Dear St Michael’s School Community,

Catholic Conference 

Georgina, Catherine and I would like to thank the BOT for letting us attend this conference. It was a spiritual experience. One of our favourite quotes from the conference is: “Each of us need to have a healthy dose of self-criticism in order to wake up and remember why we are here. We are on a mission to put the Joy of the Gospel into action” (David Wells).

Working Bee   

A big thank you to everyone who came and helped at the working bee. Thanks especially to Stephanie Kerr for organising it.

Mufti-Mania Friday 06 July bring a gold coin donation 

Students are to wear mufti on Friday.

First Holy Communion

Congratulations to the 55 students (33 from SMCS) who made their First Holy Communion on Sunday 01 July at St Michael’s Parish. It was a beautiful celebration, thank you to Emma Houghton and Helen Luxford, who coordinated it.

KiVa Survey 

Victoria University of Wellington is currently evaluating KiVa through a short online anonymous survey. Even though you may not know anything about the programme, this in itself is important to know, so we would greatly appreciate any information you can share. By following the link below to the website, you will be invited to complete a 10 minute anonymous survey. Take the survey by clicking on the following link, or copying into your internet browser: https://younganna2.wixsite.com/website

Lion King 

What an amazin production, a big thank you to Amy Kane, she is a treasure. DVDs of the production will be available Term 3 for $25 each. There is an amazing photo gallery of this event, compliments of Suzanna Pinto.

Father Tony extends an invitation to listen to Mr Simon Bridges

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Simon Bridges will be visiting St Michael’s parish and school on Monday 23rd July at 10:30am in the School Hall. Parishioners and Parents are invited to come and hear Mr Bridges speak on his vision for New Zealand and its future. He will be responsive to questions also. He will first be welcomed with a brief powhiri by the children. Refreshments will be provided.

Strike Action on Wednesday 15 August

You may have heard that at Paid Union Meetings last month, primary principals and teachers voted overwhelmingly to reject the Ministry of Education’s pay offer, as it did not address workload issues, extra learning support or ways to stem the growing crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers.

At those meetings we voted to hold strike action on Wednesday 15 August from 1.30pm. Many of us felt that this action did not go far enough to show the Government the seriousness of the workload and under-funding we face in our schools.

There was a strong groundswell for the strike action to run for the entire day, and our union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, is now undertaking consultation with the membership on this possibility. An online member ballot may be held early next term.

Our school’s board of trustees is yet to decide whether to keep the school open if the vote result is to continue with a strike only during the afternoon. We hope to have at least two weeks’ notice if a full day strike goes ahead and will advise the school community as soon as the board decides whether to keep the school open.

We appreciate the inconvenience of strike action on families, and our member teachers do not take the decision lightly. Primary teachers have not taken industrial action in New Zealand since 1994 and the fact that we are taking such a step shows the grave concerns we have for the future of quality public education if courageous steps are not taken now.

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable term break.

End of Term Prayer

“We thank you Lord, for this term. For the challenges, the successes, and the mistakes from which we have learnt. Keep us safe in our activities; give us good rest and good fun. Bring us back refreshed and ready for a new term. We thank you for our our community that cares for us. May we always be conscious of you in our lives. Amen (ladyofcape.wa.edu.au)

God bless you,

Ann McKeown

Principal

BOARD NEWS END OF TERM TWO 2018

Well we have certainly finished the term with a bang, with the superb Lion King kids production last week. It was a great example of the strength of community and parents, the leadership, quality and enthusiasm of our teachers and the brilliance of our children!! The school community feels as though it has come a long way under Ann’s careful leadership in the past 18 months.

A big thank you to the PTA and volunteers who have had an incredibly busy term with most notably supporting the Lion King Production, keeping us all fed and hydrated, and also with the working bee enhancing the school grounds.  I’m sure you’ve all noticed the removal of the old unsafe junior playground and planting above the new junior playground help enhance the playing environment for our children.  And we know it doesn’t stop there, with some great plans in place in Terms 3 and 4 to keep our community connected and further enhancing our school.

From a BOT perspective, with learning programmes implemented, and a review plan in place, we are now increasing our focus on future property developments and what our next key initiative will be.  We look forward to sharing more with you in coming months.

We wish you safe and enjoyable holidays,

S. Langley and M. Croad  (Co-Chairs)

NOTICE OF CHANGES TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

It is with a mix of sadness for the BOT that Sarah Langley has announced her intention to resign from the Board of Trustees as she relocates her family to Tokyo to take an exciting next step in her career. Over the past 3 years as Chairperson Sarah has overseen a number of changes in the school, most importantly the appointment of Ann McKeown in 2016.

