St Benedict's School Pānui ā-rorohiko (Online Newsletter) Week 2, Term 4

Upcoming Events from our Calendar

For a better viewing experience  on your phone, turn your phone on its side. 

Recurring events
Tuesday Mānuka Athletics Skills Week 4-9 ; Football at School - Kowhai Syndicate Week 4-8 (final session on Thursday)
Thursday Library Liturgy (click here for schedule); Football at School - Kauri Syndicate  Week 4- 8 (final session on Tuesday)

Week 3
Labour Day Public Holiday 23rd October 
Teacher Only Day 24th October - School closed for instruction 

Week 4
Wednesday 1st November All Saints Liturgy @ 10:00am   (@ School) followed by Parent thank you morning tea RSVP to office. 

Week 5 Book Week 
Friday 10th November  Dress up Day Book Week & House Challenge Book quiz

Items found in the School APP
Teacher Messages
Term 4 Syndicate Newsletter
Documents Section
2024 School Dates
Summer Uniform Order form
St Ben's Handbook
Widget link
Newsletter
SchoolDocs (Board Policies) 
Account information
Absences notification
School Calendar
MyKindo for lunch orders
HoK Facebook and Instagram
Comming Soon Road Patrol Roster 

Catholic Character

Catholic Social Services Refugee Resettlement Project needs your help

This project has been running since 2015. This is a long time for our communities to be committed 
to providing quality household goods and pantry items. We are so grateful to all those communities who are committed to regularly providing goods and who have made this project possible. 
We really need your help: 
Option 1 – become one of our regular volunteer groups who provide a house pack and pantry items 
once or twice a year. We will provide you with a list of items.
Option 2 – gather some likeminded people together and start fundraising so that Catholic Social 
Services can purchase household items and pantry packs as we need them.
Option 3- Be an ongoing gatherer of good quality electrical goods and kitchen ware to donate over 
the course of a year. (To be stored at CSS) The following items are the ones most in need.
• Electric Jug
• Microwave
• Rice cooker
• Vacuum cleaner
• Pots and pans
• Dinner set
• Cooking utensils.

If you would like to participate please contact us at refugees@wn-catholicsocialservices.org.nz
Thank you !
Kamau Holland
Director Catholic Social Service

School Board Update

School Board Election

Thank you to the three candidates that are standing for our mid-term election. The School parent community should have received voting instructions via email. Voting closes on Wednesday 15th November.

We look forward to your participation in this process.

Wayne Jamieson
Returning Officer
CES

Strengths /Challenges /Opportunities /Threats

Thank you to everyone who participated in our inital community consultation SCOT review. In the gallery above you can view the feedback the Board received. The size of the word indicates how many people agreed with that statement. 

The Education and Training Act 2020, introduced a new planning and reporting framework. Under the new framework, annually updated charters will be replaced with a 3-year strategic plan and an annual implementation plan.

The current 2023 Strategic Plan and Annual Goals is a transition document and will be reviewed with the above feedback in mind. 

Tumuaki Korero - A word from our Principal

Tēnā koutou e te whānau,
It has been a real delight to return to our art-filled school for the final term of 2023. This term is always filled with a number of marquee events, so I urge you to keep a close eye on our Calendar, St. Ben’s, the @School APP, and the newsletter. There are plenty of opportunities for you to join us on trips, at liturgy, or class prayers over the next term, and we urge you to make the most of the opportunity to build community with us.

Summer uniform reminder: The weather over the last few days has started to bring out the sun's rays, which has been a welcome sight for us all. Term 4 is the term where it is prudent to pack both the jacket and the sun hat. Our first-week amnesty for hats is over, and we expect all our tamariki to be wearing hats as part of our summer uniform. Our uniform shop has plenty of hats available for purchase.

Newsletter changes going forward: Now that we have 90% of our community regularly using our @School APP, we will be moving some items that have previously appeared in the School Newsletter into the @School APP. To help you know where to look for information, each newsletter will have an 'It’s on the APP' section, which will be a handy list of what you can find within it. Within this newsletter, we have placed that section underneath the upcoming dates.

