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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
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 Mga Mahal na Pamilya
This week at school we celebrated Filipino culture. We thank our families for supporting us and sharing many wonderful traditions and activities. Pop into the office and have a look at the entrance display.
For centuries, the Catholic Church has set aside the entire month of Mary to honour Mary, Mother of God. Gather as a family and say the below prayer to Mother Mary. |
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Ko Te Awe E Maria
Awe, e Maria, e ki ana koe i te keratia
kei a koe te Ariki. E whakapaingia ana
koe i roto i nga wahine, a e
whakapaingia ana hoki a Hehu,
te hua o tou kopu.
E Hata Maria, e te matua wahine o te
Atua, inoi koe mo matou, mo te Hunga hara
äianei, a, te haora o to matou matenga rawa.
Amene.
Hail Mary full of grace
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women and
blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
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At St Mary’s one of our school values is RESPECT - We have self respect and grow positive relationships with each other, and the environment
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Kindness
Today our school joined the “Pink Shirt Day” Movement to take a stand against bullying and to create a kind environment in which everyone feels safe and included.
Sometimes we may encounter someone who says something mean to us. Although mean comments are not ok, it is important to understand what the term ‘bullying’ means. Bullying has specific features that make it more serious and harmful.
- Bullying is deliberate – harming another person intentionally
- Bullying involves a misuse of power in a relationship
- Bullying is usually not a one-off – it is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time
- Bullying involves behaviour that can cause harm – it is not a normal part of growing up
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My name is Mazie and I am a Sustainability Leader. I am in room 3. Being on the student council is a privilege because I can help make important decisions at our school. My favourite subjects are maths and art. I am looking forward to designing and painting the mural on the back fence. In my spare time I like to sketch landscapes with a pencil. I attend Mandarin language classes twice a week.
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My name is Fletcher and I am one of the St Mary House Captains. My favourite subjects are art, maths and physical education. The sports that I play in the winter are football and flippa ball. In the summer I play cricket. My job on the student council is to contribute ideas and make important decisions for our school. In my free time I like to play with my friends, read books and watch TV.
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Update
Last week, NZEI Te Riu Roa members voted to reject the third offer put to them by the Ministry. A ballot on three industrial action proposals has been sent to members. The ballot closes Monday 22 May. 
Timeline of proposed action
18-22 May: Strike ballot
23 May: Notify result of ballot
31 May: If agreed by members, full day strike
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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 2 - 2023
Thursday 25 May - Board Meeting 6pm
Wednesday 31 May - School Feast Day (Visitation)
Monday 5 June - King's Birthday (school closed)
Monday 12 June - Swimming Yr3-6 (Weeks 8-9)
Sunday 18 June - St. Anthony's House School / Family Mass
Tuesday 20 June - Community in Action Meeting 7pm
Wednesday 28 June - (early close 1.30pm to accommodate STP LC event)
Wednesday 28 June - Student, Teacher, Parent learning conversations
Thursday 29 June - Board Meeting 6pm
Friday 30 June - Last day of Term 2 (normal finish time 2.45pm)
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Board News
Mabuhay
Thank you to our Filipino community for sharing their culture with us this week!
The Board would also like to thank all that participated in the Board Uniform Consultation survey. There were 196 survey responses, which is really pleasing. We have received a number of suggestions for changes which could be made, which we are taking our time to work through and consider.
In the meantime, we wanted to provide you with some preliminary results:
• The overwhelming majority of respondents like the St Mary’s uniform, with only 5 respondents saying they do not like the current St Mary’s uniform and would like to see the whole uniform changed.
• A very small number of people have provided feedback on changes which could be made, to allow their tamariki to wear items which are of cultural or religious significance to them.
• The majority of respondents feel the St Mary’s uniform is appropriate for all genders and do not think any changes are required.
• Just over half of respondents feel the cost of the St Mary’s uniform is too high.
There is a need for the Board to have further korero and undertake analysis of the survey comments received, before any decisions to change the uniform and/or introduce additional uniform items are made. The survey results will not be the sole factor in the Board’s decision making. There are numerous other considerations such as cost implications for whanau, guidance for Boards, availability of suppliers and character of the school, to name a few.
The Board would like to assure our community that any changes to our uniform would be phased in over several years.
Salamat po
Si’ata
~ Si’ata Tavite
Presiding Member - St Mary's Board of Trustees
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The month of May is a month dedicated to Mother Mary. It is interesting to see the resilience, courage, innovation and love, this lovely woman had for her son Jesus. Even though we cannot physically see her, she is indeed a powerful and dependable prayer partner in our life’s journey. I encourage you as a family to pray a Hail Mary and a Holy Mary as part of your daily prayer this month?
