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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
 Thank you to our community for your generous support with the two events we have held, to support communities affected by the recent floods.
It is hard to believe that some people around New Zealand are still displaced and have not been able to return yet to their homes and areas where they live.
A shout out to our Community in Action group for all your hard work fundraising and providing the new sun shades outside Rooms 1-3. The students are enjoying the shade that these are providing.
The STRIKE held yesterday was to send a strong message to the government that conditions of work need to improve so teachers can best meet the needs of our learners.
A message from NZEI Union members:
Our tamariki need a quality education. And we want to give that to them. Unfortunately, the funding for our schools is not enough for us to give us the time we would like to support all our children to thrive.
We need to attract and retain educators, by ensuring that teaching is a valued and attractive profession.
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PB4L
The purpose of PB4L is to create a safe and happy environment within our school community. As a school we have developed our school wide expectations matrix, through the lens of our school values RESPECT and EXCELLENCE.
Currently every classroom is now working on their classroom matrix.
A clear set of positive classroom behaviours linked to the schoolwide expectations provide:
- Consistency in language
- Consistency in what to teach
- Consistency in what to recognise
- Consistency in what to correct
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Meet the Student Council
Over the next few weeks each member of the Student Council will be giving a brief introduction about themselves. We have an enthusiastic group of Year 6 leaders who are a pleasure to work with.
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My name is Lilly and I am a member of the student council. I am one of the St Patrick’s House Captains. I am pleased to be on the student council because I can help make important decisions to make the school a better place.
I am in room 4 and my favourite subjects are art and physical education.
My interests are ballet, contemporary dance and swimming. During the weekend I enjoy biking, walking and meeting up with my friends.
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My name is Cooper. I’m on the student council this year which I think is a big privilege. At school I like to do physical education and reading.
I live in Ellerslie and most days I scooter to school with my sister. I like that I’m doing my bit to ease travel and for climate change too.
In my spare time I like to play video games, read, run, bake and play soccer. Recently I have just started doing a newspaper delivery after school. The sports I play are cricket and athletics in Summer and soccer and flippaball in Winter.
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Staying Safe on Social Media 
A nation-wide campaign to raise awareness of how everyone can stay safe on our Catholic social media platforms starts next Monday, 20 March. Check our Facebook, Instagram and other social media each day from Monday for tips on how to keep yourself safe. Details of the campaign are here: https://www.catholic.org.nz/news/media-releases/socialmedia-safety/
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Lent
 “I am the light of the world.” John 8:12
This Gospel verse is the focused theme for Lent this year as we are reminded of Jesus as the light in our world, our world that is often plagued by violence, diseases, poverty and disasters. The stories of Jesus’ life, especially through the Gospel stories are a challenge to us all to follow in Jesus’ example.
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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 1 - 2023
Monday 20 March - Dental Van (onsite all week)
Tuesday 21 March - Remuera Zones Swimming
Thursday 23 March - Sausage Sizzle (Community in Action)
Monday 27 March - Life Education (Weeks 9-10)
Thursday 30 March - Board Meeting 6pm
Tuesday 4 April - Summer Field Day (Yr 5-6)
Thursday 6 April - Last day of Term 1 (normal finish time)
Friday 7 April - Good Friday (school closed)
TERM 2 - 2023
Monday 24 April - Staff Only Day (school closed)
Tuesday 25 April - Anzac Day (school closed)
Wednesday 26 April - First day of Term 2
Thursday 27 April - Museum Trip (Yr 5-6)
Friday 12 May - Science Roadshow
Monday 5 June - King's Birthday (school closed)
Monday 12 June - Swimming Yr3-6 (Weeks 8-9)
Friday 30 June -Last day of Term 2 (normal finish time)
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Intermediate School Enrolment for 2024 Admission
Please use this list as a guide only. Check with the website and enrolment officer of each school to ensure you have the most up to date information, events and deadlines.
Baradene College ( website)
Marcellin College (website)
Marist College ( website)
Sacred Heart College ( website) Enrolments Close: 31 March
St Mary's College ( website)
St Paul's College ( website)
St Peter's College ( website) Enrolments Close: 5 April 4pm
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We continue our learning in the Season of Lent by focussing on the three key areas of Prayer, Fasting and Reaching out to the needy. Everyone at our school - Staff and tamariki included are collectively involved in praying everyday through their classroom prayer, fasting - making small, age appropriate sacrifices and reaching out to the needy by bringing in a can to donate to the Mt. Wellington Food Bank at every Friday Buddy Mass. It is heartwarming to see family members supporting their children at these Masses.
