St Mary's School Term 3 Week 3
TE KURA O HATO MERE
Newsletter 12 August 2021
PRINCIPAL'S VIEW
Kia ora koutou, kumusta, talofa lava
Last Friday it was my privilege to be the Master of Ceremonies for the Catholic Schools’ Jubilate at the Christchurch Town Hall. I was incredibly proud to be able to announce our very own St Mary’s School Special Choir for their individual item. Our students sang so beautifully in front of nearly 2000 people and I have had many positive comments and emails from people saying how amazing our students sounded. Thank you to all of our parents and whanau who came along to support our choir and who were treated to a very special music event. At the rehearsal earlier in the day I spoke to our students about the significance and privilege of being able to be on stage at the Christchurch Town Hall, as many famous people have stood on that stage over the last few decades. I am sure that many of our students enjoyed the experience so much that they would love the opportunity to do it again.
Mā te Atua koe e manaaki, e tiaki
May God bless you and protect you
David O’Neill
Principal
Principal's Awards- 2 August
PRINCIPAL"S AWARDS
Principal's Awards- 9th August
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS
14/08 Saturday-KALEB Rm4
18/08 Wednesday-MALINA Rm4
19/08 Thursday-KYLE Rm5, TOMAS Rm2
21/08 Saturday- ELISHVA Rm2
23/08 Monday- JULIA P Rm1
24/08 Tuesday- NOAH Rm2
26/08 Thursday- JESSE Rm5
Jubilate 2021
Mana Ake Parent Drop In - Monday 16 August 8.15am-8.45am
Mana Ake provides support for children aged 5 - 12 years across Canterbury. Mana Ake kaimahi (social workers) work with schools to support teachers, families and whānau when children are experiencing ongoing issues that impact their wellbeing such as anxiety, social isolation, parental separations, grief and loss and managing emotions.
If you have any concerns you would like to discuss with our kaimahi Alofa she will be available to meet in our learning centre, fortnightly on Mondays from 8.15am-8.45am.
Student Drop off in Mornings
It is very important that if you are stopping near the school gate to ensure that you do not hold up other traffic behind you.
Faith Fact
This coming Sunday is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Aotearoa’s National Patronal Feast Day. It is a holy day of obligation when the Church celebrates Mary being taken to Heaven, body and soul to share in the Resurrection of her Son and anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.
Read this reflection on the Assumption by Father John O’Connor on Food for Faith.
Year 8 Students' Perspective
Since coming back this term we have experienced multiple things.
First of all we have new daily tasks. This term the teachers have gone all out on the daily maths tasks. The reason they did this is because they made this google sheet of everyone’s maths results from a test that we all took at the start of the year. They put all of the different maths strategies onto the sheet and if you got that sort of strategy correct they would highlight it green to show that you know how to do it. The ones that weren't green you would have to go and get the maths activity worksheets out of the different classrooms. There are 4 different stages, stage 5 maths which is year 5&6 maths, stage 6 which is year 6&7 maths, stage 7 which is year 7&8 maths and stage 8 maths which is year nine maths. Even though they printed a lot of paper and killed a lot of trees it’s for the best because this is really helping us all with our maths.
The next thing that has changed is Fantastic Friday. This term we are doing an around the world theme based Fantastic Friday. We can choose to do our own project based around the world or you can opt to go into one of the structured groups that the teachers are running. The three structured groups that the teachers are running are upcycling which is taking old furniture and making it into something new. The second option is art. This term for art we are doing things from around the world such as sculptures of famous artifacts or buildings and doing paintings of famous things around the earth. The third option is science. Not a lot of people joined science so they might cancel it and they might put the teachers running it with another group so the other two groups can be bigger.
The next thing we will talk about will be sports. With our sports last week both netball teams won. The blue team won 6-5 and the red team won 13-7 and the soccer team tied 1-1. Overall it was a great week for all the sports teams.
In our SDL we are also learning about stuff around the world just like in Fantastic Friday and every term we get a new teacher who teaches us for SDL in the afternoon. For Room 4 it’s Miss Francis and for Room 5 it’s Mrs Wilkins and Miss Coad is in Room 3.
Ethan and Jake Year 8
School Polar Fleece
Pre Enrolment of Siblings
Closing of School Gate
Carpark Safety
Student Absence
Latest Diocesan Inform Magazine
Attendance Dues
Attendance dues are compulsory for all students who attend catholic schools in NZ. For 2021 attendance dues have been set at $412 per year or $103 per term. For budgeting purposes families are welcome to pay weekly or monthly.
Upcoming Events
AUGUST
- SCHOOL/PARISH MASS- Sunday 15 August 9.30am
- MANA AKE PARENT DROP IN- Monday 16 August 8.15am - 8.45am (Learning Centre)
- YEAR 7&8 SPORT- Thursday 19 August
- KOTAHITANGA TEAM MASS- Thursday 26 August 9.15am
- TEACHER ONLY DAY- Friday 27 August - SCHOOL CLOSED
- MANA AKE PARENT DROP IN- Monday 30 August 8.15am - 8.45am (Learning Centre)
SEPTEMBER
- ARATAKI TEAM MASS- Thursday 2 September 9.15am
- MANA AKE PARENT DROP IN- Monday 13 September 8.15am - 8.45am (Learning Centre)
- LIBRARY VAN- Wednesday 15 September
- KOTAHITANGA TEAM MASS- Thursday 16 September 9.15am
- ARATAKI TEAM MASS- Thursday 23 September 9.15am
- MANA AKE PARENT DROP IN- Monday 27 September 8.15am - 8.45am (Learning Centre)
OCTOBER
- END OF TERM 3- Friday 1 October- School finishes 3pm
- START OF TERM 4- Monday 18 October 9am