Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term 2 and our first newsletter for the term.

We are very pleased to have reached a Covid Alert Level that allows families to come back into school, gatherings to take place, children to choose where to play and entry and exit from school to be more relaxed. It is a great step towards a return to normalcy. Staff are still wearing masks and students are encouraged to as an additional layer of protection as cases are still popping up now and then across classes and families are continuing to move through isolation protocols when cases enter their household. Safe hygiene practices, ventilation and careful planning of gatherings to ensure distancing are still key features of our protocols to keep students and adults as safe as possible at this stage of the pandemic.

Term 2 Connected Curriculum Focus Term 2 sees us continue our connected curriculum journey, moving from Exploring Taonga or gifts in our world in Term 1, to a focus on Exploring Connections in Term 2. Through this term, we will build an understanding that Connections within God’s world are rich and interdependent and the way we explore and use them can guide how we lived then, how we live now, and in the future. This term, aside from our ongoing focus on Religious Education, Literacy and Numeracy, the curriculum area of Science takes a leading role. Our students explore questions such as ‘How are the systems of God’s world connected?’, ‘How do these connections enhance the wellbeing of all living things?’ and ‘Why explore the connections between the systems of God’s world?’

We are an Easter People! On the last day of Term 1 our senior students enacted the Passion of our Lord for our Year 1 to 3 and then our Year 4 to 6 students as we journeyed into the celebration of Easter. This Liturgy was very solemn and poignant with huge thanks to Lee Marten, Brooke Curtain, and the senior students who brought the story to life for us. On our return to school at the start of this term, our Leadership Team shared an ANZAC and Easter Liturgy via zoom in each classroom, reminding us of the joy of the Risen Lord and the fact that Easter continues in our Church calendar through to Pentecost Sunday which we celebrate on June 5th this year.

Mothers Day Liturgy On Monday of this week it was a real joy to celebrate Mothers Day with our traditional Mothers Day Liturgy followed by morning tea for our Mothers, Grandmothers and Aunts. Room 14 and Room 9 hosted this Liturgy which was well attended by lots of special Mums in our community. It was in August last year, 9 months ago, since we have been able to gather as a school with community members present due to Covid restrictions, so we were so grateful that so many Mums were able to make it along.  We thank Tracey Elder and Alice Shin for putting this special occasion together for us.

Road Safety Week Last week, in line with Road Safety Week we launched our Park and Walk initiative, encouraging families to park on Orangewood Drive and walk along Oakridge Way to enter school in order to ease traffic congestion in and around school. Many students have taken advantage of this opportunity, collecting their ‘ticket’ and getting a click each time they walk into school. Mrs Noble Campbell has some great prizes for students who get 25 clicks on their card just waiting to be given away! I encourage all families to consider joining the fun. With thanks to our student leaders and Karen Noble Campbell for supporting this initiative.

Bone Carving Each of our Year 5 and 6 classes over the next few weeks has the opportunity to explore the art of bone carving as part of their continuing connected curriculum journey this year. See later in the newsletter for images and further information on this amazing opportunity with thanks to Helen Burger for her organisation.

Science Roadshow Last week the Science Roadshow came to OLSOS! Our year 5 and 6 students made the most of the opportunity to engage in and develop science concepts with hands-on exploration. See later in this newsletter for images and further information with thanks to Heather Collins for her organisation.

New Religious Education Curriculum Over the past year Our Lady Star of the Sea, under the leadership of our Director of Religious Studies Detta Fairweather, has been trialing the new Religious Education Curriculum and feeding back to the developers at NZCRS as they undergo a major rewrite after over 20 years. Today staff delegates attended further professional development related to the launch of the revised curriculum proud of our contribution to its development. As other Catholic schools begin to come on board with delivering the new curriculum, OLSOS are in a very strong position as we are already very adept at working within the new framework and delivery model.

Looking Ahead Next week is Bully Free NZ week – we look forward to Pink Shirt Day on Friday 20th May to raise awareness of keeping our school a bully free place. Our student leaders have the privilege of attending the National Young Leaders day, a fabulous opportunity to be inspired, to learn and further grow leadership skills. We have three delegates attending the first of two days of professional development thanks to the South East Chrisitan Kahui Ako and Ministry of Education collaborating to support and grow understanding of how to promote progress and achievement for our Pacific learners.

Be safe and God bless.

Ngā mihi nui and cǐ zhì jìng lǐ,

Louise Campbell
Principal

We are Easter people! The Easter season continues for 50 days. We remember how Jesus spent time with the disciples, preparing them for Pentecost and for the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is a time of joy, of hope and of peace. How we can be Easter people is the question for us all.  Our students are exploring what this means for them as connections are made with this term’s Religious Education focus on the God theme. Our Year 1 & 2 students will discover more about God’s love; Year 3 & 4 students will explore the Holy Trinity; Year 5 & 6 students will examine the Communion of Saints. Each of these contexts from the new Religious Education Curriculum connects to being Easter people today, to each other, with Jesus alive in our hearts, in our minds, in all that we do and all that we say.

One of the ways we can grow our relationship with Jesus is by participating in the Alpha programme run through  our parish. The programme will start June 5 and there is an option for both Mandarin speakers and English speakers. Contact the parish office for more information 09 534 8710

May is traditionally the Month of Mary. We think of Mary as our Mother. It was a pleasure to gather together as a whole school to celebrate mother’s day, to acknowledge our earthly mum’s as well as Mother Mary. Interestingly, the last time we gathered together as a whole school before lockdown was to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, August 15 2021.

