Thank you all for the amazing support you have given our school this year. 2019 has been a busy year and we are so proud of our students and their achievements. We appreciate your enthusiastic responses to help us with activities, the love and support you give us to support learning.

Thank you

Have a happy and safe Christmas and enjoy your time with family and friends. Farewell to those families who are moving on to new adventures. We look forward to seeing you all in 2020.

Blessings and aroha to you all 

Bernadette Murfitt

Principal

Sacred Heart Cathedral School 

• Children are given the opportunity to participate in netball, swimming, tennis, basketball, touch rugby, soccer, athletics and drama
• Challenges of training for school cross country where children’s fitness is developed
• Ongoing Intensive Professional Development for staff with funding provided by the Ministry of Education and contracted to “Core Education”. This has led to improved learning outcomes for all students at our school.  This has also enabled the staff to develop pedagogical knowledge and skills when implementing and delivering the New Zealand Curriculum particularly through an E Learning lens and digital technology
• Physical Education and Character Professional Development facilitated by Innerfit 
• Fonterra Milk in Schools programme
• Mandarin Language Assistant supporting students at Sacred Heart Cathedral School to acquire basic Mandarin Language skills. Chinese Language week was celebrated by making dumplings, mooncakes, and participation in a tea ceremony.
• Our  Board of Trustees completed Professional Development on governance and responsibilities of Boards in a Catholic school
• Use of Mathletics as an online resource to support the learning of Mathematics at home and school
• Students participated in " Mind, Body and Soul" presentation for families. This was a display of strategies and games learnt through the Innerfit Programme.
• Accelerated Literacy Learning for target students facilitated by Learning Solutions
• Member of Wellington Catholic Community of Learning
• External Catholic Character Review highlighting our school strengths as Catholic Comunity. " The Principal , DRS and Board Chair are united in their commitment to leadership that is embedded in Catholic Character and work hard to ensure that Sacred Heart Cathedral School students experience the best education in a Catholic environment."

• Successful school education outside the classroom expereinces where students were challenged across a range of outdoor activities including trips to Te Papa
• Aquatic education instruction at Regional Aquatic Centre
• Stations of the Cross – each class shared the essence of the meaning of each station and what it means to live a life like Jesus
• Kapa Haka tuition for all students
• Participation in Artsplash Choir
• School Orchestra
• Feast Day celebrated with Sacred Heart Petone
• Celebrated Maori Language Week, Samoan Language Week, Cook Islands Language Week , Fijian Language Week and Chinese Language Week
• Student led market day raising money for the Cathedral parish and our school playground
• Quality sports instruction programme at ASB
• Student led fundraising initiatives with a social justice focus – donations made to: Caritas, Soup Kitchen and  Home of Compassion 

• State of the art technically advanced classrooms.
• New data screens in Room 1,5 and 6.
• Completion of Stage 2 of all weather surface and landscaping.
• Purchase of iPads and chrome books to support learning across the school

• Liturgy for Mothers, Fathers and Grandparents. Students shared prayers, insights and stories about how precious a mother, father and grandparent is.
• Successful Pasifika Fonos covering a range of topics including presentation from Dame Winnie Laban
• Matariki breakfast
• Celebration of Learning 
• Fundraising group who are committed to raising funds for our school playground (through raffles, quiz night and movie fundraiser)
• International Food Night that extracted the strengths of our wonderful community
• Parents supporting students on Education Outside the Classroom experiences
• Keeping your child safe in the cyber world presentation for families with a special focus on social media. This was facilitated by Core Education
• End of Year Academic Mass
• Excellent attendance at goal setting and interim reporting sessions
• Induction evening for new families and students to Sacred Heart Cathedral School

Whole school visit to Home of Compassion on Tuesday 28 May to celebrate 'Catholic Schools Day':

"I am a volunteer at The Home of Compassion  and   was doing some activities with the children from your school on Tuesday .

Yasha Rm 6 won a scholarship to Scots College.

Tammy Room 6, won an ICAS medal for achieving the highest score in the Year 5 ICAS Science exam. This is an incredible achievement and is testament to all her work ethic and positive attitude towards learning.

Keiffer Room 7, was successful in his application for a Gifted Learners Award, from the Ministry of Education.  Keiffer will receive a share of the $1,000.00 award which he is intending to use to enrol himself in a Stem Club called Make Room Wellington – an education program designed around Engineering, Maths and Science.

Yasha Rm 6: recipient of a 2 year Academic Scholarship to Scot's College for Year 7 and 8.

Noah Rm 8:  recipient of a 5 year Excellence Scholarship to Scot's College for excellence in academic and sporting achievement.

Central Zone Speech competition

The following children were selected to represent our school at the Central Zone Speech competition this year:

Year 5:  Alessandra Villavicencio  'Why teachers' jobs are becoming more difficult.'

Year 6:  Irene Jiss  'The importance of education.'

Year 7:  Tyler Duncan "Maybe.'

Year 8:  Annabelle Stirling 'Spending money.'

Tyler was placed 1st in the Year 7 category for his speech on 'Maybe.'

Technology and Innovation 

Congratulations to the E Pro8 team Thomas, Eva, Cara and Noah who competed in competitions based on problem solving, teamwork and innovation. The team were winners of their heat and had the opportunity to be part of a semi final.

