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St Mary's School

16th February, 2024

St Mary's School 16th February, 2024
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'Lent is a call to renew a commitment grown dull, perhaps, by a life more marked by routine than by reflection.' – Joan Chittister

Kia ora e te whānau,


Can you believe it will be week 4 next week? Time has flown by this week as we've worked through our first full week of learning and teaching for 2024.


Room Tuī were the first class to share Monday Prayers this year and what a fantastic job they did too. They kicked off by focusing on our value of faith - 'put your whole confidence in God'. They all shared the different ways that they show faith which included praying and talking to God, having a go at things that might seem tricky, helping others who might feel lonely or left out and going to Mass.


With this Wednesday having been Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, they couldn't have picked a more fitting theme for their prayers.


Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent and the Easter Season. Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are all human and therefore we all make mistakes. It is a good time for us to think about what we can do to grow closer to Jesus over the Lenten period. Lent is a forty day period of preparation for Easter. It reminds us of the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. During this time, he fasted and prayed. For us, Lent is a time when we are called to focus on becoming closer to Jesus by praying a little more, doing good deeds for others, going without something we like and giving generously to those in need.


The ashes used on Ash Wednesday come from the burning of the palms of a last years Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday marks Jesus' return to Jerusalem, when people waved palm branches to celebrate his arrival. The ashes are blessed by the priest during the Ash Wednesday Mass after the homily. Then the ashes are applied to each person's forehead in the shape of a cross. We joined our parish and Father Sani for our Ash Wednesday celebration (you'll see more down below).


How will you become closer to Jesus this Lent?


Ma te Atua e manaaki - God bless,


Mallory

Principal | Tumuaki

Nau Mai, Haere Mai - Welcome

This week we welcome two new students to St Mary's School. First up we welcome Lachie Inder to Room Pūkeko. Lachie joins his big brother Riley at our school and is the son of Brad and Amanda. We're so happy to have you here Lachie, we hope you love your time with us here.

We are stoked to welcome Zyron Tolentino to Room Pūkeko. We also welcome his mum and dad, Shuanna and Reynar to our St Mary's School community. We hope you enjoy your time at St Mary's, Zyron.

Wednesday 21st Feb

Come along and enjoy a sausage off the bbq, grab yourself a coffee from the Coffee Cart all while meeting your child(ren)'s new teacher for 2024, learning a bit more about the changes we have made in writing and reading through Structured Literacy and take a look at our revised shared vision (based on your feedback late last year and input from all our staff).

+ Ash Wednesday Mass +

On Wednesday we joined the parish in our church for Ash Wednesday Mass. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent which is our time to prepare our hearts for Easter. Father Sani led another great celebration, we love the way he gets the kids involved. The Gospel was about Jesus healing a man with leprosy ... he asked the children 'how did Jesus heal the man' and to his delight, Fletcher Sayer (5) answered 'with magic!'


He also asked the children to share what they knew about Ash Wednesday and boy do they know their stuff! I think he was rather impressed. It was even more special to have Hannah Hunt (Room Kiwi) working alongside Rachael and Father Sani to put the ashes on our foreheads, and what a great job she did too.

🎉Congratulations and Thank You Violet! 🎉

Ka pai Violet Moore! Violet won the Southern Field Days colouring in competition, and in the photo below you can see why! What a beautiful job she has done. Violet won a $50 Paper Plus voucher, some Hello Banana goodies and a book for herself and the other part of her prize was a whopping $250 worth of books for our school library. How lucky are we? Thanks so much Violet for your hard mahi and thanks to Don for being there to help accept our wonderful prize.

📝Awesome Mahi Tom! 📝

Check out this fantastic writing by Thomas Muir of Room Tuī. His writing is about the greatest Commandment of them all which is to love others as you love yourself. As you can see he is really getting the hang of his capital letters and spelling. His handwriting is also super impressive which is something we have been working on across the school. Mahi pai, Tom! Great work!

