have a wonderful music experience.

Congratulations Ariane – what an achievement!

 

NEWS FROM THE INFORMATION CENTRE

The Information Centre is a fantastic place to display children’s writing and artwork. 

This week students have been admiring the wonderful portraits by Room 18.

NEWS FROM THE ENVIRO TEAM

COFFEE PODS RECYCLING
Thank you to our coffee loving community who have been recycling their nespresso coffee pods in the recycling box outside the information center. Please note that we can only take Nespresso pods – NO PLASTIC PODS THANKS. Also a reminder that you can recycle GLAD products (plastic bags and Gladwrap) at school in the blue bin outside Room 17. Let’s work together to divert as much waste from the landfill as possible.

 

Howick ward Moth Plant Pod Competition.

Our environmental team is getting behind this competition and we could win the school $500.

Have you seen this weed?

Moth plant is an invasive, vigorous growing plan that smothers vegetation including native plants. Each pod has 250-1000 parachute like seeds per pod which spread in the wind up to 30Km away.

The environmental team is going to help our local community control this weed and you can help. Over the holiday if you notice this plant you can safely remove and photograph and it can be added to our school count by emailing it to Miss Marten at [email protected]

Read the following information on how to get involved.

2021-HLB- Suggestion for Safe Moth Plant Eradication

KEY DATES

TERM DATES

Term 1 Starts
Term 1 Finishes
Term 2 Starts
Term 2 Finishes
Term 3 Starts
Term 3 Finishes
Term 4 Starts
Term 4 Finishes

 

Please note : TEACHER ONLY DAYS

Wednesday 7 April 2021

Tuesday 8 June 2021

Friday 25 June 2021

Friday 17 September 2021

Friday 19 November 2021

COMMUNITY NOTICES

 

https://www.facebook.com/KellySportsEastAuck/posts/1407503746257313

First Holy Communion, Confirmation or Mothers’ Day Gifts

Need a small gift for First Holy Communion, Confirmation or Mothers Day? I have a lovely range of affordably priced Angels, crucifix and crosses on necklaces, bracelets, small crucifixes & Rosary Beads. All items priced $5 – $12. For further info on my range please email Fran Carne at [email protected] or call 021 0264 2303.

INITIATE DANCE

Initiate Dance Holiday Programme April 2021 – East Auckland

27-30 April 2021 Tuesday-Friday, 9am-4pm Fencible Lounge (Howick Library)

$75 for the full four days. Open to 8-12 year olds

Book online at initiatedance.wixsite.com/home

Dance away the holidays and join in the fun! Over one week 8 to 12 year olds learn a variety of dance techniques and routines with fun games and team building activities.

The dance programme is about engaging young people in a positive way during the school holidays. Students finish the week with a fun performance for family and friends. No dance experience is needed

 

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrint or Save this Post