While the Board of Trustees are nearing the end of our three year term in June 2019 we intend to replace Sarah who was an elected parent representative.  Given we are in the final year of a three-year term, the Board has agreed to fill the vacancy by selection rather than holding a by-election. However, if ten percent or more of eligible voters on the school roll ask the board, within 28 days of this notice being published, to hold a by-election to fill the vacancy, then a by-election will be held.

Any eligible voter who wishes to ask the board to hold a by-election should write to:

Chairperson
Board of Trustees
School
Address

by: 7 August 2018

Lion King 2018 Gallery

Congratulations

Sir Peter Blake is widely recognised as one of New Zealand’s greatest leaders.  He believed in the incredible potential of young kiwis to achieve great things and the Young Leader Award celebrates students who demonstrate outstanding leadership.

Congratulations to Hiranya on receiving the Sir Peter Blake Youth Leader Award, presented by Shane Pearson, a Representative of Westpac. Well Done!

Sports News

On Sunday 24th June the SMCS 8th grade strikers won the Ellerslie Club in-house soccer tournament. The competition involved 11 teams in the 8th grade and the Strikers were unbeaten on the day, which was a great achievement given that in 7 of the 8 games they played the opposition were given a goal advantage (in some games the Strikers needed to score 2 more goals than the opposition in their 10 minute matches). Congratulations to Jack Clegg, Matt Donnelly, Isaac Houghton, Yuri Kravtsov, Rafferty Mitchell and Santiago Vargas-Herrero. Well done Strikers!

Attention all year 4,5 & 6’s

College Rifles has invited St Michael’s to put forward a Quick Rip U8-U10 team for a 4 week FREE introduction to this new game. It is a cross between Touch Rugby/Rippa/Non Contact Rugby similar to Rugby 7’s but no tackling. Boys and girls welcome.
NZRU recommends it – for further info on the game follow this link for a video.
The games will run Friday nights the first 4 weeks of term 3 at 4:20pm. We already have two keen year 5 boys so please let me know if you want to join us to make up a team.

St Michael’s Jets – Soccer

St Michael’s Jets are one of the youngest soccer teams made up of 6 year 0 and 1 players.  We have been learning how to dribble and kick goals but most important learning our team cheer and having fun!

Karate Grading 2018

SMCS Karate grading held on Saturday 23 June 2018. Well done to everyone who took part!

PTA News

Kidz First Jammies in June

We wish to thank the St Michael’s Catholic Church parish and school community for supporting the Jammies in June collection with your generous donations of sleepwear.  Everyone’s time and effort in helping children in need stay warm and free from sickness this winter is greatly appreciated.

For more information, contact middlemorefoundation@middlemore.co.nz

TERM 3 – SAVE THE DATE’S!

23 July – Knowledge-a-thon Starts
31 July – New Parent’s Drinks 6.15pm to 7.15pm School Library (Parents of those children starting in term 3 & 4 invited)
31 July – Next PTA Meeting 7.15pm to 9.00pm (All Welcome)
3 August – Second Hand Uniform Shop opened 2.30pm to 3.15pm
10 August – Knowledge-a-thon Test Day
17 August – Grandparents Day – Concert 9.30am / High Tea 11am / Mass 12pm
24 August – Knowledge-a-thon money due
31 August – School Disco 5.00pm to 7.00pm
4 September – PTA Meeting 7.00pm to 9.00pm
7 September – Second Hand Uniform Shop opened 2.30pm to 3.15pm

Gardening Working Bee – THANK YOU!

Thank you to those families who attended the Gardening working bee earlier this term. It was an extremely productive day with the demolition of the old junior playground, pruning of all the olive trees, weeding of all the gardens, hedging, and the design and construction of new gardens around the junior playground area.   It was a fun afternoon with over 30 adults and 20 children braving the cold to get their hands dirty and to make a real difference in tidying our school grounds.  The PTA is so very grateful for everyone’s efforts and look forward to hosting another working bee in spring.  Sincerely thank you to the following families for making a real difference: Karpik, Barrington, Jayamanne, Molloy, Went, Kerr, Wichman, Recorden, Twomey, Glass, Browne, Glennie, Pinto, Hancock, Ford, Croad, Black, Balan and a big thank you to Ann and her husband Mike.

Lion King Production

What a fabulous week it was last week and how amazing was each show!  Miss Kane and the teaching staff did an incredible job to ensure every child was included and had the chance to shine! The PTA was honoured to be involved with such a professional event.  Thank you to everyone who supported the wonderful Lion King Bake sale and Prideland’s Grotto.  The PTA raised over $2,000 from the sale of food and merchandise.  A wonderful effort by all that were involved in the preparation and selling of food, but especially thank you to those families who purchased something.  A HUGE “Lion Raw” of thanks to Angelic Murray, and Kate Porteous who donated and made all the decorations and turned the hall foyer into a magical jungle.  What a fantastic first impression it made for the production, thank you for your hours of work, commitment and dedication to our wonderful school!  Thank you also to Yii Petrus for helping and Nicole Coombe for icing the wonderful cup cakes and also Gabrielle Nooijen from Tank Juice for donating the juice and Glengarry bottle shop for donating some of the wine.  Lastly thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who helped set up the hall, prepared food and sold food at each show.  A great team effort!

