Tēnā koutou katoa St Michael’s Catholic School Community, 

Over the next few days we will be reflecting on the Passion of Christ. 

Below in the newsletter, I have included the Easter Timetable at St Michael’s. 

Parent/Teacher Interviews have been scheduled for Wednesday 1 May. These interviews will be ten minutes each, and will be an opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher and discuss their progress and next learning steps. 

Please note that due to class numbers, bookings for Rooms 1, 3 and 6 will only be available from 3.20pm. All other classes will have bookings available from 1.30pm. We are able to provide supervision (if required) for all students until 2.55pm.

1. Click on your “Interviews” tile
2. Select “Select Interview”
3. Select your child’s teacher
4. Select day/date
5. Select your time preference
6. Click “Select”
7. Enter student's details and sign at the bottom
8. Select “Book Interview”
9. A confirmation email will be sent to you with your bookings details. 

As we near the end of term, we feel that it is important to reiterate our procedures for end of day pick-up. Children may only use the playgrounds, turf and field areas after school if they are supervised by a caregiver. All children who have not been collected by 3.10pm will be sent to the School Office where they can be collected. We will ring a bell at this time to remind children of this procedure.

There has been a lot of media coverage lately regarding legislative changes for schools, particularly the requirement for children to have one hour of instruction each in Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Our teaching staff has reviewed their daily timetables and we can assure you that we are meeting this requirement. These curriculum areas are also integrated into our weekly Religious Education and Inquiry lessons.

A big “congratulations” to the team of students who represented St Michael’s at the Remuera Zone Swimming Sports at St Kentigern's this week. They were: Emily Coffey, Harry Cross, Thomas Ellis, Lulu Fougere, Alexander Goh, Charlotte Kendrick, Lilou Kirton, Matthew Knight, Harriet Lamont, August Mamo, Thomas Ritchie, India Todd, Matisse Todd, Lucy Towers, and Tom Valerio. 

Special mention must be made of Lulu, Matthew, Harriet and Tom who all made finals.

Congratulations to Harriet Lamont who was placed 1st in the Year 6, 25m freestyle race with the time of 15.94 seconds. Harriet also placed 3rd in the Year 6 girls 25m breaststroke. 

Miss Bagnall was incredibly proud of the way in which you competed against the other 18 local schools present. It was fantastic to see many children attending this event for the first time. The skills gained from this experience will stand the students in good stead as they prepare for future Zone events.

“Thank you” to those parents who assisted with transport and support at the venue. Your ongoing support is much appreciated. Please scroll further down to view photos.

We are planning forward for 2025, and ask that any families who have a child turning five next year please submit their enrolment forms now. If you have any questions, or need any assistance with this, please feel free to contact Catherine at c.westwood@smcs.school.nz. 

This term we are reviewing Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Board Responsibility, Parent Involvement, Communication with Parents, Community Conduct Expectations, School Character/Special Character, Documentation and Self-Review Policy, School Planning and Reporting, and Reporting to Parents on Student Progress and Achievement. 

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.    

Tuesday 09 April - Summer Field Day (Seniors)

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

Friday 12 April -  Term 1 Ends

Wednesday 24 April - Teacher Only Day (Mitey Training)

Monday 29 April - Term 2 Begins

Wednesday 1 May - Parent Teacher Interviews (1.30 - 7.30pm)

Monday 6 May, Tuesday 7 May, Thursday 9 May - School Trips (Auckland Botanic Gardens)

Wednesday 8 May - Room 4 and Room 7 Assembly

Monday 13 May - School-wide Dance Curriculum lessons begin

Monday 13 May - BOT Meeting (7.00pm)

For Years 3-6
Week 9-10: Liturgical Year - Holy Week and Easter

Weeks 11: Strand - Jesus

Holy Thursday we share and break bread at Ko te Hapa Whakamutunga (The Last Supper) with Jesus.

Good Friday we mourn ko te Ripekatanga o Hehu (the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus).

And on the third day, we rejoice in ko te Aranga mai o Hehu I te mate (the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus!).

 

Keep and travel safe, peace to you and your whanau during this Holy Easter Week, ngā mihi a te Aranga ki a koutou katoa!  (Wishing you all a Happy Easter!)

Week 9-10: Liturgical Year - Holy Week and Easter

Weeks 11: Strand - Jesus

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. 

Easter Timetable 

Holy Thursday 24th March - 7:30pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Good Friday 29th March - 10am Way of the Cross; 3pm Passion of the Lord

Holy Saturday 30th March - 8pm Vigil and First Mass of Easter (this is 2½ hours)

Sunday 31st March - 8am, 10am, 5pm

EASTER SUNDAY SAUSAGE SIZZLE AND EASTER EGG HUNT                         
Following 10am celebration Mass. Please have your children decorate a hard-boiled egg with their name on it, please place them in the basket on the table in our church foyer before Easter Sunday Mass. Fun family games on The Kings Lawn with an Easter Egg Hunt and Sausage Sizzle.

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

04/04/24 Rooms 5 & 10; 11/04/24 - Rooms 4 & 7

I pray that you all have a wonderful Easter Break with your families and I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 3rd April. 

Ngā Mihi O Te Aranga (Happy Easter) 

Due to a change in circumstance our school will be undertaking a parent by-election for 1 School Board vacancy.

This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver community by Sunday 31 March 2024.

We have employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf.

This year with legislative change, our nomination form and full instruction on how to place your nomination into our own School’s Election website will be emailed to you if we have your email address in our database or you will receive it by post if we don’t have your email in our database.

Nomination papers will also be available at the school office. The school will send those on to CES for processing upon receipt from candidates.

Nominations close on Friday 19 April 2024 at 12 noon.

We look forward to your participation in this process.

As always, we are hoping to sell raffle tickets on grandparents day to help our fundraising efforts. If you or your business are able to donate raffle items, those are highly appreciated! Vouchers, beverages, plants, house goods and anything in between! Just contact us on ptasmcs@gmail.com or drop those off to Genevieve in the school office.

Put on your diaries: our second-hand uniform shop will open on Friday 5th April from 2:30 PM to 3:15 PM and will be running a Summer SALE!

Pizza will resume next week, Room 8 on 5th April.
Room 9 & 1 on 12th April. We really appreciate your support.
  

Congratulations, well done and thank you to all the teams that took part in the 23/24 touch season. Trust you all had a lovely time! Coaches & Managers, please return your team touch gear i.e. any balls, trophies etc you had to the office preferably before the end of term 1.

For the upcoming touch season later this year, I will no longer be running the managing of our school teams.

However, if you wish for your child to play, the easiest way is to round up some friends who are interested but they have to be in the right year level. If you have any questions, please email me directly t.cordtz@smcs.school.nz for any further details.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a MASSIVE thank you to all of our volunteers of Coaches & Managers for all of their hard work and dedication in taking care of our SMCS teams. Your contribution is much appreciated!