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Nau mai haere mai – Greetings – Tena Koutou – Kamusta – Malo e Lelei – Talofa Lava – Namaste – Ni Hao – Hallo – Kia Orana – Bula – Fakaalofa Atu
Dear Families
We had a wonderful community celebration last Friday with the return of our annual book parade and the celebration of Mass with our grandparents and families. Thank you to everyone for taking part and displaying such great enthusiasm. It was a joyful, fun and a happy gathering for us all.
School Athletics on Thursday 17 November is the next event that we are looking forward to. More information will be sent out in the coming week.
Play Week Aotearoa 2022 in November is a celebration of play and its value to tamariki, whānau and communities across Aotearoa. This year’s theme is “Come out and Play”.
Sport New Zealand and its play partners are encouraging everyone to take time out and play. It’s the easiest way for tamariki and whānau to stay active. Play is fun, it offers freedom and chances to take risks. It’s how our tamariki learn to problem solve, get creative, make mistakes and create new friendships. They get to build the attitudes, skills and life-long love of being active.
Paid Union Meetings for Teachers
Our Teachers will be attending Paid Union Meetings on Wednesday 23 November. These are important meetings for teachers to attend so that they have the opportunity to consider the Collective Employment Agreement offer as a result of the negotiations being held by the Ministry of Education and the NZEI Union. There will be minimal disruption to our school day as we have organised to provide for teacher cover during the short period of time the teachers will be off site. Our teachers will be attending in a staggered rotation. Thank you for your understanding.
 Class placements are a long and complex task for us.We spend a lot of time placing each child in a particular class. EVERY class has a number of eyes on it before a class is confirmed. We ask you to trust us that we do have your child’s best interests at heart.
School starts for students next year on Wednesday 1 February 2023. Please advise the school office in advance if you’re likely to still be overseas at this time. We understand that a number of families after three years of COVID lockdowns have not been able to visit family overseas and due to flight changes, return to school may be delayed. Letting us know helps with our planning.
Month of November
All Souls’ Day, November 2nd, is the day we remember all those who have died, be it people we know or people we may not know personally. This is one of our Catholic traditions. The Eternal Rest prayer is a special prayer your family can pray for those who have died.
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Wishing you all a safe and blessed fortnight ahead.
Ngā mihi nui
Sue Kubala
Principal
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Key Dates Reminder
*Please note all dates and events are correct at the time of publishing. Please monitor your school eTap emails, Facebook communications or look on our school's Public Calendar for up to date information*
TERM 4 Key Dates:
Thursday 17 November - School Athletics Day (rain date Friday 18 November)
Friday 25 November - Colour Run (Community in Action event)
Sunday 4 December - Ellerslie Santa Parade (Community in Action event)
Tuesday 6 December - End of Year Concert (rain date Wed 7th December) 5.30pm start
Thursday 8 December - Board Meeting 6pm
Tuesday 13 December - Leaver's Mass / Prizegiving (SHC - 6.30pm)
Friday 16 December - Last Day of School 12.30pm close
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Advanced Notice - 2023 Term Dates
Term 1 : Wednesday 1 February - Thursday 6 April
Term 2 : Monday 24 April - Friday 30 June
Term 3 : Monday 17 July - Friday 22 September
Term 4 : Monday 9 October - Friday 15 December
Note: Teacher Only days are not yet available
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“The kingdom of heaven belongs to children such as these” - wise words said by Jesus. An affirmation of these words was witnessed in Room 16 - our School’s New Entrant Class. These little children (most of whom have been in school only for about half a term) displayed the purest wairua in their morning prayer as they prayed from their heart. Ka Pai Room 16 and Mrs. Nelisi!
 On Tuesday- 8th November, our Year 5 and 6 Learning Community had the opportunity to interact with the nuns from the order of the Missionaries of Charity. The Sisters dressed in the traditional sarees were a welcome sight to the children and happily shared their life stories with us. Our children were great role models of respect and excellence as they paid rapt attention to the Sisters.
As a DRS, one of my most rewarding moments this year was seeing all the grandparents together in Church as we celebrated mass together as a community. Our grandparents are a blessing and we ask God for His constant blessing over them.