💪 Father Sani - Priest and Athletics Coach 💪

That's right, he's not just our wonderful new parish priest, he's also just an all round good sort. Father Sani has been spending some of his lunch times at school playing rugby and joining in games as well as calling over to help out with our athletics rotation in the afternoon - according to the senior teachers, he's a real pro!

⛪ Congratulations Jake! ⛪

Here's another recent baptism for us to celebrate. Jake Winship was baptised last year by Father Jaime. How cool, Jake - we look forward to celebrating your future Sacraments with you. Thanks for sharing this ripper photo with us too.

Early Term Reminders

  • On Wednesday all students received a blanket consent and device consent that should have made its way home to you. Please return these to your classroom teacher as soon as possible.
  • Absences - if your child is going to be away at any stage, please let us know. You can do this by ringing Di (2087733) or texting the office (027 208 7733). If you email to let your teacher know, it is a good idea to copy Di into the email (admin@stmarys.school.nz) as teachers often get busy and may miss these emails. Please also let us know why they are away as we need to code these into our student management system. If your child is away and we haven't heard from you to explain why, then you should receive either a text or a phone call from the school to check in.
  • We have an open door policy at St Mary's School. Parents dropping at the gate and waiting to pick up at the gate at the end of the day was part of our Covid procedures but we're well past that now so please know that you are very, very welcome to pop in to your child(ren)'s class at anytime of the day if you want to (of course, if you prefer to wait at the gate, that is fine too). They love showing you their work and our teachers enjoy meeting and catching up with you - it's great for home and school connections which is great for our learners - it's a win, win!

Children's Liturgy at Sunday Mass 10am

Ministry Roster

Church Cleaning Roster

Upcoming Events Calendar

Week 3 (12th - 16th Feb) - Miss Sutherland and Judy

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Tuī

Wednesday - Ash Wednesday - Mass with the parish - 9am

Friday - Room Tuī Class Mass - 11am in Room Tuī

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church


Week 4 (19th - 23rd Feb) - Miss McRae and Ann-Marie

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Rūrū

Friday - Room Rūrū Class Mass - 11am in Room Rūrū

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church


Week 5 (26th - 1st March) - Miss Bond and Megan

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Takahē

Wednesday - Whole School Athletics Day

Thursday - Senior long distance running - St Peter's College - TBC

Friday - Room Takahē Class Mass - 11am in Room Takahē

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church


Week 6 (4th - 8th March) - Mrs Christie and Ann-Marie

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Pīwakawaka

Thursday - Eastern Athletics

Friday - Room Pīwakawaka Class Mass - 11am in Room Pīwakawaka

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church


Week 7 (11th - 15th March) - Mrs Knowler and Jackie

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Kererū

Wednesday - Commissioning Mass for Staff with St Peter's College - 4pm

Friday - Room Kererū Class Mass - 11am in Room Kererū

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church


Week 8 (18th - 22nd March) - Mrs Thacker and Judy

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Pūkeko

Friday - Room Pūkeko and Moa combined Class Mass - 11am in Room Pūkeko

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church

Sunday - Southland Athletics - Invercargill


Week 9 (25th - 29th March) - Mrs Cruickshank, Megan and Rachael

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Moa

Friday - Good Friday


Week 10 (1st - 5th April) - Mrs Gray, Mrs Hansen, Norma and Rachael

Monday - Easter Monday

Tuesday - Easter Tuesday

Wednesday - Wednesday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Kiwi

Friday - Room Kiwi Class Mass - 11am in Room Kiwi

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church


Week 11 (8th - 12th April) - Mrs Butterfield and Sheilah

Monday - Monday prayers in the Church - 8.50am - Room Kea

Thursday - John Parsons - TBC

Friday - Room Kea Class Mass - 11am in Room Kea

Friday - Assembly - 2.20pm in the Church


Other Dates:

Next Home and School Meeting - TBC

Next School Board Meeting - Monday 4th March - 6pm Staffroom

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