If you’d like to listen to a beautiful song that talks about Mary’s life, here is the link to the song. (Source: Butterfly House Online by Andrew Chinn).
He who sings, prays twice is a traditional saying. And this phrase comes alive through the angelic voices of Room 10 as they sing the song “If I were a butterfly” thanking God for the uniqueness of God’s creation. Thank you Mrs. Worthington and Room 10 for welcoming me into your class during your prayer time. I hope you will enjoy their prayerful and lively singing!
 Some responses from Room 10:
Harry: “God has made people.”
Lucy: “God is dancing and singing with me.”
Bella: “God gave me a beautiful smile.”
Ingke's (Room 4) recount of the story of David blew me away! It is heartwarming as a DRS to see the cross curricular links between Literacy and Religious Education. Thank you Ingke.
Ko Hāta Maria, te Matua Wahine o te Atua (Holy Mary, Mother of God) pray for us.
Pope Francis’ prayer intention for May 2023 :
For church movements and groups:
We pray that Church movements and groups may rediscover their mission of evangelization each day, placing their own charisms at the service of needs in the world.
Ma te Atua tātou e manaaki
God’s blessings
Charmaine D'lima
DRS
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Room 15 had a special visitor! Meet Tory, a copper skink (Oligosoma aeneum).
Fun fact: Skinks and geckos are the only two native families of lizards found in New Zealand (please note that tuatara are not considered lizards). These reptiles are vertebrates and belong to the class Reptilia.
Room 15 thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Tory and even came up with a few ideas for his habitat. He was a well-behaved guest, and we hope to see him again soon!
Room 15 also wants to wish all the different types of mothers out there a beautiful day! Here is a lovely photo of Jack next to our large Mother's Day heart.
~ Miss Ahearn
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Room 14
We have been learning about the Holy Spirit in our RE lessons. To identify some signs that remind us that the Holy Spirit of God is alive around people, we made a windmill and saw it move in the wind. This activity was then extended to descriptive writing:
"I made a windmill that feels soft". - Mary
"My windmill sounds like nothing, but it looks like a tree". - George
"My windmill looks like wind. I cannot see the wind but I feel it". - Valentino
Our mathematicians enjoyed learning about fractions. As a collaborative task, each pair was asked to share a chocolate bar equally between 4 children. It was fabulous to see the little learners work with their buddy to solve the problem and share their strategies to the other pairs.
~ Mrs Kim
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Room 12
In Room 12, we've been learning about fractions through a fun activity of sharing "chocolate bars". It was important for us to ensure that everyone received an equal amount for fairness.
Additionally, we've started exploring the culture of the Maori people, learning about their identity as Tangata Whenua and their history in arriving in Aotearoa. As we delved into this topic, we also shared our own diverse backgrounds and how we came to be in Room 12.
~ Mr Ryan
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Room 11
Over the past few weeks we have been combining our love of crafts with RE. We have made paper planes to recognise that, just like God, we may not be able to see the Holy Spirit but we know that He is there. We have also been learning about Jesus' ascension into heaven and made a special craft to remember this important day in the church calendar.
May is also the month of Mary, we have made a lovely display in our class to honour her.
~ Mrs Heyworth
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Room 10
Room 10 has had a busy few days. We really enjoyed the Science Roadshow last Friday and saw some really cool experiments.
 The last two weeks we have been exploring fractions in maths and had fun cutting and sticking halves of a square together. We moved on from that and looked at how we could cut different shapes in half and even had a few shapes where they tried to trick us.
During RE the class have been learning about the Holy Spirit and enjoyed making paper jets that showed us how they are guided by the wind. 'You can't see it but you know it's there' much like how we know that we cannot see the Holy Spirit but we know it's there and can feel it in our hearts. ~ Mrs Worthington
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Year 0-2 Hui
Welcome to our new 0-2 learners and congratulations to the students who received certificates at this weeks hui.
~ Mrs Nelisi
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Room 9 has been very busy lately, learning lots about literacy and mathematics. During Maths Talks we have been using the correct language for fractions; whole, half, thirds and quarters. We understand that the denominator is the number at the bottom of a fraction, and tells us how many parts altogether. The numerator is the number at the top, which represents the number of parts out of the whole. During workshops, some of us have been concentrating on making ten or making tidy numbers. This helps us with adding numbers together.
