Newsletter - Week 4, Term 1 (26th February 2020)

Our Lady

of the Rosary

School

Wainui Road, Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt, 5010

Phone: (04) 566 3258

Fax: (04) 566 3159

Email: admin@olr.school.nz

Web: www.olr.school.nz

OUR SCHOOL VIRTUES: Faith – Whakapono Hope – Tūmanako Love – Aroha Charity – Manaakitanga

Welcome, Kia Ora, Talofa, kumusta, Mālō ni Thank you for coming along to our whanau evening last

Thursday. It was perfect weather for everyone to gather to catch up at the beginning of the year and to meet and welcome our new families! It was great for our children to share their classroom and introduce their teacher to their families. Over the last week or two Syndicates have sent our ‘Syndicate Newsletters’ to inform families of the events in the term and cover any housekeeping. Please do not hesitate to contact your child/ren’s teacher if you require any further clarification or you have any queries or concerns throughout the year. This year we have added a new syndicate which has lead to a slight change in Syndicate names.

Syndicates Year Levels

Junior Syndicate NE –Year 2

Middle Syndicate Year 3 & 4

Senior Syndicate Year 5 & 6

Intermediate Hub Year 7 & 8

2020 Theme - The over arching theme for our learning in 2020 is “Oh the places we will go - The Journey” It is through this theme we will continue to build on our learning across the learning areas and strengthening our school virtues of Faith, Hope, Love and Charity. This year we have the following key focus areas: Our Lady of the Rosary visual branding Learn through Play, the new Digital Curriculum , Kura Ahurea programme, including our local history Cultural Responsiveness and competencies Wellbeing for students and staff Enviroschool: working towards Silver Award Whanau and community engagement

Today is the beginning of Lent, within our Church’s Liturgical Calendar. We joined together for a Mass and

blessing of the ashes for ASH WEDNESDAY. Thank you Fr Michael for the thoughtful Homily and those of you

that were able to join with us. “Lent is a time for getting ready, for being prepared and for living simply so that we

can give more of ourselves to others who need help, as a way of showing God’s love’.

The Wellington Archdiocese has the theme ‘Year of Mission’. Last night the staff attended the Catholic Schools

Commissioning Mass and Cardinal John Dew said “ I am a Mission”. Lent is a time for us to begin our Mission

by showing God’s love through putting our school virtues of Faith, Hope, Love and Charity into action.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS To support our students in the digital world we are strengthening our NETSAFE practices. As part of this process it is important for us to inform you of the increasing issues we address of social media. At school our online system blocks Facebook, Snap Chat, Instagram and other online platforms. Please note there are age restrictions for online platforms 13+Years. We are finding the social media issues we are following up on occur after school hours, in the evenings and weekends. Online bullying, negative comments, name calling, abusive comments, threats and inappropriate photos cause extreme concern for us all. We are all aware our children come first and their safety! Please support us in ensuring you have safe and clear practices for your children at home when using and accessing any form of technology night and day. There are APP’s available for you as parents/caregivers to monitor your children's screen access. We would really appreciate you helping us to keep all our children SAFE and HAPPY! Please view the NETSAFE website for information for families: https://www.netsafe.org.nz/