The Year 5-6 Learning Community participated in the Stations of the Cross - the traditional prayer in the Church during Lent. This prayer recounts the journey of Christ from the time he was sentenced to death till he rose again.
Our church resounded with the beautiful singing and participation of the St. Patrick House Learners as they attended the first Family / School Mass on Sunday 12th March 2023. Our first Mass of the year saw a good turnout of families who were able to have a catch up over a cup of tea in the hall after Mass.
As we will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th of March, I pray an Irish blessing for you and your families.
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rains fall soft upon your fields.
Beannacht Dé ort - God's blessing on you
Pope Francis’ prayer intention for March 2023
For victims of abuse
We pray for those who have suffered harm from members of the Church; may they find within the Church herself a concrete response to their pain and suffering.
Ma te Atua tātou e manaaki
God’s blessings
Charmaine D'lima
DRS
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Room 15
Over the past two weeks we have been learning about Picasso and his experimental approach to art, often painting a common object or person from lots of different angles in one picture. This is called cubism. Picasso did not often create work that was fully abstracted, unlike Room 15’s new entrance students who took abstract to the next level!
Here in Room 15 we are proud to be stewards of God's Creation and make sure we water our beautiful plants when required and care for some of the smallest of his Creation. Here you can see a Room 15 student watering our swan plants which are currently home to some very tiny little friends!
~ Miss Ahearn
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Room 14
Room 14 have been working hard to learn sounds and letters. On Fun Fridays, we revisit the sounds from previous lessons using various resources. Last week, we sorted real fruit into / s / a / t / p / i / n / and / m / that we could hear in the names. Each of the children selected a fruit and identified what sound was in its name, and then put it on the sound card.
Some of the fruit were placed under different letter categories. Lucia explains why: “Tomato’s first sound is / t / t / T! Oh, I’m going to put another tomato on M because I hear / m / in the middle, to-mmma-to!”
I appreciate Room 14 families contributing to the fruit for this fun activity. We also shared some for morning tea.
We had our first Class Mass with Room 3 in the church. All the children were respectful during the Mass and I would like to thank the senior buddies for sitting with their little buddies and particularly those who guided our prayer readers.
~ Mrs Kim
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Room 12
Room 12's Garden of Learning has enjoyed making flowers out of 2D shapes as a part of our Geometry learning and to decorate our classroom. We have all made such unique and colourful flowers.
"I got some yellow paper and then I got some green paper for grass and a stem"- Tanya
~ Mr Ryan
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Room 11
During RE this week we have been discussing all the things that God has blessed us with and thanking him for these things through prayer. We have also taken this moment to reflect on how lucky we are and pray for those who've been affected by the floods. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.
Psalm 118:1
Eleanor - "I am lucky because I have a sushi maker that can make me sushi."
Kennedy - "I am lucky because my mum gives me chocolate."
Max - "I am lucky because I have a twin brother."
Irish week has been a particular highlight for us. We've read Irish myths, learnt songs, been incredibly enthusiastic about Irish dancing and even had a leprechaun cause havoc in our classroom! We can't wait for St Patrick's day again next year.
~ Mrs Heyworth
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Room 10
Room 10 has really been getting into building puzzles once they have completed their work, or choose to do it as an activity in the mornings before school starts. They have enjoyed working together in pairs building puzzles, working on taking turns and communicating skills, as well as sitting quietly and working on a puzzle alone. Puzzles are great for memory skills and help with planning and problem-solving. When completing a puzzle you are remembering shapes, colours, and positions and working on strategies of how to complete each puzzle.
If you have any puzzles lying around that you no longer use, we would love to collect more as we are introducing using puzzles during our Wa Rapu time on a Friday. You can drop them off at Room 10.
Ka Pai Room 10, you have been working so hard.
~ Mrs Worthington
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Year 0-2 Hui
Congratulations to our learners who received certificates at our week 7 hui.
~ Mrs Nelisi
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Room 9
In Room 9 we’ve been busy rocketing into our learning.
For PB4L we have been trying to figure out what Respect and Excellence looks like in our classroom. We know that if we take risks and things don’t go our way, that it is ok. If we persevere, then learning will happen.
We also know that giving everything 100% will help with our learning. One important thing we understand is that one person's 100% is different to another person's… just as long as we’re trying our hardest.
