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,

We welcome and look forward to having Bernadette back next term, as she shares her experiences and findings with us.

This is my final newsletter to you as the Acting Principal this term. It has been a huge privilege to have the opportunity to do this job. While I have missed Room 8 and am looking forward to going back next term, I have enjoyed the chance to get to know the whole school a little more.

THANK YOU to Bernadette and the BOT for your support, guidance and mentoring.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Leanne Stewart who has so capably taken over Room 8 for me. You will be a hard act to follow!

To Cathy and Frances in the office, THANK YOU for your knowledge, efficiency and good humour.

To the whole staff, including Robyn, Pam and all your other workers at After School Care, Julius, Sister Philippa and Cathy who help with Reading in Room 1, Robyn in the Library, Alison and Rachel, and Keegan for keeping our grounds tidy - THANK YOU for your confidence, support and help; at no point did I feel on my own.

And finally, to you the community, THANK YOU for being who you are and sharing your beautiful children with us. This school is a very special place.

From today's Staff Reflection on Gratitude - "You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late." Ralph Waldo Emerson  and the Weekly Prayer Reflection 27 June - God, in your own image you fashioned us, made all creation for us to use, and keep wholesome, searching for you. Let us always search and let us find you at one with the ins and outs, of our daily lives.  Amen (Anne Osdieck).

After School Care have their own mobile number 02102271743, meaning you can ring directly to collect children or deliver messages.

We farewell and THANK Pam from After School Care, for your caring, generosity of spirit and kindness. You will be missed. We wish you all the best with your new job.

Reminder: The last day of school for this term is Thursday (tomorrow), 8th July and it is a mufti day (non uniform clothes). Staff have a Kahui Ako day at St Pats town.

Uniform: Please label your child/children's clothing so we can return it to them and/or you can find it, in the lost and found chest by the main front doors. It is currently displayed in the walkway towards the library.

What a beautiful evening we were blessed with for Matatiki last Thursday evening. Thank you so much to these parents, Gabrielle Wheddon, for helping with the milos, Jo Kelekolio, for helping with the sausages and Odette Hoera for the lovely reflection she provided to all families; to the Student Councillors who helped - Irene, Laika, Charlotte, Ahena and Kerys, you were awesome; to Sue Cranney who oversaw the event and to all the teachers for their preparation of the games; and finally to all of you who came and supported the event.

There are some lovely photos and videos further down for you to enjoy. The week started with a beautiful Liturgy in syndicates and it will end with another one tomorrow. Classes have been creating a star to illustrate, research and display in the Library, so pop in next term and have a look at them.

A group of Senior Syndicate Road Patrollers participated in a photoshoot to promote the new uniforms coming out that are sponsored by the AA. Well done Iliana, Claudia, Laika, Irene, Joaquin, Keiffer, Sophia and Tamara. We should have some photos to share with you next term!

On Monday, Michael from Caritas came to Assembly to tell about this year's Mufti Mania.

For Mufti Mania in 2021 we are supporting a school in West Papua called Kristus Raja School. The students at this small school have felt the impact of the pandemic and been in lockdown since March 2020! The majority of students come from poorer families and have found remote learning a real challenge. The school was built back in 1970 and the buildings are wearing out. Funds raised this year will help repair toilets and bathrooms and provide new desks, chairs and resources for students for when they come back to school. Please send a cash donation tomorrow for this and children come in non uniform clothes (mufti).

Michael also recognised some students who had worked with Caritas with certificates. Well done to Iliana, Theo, Varias, Sophie, Mhielle and Jessica for Social Justice artwork, and to Bree and Lucus for their photos for Mufti Mania.

This has been an eventful term. Thank you all for supporting the events, children and staff involved. Wishing you all a restful break and a change in routines over the next two weeks. Stay warm and safe, especially if you are travelling.

Arohanui,

Christine Geraghty

Acting Principal

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

A reminder that our 2022 enrolments close on 31 July 2021.  If your child has a sibling that you would like to attend Sacred Heart Cathedral School in 2022, please ensure that a completed Enrolment form, Preference Certificate and Attendance Dues form are submitted to the school before 31 July 2021.  The preference certificate needs to be completed and signed by a Bishop's Agent - this would usually be your parish priest.  A copy of your child's baptismal certificate and NZ birth certificate or NZ passport is also needed.  The enrolment pack can be downloaded from the school website: http://www.sacred-heart.school.nz or call the school office for a copy (04) 4724047.

