Newsletter Week Nine Term Three
St Claudine Thevenet 23 September 2022
Message from the Acting Principal
Kia ora whanau,
Term 3 is flying by and with the end of the term in our sights we are getting organised and looking ahead to Term 4. Over the past two weeks classes have been busy completing our technology learning focus - ‘With Little Wonders Grow Mighty Ideas’. With last week being Te Wiki o te Reo and the commemoration of the 50 th anniversary of te Petihana Reo Maori, the students were involved in a range of activities in their classrooms. I hope that you have had the opportunity to visit our Facebook page and view some of the activities the students have been working on.
It is wonderful to see our sports events starting up again. This week we had two Year 5 and 6 teams represent St Claudine’s at the Rippa Rugby Tournament. The students involved represented the school with pride and determination. Their behaviour and teamwork was fantastic. Even when disappointed at the outcome, they dug deep and displayed respect and sportsmanship towards the teams participating. We are proud of you all. Thank you to Ms Rasmussen and Ms Mu for supporting our teams. Also, thank you to Zoey Kumar who supported the teachers and teams in her role as sports captain.
Next week a group of Year 6 students will be involved in a bike event with Pedal Ready that involves learning how to keep safe when riding on the road.
We have regularly asked families to refrain from parking on the yellow lines in front of the school when dropping off and picking up children. Thank you to those who support this, we appreciate your consideration. It is important that people are not parking illegally as it is not safe for children, we cannot see past these cars to check for traffic at the crossing and it means that teachers have to approach and ask them to move leaving less teachers available for supervision. This is a safety concern so please let’s all work together to keep our children safe by adhering to the parking rules. There is also NO parking in the Dental Hub.
Next Friday we farewell Miss Garrett as she goes on maternity leave. We thank her for her work with the students in Rimu Rua and the Rimu Hub over the past 3 terms. This is a very special time for Miss Garrett and her whanau and we wish her all the very best with the birth of her baby and those first few months of settling into a new pace of life.
Throughout the term, our student council have been busy at work implementing some new initiatives across the school. Their focus is on promoting a positive, welcoming and inclusive school community.
The students have been working in groups to develop action plans and are working hard to become the leaders their peers nominated them to be. Each group has written about their involvement in student council this term. You can read these below this message.
This term non-uniform day is on Thursday 29th September. Proceeds from the gold coin donation will go to MissioNZ.
MissioNZ assists various missions around the world for example, the rebuilding of
churches, responding to emergencies and supporting underprivileged children.
Totara Hub is sharing their learning with you in this newsletter so I hope that you enjoy reading about all of the activities that they have been involved in over the past few weeks.
I would like to finish by thanking everyone for the support I have received over the term during my role as acting principal.
Ngā manaakitanga
Sandra Page
Creativity
For weeks 9 and 10 of this term our faith focus with students is based around the theme of “Creativity”. We want our students to understand that God made us unique and blessed each and every one of us with gifts, talents and creative minds. We want them to know right from the first verse in the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth” (Genesis 1:1) that God is Creator, and He formed us in His image. That creativity is not just what God does. Creativity is who God is. Therefore, the power to create is in us all.
Being blessed with creative inspiration is a divine, ever-flowing, overflowing stream that comes to life when freedom and joy come together. Each of us is not just a precious creation of God but are powerful creators with God. We have holy authorization to use our sacred power to create in every area of our lives: sculpting new ideas, framing new attitudes, and building new relationships. Creativity in faith is a spiritual transformation that involves embracing our divine creative power and wielding it in the spirit of limitless love, freedom, and joy from which we receive it.
Mrs Wilson (DRS)
Student Council
Caught Being Awesome!
As part of the positive school focus my team is bringing back our reward system in the playground. This time it is going to be called ‘Caught being Awesome’. Teachers will be rewarding awesome attitudes and behaviour in the playground at break times. When a duty teacher catches a student being AWESOME, the student’s name will go into a lucky draw and if their name is drawn out at assembly they will get a prize. We want everyone to realize how amazing they are and can be, and hopefully this encourages more students to be as great as their peers.
(Positive Environment Team: Logan, Emily, Marley, Oli Oli - Joe)
Gate Greeters
Our group has been focusing on creating a sense of belonging at school by greeting kids when coming into school. We help them if they feel afraid and make sure that they get a happy ‘Good morning’, ‘Talofa’ or ‘Kia ora’ at the gate each morning. We have created a roster for those who have volunteered to take part as a gate greeter and kept them informed about what they need to do to make our school community a better place. We want each student to feel welcome every time they walk into our school. This is just one of our ideas and we will be looking at other ways to show that we can make others feel like they belong in our school community in the near future.
(A Home Where Everyone is Welcome Team: Shalom, Devyn, Sydney, Tyrel, Uriah, Darrin)
Tuakana Teina Time
This term the Opportunities and Participation Team planned Tuakana Teina Time across the school. We planned this instead of Ako Pai because we only had a few weeks left in the term and wanted to give the new teachers and students some time to get used to being in mixed groups with new people. We told teachers that the main idea was for everyone to get to know each other, build relationships and help each other. We decided that Totara and Rata would work together, and Rimu and Hinau would work together on a variety of things, such as games, sports and arts. We thought that this would help students in the playground and remind us how to work together and care for each other. Here are some of the comments from the teachers and students in each hub -
Rata Hub:
It worked well and the Rata students enjoyed working with the senior students. It was nice to build relationships with the teachers and other students. We enjoyed cleaning the school and helping the environment. The seniors are so much fun. I like to draw with the seniors. I enjoyed playing with the puppets with the seniors.
