Tēnā koutou kātoa e te whānau,

Tihei mauri ora, nau mai, haere mai, tena koutou katoa, E nga whanau, e nga kaiako, e nga tamariki, e nga manuhiri, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa

Sickness

We still have a significant amount of sickness and we thank our community for their understanding and the ability to keep your children at home. We are continuing with our hygiene protocols and making sure the children are washing their hands.

Communication

Please continue to keep an eye out on our school website and HERO for calendar updates. We have a class Mass most Thursdays at 9am in the chapel. Anyone is welcome to attend, not just the families of the class attending Mass.

Aquinas Enrolments

For those Yr 6 families enrolling their children at Aquinas we will print reports off and give them to Aquinas to help save time for families to ask the teacher. Thank-you for your patience with this as we work in partnership with Aquinas to make sure families have all the required documents for their enrolment.

HERO

Please make sure you have this downloaded as it is becoming a very smooth way for messaging absences as well as getting notices out.

Parent Conferences

We are having parent interviews in the first week of Term 3 which will allow families to spend time with their child's teacher. Details are further on in the newsletter.

Important Dates

Please pay specific attention to the following dates and put them in your diary.

Term start and finish dates

Monday 25th July - Term 3 starts

Friday 30 September - Term 3 ends

Monday 17 October - Term 4 starts

Friday 16 December - Term 4 ends

Monday 24 October - Labour Day

Parent Conferences

Wednesday 27th July, 3 pm-6 pm

Thursday 28th July 12.30 pm-6 pm. SCHOOL CLOSES AT 12PM

There will be no After school Care or afternoon school buses on Thursday 28th July

Wednesday 7th December, 3 pm-6 pm

Thursday 8th December 12.30 pm-6 pm. SCHOOL CLOSES AT 12PM

There will be no After school Care or afternoon school buses on Thursday 8th of December

Teacher Only Days - SCHOOL IS CLOSED

Friday 2nd September

Friday 18th November

School Uniform

We need your support with the school uniform please. We are making sure that children are coming to school and leaving school in their correct uniform. We are noticing children adding items to their uniform that they are not allowed. Correct footwear must be worn unless a note has been given to the Teacher. Polyprops can be worn underneath as long as they are not showing. Most of the classrooms are warm and the children need to wear sweatshirts or jackets. We are asking for parents to support this and make sure if there is an alteration to the uniform that the Teacher is informed.

Lost Property

Lost property works when we make sure items are named and we return them to their owners. All the teams have designated areas for lost property and that is the first port of call. All items unnamed generally end up back at the office. Thanks for your continued support around this.

Ngā mihi nui

James Murray

Principal

We have now entered Ordinary Time in our church’s Liturgical Calendar.

From the beginning of Lent until last week’s celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ our church has been clothed in PURPLE (Lent), RED (Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Pentecost) and GOLD/WHITE (Easter).

We now change to GREEN as the colour for Ordinary Time.

Because the term “ordinary “ in English means something that’s not special or distinctive, many people think that Ordinary time refers to parts of the Church’s Liturgical Calendar that are unimportant. This is certainly not the case!

As Monsignor Trevor Murray (St Patrick’s Taupo) has explained in his weekly newsletter “Ordinary Time is called “ordinary” not because it is common but simply because the weeks of Ordinary Time are numbered. The Latin word ordinalis, refers to “numbers in a series”- it stems from the Latin word ordo, from which we get the English word “order”.

So, the numbered weeks of Ordinary Time, in fact, represent the ordered life of the Church - the period in which we live our lives neither in feasting (as in the Christmas and Easter seasons ) nor in more severe penance (as in Advent and Lent), but in watchfulness and expectation of the Second Coming of Christ.”

Our classroom altars and prayer focuses will have green cloths now and reflect what is happening at this time in our church’s calendar.

Our final Liturgy for this term is to be on Friday 8th July at 10.30am to mark the Feast Day of Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey - the foundress of our Cluny Sisters. Her feast day falls in the school holidays on July 15th.

We warmly invite parents and family members to join us for this very special liturgy where we will honour our Cluny Sisters and their foundress Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey.

It is our hope that when our students graduate from St Mary’s they will have an understanding and appreciation of Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey and the charism which she established and has been gifted to our school by our Cluny Sisters.

Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey was the most remarkable woman. She lived during the very turbulent times of the French Revolution and our students will hear stories of her brave and courageous deeds and adventures.

She was a woman in so many ways ahead of the times she lived in. This was seen in her faith, her educational philosophy, her fearless resolve to help the poor and needy, her desire to spread the word of God and free the African people from slavery. For a woman at that time to travel across the world by boat as she did to another country/continent was unheard of.

Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey believed and taught the Sisters of her Order that every child is unique, with their own special God given gifts and talents. When educating children she believed that learning programmes should be tailored for the individual child’s needs and always develop their strengths and talents, in a caring and nurturing Christ filled environment, in order that each child would achieve their own personal best.

Her motto of “Do A Little Good Each day “ which was at the heart of her Spiritual and Educational Philosophy remains our school motto today.

We join the Sisters in praying that one day in the not too distant future Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey will be canonised as a Saint.

I wish you all a very enjoyable and restful school holiday! Keep well and safe.

With kind regards and God bless

Sally Washer

Ngā mihi o Matariki, te tau hou Māori - Happy Matariki to you all!

Last Thursday we celebrated Matariki with many exciting activities, including kapa haka, lantern and kite making, weaving, baking, art and craft, making galaxy slime, drama, and traditional Māori games.

Thank you very much to whānau who were able to join us on the day.

Mānawatia a Matariki

The Year 3/4 Basketball World Cup took place at Baypark a couple of weeks ago. St Mary's represented Italy and were coached by Jason Rigon. The team put up a great effort and placed 17th after a day of tough competition.

Thanks for all the parent help and support to make it a great day for the children.

Dear St Mary’s school community,

As we get to the sharp end of the term, we (parents and caregivers) would like to give thanks to God for every one of our beautiful St Mary’s school staff. To celebrate their tremendous efforts and show them some love, a group of us are presenting them today with a spiritual bouquet (on behalf of all our families) and invite you to join us in offering a selection of prayers over the next while, starting with this lovely prayer for all our staff.

The following prayer intentions are being offered for all St Mary’s school staff:

9 Masses

• June 25th @ 5pm
• June 26th @ 8am and 10:30am
• July 23rd @ 5pm
• July 24th @ 8am and 10:30am
• Aug 20th @ 5pm
• Aug 21st @ 8am and 10:30am

Novena for Teachers

Join us over the next 9 days as we pray a beautiful Novena for Teachers. We will post the daily prayers here and on the school FB.

10 Rosary

For anyone to do in their own time. For those who would like to meet up in the school chapel over the coming months, please message me and we will arrange time together.

Love, Peace & Blessings

Tracey Oliver-Marshall, Carolyn Cope, Alison Dunlop, Cecilia Senior, Ainsley Richards, Nina Isabel de Villiers & Ruth Banisa-Bag-ayan

Consultation is now open on Tauranga City Council’s proposal to reclassify a small part (about 6%) of Marine Park at Sulphur Point. If successful, the reclassification will allow for a marine research and education facility to be developed there in the future.

The facility is expected to bring many potential benefits to the region including increased educational opportunities, ongoing employment for locals, and increased research opportunities into innovative and sustainable responses to the effects of climate change.

You can have your say on this consultation on the Tauranga City Council website until 5pm 20 June 2022. To find out more head here: www.tauranga.govt.nz/marinefacility

Monday 7 February - Waitangi Day

Term 2 - Monday 2 May - Friday 8 July

Monday 6 June - Queen's Birthday

Tuesday 7 June- TEACHER ONLY DAY, Kahui Ako

Friday 24 June - Matariki

Term 3 - Monday 25 July - Friday 30 September

Friday 2nd September-TEACHER ONLY DAY

Term 4 - Monday 17 October - Friday 16 December

Monday 24 October - Labour Day

Friday 18th November- TEACHER ONLY DAY

Term 3- Wednesday 27th July, 3 pm-6 pm, Thursday 28th July 12.30 pm-6 pm. SCHOOL CLOSES AT 12PM Thursday 28th July.

There will also be NO AFTER SCHOOL CARE THIS DAY.

Term 4- Wednesday 7th December, 3 pm-6 pm, Thursday 8th December 12.30 pm-6 pm. SCHOOL CLOSES AT 12PM Thursday 8th December.

There will also be NO AFTER SCHOOL CARE THIS DAY.