Two other celebrations of Mother Mary take place this month 

May 24 – Our Lady Help of Christians

May 31 – The Feast of the Visitation

Buddy class Masses begin this week in our school Chapel and you are welcome to celebrate with us. Masses will be on Wednesdays at 11.15 a.m. Check the school website calendar to see when your child’s buddy class Mass is. Donations to the parish food bank are very welcome. Thanks to Father John and Father Terry for making themselves available each week.

Students currently enrolled in the parish Sacramental Programme begin their Confirmation lessons this weekend. Please keep them in your prayers.

Detta Fairweather
Deputy Principal / Director of Religious Studies

The Science Roadshow Visit – Reflections from Jacob, Zuriel and Francesco; Room 21 …

On Wednesday 4th May the middle and senior school attended The Science Roadshow in the school hall. It was a wonderful opportunity to introduce our new concept lens in a hands-on way. Jacob, Zuriel and Francesco from Room 21 collaborated to write a reflection about their experience;

“We went to The Science Roadshow last Wednesday and they (Phillip, Esther and Caroline) first taught us about water systems which is part of the hydrosphere. They put some ice in a container of water and it didn’t melt because the temperature was the same but the oceans are getting bigger because the glaciers are melting because the atmosphere is too hot. Anna was very brave and let Esther hold a jar of water over her head but it didn’t leak out because the molecules were very friendly. There were LOTS of experiments and gadgets but we had to read the signs to know what they all did. We saw a Gerkin experiment (The Gerkin Machine 3000) which lit up when electricity passed through it. There was a magnetic farm experiment where the cows kept falling over – that was very funny! There was a microphone which you spoke into and a VERY strange noise came out the other end! There was a skeleton named Bob riding a bike, but we had to do all the work to make his wheels go around. The Tesla Coil conductor was cool and it looked very dangerous, Phillip even made the lightbulb strip glow. The hovercraft had a very loooong line and Joe really enjoyed it. We had lots of fun. We learned lots about science. We really enjoyed the Science Roadshow. Science is cool!”

This term, each of the senior classes were invited to do a bone carving workshop. First, we had to choose a shape, there were 3 options – a fish hook, a shark’s tooth, and a teardrop. We had to sketch our selected shape on a slab of bone, then the tutor Maha roughly cut out the shape with a machine. We continued to carve and smooth it until it had no rough edges left, then we could give it to Laura or Maha to put into the smoothing machine. When we got our smoothed bone back, we could keep smoothing until it was our desired texture and shape. Since this experience was something I never did before and something I had no idea how to do, I felt really proud when I finished my first ever bone necklace!

By Olivia Min

A few notes from your traffic team…

Thank you so much for using the crossing when it is operating. 

Please could we ask parents to use this even when they are not with their children, this is a good example to our students. 

Please do not cross the road directly infront of the school – this is a blind bend for those cars coming around from Stella Maris Way and cars who come around the corner when travelling down Oakridge Way – we would hate to see someone hurt because they chose not to cross at the patrolled or crossing area where vision is clear for drivers.

Please continue to let your children out on the kerb side of the road – this is so much safer than the road side.

Please do not park on yellow lines – they are there for a reason. We would hate you to get a ticket from a roving police officer.

PARK AND WALK TO SCHOOL

We all know that finding a park around our school gates can be a difficult exercise and sometimes quite dangerous.

Therefore, starting on day 1 of Term 2 we are prompting students to be involved in a Travelwise Park and Walk initiative. We are hoping this will help reduce congestion around our school gates. We are asking parents to consider dropping their students off on either side of Oakridge way on Orangewood Drive and encouraging their children to walk into school.  The school patrol will be in operation so students will be able to cross the road safely thanks to our traffic team. Any student who does this will be given a walking ticket which can be ‘clicked’ each time they walk, by one of our student leaders, as they enter the school grounds. When a student walks into school 25 times they will be rewarded with a prize. 

The walk into school is only short and very safe

Please consider using the Park and Walk option to help grow student independence and reduce congestion around our school gates.

Design a bookmark competition – theme: ‘Exploring books, our special taonga’

Our bookmark competition was such a fun way to finish the first term! 

The judge, local artist Joel Nicholls, was very impressed and noted the great imagination and talent of our children. 

Congratulations to the finalists and winners.

Have You Seen This Weed?

After the huge success of the moth plant competition last year, we are once again on the hunt for this pesky plant.  It has been wonderful to have members of our school community already identifying and removing this weed after learning about the damage it can do to our native plants.  If you see this weed please safely remove it (gloves are advised) and bring the pods to school in a plastic bag.   If you notice a large crop in a public space and you are unable to remove it, please email Miss Marten ([email protected]) and the environmental team will try to clear it.   

Nespresso Pods 

Already this year we have rescued thousands of coffee pods from the landfill.  Thank you for your support of this initiative.  The Nespresso recycling box is outside the office at the front gate.   

Recycling/Rubbish at School

Just a reminder that all rubbish from lunch boxes needs to go home and be recycled.   It is wonderful that school lunch orders are back at Our Lady Star of the Sea.  All packing from the lunch orders also needs to go home.  The sushi boxes can be recycled by separating the plastic from the paper box.  If you give them both a quick rinse the box can go in your recycling bin and the plastic can be recycled with your soft plastics.  Countdown Highland park has a soft plastics recycling drop off box.   Thanks for your support to keep our school rubbish free.

Please note : TEACHER ONLY DAY

Tuesday 7 June 2022

One further Teacher Only Day has been confirmed by the Board of Trustees