Ma te Atua tātou e manaaki
God’s blessings
Charmaine D'lima
DRS
World Day for Grandparents - Image Source - https://www.catholicgrandparentsassociation.org/cga-welcomes-theme-announced-by-pope-francis-for-the-world-day-for-grandparents-and-the-elderly-2022/
Mother Teresa - Image Source - enkiquotes.com
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Room 16
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Room 16
Room 16 has been enjoying the warmer weather. We have been playing outside and have been building huts and bases.
We are learning to look after our school hats because we know we have to wear them outside when we are playing because the sun can be harmful to us.
We really enjoyed the Book Character Parade and loved having our Grandparents come to school. We proudly showed them our classroom and some of the work we have been doing this term.
~ Mrs Nelisi
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Room 15
How is it already week 4, with only 5 left to go…?! Room 15 loved and completely enjoyed Book Character day, the Parade and the Grandparents Mass. Thank you to all the families and grandparents who helped make the day so special.
Lucia… AKA Tinker Bell - “Because I wish I had wings like her.”
Samuel… AKA The Hulk! - I chose to be The Hulk because he is strong and awesome!
Luca… AKA Mr Happy - “Because it’s like me in a book, I am Mr Happy too!”
~ Miss Ahearn
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Room 14
The Book Week provided our little learners with plenty of learning opportunities. Our Room 14 families sent their children’s favourite books to the class, so they could do storytelling to their friends and Mrs Kim also read those books to the class each day. We wrote about, 'Why do I like my book?' and the children gave an oral presentation about their own book during our class, 'show and tell time.' It is really good to know what kind of books our tamariki are interested in.
~ Mrs Kim
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Room 13
Room 13 very much enjoyed the Book Week last week. We wrote about our favourite books and redesigned the covers and we visited the Book Fair in the library. One highlight of the week was meeting NZ author Heather Haylock who talked to us about the books she has written and she read us her story, Granny McFlitter, Champion Knitter.
Grandparents Day and the Book Parade were a lot of fun and this week we wrote about the stories and characters we dressed up as.
Milon: "My character is Bruce Bogtrotter. He ate chocolate cake and got really fat. He had to eat two chocolate cakes because he had a very mean principal."
Ariane: "My book character is The Seven Stars of Matariki. The five brothers found seven beautiful girls but the girls were evil".
Louis: "My character is Paddington Bear. I had a marmalade sandwich and a suitcase. He is called Paddington because he was found in Paddington Station. Some nice people got him and let him live with them. They fed him food. He had a cute nose!"
~ Mrs Bowden
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Room 12
Room 12 has been having some great circle-time discussions about friendship. We have learned how it is great to meet new people and make new friends, as well as talking about how you can still be good friends with someone even if they're far away or in a different class.
This is an important learning with us moving on to a new classroom next year.
~ Mr Ryan
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Room 11
Term 4 is shaping up to be a great one! We have had so much success and so many amazing learning experiences over the last couple of weeks.
During Week 4 (Book week) we were lucky enough to have Heather Haycock, the author of the Granny Mcflitter series come in and have a chat with us. She showed us her writing process, all her knitting and even taught us about why the penguins needed sweaters when they got caught up in the Rena oil spill. We learnt so much! Here's what Miles thought: "I thought it was really tricky pretending to be a penguin carrying an egg, it must have been even harder with all the oil."
The children have been having a lot of success in their reading and writing since beginning to implement the Structured Literacy approach. It has been fantastic to hear about all the extra learning going on at home too! Here's some feedback from the students:
"I love to learn new sounds with Miss Hutton, it makes me feel like a good reader." - Jenita
"I find it fun to discover new words and sounds so that when we're older we will be much smarter." - Dayana
Needless to say we are on a roll, we can't believe how quickly time is flying by. Bring on the rest of Term 4!
~ Miss Hutton
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Room 10
Room 10 had an absolute ball during book week. This was the first parade for most of our Year 2 students who had missed out during lockdown.
We really enjoyed writing our own book reviews, exploring story character traits and having a good go at making our writing sounds super exciting. I'm pretty sure we have some future authors on our hands!
We were even lucky enough to have an author, Heather Haylock, of the Granny McFlitter series come to visit. Her new Christmas book, Granny McFlitter: The Knit Before Christmas, was a hit in our class.
