Weekly Notices, Term 2, Week 9

 The Matariki Holiday was a special day with much celebration around the country. The three-day weekend was also a chance to recharge the batteries, as we come to the end of term. There have been many sicknesses over the last few weeks in our community, we appreciate parents keeping children at home when they are sick to limit the spread of viruses.

A big thank you to Miss Bowie, Mrs Tiedt and all the children of Rooms 15,16 and 17 for the warm birthday wishes given to Mr Bach last week. See below.

Our Sacred Heart of Jesus Mass was great last Thursday. A particular thanks to Mrs Mines and Mrs Dobson for their preparation and of course their enthusiasm as Directors of Religious Studies.

Thanks to Mrs Dinniss for taking our Ripper teams to the Regional tournament, Mr G for taking the Chess team to their competition and Mrs Holmes for taking the golfers away for their ‘give it a go’ day. All students acquitted themselves very well by all accounts. Thanks also to Shanelle who is doing all the support work so these trips can go ahead.

School Production

On Wednesday the auditions for our school production are being held and it is fantastic to see so many of our students who want to be involved. Mrs Trask is doing a great job and has already put in many hours of planning.

Matariki Cultural Dinner

We have our Matariki Cultural Dinner on Thursday evening. It would be awesome to see as many parents and caregivers there as possible.

A reading log will be sent out at the end of the week for children to use during the holidays.

Coming up this week:

• Tuesday - Room 15 Library.
• Wednesday - Room 16 and 17 Library. 
• Thursday - Matariki Cultural Dinner. 
• Friday - Pacifica, Choir, Golden Time and Assembly. 

Have a wonderful Sunday evening,

David Bach and Team Kahikatea. 

Breakfast at School

Children in Rooms 15, 16 and 17 are thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to have a little bit of breakfast at school from 8:30. Thanks to all those parents who donated a range of tasty toppings from which the children are able to make a selection. The children are also expected to wash and dry their own plates and we have some Breakfast Monitors to help with the cleanup at the end.  Bon Apetit!!

Weekly Notices, Term 2, Week 8

Welcome to Week 8 Term 2

- June 19, 2022

 

Kia ora parents and whānau, 

I hope you have had a lovely weekend so far. I know many children would've played sport on Saturday, I'm sure they all had a great time. 

It's hard to believe we are well into the second half of term 2. There has been some great learning going on and plenty more to come. On Friday we had a BIG cleanup of the play-based learning equipment which all the children helped with. We look forward to heading into a freshly organised space tomorrow. 

Coming up this week:

• Tuesday - Room 15 Library.
• Wednesday - Room 16 and 17 Library. 
• Thursday - Sacred Heart Mass. 
• Friday - Pacifica, Choir, Golden Time and Assembly. 

Have a wonderful Sunday evening,

David Bach and Team Kahikatea. 

Matariki Liturgy

 

Matariki Liturgy

Today we had our Matariki Liturgy which was led by Kahikatea.  

Our opening prayer was 

Haere mai

We come to this place 

of kindness and welcoming

We come to worship God

We come to welcome God

with our prayers and songs

We come to think of people

who have died 

and who shine like stars around us.

We come to thank our lucky stars

for warm homes, for hearty food and clean water

We come to share

the starlight of love.

We were proud of all our children who did readings and prayers with confidence and courage. The rest of the Kahikatea Team sat and participated in the prayers and songs respectfully.

Weekly Notices, Term 2, Week 7

 Weekly Notices - Term 2, Week 7

Good morning on this wonderful, wet Sunday morning.  I hope you are all managing to stay warm and dry.  We had a very rewarding week of testing reading, writing and maths last week. The children have worked hard this year so far and it can certainly be seen in the gains that they have made.

Once again, St Mary's provides our children with many opportunities to participate in a variety of sports and activities.  

Young Vinnies have the finals of the Talent Quest tomorrow at 9.15 am in the hall.  Congratulations to those who are in the finals.  Remember to be prepared and bring any props, clothes etc that you may need.  The rest of the school looks forward to watching and seeing the talent in our school.