Second Hand Uniform Shop – CLOSED 6 July

The second hand uniform shop will not be opened this Friday due to it being the last day of term.  The next date the 2nd hand uniform shop will be opened is Friday 3 August from 2.30pm to 3.15pm.  Thank you for your continued support of this service.

St Michael’s Cultural Festival

Last month a letter was sent to all families regarding the St Michael’s Cultural Festival that is taking place on the 4 November.  This inaugural festival will be a celebration of food, art and cultural performance, but most importantly will be an opportunity for the St Michael’s community to celebrate that we have over 30 cultures within our small school of 270 students. The PTA is seeking your support with finding sponsors for this event. There is a significant and targeted marketing campaign about to start which will promote the event and provide sponsors an opportunity to partner with the event and the St Michael’s community.  If you are able to suggest a sponsorship partner we can approach, please contact Angelic Murray or Stephanie Kerr our Sponsorship Coordinators on either angelicmurray.hgm@gmail.com or Stephanie.kerr78@icloud.com. All funds raised from the Cultural Festival will go towards paying off the School Hall.

Yummy Stickers

Please remember to keep collecting Yummy stickers, as it’s a great little way to boost the school’s sports equipment.  Every page helps. So far we have some awesome families helping us out.  Barrington, Cavanagh-Briggs, D’Souza. Williams. Please place the sheets in the PTA box to the right of the school office window, thank you.

http://www.yummyfruit.co.nz/pdf/Sticker_Collection_Sheet.pdf

Entertainment Membership

Help us raise funds for our school by buying a 2018|2019 Entertainment Membership and for a limited time, you’ll receive 2x BONUS EVENT cinema eVouchers in time for the school holidays! Hurry, stocks are sure to run out.  Please email Natasha Fletcher for more information on Natasha.fletcher@alphajobs.co.nz

Notices

Free Mindful Parenting Course 7-9pm run by Shirley Pastiroff

Inviting St Michael’s Catholic school families and staff, (7th of August) 
Please let Jessica Macdonald know if you are interested in attending.
Jmac194@hotmail.com so I know how many chairs to put out.

HOMESTAY OPPORTUNITY WITH BARADENE COLLEGE

We are very keen to hear from anyone in the St Michael’s Catholic School’s community who may be able to offer homestay accommodation for girls arriving to Baradene in Term 3 this year.

We have a large group of girls coming from Hong Kong for 2 weeks and we are hoping to find homestays for 2 girls together [they can share a room in this instance] as well as one or two individual young students coming to join us.

The girls range from years 13 – 16 years old and they are very keen to experience living in a NZ family home. They are boing away to Rotorua for one weekend so are getting out and about and seeing sights of NZ. Excellent remuneration and the chance to showcase our NZ lifestyle while learning about another culture is just an email away. To find out more please contact our Co-Ordinator, Dianne Storer at dstorer@barardene.school.nz or phone 524 6019 ext. 864 or 0272790917.

Many thanks and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Come away to be refreshed, renewed & restored – Dove Retreat 27-29 July.

Dove Catholic Fellowship for Women National team is delighted to invite all women to a retreat weekend with special guest speakers Wilma Conroy and Anne Claessens.

Theme: “Harvest” Come and enjoy your personal harvest

Venue:  Willow Park Christian Camp, Eastern Beach, Auckland

To Register online (or download a Registration Form) visit www.dove.org.nz.
For further information contact Shona Williams 07 543 0101 or email shonawilliams58@gmail.com

Seasons For Growth – Support through Separation Workshops 2018

Marist U14 water polo Samosa fundraiser-National Champs Waterpolo tournament.

Zoe Dignan (Year 6) brother Zach is fundraising to attend attend the U14 water polo National champs in Tauranga. He needs to raise $400!
The samosas we are selling are delicious & a great size for lunches or as a snack. They can  be frozen & are great lunch box items! We will deliver to school for easy collection.
There are 4 flavours, each comes in a bag of 10.
Chicken
Vegetable
Lamb
These will all sell for $20 a bag                 
Butter chicken
This will sell for $22 a bag
Last year U14s sold over 8000 samosas. They virtually sell themselves as they are so tasty!
The samosas are halal, dairy free (except for Butter Chicken) and do not contain sesame seeds. The vegetable samosa is Vegan. Note: they are not gluten free.
Please email Gina Dignan ginadignan@hotmail.com to place your order before 1 Aug (delivery will be just after the 1st)