Newsletter 24 May Term 2 - 2022
St Brendan's Catholic School
Welcome, nau mai, afio mai, namaste, konnichiwa, nĭ hăo, talofa, komosta, vanakkam, auybowan,
Dear Whānau & Parishioners,
We remain at Orange nationwide and at St Brendan's we continue with the public health control measures. We welcome you to walk into school with your child/ren in the mornings and to wait outside classrooms to collect your child/ren in the afternoons. If/when you are inside we strongly encourage the wearing of masks and we ask that you be considerate of others and avoid congesting in large groups/small spaces.
Last week began with our St Brendan’s feast day. There are many things that are unique about our school, one of these is that we are the only school in New Zealand named after St Brendan. We were grateful that for the first time in a very long time the whole school was able to gather at Our Lady of Grace Church for a lovely Liturgy. We followed the protocols currently in place at Our Lady of the Valleys Parish, we were appropriately spaced and we did not sing. The only two visitors who joined us for our celebration were Kelly Ross, Vicar for Education and Frank Wafer, Leadership Consultant from ADW. Our Liturgy concluded with us watching the finale from last year’s production, ‘Searching for Grace’ which launched our new school song. Back at school everyone enjoyed planned St Brendan’s activities. And, in the afternoon we were delighted to welcome you inside the gate for an opportunity to reconnect and visit spaces across the school.
On Friday the school was a sea of pink in support of Pink Shirt Day. This is a day about working together to stop bullying by celebrating diversity and promoting kindness and inclusiveness. We thank everyone for their support.
We also had the opportunity to wish Mrs Eliana Van Velzen Good Luck and God’s Blessings on her last day at St Brendan’s School.
Embracing Hearts is a Wellington based charity that donates AEDs to schools around New Zealand with heart kids as students. Our school was nominated by Nicky O on behalf of Connor W, Indie B and Jacob C for consideration. We are delighted that thanks to the generosity of the Buddle Findlay Child Health Foundation, St Brendan’s has been gifted an AED. The AED is fully voice automated and can be easily used on children or adults when needed in an emergency. It comes with a 24/7 alarmed lock box so that members of our community will have access to it at all times. The AED was presented last week and is soon to be installed on the Palmer Crescent facing side of our Administration building.
Congratulations! ‘Well done!’ ‘We’re so proud of you!’ ‘What amazing effort!’ These were some of the words spoken at the end of the Inter-School Year 1-6 Cross Country held at Harcourt Park on Sunday. We thank Mrs Campbell for coordinating our entries. Mrs Pullan, Ms McElwain and I enjoyed supporting our runners and were very impressed by the positive display of GRACE values. Congratulations to Kaia for placing 1st and Lucia for placing 2nd in the Year 1-3 race, St Brendan’s won the trophy for the Year 1-3 event. Congratulations to the students who qualified for the regional event, and to all students who participated.
Staffing Update We look forward to welcoming Frances Reilly to St Brendan’s on Monday, she will be joining our Adventurer teaching team in Room 9. Frances is an experienced teacher who comes to us from Rewa Rewa School.
Did you log into Hero yesterday?
During this term we will continue to share learning posts with you three times. The first of which was a Literacy post shared yesterday. Please email your child/ren’s class teacher if you have not been able to access your Hero account yet and they will be able to help.
Keeping safe online
Every year we see an increase in the number of ways students connect online. At school we have policy and systems in place for student safety and monitor device use. To support families, we draw your attention again to the information provided by Netsafe. Netsafe has many useful tools to help families keep children safe online at home.
Welcome
On behalf of our whole school community we extend a warm welcome to Maddison who recently joined Room 2.
God Bless,
Veronica Sawers,
Principal
REMINDER
SCHOOL CLOSED DATES
3 June - Teacher Only Day
6 June - Queen’s Birthday
24 June - Matariki
END OF TERM
Term 2 ends at 2.55pm on Friday, 8 July
WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP!
