Tēnā koutou katoa St Michael’s Catholic School Community,

“Mā te Atua me te wāhi ngaro tātou e otaki e manaaki”
May God and the origins of which all things come from, bless and keep us

It is certainly great to be back in Level 1 again and to be able to have parents gather in our school. The Students and Staff enjoyed celebrating St Patrick’s Day as well as winning of the America’s Cup.

Gold Coin Donations

Thank you for your kind donations. The Outreach Leaders collected $184.40. This money has been given to Caritas Aotearoa NZ Lenten Appeal (the Catholic Agency for Justice, Peace, & Development).

Transport Needed for Year 5/6 Sport Exchange on Tuesday 30 March 1pm-2.30pm

Please let Georgina know if you can help transport students from school to the venue and back again. We only have one more offsite exchange this term.

Year 5/6 Swimming Trials – thank you! 

Thank you to the parents who came along and helped run the trials for the Year 5/6 students in order to determine who will go on to represent our school at the Remuera Zone competition. It was a great afternoon and we are grateful to St Kent’s for loaning us their pool! All students tried their best and displayed sportsmanship.

Year 5/6 Remuera Zone Swimming 

Year 5/6 Swimming Remuera Zones is on Tuesday 23 March at St Kent’s Boys School.

Teacher Only Day Tomorrow 19 March 2021

Just a reminder that we are having a Teacher Only Day on Friday 19 March. The staff are doing a Religious Education paper through the Te Kupenga Catholic Theological College and the tutor is coming to our school.

MOTAT trips rescheduled for Week 8

We are very lucky to have our MOTAT trips rescheduled! The Juniors will be attending on Tuesday 23 March and the Seniors on Thursday 25 March, all travelling by bus. Classroom teachers will be in contact to re-organise the parent helpers. Thank you in advance.

New Privacy Act – Parent Permissions

With the new Privacy Act that has come into effect, all parents are required to inform the school if they give permission for:

1. Their child’s photo to be on the school website
2. Parent contact details (mobile, email) are shared with your Class PTA Rep.

Please click on the link below to submit your responses.
https://www.smcs.school.nz/update-contact-details/ (click to respond)

Lost Property Bin Overflowing

Please check the bins located outside the Junior Resource Room and next to the Associate Principal’s Office.

Encountering CHRIST

St Michael’s Parish Website – Sunday Mass Times (including the vigil): Saturdays 5pm; Sundays 8am, 10am, and 8:30pm (up to 100 people in Level 2).

Prayer for Healing and Miracles – Everyone is invited to a Healing Service with Father John Rea SM on Saturday 20 March, 9.30am-12 at Sacred Heart Church, 16 Vermont St, Ponsonby. Info: Deidre 02102251103

School Masses – 18/03/21 – Rooms 5 and 6; 25/03/21 – no class Mass; 01/04/21 – Rooms 4 and 7 at 9:15am and Holy Thursday Liturgy at 2:15pm in the Church – all Families are welcome to  attend; 08/04/21 – Rooms 1 & 9.

Prayer For Love For Others 

“God, it’s so easy to get wrapped up in my own life, my own worries and my own cares. Please help me love others the way that You love them. Help me to notice the needs of those around me and truly care enough to go out of my way to help those in need of help, strength and encouragement today. Help me care, and help me love like You love.”

(https://equippinggodlywomen.com/faith/daily-lenten-prayers-for-spiritual-renewal/)

Manaaki ki te Atua,
Ann McKeown
Principal

PTA News

Important dates Term 1

• Teacher Only Day – Friday 19 March

Friday Pizza

• Restarting on Friday 26 March 

School Uniform Shop

The next date for the  School uniform Shop will be 26 March 2.30pm – 3.15pm. Payment may be made by cash or online payment. Sorry no EFTpos available at this point in time.

We are quite short of stock for girls’ uniforms, especially larger sizes. Now that we’re approaching the end of term it’s a great time to check out last year’s winter uniform and see if you have anything to donate!! To donate uniforms please put them in a bag and drop to Genevieve at the office.

Caring Shed

The Caring Shed has had a special role at St Michael’s Catholic School since 2012. It was built by St Michaels’ parents in response to a special relationship with the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust. This important relationship was formed by our previous Principal, Mrs Carolyn Phillips.

The aim of the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust is to provide support to families in housing crisis to ensure a successful transition to independent housing.

The purpose of the St Michael’s Caring Shed is for the families within our school and parish community to provide Good Quality household items that can help to make someone else’s house a home. They will take most good quality items and have particularly expressed a need for Blankets, Socks and Pyjamas.

Please DO NOT put any broken or unusable items into the Caring Shed.

The year 6 Outreach leaders and their families have kindly offered to monitor the Caring Shed regularly and arrange for it to be cleared. The shed is cleared by volunteers from Monte Cecilia.

Please do not put any food items in the Caring Shed as it is not cleared regularly and the food may spoil and may and attract the attention of rodents, which in turn may damage other items that have been donated.

If you would like to donate any food items please place them in the labelled basket in the school office foyer. These donations will be added to the Parish food bank, which is donated regularly to St Vincent De Paul for distribution.  To access the Caring Shed please ask for the key at the school office.

If you have any queries please contact Louise Barnett (Caring Shed Coordinator) at mannionlouise@yahoo.co.uk

The year 6 outreach leaders are currently collecting Easter Eggs to donate to Monte Cecilia this Easter. Thank you for your support of this extremely worthy cause and our dedicated outreach leaders.

Gardening help

Now that we are able to enter the school grounds it would be great to have some regular help to tidy up the garden. Please either see Jim if you spot him in the garden or email us at ptasmcs@gmail.com if you might be interested in helping. Thanks!

PTA meeting

The next PTA meeting has been planned for 7pm Monday 22 March, in the staffroom. We would love to see you there – new members are always welcome, and we are a friendly bunch!

Ree and Sarah

Notices

Altar Servers Training

Pompallier Catholic College – 50th Jubilee Celebration

French class – LCF Languages

LCF Fun Languages Flyer (click to view)