IN THIS WEEK’S NEWSLETTER
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NEWS FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear Families,
Welcome to our second newsletter of Term 2. Our newsletter is full of interesting happenings here at OLSOS. I invite you to sit back and enjoy!
In the past fortnight we have celebrated the birthday of the Church with the feast of Pentecost, where we remember that the Holy Spirit descended on the Disciples and they (like we are today) were charged with the energy and responsibility to spread the good news.
This Sunday, our Middle Team are hosting 5.30pm Mass in our Parish Church. Please come along and support them as they lead our parish in the celebration of Trinity Sunday. We acknowledge the mystery of the Trinity at this Mass. We are all created and loved by God, guided to right relationships through the word of God made flesh among us in the person of Jesus, and filled with the breath of God’s spirit that flows through and in us. We use the model of Jesus as inspiration to live a life where we are called to see joy in ourselves and others. Please follow this link to this Sunday’ readings.
Dispositions in Use – Learner Profile: Communicator and Collaborator Dispositions
The Middle team have been busy working hard at learning what it takes to be a good communicator and collaborator. Here are some of the ways that they have been developing these dispositions.
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- COMMUNICATOR : I actively listen so that I can pass on the correct message
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- COMMUNICATOR : I can give instructions so that my partner can follow them
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- COMMUNICATOR : I can ask for what I need and wait my turn if needed
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- COLLABORATOR : We can work as a team and persevere to overcome challenges
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- COLLABORATOR : We can work as a team to create an art piece
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- COLLABORATOR : We can work as a team to complete a task in the time given
Staffing Update
We welcome Laura Bentley to our staff. Laura will be teaching in our New Entrant / Year 1 class beginning June 9th. I know you will make her feel welcome when you see her around the school.
Kia Ora! My name is Laura Bentley. I am delighted to be joining the Our Lady Star of the Sea whānau. This will be my second year of teaching, having completed my graduate diploma in 2019. As a reliever this year, I have been able to get to know Our Lady Star of the Sea and meet many students already. I attended Sancta Maria College, so it is lovely to be back in the community. I’m excited to be working alongside Mrs Benjamin in Room 10.
PTA Update
On behalf of the PTA I would like to extend a warm Thank You to our amazing OLSOS families who have done a superb job of selling chocolates and returning the money in good time – we are very grateful for the work the PTA do to raise money for our school and build community through their activities. We are also very grateful to our families for their ongoing support of PTA initiatives. We are very much looking forward to the PTA Quiz Night coming up on June 18 – see below for details and tickets.
Looking Back
Over the last fortnight, there have been plenty of interesting activities to engage and support learning over and above our strong classroom programmes. Our Chess team did us proud in a tournament at Pt View school, we had fabulous engagement, collaboration and communication experienced at the HPPA Netball Field Day. Our school leaders attended the National Young Leaders Day on Wednesday of this week, with hugely motivational speakers and energised leadership development. Today we celebrated Pink Shirt Day and Gumboot day combined, endorsing the global drive for no-bullying and enhanced mental health.
Looking Ahead
I look forward to seeing you at the Middle Team Mass on Sunday evening at 5.30 pm at our local Parish. As we enter Samoan Language Week next week, we wish our 3 Year 5/6 classes the very best of luck and all of God’s blessings for a safe and enjoyable Camp next week. We are grateful to the parents who have given their time to support us at the camp and to our teachers for leaving their families for the week to support this amazing opportunity to develop leadership skills and stretch our young learners. I know they will have an amazing time and come back all the better for the experience. We have our Kahui Ako Teacher Only Day on Tuesday 8th June (the day after Queen’s Birthday) where over 330 staff in our six Kahui Ako schools and six Early Childhood Education centres come together for professional development. See below for details about Bizzy Bodz childcare on this day should you require it.
Wishing you all a happy, safe and blessed fortnight ahead until our next newsletter.
Ngā mihi nui and cǐ zhì jìng lǐ,
Louise Campbell
Principal
TEACHER ONLY DAY TUESDAY 8TH JUNE – BIZZY BODZ CHILDCARE
Bizzy Bodz will run a special programme in our school hall from 7.30am – 6pm on Teacher Only Day, Tuesday 8th June 2021. Please contact Bizzy Bodz direct should you wish to enrol your child.
NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Last week we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost. This Sunday we celebrate Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is a mystery in the sense that we may never fully understand it. One way to understand the Trinity is to think of an apple. An apple has three parts: the seeds, the flesh, and the skin. When you cut an apple in half, you can see that each of these three parts are different.
- The skin is like God the Father because He protects us.
- The flesh is like God the Son because Jesus Christ took on human flesh.
