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

The last two weeks have flown by and now we find ourselves at the end of Week 7. I trust everyone made the most of the long weekend that King’s Birthday gave us. It has certainly refreshed our students and given them the boost to make it through to the end of the term. Tonight we are looking forward to the Parents’ Committee Quiz night – the teachers will be joining the community in a battle of general knowledge to see who takes the title of ‘Best Team’. We thank Lara Teixeira, Praveena Sundram, Olivia Kelly and the rest of the Parents’ Committee team who have worked hard behind the scenes to provide this fun event for the adult community.

This Sunday, following on from Pentecost Sunday last week, is the Feast of the Holy Trinity. We continue to learn about the gifts of the Spirit and how the Spirit is part of the Trinity. This week we learn about the Spirit of truth and how that truth glorifies Jesus. Follow this link to learn more about the readings. The Holy Spirit as the third member of the Trinity helps us bring peace to our world. Being truthful about our actions and seeking forgiveness when we do wrong helps us bring HOPE to our world.

Reporting to Parents: During the holidays you will receive your child’s Mid Year report. You will be sent an email which will direct you to go onto the portal so you can view the report. As part of the Ministry of Education’s focus on lifting student achievement they have introduced a new, knowledge rich and internationally comparable curriculum for Maths and Statistics and English. At Our Lady Star of the Sea school, we have been using the new curricula from the start of 2025, which includes new teaching and assessment methods and content. Because of this you could see a change in your child’s progress or achievement compared to previous years which may be the result of changes in the curriculum expectations for your child’s year level. We have new wording which has been suggested by the Ministry of Education; Needs support, Working Towards, Proficient and Exceeding. This Mid Year report will reflect how well your child has done on what has been taught so far this year. Within the report there is also an opportunity to see what your child has had success at and what their next step is. Based on feedback from our parent conferences in Term 3 2024, we have now simplified our Religious Education comment and included a managing self section. Students in Years 4-6 will have a student reflection on their learning and there is the usual teacher comment which reflects on how your child is growing and developing as an all round learner. In Week 2 of Term 3 there will be an opportunity to discuss this report and next steps with your child’s teacher at our usual Parent/Teacher/ Student conferences. Mark the 24th of July in your diaries now. Interview time slots will open up in Week 1 of Term 3. Bookings will be via the Skoolloop app.

Our teachers were treated to a day of ‘Teaching and Leading with a Christian Heart’ at our Teachers Only Day. We had three great speakers share messages of leadership. Aaron Ironside, Brendan Malone and Pio Terei. Our Kahui Ako leaders provided staff with a well organised day and staff were appreciative of the opportunity to spend time focussing on their own growth so they can in turn continue to give to our students. Thank you for supporting us to receive this professional development.

Let’s get Firewise! Our Junior team have been very busy learning about how to be safe around fire and what to do if they discover or are caught in a fire. Last Thursday excitement was high as the fire trucks arrived, the lights flashed, the sirens sounded and everyone got to sit in the fire truck! Messages of “Get down! Get low! Get out!” resounded around the classrooms.  The students were enthralled to see exactly what a firefighter has to wear to stay safe in a fire and some even got to try on some of the gear. We thank Miss Marten and the Junior team teachers who have worked hard to share messages of safety with our youngest learners to ensure they can lead others in an emergency.  

Culture Week has been a week of fun and enjoyment for our students as they have learned more about different cultures and countries around our world. As people who are lucky enough to live in Auckland, we get to experience cultural diversity on a daily basis. This week our students have learned about different cultural art, played games from different cultures, eaten food from different cultures, sang songs in different languages and learned the traditional dress and languages of different cultures. Our Pentecost Liturgy on Monday started the week off with a bang as we celebrated the ability to share messages of God in different languages and we learnt about what countries lie in what continents. This helped the students understand similarities and differences between countries. We thank R20 and R7 for leading us in this liturgical and cultural celebration. Standing tall and being proud of our heritage helps each one of us on our learning journey. Seeing role models of successful people from our culture helps us have aspirations and hearing our own language gives us connections to others. We should never be shy to say where we come from and what is important to us. We thank the families who came forward and offered experiences or information for classes to learn from – you have made others richer for sharing with us.

