Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Namaste, Ni Hao, Bula, Hola, Kumusta
Dear Families
What a wonderful uplifting occasion the School/Parish Trinity Sunday Mass celebration was last week at St Mary’s Parish, Papakura. We were filled with pride in the way our families and students joined with the parish community to celebrate this special feast in the Church year. The sense of belonging, being united as one family and serving each other with love was clearly demonstrated through each word, prayer and action shared by our community.
Thank you for contributing to this very special event for our school family!
School Trinity Feast Day
We also celebrated the most fabulous School Trinity Feast Day last Friday. We began our day with liturgy and prayer, thanking God for the gift of the Trinity in our lives. We then joined together as learning communities to have creative time with our tuakana and teina (older and younger school buddies) and we celebrated our talents and gifts by performances in the Trinity’s Got Talent Show in the afternoon. Together we laughed, sang, clapped, waved, smiled and applauded the many talents and skills that were on show – our students are certainly amazing!
Trinity’s Got Talent Results
Maddison Briones – 1st and Overall Winner
P’torio Taimalie, Noah Seluone, Preston George, Stephen Thomas & Lucas Hancy Scott – 2nd
Lachlan Williams – 3rd
Other Awards:
Perseverance Award – Harveer Sohal, Barbrianna Soo Choon & Brayden Greaves
Most well prepared – Skylar Vibal, Jasleen Singh & Jewel Mary Joby (Juniors), Tayla Stephenson (Seniors)
Most entertaining – Annikah Iosefo-Schuster, Tiana Te wake, Bernadette Neria, Georgina Lautua, Eva Seluone, Destiny George (Seniors) and Bella Harman (Juniors)
Best Presentation – Mikaylar Taimalie, Roseline Petelo, Britney Silva & Isabel Narayan
Powerful Message – Manveer Sohal
Most Unique – Mya Tabobo
Sharing of Culture – Ashleen Kaur, Stella Baptista & Eimear Chapman
Congratulations to all our participants – you were brave, courageous and amazing with your items – thank you for sharing your special talent with us!
DRS NEWS
Trinity Ministry Mass at St Mary’s Parish
A huge congratulations go out to our wonderful students who led us on a beautiful Mass last Sunday on the Feast Day of the Holy Trinity. It was a special time for our school and our children participated in many ways. It also highlights our wonderful relationship with our whanau as you all came along and joined us for the Mass as well as a cuppa and a catch up afterwards. Our school and whanau is One growing family.
The Body and Blood of Christ
This coming Sunday 3 June we celebrate Corpus Christi. This special Feast Day is about the Eucharist as a Sacrament of unity. When we break bread and share the one cup we recall the last supper before Jesus died on the Cross. Like the disciples, the Mass has bonded us in a love relationship. For this reason, the Eucharist is a call to unity and community.
St Mary’s Parish Liturgy Leaders Needed
St Mary’s Parish is needing some new Children’s Liturgy Leaders to join the roster. Resources and support are provided as well as a great opportunity to bring the Word of God to our children at their level. If anyone is interested or would like more information, please email Averil Hiddleston. ahiddleston@holytrinity.school.nz.
Altar Servers
St Mary’s Church in Papakura is currently looking for altar servers to serve at the Masses held on Saturday and Sunday. If you would like to sign your child up, please contact Dana Cardoso for more information or talk to Mrs Silva about getting a registration form. You must have made your first holy communion. (Dana Cardoso – dana.cardoso@kiwiplan.co.nz)
Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa – Samoan Language Week
“Alofa atu nei. Alofa mai taeao – Kindness given. Kindness gained”.
Talofa lava!
Samoan Language Week – Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa has been a celebration of Samoan culture and language.
It has been wonderful to see our Samoan students from Learning Community Maunga fulfilling their leadership roles by leading school Assembly on Monday speaking only in Samoan. The Cultural Leadership Team introduced, ‘Upu o le Vaiaso’, Samoan phrase for the week which was, ‘Manuia le aso – Have a good day’. They also performed a short scenario so that children were able to use ‘Upu o le Vaiaso’ in the right context for home and school.
Our Samoan students and staff braved the cold weather on Wednesday and wore their puletasi, i’e faitaga and island shirts. The students and staff have tried to weave Samoan language into prayers, RE and other curriculum areas.
Rotary Gift to Year 4s
This afternoon, each of the Year 4 students were gifted beautiful, illustrated English Dictionaries from the Manurewa & Takanini Rotary Club. These books have been presented to the students to keep and own for themselves and to be used at school or at home as best suits each child. It is a very generous gift to each student and one that was gratefully received with delight as each child carefully wrote their own name on the inside cover! Rotarian members, Simon Gleeson and Janet Igrisan took time to share about the type of work and outreach services that the Rotarians are involved with. They must have left school, feeling like movie stars though as each child politely requested their autographs for their brand new learning books. On behalf of the Year 4 students we thank Manurewa & Takanini Rotary Club members for their generosity and for the good work that they do in our community.
