Blessings to you all as we begin journey through Week 4. Thank you for your support of our Staff Only Day on Monday. We were joined by staff from our other Catholic schools/kura and we spent the day learning more about this area, Rangitane and how we can do better as group of schools for our children/tamariki. This is a process we are all undertaking over two years.

Today we welcome Kitty to Room 1 - we wish you and your whanau abundant blessings as you start your journey with us.

HI FROM TIM AND HAROLD @ LIFE ED MANAWATU!

We are so excited to be coming back to Our Lady of Lourdes and seeing all our friends again! We are so looking forward to being around all your kindness and positivity - it just makes every day here so memorable!
We feel really privileged to be sharing in the students’ learning around showing resilience, dealing with conflicts & co-operating with others, and would love to hear of any learning being shared at home.
Life Ed is a charitable trust that aims to inspire learners and their families to make positive decisions about their wellbeing, and receives no government funding. If you would like to support our worthy cause, we will have the following items for sale until Monday:

Harold flag pens @ $1
Soft toy Harold key rings @ $7
Harold drink bottles @ $10
Large Harold soft toys @ $22

These can purchased from me at anytime (cash only please) - take care everyone, have a super rest of the day and we’ll see you on Wednesday!

Love from Tim and Harold!

Last day for book club orders (online and cash orders) is Friday 25th March.

COVID 19 UPDATE

Thank you for all your support in looking after each other in these unusual times. We know that this can be an unsettling time and we are so proud of how happy and resilient our children are. There are many wonderful things happening each day at school and your child is busy learning and living the Mercy way.

We are beginning to plan for the next few weeks - we know that our school/kura will be affected at some stage and we want to be ready for this. We are beginning to plan for a HYBRID learning model so that we can offer onsite schooling as well as teach those who may need to be at home isolating.

We will keep you in touch every step of the way. Please make sure you check in with our school app (SchoolAppsNZ), our website or facebook. We will also send home emails should that be required as well.

Again, our thanks for your support as we journey together in these uncertain times. You are always in our prayers.

A global invitation

During this significant time in the Church’s history, Pope Francis invites ALL of us to reflect on our faith journey and share our vision for the future of the Catholic Church. Our diocese is currently asking people to share their voice and to listen to one another as part of this process.

This is an invitation to participate and explain how your school community can be part of this important moment.

Getting Involved

The Catholic School community, including all staff, students and whānau, is a very important part of the Diocese of Palmerston North. We hope as many people as possible from across our school communities are able to be involved in the local phase of the Synod, which is currently underway.

Involving whānau

In addition to the participation of students in this process, we would love to hear the important voice of our whānau/families connected to our schools. Below are some ways that you might be able to share this opportunity with your students' whānau.

• Information for whānau/families could be included in newsletters and through your school app. An example blurb is included in the ‘Classroom Resource’ and on our website. You are welcome to adapt or add to. You could also share this video invitation with parents in your digital communication to your school community: https://youtu.be/A7l3OE7JVkU

Contact us at synod@pndiocese.org.nz or visit our webpage https://pndiocese.org.nz/synodinschools for resources, information about how to make submissions and downloads.

Thank you for all that you do.

pndiocese.org.nz/synodinschools

Mr Anderson put our liturgy together for us for the week. Our teachers are doing a stunning job of leading us each week with this. Our children are beginning to know more about Jesus, the liturgical calendar and what it means to LIVE, LEARN and LOVE as Jesus modelled to us.

FAITH, HOPE and LOVE and the greatest of these is LOVE. The Theological virtues which are so important to us all.

We have moved our uniform to Academy Apparel on Broadway Avenue.

For 2022: we understand there maybe challenges trying to source the new uniform and will help anyway we can. Please wear our older style uniform for the year if you are able and have access to one.

• If you have the new uniform - that is great.
• If you have to do a mixture for now - no problem. We will all work together on this and we will get there.
• We have a lot of wonderful donated items in the office area so if you are struggling with sourcing a uniform please come in and have a look - they are free to a good home.

We hope that by 2023 we can have all children in our new school uniform with the PE uniform used for sports activities only.

Let's go gently and work together on this.

TERM ONE DATES FOR 2022

• Wednesday February 23rd - Life Education is here for the week
• Wednesday March 2nd - Ash Wednesday - we hold liturgies in each of our rooms
• Thursday April 14th - HOLY THURSDAY
• THURSDAY APRIL 14th - LAST DAY OF TERM ONE
• Friday April 15th - Good Friday - SCHOOL CLOSED FOR THE TERM BREAK
• Monday May 2nd - FIRST DAY OF TERM TWO

Term 1 - Wednesday February 2nd - Thursday 14th April (Friday 15th is Good Friday)

Term 2 - Monday 2nd May - Friday 8th July

Term 3 - Monday 25th July - Friday 30th September

Term 4 - Monday 17th October - 14th December (to be confirmed)