Keep reading Room 10, it leads to a whole world of magical adventures!
~ Mrs Heyworth
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Year 0-2 Hui
At this week's Hui we welcomed Ria and Monica who have just started school in Room 16. We also congratulated all this week's certificate winners.
Please remember to bring a named sunhat every day, especially as the sun is heating up and we are outside a lot for Wa Rapu, PE, Athletic Sports practice and Christmas Concert practices. We have a no hat no play policy and the children don't like missing out on their playtime!
~ Mrs Bowden
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Room 9
During Mathematics, Room 9 has been using materials to show how they can work out basic fact equations.
The children are able to recognise that 3x9 is the same as 9x3 and by using materials, they can visualise the basic fact which helps them come up with an answer. They know that multiplication facts always have equal groups, therefore they can manipulate the materials to show different ways to work out their problem.
"We chose to use 3 groups of 9. We split the jellybeans into 3 groups of 9 and then we used the blocks to make 9 groups of 3. This helps me learn because I can count in 3s to get the answer" Vincent C
"We did 9x3 and 3x9. We used different things to do 9 groups of 3 and 3 groups of 9. This helped us because we didn't need to count, we could just add the groups." Austin B
~ Mrs Hyland
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Room 8
We have been buzzing with energy in Room 8. We have loved learning Tennis and had a blast during Book Week. Showing we were leaders by helping our Buddy Class fill in their wish lists was a big highlight for the children in our class.
On the 27th of October we participated in the New Zealand Shake Out. This made many of us curious about earthquakes and other natural disasters. We decided to research some of these in small groups and then next week each child will choose a specific natural disaster event to research and present to the class.
To stimulate conversations we set off on a weather scavenger fact hunt around our class. This was heaps of fun and some words like: cumulonimbus, really tested our decoding skills!
~ Mrs Teviotdale
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Room 7
What an amazing day, Book Day and Grandparents Day was! Isabel S came second overall with her Pinocchio costume and Elijah B came 1st overall with his 156-Story Treehouse costume. It was awesome to see all the different book characters and the effort Room 7 had put into their costumes.
We have also been doing lots of fraction work during Maths time in class. Our focus for the last week has been adding fractions with denominators. A group of students have been using jellybeans to help them add up 2 digit fractions.
~ Miss van Dillen
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Room 6
Room 6 have been practising writing instructions. Miss Clubley managed to trick them with an instruction challenge, they were tested in their ability to read and follow instructions as quickly as possible. Ask someone from Room 6 and maybe they will see if you can pass the challenge! We have learned how important it is for our instructions to be clear and detailed for important things like washing hands and giving directions. Here in these photos you can see Room 6 testing their instructions for getting from our classroom to the front gate. If our instructions weren’t clear we ended up in some interesting places!
~ Miss Clubley
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Room 5
Last week was Book Week and Room 5 loves everything to do with Roald Dahl. Everyone watched daily installments of Rick Mayall reading George's Marvellous Medicine on YouTube (highly recommended) and followed this up with comprehension activities. We made bookmarks and many of our students also did a novel study on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In Room 5 we positively pop and fizz over splendiferous stories by the daring Dahl!
~ Mrs Agnew
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Room 4
Room 4 have loved being involved in all of the activities so far this term. Their Book Parade costumes were amazing! I loved seeing their creativity in action. I was also very proud of the children who performed at the Kapa Haka Festival on Saturday.
On All Souls' Day we had a lovely class liturgy and followed this by putting the names of loved ones who we have lost onto monarch butterflies. These are now in the Prayer Garden.
We have had our sprint and field event heats and we are really looking forward to our Athletics Day next Thursday.
~ Mrs Flashman
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Room 3
Room 3 has been focussing on the key events of Mary's life in Religious Education and how her faith, hope and love remained strong throughout her life. The children then created collage portraits of Mary which look amazing! Room 3 have also learnt about the Missionaries of Charity this week; which is the congregation formed by Mother Theresa. We did this in preparation for a visit from the Nuns who are from the Missionaries of Charity and it was wonderful hearing their stories!
~ Miss Fepuleai
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Room 2
What a beautiful last fortnight it has been! Room 2 has loved getting involved in a range of different activities - especially with the Girls Cricket Tournament and having the hilarious and engaging sisters from the Missionaries of Charity come in and talk to us. We have been practising for Athletics and are super excited to showcase our athletic ability next week!
