Kia ora koutou e te whānau te Kura o Hato Pirihiti,

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend and enjoyed Waitangi Day with your whānau and friends.

We have had an amazing start back to school at St Brigid’s for 2023! It has been a very successful and settled time for everyone, and there has been a positive buzz around the classrooms and playground!

We had our special School Whakatau today welcoming our new staff and students. We are thrilled to have new staff join our team this year; Bianca Clarke (part-time Y7/8 mainly in Rm 13), Rachel Grant (Rm 11 Y2), Amanda Reid (Rm 1 Y1), Chelsea Watson (Rm 14 Y7/8) and Jeannine Winton (Rm 5 Y5/6). We are very blessed to have such wonderful teachers join SBS and we look forward to getting to know you all.

On Friday, you should have received a newsletter via email from your child’s classroom teacher introducing themselves and sharing some information about the new school year. If you haven’t received it, please do not hesitate to contact your classroom teacher or the office.

We hope you are able to come to our first school event, our School Picnic tonight (Tuesday 7 February) 5-7pm in the ‘Big Courts’ playground; the staff and I look forward to seeing you there with BYO food and blankets.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Jennifer Ioannou

Principal/Tumuaki

Kia ora koutou,

I hope that you have all had a good and restful break over the summer.

It has been wonderful to see people back on school grounds as they attend their whānau conferences. A huge thank you to all of the staff involved in organising and creating these important conversations which are a key way to help support our tamariki. Term One’s theme is community and there will be exciting opportunities throughout this year to embody this idea, including tonight’s picnic - it’s looking like a lovely evening for it!

Have a fabulous week everyone and enjoy the first term of the school year.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Meg Davies

Presiding Member - St Brigid’s School Board

• Dental Van Visiting - Tuesday 7 February - Monday 6 March
• School Picnic - Tuesday 7 February 5.00 - 7.00pm
• Year 8 Camp meeting for parents - Tuesday 7 February 6.30pm
• School Liturgy - Friday 10 February 9.15am
• Year 8 Camp - Tuesday 14 February - Friday 17 February

Term One
Wednesday 1 February – Thursday 6 April

(NB: 1&2 February are Whānau Conferences)

Term Two
Monday 24 April (Teacher Only Day – School closed due to Staff Professional Development)

Tuesday 25 April (ANZAC Day)

Wednesday 26 April (classes resume) – Thursday 29 June

Friday 30 June (Teacher Only Day – School closed due to Staff Professional Development)

Term 3
Monday 17 July – Thursday 21 September

Friday 22 September (Teacher Only Day – School closed due to Staff Professional Development)

Term 4
Monday 9 October – Friday 15 December – School finishes at 1.00pm

The Parish organising committee would like 20 St Brigid's children in school uniform to form a guard of honour at the beginning of the mass.

The children will need to meet at school no later than 10.30am. Pat Collier from the Parish will be in charge of organising the children from there and escorting them down to the church in good time.

Please email Bryony at Bryony@stbrigids.school.nz by Friday 10 February to confirm your children will be available to attend the opening mass and form the guard of honour.

Internet Safety Day is Tuesday 7 February. The theme for 2023 in New Zealand is “Every Space a Safe Space.” Amid much media discussion about the importance of physical safety and crime prevention in our communities, coupled with a renewed focus on mental wellbeing at school and workplaces as we emerge from pandemic lockdowns, we want to encourage everyone to remember that Your Online Safety is as Important as Your Physical and Mental Wellbeing.

Every space we enter, should be a safe space.

Over the next two weeks every class at St Brigid’s School will be discussing and revisiting our Digital Citizenship Agreement to remind us how we need to keep safe when using digital devices. As parents, you are key to help keep your child safe online. A Digital Citizenship Agreement form will sent out in the next two weeks for you to go over with your child, sign and return to your child’s teacher.

Helpful websites links:

New Zealand website https://netsafe.org.nz/

Safer Internet Day https://www.saferinternetday.org/home

Each year the Board of Trustees review the donation structure to make sure that donations, while voluntary, are still affordable and at a fair cost for every family.

The Board has set the 2023 school donation to $100 for the first child and $60 for additional children. This small increase is due to increasing costs for the school, for example, swimming costs have increased as well as bus and transportation costs for class trips. We are committed to providing valuable learning opportunities and experiences for our students.

School donations are used to help bridge the funding gap and are vitally important to help provide valuable resources and enhance our learning environment. In addition to funding trips and activities for our students, next year’s donations will contribute to funding extra teacher aide hours, classroom furniture, outdoor improvements, digital devices and additional learning support.

Every family has now been emailed a Donation invoice for each child. If you have not received this email, please check your spam before contacting Lynne in the school office. Thank you to those families who have already made a donation payment, it is much appreciated.

There are several different ways that you can make your school donation. Parents or caregivers may also make donations of a different value, which are always gratefully received.

For example:

1. A single full payment of $100 for one child and $60 for additional children

2. A payment per term of $25 for one child and $15 for additional children

3. Fortnightly, weekly or monthly payments (can be arranged with the school office)

4. Some workplaces also offer ‘Workplace Giving’ where you can arrange for the school donation payment to be deducted automatically from your wages or salary, with your workplace calculating all the tax allowances as well.

Internet banking - Please transfer funds to: St Brigid’s Operations Account 12-3041-0341681-00, with your child’s family name as the reference. When the donation is paid, you will be emailed a receipt from Lynne.

Did you know that school donations are a tax-deductible payment and you can claim 33.3% of the payment amount? Any payments made before 31 March 2023, can be claimed after your tax return is filed.

Information on how to get your tax rebate can be found on the IRD website - https://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax/income-tax-for-individuals/individual-tax-credits/tax-credits-for-donations/submit-a-donation-receipt

We thank all our school families for their continued support.

St Brigid’s School Board of Trustees

We use SchoolAppsNZ to send out our weekly school newsletters/notices every Tuesday. This is a key form of communication with our school community so please download the app and stay up to date with our school news.

In addition to the weekly school newsletter/notices, SchoolAppsNZ allows us to send alerts to our parent/caregiver community, links to our website and you can use it to send notification of your child’s absence.

Please download the app by taking the following steps:

1. Go to the app store and search for SchoolAppsNZ and download.

2. When you first open it, it will ask you to search for the school you want.

3. Once you have confirmed St Brigid’s you are good to go!

4. If you already have this app on your phone for a child at another school, just go to ‘add a school’ and add St Brigid’s.

Copies of the school newsletters can also be found on the school website www.stbrigids.school.nz under the A-Z Directory tab.

School calendar – our school calendar (on the school website) has information about school/class events.

We have changed our school uniform supplier for 2023 and will be working with NZ Uniforms from this year. Feedback from our parent community has indicated that parents want to be able to view and purchase in one shop, and therefore we have made the change to NZ Uniforms.

NZ Uniforms is conveniently located at 168 Thorndon Quay, Pipitea, Wellington, 04 238 4727.

Two ways of accessing the NZ Uniforms site to order online:

To go to NZ Uniforms main page (nzuniforms.com) and search for St Brigids in the top search bar

Or

using the link: https://stbrigids.nzuniforms.com/catalog/browse-by-category-1106341.htmx

NZ Uniforms have advised that all uniforms items are now available and in stock.

Please note: that we have some brand new stock at school so please contact Lynne at lynne@stbrigids.school.nz if you are interested in purchasing anything.

You can also use the St Brigid's Friends & Whanau Fundraising Page to request secondhand items from the school community.

NZ Uniform Shop Open Hours

Monday - Friday 9:00am - 5:30pm

Saturday 9:00am - 4:00pm

Sunday Closed

We now only have 3 student desks available (height 70cm) to those who would like them for home. They are in OK condition and can be spruced up! Pick up from the office this week. A koha donation would be appreciated to go towards purchasing new collaborative classroom furniture. Thank you for your support.

Eileen Brown offers weekly Guitar lessons during school times.

If your child is interested in learning starting Term 1 2023, please contact Eileen on Mob. 027 3396943 or Email:eileenvbrown11@gmail.com

Students should be at least 7 years old to start learning the instrument. All styles taught including Rock and Pop, Traditional, Classical, and Theory. Lessons are fun and enjoyable

Visit us on www.drumorguitar.com or on our Facebook page, Bill and Eileen Brown Music Tuition