Newsletter Wk6 7 March 2022

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa, Talofa Lava, Malo e Lelei, Ni Sa Bula Vinaka, Kia Orana, Hola como Estas, Marhaba, Greetings to you all.

The 1st Sunday of Lent

In the wilderness Jesus did not engage with the devil’s temptations. He simply quoted the Word of God in scripture. God’s Word has power, even over the demons. Jesus’ experience teaches us that there is nothing wrong with being tempted. It’s how we react to the temptation that matters. A short prayer or a quote from God’s Word will help us let it go. For example: ‘Lead me not into temptation’ or ‘I must forgive, not once but seventy times.’

Reflecting on the Scripture reminds us of the importance of treating people with sensitivity, respect and dignity. How often is manipulation used to win people over to a certain way of thinking and acting? Tapping into people's fears and vulnerabilities and disguising an evil intention by using something good to trap them and lead them down a dead and destructive path.

Is this what's at play on many social media platforms these days? Safety, security and freedom are all good things but we have to ask ourselves at whose expense and what is it doing to our mental health?

Let’s try to incorporate family prayer into our daily lives this week and allow the Spirit to work through us.

Today we would like to welcome Ani Moala and her family who have joined our school community. We trust she will enjoy Learning and Growing in Christ with us all as they start here at our school.

Dear Parents

It is still a very uncertain time but our school cases are tracking like the country’s statistics and we too had a drop in cases from Monday to Friday last week so let us hope this trend continues..

Please remember to inform us if your child is positive or a household contact as we need to be able to track children’s attendance and reasons for their absences.

We would still like to see most children back at school unless they are a positive case, a household contact or have symptoms and are unwell.

If they have been a positive case or household contact and have isolated for 10 days they are able to return to school, even if there is a new case in their household as they are not considered infectious if they are symptom free,

Face to face learning is still the preferred way of learning for our students.

Blessings to you All

Nga manaakitanga ki a koutou katoa
Julie Paul

Principal

The following points need to be continually reinforced if we want to remain safe during this Covid outbreak,

• Masks to be worn for Years 3 - 8 (optional for Year 3 but highly recommended as our classes are multi age classes)

• Good hygiene with regular hand sanitising

• Ventilation - all windows and doors open allowing good airflow

• Social distancing

• Stay home if you are unwell or have symptoms.

This week Year 3 - 8 students will be undertaking some formal assessment tasks.

They will be doing the following standardised tests: PAT Reading Comprehension, PAT Reading Vocabulary, STAR Reading test and a PAT Mathematics Test.

We fully understand that some students are unable to attend this week due to sickness and isolation constraints and we will continue to administer these tests to all students when they return.

All of our children have been given their required stationery for the year now and we appreciate those parents and caregivers who have paid this account, thank you.

We would like the $15.00 stationery account to be settled as soon as possible and preferably by the end of March.

We are having an amnesty drive to enable us to collect all school resources that may not have been returned at the end of last year.

We have a large number of You Can Spell books (see image) missing along with some Senior Novels and reading books. Please return them to the red box in the School Office as soon as possible. We do not require any books that you may have received as part of the Government Packs. All our resources including library books will be marked with the school stamp.

All students should now have a Book Bag which they need to bring to school everyday so they are able to take home school readers, spelling books and library books. This is our school policy and it helps us to look after our resources as they are taken between school and home.

Please help us to reinforce this as a way of protecting our resources.

Thank you to all our families who are now paying their attendance dues online or by automatic payment.

If you wish to pay this way please set up your payment please deposit in the following account: BNZ bank account 02-0232-0158405-97 using your child’s name as your reference.

All families will receive their attendance dues this week. Your account will show the total owing for the whole year including the Catholic Special Character Contribution of $50.00 . If you wish to pay term by term it is $117.00 per child per term.

Please note the above BNZ account is only for attendance dues and the Catholic Special Character Contribution.

You may pay stationery and uniform money into the ASB account. The account for all these payments is the ASB account 12-3028-0484186-00

This Wednesday 9 March we will be holding our transition to school meetings for our Year 1 Term 2 intake. I look forward to meeting with all these families who have children joining our school community next term.

We are constantly monitoring and reviewing these lists and so I encourage you to make sure you have enrolled your children for 2023 and 2024.

If you have any family or friends who wish to join our school please remind them to get their enrolments completed as soon as possible for all levels within the school.

Download our school app (which is free) so that you receive announcements and newsletters from school to keep you up to date.

This is what the app looks like on either the PlayStore (for Android phones) or the App Store (for iPhones). Please download it if you haven’t done so already.

Congratulations to the following children who received a Principal Award this week:

Harinui: Maverick Wongtung Komiti, Theodora Polath, Amaris Tala’imanu, Shirley Tafili

Aroha: Hannah Rammo, Mafua Lolohea, Crossifiso Williams, Eva Leaupepetele, Eva Ann-Biju, Zion Sofele

Arohanui: Evangeline Aneesh, Angelo Lopez, Aydan Mudaliar, Diana Lynn Toiaivao, Lorenzo Sautia, Arianne Balchin

Te Matauranga: Ivan-James Fe’ao, Kayne Leota-Tuia, Juan Dawn, Tara Sanday, Danielson Avei, Teisen Vaetoru

Tumanako: Cena Ale, Josephine Toilalo, Ariana Hall, Lindon Coe, Lusia Enosi

Amelia Jobit

Manaakitanga: Sandiana Puleanga, Kenzo Na’a

Atawhai: Lemisio Lakai, Sina Raass, Abigail Te Rangi, Ta’utapu Tonga, Slayter Fatialofa

Savio Gijo

Rangimarie: India-May Mann, Lauryn Wagner, Nyga Sanu, Angelina Tran, Amelia Brzozowski, Jernee Mika

Email: office@hcsp.school.nz
Website: https://hcsp.school.nz/
Location: Holy Cross Catholic School Papatoetoe 21 Carruth Road, Papatoetoe, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 278 8224
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hcsp.school.nz