Mathematics Problem Solving - APSMO Olympiad 

Congratulations to Cara Yap for her top 10% achievement and top overall score for our school.

2019 Curriculum Data 

86% of all students at Sacred Heart Cathedral School are achieving at or above expectations in Reading

85% of all students at Sacred Heart Cathedral School are achieving at or above expectations in Mathematics

86% of all students at Sacred Heart Cathedral School are achieving at or above expectations in Writing

Areas for Improvement

After careful analysis and scrutiny of school wide data the following areas have been identified and are school wide targets for 2020

Sacred Heart Cathedral School has been represented at Regional, Inter Zone Central Zone in Cross Country and Athletics; and at the Inter Zone, Central Zone levels for Swimming.  We had 5 netball teams who played Saturday netball under the school name during the winter terms.  We also had teams entered in the Total Touch competition - 4 teams playing in Term 1 and 3 teams in Term 4. 

Swimming:

Synchronised Swimming:  Audrey Rm 7, participated in the North Island Synchronised Swimming Competition in Tauranga and her team was placed 2nd in their category.

Netball: Ella Rm 9 and Eva Rm 10, completed  the Kiwi Whistlers Umpire Programme.

Tifa Rm 9 participated in the Blitz Netball tournament.

Golf:  Toaiva Rm 5 competed in the 2018 NZ International Junior Open Golf tournament hosted by the USKIDS and qualified for the IMG San Diego and Las Vegas Junior Golf 2019 around June/July next year.

Lonasei Rm 8, Mataniu Rm 2 and Toaiva Rm 7 travelled to Samoa and took part in the Junior Samoa Open Golf tournament in their respective age group competitions.  Mataniu was awarded 4th place, Lonasei awarded 3rd place and Toaiva awarded 1st place.  Well done girls!  Lonasei will be participating in Miramar and Taupo Open near the end of the year.  

Dance: Ava Rm 10, had the privilege of competing at the bi-annual Alana Haines Australian Awards (AHA) classical ballet competition in Wellington.  This is the most prestigious Australasian ballet competition with over 600 dancers travelling from all over NZ and Australia to dance and almost half a million dollars in prizes and scholarships to awarded.  As the 18^th youngest competitor, Ava was delighted to be one of the 100 dancers selected to proceed to the quarter finals. All quarter finalists received complimentary pointe shoes from Capezio, who had staff available to provide personal fittings for all 100 dancers.  These are Ava’s very first pair of pointe shoes, so doubly special.  Ava has qualified for the Asian Grand prix competition in Auckland next year.

Lily Rm 9 has won trophies in various dance competitions including Jazz Solo, Lyrical Solo, Impromptu, Jazz Duo and she has won numerous competitions as part of the six member dance troupe - 'Hit the Road' troupe.  She also got her pointe shoes this year.

Taylah  Rm 6 is a dancer in the the hip hop dance troupe 'Stellar' and they have been selected to compete in the World Hip Hop dance competition in Phoenix, USA next year.  Taylah trains with the group for about 13 hours per week.

Rugby:  Noah A-K Rm 8, was selected to play for the Western Bays Under 13 Rugby Representative team.  He competed in the Wellington Rugby Union Intra provincial tournament in July, where they played the best of the best from Wellington, Hutt Valley and Horowhenua-Kapiti. 

Lynda Rm 8 and Annie Rm 8 were selected to play for the Wellington Girls' Centurions Rugby U12/13 rep team.  Lynda was also selected to play for the Wellington U12 Rugby Rep mixed team.

Steven Rm 6 was selected to play for the Western Bays Rugby U12 Rep team  and the Waka Ama Nationals Porirua U12 rep team.

Remy Rm 8 was selected to play for the Wellington Junior Rugby Snips Rep team.

Cooper Rm 10 and Max L Rm 9 were selected to play for the Mana Barbarians Primary Schools' Rep team.

Ethan Rm 9 was selected to play for the Western Bay's U11 Rep team and for the Small Blacks Union U13 team.

Basketball:  Harley Rm 7 and Dion Rm 6 played for the Strathmore Ballers and their team won the Wellington basketball tournament played at the ASB sports centre.

Cricket:  Tyler Rm 8 and Luke Rm 8, were selected to play for the Porirua City Cricket U13 rep team.

Hockey:  Jack Rm 10 was selected to play for the Wellington Hockey U13 Rep team.

Soccer:  Daniel Rm 8,  was selected to play for the Western Suburbs U14 Footbal rep team.

Badminton:  Marcus, Rm 9 participated in the Central Region U15 competition his team (the Wellington North Badminton team) came 1st!  Marcus and his partner also won the Wellington U15 Open doubles competition.  And his team was placed 5th out of 18 teams in the Badminton Junior teams National Championship.

Surf Lifesaving:  Annabelle Rm 8 and Bella rm 8 both competed in the U14 Nationals at Mt Maunganui.

In November our Senior students particiapted in a sports exchange with St Francis de Sales and won the trophy for participation in Touch Rugby, Netball and Soccer.

Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou

 Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

The pope said the purpose of the nativity scene was to teach “that we cannot let ourselves be fooled by wealth and fleeting promises of happiness” and that they were a reminder to help those less fortunate.

“From the manger, Jesus proclaims, in a meek yet powerful way, the need for sharing with the poor as the path to a more human and fraternal world in which no one is excluded or marginalized,” he wrote.

Pope Francis