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,

Welcome to Jax who started in Room 1 on Monday. You are going to love your time at Sacred Heart Cathedral School and will make lifelong friends.

Thank you for all the support you give our school it is so appreciated. We have had a wonderful start to the school year. The students are pretty settled and we are getting into our established routines.

Thank you for all your help at Beach Day.

Events like Beach Day cannot happen without the incredible support you give us. Thank you to the parents who walked down with us or who met us at the beach to help keep our students safe. What a stunning day it was with a background of flat water, Bluebridge docking and yachts sailing around the harbour. We live in a beautiful city. I am so grateful to our staff who did so much work before the scenes and on the day to make 2025 Beach Day such a success.

Our Senior Syndicate are having a wonderful week exploring the city as part of Education Outside the Classroom Week. Thanks again for the tremendous support our parent community have given us.

Keep an eye on the school calendar as there is a lot on.

Have a great week 

Arohanui,
Bernadette Murfitt
Tumuaki
Sacred Heart Cathedral School

Attendance continues to be a top priority for the government, which has set a target of 80% of students attending school more than 90% of the term by 2030. To achieve this, schools need to aspire to reach an average daily attendance rate above 94%.

Last week, 10th-14th of February we were 94.27%. Keep the good work up!

As you are aware, the coalition government are focussing on all students attending school every day unless they are sick.

Please ensure you notify the office if your child is absent from school along with the reason for your child's absence. Please notify your child's abesence to us by downloading the SchoolAppsNZ on your mobile (Apple/Android) and select Sacred Heart Cathedral School then follow the prompts or email the office at office@sacred-heart.school.nz.  You can also call the school landline, press '2' to leave a message on the school answerphone about your child's absence.

3 easy ways to report your child's absence:
1.  via SchoolApps;
2.  email school office;
3.  leave a message on school answerphone.

Thank you.

Please don't park at St Mary's College for pick up or drop off.

The college are so good to us in sharing their facilities with us and it is really important we preserve this relationship.

Kia ora koutou.

Welcome to term 1, 2025! A very warm welcome to new families joining our school.

I’m Suzanne Adair the Presiding Member (Chair) of the Board. For those of you who do not know me, Matthew and I have Charles in year 7 and three older children who all went to Sacred Heart Cathedral School.

Below are a few areas to update our school community on and I will update you throughout the year on areas the Board is working on.

One of our longstanding board members, Keiran Kennedy has resigned from the board as her children are now at Secondary School. I would like to thank Keiran for her great contribution and commitment to the board and the school community. The board has resolved to fill the vacancy by selection, please see the notice in the
newsletter.

Current list of Board Members:

Suzanne Adair (Presiding Member and proprietor’s appointee)
Bernadette Murfitt (Principal)
Kate Woodbury (Staff representative)
Proprietor’s appointees – Fr. Patrick Bridgman, Odette Hoera, and Jay Manu’a.
Parent representatives – Nicola Nation, Lionel Taito-Matamua, Caleb Ware, and David Aldred.

The Board looks forward to meeting many of you at upcoming school gatherings – the seniors BBQ night on 26 February and the junior/middles wheels night on 27 February.

Board meeting - Last Wednesday night we had our first Board of Trustees meeting for 2025. Our strategic discussions were on health and safety and academic achievement. After reviewing very strong academic data (with a focus on our Māori and Pasifika tamariki), the board discussions were on progress being made and we also discussed the school’s learning support programme and next steps for progress.

“Chinese Bridge” Principals delegation to China:

Sacred Heart Cathedral School currently offers Chinese language and culture through collaboration with Victoria University of Wellington. Bernadette Murfitt has been selected to attend a delegation through Victoria University to visit Xiamen, China. The delegation will take place in the first week of the April school holidays. The delegation, made up of 10 Wellington principals, will visit schools and attend lectures at Xiamen University. The cost of the delegation (excluding flights) and all costs in China are covered by the Confucious Institute of Victoria University. We look forward to Bernadette returning to share her first-hand experience of education and school settings in China.

If you have any questions about the above, please email or call me - suzanneadair@hotmail.com 021 039 7558.

Ngā mihi,

Suzanne Adair
Presiding Member

A casual vacancy has occurred on the school board for an elected parent representative. The board has decided to fill the vacancy by selection.

If 10% or more of eligible voters on the school roll ask the board, within 28 days of this notice being published, to hold a by-election to fill the vacancy, then a by-election will be held.