“I like writing in the maths talk book because I can show how I work things out.” Marley
“When I go to my structured literacy workshops they help me learn my sounds.” Miles
~ Mrs Hyland
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Room 8
We have been unpacking our school values of Respect and Excellence and understanding what this looks like in our classroom. Through our PB4L lessons we have all shared our ideas and are working towards creating a classroom treaty that will set us up for a successful year.
During Sea Week, we explored the concept that the different layers of the ocean were different colours for different reasons. Using only blue, black and white paint, we mixed using different ratios to create different shades. Everyone was amazed at how many different colours they could make. Next week we will be using this skill of colour mixing in our water layer art work.
~ Mrs Teviotdale
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Room 7
Room 7 watched a video all about the "Kindness Boomerang". We learnt that if we show kindness to others, those people will also show kindness to others and eventually, it will come back to us. We realised the importance of kindness and how it makes the world a better place. We decided to create compliment hearts to give to people around the school and in our homes. Dinugi was lucky enough to feel the kindness back from Miss Ahearn already.
Check out these colourful compliment cards below. You never know, you might receive one too!
~ Miss Hutton
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Room 6
In Room 6 we dived into Sea Week! We each chose a sea out of some well-known ones like the Tasman Sea, Red Sea, Sulu Sea, Coral Sea, Caribbean Sea, etc… We then used our devices to research and record our information. Finally we used our creativity and presentation skills to create a poster.
“I liked how we got to be really creative with our poster” - Miller
“It’s very creative to make something that I’ve never done before” - Maria
~ Miss Clubley
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Room 5
Room 5 has been experimenting with chalk and pastel crayon and their level of resistance to dye. We used chalk to draw the outline of our flowers. The lines needed to be clear and thick. We then used crayon to colour inside the chalk outlines. We were careful not to colour over our chalk lines. We tried to blend colours together to create depth in our pictures.
We used dark black dye and a brush to wash over our pictures. The chalk lines absorbed the dye, creating a black outline for the areas of crayon. We are really proud of how great they look, you can check them out in our corridor!
~ Mrs Nelisi
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Room 4
What a busy time Room 4 has had! The children have loved creating iMovies promoting our school values of Respect and Excellence. It was fantastic to see the different ideas and the creativity of each movie. We enjoyed completing the Students' Census, with lots of measuring skills needed. It was interesting that we didn't really agree with the 20,000 students who have already completed the survey about their favourite ice cream flavour. Room 4 children are quite partial to Salted Caramel!
There has also been problem solving during mathematics, tennis with Peter, our very own Chalina starting Irish Celebration Week with a wonderful Irish dance and Food for Thought with Naomi. Many thanks to the parents who came to New World with us on Wednesday. We loved having you with us. We are now experts at reading the nutritional information on food packets. We will never be able to have a fizzy drink again without picturing how many teaspoons of sugar are in the bottle!
~ Mrs Flashman
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Room 3
Room 3 has had a busy week of learning in the classroom. They have been learning about food groups and reading product labels during their Food for Thought sessions with Naomi Sutton; which is in preparation for our New World trip.
For Irish Language Week, the learners have been researching the country of Ireland and looking deeper into Irish Culture. Room 3 had a go at Gaelic Football and Hurling for sports which was a lot of fun. For Mathematics, the students have started Statistics and learning about data collection. They also participated in the Census at School survey!
~ Miss Fepuleai
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Room 2
Room 2 has been enjoying learning about a variety of interesting and fun things over the last fortnight! We've been learning about healthy eating and learning about reading nutritional information on the back of food packets. We were so lucky to be able to visit New World and see first hand all the healthy food!
It's also been a blast learning all about Ireland! Celebrating Irish language and culture has been a big focus of the week and we really enjoyed learning more about the history!
~ Mr Drumm
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Room 1
We’ve enjoyed all our learning experiences in Room 1 at supersonic speed! From learning how tidy numbers can help with our multiplication to ‘what a simile is and how to use it in our writing’. We also had a few eye opening sessions with Naomi Sutton from ‘Food for Thought’ who came into our classrooms and taught us about reading labels on our food. The in class sessions culminated with a trip to New World and it was interesting to have a ‘hands on’ experience looking at food we put into our weekly, shopping trolleys.
Irish Cultural Week has been an interesting learning experience and we learned the names of the provinces of Ireland while putting them on a map. We also experimented with Cubic Art using clovers.