BOARD MESSAGE Kia ora e te whanau,

We had our first board meeting this week and I was re-elected chairperson which is a great honour for me to serve you all. I would like to welcome our two newest board members Dion Howard and Eti Moananu joining us as Proprietors Representatives. Our current board membership is now: Karolina Surynt-Tapiki, Caro de Beer (Staff rep), Parent representatives: Hilary Arthur, Marlene Gillies, Helen Greaney, Monique MacDonald, and Natasha Watson (Chair). Proprietor representatives: Leanne England, Dion Howard, Eti Moananu and Camille Plimmer. It was a good first meeting and the strategic plan and budget for the year was approved. The strategic goals we approved were: Create and implement effective Our Lady of the Rosary visual branding which is representative of our faith and cultural responsiveness. Strengthen Our Lady of the Rosary local curriculum Strengthen our school wide practices that support learners/ākonga wellbeing to develop their personal identity for now and in the future Strengthen partnerships with our whanau, parish and Kāhui Ako communities to support learners/ākonga in their learning socially and academically. The Annual goals for this year towards achieving those strategic goals are: OLR branding review including looking at the history of the current branding and logo and potentially looking at developing new concept designs more representative of our community and who we are as a school. Strengthening our Local curriculum in the areas of digital technology, Kura Ahurea Programme and Learn through play. Looking at our schoolwide practices including our cultural competencies, staff and student wellbeing, and our Enviroschool goals. Working with you our school families and wider community to develop a community engagement plan where we will look at the best ways we can communicate with you to create a more engaged and in-volved community. You will all be hearing more in relation to these annual goals as the year progresses. It promises to be a very full and engaging year and we are enthusiastic about the year ahead. I hope we have your support especially with our last goal, so that we can engage with you in the ways that actually best suit our fami-lies and whanau rather than just relying on our traditional ways of communicating. Ngā mihi Natasha Watson Board Chair

Here are photos of our Mary Garden we have been working. We have an area of the school where we can remember Our Lady as she has a special place in our hearts at Our Lady of the Rosary, being the Mother of God and our Patron Saint of our school. We can use this garden to help us to learn about Mary in the flowers and herbs we will grow throughout the year. The marigolds we have planted were used from the seeds of last years harvest. The New Entrant's class from last year planted these at the end of the year. They have now been transplanted into the garden. It is thought that the first plant to be officially named after Our Lady was 'Seint Mary Goudes' or the marigold in the 14th century. Jane Carter (DRS)

27 Feb SLICs day year 8’s 9.15am—2pm 2-6 Mar Junior Syndicate EOTC week 5 Mar Pie Fundraiser—pick up pies from school 6 Mar Mass at OLR Church, 9am, Rooms 6 and 11 12 Mar Weetbix Tryathlon 12 Mar Reading Together Programme, 5.30pm

(juniors) 17 Mar St Patrick’s Day 20 Mar Mass at OLR Church, 9am, Rooms 4, 0, 7 and 12

24 Mar SouthEast Zone Quick Rip Comp Yr 3-8 27 Mar Mass at OLR Church, 9am, Rooms 3 and 8 29 Mar-3 Apr Intermediate Hub Camp, Teapot Valley 3 Apr Mass at OLR Church, 9am, Rooms 2 and 9 9 Apr Holy Thursday 10 Apr Good Friday

God Bless, Whakapaingia te Atua Karolina Surynt-Tapiki Principal

If your contact details have changed (postal address, email address, phone numbers) please let the office know by emailing admin@olr.school.nz, phone 04 5663258 or pop into the office.

Congratulations to the children who were awarded a certificate for showing the school

virtue of HOPE last week

Rm 8 - Ollie Hughes Rm 10 - Lily Hughes Rm 11 - Suede Lotaki Anae Rm 12 - Rachel Pitcher Rm 9 - Tiana Siemonek Rm 0 - Isabella Macdonald Rm 1 - Kiron Walker Rm 2 - Finn Gallagher Rm 3 - Michaela Stone Rm 4 - Vaitupu Vaitupu Rm 6 - Taylor Moananu Rm 7 - Kade Jennings

Congratulations to: Dylan G, Dylan A, Isabella and Viiga

A reminder that we have asked families to provide an ice-cream container of Personal Emergency Food for your child/ren. Please see the attached information.

If you choose to replace your child/ren’s emergency food container from the previous year, please bring them to school no later than Monday 2nd March 2020.

Reminder: Please do not bring your dog onto the school grounds. The safety of all our children, staff and whanau is extremely important. Thank you

Thank you to the Swinton– Robertson whanau for sharing George and Henry perform at te ra o te raukura. The boys are performing often with Ngati Poneke and are growing in confi-dence in the waiata and haka.

Thank you from the

Intermediate Hub!

We raised $366.80

towards our CAMP! Yay!!