- The seeds are like God the Holy Spirit because through the power of the Holy Spirit, we grow in faith.
Each of the parts of an apple are different, but they are ALL apple. So are the persons of God all different (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), yet they are ALL God.
Congratulations to our young learners who are involved in the parish Sacramental programme. They have completed the Confirmation phase of the programme and are one step closer to being fully initiated into the Church. If your child has received the sacraments at another parish, please send a copy of their certificate in to the school office for our records. Thanks.
Buddy class masses continue this week. There are weeks when neither of our priests are available to celebrate the Mass with us at school. On those weeks Buddy classes will hold a special liturgy of the word in the Chapel space, which you are all welcome to attend. Many thanks for your generosity with donations to the parish foodbank. Many people in our local and wider community benefit from your gifts.
Friday 18 June will be Pyjama Day in support of KidzFirst. Students can bring along a gold coin donation and wear their pyjamas to school. The money collected on this day will go towards purchasing children’s pyjamas for KidzFirst. You might like to encourage your child to do some extra tasks at home or for an elderly friend to raise money for this cause.
Every family has jobs to do on the weekend and our parish family is the same. There are many jobs to be done at each of the five Masses every weekend. Father John and Father Terry have reached out to us all, inviting us to volunteer for the following ministries.
- Greeters – handing out newsletter and welcoming parishioners to Mass.
- Gifts – procession of wine and hosts
- Collectors – collecting of offertory bags
- Data projectionists (training will be provided)
- Sacristans – help set up for Mass
These ministries can be done as a family or as individuals. This is another way to demonstrate how we can serve, to your children. Please put your name on the sign-up sheets in the parish foyer if you would like to volunteer for any of the above ministries and indicate your preferred Mass. Alternatively, email the parish office [email protected] stating your name, the ministry you would like to sign up for and your preferred Mass.
Manaakitia te katoa
Share your gifts with others
Prayer Intention: Spirit of God, help us to respond generously to the needs of others in thoughts, words and deeds.
Detta Fairweather
Deputy Principal / Director of Religious Studies
NEWS FROM THE BOARD
Hi to all families of Our Lady Star of the Sea school,
I’m Kerri, one of your Board members and Chair of your Board’s Special Character Committee. I will be sharing our monthly update with you today.
We are very excited to let you know that the COLA (the covered outdoor learning area) will go up over our top court during the July school holidays! Covid has delayed this process for us, so we are very much looking forward to seeing it in place. Once the structure has been completed, we will begin making arrangements for the laying of the turf. We will most certainly celebrate the completion of this project with a blessing of the COLA by our Parish Priest, followed by a community event for the children and our families.
As a school, we are required to submit an annual mid year Internal Review Report to the Auckland Catholic Diocese. This is the responsibility of the Special Character Committee, who select an internal review focus. The current review focus was selected in line with the Bishop’s request to investigate and report to him on new ways of evangelising and connecting parish and school. The final Internal Review Report was presented to the Board at our meeting earlier this week and approved for submission. We are extremely proud of the relationship evident between our school and parish.
Extending the block walls that separate the top and bottom court is currently being investigated. We are looking at a variety of options to extend the height of the walls in this area, with the safety of our children at the forefront. We will share further developments of this extension in due course.
We look forward to attending the PTA Quiz Night on Friday 18 July 2021 – we are currently brushing up on our general knowledge! Come along for an evening that is sure to be loads of fun … and only slightly competitive! Tickets go on sale next week.
Kerri Hunt
Proprietors Representative
OUR LADY STAR OF THE SEA BOARD
NEWS FROM THE PTA
A huge Thank You to our whole school community for your efforts with our chocolate fundraiser. It has been extremely successful !!
At Assembly this morning we announced our winners.
The classes that have won a Pizza lunch are Rooms 21, 14 and 9
Our TOP SELLERS Winners are :
1st Place .. Caleb Hooper 17 boxes !!
2nd Place ..Reece Julia 14 boxes !!
3rd Place .. Cullen Chaytor 12 boxes !!
4th Place .. Marcus Cuer 10 boxes !!
5th equal .. Isla Frankle and Daniel Ngere- Chai 5 boxes !!
Amazing efforts by these children and their families… THANK YOU.
QUIZ NIGHT
Our Quiz night is fast approaching!!
Tickets on sale from the school office from June 1st. $10 per person.
If you don’t have enough for a Team, we will put you on a table on the night .
Teams are made up of 8 people.
Don’t miss out ….Tickets are strictly limited.
It’s going to be a great night !!