And finally, the culmination of our Turangawaewae learning has been the posters brought in to class by each child. It is fascinating to see and hear the unique, powerful family stories of each child. It helped us to appreciate our cultural diversity and our rich heritage.
“I enjoyed that I was able to find out what my ancestors did and how many children they had” - Benji
“The earlier you do the project the less stress it puts on you. I learned that my grandad (who sadly passed away) - his mother travelled to NZ on a boat by herself when she was only 14 years old” - Gary
~ Mrs Dlima
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Irish Language and Culture Week
Dia duit / hello! St Mary's has been a flurry of Irish fun this week, embracing the core elements of the Irish culture - sport, singing and dancing.
Chalina, our year 5 dancer extraordinaire, started off the festivities by showing us a traditional Irish dance at assembly. We were lucky enough to have Doyle Dance Academy also perform for us today in their traditional costumes. The Year 0-2 students were so inspired they gave it a go during their Irish hui.
Our Year 3-4 students have learnt an Irish song Trasna na dTonnta which means 'over the waves'. This song is about an Irish person returning to Ireland after his travels abroad. It was fabulous to hear our enthusiastic students embracing the language and giving it a go.
Year 5 and 6 students have been busy exploring Irish art, facts about Ireland and St Patrick. The highlight was certainly learning some skills from the Gaelic Athletic Association where they got a taste of Irish football and hurling!
A cheeky leprechaun even caused havoc in a classroom overnight which meant Room 11 students, together with their buddy class Room 9, had to make leprechaun traps. I wonder if they managed to catch any.
The luck of the Irish is prevalent at our school, so we have used this opportunity to show gratitude and thanks to God. We all have so many things to be thankful for. Each child and staff member has written one reason why they are lucky and attached it for all to see in our courtyard.
What a fun week, we've all felt a little bit Irish this week and think it's a wonderful culture to be a part of. A special thank you to all the Irish families who've contributed so much to a special week.
~ Mrs Heyworth and Mrs Worthington
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Bounce Back - Circle Time
What is Circle Time?
Circle Time is a popular activity that’s used in many primary schools to help develop positive relationships between children. It aims to give them tools to engage with and listen to each other.
It’s often used as an opportunity to solve problems that are affecting the class, for example too much talking during lessons, or someone being picked on, or feelings on returning to school after time away. 
The whole class takes part in Circle Time at the same time, led by their teacher, who sits in the circle with their pupils.
The circle encourages unity, respect, turn-taking and working together towards a shared vision.
Room 7 has loved using Circle Time to help solve any issues we have had in the playground. The children do a fantastic job of remembering the circle time rules such as:
- One person speaks at a time - everyone will get a chance to share.
- Hands up if we want to speak.
- Keep our bodies still, our eyes looking and our ears listening.
- All contributions are valuable - no put downs.
~ Miss Hutton
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Digital - Online Safety Hub
Our online safety hub in collaboration with Linewize can help support a safe digital environment at home and at school.
The online safety hub has up-to-date information on apps and games your children may like to access. It can give you the support needed to make an informed decision about any app or game your child may be wanting to use, for example- Snapchat, YouTube, and Roblox.
~ Mr Ryan
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Sustainability
Hello St Mary's Community!
Last week was Sea Week and St Mary's students got stuck in with science experiments and showed our support by really staying on top of our trash free lunches. Here are some photos of Room 15 students learning what happens to the ocean if there is an oil spill and how plastic bags can look like jellyfish confusing sea turtles.
A huge thank you to all the St Mary's families who make sure their children's lunch boxes are trash free and kind to God's Creation.
~ Miss Ahearn
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Wa Rapu
Rooms 10,11 and 12 have been enjoying Wa Rapu or Learning Through Play sessions on Friday afternoons. During this time children can explore, experiment, discover, and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways. Through this play our children are developing social and cognitive skills, emotional maturity, and gaining the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.
Wa Rapu time is very popular within the 0-2 Learning Community!
~ Mrs Nelisi
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P B4L in Room 4
PB4L School-Wide looks at behaviour and learning from a whole-of-school as well as an individual child perspective. The framework is based on international evidence.
 The Positive Behaviour for Learning School-Wide framework, otherwise known as PB4L School-Wide, is helping St Mary’s School build a culture where positive behaviour and learning is a way of life.
 As part of their PB4L lessons, Room 4 have been working collaboratively to create iMovies to demonstrate what respect looks like at St Mary’s. These videos will be shared with all of our learners. Well done Room 4!