Literacy is always a busy time in our classroom and we have been working hard to remember spelling rules. Our spelling rule for this week is 'oi' and 'oy'. We know that 'oi' goes in the middle of a word and 'oy' goes at the end. Knowing this can help us spell 'oi' and 'oy' words correctly.
~ Mrs Hyland
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Room 8
Room 8 has been so lucky to have Miss Bunt join our class. Miss Bunt is a third year student teacher and will be with our class for five weeks. Everyone is very excited to spend time with her and share what they have been learning.
For Visual Art we have been exploring the concept of colour and line in relation to trees. The season of Autumn brings about amazing changes in leaf colour and exposes the complicated branch arrangements of deciduous trees that are normally hidden by leaves. We are praying for the fine weather to continue so we can continue our sketches outside.
~ Mrs Teviotdale
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Room 7
Room 7 has been lucky enough to have a student teacher join us for the next few weeks. Introducing - Miss Munro! It has been a great time for us to remember our school values of Respect and Excellence and show Miss Munro what they look like in action.
"I show Respect to my teachers by sitting on the mat quietly". - Mirabelle
"I show Respect by giving out compliments to my friends and teachers". - Harry
"When I try my best in my learning I am showing Excellence". - Dinugi
"I show Excellence by cheering up anyone who is sad and making them smile". - Delilah
~ Miss Hutton
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Room 6
Room 6 have become masters of kindness! In our PB4L lesson this week we talked about how we can use kind words to show respect. We agreed that kind words can be used to compliment someone’s actions and personality, not just their looks. Here you can see us in a compliment circle where we had to make sure that each person in the class received a compliment (legs crossed means they have received a compliment already).
~ Miss Clubley
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Room 5
In Room 5 we have been learning a lot about the Filipino culture during Filipino Celebration Week! We've learned so many interesting facts about food, dance and cultural stories. In Room 5 we're also lucky to have so many Filipino classroom experts! Did you know that the Filipino flag is red and blue? If you hang it with the blue side up, it means peace. However, if war should strike, it can be hung with the red side up.
~ Mrs Agnew
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Room 4
 The Room 4 students absolutely love it when it is their turn to go with Mrs Board to have their Epro8 session. The videos show two of the Year 6 groups testing the cranes that they built.
We also had an amazing afternoon with Jane (our engineering ambassador) talking about our rockets and having our first launch. We are looking forward to working on our rockets to make them go higher and further.
 The Science Roadshow was also excellent. We learnt lots about sound waves and the properties of different materials during the shows and then we had a wonderful time exploring the exhibits.
We have loved the sun shining this week, which has meant we have been able to enjoy being outside during playtimes and at sport.
~ Mrs Flashman
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Room 3
Room 3 had a cool week learning about the Philippines for Filipino Culture Week. The students delved into researching the culture and learning greetings in Filipino from fellow Filipino students. It has been so great to see the enthusiasm and participation of the students in learning about the various cultures within the class!
We had a wonderful time at the Science Roadshow last week and the children have been having lots of fun with our Wonder Project Ambassador Yazeed who has been coming in to work with the students in preparation for the Rocket Challenge which we will be having later on in the term.
~ Mrs Owen (Fepuleai)
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Room 2
We have been enjoying learning more about Aotearoa and its history during the past two weeks in Room 2. It has been so fascinating to hear about how Kupe sailed a long time ago to this beautiful land. We have also been practicing our Poupou art too!
~ Mr Drumm
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Room 1
The unpredictability of Auckland weather has not dampened the enthusiasm of our lovely Room 1 learners. We carry on full steam with our learning! In Science, we conducted an experiment using red cabbage and learned what are acids and bases. We also discovered that red cabbage contains a dye is called ‘anthocyanin’ and is found in lots of fruits and vegetables that are purple.
We also brushed up on our knowledge of the monarchy as we celebrated King Charles’ coronation.
Our Wonder Project is slowly taking off as we had a visit from our Ambassador - Royston Aung. The Science Roadshow was also a highlight for us last week.
In Writing we are working on the sentence structure and descriptive writing features…we enjoy using hyperboles ! We also are very lucky to have Miss. Mills - a third year student teacher from AUT who will be with us till June 16. Welcome Miss Mills!
“A hyperbole makes my writing more interesting because I can over exaggerate which makes my writing exciting! For example: The music was so loud my ears fell off !” - Lucy
“I learned that when you have your control, the water is just purple but when you add lemon juice it turns pink and when you add baking soda the water turned blue.” - Isabella
~ Mrs Dlima
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Sustainability
We wanted to share an exciting update from the Year 0-2 learning community. Over the past few weeks, our students have been actively involved in planting daffodils as part of our Year 0-2 sustainability initiatives.
