 Newsletter No 01 12 February 2020 |
Dear Parents, Welcome back to all our families and children. I hope you all had a great break with your families over the holiday time. It is great to see our children returning from holiday, rested and ready to go for a new year of learning. Thanks to our fantastic staff who have been working hard over the holidays preparing for the return of our students. I am looking forward to an exciting year. A special thanks to Richard, our new caretaker, who has worked hard to get our school looking tip top for the start of the year. It was so good to have those two days last week for you and your child to meet this year’s teacher, date your records, download apps, meet oral health people and register for this term’s sports teams. Thank you for supporting this. A special welcome to our new staff members. Virginia Nicol is teaching in Totara Room 3 for 3 days per week. Ray Guilford (Mr G) is our new support staff member working with all the children at different times of the day. He is also a keen chess player and is very keen to get a chess club up and running. A special welcome to all our 33 new children and their families. It is great to have you join our large St Mary’s family and I hope you find your time with us rewarding. Our International student Jack Zhang was welcomed along with a large group of Internationals from JPC with a powhiri at the Apumoana Marae yesterday morning. A group from our kapa haka group with the JPC and St Michael’s students were part of the powhiri. Welcome Jack. Tonight we have the Regional Catholic Schools’ Commissioning Mass at 6.00pm in our church. Schools from Whakatane, Opotiki, Matata, Tauranga, Taupo, Tauranga, Mount Maunganui are invited to celebrate Mass with Bishop Steve. The Mass is specifically for blessing the staff, students and parents in all our schools. All our students are welcome but we will specifically invite our senior students. It is important that we attend this Mass with the Bishop. There is a light supper served following Mass. Our ‘start of the year’ Mass is FRIDAY 21st FEBRUARY and it would be fantastic if you could join us. Mass is at 9.00am in our Parish Church and we particularly welcome parents of new children. For new parents, our Mass normally finishes around 9.45am. TUESDAY 10 MARCH is the swimming sports for our Year 3 to 6 children. Whanau support will be needed on the day especially within the pool. Some of our children are reluctant swimmers and your help would be greatly appreciated. A number of children read lots of books over the holidays and we will be having our lucky log draw this FRIDAY. If you have been reading stories to your child, that counts too. Just write the story on the holiday log. Please continue to support your child/children reading at home. Summer sports will be starting soon. If you want your child to play, please register TODAY. Registration forms have been sent home with your child/children this week. Sports that are available are Flippaball (Year 3 up), Cricket (all ages) and Touch (all ages). Payment is required at the time of registration. THE COUNTDOWN IS ON ..... four weeks to our Gala Day, Thursday 5 March. This is an important date on our calendar and we need everyone to help make the gala a success. A newsletter from the PTA will be sent home soon outlining ways you might be able to help. PTA Meeting/Gala Organisation: GALA SPONSORS - if you are able to help us out with sponsorship this would be greatly appreciated.If you are able, can you please contact Heidi on 021 911305. Thank you. IMPORTANT DATES Have an awesome week. David Macmillan, Principal. CLASSES AND TEACHERS FOR 2020 FROM OUR DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES:Hello everyone, and welcome back! It is great to see everyone again after a restful holiday. A special welcome to all our new families and staff members who join us in 2020!Term one is a busy one in terms of the Liturgical year. Your child’s teacher will be covering a lot in Religious Education this term, so keep asking your child what they are learning in RE at school. This term we look at prayer, celebrate several Liturgies such as Waitangi Day, The Annunciation, our school charism, The Stations of the Cross. We also focus on Lent and what that means and how it builds up to Holy Week.Caritas and the work they do is an ongoing study this term. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the NZ Catholic Bishops’ agency for justice, peace and development. We are working on behalf of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference for a world free of poverty and injustice through community development, advocacy, education, and emergency relief.All are warmly invited to the Diocese Commissioning Mass at St Mary’s Church TONIGHT at 6:00pm. Many other schools in our diocese will join us for this. If your child is attending please make sure they are in school uniform. Your child’s RE book will come home at least once a term so you can see what they have been learning in RE. Again, a class prayer journal will also be available for your child to take home and add a prayer to it. The prayer could be anything from praying for your family, pets, a local or world event, and special occasions.Students will all get the opportunity to take the journal home and add a prayer and decorate their page. The journal then becomes a classroom resource students can use at prayer times.Bernie Hall-DRS Invitation to participate in St Mary's Parish Alpha Course - March 2020 This year St Mary's Parish is running a Day-Time Alpha Course beginning on the 3rd March, and an Evening-Time Alpha beginning on the 3rd September. What is Alpha? Alpha is a good introduction to Jesus, Prayer, the Scriptures and Community. You may register on the Parish website www.catholicrotorua.org.nz CATHOLICS RETURNING HOME: LUCKY BOOK CLUB ORDERS: Sports NewsSPORTS UNIFORM - RETURN** We will be enforcing our Sports Uniform Policy from this term. This can be found on our school website under Our Sports Please ensure you have our school app and have set up to receive notifications for the sports your tamariki/children are playing. Instructions on how to do this can be found here. TERM 1 SUMMER SPORTS All sports registrations must be in with fees paid by 3.15pm Wednesday 12th February 2020. Please contact our Sports Coordinator, Whaea Leanne if you have any queries. GO BY BIKE DAY We would like our St Mary’s school community to participate in this amazing event. The plan for Wednesday 19th February:  The Rotorua Motorcycle club 2020 interschool MX challenge is on this year, and Saint Marys will be entering a team in the Primary category, racing on Saturday, 21st march. If you ride and would like to be apart of this event, please send your interest into Leanne, Sports coordinator at sports@stmarysrotorua.school.nz ROTORUA TENNIS CLUB JUNIORS     SPECIAL MENTIONIf your child has achieved something special, sporting or otherwise, please email Leanne with a blurb and photo sports@stmarysrotorua.school.nz  Digital Natives Academy has been providing the Rotorua community with FREE digital tech workshops for half a decade. DNA likes to keep learning relevant and exciting. We illustrate clear TANIWHA TECH are after school digital workshops. First Lesson is FREE!! WHEN: 4pm - 6pm Weekdays WE WELCOME ALL AGES!! If you are interested in joining us, click on the link below to book a class! Scholarships are available. EMAIL us to apply. School Dates for 2020: Term 1 Tuesday 4 Feb - Thursday 9 April. |