Netball Courts: While our sinkhole hasn’t produced any treasure, it has been an opportunity to reconnect with Hadleigh and the team who created our awesome driveway. By the end of tomorrow, we expect the hole will be a patch of gravel. Unfortunately, the asphalters are in demand this time of year, and it may be several weeks before the area is asphalted.

Thank you, HoK: Our tamariki were thrilled to return to new playground equipment for the Mānuka Syndicate and new netball hoops for our courts. Thank you for contributing to the fundraisers that allow HoK to support our school.

My New Gallery

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Parking: Please ensure you are being courteous when parking to drop off and pick up your tamariki. Please do not block our neighbors’ driveways or park on the yellow lines. These behaviors add extra pressure on everyone who is trying to keep our tamariki safe at our very busy crossings.

Reminder: Our school is closed for Labour Weekend on Monday, 23 October, and for a Teacher Only Day on Tuesday, 24 October

Mā te Atua koutou e manaaki, e tiaki hoki,
May God bless and care for you,
Tania Savage - Principal

St Benedict’s Speech Competition

The St Benedict’s Speech Competition takes place on Friday 24th November.  Students are selected
after presenting to their peers to go into this competition. This competition is judged by members of Toastmaster Wellington. The Year 8 winner has their name entered onto the trophy and receives a gift card.

• At Year 1 and 2 the students are encouraged to learn a poem and recite it to their class.
•  At Year 3 and 4 write and present a speech which is 1-2 minutes long.
• At Year 5 and 6 write and present a speech which is 2-3 minutes long.
•  At Year 7 and 8 write and present a speech which is 3-4 minutes long.

The speech can be on a topic of their choice and can be to persuade, entertain or inform their
audience. Props can be used but no slides or power-points displays.

We encourage students to begin working on their speeches during the holiday break and early next
term. Preparing for speeches will replace homework over this time.

Congratulations to....

Assembly Certificate and EPIC Lotto recipients

ICAS University of New South Wales Assessments

We have received the results for our Science and English entrants.
16 students participated in the Science assessment and the awards presented at assembly this week went to the following students.
Distinction: Henry Peet Year 6
Credit: Jack McDougall Year 8, Eliasz Zych Year 7, Briona Mudalige Year 7, Liam Novilla Year 5
Merit: Jane Choi Year 6, Lucia Burns Year 5, Isobel McDougal Year 4

20 students participated in the English assessment and the awards presented at assembly this week
went to the following students.
Distinction: Ella Kraus Year 6, Jane Choi Year 6, Eli Brunel Year 5.
Credit: Jack McDougall Year 8, Briona Mudalige Year 7, Charlotte Boyle Year 7, Hanna Zych Year 6,
Henry Peet Year 6, Sarah Choi Year 6.
Merit: Reuben Leilua Year 8, Abigail Mekonnen Year 7.

Well done to all of the students who entered this assessment.

Think Kind Student Competition 

Congratulations to Hanna, Year 6, who has been selected as a TOP 10 finalist in the 2023 Think Kind student competition! The Judges tell us the calibre of entries this year was very high! We are very proud of Hanna and the following students who obviously put alot of time and effort into their projects. 

Zoe, Jackson, Peyton, Mimi, Timothy H, Nina, Abigail M, Kathryn, Beau, Leo, Immy, Eden, Isla, Charlotte McG, Hima, Jurek, Arabella, Josy and Ella.

You can view and vote for Hanna's entry by clicking here: VOTE NOW.
The overall winner will be announced on 1st November, World Vegan Day. The entry that wins the People’s Choice Award will receive $1,000 for their school!

Congratulations to “The Saints” a composite team of Year 4 and 6 girls who entered The Horowhenua Springtime Netball Tournament in Levin on Saturday 14th. Despite terrible weather conditions the team hung into the very end and won 3, lost 3 and tied 1 in the Year 5/6 competition.

