St Mary's School

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these members of my family, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:37-40

Kia ora e te whānau,

Last week I was down with Covid so this weeks newsletter is two weeks worth thrown together! This week Room Pūkeko's Monday prayer theme was about how God created EVERYTHING and all the things they love about His creations. How cute are these?

Dear God ...

Thank you for the fish. I like going boating and seeing them in the water - Lachie

Thank you for the fish and animals, especially the rhinos - Grayson

Thank you for all the people you made. Thank you for my friends - Zyron

Thank you for the moon and the stars at night time - Esmae

Thank you for the water so I can go swimming and fishing - Tom

Thank you for the flowers. They smell lovely and are beautiful colours - Harper

Thank you for the rabbits you gave us - Indie

Thank you for the dry ground so I can play soccer - Jacob

Thank you for day and night. I love being able to play with my friends during the day - Addison

Obviously I was gutted to miss Room Kererū's prayers and Mass last week but I'm very grateful for Jackie who sent me a video of their prayers so I didn't miss out entirely. It's clear the song they shared was a hit with Father Sani who asked them to sing at Mass on Sunday, Mrs Knowler and Jackie were beyond stoked with a turn out of 15 kids! The Catholic Social Teaching of preferential option of the poor and vulnerable and our Tearfund child, Juliana were the focus of Room Kererū's Monday prayers.

If you weren't aware, Juliana is the child we sponsor through Tearfund. We have been sponsoring her for 8 years now. The 'Mission Money' collected at prayer time in each class every week (topped up by the school) is put towards giving Juliana a better life and each time we get a new update and letter from her, we are beyond stoked to see that we are making a difference.

Juliana is now 14 years old. She lives with her dad, is the only child in her family and is primarily looked after by her grandmother. She enjoys bicycling, reading, and story telling. Thanks to our sponsorship, she is now year 7 at school and her favourite subject is Economics.

Their key message was that the poor and vulnerable have a special place in the kingdom of God. Putting into practice the preferential option for the poor means considering the impact of our own decision and of public policy on the most vulnerable members of society. Christ taught that when we feed the hungry, offer hospitality to the stranger, clothe the naked, look after the sick and visit those imprisoned, we are looking after Him.

Ma te Atua e manaaki - God bless,

Mallory

Principal | Tumuaki

Nau mai, haere mai - welcome!

This week we welcome two lovely new wee faces to Room Pūkeko. First up we have Indie Clark, Indie is the first child in her family to come to our school. We are super excited to have her and her mum and dad, Brianna and Ricky join our St Mary's School community. We hope you enjoy your time here with us.

This week we also welcome Alzwen Dela Cruz to Room Pūkeko. Alzwen is super lucky, his big brother Ali is here for another year to look out for him. Alzwen is the son of Agnes and Allan. We're so happy to have you join us Alzwen, we hope you have love your time here at St Mary's School.

Nau mai, haere mai - welcome!

This week we also welcome another lot of teaching students. This time they're first years so our school is lucky to have them for their very first posting, what an awesome place to start their teaching journey - with the best kids in town! Welcome to Meg Heaps (Room Rūrū), Ollie Gutsell (Room Pūkeko) and Shiya Rogers (Room Kiwi) we hope you enjoy your posting!

Haere Rā, Farewell Bayden!

This guy! Man are we going to miss this guy. We're sad to be saying goodbye to Bayden as well as his parents, Korena and Nathan this week. Bayden is moving up to Manapouri where his mum will start a very flash new job. We will certainly miss him but are comforted in know that the new school he is going to, Mararoa is the school Mrs Gage-Witham (our past DP) is the principal of. All the best for this new chapter team.

St Mary's School Fair

Thank you to our amazing Home and School Committee for their hard work putting together a phenomenal School Fair this weekend just been. Your hard work is very much appreciated by the school community (who are also to thank, but I'll leave that to Vanessa below). Thanks to everyone who showed up and got in the spirit of things. The outcome was incredible - over $8,000 raised for our kids. How good!!!!

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From our Home and School President ...

On behalf of the St Mary's Home and School regarding the fair, we would like to thank our monetary sponsors. Mitre 10, MJP Mechanical, Hunt Agriculture, Templeton Building, Ngahere Sawmilling Company, Blondell and Wallis, Goodmeats Butchery and O'Connor Richmond Ltd. Thank you all for your generous donations, your contributions supported the hiring of the jeeps, bouncy castles, face painting and hairstyles consumables. Gore New World for your generous support supplying the drinks, sausages, sauce, bread, ice cream and toppings, chocolate for the chocolate wheel, and the slider buns. Blondell and Wallis for supplying the meat for the sliders and Jess for cooking the meat.