This week 8 of our talented chess players took on some of the best from local schools in the HPPA Chess Tournament. A great day was had by all. Our students, as usual, displayed our school values and represented the school with pride. Of special mention was Elden who won all six of his games and won best on his board. Team A students came 7th overall and Team B came 17th.  Thanks to Miss Bentley who supported the team on the day.

Our Girls Football team were ably supported by Mr Campbell at day one of the HPPA Girls Football Competition on Wednesday. They had a great day showing off their talent and playing their best against other schools in the local area. Each girl gave of their best and the team collaborated well to have overall success. We are proud to announce that the girls won all 5 of their games. They will go on to day two of the competition later on in the term to see if they can make it through to the finals. Thanks to Mr Campbell and Mrs Elder who have supported the girls in training to work together as a team and ‘Shine like Stars!’. 

Looking ahead: Pyjama day Thursday 19th June – wear pyjamas to school and donate either money or pyjamas for Jammies in June, Kapa Haka/ Matariki Sleepover for students involved in Kapa Haka or on our Māori roll Thursday 19th June, Observed Matariki Holiday Friday 20th June – school closed, Orientation morning for parents of children who will join us in Terms 3 & 4, Thursday 26th June, McAuley House assembly on Friday 27th June, Playhouse Theatre performing The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Friday 27th June.

Have a fantastic fortnight ahead. Bring the gifts of the Holy Spirit to all those you meet.

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

Karen Noble-Campbell

Acting Tumuaki/Principal

                                                                          JUBILEE YEAR OF HOPE

    ‘The first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world,
    which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war.’
                                                                                                                      Pope Francis 

Encounter with Christ
We have entered the Church’s season of Ordinary time. At Mass, you will notice the priest wearing green and the tabernacle clothed in green. In the classrooms the green candle and altar cloths are being used. Green is a symbol of growth. Ordinary time is a time of growth. It is a time where we notice things in creation and learn from them. For example, regardless of the ebb and flow of the oceans’ tides, the ocean is always there.  Similarly, God is always here with us, no matter what. Ordinary time is a great time to focus on growing our relationship with Jesus, the living God.

Morning prayer is an important time. Every school day begins in prayer and is an ideal time for us to strengthen faith connections between home and school.  Having family members joining class prayer reinforces how much you value this aspect of our faith.  Praying in your home language opens our young ones to the cultural diversity and richness of our Catholic faith. Please make a point of attending your child’s class morning prayer time this year. It means a lot to them, as well as to the staff. 

Christian Witness
During June, our Christian Witness outreach initiative is to support the Middlemore Foundations ‘Jammies for June’. Thank you to all families who have made donations to this cause already. The Catholic social teaching principle of Distributive Justice – te tika ka tohaina – reminds us that God intended all people to share in the world’s resources. All should have necessities and access to what is needed for full development. By supporting the Middlemore Foundation this winter we are helping to ensure children in hospital or those living in cold damp homes get warm pyjamas. A collection box will remain in the office foyer until the end of June if you wish to make further donations. 

Next Thursday 19 June is ‘Pyjama Day’ in support of Jammies in June. Students may wear pyjamas to school in return for donations of either new pyjamas or money for the school to purchase pyjamas. Thank you for your support. 

The school knitting club continues to grow. The needles are flying fast!  Many thanks to each and everyone of you who have dropped in squares or strips of knitting. These will be joined together to make blankets for Middlemore Hospital. We only have two more knitting sessions left for the year. You are more than welcome to join us, or if you can’t make it, drop off donations of wool, knitting needles or knitted squares to support this project. 

Parish Celebration
Fr John will be turning 70 this year. The parish is having a party on Sunday 29 June, after the 9am Mass in the All Saints Community Centre, 30 Cook Street.
All members of the parish school community are invited. Please bring a plate of finger food to share. More information can be found in the weekly parish bulletin.

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

The last Board meeting took place on the 27th of May.

The Board would like to thank Detta for all her hard work in compiling data on our school’s ministries and sacramental programmes. This data will certainly provide a data-driven mechanism as to how the school is performing and provides a reference point for decision-making  going forward. 

The data reveals a high number of involvements for the ministries. This is evident particularly for seniors where the participation rate is 79% vs 58% for juniors. It was pleasing to see that over 52% of students regularly go to Mass at least monthly.