Kiwi Kids Can Cook
Kiwi Kids Can Cook Competition are having a National Cooking Competition. All children attending Skids Before and After School Care and Holiday Programme, were given the opportunity to enter the competition and submit their favourite recipe which they then had to cook at Regionals. Two students from our school took part in the Regional Competitions – Mathew Cortez and Joseva Huni! At the competition, parents/caregivers could help with the initial set-up and pack-up only. Once the clock had started Matthew and Joseva had to do everything on their own. They were given a cooking time of 30 minutes. The Judges expected them to plate-up their creation on one plate, within the 30 minutes, which they then took to the judges table for them to judge the presentation and taste the dish. Matthew was selected as one of the three finalists in his age group and will now go on to cook his second recipe at the National Finals.
Well Done Joseva and Matthew! Great work! We wish you all the best Matthew for the Nationals!
PTFA (Parent Teacher Friends Association)
The Inaugural meeting of the PTFA was held 2 weeks ago. Thank you to parents/whanau who were able to attend and to those who sent through apologies. Although our numbers were small, we have a fantastic nucleus of enthusiastic whanau who are keen to be involved in this community group. We were able to share ideas about the purpose of a PTFA, ideas for PTFA fundraising and community building activities, the PTFA relationship with the Board of Trustees in their governance role and next steps to progress the establishment of this important forum.
The next meeting is to be held Thursday 7th June 7:00pm in the school staffroom. ALL are Welcome!
Teacher Paid Union Meetings
You will be aware of the nationwide crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers.
While there are many more children coming into the school system, there are not enough new teachers being trained. Urgent and significant changes are needed to ensure that the teaching profession can attract the people it needs and to ensure class sizes do not start to increase.
On Monday 18th June, the teachers from our school will be attending a NZEI Te Riu Roa paid union meeting regarding the Kua Tae Te Wā – It’s Time campaign. The campaign aims to free teachers to teach and principals to lead, by getting the additional support and staff that schools need. The meetings will allow our teachers to discuss how the Ministry of Education has responded to changes that the union is seeking.
Our teaching staff are members of NZEI and legally entitled to attend this meeting. The teachers will be leaving school at 1:30pm on Monday 18th June, to attend their paid union meeting which starts at 2pm.
We strongly encourage parents to make arrangements to pick your child(ren) up from school by 1.00pm on Monday 18th June. Remaining students will be supervised in the Hall/Taamaua until the end of the normal school day 2:50pm.
We appreciate that this creates some inconvenience for families. However, I encourage you to support our teachers as they strive to achieve the changes which will safeguard quality education for all children and ensure we make teaching an attractive profession for graduates.
Sports
Our Year 6, 7 & 8 students went along to ACG Strathallan today to participate in the Year 7&8 Winter Sports Day. We entered one Rippa Rugby team and one 11-aside Football team. Our Rippa team went through the day undefeated, winning the Social Grade tournament. Our Football team won one of their three games – putting up a great fight against some strong teams!
We are VERY proud of the way our sports people played with pride and sportsmanship. They were skilled and gave their all on the field! A big thank you to the parents that helped support on the day: Nina Taimalie, Sel Seluone, Ken Hastings and Cassandra Karena. We couldn’t do it without your help – thank you again!
Sancta Maria College Grease Production
Next week, Wednesday, our Year 5,6,7 & 8 students are heading to the Manukau Vodafone Events Centre to be part of the audience for Sancta Maria College’s production of Grease. Many of the college students involved, are the same students who also worked at our school recently as part of their Outreach Service Day. We are looking forward to seeing them share their theatre and stage talents! We are lucky enough to have the trip sponsored, which includes the bus and ticket price so acknowledge the generosity of Sancta Maria College and the Vodafone Events Centre Community Team.
This is a great chance to continue building relationships with other Catholic schools and to watch a high quality drama.
Community Events
TE IWI MAORI KATORIKA AUCKLAND DIOCESE. Enhancing Mana Maori and Maori Leadership in Te Hahi Katorika. 8.45am-4pmSaturday 23 June St Francis Xavier Church Hall 63 Park Ave Whangarei. Cost $20 including lunch. Register by 10 June with Martha Dawson marthadawson.68@gmail.com or Marilyn Williams Marilyn1@actrix.co.nz. For travel assistance from Auckland contact Rangi Davis rangi.davis@gmail.com ph 021 0274 7185With thanks for your assistance in this matter.
Peter Garrick, Executive Secretary, Justice & Peace Commission, Catholic Diocese of Auckland
Usual office days: Tues, Thurs ph: 09 360 3037 mob: 022 1300 730
http://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/justice-peace/
HOME STAY FAMILIES WANTED
for Alfriston College International Students
Alfriston College hosts students from around the world. We are looking for, caring host families who are keen to host one or two students for two weeks and provide a warm, friendly and authentic kiwi experience. $265.00 per student per week will be paid.
If you are interested please contact: Jody Lawrence 269 0080 ext 815 or 021 825 112
