Tēnā koutou katoa St Michael’s Catholic School Community, 

Our Commissioning Mass today was a lovely opportunity to celebrate our Year 6 students, and to announce their leadership roles for 2024. We know that they will fully embrace the opportunity to build the specific leadership skills required for each of these positions, and wish them all the best as they take on this new challenge. This year we have had to make adjustments to the leadership responsibilities as we have a smaller cohort of students. We will update our community when the leadership badges have arrived at school, and these will then be blessed and distributed at a Meditation in the future.

A reminder that on Sunday 10 March there is a compulsory Mass for all St Michael’s children. Please ensure that children arrive at school by 9.40am, so that their teachers are able to organise them in the Parish Centre before entering the church. Children need to wear full school uniform for this event. Following the Mass, the PTA are providing morning tea in the School Hall, and all families are welcome to join us for this.

Last week our adventurous and excited Year 6 students attended Camp Adair. Thank you to everyone involved in making the Year 6 camp a resounding success. It was an unforgettable three days and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication and support of our incredible team. A special thank you to our Year 6 teachers Rebekah Capon and Emma Cotterell for their commitment and leadership throughout the camp. We also want to express our appreciation to our Year 6 parent helpers; Monique Booth, Justinn Valerio, Paul Knight, Lauren Kendrick, Roman Casim, Reuben Lamont, Lucy Carter, Ralph Elika and Eric Balderas. Thank you for your generosity, time and dedication. Our Year 6’s have created memories to last a lifetime.

If you have visited school this week, you will have noticed that the installation of the shade sails outside the senior block has finished. The site manager hopes to have the fences around this area removed by the end of the week. Beatrice Road entrance is available.

In order to give better shade over the bleachers outside the Junior School, some adjustments to the original plan have needed to be made during the construction process. It is our hope that this work will be completed at the start of next week.

Thank you for your patience throughout this process.

Our first event of the year is the SMCS Swimming Sports, which will be held on Friday 8 March at the Sacred Heart School pool. This is a full school event and children will travel to and from the venue by bus.
 

To ensure that this event is a success, we require a number parent helpers. Please email c.bagnall@smcs.school.nz  as soon as possible if you are available to volunteer. Some of the roles include: lane timing, recording results, life guarding in the junior pool, and race starting. 

Please fill in your child/ren’s choices on their classroom door no later than Thursday 22nd February. If you miss this date your child/ren will have their choices selected for them.

Friday 01 March: Rosary Group begins at 1.15pm-1.30pm

Wednesday 6 March: Assembly (Room 5 & Room 10) at 2.00pm

Friday 08 March: SMCS Swimming Sports at Sacred Heart College

Sunday 10 March: School / Parish Mass at 10.00am  

Tuesday 12 March: Sacramental Programme Information Evening 7.00pm-8.00pm

Thursday 14 March - Green Day to celebrate St Patrick’s day (donation for the Kindness collective)

Friday 15 March: Teachers Only Day (Conference at Sacred Heart College) 

Thursday 21 March: World Down Syndrome Day (Lots Of Socks fundraiser for ADSA)

Monday 25 March: School Board Meeting at 7.00pm

Wednesday 27 March: Prizegiving Swimming Sports

Thursday 28 March - Holy Thursday Liturgy at 2.15pm in the Church

Tuesday 09 April - Summer Field Day (Seniors)

Wednesday 10 April:  Assembly (Room 4 & Room 7) at 2.00pm 

Weeks 4-6: Caritas Lenten Unit

Week 7: Liturgical Year - Holy Week and Easter

Weeks 8-11: Strand - Jesus

The themes in our Religious Education Programme are broad categories of knowledge and learning that overlap, weave together and build upon each other. 

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 through the new Curriculum from this year beginning with the theme: Te Atua God. God is understood in the Catholic faith to be a unity of three ‘persons’ - the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Students will learn about this dynamic relationship of overflowing love. 