The Ripper Rugby Tournament is scheduled for this Wednesday, with Friday as the postponement day. This event has been postponed twice already so let’s hope that it happens this time. 

The interschool Cross Country is scheduled for Tuesday, with Thursday being the postponement day. Ray is with the team at the Springfield Golf Course.

Our Chess Teams have done exceptionally well in the three tournaments that they have played in over the last 10 days. In the last tournament they played in over in Tauranga, one of the teams came in second, by one point,  against year 7&8 teams. In Taupo, we were 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Players have now qualified to compete in the Nationals.  Claire Delos Santos has been the top girl in all three of the tournaments.  Thanks Mr G for the awesome job you do with our Chess players.

June also starts the month of Matariki, over the next two weeks our play focus is on planet earth and beyond.  The teachers will be providing opportunities for the children to participate and extend their learning around this.

Kahikatea is leading the Matariki Liturgy in the hall on Thursday.

Toast

This week the children will be able to have toast in the mornings.  They are learning how to use the toaster, make their toast with spreads and then wash and dry their plate after they have eaten.

We are still able to provide the bread, but we are asking for donations of spreads for the children to use.  If you are in the position to supply a spread the children will gratefully have it.

Our week

Monday - Talent Quest finals

Tuesday - Library Room 15

Wednesday - Library Room 17 & 16

Thursday - Matariki Liturgy led by Kahikatea

Friday - Pasifika, Choir, Golden time, Assembly

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, see you tomorrow.

David Bach and Team Kahikatea

Science - Forces and Magnets

 The children enjoyed the magnet provocation run a couple of weeks ago by Mr. Bach. We looked at the attractive and repulsive force of North and South magnetic poles and how we can feel that invisible force. We also looked at the types of materials that are attracted by magnets.

Weekly Notices, Term 2, Week 6

Bonjour parents and whānau, we hope you have had a wonderful long weekend thus far.

We are now halfway through the term. It is going to be a very short Week 6 as Monday is Queen's Birthday Public Holiday and Tuesday is a Teachers Only Day. This means there are only 3 days when the children come to school, from Wednesday through to Friday. During these three days, all Year 3 teachers will be testing their children in Reading, Writing and Maths, in preparation for mid-year reports and to assess how much progress has been made leading up to the midpoint of 2022.

Weather permitting, our two 7s teams are competing in the inter-schools 7s tournament on Thursday.

We celebrated Pentecost Mass together as a school last week and weren’t our little readers fantastic. The singing was great too. Thanks to Mrs Mines and Mrs Dobson for organising the Mass.

Our Chess team performed particularly well in Taupo, being placed first, second and third and Claire Delos Santos received the top girl award. The team has now qualified for Nationals later in the year. A team is travelling to Hamilton this week to compete in a tournament over there. Thanks Mr G.

Things happening this week:

• Monday - Queen's Birthday Public Holiday - no school.
  
  
• Tuesday - Teacher Only Day - no school for children
  
  
• Wednesday - Room 16 and 17 library. 
  
  
• Thursday - 
  
  
• Friday -  Pasifika, Choir

We hope you have a wonderful week ahead, 

David Bach and Team Kahikatea. 

Viewing the Icon - Holy Mary, Mother of God- June 01, 2022

 

Viewing the Icon - Holy Mary, Mother of God- June 01, 2022

Yesterday we were lucky enough to visit a beautiful piece of artwork showing Ko Hāta Maria, te Matua Wahine o te Atua - Holy Mary, Mother of God. It was created by Dunedin artist, Damian Walker, who has integrated aspects of the Māori culture into his work. For example, Mary is holding 12 fern fronds and each koru represents an apostle. She is wearing a tiki around her neck which symbolises her motherhood. Baby Jesus is wearing a kahu kiwi (Kiwi feathered cloak) which was only ever worn by Māori chiefs or people with prestigious mana. The children were blown away by the stunning details within the painting and how they all had a special meaning. Father Thomas was able to answer many questions about the art before leading us in singing Ave, Ave, Ave Maria.