Rimu Whanau:
We enjoyed making friends with others. I liked meeting new people. We enjoyed making arts and crafts, and making a song with others. I enjoyed learning Japanese and making origami. We learned how to count in Samoan. I enjoyed learning about my own language.
Hinau Whanau:
We liked working together and making Japanese flowers because we got to make it with the little kids. Making bracelets was so much fun. We enjoyed making a person on a boat with the little kids because we got to spend time with them. We enjoyed making little details on the boat. The students found it was a good bonding time with others.
Totara Whanau:
It was good to play games with the little kids. We enjoyed having the experience, to have the chance to build a bond with the kids. We did art and outdoor activities with the little kids. We enjoyed having the experience to spend time with the younger children. We did board games with the little kids. We enjoyed playing with the little kids and had a nice time. We got to know the little kids names because they are new at school and we didn’t know them. It helps the little kids to feel safe with the big kids.
This has been a good time to get to know each other. Maybe we will do Ako Pai next term or maybe we will continue to do Tuakana Teina Time again.
(Opportunities and Participation Team: Zion, Zoey, Ruth, Pele, Miradon)
End of Term Assembly
Our group has been preparing an assembly for our students, as we would like our students to come together for the first time since Covid began. That's why this year for our Term 3 final assembly, we wanted it to be a whole school assembly. Our team has put together an assembly that celebrates our community as well as our theme of Creativity for our students. Sadly we cannot have parents and caregivers come into the school for the assembly just yet, but in Term 4 we would love to have school assemblies and other fun activities together, gathering as a whole community.
(Celebrating Community Team: Dupree,Layden Eslinari, Dezmond. Owen)
Totara Whanau
Maths
Our maths focus at the moment is Statistics. We have been learning to read box and whisker graphs, line graphs, and stem and leaf graphs. We are also learning to interpret this data and draw our own conclusions. We are learning to use these skills in real life by asking questions for our own statistical investigations. In Totara Rua, they are beginning to question whether there is an equal distribution of food waste across the hub in our school lunches.
We have also been learning about perimeter, area , volume and how to use the correct units to weigh, measure and work out the capacity of a variety of objects.
Literacy
In literacy, Totara Tahi have been finishing their novel studies and beginning to read about different engineering projects that have happened in New Zealand. We have been using our newfound scientific knowledge to write sci-fi stories, about time travel, and portals.
In Totara Rua, we have been reading about the design and engineering process, and starting to recognise this in everyday inventions around us. We are exploring this knowledge and language in our writing.
In Totara Toru, the students are all reading a classic novel in their reading groups and practising inference, predicting, finding information and seeing things from the authors perspective. In our Writers Corner the students have been choosing from a selection of topics based around engineering, inventions and discoveries with a focus on science and technology.
Connected
Our theme of “From Little Wonders Grow MIghty Ideas” has led to students asking scientific questions and creating engineering projects. Totara Rua has learned about the history of engineers, and made their own towers out of paper, to learn the different ways these structures stand. Totara Tahi have made a variety of creations using their science skills, such as lip balms, candles, pistons, and baking soda volcanoes.
Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori
Last week, we celebrated Maori Language Week. As you may have seen on our Facebook page, our hub came together to sing a waiata. In our own classes, Totara Rua looked into greetings and whakatauki. We have created a display that shows our Te Reo knowledge.
STEM Room
As part of our engineering focus in Connected, we have been using a new resource called MakerSpace where students are designing and creating projects. We have used tools and materials to explore science, physics and maths as well as learning to work together in small groups. It has been challenging but lots of fun too. Each of the classes has worked collaboratively to create moving cars, fish, and more. We have loved being able to put our engineering skills into practice.
We are continuing to reflect on how to modify our designs to improve the outcomes. We have learned that the first draft isn’t always the best, and good engineers continuously reflect and adapt.
Farewell for now Miss Garrett
The Rimu Rua students, and all of Rimu Hub would like to say a very big thank you to Miss Garrett for her dedication and hard work throughout the year, she will be leaving us at the end of term. We wish her all the best for the arrival of her baby. We look forward to seeing her again and meeting her little boy when she comes to visit us. We will miss you very much. God bless you Miss Garrett.
Sunhats
Touch Rugby Fees
Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day - Public Holiday
Term dates 2022
Term One - Wednesday 2 February- Thursday 14 April 2.40pm
Term Two- Monday 2 May- Friday 8 July 2.40pm
Term Three- Monday 25 July- Friday 30 September 2.40pm
Term Four- Monday 17 October- Thursday 15 December 12.30pm
Contact Us
Email: office@stclaudine.school.nz
Website: https://www.stclaudine.school.nz/1/pages/1-welcome
Location: 14 Rata St, Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt 5014, New Zealand
Phone: +64 4 9399189