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Nicole Kelly
PTA Chairperson
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 the 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
ROAD SAFETY WEEK
Thank you so much to all the families that took up the challenge to park on Orangewood Drive during Road Safety week and allow their children to walk into school. We gave away lots of prizes on Friday to students who got more than 3 clicks on their “foot ticket”. The Student Council encourage you to keep up this practice of dropping your children off on Orangewood Drive so that we can continue to reduce the amount of traffic that is in and around our school making it safer for everyone.
SCHOOL PATROLS
Thank you so much for using our school Kea crossing when it is in operation. This is a great way to cross the road safely and sets a good example to our students about how to use the road safely.
Please also try to remember to allow your child to get out on the kerb side of the car to keep them safe.
NETBALL FIELD DAY
It was a freezing day as we lined up on the school courts to get ready for Netball field day. We all had big smiles on our faces. Some of us were new to netball and didn’t know how to play but still gave it a go! We got onto the bus and before we knew it we had arrived at Lloyd Elsmore netball courts. We shivered as we took off our jackets to begin our first game against another school. We didn’t do the best on our first game but everyone was having an amazing time playing against the other team! After that game we all knew our places around the courts and won our next 2 games. We were then a little relieved to find out we had a break between games which meant time for some water and morning tea. We then got to practise for our next game!
After we sorted out who was going to play which position, the buzzer went for our next game to begin. We won that game and were having such a good time. We started getting better and beat the next team too. Then it was lunch time. We were so hungry from playing all those games of netball, however we didn’t realise we had two more games ahead of us. Before we played the next game we had a bit of time to play around with the ball. We played our last two games and found them quite easy. We were all sad when we got told we had to go back to school.
By Ava-Lily Wilkinson and Havanna Smith
SCIENCE FAIR
As part of the EPro8 programme twelve students were selected from Years 5 and 6 to go to “The Science Roadshow” which was an exciting and entertaining learning experience at Somerville Intermediate School. There were shows, exhibits, and resources that supported the learning and teaching of science in school. It had many hands-on, minds-on activities with plenty for all of our students to explore and engage with.
NEWS FROM OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
THE CHESS TOURNAMENT
As the sun beamed down on top of Point View school, our school proudly walked through the gates saying hello to every child we saw. We burst through the doors of the big hall revealing students making chess moves and laughing with each other. These were our type of people! A confident-looking man came up onto the stage and welcomed us to his school. He told us some rules and what to do in the case of an emergency. Then the games began.
We were all sitting down when we heard the boom of a microphone saying that the list of games was up. Everyone sprinted to the paper like a troop of soldiers. We went to our chess tables and sat down. After we were told the rules, we slammed the start button on the timers. The hall was so quiet, all we could hear was the tick-tock of the clocks. After a while, we could see kids getting up and shaking hands. That made us more nervous with thoughts that our game could finish early. As time passed by, we could see the crowd of finished kids getting bigger and bigger. Soon we joined them and went on to began our second match.
As time moved on, we began to stress. We couldn’t think straight and made some huge mistakes. Some cost us the game. We were disappointed by the results, but our faith and belief took us further into the games; we went full-on. More games became victorious, and we climbed up the leaderboard. As our last round approached, we were tired. We could hardly concentrate. We lost our games and went down on the leaderboard. In the end, our best team got 10th place, and our other teams were further down the leaderboard.
The competition has now prompted us to train hard and think more strategically. Next time, we’ll be ready!
Luca Dreaver and Christian Lianto
COMMUNITY SPIRIT
For his 10th birthday Varun Koripa from Room 21 decided to give back and contribute to the wider community as a gesture of kindness. He decided to donate food to the Auckland City Mission. With his parents, he got up at 5 am and collaboratively made 100 lunch boxes. The family then dropped them off and they were distributed to needy people across Auckland city. We are very proud of you Varun. Great to see your special character shining through.
NEWS FROM THE INFORMATION CENTRE
Lots of children keenly participated in National Simultaneous Storytime on Wednesday 19 May at 1pm. Over one million children in New Zealand and Australia enjoyed listening to NASA astronaut Shannon Walker read the book Give me some Space from an international space station.
NEWS FROM THE ENVIRO TEAM
Let’s work together to divert as much waste from the landfill as possible.
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
TEACHER ONLY DAY 8 JUNE – BIZZY BODZ CHILDCARE
Bizzy Bodz will run a special programme in our school hall from 7.30am – 6pm on Teacher Only Day, Tuesday 8th June 2021.
COMMUNITY NOTICES
Lovely affordable FIRST COMMUNION AND CONFIRMATION FIFTS from Let’s Pray Rosaries
PRICED from $4 to $10 Ph: 02102642303 or Email enquiry: [email protected]. (Brochure at school office to view)
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