To the businesses and families that contributed to our raffles we were blown away with your generosity, we were able to put together over 40 bundles to be raffled. Thank you to all the families that contributed to our baking sale, sold out in under an hour! And wow the amazing 21 cakes that went up for auction, outstanding creations. To all the people that volunteered (either on the day, or in preparation) we couldn't have done it without you especially the 8 awesome teenagers from Maruawai volunteer group, and the tribe of ex-pupils. Sign advertising giving us the corflute for the sign. Dane Newton and Nathan Braithwaite for bringing along their diggers and giving up your time. Abby Moseby and Vicki Drummond for bringing along your ponies. I love that you have given children the opportunity to experience driving a digger and rides on ponies so much joy. The positive feedback from these two activities has been overwhelming.

To all that supported us by attending the fair, thank you. And last but not least there are some very special people that spent many hours putting this event together, Laura Braithwaite your support organising all the outside activities, creating and making the lob a chocolate and nerf targets, putting together raffle prizes, sorting gazebos. Jessie Copland for supporting Laura with the outside activities as well as spending hours slow cooking the meat, and helping putting together raffle prizes, sorting gazebos. Ange McDonald, for supporting us with organising food for the fair, helping with lucky dips even though you were out of town yesterday you still supported us all the way through, and we are so grateful for that. Nat Newton organising the food trucks, sorting raffles, having the fab idea and organising the cake auction and sorting the bake sale. Abby Moseby your support with the bake sale, bringing along your ponies working through the fair, and always asking for more jobs. Gemma Perry for organising the colouring comp, sorting the prizes for the winners, sorting the sponsor thank you boards, creating and thanks to Shane Mulqueen for building the popular sponge the teacher. Organising the Maruawai volunteer group, sorting the lucky dips, sorting gazebos, trestle tables, my listening ear, and many, many more jobs. You were a fabulous sidekick. I am truly grateful to you ladies. Sorry to anyone I have missed.

The fair was an absolute success! Thanks again to all.

Vanessa Bennett - Home and School President

Good Luck Team!

All the best to the kids below who are representing Eastern at the Southland Athletics on Sunday at Surrey Park in Invercargill (including Lucy Ryan and Pixie Wilson who are in the for the relays). We know you'll do us proud! Hopefully I managed to get an Eastern singlet to each of you before now and you're ready to rip into it. Singlets can be returned to the office on Monday - thanks in advance.

New Uniform Option

As you may remember, last year one of the themes that came from your feedback to our community consultation was that the jackets the children have as part of their uniforms are not warm enough. The Board have looked into this and have come up with this new uniform option - a merino jersey. As you can see, our handsome model Jack is showing that it can be worn in many ways including zipped up and zipped down. It will also fit nicely under the current jacket. We're hoping they'll be ready to go for term 2.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these for your child(ren) here are the things you need to know:

- plenty of research was put in before deciding which brand to go with and we went with merino because it's warm and we want to support our farmers

- you can come in any time over the next week and a bit to try different sizes on your child

- orders must be in by Wednesday 3rd of April (there will be other opportunities in the year to order)

- orders are done through the school

- the original cost price has been subsidised by the Board and St Vincent de Paul, taking the cost down to $80

We are aware that this an expensive outlay so there are a few options to make this more affordable for families ...

- you can pay when you order or we can put it on your school account to pay off over the year

- the Home and School Committee are happy to subsidise the cost of these further for families if required - please talk to Di to get a confidential subsidy for your child(ren)'s jersey

- in the not too distant future there will be some available second hand.

Firewise

Last Wednesday, some classes got to participate in part of the Firewise program. We were lucky enough to have a real fire engine at school to show us some of their safety equipment and answer our questions. It is so important for our tamariki to understand the importance of fire safety, and to encourage whānau to have a fire plan ready at home in case of an emergency.

Tidy Kiwis

Check out this super tidy handwriting - and these kids are only 5! Ka pai Grayson, Esmae and Addison, what fantastic mahi and what a great start to your time at school.

Neuroscience research shows that handwriting activates the areas of the brain linked to reading, more so than activity like typing or tracing letters or words. More than that, an ability to handwrite helps with composition, enabling a freer flow of ideas, supporting greater creativity in writing time.

Prayers Required

These wonderful children below have not long started their spiritual journey through the Sacramental Programme. They will spend a number of Sundays throughout the year working with our Director of Religious Studies, Mrs Gray learning more about the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and Holy Communion before they receive them. We ask you to keep these children in your prayers.

A Writer in the Making!

Have a read of this, Tyler Coyle (Room Kiwi) has written an amazing adventure story - it's very impressive. It's an imaginary journal entry pretending he has been left stranded on an island. Here's a snippet ... from his last day on the island. Mrs Gray reckons he'll have books on the shelf in Preston's Paper Plus in no time!

Stranded Day 5

After what happened with the buffalo I was on high alert so nothing could sneak up on me and kill me. I was also trying extra hard to get noticed by people so I added some metal from my now-shredded backpack to the SOS sign. I found some driftwood and rocks along the way so I decided to make a fire so planes and boats could discover me. I also wanted to make a raft and paddle in case I wasn’t found.