~ Mrs Nelisi
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Winter Sport Registration 2023
Registrations are now open for extracurricular sports. Please use the following forms to register.
Registrations close Wednesday 22 March at 3pm
~ Mrs Nelisi
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Transport Notice
KiwiRail is on schedule to complete RNR Stage 1, so from Monday 20 March 2023:
- Onehunga, Te Papapa, Penrose, Ellerslie, Greenlane and Remuera stations will reopen
- The Onehunga Line trains will start running again
- Southern Line trains will go back to their usual route, which is between Papakura and Britomart via Newmarket
- The four rail replacement bus services will no longer run.
It has been almost four months since Auckland Transport trains ran on the Onehunga Line and on the Southern Line between Ōtāhuhu and Newmarket. Please remind your children to stay safe around level crossings.
- Do not cross the tracks when lights are flashing and bells are ringing
- Always pay attention to your surroundings and look both ways for trains before crossing the tracks.
~ Mrs Varoy
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Structured Literacy - IDEAL
Learner Assistant, Mrs Rachael Board works closely with our tamariki to support their literacy learning.
Mrs Board is currently trialling a new Structured Literacy computer based programme called IDeaL. IDeal is a systematic, explicit programme, based on the Science of Reading. It contains resources that explicitly teach and support the learning of foundation literacy skills.
Mrs Board also supports our older learners using a new series of decodable readers for older learners. Decodable books encourage children to sound out words using decodable strategies rather than guessing from pictures or predicting from other cues.
~ Mrs Varoy
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Board News
Tēnā koutou e te whānau o St Mary’s Ellerslie
It was great to see some tamariki out supporting our teachers and principals yesterday. While the strike action was a disruption for parents and caregivers, at the heart of the matter is the desire for better outcomes for our tamariki in schools.
Changes to how schools and kura plan and report came into effect on 1 January 2023. There are transitional arrangements in place until new regulations take effect from mid-2023, with schools and kura to have their first strategic plans in place by 1 January 2024. From 13 March to 6 April Te Tāhuhu o Te Mātauranga (Ministry of Education) will be consulting on an exposure draft of the Regulations, which provides the detailed requirements for key school planning and reporting documents. There will be opportunities for schools, whānau and communities to be engaged and help further develop material to support schools and communities with the changes.
Information for this consultation, including how to submit a response can be found here: https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/legislation/education-and-training-act-2020/education-and-training-act-2020-improving-planning-and-reporting/consultation-for-te-whakangarahu-ngatahi-planning-together-for-akonga-success-our-school-our-community/
If you haven't already, there is still time for you to complete your 2023 Census! Please do so online here: https://online.census.govt.nz/ or via the census pack that should have arrived in your mailbox.
Noho ora mai
Si’ata
~ Si’ata Tavite
Presiding Member - St Mary's Board of Trustees
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Parish News
Working bee volunteers required
Every year, we carry out a thorough clean up of the church before Easter. This is an opportunity for us to get together as a Parish. Parents and children are invited to join us on the 1st of April 2023 (Saturday) at 1pm. If you can, please bring along a bucket, some cloth/ rags, and/ or gardening tools.
Just a reminder, the Lenten Reconciliation will be held on the 29th of March (Wed) at 7pm.
Easter Mass times are as follows:
6th April - Holy Thursday: (The Sacred Triduum) 7.00 pm - The Lord’s Supper
7th April - Good Friday: 1:30 pm – Parish Station of the Cross
7th April -Good Friday: 3.00 pm – The Passion of the Lord.
8th April - Saturday Vigil: 7 pm
9th April - Easter Sunday: 9 am
10th April - Easter Monday: 9 am
~ Leonard Casey
Parish Chairman
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Community in Action News
🌭There will be a Sausage Sizzle on Thursday next week (23 March). Order on Kindo for delivery to classrooms.
👕Sport hoodies and House T-shirts orders closed this morning.
~ Justine Harvie
Chairperson - St Mary's Community in Action
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Community Notices and Advertisements
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Diocese Vacancy
Receptionist/Administrator – Catholic Social Services, Ponsonby.
Catholic Social Services is looking for a part-time (3 days) Receptionist/Administrator based in Ponsonby. As a faith-based professional service Catholic Social Services provides social work, counselling, out-reach and support to individual people and families.
The successful applicant would be required to provide efficient, effective, and professional reception and administrative services to the team at Catholic Social Services. For further details please go to our website www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz, staff vacancies.
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