St Benedict's School Pānui ā-rorohiko (Online Newsletter) Week 6, Term 3
Weekly Reflection
He or she who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) - American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, slavery abolitionist and poet
School Board Update
Policy Review
The School Board would like to invite our community to take part in our current policy review. Key review topics for our community this term is Sun Protection, Harassment and Child Protection. The link to our school policies can be found here:
Visit the website
Enter the username (st-benedicts) and password (3000stbens). Then use the side bar search engine to find the relevant policy. The review button will be on the top right hand side of the screen when visiting the policy.
Tumuaki Korero - A word from our Principal
Tena koutou e te whānau,
Welcome...
We warmly welcome Oliver (Room 2) and his whānau to St Ben's.
Welcome also to our new Newsletter sponsored by the Helping Our Kids committee!! It has several new features that should help with accessibility:
- Quick links to all articles within the current newsletter situated at the top.
- In the top bar are links to our school calendar, website, to subscribe to the newsletter and newsletter archive. For newsletters prior to moving to this platform they will still be accessible from our school website.
- Ability to choose another language to read the newsletter in. Please be aware that this is powered by Google Translate and some idioms written in English and Māori may not translate correctly.
- Arrow on the right-hand side of screen to take you back to the top of the newsletter.
- Left sidebar that is linked to our school Community Calendar when viewing on a computer. When viewing on your phone choose the School Calendar from the top drop down.
- Photo galleries of school events that are easy to scroll through. Simply click on the photo to enlarge.
- Ability to subscribe to this newsletter - you are welcome to send the link on the top tool bar or drop down to whānau who wish to receive our newsletter.
- A helpful tip if viewing the newsletter via your phone is to hold it in landscape rather than portrait orientation.
We will next be launching our School App (date to be advised) that will initially include direct links to report absences, downloading invoices and receipts, our newsletter and website. We will also be able to send notifications much like you currently receive via text or email.
IN SEARCH OF...
a skilled and experienced operator of the lighting board at Aotea College for school production. If you, or someone you know, is able to help out, please email: molly.kelly@st-benedicts.
Congratulations to.. Xavier and Stas who supported the St Mary's of the Angel's community as altar servers at the 100 year Commemorations .
Hadleigh who came third at the Amsbury School invitational cross country.
Our Assembly certificate recipients.
Our Mathswell teams who competed on Tuesday and Wednesday night this week.
Jack (R11) who is competing in the North Island Speed Cubing Champs tomorrow. Go Jack!
Social Media: Discord
This is a quick heads up for parents/caregivers on a social media platform that needs careful monitoring to ensure your tamariki who use it are not exposed to harmful material.
Launching in 2015, Discord is a platform for people with similar interests to share and communicate. It is popular among the gaming community as it offers a way for video game players to communicate with each other and develop a community outside of the games themselves.
However, it has grown into a full social network with over 140 million* active monthly users. It is no longer just popular among gamers.
Although this platform has many positive uses from fostering collaboration and team work online to learning correct online etiquette, it can also prove troublesome if young people are not supervised on this platform.
As a school we ask our parents to please check if your young person is on Discord and begin the conversations as to what might be appropriate to discuss while on the platform.
Here are two links to some helpful tips for parents on how to manage the Discord app.
https://www.klicksafe.de/en/news/was-eltern-ueber-discord-wissen-muessen
Upcoming parent meeting...
We have been working closely with NetSafe to develop an online evening seminar for our wider school whānau to attend. This will be held on Monday the 12th of September at 7pm via zoom. Currently we have six whānau registered. The aim of this meeting is to support our whānau with strategies to help tamariki to make safe choices before online interactions go wrong. Please refer to the email sent on 30th of June for further information. You can register for this webinar here.
Mā te Atua koutou e manaaki, e tiaki hoki,
May God bless and care for you,
Tania Savage - Principal
EPIC Gratitude
The school production is well underway. It will be taking place at Aotea College on 8th and 9th November. There will be a matinee on Tuesday and evening shows on Tuesday and Wednesday. More information will come about costumes but save the date for now!
The Kauri teachers have been extremely impressed with the way the students have dedicated their time to the production 'Rock Bottom'. The commitment to learning their lines and being prepared for auditions and now rehearsals has been outstanding. We are so grateful to have such enthusiastic and responsible students who are doing the mahi and getting the results. The teachers thank our Kauri students and we are all excited for the finished results that we will share with the rest of the school and our community.
Prop building in progress
Mrs Savage was amazed at the lovely art work focused on the Assumption of Mary displayed across our school. Check out the gallery below.
Mrs Haswell has been working with some EPIC musicians during her Friday sessions
The year 7 and 8’s are exploring different musical structures, and we started with call and response. In this lesson the students came up with their own ostinato which was awesome! They kept it going throughout whilst another group kept a steady beat. The remaining students were the ‘responders’. Great to see learnings from previous lessons being used. The students worked in pairs to create their own rhythms and then practiced calling and responding with another pair. We used stones to keep the beat and shells to keep rhythm which was fun for the kids as well as a nice way to introduce the idea of timbre. Well done Room 11.