St Michael’s Parish Website – Mass times - Sunday 8am, 10am & 5pm; Monday - Friday 7am & 12noon; Saturday 8am.

Adoration: Monday - Friday 7.30am-8.30am

Rosary: Monday – Friday 8.30am & 12.30pm; Saturday 8.30am

School  Masses - Every Thursday at 9:15am (except Feast days) 

29/02/24 - Rooms 5 & 10; 07/03/24 - Rooms 6 & 9;  14/03/24 - Rooms 4 & 7; 21/03/24 - Rooms 1,3 & 8; 28/03/24 - Holy Thursday - Washing of the Feet Liturgy 2:15pm in the Church;  04/04/24 Rooms 5 & 10; 11/04/24 - Rooms 4 & 7

Archbishop of Wellington Paul Martin, SM, Wairarapa parish Priest Fr Dennis Nacorda, and Auckland Vicar for Māori Manuel Beazley have shared their experiences of the Holy Father’s Synod on Synodality in Rome last October. 

This YouTube video is a recording of a Zoom session they held with a live audience on Thursday 15 February 2024.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COKdE6mIojU 

Thank you everyone for coming along to our PTA meeting on Monday. We loved seeing new faces and we are excited to have you onboard!

Our AGM was also held on Monday and we are excited to share that Sam and I are co-chairing the PTA for one more year, alongside Venus Yu-Itoh as our Treasurer and Lucy McGillivray as our Secretary. Thank you everyone for your support and we all look forward to working with you and to keep contributing to our school.

Lastly, we just want to share the results of our fundraising efforts in 2023. Through many fundraising activities, we raised around $26k. Around $10k has already been given to the school to fund various things and $16k is going towards this year’s expenses. Check the noticeboards for a detailed accountability breakdown and what we are fundraising for this year. We will also share this via class reps. 

Building on one of our purposes of strengthening relationships between home and school, we are organizing a morning tea after our first parish-school mass on 10 March.

Please come on down to the hall for a cuppa, a slice and a chat after mass. 

We are also looking for 18 volunteers to help us on the day. Check what is needed and sign in to help: https://volunteersignup.org/B3W3L

Monday 26 February is the last day to order. Books are delivered to the school the week after orders close and will be handed out to your children in their classrooms once they have been sorted.

Did you know that our school benefits hugely from the Scholastic book club? We get points that get turned into more books and educational resources for the school.

Any questions please feel free to contact our Book Club Team on ptasmcs@gmail.com.

Thank you to Room 5 for helping with Pizza this week. We really appreciate your support.

   

At St Michael’s we are affiliated with the Tamaki League at Ellerslie Football Club based at Michaels Ave in
Ellerslie. Under 6 to 9’s grades play Saturday morning games at Ellerslie during terms 2 and 3.

Any student wishing to play for a St Michael’s School team first registers with Ellerslie Football Club and
they are then allocated to a St Michael’s school team.

Grades are based on the year children were born.

Grade           Birth Dates                             Gender     Number of players in teams            Game Length

Under 6’s     1 Jan 2018 to 31 Dec 2018   Mixed       5 v 5 - no GK (squad of 6 or 7)          2 x 13 mins

Under 7’s     1 Jan 2017 to 31 Dec 2017   Mixed       5 v 5 - no GK (squad of 6 or 7)          2 x 13 mins

Under 8’s     1 Jan 2016 to 31 Dec 2016   Mixed       5 v 5 - no GK (squad of 6 or 7)          2 x 20 mins

Under 9’s     1 Jan 2015 to 31 Dec 2015   Mixed       7 v 7 - with GK (squad of 8 or 9)       2 x 25 mins

Games are on a Saturday morning from 8.30am and can run up to late morning.

Registration
Website: https://ellersliefootball.org.nz/junior
Enrol by 17 March
Registration fee will be $184.50 for U6-U8s and $193.50 for U9s if paid by 17 March 2024.

Please email with any queries – smcsfootball@gmail.com
School co-ordinator is Kirsten Hickey