ART
We continue to work on our sensory playground at the back of the hall. If you, a family member or friend has time to help students complete this project, please email, office@stbrendans.school.nz
ROAD PATROL
If you, a family member or friend has time to be added to our roster please email Room 11's teacher Sara Williams, s.williams@stbrendans.school.nz
GARDENING
St Brendan’s is an Enviro school and we are very proud of the progress we have made in the last few years, many initiatives have been introduced. If you, a family member or friend has time to help students to maintain our gardens, please pop into Room 7 or email Chris Pullan, c.pullan@stbrendans.school.nz
VERBAL BOUQUETS AND THANK YOU'S
To our Road Patrol volunteers - several of whom supported us to keep everyone safe last week despite the storm-like weather!
To everyone for supporting our upcoming Colour Fun Run.
WALKING HAND IN HAND WITH CHRIST
Dear friends
On January 25, 1959, in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, Pope John XXIII announced his intention to convoke an ecumenical council. It was at the closing ceremony for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been a formal cooperative work involving the Holy See and the World Council of Churches since 1958. Times of prayer for Christian Unity date back to the 1700s.
The Week of Prayer takes place in Aotearoa New Zealand between Ascension Sunday and Pentecost Sunday (29 May-5 June). The theme this year is “We saw his star in the east, and we came to worship him”, from Matthew’s account of the Magi visiting the infant Jesus.
The star of Bethlehem has meaning beyond Christmas. It is a sign that God calls his people to unity, walks with them, feels their pain, hears their cries, and shows them compassion. It reassures us that though circumstances change and terrible disasters may happen, God’s faithfulness is unfailing.
I ask you to pray this week for Christian unity, even for just a few minutes, so that the witness of all those who follow Christ may be a star, a light for the world. You will find resources to help your prayer on your diocesan website and on https://www.catholic.org.nz/resources/wpcu2022.
Cardinal John A Dew
President, New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference
ASCENSION
This week we have been learning about The Ascension of Jesus and how the Holy Spirit is represented in the Bible. We created art to reflect how we imagine the Holy Spirit is. Here are some photos of what some tamariki created to represent the Holy Spirit in their lives.
HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit (Te Wairua Tapu)
We made this art as a representation of what the Holy Spirit means to us.
The marbles represent the Holy Spirit, strong.
The white feather is the feather of the dove.
Its base is an island made from a bead necklace.
The fire represents the Holy Spirit when the fire hovered above the disciples' heads and let them speak different languages.
The stars represent when Jesus was born at night.
By Kasen, Tom, Augustine, Michael, and Campbell Room 10
AFFECTIVE DOMAIN ASSESSMENT
Assessing the affective domain is about evaluating faith response through attitudes and values. Teachers encourage students to reflect on their own attitudes and values which are characteristically Catholic. As far as practically possible, assessment ensures the anonymity of our students. If children know that their responses are anonymous, they will feel that they can be honest and truthful. Evaluation of affective domain enables teachers to develop programmes that support students in their development of their faith.
Term 1's assessment responses showed that students in our school are growing in their development of our school values, in particular Respect, Aspire and Compassion, and use the example of Jesus to model their behaviour on.
PRAYER FOR PEACE
O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.
From the Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, Pope Francis 25 March 2022
BOARD NEWS
Dear St Brendan's Whānau,
Our community makes St Brendan's School the special place that it is for our children. We all work in partnership both at school and at home to raise our children. It is wonderful that we can all begin to spend more time together now that we are at the Orange Traffic Light Setting. The St Brendan's Day Celebration open afternoon was a lovely time to see classrooms, visit the playpod, see the new basketball hoops and say hello to staff. Hopefully, you had a good tour from your child or children too!
Your help supporting road patrol on Sutherland Avenue and Palmer Crescent would be greatly appreciated. This takes around six volunteers daily and requires around half an hour in the mornings and 20 minutes in the afternoons. Providing support for road patrol helps both our children and staff. It also provides a great way to say hello to our school community. Please email Sara Williams, s.williams@stbrendans.school.nz if you are able to support road patrol on an occasional or regular basis. Every little bit helps. Thank you to all adults currently supporting road patrol - this makes a big difference!
Board elections will be held this year in September. Joining the Board provides an opportunity to work with other members of the school community to provide governance and leadership for St Brendan's School. The Board's primary focus is to provide governance and leadership so that:
- every student at the school can reach their highest possible standard in educational achievement,
- is a physically and emotionally safe place for all students and staff
- is inclusive of, and caters for, students with differing needs
- gives effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi
In addition, we ensure our Catholic Character is supported and integrated.
