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.

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

I hope you have all had an enjoyable break from busy routines and have had a chance to spend quality time with family and doing things you enjoy.  The weather was certainly kind to us!

We are wishing Bernadette God's blessing for her Sabbatical this term; stay safe and well Bernadette, as you recharge your batteries and inquire into student agency.  We held a special school assembly on the last day of last term to wish Mrs Murfitt all the best for her sabbatical. 

We welcome Mrs Leanne Stewart who is teaching in Room 8 this term, so I can be in the office.

Welcome to Julius Solia who is working across the school on Wednesdays providing learning support.

A warm welcome to Blayke, Catherine and Fintan who all started in Room 1 on Monday.  We hope this is the beginning of an enjoyable learning experience for each of you and that you make lifelong friends as you progress through our school.

We are reminded constantly on the news how blessed we are in NZ, as most of the world continues to battle Covid.  This term is in direct contrast to this time last year when we were still locked down.  We are hoping children are refreshed and ready to make progress with their learning.  Your support and interest here is such a help to us.  Regular Maths basic facts revision and reading with and to your children, is all part of this.

Today, we are celebrating mothers, grandmothers and those who fulfill these roles in our lives, in our Liturgy.  Many thanks to Jane Regan and the liturgy leaders for putting this together for us.  It is so much nicer to be doing this in person than by zoom!

A poem from the liturgy -

A halo that reflects a life of

wisdom, kindness, and caring.

Eyes that sparkle with pride

and show how much she believes in you.

Shoulders that have been slept on

and wept on and

carried a world or two.

Arms that never run out of hugs.

Hands that know

just when to hold on

and when to let go.

A mind filled with amazing things,

from fairy tales to family tails

and long-ago stories of you.

A smile that can jump right into your heart

and warm you faster than hot chocolate.

A heart of gold

that holds more love

than you can possibly imagine

.....and a quote from Pope Francis

I hope all mums, grandmas and any others who nurture and support, feel appreciated on Sunday.  If not, treat yourselves to something you enjoy.  You deserve it!!

Arohanui,

Christine Geraghty

Acting Principal

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

This has been carried over from last term and will now be at Karori pool from 9-11am.  This is to help us select students to represent the school at the Central Zone Competition later in the year.  Students have indicated that they would like to participate and a separate newsletter came out from Ann Stephen last term.

Congratulations to:

Lila W-A, Rm 8, who won the Manawatū Junior series Masters Golf Championship for 6hole non-hcp in the school holidays.  Well done Lila!

Levi, Rm 10:  On 17-18th April the NZ South Island Rubik's Speedcubing Championship (https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/competitions/NZSouthIslandChampionship2021) was held in Christchurch, with over 60 cubers competing.
Levi competed in most categories up to 7x7x7 cubes with good results.  His personal highlight is a 4th position in blindfolded 3x3x3, being the youngest competitor in this category completing at least one perfect solve.  He also won a prize for being the most helpful participant by helping the delegates' work, being actively involved in scrambling different cubes following a scrambling software's notation that produces official scrambles for competitions. Well done Levi!

Come along and join in the fun of our annual quiz night.  

Enjoy an evening of quizzical fun, a few drinks with prizes for the winning teams.

Where: Shepherds Arms, Tinakori Road, Thorndon.

When: Thursday, 10th June 2021.

Time:   7pm start .  Cost: $10 per person.

An Online Safety Information Presentation on Tuesday (8th June), 7-8.30pm at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School Auditorium.  To register, click on this link:  https://forms.gle/89HVQUQXEqcBGMEv9  For further details see flyers below.

Last term, capture the flag competition was a very interesting and competitive event.  We are all happy that everyone had a fun time.  There were two games, one middle and one senior competition. To figure out what  houses would make it into the finals there were heats.  In the heats, we did eight matches for each syndicate to see who our finalist would be.  For the middles, Kingfisher and White Heron came out victorious to go into the finals which was a close match.  Then for the senoirs, Wood Pigeon had an amazing run by winning all the matches they were in and then the house that was going to verse Wood Pigeon had to paper scissors rock and Fantail won all two paper scissors rock battles to meet Wood Pigeon in the finals.

