Newsletter Week 5 Term Three

Kia Ora,

Yesterday we celebrated the Assumption of Mary. On August 15, the Feast of the Assumption or simply (“The Assumption”) is widely celebrated all over Christendom. This Holy day marks the occasion of the Virgin Mary's bodily ascent to heaven at the end of her life. Totara Team joined with the Parish at the 10.00 am Mass to celebrate this Feast. Our Assumption Liturgy is 12.15 pm on Thursday. You are welcome to join us.

Last Thursday we held our 10th Matariki Cultural Dinner. It was a wonderful occasion with large numbers attending. Each year the celebration seems to get bigger and better, so thank you for supporting it. A special thanks to Sylvia Dunkley, Brigitte Holmes, all of the St Mary’s team and the whanau roopu for organising this.

On Friday we celebrated St Mary MacKillop’s Feast day. We had an awesome day with a lovely Mass celebrating the Eucharist, and then our children were involved in a number of activities with a Mary MacKillop theme. Thanks to the parents who were able to join us at Mass. I believe the children’s singing was the best yet. Thanks to our DRS and school staff for organising this very special day.

Thank you to Mr G for taking the chess teams to the regional tournament in Tauranga. There were 30 teams competing overall and St Mary's gained 1st, 3rd and 9th team placings on the day. Congratulations to Richard Zhang and Albin Joseph - 1st in their division - and Claire delos Santos and Eric Yang - 2nd in their division. We had a great day full of team spirit. With our B & C teams knocking out other schools' A teams this helped our overall win.

At the end of this week, we farewell Tai Waititi, our teacher of Room 12. Tai heads off to be with her family on the coast and she starts teaching in her new school at Te Kaha on Monday. Thanks, Tai, for the awesome work you have done in the classroom with your children, leading the Junior Kapa Haka group, playing the guitar at our Masses and singing practices and the work you have done with our Pasifika fono. We are going to miss you here at St Mary’s.

Rebecca Scott, an experienced teacher from Otonga, will be joining us during Week 7 as her replacement in Room 12.

I hope you all have a fantastic week.

David Macmillan, Principal.

TERM 3 DATES:

Thursday 24th August Tough Guy/ Girl Challenge

Monday 28th August Chess Regionals at St Mary’s

Friday 8th September Nativity of Mary Mass

Wednesday 13th September STEAM afternoon/evening

Tuesday 19th September to Friday 22nd September MAD School Art Exhibition - Art Village

Tuesday 19th September Totara Team Exhibition

Thursday 21st September Mini Munchy Makers final cooking competition

Friday 22nd September Final Day of Term 3

Yesterday many Catholics around the world celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This special feast day recalls the spiritual and physical departure of the Mother of Jesus from earth, when both her body and soul were taken into the presence of God.

Catholic tradition identifies in the Book of revelations where she is described as “woman clothed with the sun”. The passages assert that the woman's vision was ‘a great sign’ which ‘appeared in heaven’ with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown with twelve stars.

On Thursday 17th August the RE Leaders and Young Vinnies will be hosting an Assumption Liturgy at 12:15 pm. You are more than welcome to join us.

Have a wonderful week.

God bless.

Lorna Dobson, DRS.

Cricket, Netball, Futsal & Touch for Term 4

Online registrations for Term 4 sports are up on our school website. Please go to https://www.stmarysrotorua.school.nz/our-sports-/

Then click on the sport you would like to register for on the left hand side.

Most registrations will be closing on the 15th of September - except Cricket which is the 8th of September.

Football

Please keep in your diary the 2nd of September, this is our next and only duty club for the season. Money raised goes back to our football kids.

I am also going to do Team photos near the BBQ area.

Team photos

PLEASE can I have some team photos sent in or any awesome shots of kids playing their sports.

This is so we can make up our sports pages for our end of year magazine.

Gymnastics

Notices went home yesterday concerning gym comps. Please return as soon as possible so we can organise the day with transport etc

Ngā mihi

Shanelle McCashin

Sports Coordinator