Tēnā koutou katoa St Michael’s Catholic School Community,
We are coming up to the Advent season (Sunday 1st December), which is the beginning of our liturgical year. This is a time of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas. To celebrate this time we had a Jesse Tree Mass today where our Year 6 Leaders decorated the tree with symbols that marked the journey from creation to the birth of Christ.
Yesterday we acknowledged all our top athletes at the Athletics Assembly. Some of these students (Year 5 & 6) will be representing our school at the Remuera Zones on Monday 2 December.
Staff Changes for 2025
We have a number of fixed term Teachers and Learning Assistants who will be finishing their time with us.
Brianna Caruana is moving to New Plymonth and has accepted a teaching position at St Joseph’s Catholic School. Sarah Burrows has accepted a teaching position at St Mary’s Ellerslie (where her son attends). Isla MacDiarmid is moving to Orewa to be closer to her extended family. Sam Tapene has accepted a position at Cornwall Park School to teach Music. Suryadi and Leah Zazulak-Baker were relieving while Ingrid Giertz was overseas but she is coming back in 2025.
All of these staff have made a positive difference to our school and we have been blessed to have them at our school.
The School Board have appointed the following Provisionally Registered Teachers to fixed term positions for 2025:
Olivia Price who has been training at Diocesan School for Girls and has just completed her Bachelor of Teaching from Waikato University.
Caitlyn Jones who has just completed her Bachelor of Teaching from Waikato University. She currently works part time at Mt Carmel School as a Learning Assistant.
Sickness
We have been informed that a number of students and a staff member has Strep throat. This is a contagious illness which can spread quickly from person to person.
St Michael’s Catholic School Policies – all our policies are on SchoolDocs , please follow the next four steps.
Start typing the school name and then select from the dropdown list
Enter the community username and password: Username: smcs Password: mackillop
This term we are reviewing:
Finance and Asset Management Policy (board)
Managing Income and Expenditure (board)
Financial Conflicts of Interest (board)
School Donations and Student Activity Payments / Attendance Dues and Other Income
Expenditure
Asset Management and Protection (board)
Property Planning and Maintenance
Prevention of Bribery, Corruption, Fraud, and Theft
Please click on “Current Review” and then click on and read the policies. Next you click on “Under Review” and complete the survey. Your feedback would be appreciated.
We would like to welcome the following new family who has started this term: the Peiris family (Clementina).
Tuesday 3 December - Board Meeting at 7pm
Friday 06 December - Year 6 Graduation Dinner
Wednesday 11 December - 1:30pm - Christmas Concert and Sausage Sizzle afterwards (organised by the PTA)
Thursday 12 December
10:00am- Year 6 Thanksgiving Mass and Special Character Awards
11:15am - 11:45am - Morning Tea
12pm - Prize Giving in the Hall
1pm - 1:45pm - Lunch
2pm - 2:50pm - Farewell for Ann (All welcome)
Tuesday 17 December - Term 4 Ends (at 12:30pm)
Director of Religious Studies News - Whanau Faith Discussion
Theme: Advent
The Advent season is a time to pray to God, seek his forgiveness, and work for peace. Children can strive to help other people see God’s love during Advent.
This Family Advent Calendar is filled with daily suggestions for action, prayer, or reflection you can do together with your Whanau.
There are suggestions about lighting the candles in the Advent wreath and celebrating seasonal feast days during the time of Advent.
School Rosary: Fridays at 1:15pm at the reflective area (Church if wet).
Christmas Eve Children's Mass at 5pm
If you would like your primary school age child to be part of the Christmas Eve mass which is being held at St Michael’s Catholic Church at 5pm on Sunday 24th December and celebrated by Fr Stephen Berecz, please email louisespora@gmail.com. We will be performing a nativity play and a song as well as having children read prayers etc.
Children must be available for a practice on Sunday 15th December and Sunday 22nd from 11.00 – 12.15pm, in the church. Please email the child’s name and age, by Wednesday 11th December. We look forward to celebrating the wonderful occasion of Jesus’ birth with you.
Louise Spora & Sarah Beshay
Children's Liturgy, St Michael's Parish
Liturgy of the Word with Children at St Michael's Parish Remuera. Children’s Liturgy, which is held every Sunday of the school term at the 10 am Mass in the Parish Centre, cannot continue at the moment due to a lack of volunteers.