The Wonder Project is Engineering New Zealand's free programme for schools, designed to get young Kiwis excited about science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Along with the equipment, classes are provided with an ambassador. These ambassadors are 'experts in their field. They provided advice and assistance throughout the term.

Senior syndicate students worked together in teams to design rockets. They created prototypes, redesigned after some testing and launched a final design. The rockets were made from 1.5 Litre soft-drink bottles. These bottles were streamlined with fins and nose cones. They were launched using water that was pressurised with air from a bicycle pump.

Last Monday, students had a final blast off. They competed to see who could launch their rockets the furthest, the highest and which rocket was the most decorative.

A big thank you to parents and whanau for providing the bottles and even bigger thanks to our two experts - Heidi from the Royal Society of New Zealand - Te Apārangi and Henry.

Jean Batten - Extraordinary New Zealander

The Jean Batten Challenge is a series of puzzles we had to solve with a group of people. We have recently been learning about Jean Batten and her story on how she flew a plane and had around 27 take offs and landings. 

For the Jean Batten Challenge we started off by receiving a clue from the special box we had. The clue we got was a card with random lines on it and we were confused until we put it at eye level and squinted. That's when we saw the hidden message that said “check where you put your bags.” We went out into the hallway and saw a message pinned up high above our bags. It was a secret code and we had to communicate with the other group who had our answer to the code. After that, we made some paper airplanes and had a competition seeing who could hit the target with their airplane. When we finished our competition we popped some balloons that had some secret messages.

The next time we came back to the challenge, we had to make a buzz plane which was a plane made from the head of a toothbrush and it buzzed around. When our group was making it, we didn’t communicate properly meaning we all had our own ideas to make it but didn’t discuss with each other first. Eventually, we worked together as a team and persisted until we had the perfect plane. At the end of the day, we received a message that had random letters on the outside and to figure out what it said, we used a mirror. Then we received badges for our hard work in finding the codes and working together as a team.

I learnt a lot about working as a team and communicating ideas to other people I may not know well. This challenge was really fun and I got to learn lots about Jean Batten and her journey on becoming the first woman to fly from England to New Zealand.

Ashleigh Rm 10

~Jean Batten Challenge~

The Jean Batten Challenge was very exciting when we first started. Our team was Audrey, Marsy, Irene, and me. We went on an undertaking of challenges, but we completed it all because of our perseverance..

One of the challenges we found most amusing was the Paper Plane challenge. We had to make a plane that looked like Jean Batten’s~ The Gull.

When we finished, we went to Rm 4 to test them and they were flying so well. Sometimes they fell down but we always modified them to make it better. Afterwards, we had another challenge to throw the plane and hit the bullseye on the whiteboard. Only Beau (from another team) got the bullseye. It was a lot of fun!

One of the most confusing and frustrating things to do was when we had to mix-and-match some codes and listen to records both made by Jean Batten. In those days, that was the only way they could communicate with each other. It took us almost the whole day to finish this task. But like the well-known aviator, we kept on going until we were satisfied.

In general, Room 10 and I all enjoyed it. This took more than a week to do but it was worth it. We learnt a remarkable history of J.B and many things she did. Now as a reward, we have our own badges~ due to our commitment, dedication, teamwork and perseverance!

~Bianca Rm 10~

Here are some photos and videos of our matariki celebration last Thursday evening.

Lachie M, Rm 9 raced yesterday in the Primary Sport Wellington Invitational Cross Country. This event was replaced the Regional Cross Country which was cancelled due to Covid 19 restrictions. Lachie did very well and came 16th place. Well done Lachie!

Tēnā koutou katoa

YEAR 9 ENROLMENTS AT ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE IN 2022

St Patrick’s College is now accepting enrolments for 2022 and the forms can either be downloaded from the College website – www.stpats.school.nz under Enrolments or you can request a Prospectus from the College office.  Please note that enrolments close off on Friday 30 July 2021. 

To see the various holiday programme options please refer to last week's newsletter.

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

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