Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Welcome back to

2021!

2020 WON (A play on words).

I hope you have all had a well earned break. The wild card of 2020 made us all resilient and agile in our approach to work and life. As a school we will continue to give regular reminders of key COVID public health messages.

I hope you all had a wonderful restful break over summer. I had a very relaxing break at Mt Maunganui with my family. I also managed to take advantage of the lovely weather and had a really good go at my garden.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Jane Regan and her family as she farewelled her Dad David last week. RIP.

The staff  have all been busy preparing for the year ahead and we have had some pretty exciting Professional Development that has really inspired us.

We completed a First Aid refresher and prepared for online and face to face delivery of the curriculum.

Heavenly Father at the start of this new 2021 year, we give you thanks for the work in our school and the Cathedral Parish. We pray for all children who are starting at a new school and for those returning to their old school. Help our children to explore what they can achieve and give them confidence to play their part in shaping our world. We pray for those who work in schools and care for our children. We also pray for trustees of our school. Grant them the wisdom and sound judgement that will keep our children's well-being at the heart of everything we do. We pray for parents and whānau of our children who support all we do at Sacred Heart Cathedral School. We ask this in the name of Jesus. 

At 9 am on the 6th February, there will be a special Waitangi Day Mass at St Mary's of the Angels.

Waitangi Day, the national day of New Zealand marks the anniversary of the initial signing on 6th February 1840 – of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which is regarded as the founding document of our nation. Te Rā o Waitangi is a great local event down at Waitangi Park that many families will enjoy. School will be closed on Monday, 8th February.

We are looking forward to seeing you all at the "Meet the teacher" next Thursday.

A very special welcome to our new students:  Room 1: Kylie, Shenaya, Cassie, Ayva-Fua, Richard-Leo.  Room 2:  Zoe, Harley.  Room 3:  Bella.  Room 5:  Amelia, Dishan, Zachary.  Room 7:  David, Marcus, Zach.  Room 8:  Bree, Blossom, Finlay, Edric.  Room 9:  Brianna, Varias, Jeremiah, Charlotte.  Room 10:  Ashleigh, Aliyah-Jay, Kaleb, and their families. You will just love being a part of our very special school community.

Arohanui,

Bernadette Murfitt

Principal

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

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.

TERM 1:  Wednesday 3 February – Friday 16 April

Public holidays:   Waitangi Day 6 February, observed Monday 8 February

                            Easter:  Good Friday 2 April, Easter Monday 5 April

                            Easter Tuesday 6 April (a school holiday)

School holidays:  Saturday 17 April – Sunday 2 May (includes ANZAC day 25 April)

TERM 2:  Monday 3 May – Thursday 8 July

                             Teacher only day - Friday 11 June as part of the Accord (school closed)

Public holiday:     Queen’s birthday – Monday 7 June

                             Accord Day for Kahui Ako – Friday 9 July (school closed)

School holidays: Saturday 10 July – Sunday 25 July

TERM 3:  Monday 26 July – Friday 1 October

School holidays:  Saturday 2 October – Sunday 17 October

TERM 4:  Monday 18 October – Tuesday 14 December

                            Teacher only day – Friday 22 October as part of the Accord (school closed)

Public holiday:  Labour Day 25 October

Homework - a school wide approach.

This year, we will  trial a simple, standardised approach to homework across the school.

Homework will be given from the third week of each term until the second to last week.

E.g. T1, Week 2-10 (It is an 11-week term!).

All students are asked to do 4 sessions of homework a week across the 7 days. This should free students to participate in out of school commitments.

The times and difficulty of the tasks will be age/syndicate appropriate. As this is “homework” we ask that you monitor it! Students will not be punished at school for not completing it. Please note there will be no home inquiry projects set.

All students need to read for pleasure and practice, do spelling practice or vocabulary building and drill Maths recall of “basic facts.”

Junior

Age appropriate readers supplied by the school. Yellow home book signed. Spelling list/activity. Basic facts list/activity all operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

Middle

Chapter books from school and the library, regarding reading texts taught in class or reading eggs, recorded in the back of their diary. Spelling weekly lists. Basic fact sheets all operations.