The Board welcomed the news of the 2025 Budget. On a positive note, there will be increased funding  for learning support, including increased funding for teacher aides and the provision of a Learning Support Coordinators(LSC) for every school. This will be beneficial to the school given the amount of support that is required currently and needed moving into the future. The downside is that funding for Kahui Ako, Resource Teachers of Literacy (RTLit) and Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) roles will be phased out commencing in January 2026.

The school is now in its third phase as a Mitey school, focusing on embedding mental health education and wellbeing into daily practice. After 18 months of support, staff are independently integrating Mitey’s learning outcomes, prioritizing emotional literacy, and fostering a positive school culture through targeted initiatives for both staff and students. Student leaders function as “Mitey Mentors” to promote school values, and mental health policies are now part of the Board’s annual review to ensure ongoing stewardship and improvement.

Lastly the Board would like to acknowledge the ongoing generosity of the community with their Foodbank donations. There was sufficient food for 81 food parcels collected over a 5-week period.

Board elections are coming up in September so if you would like to know more about being on a school Board please chat to any of our current board members; Alina Hooper, Sharon Yeh, Jordi Boix-i-Coll, Bernice Chiam, Shasta Dang, David Wu, Anil d’Silva or myself.

Vernon Chun on behalf of your Board

Compulsory Attendance Dues for Term 1 and 2 should now be paid.  If you would like to discuss a payment plan, please contact Sue Yandell in confidence – [email protected]

News from the Parents Committee

We’re wrapping up Term 2 with our Quiz Night tonight! We’re thrilled to welcome back our fabulous quiz master Shandel, and we hope to see many of you there for a fun, laughter-filled evening.

Looking ahead to Term 3, we’re excited for the return of two favourites – the Math-a-thon (our fun learning fundraiser) and another Hotdog Lunch.

We’re also starting to prepare for the Howick Santa Parade! This year, we’ll be entering a walking float. If you’d like to help with organising, costumes or banner painting, please get in touch at [email protected].

Our AGM is also coming up in Term 4 – a great opportunity to hear what we’ve been up to and to elect new officers for the roles of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. If you’re interested in joining the team, we’d love to hear from you!

Our next meeting is 8th August, 7pm in the staff room – all welcome!

Room 8

Last Wednesday was Catholic Schools Day. We started our day with a morning prayer in our buddy class. It felt special praying with our buddies and it was interesting to hear everyone’s different prayers.

Then, we talked about what HOPE means and made our own prayer cards, reflecting on our hopes and love. After that, we went on a treasure hunt and explored taonga (special treasures) around our school (e.g., our school value displays, stained glass windows, and the Mary statue).

We finished the day with a special joint liturgy, where we welcomed some students from Sancta Maria Primary School to celebrate with us.

It was a meaningful day when we came together as a Catholic school to grow in faith, celebrate our values and appreciate the special people and places in our school community.

Firewise

The Junior Team recently completed the Firewise programme.  At the end of the programme we were visited by the local fire fighters and they promoted that they will also do home visits.  This could be to help your family plan and escape plan or install smoke alarms.  If you are interested there is information attached about how you can make contact with the local fire department. To download and print the form click here

We are very proud of our Year 6 students Ari and Adaora,  who recently performed Samoan dances at their local library as part of Samoan Language week. It is fantastic to see Ari and Adaora proudly showing their culture to those in the local community and being proud of themselves and their culture. Malo Lava Ari and Adaora.

Did you know that playing a whole day of chess can be as tiring as playing sports? Playing chess makes your brain tired, while playing sports makes you physically tired.

On Tuesday our two teams went to Point View School to compete against many other schools in the East Auckland Primary Interschool Chess Championship. Both of our chess teams tried their very best. In the end, our A team came 7th place and our B team came 17th place. But next year, we’ll be ready!
Congratulations to Elden who won best on his board with a perfect score of 6 wins!  – Ethan Z and Ethan W

Book Week is Coming!

Our annual Book Week celebration will be taking place
Term 3 Week 2

21st – 25th July

We are excited about:

A visit from an award winning author
Our amazing book character dress up parade to start the week
The Scholastic Book Fair running every day in the library before and after school
A pop up library around the school every lunchtime
Competitions, quizzes and fun classroom activities!

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