The finals were really exciting.  The first final was the middle final Kingfisher versus White Heron.  It was a really close match with both the teams getting quite a few breaks but then getting tagged. It was so close that they went into sudden death.  After 11 minutes, Ezra pulled away from the defenders and crossed the line so White Heron won.

The seniors final was Fantail versus Woodpigeon which was convenient so both houses got to be in the final.  It was a pretty close match but not as close as the middles. Woodpigeon won with Charlie capturing the flag.

Overall, I thought it was just about having fun just having a good game of capture the flag. 

The winning houses that came in first place will receive 200 house point.  In second place, the house will get 100 house points and for participation houses that were not in the finals will receive 50  house points.  We will be starting to collect house points each Friday in the afternoon.

Zachary, TJ and Felix

Yesterday, a group of Year 8 girls were invited to spend the day at St Mary’s College to give them the experience of being a college student.  We started off the day going to the av room and learning about the sisterhood of St Mary's.  Then we were taken to the science lab to do some science experiments.  We did multiple experiments, one of which we lit magnesium on fire, the same material that is used to make the white sparks in fireworks.  After Science we went to Drama.  During Drama we participated in a whole lot of team building activities including ‘bang’ and one where we had to turn ourselves into objects. 

Having this experience really encouraged me to think about becoming a student at St Mary’s. - Maia Rm 10 

A group of Year 8 girls were given the opportunity to experience and learn what it’s like being a student at St Mary’s College.  We did many activities including science, drama, design and food tech.  In the afternoon, we split into four groups and rotated around different stations for design and food tech.  Each of these stations had different equipment including a 3D printer, a laser cutter, food etc.  We got to see how the laser printer worked and the finished results of the 3D printer because it wasn’t working like they were expecting.  We visited an exhibition which included homemade costumes, jewellery, house diagrams, edited photos etc.  We got to taste homemade tortilla chips made by some St Mary’s students, which had different flavours and different dips to go with it.

Going to the open day definitely made me think about going to St Mary’s next year for college.  I liked seeing the different opportunities they give and the sisterhood throughout the school. - Harmony Rm 10 

The Open Day tours for those interested in enrolling their son at St Patrick’s College for 2022 will be held on Tuesday, 15th June between 9.30 to 11.00am and from 12.00pm to 1.30pm and again on Thursday, 17th June between 9.30 to 11.00am and from 12.00pm to 1.30pm. To make a booking please visit the St Patrick's College website:

https://www.stpats.school.nz

On the front page of our website you will see 'Open Day'.

Open this section and select "Open Day Booking Form" (an online booking form).

Enter your details and make your selection regarding day/time.

A reminder email will be sent closer to your booked day.

Our student council are running a breakfast club for students on Tuesdays from 8.10am in the After School Care room.  Weetbix and milk will be available.  This is sponsored by Fonterra.

Subway lunches can be ordered online each Wednesday before 9.00am.  The subway lunches will be dropped off at school before lunchtime.  Instructions on how to order are in the flyer below.

The school uses SchoolAppsNZ to communicate with parents or you can get in touch with us by the messages side tab or absentee icon.  Please download this app if you haven't yet done so.  Instructions are contained in the flyer below.

SchoolAppsNZ_Flyer.pdf

SchoolAppsNZ_Flyer _pdf 824.17 KB

SchoolAppsNZ_Message_Image.pdf

SchoolAppsNZ_Message_Image _pdf 206.35 KB

Once you have downloaded the app, you can customize the alerts that you receive from us by clicking on the 'Alert Subscriptions' from the drop down menu,  then tick the corresponding house, classroom and year level that your child is in. See photos below.

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