~ Mr Drumm
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Room 1
We have been buzzing around as busy bees in Room 1, a sure sign of summer! While we worked hard on our assessments in Writing, Reading and Maths we also made posters on the different Saints in the Catholic Church. A learning highlight for us was the historical details of what happened at Parihaka.
The BEST highlight of the last two weeks was definitely Book Week! Oh my goodness - the painstaking efforts by the children and parents of Room 1 were highly visible and this contributed to the fantastic atmosphere of the whole school.
~ Mrs Dlima
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Sustainability
This week in the garden we were fortunate enough to find several monarch butterfly caterpillars! We have also been busy watering the garden and staying on top of its care. Even the smallest and youngest St Mary's students have been getting involved!
If any families are interested and or able to visit the garden and water it during the Christmas holidays please reach out to Miss Ahearn at jessica@stmary.school.nz ~ Miss Ahearn
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Digital Learning - Cyber Safety
Cyber safety is a hot topic at the moment as we all want our children to be safe while they work their way through the World Wide Web.
Core Education along with Grok Academy has created a great resource for the classroom around what's good to share and what isn't good to share on the internet. One side of the card has a scenario and the other side explains if it is 'OK to share', 'Risky to share' or 'Never share'.
If you would like to sign your child up to find out more, you can do so by going to:
grok.nz/cyber
~ Mrs Hyland
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Bounce Back - Humour
Here are some key messages to communicate to your child about humour.
Humour helps us to stay healthy.
Laughter helps our body to fight disease and illness. Humour is like exercise for our mind and our feelings.
Humour can help you to feel better.
Having a laugh and finding the funny side of a situation can help you feel a little bit better when you are feeling unhappy, sad or worried, or when things are difficult.
You can use laughter and humour to help someone else feel a bit better.
You can cheer someone up when they have a problem, or they are feeling sad or worried, by being funny in a kind and gentle way. Stop doing it if they don’t like it.
Humour shouldn’t be used to pretend that you don’t feel sad or worried.
Even though laughter can help you feel better when you have a problem, you still need to try to solve the problem, or deal with the unhappy feeling. Laughter doesn’t make problems go away. It just helps you to cope with them a little better.
Humour shouldn’t be used to hurt someone’s feelings.
It’s unkind to laugh at someone else’s problems or bad luck, or make fun of the way another person looks, thinks, speaks or acts.
What can you do to help your child learn about humour?
● Share funny songs or movies and TV shows with your child.This is a great way to connect and enjoy each other’s company.
● Read funny stories or poems to your child and enjoy the humour together.
● Share riddles and jokes that don’t rely on put-downs or insulting humour.
● Help your child learn how to tell a riddle or joke well.
● Encourage your child to make a funny card, drawing or banner to cheer up a family member or a friend who is sick or having a difficult time.
● Create opportunities for your child to have fun and enjoy some laughs with their friends (e.g. when your child has friends around to play you could show a funny movie, encourage a joke-telling session, play silly or fun games, provide funny dress-ups or encourage them to put on a funny skit).
● Point out to your child when they are using humour in an inappropriate way (e.g. to put down someone such as their younger brother or sister, or to trivialise something important, or to deny a problem or a feeling they are having). Discuss this with them.
~Mrs Nelisi
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Book Fair and Grandparents' Day
On Friday 4th November all of St Mary's little bookworms united for our annual Book Parade. From Year 1 to 6, there were Cats in Hats, Matildas from Roald Dahl, a host of characters from The Bad Guys, Minions, fearsome Demon Dentists and many more wonderful characters! Grandparents and families watched the parade, before going on to purchase books from our Scholastic Book Fair, then attend morning tea in the hall and the Grandparents' Mass.
Events like this put family and stories at the heart of our school and we thank everyone who made these special memories possible.
~ Mrs Agnew
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Kapa Haka - Te Kōtuku Festival
The Kapa Haka Group had a fantastic time representing St Mary's at the Te Kōtuku Festival on Saturday. The children had put in so much time and effort into their practices at lunch times with Whaea Kali. They looked amazing in their Kapa Haka uniforms and performed their Kapa Haka bracket beautifully. A big thank you to Ruapotaka Marae for hosting such a wonderful festival and giving our tamariki an experience they will never forget!