The enthusiastic efforts of our young learners have been dedicated towards creating a beautiful display of daffodils, which we hope will bloom just in time for Daffodil Day later this year. By engaging our students in this activity, we aim to instil in them a sense of environmental awareness and the importance of preserving nature.
Through this project, we hope to not only contribute to the beauty of our school grounds but also support a meaningful cause. Daffodil Day is an event that raises funds for cancer research and provides support to individuals and families affected by this disease. Our students' involvement in planting daffodils serves as a tangible way for them to understand the value of community service and the positive impact they can make to the lives of others.
~ Miss Ahearn
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Wellbeing - Kindness Awareness Day
On Friday 19 of May, St Mary's celebrated Kindness Awareness Day. We all wore pink to unite together in the name of being kind. It was an important reminder for all of us to treat others the way we would like to be treated and live like Jesus did. It also highlighted our School Value of Respect, if you are kind towards somebody you are showing them respect.
"Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness." - Mother Teresa
~ Miss Hutton
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Digital - Algorithmic Design
Room 6 has been discussing the term “algorithmic design”. We know that it is creating a set of step-by-step instructions to complete a task. As a class we found that algorithms are in our everyday lives and not just in coding/technology! Algorithms can be found in things like baking and DIY where you need to follow precise instructions.
Then, a strange machine came into Room 6 and turned half of our class into kidbots! We had to work together to give specific instructions to our kidbot to help them get back to class. Room 6 found out that an instruction like “turn around” is not specific enough and it sent some of our kidbots into a dizzy spin! Thankfully the kidbots returned to class and were restored to their happy human selves.
~ Mrs Hyland
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Parking at School
Please do not park in the staff car park area.
The staff car park area is the new carpark in front of the turf (first three rows). It is reserved for staff only at all times. This is for the health and safety of our children.
Please park in the other available parks when...
- coaching school sports before or after school
- taking children on a school trip
- attending a school meeting
- visiting the school for any other reason
~ Mrs Varoy
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Structured Literacy Whanau Meetings
Thank you to all the families who attended one of the two Structured Literacy meetings held at St Mary's last week.
Families were given an overview of the structured literacy approach at St Mary's. Our students are learning to read through highly explicit, systematic and sequential teaching of all the important components of literacy.
The Year 0 - 2 teachers presented small workshops that covered some of the activities our learners participate in, to reinforce all the skills they are learning during their structured literacy time.
We are very appreciative of the efforts our teachers have put into the introduction of this new pedagogy at St Mary's.
~ Mrs Varoy
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Qustodio Online Safety Hub
 The Qustodio parent app offers family-focused digital wellbeing features that adapt to different needs as your children grow. Including filtering monitoring screen time and searches. 
Get free access for up to two devices by signing up through our Online Safety Hub.
Link for information flyer HERE
~ Mr Ryan
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Filipino Language and Culture Week
Week 5 was Filipino Celebration Week at St Mary's School. We learnt so many interesting facts! For example, we learnt that there are over 120 languages in the Philippines and the country is actually an archipelago consisting of more than a thousand islands. We enjoyed seeing examples of cultural dress, learning about food and watching daily videos from Filipino students teaching us Tagalog. We especially loved seeing the cultural dance - some of our Filipino students had been practising all week!
A huge thank you to our supportive Filipino community for making this week possible.
~ Mrs Agnew, Mr Drumm and Miss Hutton
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Parish News
We hope everyone had a lovely weekend and spoiled their mothers and grandmothers last Sunday. At the parish, to recognise the significance of the day, Father Thomas called all mothers and grandmothers forward at Sunday mass to say a special blessing and prayer for them. It was lovely to see so many of them there.
Dates to remember for the Sacramental Programme:-
First Reconciliation date: Tuesday 23 May, at 7pm.
For participants only: Full practice for Holy communion is on Friday 26 May, at 6pm.
Confirmation and First Holy communion date: 27 May at 12 noon.
~ Leonard Casey
Parish Chairman
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Community in Action Update
2023 FAMILY FUN GALA
 The big event this year will be our FAMILY FUN GALA that we’re planning to hold on Saturday the 25th of November. It’s a while away, but the planning needs to start now. We’ll need all hands on deck on the day, but for now we’re looking for volunteers to help with anything big or small. Watch this space as we will have a regular update in the newsletters. And please, email us if you can help!
MOTHER'S DAY BRUNCH
We enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day brunch this morning. Thank you to Debbie and her team for organising this special event, where our school mums can come together and be celebrated.
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Community Notices, Events and Advertisements
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