Request for a by-election should be sent to:

Suzanne Adair

Presiding Member

Sacred Heart Cathedral School Board

12 Guildford Terrace, Thorndon, Wellington 6011

by: 18 March 2025

Miko is our Mandarin Language Assistant for 2025.

Miko, you are really going to love your time at our school.

On Wednesday, senior students from SHCS gathered together for Liturgy Leaders Day led by Mr Nik Solia at Conolly Hall. We talked about the qualities of a leader, who can be a leader and some of the qualities that we have. Some significant leaders that we discussed were Christopher Luxon, Pope Francis, Jesus and of course our principal, Mrs Murfitt, and what role they play as a leader. The Liturgy Leaders help out at assemblies and masses with our main purpose being to serve. I learned that being a leader is making hard decisions and knowing what's best for everyone even if everyone doesn't agree with you or like your choice.

By: Jiezl (Room 10)

This Friday, 21st February we will be holding a ‘non-school uniform day’ in exchange of an item to go in our Easter hamper raffle. Money raised from this raffle will go towards outdoor equipment.

5 raffle tickets in an envelope, each ticket $2, will be sent home on Monday, 24th  February. Please sell them to friends/family or you might choose to up your odds on winning a hamper by buying the lot. Name and contact phone number need to be written on each ticket butt.

Payment can be made by internet banking:

Account name:  Sacred Heart Parents and Friends

Account number:  12-3140-0397242-00

For the school reference use your child’s name an Easter raffle.

Extra tickets will be available from Cathy or Frances, in the school office.

Raffle closes on Monday 31st March. Winners drawn on Wednesday, 2nd April and will be announced in the school newsletter. Thank you.

Seniors will have a fun night here at school on Wednesday, 26th Febraury that starts at 5:00 PM and whānau will have the opportunity to meet each other.

On Thursday, 27th February from 4:30 to 6:30 PM, the Junior and Middle Syndicates can bring their wheel items to school like skates, rollerblades, scooters, skateboards and bikes.

Families are encouraged to bring takeaway dinner to have at school.

Parking will be on Hill Street, Molesworth Street and Hawkestone Street. There will be no parking on the school grounds to make space for our students riding their wheel items.

Just on the eve of Christmas, we were notified that our Staff Curriculum Development days for Mathematics run by the Ministry of Education will be on Friday, 4th April and Thursday, 19th June which is the day before Matariki.

Please note that there is no school as teaching staff will be learning about Structured Mathematics 

Please click on the link below to fill in the form. The link closes on Friday, 21st February. Thank you.

SHCS Community Form

SUMMER FOOTBALL: 

Aotearoa Amigos won against Lightning strikers Gold last Friday. The team played spectacularly and had fun. Player of the day was Owen (Room 5), played fiercely and scored the majority of the goals leading up to the win.

Southern Cross Round the Bays Wellington 2025 8.4km run:

On Sunday, 16th February, Enrico (Room 9) and Owen (Room 5), participated in Southern Cross Round the Bays Wellington 2025, 8.4km run.

Enrico completed his run in 35 mins and placed 7th position in U15.

Owen completed his run in 45 mins and placed 66th position in U15.

Well done boys!

A set of keys and a mobile phone has been handed into the school office - see photos below. If either of these items belong to you, please drop into the office to collect or email me and I can give it to your child to bring home office@sacred-heart.school.nz.

To purchase an entertainment book, click on the following link:  https://subscribe.entertainmentnz.com/fundraiser/10428y2

February Campaign - Bonus $20 eGift Card + Multi City Upgrade

Promotion Dates : 

Tuesday, 18 February 2025 at 8:00 pm - Thursday, 27 February 2025 at 1:59 pm

Offer Name : 

Bonus $20 eGift Card + Multi City Upgrade

The Offer : 

Starting at 6pm AEDT / 8pm NZDT, Tuesday 18th February to 11:59am AEDT / 1:59pm NZDT, Thursday 28th February, every Entertainment Membership purchase comes with:

• A FREE $20 Woolworths eGift Card (NZ) —a little gift from us to you!
• A chance to win a dreamy, all-expenses-paid Club Med holiday in Bali (romantic getaway, anyone?).
• A BONUS Multi City Membership Upgrade—because love should be limitless!
• Instant access to over 15,000 incredible offers on dining, shopping, and travel.

And the best part? When your supporters treat themselves (or a loved one!) to a Membership, 20% goes directly towards your fundraising goals. That’s what we call a love-filled win-win!

*Terms & Conditions Apply. Please visit www.entertainment.com.au/promotions to view.