Swimming Sports Term 3
After School Care
Hello from the After School Care Team!
It is so nice to see the sun again and the sound of the children playing both on the turf and in the adventure playground is music to our ears. If they are happy we are happy.
However, despite the somewhat wet winter, there have been plenty of indoor activities on the go. We are fortunate to have some keen knitters amongst the children with finger knitting for beginners whilst the more advanced have a peggy square blanket underway to donate to charity! Others have become very creative with Jenga and thanks to Emma an afternoon painting a cardboard "tent" was a real hit. Lego, Chess, K'nex, music and crafts are always a hit. Movies (sometimes with popcorn) go down a treat and are a great time for everyone to wind down.
Thank you to all the parents and caregivers for giving us the opportunity to look after your children. It is our pleasure to keep them stimulated, happy and above all safe.
Donna, Feliz, Marcus, Emma, Charlotte and Patrick
After School Care Fun
St Benedict's Sports
Congratulations to our Year 4 Diamonds and Year 3 Smilies netball teams who have finished their netball season. The season was interrupted often by rain and wind but feedback was that the teams had a wonderful time and represented St Benedict's with enthusiasm. An enormous thank you to Waimarie Marks, Sarah Boyle, Kaye Herrick and Sarah Southee for their help in coaching and managing the teams.
Lost Property
Left behind after photo day - school shorts, polo shirt, (size 10) and sweatshirt, (size 6). Please collect from the office.
Missing: Named school P.E. jacket belonging to Joseph Byrne. Please check your student has not mistakenly taken it home. If found please return to Joseph or the office. Thank you.
‘YUMMY’ STICKERS’
Celebrating their 25th anniversary of running this promotion for schools.
Please remember to save ‘Yummy’ Stickers for your sticker sheet.
* Now until the end of Term 3. We have 1382 stickers so far.
Thank you to Lucia & Lachie Pope, Violet, George & Leo Foskett for their sticker collections.
It’s time to start collecting yummy apple stickers and the cut-out labels on the yummy 1.5kg apple bags. You will find all your favourite yummy apples at your local New World or Pak’n Save (and some participating 4 Square stores). Plus three new varieties now.
Eat ‘Yummy’ and support our school. Crunch on apples and collect ‘yummy’ sports money. Collect the ‘cut out’ labels from the 2kg bags of ‘Yummy’ apples or individual ‘Yummy’ apple stickers, available from New World and Pak’n Save stores. Cash them in for Rebel Sports gear for our school. Send all your ‘Yummy’ stickers to the office.
* Collect your sticker sheets from the office or visit www.yummyfruit.co.nz. Let's get munching.
Helping Our Kids - Fathers Day and Disco
Disco! '22 is getting closer!
RSVPs for Disco ’22 close on Friday - make sure you are on the list!
Please RSVP to register details of the children who will be coming to the disco, and let us know how you can help on the night.
Remember that the ticket price includes entry to the disco and some pizza, and there will be plenty of goodies and merchandise to purchase on the night.
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help on the night, the roster will be sent out by email this weekend. We are still looking for more volunteers! In particular to help with set-up and clean-up.
Please let us know if you can help.
When: 9 September 2022
Years 0/1-4 - 5.30-7pm | Years 5-8 - 7.30-9pm
Where: The Village Church Hall, Ganges Road, Khandallah
Please RSVP and pay by 2 September 2022.
Entertainment Book
Attendance Dues
Message from The Attendance Dues Team
Now that we are sending all invoices/statements by email to families, please contact us if you have changed your email address so that we can update your account. Invoices will still be posted to families without an email address.
The Term 3 invoice will be emailed to all families shortly. Please check that the invoice has not gone to your Spam/Junk Inbox and that all your children are listed on the statement. If you have not received any invoices this year, please contact us.
Financial assistance is available to families experiencing financial hardship (loss of income/redundancy, family reasons, etc.). It is a condition of the assistance application that the family has an affordable regular payment in place.
If you have any questions, please contact us:
Phone: 0800 462 725 Email: dues@wn.catholic.org.nz Text: 021 08907902
Road Patrol Roster
NICHOLSON ROAD
(Mornings and Afternoons)
Parents: Please be present from 8:25am - 9:00am and again from 2:45am - 3:15pm
| Term 3 | 2022 | |
| Thursday | 01 September | Novilla family |
| Friday | 02 September | O'Brien family |
| Monday | 05 September | O'Connor family |
| Tuesday | 06 September | O'Reilly family (Niamh) |
| Wednesday | 07 September | O'Shaughnessy family |
| Thursday | 08 September | Olsen family |
| Friday | 09 September | Pan family |
| Monday | 12 September | Peet family |
| Tuesday | 13 September | Pieries family |
| Wednesday | 14 September | Pinto family |