Senior

Chapter books from school, the library and home. Meanings of unknown words identified, looked up, asked about and learnt. All operations of basic facts including times tables up to 12, factors to 100, common factors and multiples, recall of Prime and Square numbers to 100, fraction, decimal, percentage conversions e.g. 1/5, 0.2, 20% memorized.

Suggested minimum times:

Junior 20 mins x 4 nights or the equivalent spread over more nights.

Middle 30 mins  x 4 nights or the equivalent spread over more nights.     

Senior 40 mins x 4 nights or the equivalent spread over more nights.

We are updating our records.  Please return your emergency/permission form and cyber safety form so we can check our information is correct.

You will have an opportunity to meet your child's teacher and hear an overview of what the year will look like in terms of learning and curriculum delivery.

There will be 2 sessions:

3.15pm and 4.30pm.

The Junior sessions will be held upstairs in the library.

Middle sessions will be in Room 6 (middle floor middle classroom).

Senior sessions will be held in Room 9 (top floor middle classroom).

I have a large selection of second hand uniform to give away. We have a range of sizes summer and winter items, jackets, PE uniform and shoes are all available.

Please go down to NZ Uniforms for all your uniform requirements. 

Sunhats are required T1 and 4. No caps please.  Sunhats can be purchased from school for $15.00.

School shoes are worn to and from school. Sports shoes can be worn at play and lunch time.

No hoodies or coloured jackets, including netball hoodies.

Jewellery – crosses, culturally significant pieces and keepers. No nail varnish.

Let's make 2021 the year of the uniform and all commit to ensuring our students are great ambassadors for our school.

The school uses SchoolAppsNZ to communicate with parents.  Please download this app if you haven't yet done so.  Instructions are contained in the flyer below.

Subway lunches can be ordered online each Wednesday before 9.00am next week, 17th February 2021 - the subway lunches will be dropped off at school before lunchtime. Instructions on how to order are in the flyer below.

We are replenishing our emergency supplies for 2021 

Can you please supply your child with 1 of the following ? 

crackers , sweet biscuits, tinned food, snack bars, dried fruits, pretzels, barley sugars, chocolate, lollies, liquid breakfast and snack bars. 

If possible with a best before date in 2022

This year we are going to have a go at "Trash Free Tuesday." We as a school will try and decrease the waste that we are contributing to the landfill. We would like our students on a Tuesday to try and not bring gladwrap to school. Try and use small containers from home or a lunchbox with compartments. Throughout the year, we will give tips and tricks for reducing packaging. It is important that we all do our bit for the environment.

School Bank Account Details:

Account name:  Sacred Heart Cathedral School Board of Trustees (Thorndon)

Account number:  12-3140-0325505-00

The above is for payment for any school related costs, sunhats or After School Care.

For payments, please use for the school reference - your child's surname and 'sch xpns' if it's a payment for school related costs, or your child's surname and 'sunhat' if it's a payment for a sunhat, or your child's name and 'ASC' if it is a payment for After School Care.

Parents & Friends Account Details:

Account name:  Sacred Heart Parents and Friends

Account number: 12-3140-0397242-00

This account is for payments relating to raffles, fundraising, quiz night and netball subs.  As above, please use for the school reference - your child's surname and what the payment is for.

Join us for an evening of culinary delights.  As part of the fundraising drive for the earthquake strengthening of our Cathedral, a special Multicultural Fundraising Dinner will be held at St. Patricks College Hall, 581 Evans Bay Parade on Saturday, 27th February 2021 at 7:00pm (non-alcoholic drinks will be served).

Our dinner organising committee will bring you special treats from across many cultures - Malaysian, Sri Lankan, Chinese cuisines and much more. Only $50 per person. Special family rate available for those with young children.

A special raffle will take place at the event with prizes to be won.

Get your tickets after Mass or contact Frank at the Cathedral Parish Office or Bing Fernandes on 021-279-7474. All proceeds will go to our Cathedral reopening campaign.

We are looking for businesses and/or individuals who would be happy and willing to sponsor various aspects of the fundraising dinner. Please contact Bing if you wish to learn more about how to support this event.

Tony Naughton comes into school each Wednesday at lunchtime to take children for tennis lessons.  If you are interested in enrolling your child for tennis lessons, please email Tony: tnsquash@gmail.com or phone him on (04) 384 5233.  First lesson starts on Friday 12 February 2021.