Tena koutou katoa

Many of us have sat, or will sit tonight, in our transformed school hall to watch our children entertain us as they perform ‘Little Red RockingHood.’ The show is fantastic and it provides a wonderful opportunity for our children to shine. Not only is this show a demonstration of the fantastic talents of our students, but also a wonderful example of the talents, commitment, energy and passion of many staff and volunteers who worked together as a team.

A special thanks to Jane Trask who is the director of the show. She has put in many long hours starting back at the end of Term 2 to ensure that the show was a success, and it certainly is. Thanks Jane and the huge team that supported you. Thanks also to Lorette Tiedt the Musical Director, Mr G working on the staging area, staff who have helped in some way and fantastic parents who have helped with sewing etc. Performing in a show will be a memory our children will cherish. All children are involved in the show, isn’t that great.

There are still tickets left for tomorrow’s matinee if you would like to come. Book on eventbrite.

Four teams competed in the Aquabot competition on Saturday. The children had fun preparing for the competition and competing on the day. Thanks to Bevan James for preparing our students and parents who managed the teams on Saturday.

On Saturday we had seven touch teams play in a grading tournament. It is great to see that touch is back on after having a break during Covid. Thanks to Shanelle McCashin, Jill Dinniss and Andrea Mathis for setting up the teams and getting the team bags ready for the coaches. Thanks also to the parents who are coaching and managing these teams.

The Filipino community celebrated the feast of St Lorenzo Ruiz on Saturday. They celebrated the day with Mass, a procession around the school with the statue of St Lorenzo and then a luncheon. The statue will permanently be placed in the foyer of the church which is quite fitting as we have a large number of our parishioners who are Filipino. We had a lot of our families at Saturday’s celebration.

This Friday, Sammy from Key to Life Charitable Trust (founded by Mike King) and the ‘Little People, Big Feelings’ is in school to talk to our year 6 students. The content is all centred around bullying, resilience, and kindness.

The curtain comes down on another term. It has been a busy term and I would like to thank you all for your ongoing support. I hope you get to spend extra time with your children over the holidays. The fourth term will fly by very quickly and Christmas will be here before we know it.

All Winter Sport Codes have finished now and I want to take the opportunity to thank all the coaches and managers of our Sports Teams for the time they put into making sure teams went onto the courts/fields well prepared.

Lots of parents have been in to sort out summer uniforms. Students are to start Term 4 in full summer uniform. Our Uniform Shop is open Mondays (8.30-9.00am), Wednesdays (2.30-3.00pm) & Fridays (8.30-9.00am) during term time. The Uniform Shop will also be open during the holidays on Wednesday 12th, 11.30 am to 2.00 pm. Please remember that children need to wear the school sun hats in term 4.

We also sell school uniforms via our school website. You can order and pay online and pick up your uniform from the school reception after you have been notified by email that the uniform is ready to collect. Hopefully, this will be easier for those parents who find it difficult to get to our uniform shop.

The Holiday Reading Programme will be distributed today. Please encourage your child to read over the holidays. The lucky draw will take place on 18th October. Lots of awesome prizes to be won. 92% of our children participated in reading during the last holiday. Can we reach 100% participation these holidays? There is a special prize for the best photo with child/children and parent reading.

An invitation to parents of 5, 6 and 7-year-old children to consider baptising your children in the Catholic Faith has been sent home today. There are four sessions planned in November and these sessions will be on a Sunday morning and will be taken by teachers at our school. Please return the form by the end of this week.

A reminder that class placements for 2022 need to be returned to the blue box in the school office no later than this Friday. If you have a four-year-old preschooler and you intend to enrol him/her at St Mary’s for 2023, please fill in an enrolment form which you can pick up from the office.

We intend to have a working bee on the second Saturday after the holidays, October 29th. There are a number of jobs that need to be done. I really appreciate the support we get from you, so thank you in anticipation. Children are welcome and we will have a BBQ lunch.

Just to give you plenty of notice, Monday 7th November we have planned to have a Teacher Only Day. The school will be closed for the day but Glenholme Afterschool Care will be operating at St Mary’s that day.

Please keep Sylvia Dunkley and her family in your prayers at this time. Sylvia’s father has passed away. Our prayers and aroha go out to Sylvia at this very sad time.

