Kia ora e te whānau

We are very excited to present to you our new digital newsletter! We hope you will find that it is more accessible, but also much more engaging. We want to be able to share as many school events and celebrations with our school community as possible. A digital newsletter gives us a great opportunity to do so in a more interactive way.

We have already reached Week 5 of Term 1 of our new school year. By now, the summer holidays do feel like a distant memory, especially facing the second Level 3 lockdown in Auckland within 2 weeks! We are praying that all our families and students remain safe and well and that we will all cope, even excel in spite of the difficulties we experience as we adjust to this "new normal".

Our digital/ online learning programme was rolled out by our teachers this morning. We urge all parents to please keep in mind that children will be experiencing a sense of displacement and some level of anxiety about this lockdown situation, just as you all might be feeling as well. Frustration, impatience and anxiety are normal feelings at a time like this. Please approach the online learning in a non-confrontational way. Allow your children to complete tasks as you feel they are able to, as well as at a pace and intensity that works for you and your family. Approach the tasks from a weekly point of view, rather than trying to coerce children to work at pace or under pressure. Do as much or as little as is comfortable for you and your family to cope. Outdoor play and exploration, with engaging discussions about the world around you, prayer time, enjoying music and exercise, water play, quiet journal writing, arts and crafts are all activities that present a lower level of pressure, but are very valuable learning opportunities for your children. I have shared below, some of the exciting learning being done via our distance learning programmes this week. Thank you to all teachers, parents and students for the effort made to keep the learning going from home.

We urge all parents to please keep your children home through level 3, to ensure their safety. However, our school is open throughout level 3, to accommodate students who have no alternative supervision for the day. Please feel free to make contact via our school office, if you need support or advice. We are functioning on limited staff, with only our management team, one teacher and two learning support teachers on-site daily.

Let's keep the faith and continue to pray for our leaders and our country, that our God will guide the decision making and protect us all in these difficult times.

Kia kaha!

Stay safe.

Stay kind.

Audrey Kippen

Tumuaki/Principal

It is with great disappointment that we have had to cancel our Swimming Sports for 2021, which was scheduled for 2 March. After a postponement due to the first February Level 3 lockdown, we now find ourselves having to cancel this event, due to the second Level 3 lockdown which begun on 28 February. At this stage, a further postponement will have a big impact on our school calendar, making other planned events for term 1 more difficult to manage.

We are hoping that we will be able to give our students another opportunity to go down to the pools later in the year. We have made an application to take our Year 3 to Year 6 students to the Massey Park Pools for Aquatic Safety Lessons next term. This event is dependent on funding, so we will let parents know if this application is successful.

As always, the safety of our students and staff is paramount at

St Mary's Catholic School, Papakura.

We are pleased to continue our association with Travelwise (with the support of Auckland Transport) and Road Patrol (with the support of the New Zealand Police Service). These two programmes are very important to ensuring the safety of our students out on the road, and travelling to and from school.

We appeal to all parents to please consider the safety of our students when parking outside our school and when dropping off and picking up your children at both the Manse Road (Gate 2) and Clark Road (Gate 1) entrances of our school.

Also please respect the property of our neighbours, by not parking in or across driveways. We do have a 5 minute drop off/ pick up zone at the Clark Road entrance. Please note that this is for quick pick-ups and drop-offs - not for parking or leaving your vehicle.

Our Travelwise Team will be running various promotions and safety campaigns at our gates through the year. Please show your support to them when you see them out there.

A huge thanks to Mrs Anneke Walker for her excellent work with the Travelwise and Road Safety Teams.