We are an Enviro-School. Our Newsletter is emailed to all families and put on OLRS facebook and website each Wednesday. If you require a PAPER COPY, please let the school office know

In the Intermediate Hub, we made pancakes to celebrate Shrove Tuesday. We cooked the batter and flipped the pancakes with the assisted help of Rose and the teachers. Then we got to eat them with the toppings we brought from home. Shrove comes from the word ‘Shrive’ where Christians from around the world absolve our sins through reflection and asking for forgiveness. We enjoyed eating the pancakes, before we begin Lent on Ash Wednesday. Jessie Greaney

Shrove Tuesday

On Shrove Tuesday Room 6 made pancakes. Pancakes were tradition-ally eaten the day before Ash Wednesday because it was a way to use up eggs, milk and sugar before Lent when many people "give some-thing up” as a way to prepare for Easter. We had heaps of fun making the pancakes even though some of them had interesting colours, tex-tures and tastes. Conor Arthur and Rhylan Hall

Our Lady of the Rosary School

PERSONAL EMERGENCY FOOD CONTAINER We are asking parents of children at OLRS to provide an individual emergency food box for your child for 2020. Please use an ice-cream container, write your child’s name on the lid and indicate if there is medication within the container.

If you choose to replace your child/ren’s emergency food container from the previous year, please bring them to school no later than Monday 2nd March 2020.

We will return the previous years’ food box to each child as they bring in their new one for the beginning of 2020. Leavers of 2019 will receive their food boxes to bring home on the last day of term 4.

While we expect that in most situations children will be able to be collected from school within two hours of an emergency event, provision should be made for a worst-case scenario in which your child cannot be collected from school for a day or two. With tinned food and individually-packaged snack bars, this container can hold sufficient food to keep them both nourished and comforted during this time. We will store these ice-cream containers at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish. This is our evacuation point.

In situations of high-stress proper nourishment can make all the difference to people’s resilience. What you provide for your child can greatly add to their ability to cope until you are able to reach them.

Suggestions for your container: tins of spaghetti or baked beans – pull tabs only (children need to eat these cold) tins of rice pudding – pull tabs only tins of fruit – pull tabs only tins of flavoured tuna, chicken, or other meat – pull tabs only Beef jerky Muesli bars Chocolate Dried fruit Dry cereal Cheese cracker snack packs Individually wrapped cake/biscuit snacks (wheelies, muffin bakes etc.) Hard, wrapped sweets, eg: barley sugars, lollipops

Note: Non-perishable items ONLY. Check best-before dates – expiry should be the end of the year. Check tins have pull-tab opening. Check that your child likes and will eat what you provide (even if it’s cold!). Put in a spoon.

Medication: If your child requires regular medication including inhalers, please supply within the ice-cream container and note on the lid that medication is in the container. If your child take daily medication at school, we will make every effort to take this with us in the event of an evacuation.

Please note that no situation can ever be completely planned for, and in the case of one class losing their supply, food will need to be shared from other classes. Similarly, it is expected that many children would be retrieved in the first few hours of an emergency. The contents of their food containers would then be redistributed amongst those having to remain for a longer period of time.

Please provide the ice-cream container of emergency food for your child to the school office. Thank you for your support.

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Whānau RE: THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM At Our Lady of the Rosary School Sarah Saunders will be coordinating the Sacramental Programme, in close consultation with our Director of Religious Studies (DRS) Jane Carter, Father Michael and Father John. We offered the opportunity for school community members to be baptised in a special school Mass. This will take place in early term 2 due to Lent extending through to the end of term 1. To help with the planning of our Sacramental Programme, we would like an indication of how many members of the school community would like to be baptised this year. Please fill in the form below, if you wish to be baptised this year and return to Sarah Saunders in Room 11 or to the office. Please return by Wednesday 11th March 2020. My email address is sarahs@olr.school.nz, if you have any queries. God bless Sarah Saunders Sacramental Programme Coordinator sarahs@olr.school.nz

RETURN FORM - THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM 2020 I/we wish to be baptised this year (name or names): My contact number/s: My contact email address: