Dear God,

You come to us in Jesus who teaches us that the way to happiness is through our love for one another.

Watch over the teachers, students and families of Sacred Heart Cathedral School as we try to be faithful to this teaching.

Help us to be a welcoming and joyful community, so that others may come to know your love and peace.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen.

Kia ora koutou e te whānau,

It was great to spend time with families last Thursday at the Year 7 and 8 pool party. The children had so much fun and Julius, Therese, and Hannah are very handy on the BBQ.

Classrooms are starting to hum along with learning. Staff are putting in lots of thinking as to how they will excite students with learning.  It really is a pleasure to spend time in classrooms seeing students interacting with their teacher, peers and learning.

Last night, the staff attended the 2023 Commissioning Mass at St Mary of the Angels. Cardinal John spoke to us all in his homily about enlightening our eyes and opening our hearts to everything we do at school.

Our students are all learning about Lent as we prepare for the Easter season.

Please keep an eye on the school calendar as we add dates of new confirmed activities.

Arohanui,
Bernadette Murfitt
Tumuaki
Sacred Heart Cathedral School

Sacred Heart Cathedral School will be closed TOMORROW (Thursday), 16^th March due to strike action.

Kia ora whānau, parents, and caregivers.

You may have heard in the media that members of the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement (PTCA) and Primary Principals’ Collective Agreement (PPCA) across New Zealand have voted in favour of taking strike action on Thursday, 16th March.

NZEI Te Riu Roa is obligated to give school boards three days’ notice of the strike.  Formal notification was received early Monday morning.

The Board has considered whether an education service can be provided on Thursday, 16th March - but given the absence of the Principal and teaching staff we have concluded that we cannot provide a teaching service during that period. As a result, the School will be closed that day and no School related services (including after school care) will be provided and no teaching staff will be at School on that day.

I know this will be inconvenient for many parents and hopefully a resolution to the underlying issues will be found that the Government, PTCA and PPCA can accommodate.

If you have any questions relating to this decision, please contact me.

Ngā mihi nui,

Suzanne Adair

Presiding Member of the Board of Trustees

suzanneadair@hotmail.com

021 039 7558

Monday, 24th April - Ministry of Education Refreshed Curriculum Day.

Friday, 30 June - Kahui Ako Day

We welcomed Hanwen, our new Chinese Language assistant to our school at Monday afternoon's school assembly.

We look forward to Hanwen teaching our students Mandarin and Chinese history.

• Friday, 24th March is Fancy Feet Day. It is one way we celebrate Movin’ March here at school.

• You can wear fun, crazy, colourful footwear with your school uniform. We will do a parade after lunch so we can all see your fun shoes!

• One person from each class with standout footwear will win 20 points for their house.

• After the parade we will be doing aerobics! House Captains will be awarding 5 points for awesome energy during aerobics.

• The more colourful and fun the better!

• Any questions?

We are excited to announce that our school's Cultural Day is fast approaching and we are looking forward to celebrating the diverse cultural backgrounds of our students and community. To enhance the cultural experience for all, we would like to create a cultural display in the library/walkway prior to the Cultural Day on 30th March (Thursday). As part of this display, we would like to invite your child to bring in an item that represents their cultural background. This could be a traditional garment, a piece of jewellery, a musical instrument, a flag, or any other item that is meaningful to your family's cultural heritage. The items will be displayed in the library/walkway for all students and staff to enjoy and learn from. Please label the item with your child's name and a brief description of the item and its cultural significance. Your child can bring the item to school by 24th March (Friday). We believe that this cultural display will be a wonderful way for the students to learn about each other's cultures and appreciate the diversity of our school community. We hope that you will support your child in participating in this exciting project.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at (04) 472-4047.

Wellington Junior Championships Competition:

Kiahna played in the Oceania U12 girls Tag tournament in Auckland, representing the Cook Islands. They played over 2 days 4 games a day and were undefeated. Well done Kiahna! It's great to have such talented sports students at our school!

X-race at Petone Beach

On Sunday, 12th March the X-race was held at Petone Beach. Children participate in a team with their parent and undertake a number of challenges, including solving puzzles, riddles and skipping.

A number of SCHS students took part, including Hazel B, Violet B, Jiezl D, and Sophia from Room 3.

Violet came 2nd place in the 8 year old girls and 4th female overall. It was a beautiful sunny day and everyone had a great time!

NZ Warriors -Thursday, 2^nd March 2023 Open Captain’s Run Sky Stadium 9:30am-11:30am.

On Thursday, 2nd March, we walked down to the stadium where we had a long wait in the sun to get inside with the other schools. Once we sat down, we watched the Warriors train but our view wasn’t very good.

All the people watching got a free poster. Then we met some of the players and got their signatures. Shaun Johnson and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad were crowd favourites.

After lunch we had an education session with Lingi Kepu, a current player, Anthony Jello Gelling, a former player, Eki, from the under 20 squad and Charlotte Scanlan, a Kiwi Fern and former NZ Sevens player. We learnt about the importance of sleep, hydration and a balanced diet. People won prizes including water bottles, bags, shoe laces and even free tickets to the game the next day. We also got to ask them questions about being a professional athlete, such as what it’s like having to sacrifice family time and how much training they do.

At the end of the day, anyone who wanted to got the chance to race Eki and Jello. They were fast but we reckon there are a few seniors who gave them a run for their money!

Thank you to our parent helpers who made the day possible.

Ngā mihi, NZ Warriors!

Basketball for Term 2 - LAST CALL for THIS FRIDAY (17th MARCH)!!!

The Wellington basketball competition starts in Term 2. Games are played at Akau Tangi Sports Centre, Kilbernie Stadium. The competition is open to boys and girls. The cost per player is dependent on the number of players in the team. We are looking for parents that would be willing to provide some coaching and managing support for our students. For Year 3/4, Adele has kindly offered to coach this year group. We still need parent help for the 2 teams - Year 5/6, please contact Therese and Year 7/8, please contact Ann. If your child is interested to play, please email the following below:

• Years 3/4: Adele - adeleandaaron@gmail.com
• Years 5/6: Therese - therese@sacred-heart.school.nz
• Years 7/8: Ann - ann@sacred-heart.school.nz

Junior Syndicate PE

Georgia Rm 8, has lost her brand new, named jersey. If found, please return it Room 8 or hand it into the school office. Thank you.

Mazen Rm 2, has lost his named jersey. If found please return it to Room 2 or hand it into the school office.

Cadence Rm 3, has lost her named sunhat. If found please return it to Room 3 or hand it into the school office.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has already sold their easter raffle tickets and returned the ticket butts to the school office.

If you would like more tickets, these are available from the school office.

Raffles close on Monday, 27th March and winners will be drawn on Friday, 31st March with the winners announced in the school newsletter on Wednesday, 5th April.

We have a small number of new school ties for sale at $20.00.

Ice blocks will be sold on Friday this week, due to the school being closed on Thursday.

Ice blocks are $1:00 each with money raised going towards next year's seniors' camp.

Water only in drink bottles. Please no fizzy drink as it is full of sugar and so bad for our tamariki's teeth.

Spare ice cream or takeaway containers at home? Please bring them in to Room 10 so we can take them to Food Technology each week and help build up the collective supply. Thank you.

Please come and look at our second-hand uniform and take what you need. There are lots of items across all sizes.

If you would like to support the school by purchasing an entertainment book, you can do so by clicking on this link: https://subscribe.entertainmentnz.com/fundraiser/10428y2