NZSTA and NZCEO provide great resources to support school boards - take a look online. All St Brendan's Board members are available to discuss the role and commitment of joining too.
Please consider putting your hand up!
Ngā mihi,
Julie Stewart
On behalf of the Board
SCHOOL NEWS
ENROLMENT APPLICATIONS 2023
Enrolments for the 2023 school year at St Brendan's close on 30th June 2022. Please ensure enrolment application forms for all siblings starting school in 2023 are submitted by this date for consideration of a placement.
ST BRENDAN'S FEAST DAY
On Monday, the 16th May, the whole school went to Our Lady of Grace for a liturgy to celebrate St Brendan’s Day. Congratulations to the tamariki who read so well. It was great to be able to celebrate in church as a whole school. When we got back to school we did activities to grow our understanding of St Brendan and his travels, as well as the history of St Brendan’s School. It was lovely to welcome and connect with so many whānau during our fun afternoon!
Room 2 celebrated St Brendan's Day by transforming the class into the places St Brendan travelled to. He saw the fiery mountains of hell which was a volcano, the crystal pillars of ice, an iceberg, he landed on an island which was a whale and finally discovered the land where the bronzed people lived.
PINK SHIRT DAY
The Adventurer team celebrated Pink Shirt Day at St Brendan's School by wearing lots of pink. We were reminded on this day that we are all special and uniquely made in the image of God. We need to celebrate each other's differences and be proud of what makes us unique. Here is a photo of some students from Room 10 and 12 on Pink Shirt Day.
Below are some posters about Pink Shirt Day by students from Room 11.
CROSS COUNTRY
Last Sunday, on a real autumn afternoon a keen, fit group of students from all age groups gathered at Harcourt Park for the annual cross country run. The students have been out every day in all weathers at school training over the last few weeks. The training paid off and St Brendan's runners proudly represented the school. A special congratulations to the Year 3 girls who came first. It was an afternoon of firsts for many of our awesome students who gave their best. Thank you for the wonderful parent support.
ROOM 7 RAIN GAUGE
Last week Mr Keegan kindly attached a rain gauge and a barometer on a post in the Junior Quad. In Room 7, every morning we observe the weather patterns and we take a reading of the barometer. We were excited to read the rain gauge after the heavy downpours last week. We read how much water has been collected in millimetres.
ST BRENDAN’S SCHOOL COLOUR FUN RUN
MONDAY, 30TH MAY
Kia Ora
Our school Fun Colour Run is less than a week away! Everyone is excitedly counting down to a fun afternoon. We have our fingers crossed, we’re thinking positive thoughts and saying our prayers that the weather cooperates!
Thank you to everyone for the very generous donations already received. To date we have already raised $6,000 profit. This will be used to offset the cost of camp for our 2022 Navigators. Though there was disappointment not to be able to travel to the South Island, everyone is looking forward to a more local camp experience that will be equally memorable.
It is St Brendan’s first time working with the School Fun Run organisation. We have received feedback from community members about the way School Fun Run works and we will take this into consideration in the future.
If you would prefer to donate directly into the school bank account we appreciate your support. Please deposit into our school bank account: St Brendan's School Account 123140-0356504-000 Ref: CAMP
All children in the school will be involved in this fun afternoon of activities. Children will come to school in clothes they are happy to be coloured. NO SCHOOL UNIFORM INCLUDING SPORTS UNIFORM. If your child does not want to be coloured they can still be involved.
You are most welcome to join us for the fun starting at 1 pm.
SCHOOL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Our school continues to work with SchoolDocs to create a website for our policies and procedures. The site is available to our school community. The school works on a subscription basis with SchoolDocs to maintain, update, and review our policies. SchoolDocs provides us with a comprehensive core set of policies, which have been well researched and follow the Ministry of Education National Administration Guidelines. The policies and procedures are tailored to our school.
SchoolDocs updates, modifies, or creates policies in response to changes in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools, and regular reviewing from the SchoolDocs team. Our Board has the opportunity to view changes/additions and comment on them before they are implemented.
We invite you to visit the site, and provide feedback, at https://stbrendans.schooldocs.co.nz (note that there's no "www."). Our username is "stbrendans" and password "navigators".
YUMMY APPLE STICKERS
It's Yummy Apple Sticker time!