~ Miss Fepuleai
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Kids Marathon
On Sunday 30th of October, 51 students braved the wet weather to run at the Auckland Marathon. We had 47 students compete in the 2km Kids Marathon and four students in the 5km. Everyone represented St Mary's proudly and the students were very excited to get a medal when they crossed the finish line. Thank you to all the parents that came along and supported the team and an extra thanks to the parents that ran with their children.
~Miss van Dillen and Mrs Hyland
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Car Park Safety
At the end of the school day please adhere to our safety procedures.
Remember that our tamariki are small in stature and are often not very visible, especially from large vehicles.
- Form a double line adjacent to the pick up area
- Stay in your cars
- If you need to get out of your car please find a park
- Hold up your sign stating who you are picking up
- Your child will be delivered safely to your car
- Teach your children to do up their own seat belts
- Put bags into the car, no need to put things into the boot.
- The pickup area is supervised from 2.45pm - 3.05pm
- Afterschool care is available if you can not get to school on time
- If you are walking, walk close to the church or hall
- Please do not walk through the double line of parked cars
- Children must be escorted by an adult through the carpark
- Always be alert and courteous
- Please do not park in the top parking area, this is for staff
~ Mrs Varoy
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Board News
Tēnā koutou e te whānau o St Mary’s Ellerslie
At our board meeting last week, we appointed the Deputy Presiding Member, thank you Nicole Sharpe for your willingness to serve in this capacity. Another of the key processes underway is the preparation and planning for 2023, at our next meeting the Board will be presented the 2023 budget for review and approval.
Considerable effort has been put into the School's re-visioning work. Our values have been agreed upon as a school community. These values apply not only to our tamariki but the entire school community. One of those values is respect. It is disappointing to hear that this has been put aside by some parents/caregivers in their communications and interactions with school staff. As a Board, safeguarding tamariki and staff wellbeing are a priority. Please be mindful of the timing and the tone of all interactions with staff. We welcome all from our community who would like to raise any concerns with the Board, to do so please contact me ( siata@stmary.school.nz) or Mrs Kubala ( principal@stmary.school.nz).
Our School has a full schedule of events leading up to the end of the school year. Thank you for your continued support and attendance.
Noho ora mai
Si’ata
~ Si’ata Tavite
Presiding Member - St Mary's Board of Trustees
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Community in Action Newsletter
The COLOUR RUN is coming up on 25 November - register your child/ren and get fundraising for our new shade cloths at schoolfunrun.co.nz.
Cookie Time Christmas Buckets are on sale on Kindo now - there are 8 flavours including 2 gluten free options. Order by 9am, 25 November for delivery the week of 5 December.
We're entering our Nativity float into the Ellerslie Santa Parade once again. This fun, festive event will take place at 11am on Sunday, 4 December. If your child/ren would like to participate, or you are available to help, please register here.
The Community in Action 2021 AGM is on Tuesday, 22 November at 7pm in the Staff Room. The main order of business will be to elect/re-elect Officers and Committee Members. If you are interested in any of these positions, please email the Secretary, Jo Calladine, at stmaryspta@gmail.com, or ask a friend to nominate you. The agenda and 2020 AGM minutes have been sent out today by the Community in Action, you canview them HERE. We hope to see you there!
And finally, don't forget, the Family Get Together at Lilyworld is this Sunday, 13 November from 3pm.
The Community in Action Group (CIA) have our own newsletter in 2022 - you can subscribe through the website HERE. If you'd like to get in touch with us, including for the second hand uniform shop, please email stmaryspta@gmail.com.
~ Justine Harvie
Chairperson - St Mary's Community in Action
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Word from the Parish
The Feast Day of our Parish Church always falls on 08 December each year. This is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception. This year we will celebrate this important occasion on Sunday 11 December 2022 after Sunday Mass at 10am. This is an opportunity for us to all be together as a loving community.
We have received the Columban Art Calendars for 2023. They are a beautiful calendar and sell out very quickly. There are some available in the Presbytery Office for $12-00 each.
~ Len Casey (PPC Chairman)
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Community Notices and Advertisements
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