Kia ora, Ni hao, Dobar dan, Malo e leilei, Hola, Konnichiwa, Talofa, Namaste, Chão, Vannakkam, Kamusta, Hello!

Friday 25th November

There will be no Celebration Assembly this week but please come along and support our tamariki at their dress rehearsal for the Cultural Festival from 1.30pm in the church. This will be followed by Principal’s Awards. ( apologies from Mrs Phillips as she is at an Auckland Catholic Principals Conference Day).

Saturday 26th November – Cultural Festival

Join us on Saturday to support our Marist School Children at the Eden Albert Cultural festival - our Kapa Haka group are performing at 10.45am and Pasifika group at 11.55am. We are so proud of each one of them and their amazing tutors Sheila & Naomi MacDonald and awesome teachers Marie Walker & Anne Politini. Providing this opportunity for our tamariki does not happen without great people!!!

Thursday 1st December Christmas Picnic 5-8pm

You are warmly invited to pack a picnic and gather with our whānau for our end of year Christmas Picnic on the school grounds. We will be holding a sausage sizzle but need some willing hands to support Gerard with this. Please let us know if we can help.

Last Day of the 2022 School Year - Tuesday 13th December

You are warmly welcomed to our End of Year Mass at 10.30am in St Mary’s Church. Come along to celebrate the end of our school year. This mass will be followed with the singing of some Christmas Carols until 12 noon and the children will return to their Hubs for their final goodbyes for 2022.

Please keep all those who have lost loved ones in your thoughts and prayers at this time. We continue to pray for those in our community who are unwell or suffering at the moment.

The St Mary's Parish Caring Committee will once again be collecting and distributing Christmas gifts to children in need. If you are able to, and wish to donate a gift, these can be left at the office during school hours. Please wrap gifts and label with the age and gender that the gift would suit. Gifts will then be placed under the St Mary's Jesse Tree

A huge thank you to the Marist School Community for your ongoing support of our parish food bank and for all the families that we as a community are able to assist.

Every Tuesday afternoon 2.30pm in the Church, finished in time for school pick-up.

All welcome - pre-schoolers, students on study leave, those new to the Rosary, and those who can't find their beads (10 fingers work just as well!). An opportunity to pray for our children, families, and any other intentions that you wish to bring with you.

Starting this Tuesday the 1st of November.

Any queries, please contact Antonia antbutchard@gmail.com

When you reach for that delicious apple for your morning brain snack please

remember to peel off the ‘Yummy’ sticker and keep it safe!

We are collecting the Yummy Fruit Company stickers from their apples, and the labels off their

plastic bags, for our share of $200,000 of free sports gear. The more labels/stickers we collect the more free sports gear we get for our school!

This year we were able to purchase $1018 worth of sports equipment for the school thanks to the stickers collected.

Put your stickers on a sticker collection sheet (below) and drop them into the school office in exchange for house points!

https://www.yummyfruit.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/SSP-pdf_Sticker_Collection_Sheet_compressed.pdf

You may have noticed that we have had to close half of the gate on Alberton Ave as adults have been driving into the staff car park and turning into the driveway while children are walking through.

This is a Health & Safety issue and ONCE AGAIN you are asked to please not turn into the driveways on either side of the school.

Please pass this message on to anyone who collects or drops off your child/ren. Our children are precious and can easily go unnoticed around our driveways.

PLEASE adhere to this request. It is getting so dangerous out there!

At Marist School we use Spotlight to upload and share your child/rens ongoing progress and achievement throughout the year. The last couple of years have been so disruptive but it is really important that you download the APP in order to see your child’s learning progress.

If you have not set up your Spotlight App yet or have not been using it, please contact Beth in the office on b.lockie@marist.school.nz for your unique ID. Once you have your ID you will be able to follow the instructions below to set up the app.

Hub 1 has been learning about the events that took place in Parihaka on 5th November 1881.

For Taranaki Māori, 5 November 1881 is known as ‘Te Rā o te Pāhua’ or the ‘Day of Plunder’. The invasion of Parihaka — te pāhuatanga — involved 1500 armed constabulary and volunteers led by the Native Affairs Minister, John Bryce.

This term, in Inquiry, Hub 2 have been studying Electricity. We have been experimenting making electrical circuits.

On Friday 4th November, St Peter's College came and performed for us outside under the verandah for the whole school. It was amazing to see all of the boys performing some very entertaining songs. There were also some brave students from our school who stood up and performed their instruments such as clarineo, violin, trumpet and flute.

It was a very good experience for the Year 6 boys who are all going to St Peters next year because it was interesting to see all of the instruments that we could learn. It was also nice to see some of the children that used to go to our school perform in the orchestra.

Near the end they played intense fast music which excited everyone. Everyone loved listening to their music and had lots of fun. Thank you St Peter’s for coming.

By News Crew.,

Hub 1 has been learning about Fiordland where our class novel, Spark Hunter, is set.

Fiordland is a national park in New Zealand. It has mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and rainforest environments. It was established in 1904 and then designated as a national park in 1952. Native birds like the Kea, Kakapo and the Kiwi live here. There are also over seven hundred types of plants found in Fiordland too.

‘Doubtful sound’ is a remote fiord in the place which is also known as ‘the sound of silence.’ It is the largest fiord in the park.

Fiordland is 1.2 million hectares in size. There’s a lake named: Lake Manapouri which is usually described as the loveliest lake of other lakes. The Sutherland Falls is a 1900 foot waterfall that is New Zealand’s most spectacular waterfall. Fiordland national park’s famous walk is named ‘the finest walk in the world.’ It will take four-five days to complete the whole track. The most extraordinary beauty in Fiordland was recognised by the United Nations in 1986.

By Leyton

Poster below by Pippa.

On Wednesday 9th November all of our Year 5s went to Zealandia as part of our Garden to Table programme. Zealandia is all the way in Clevedon. Zealandia has a range of nursery businesses from both islands of New Zealand, dating back to the 1950s.

First the Hub 1 Year 5s went and saw the machinery. Meanwhile the Hub 2 Year 5s saw the enormous greenhouse. In the greenhouse we saw different types of plants, automatic sprinklers, machines, how seeds are planted and how the soil is made. We were amazed by the technology used there. This trip was incredible, we all loved it.

By Roman

Here are some of the things Year 5 said about the trip:

Chelsea: I learnt about the watering system and how all the rainwater is collected, filtered and cleaned.

Leyton: I enjoyed one of the machines that would take a photo of a seedling and show on a computer if it was a good or bad plant.

Luke: I enjoyed learning about how Zealandia recycle the plastic for their planting pots. I also liked the machines, they were very satisfying.

Dyon: I enjoyed learning how the biomass boiler worked.

Caiden: I liked how they explained the uses for the technical machines like the robot that plants the seedlings.

Jacqui: I loved learning about how they sprayed the nursery roof with paint to keep it warm in the winter. I think that is a good solution. I also thought the machines were very smart.

Paige: Zealandia was a very sustainable building with all the different inventions and technology.

Hunter: I learnt that different plants need different amounts of sunlight and water. I also learnt that Zealandia produces 70% of capsicums and 50 % of cucumber plants in New Zealand.

Nico: I really enjoyed looking at all the machinery and how it worked. I also enjoyed the machine that picked up plants and put them into plant pots.

Otis: We are thankful for Zealandia's generosity in giving us all the plants. We can’t wait to plant them and watch them grow.

Here are some excerpts from two Hub 1 writers:

Bush Mission

He was slowly paddling cautiously, drifting along the glass-like lake as the sunset’s rays glimmered against the fish that were strewn across the lake. The old kayak was gently lifted across the edge of the lake, brushing against the grass, nearly at the uninhabited dock.

As Thompson staggered across the dusty forest floor, the moonlight slowly floated through the air and multi-coloured leaves fluttered in the breeze, dancing like a ballerina. Fifteen minutes later, he slowly treaded across the overgrown cobbled bridge that arched over the streaming river. For some reason he heard it whisper.

“What…is…that?” Thompson said to himself as he curiously trudged through the dense fog.

He was faced with a secluded, old house deep in the woods. He slowly staggered up the creaky stairs. The night was ending and dawn’s rays pierced the darkness and the moon diverted to sun. Detective Thompson felt his sweaty hands under the bristly mat on top of the splintered wood. The mat said “Welcome” but yet it felt cold and unwelcoming.

By Nathan

The Search

Have you ever had a heavy sore feeling in your stomach whilst hunched on a small boat? Amber felt it all. As the boat hit the shore it gave Amber a sense of suspicion. The sun dawned on the water and the other side of the lake was filled with shadows and cracks of despair. Amber clambered out of the water and her back stood straight, her glasses and binoculars dangling from her ripped jeans. When she had seen the uninhabited hut, she knocked on the door and mived to one side. The grey ominous sky surrounding her. Then a shiver ran down her spine when she heard footsteps echoing nearer. The doorknob clinched and opened and there stood a tall am with jet black hair and dirty clothes. He looked down on Amber with a piercing look that made her feel a tinge more nervous.

By Eliza

Why we loved Garden to Table by Year 5

Sophie: I like Garden to Table because you get to try new things and you get to learn new skills. You learn how to cook and use things in the kitchen.

Garden to table is one of the funniest things I've ever done at school. I also really enjoy doing it with my friends.

Leyton: I loved Garden to Table because it teaches me to cook, bake, and chop food. It also teaches me gardening and planting too. Garden to Table teaches me about what plants look like and what type they are. Garden to Table makes you try new foods. The gardening is fun, the harvesting is my favourite thing. It is nice to come together at the end and eat.

Roman: My favourite part about Gardens table is that we get to make the food and I love eating the delicious healthy food

Maddy: Garden to Table teaches us about the garden and different foods. We harvest, learn how to cook and we get to try new foods together.

Ted: What I love about garden to table is cooking and eating delicious, fresh food.

Chloe: I love garden to table because it teaches you how to cook delicious food, how to grow harvest herbs and most of all all the dishes are healthy.

Nina: What I love is when we're in the garden and we get to harvest the crops that we grow and then eat them.

Dan: My favourite thing about garden to table is the kitchen. It gives me a feeling of happiness that the food we eat at the table is made by us.

Zara: What I love about Garden to Table is that you learn how to cook healthy meals and how to do gardening I'm at how to plant and I do it at home lots more now.

Seedling Sale By Dan

Our time at the seedling sale was great. We held it for a good reason because there are some other things we want to add to our school garden such as a better irrigation system. As well as selling seedlings we also sold our homemade Marist kawakawa pani pani. Everyone really wanted to be at the kawakawa balm station. The Māori name for the balm is pani pani.The balm was made of kawakawa, oils, lavender and beeswax.

In total we raised an incredible $1804…. so much more than our $250 target. Thank you so much to our wonderful community for supporting us.

For the next seedling sale….Please help and support us. All the money goes to continuing to make our Garden to Table programme a success.

We will be making more kawakawa pani pani before Christmas. Look out for more information about how to order some.

Kawakawa by Seraphina

Kawakawa is a type of bush with heart shaped leaves. It is best to use the kawakawa leaves with holes in them. You can find it in the forest and it grows to about 5 metres tall. Birds like to eat the berries. Kawakawa is native to New Zealand. It is also called Māori basil bush.

Māori use kawakawa to make a pani pani (balm). You can use that Kawakawa pani pani for rashes, cuts, dry skin, acne and mosquito bites.

Kawakawa pani pani is good for cuts, rashes, mosquito bites (and mosquito repellent), dry skin and a lot more. All of the ingredients are all natural. The kawakawa leaves are infused in oil.

This year we are continuing with Marist Meals - a pastoral care initiative. These meals are provided to families in the school & parish community when a little extra support is needed (e.g. a new baby, sickness, bereavement). With the impact of covid and many of our school and parish families isolating or unwell, it would be great if we could fill up the freezer so we can help lighten the load for families during these challenging times.

If you would like to contribute, we welcome any homemade, brought meals or baking for our freezer. Meals can be dropped off to the school office.

Containers available at the school office.

St Mary's Parish Foodbank is feeding nearly 2000 a month. PLEASE remember them when you are shopping - they are in desperate need of donations! Anything you can contribute will be very much appreciated.

There is a box on the front porch of the presbytery.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support!

Follow these links to read the latest Marist College and St Peter's College newsletters:

Email: admin@marist.school.nz
Website: https://www.marist.school.nz/
Location: 14 Kitenui Avenue, Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: 09 846 7408

Lucy: It made me want to make my own garden at home.

Dan: I learnt so much there so here are the highlights; learning about the 7 million barcodes a year, how to deal with snails and how to make good soil.

Aiden: The things I learnt were that the big tank held 1 million gallons of boiling water and I learnt every drip of water you use is rainwater.

Maddy: I learnt a lot but I really enjoyed learning about the business and how much you recycled. I thought it was amazing learning about fossil fuels and renewable energy.

It inspired me to look after our garden and think about what we can do to improve our garden.

Thank you to Gerard Thompson for organising such an amazing experience for our Year 5 children. So many children said it was the best trip ever!

Thank you also to our Garden to Table team Johanna, Ronnie, Naomi, Gay and Helena for coming on the trip.