A few hours later the unmistakable sound of a helicopter filled my ears, soon it came into view. A small white helicopter with the letters ‘SNZ’ in a bold green. It slowly advanced towards me, its metal blades chopping the air, As it hovered over me with a deafening noise, a rope ladder was thrown down. A man wearing a white lab coat and wire-rim glasses gestured to me to come up. I jumped up onto the shaking ladder and climbed up to the top. There were two more men in the same white lab coats. Around them were screens with maps of the island from all angles and they all had the same red flashing dot in the middle of it.

Finally, one of the men spoke up. “We have come here due to reports of a nuke buried deep underground on the island that could explode any day now.” I was shocked. That meant I had spent almost 5 and a half days on an island with a nuke. “When we arrived”, continued the man “On this island, we saw your metal and smoke and knew human life was on here.” Therefore, we had to rescue you.” “Not like we wanted to” muttered one. “We need to get you out of here immediately before it explodes,” said a third. “Get this helicopter out of here” “Alright, alright, I’m going.” With that, he flew us away from the island at speed. Behind us, we heard a deafening boom. We looked behind us and saw the smouldering remains of the island.

By Tyler Coyle

Miss McRae and Mrs Gray's New Initiative

This term we are starting up a Young Vinnies group for those that are interested in Years 4-6. We will meet every Thursday at lunchtime. Young Vinnies is the Youth arm of St Vincent de Paul. We are going to be putting our faith and love into action through the service of others. Keep an eye out for the exciting projects we will be taking on!

Better Late than Never

Congratulations to Hannah and Henry who finally (my fault) received their trophies, the Pearce Family Cup for first in senior cross country last year. What awesome athletes and super patient kids you are. Well done!

Caritas Justice Chats 2024

The Caritas Justice Chat sessions are designed to inspire and support students in becoming proactive leaders of social justice, peace, and change within their schools, incorporating the principles of Catholic social teaching. These kids are all over social justice and the Catholic social teachings, they had a great time catching up with other schools and Michael and Justine from Caritas.

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Tackle Rugby and Bullrush

Some lunchtimes we like to let the kids play a game of tackle rugby or tackle bullrush. This is always actively supervised by an adult (usually Miss Hood, Miss Bond or Mrs Hansen) and there are always a huge number of kids keen to get amongst it. All our children are aware that this is the only time these kind of games are able to be played. The best part is watching the senior kids make the juniors feel like All Blacks by 'diving for and missing' big tackles and letting them tackle them 'dramatically' to the ground. It is very well controlled and low key but also a great way for the kids to blow off some steam. Obviously there is the risk of an injury just like in any kind of play. It has never been mandatory for children to wear a mouth guard but if you would like your child to be extra safe, you are welcome to send a mouth guard along with them each day on the chance it'll be a day they get to play a tackle game.

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Hot Lunches - Noodles

With the weather starting to cool off, we know we're heading into hot lunch territory. Hopefully you are aware that we have a flash new pie warmer courtesy of the Home and School for warming pies and leftovers (which is a year 6 job) so they're the perfect temperature at lunchtime - a great option. We also know that noodles are often a popular choice in many house holds as they're quick and easy - all good. The tricky part at our end is that to make the noodles edible you have to add boiling water ... enter health and safety ... sometimes we can have 20+ cups of noodles to make at lunch time, we have attempted to make them earlier in the day so they're not as hot but our staff, including support staff are busy working with children during that time. The likelihood of children burning themselves or others is quite a concern.

Long story short - if possible, we'd love it if children could bring their noodles to school in one of these bad boys (as shown in the picture) so they're ready to go and at a safe temperature for everyone. You can get them at The Warehouse or Kmart.

Attendance

If a student misses one day of school every two weeks, they miss a whole year of school by 16 years of age. As a parent or caregiver, you, alongside our school, play a key role in building strong habits of regular school attendance.

All students are legally required to attend school every day and it is a shared responsibility to make sure students attend and engage in learning from when they first start school. As we enter 2024, every day of school matters.

You must let the school know if your child is going to be absent for a day or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure.

If you're struggling at home with getting your child to school, talk to us. Our school is committed to supporting your child to attend school and building a culture that fosters excellent attendance by having:

• School staff who have strong relationships with students and whānau.

• A school culture that recognises your child and your family for who they are, where they come from and who they want to be.

• A school community that does everything to make sure students are at school, and they are participating, and progressing in their education.

Parents and caregivers can find more information here:

Student attendance: A guide for parents and caregivers

Every single day counts towards your child's learning at school and gives your child the best chance to gain qualifications and do well in life. Ākonga | students are legally required to attend school every day. Support is available for families of children who are struggling to attend.

parents.education.govt.nz