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

Welcome back to Term 3, it is wonderful to see how readily the children and staff have settled into Term 3. Not the best of weather outside but lots of ‘sunshine’ inside!!! Please pop in to your child/rens Hubs in the weeks ahead, at drop off or pick up times (wearing a mask) to see what we’ve been up. Amazing Inquiry Planning by the teachers speaks of some exciting, future focused learning for our tamariki especially in the areas of Science, Literacy and Technology. We look forward to a fruitful term.

On Wednesday 27th July I accompanied six Year 6 children to the Catholic Caring Foundation’s annual Caring Mass and Awards. Emma, Tristan, Ava I, Nathan H, Sarang & Kadeyn were the recipients of the Catholic Caring Foundation’s service awards for 2022. This was a Mass to celebrate the care and compassion our children demonstrate, and their commitment to our Marist community, especially during these challenging times. Each school was only able to select six children for these awards, and we acknowledge that we could have selected more children, but these children stood out. The children represented our school with pride and reverence, and as Bishop Steve said, we hope they will continue to provide empathy and care for others as they move onto secondary school.

It was heartening & encouraging to see all Catholic primary & secondary schools represented and for our young children to see the secondary students continue their mission of outreach and service in their school communities.

A huge variety of organisations from the far north, Kaitaia, through to Thames were also present and recognised for their service. Organisations that reached out & helped in extra challenging times supporting the vulnerable & poor. Agencies that provided support for a range of things such as pregnancy care, alcohol/drug abuse, elderly care, prisoners welfare, alternative education, homelessness, foodbanks, counselling etc. The list was endless and rather overwhelming, as the needs seem to be so much more especially because of the challenges of the last few years.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.”

(Matthew 25:40)

As always we keep all those in need in our prayers, especially the most vulnerable and poor. As Marist people we continue to provide outreach and support wherever we can and we aim to continue to grow empathetic, future focused and kind children who are other centred rather than self centred. Our school values reflect who we are & what we aim to achieve.

We look forward to an exciting, settled term. We welcome meeting face to face, albeit in masks, so please come along next Tuesday evening at 7pm, in Hub 2, for our Community Cultural Evening. This is an evening of sharing and planning our new initiative, our Marist Cultural Week in week 8.

Nga manaakitanga katoa a te Atua

All God's Blessings

Carolynn

We congratulate Mrs Ana Sullivan on her appointment as New Entrant teacher in Hub 5 (with Mrs K) for the remainder of the year. Thank you Ana for taking on this very special role.

With Ana taking on this role we now have Lizzie Bayliss, Megan Waleki and David Palmer working across our school in a teacher release capacity until the end of the year. We welcome Megan, David & Lizzie to our Marist whānau and thank them for taking on these extra days.

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.

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.

We have become aware that, once again, some parents and caregivers are risking the health and safety of our children at pick up and drop off times. PLEASE REMEMBER:

• NEVER pull in/park in the church driveways

• NEVER park/drop off/pick up on yellow lines

• NEVER use the school driveways OR STAFF CARPARK for pick up/drop off

• NEVER park on berms

We need to take responsibility to keep our children safe. Thank you very much to those of you who park at the Rocket Park or up New North Rd and Taylors Rd and walk to school to collect your children - the more we can reduce congestion around our school gates the better. Having to arrive 5 minutes earlier to get to school is a small price to pay for our children’s safety!

CALL OUT FOR AUCTION ITEMS

The Marist PTFA is planning its major fundraiser and also its annual Golf Day in Term 3. You have heard about the exciting plans to upgrade our school hall, so we have a key fundraising target to meet. Donations of any items which could be used for auctions would be appreciated: vouchers to businesses, the use of a family bach for a weekend, even services which you could provide to the community. Any items can be left with the school office.

GOLF DAY

As you may be aware, we had to postpone the annual Marist Primary Golf Day earlier this year from its traditional March date due to Covid. However to give you something to look forward to, we now have a date for this years event!

Friday 2nd of September 2022

Maungakiekie Golf Club

Tee off at 12.30pm

Format is Ambrose

For those who haven’t attended before, it is an awesome, fun, social day for men and ladies, from those who have never played, through to pros.

Tickets are $110 per player and the entry fee covers green fees, generous beers and snacks on the course, and supper afterwards.

We are looking for both players and sponsors. In terms of sponsorships we have:

• The naming rights - $1,200 which gets you four entries and two carts, in addition to naming rights.
• Holes sponsorships of $200 for the 18th hole and $100 for every other hole.
• Auction / prize donations also gratefully accepted.

If you are interested in participating as part of a team, as a player, sponsorship or both please contact Pete Wilkening - peter.wilkening@sprattfinancial.co.nz.

It’s a great day, for a very worth while cause.

A reminder that if your child is away from school for any reason you must let the office know. It is good to let your child's Hub teachers know too, but it is essential the office is included in the communication.

Letting us know is easy - just call 846 7408, email absent@marist.school.nz or, even easier, use the absentee function on the school app! If you have not set the app up yet just scroll to the end of the Newsflash for the links to the App Store and Google Play!

If your family are unfortunately hit by Covid there are some great online resources to help you manage. The link below provides information on creating your own household isolation timeline:

https://covid19.health.nz/advice/household/create-isolation-timeline?_ga=2.179855910.386650686.1658707495-1308242024.1658707495

Unfortunately we are having to throw away a number of school readers that are returned to school mouldy. If a reader gets wet in a bag and isn't allowed to dry properly it goes mouldy and can no longer be used. School readers cost $15 each and so this becomes very costly.

Please ensure all readers are kept in book bags and, if they do get wet, they should be removed from the bag and dried properly.

Due to such large amounts being raised and more schools taking part than expected organisers are experiencing some delays in getting Jumping June prizes to school. Prizes will arrive anytime from now until the end of Term 3. They are working as quickly as they can!

The final amount raised was an impressive $10,636.75!

Sarah's Studio, who have run the art classes at school, are running a fundraising initiative that will benefit Marist.

They are selling some fantastic art boxes from their studio that currently sell to the public - link below:

https://www.sarahsstudio.co/art-and-craft-at-home-kits

Sarah's Studio will donate $2 per single craft box and $5 per double craft box ordered to the school, and orders will be delivered to the school. Orders are open until 15th August.

Altar Servers Training - St Mary’s Parish along with Fr Carlo are holding a training for all new and existing Altar Servers as it has been a very long time since they last served. If you have received your Sacraments and would like to join this Ministry, we would love to see you at the training this Sunday 31st July at 11am.

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.

• Sacrament of Confirmation – Saturday 27th August 2022 at 2pm in the Church

- Classes @ 8.45am; Sundays 31st July, 7th & 14th August 2022

- Parent/Child Session with worksheets (refresher) @ 8.45am – Sunday 21st August 2022

- Practice with Sponsors – Thursday 25th August 2022, 7pm in the church

• Sacrament of First Eucharist – Sunday, 28th August 2022 – 10 am in the Church

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