Our aim is for primary-aged children to receive the Word of God at a level of understanding appropriate for their age and to discover its meaning in their lives, while giving parents/carers the opportunity to remain in the church and hear the Word of God themselves. The group re-joins the congregation during the Prayers of the Faithful, ready for the Liturgy of the Eucharist part of the Mass.
Pre-schoolers are welcome with a carer, and primary school children can attend independently. (Of course, adults are always welcome.) However, we urgently need more volunteers to resume this important ministry. Without additional support, we cannot continue to offer this valuable service to our children and families. If you are interested in helping out, please consider volunteering.
For more information or to volunteer, please email eleiyu@gmail.com
School Masses
Thursday 12th December at 10am - Thanksgiving Graduation Mass - All invited
Religious Education Term 4 Overview
For Year 3-6
Week 8- 10: Advent and Christmas
The themes in our Religious Education Programme are broad categories of knowledge and learning that overlap, weave together and build upon each other.
For Year 1-2
Over the last 4 years, a new Religious Education Curriculum, To Tātou Whakapono Our Faith, has been developed. Level 1 (Year 1 & 2) students will be learning from the new Curriculum from this year. The term 4 theme is Kia Noho Hāhi Being Church. This theme focuses on 'I belong’.
The 2024 CHRISTMAS GIVING TREE - Please bring Gifts by 8 December
Be an early bird giver! Advent is approaching and our Christmas Giving Tree is up in the church. Please take a tag/s away and replace with appropriate gifts by Sunday December 1st or at the latest December 8th.
The ages for gifting include babies, primary, secondary and university students. Vouchers are great for the older ones at Secondary and University.
Monte Cecilia Housing Trust will begin the Christmas collection to their families on 9th December.
They will have teams on the road busy collecting and dropping off presents and food to everyone within that week. Thank you for enabling families to have a Christmas to remember.
If you need help giving, please contact Louise 021 748 834.
PTA NEWS
The countdown to Christmas is officially on and with three more weeks until the end of term, it is time to start thinking about next year.
We are on the look out for CLASS REPS for next year. This is a very important position and one that is highly appreciated by parents and teachers.
As a class rep, your job is to be the liaison between teacher and parents, by keeping everyone informed and organising social events as possible.
Sounds like you? Send us an email ptasmcs@gmail.com and we will get in touch with you in January (once the classes have been assigned).
Not interested in class repping, but willing to help somewhere else or have an idea? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!
Sausage Sizzle
To celebrate the end of the year, we are having a sausage sizzle and a sweet stall after the Christmas concert on 11 December. We are serving REAL sausages kindly donated by Neat Meatand sweets of all kinds, so something for everyone!
All proceedings going towards a new audio system for the hall (yes, we are still fundraising for this), so hope to see you all there!
Pre-purchase via MyKindo to avoid missing out (and to help us not have waste). Cash and eftpos sales also available on the day.
Second-hand school uniform shop
The Second-Hand Uniform Shop will be open on Friday, 6 December from 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM and will be running an END OF THE YEAR SALE!
All Girls and Boys Jumpers and Jackets at $25 each (RRP $77-$95)
All Girls and Boys shirts at $15 each (RRP $48-$51)
Girls Culottes at $15 each (RRP $49)
Boys grey shorts at $15 each (RRP $49)
All Unisex PE Shorts and T-shirts and House (color) T-shirts at $5 each (RRP $33-$45)
Free shoes and socks!!!
Limited sizes and stock available!!!
Payment methods are EFTPOS!!! (No PayWave), myKindo or bank transfer to the PTA bank account: 12-3075-0199134-00.
Uniform donations are always welcome! Please drop off uniform items (cleaned/washed) with Genevieve at the school Reception.
To make the uniform shop a success, we rely on parents volunteering a bit of their time to help us run the shop, so if you have any spare time at school pick up, pop by, say ‘Hi’ and please lend us a hand.
PTA positions open
Have a couple of hours a month to dedicate to the school? We want to hear from you!
We are looking for a Secretary to work alongside us next year. As a secretary, you will organize the agenda for the PTA meetings and take minutes.