Please start collecting Yummy Apple stickers that are on individual apples or on packs of apples.
We will be collecting these all throughout Terms 2 and 3. The stickers will go towards new equipment to be used at morning tea and lunch break times. Please save these, add them to the collection sheets (links below) and send them to your child's teacher.
Thank you
Heather Campbell
Yummy Sticker Collection Sheet
Yummy New Variety Sticker Collection Sheet
Yummy Cut-out Label Collection Sheet
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NAVIGATOR'S NOTICEBOARD
PTF News
Thanks for the great support for our first pizza lunch this term!
The Pizza Lunch order form is open for orders for the upcoming Pizza lunches on Wednesday, 8th June and Wednesday, 29th June.
Please note orders must be placed, and payment made, by 3pm on the FRIDAY before the date of delivery.
COMMUNITY NOTICES
FLU SEASON
Influenza (flu) season is now upon us, St Brendan's, and indeed the many schools in Upper Hutt, are experiencing high absentee rates.
- Regional Public Health recommend flu vaccination for children to stop them getting sick and reduce flu spreading in the community. More information at www.fightflu.co.nz
- Find out more by viewing this video from the Ministry of Health https://youtu.be/ZAGU1Pcewco
NAME IT TO TAME IT!
Every day we go through heaps of different emotions, from frustration to joy, to anger and hope, and everything in between.
Taking the time to name our feelings means we’re better able to manage them or, at least, lessen their impact when we’re feeling out of sorts. It helps you become less stressed and enables you to think more clearly so you can make good decisions.
It’s not always easy, but taking time to stop and think about what emotions you’re feeling can help you through the tricky bits.
Allright.org.nz has a resource which could help you to talk about this with your children and whanau: their Chitter Chatter resource is a fun way to get better at naming emotions together.
KEEPING SAFE ONLINE
Netsafe’s Online Safety Parent Toolkit equips parents to steer their kids through the challenges and opportunities that come with being online. Their programme provides parents/families with the practical tools to build open conversations around kids' activities online and set expectations as a family.
At the heart of the Online Safety Parent Toolkit is a seven step framework that guides whanau through online safety conversations with their child/ren. It helps whanau to:
- Understand potential risks, challenges and sometimes illegal behaviours
- Learn about their tamariki’s activities
- Explore for themselves the technology their child uses
- Agree and set expectations as a family on what to do online
- Teach basic online safety concepts
- Model the behaviours you want to see your child use
- Plan what to do if things go wrong
Check out Netsafe’s Family Safe Online Treaties The suggested process:
- Figure out what your child/ren already knows
- Reassure your child/ren that you’ll support no matter what
- Talk about who your child/ren can reach out to if they need help
- Discuss ways to remove or report harmful content
- Have emergency contact details on hand in case you need them
Check out Netsafe’s Conversation Starters Having conversations tailored to your child and their age is a constructive way to learn more about how your child interacts with the world online. Sometimes what parents think is happening online is quite different to the reality! You will find Conversation Starters on the Netsafe site for children under 10, intermediate aged children and for teenagers.
PRIDE LANDS FUN HOLIDAY ADVENTURES
SUMMER HOLIDAYS AT WESTERN SUBURBS RUGBY CLUB (WILTON) AND
SOUTHERN SUBURBS SWIS (BERHAMPORE)
11th – 22nd JULY 2022 from 7.00am-6pm daily from 7.00am-6pm daily . Interactive Activities and NO TV or Video Games, Cooking, Fitness, and Life Skills Programme creating healthy Breakfast, Morning Tea, Lunch and Afternoon Teas. One-on-one care and shuttle services available. Daily $81.04/cub per session or $137.77 for two siblings per session; Weekly: $324.16 per cub/week or $551.07 for two siblings/week . MSD Approved & WINZ subsidies are available for eligible families.
Please contact us: 0800 PRIDE 4 U Or Register online: www.PRIDELANDS.co.nz or Visit our Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/PrideLandsChildcare
HUTT KAITOKE AERIAL POSSUM CONTROL UPDATE
Please follow the links below for the Hutt Kaitoke Aerial 1080 Operation within the Kaitoke Regional Park and Hutt Water Collection Area.
Location: 56 Palmer Crescent Heretaunga Upper Hutt 5019
Phone: (04) 939 1909