At the end of the week we farewell Ellie McLanachan who has been on placement at St Mary’s. Ellie is in her final year of study at the University of Waikato and has done wonderful work with the students in Room 14.

Have a great week. Term 4 resumes on Monday 17th October.

Ngā mihi

David Macmillan, Principal

Summer Uniform:

Boys - Grey drill shorts and a royal blue short-sleeved polo shirt.

Girls - Blue check dress.

All students need a royal blue sunhat.

Feilding Red woollen school jersey.

Black sandals for footwear (no socks to be worn with sandals).

Red Rocking Hood is coming to your school ...

Performances 1.30pm and 6.30pm (today, Wednesday) Thursday (tomorrow) same schedule.

We thank you all if you have assisted in any way to make this show happen.

It has been a great experience for the students.

There are still some tickets available for Thursday 1.30pm show. Click here

We have had a busy term with many wonderful opportunities for our children to display the Gospel values they have been learning about in class. It has been pleasing to see children show service to others and just like Jesus, help others who are in need. Teachers have been pleased to see children across all ages supporting one another, this includes older children supporting younger learners with their reading and writing to those who help out children who are hurt in the playground.

If you are interested in having your child baptised please contact either Sara Mines (saram@stmarysrotorua.school.nz) or Lorna Dobson (lornad@stmarysrotorua.school.nz). To learn more about what it means to be a Catholic we encourage you to attend Mass, you can find details about different Mass times on our parish website: St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

We still need items for our Operation Shoe Box appeal. Thank you to those who have already donated. You can send your donations to school with your child. All classroom teachers are collecting items. Donations can include - toys, school supplies, hygiene products, clothing, hair accessories etc.

Items NOT to include are: Toothpaste, sweets, lotions and liquids; used or damaged items; war-related items; seeds, gum, chocolate or food items; religious or political literature; medicines, aerosol cans, sharp or fragile items.

Our cut off date for contributions is end of term - 30 September 2022.

God bless

Sara Mines and Lorna Dobson

Would your child/children like to be trained as an Altar Server for St Mary's / St Michael's?

• Your child/children must be baptised Catholic and completed the Sacramental Programme (First Holy Communion and Confirmation) to be able to be trained.
• Please email the details of your child/children to the Parish Office if interested catholicrotorua@xtra.co.nz
• Please include your name and phone number together with email address.
• Father Prakash is looking at either Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Please indicate what day suits best on your email.
• Father Prakash will begin training this week straight after school.

We have a couple of upcoming fundraising events at Bunnings. Any support would be much appreciated.

We are fundraising to pay for the upcoming NZ Nationals being held in Rotorua on the weekend of 22/23 October. We are entering two teams of 8 players, 1 to play onsite, 1 to play online. Also we have up to 10 children playing in the individual championships.

Events:

Bunnings - BBQ Saturday 1 October. Come and enjoy a sausage and drink, and buy a raffle ticket.

Bunnings Cake Stall - Sunday 2 October.

Offers of cake items for the stall gratefully received. These can be dropped off at the main entrance at 8.30am to 9.30am.

With thanks,

Mr G

Thank you to all the whanau who attended the Netsafe Online Safety meeting last night. The presenter Shelley Hirst had many good ideas for keeping ourselves, and our children safe online. If you were unable to attend the meeting, here is the presentation with information about our 1:1 Chromebook programme and the use of Google suite.

The Netsafe presentation will be in the next newsletter.

Nga mihi nui,

Bevan James

In Term 4 we will be taking our Year 5 & 6 students to Taupo Christian Camp. The cost this year is $240.00 and is tax deductible.

We rely on parents/caregivers' contributions to enable us to hold this camp. Without your help camp is not possible.

Many thanks to those parents who have paid their contribution already. If you would like to start a payment plan, or have any queries, please email Margo Mason admin@stmarysrotorua.school.nz, or call into the office.

Summer Sports Registrations

Please keep an eye out on our website for summer sports registrations. This will be found under the sports tab under registrations.

We will be offering the following sports: Netball, Touch Rugby, Cricket and Futsal

PLEASE PAY REGISTRATION FEES ONLINE OR AT SCHOOL OFFICE.

We would also like return of the mini ball singlets as soon as possible.