It was great to play teams from all over the lower North Island with some schools as far away as Taihape. Thanks to St Ben’s old girl Lucy Bergquist for reffing and all the parents who organised the event and supported in very heavy rain.

Well down to all the players, Ella, Kayla, Mary, Isla, Siobhán, Sofia, Lucy and Eleanor. Shout out to Tallaluh who trained with the squad but couldn’t make the postponement date. 

Congratulations to George and Dominic who competed at the Global Games rugby tournament last term in Taupo which attracted over 100 teams from NZ and Australia.   Dominic Captained the U11 MSP team and they won the award for ‘Best and Fairest Team’ in their grade.  Dominic was also selected as one of the ‘players of the competition’ and ‘one to watch’. 

Congratulations to Kennedy who competed in his first squash tournament recently and came second place in the juniors section. 

Congratulations to Isabella Y7, who received two Netball prizes recently.

A medal for most determined player in her team that played in the Year 8 A1 Grade. Isabella also received the  "Whāia te iti Kahurangi" trophy “acknowledging inner strength, determination, perseverance, steadfastness and all virtues that help us to reach our full potential”. Isabella was honoured to receive this award across her Netball Academy in her first year in the team.

Wheet-Bix Kids TRYathlon

The Wellington event will be held on Sunday 17th March at Kilbirnie Park and Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre. If you would like to register your tamariki for this event, please click HERE.  This will take you to the link for the St Benedict's School team.  Please visit the website: https://tryathlon.co.nz/info/ for more details and information. 

Attendance Dues Team

We are getting a new database which will be going live by the end of the year.  This will include a Parent Portal at some stage, which will mean parents can log in and see their account balance and manage their account details. This secure self-service platform will also allow you to make payments. Watch this space!

All communication by us are now via email so please check that emails from dues@wn.catholic.org.nz do not go to your Spam/Junk Inbox so that you receive all communications from ourselves.  If you are paying by regular instalments your account should be paid by the end of November, or by payment plan as agreed by us. It is preferable to have a regular instalment that keeps your account in hand. 

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. You apply for this assistance with the school.

If you have any questions, please so not hesitate to contact us:

Phone: 0800 462 725       Email: dues@wn.catholic.org.nz

Helping Our Kids

Save the date - Summer uniform sale during Term 3 holidays
Saturday 7th October 2-3.30 pm in the school library. Second hand and new items will be available
for purchase.

The HOK Spring Fling
When: Saturday 28 October 
Time: 7.30pm 
Where: Khandallah Tennis Club, 55 Delhi Crescent, Khandallah
Cost: $20 plus an unwrapped child's gift or non-perishable food item
Cash bar | Nibbles | Music
Join us at the first ever HOK Spring Fling  - a social event for parents of St Benedict's School. Book the
babysitter, ask the grandparents or combine with a fellow family to ensure you can come and
socialise with the school community. Additionally make your contribution to the school gifting tree
for the annual Christmas drive - earlier this year but at a less hectic time. 
RSVP here, and deposit to the HOK bank account

The HOK committee is made up of parents from the school who volunteer their time to make stuff happen – come and join us!  We’re always on the lookout for fresh ideas and new members.

Let us know if you want to join our next meeting to see what we do and how we work.
Contact Johanna (HoK secretary) for details: hok@st-benedicts.school.nz

Teatowel fundraiser

HOK is delighted to once again offer customised tea towels as our end-of-year fundraising activity.
 
As attached, each school house has a tea towel in their house colour with a self-portrait of everyone
from that house. They are a lovely souvenir of your time at St Ben's, and the perfect Christmas gift
for those hard-to-buy-for people.
 
You can see samples at the art show this week, and copies will also be circulated by your class reps
via email. 
 
Tea towels cost $15 each. Use the form below to let us know how many tea towels you would like to
order, and for which school house. Pay into the HOK account (12-3141-0352804-00) by 13 October,
using your name as the reference. Tea towels will be delivered early November in time for
Christmas overseas mail! 
  https://forms.gle/t6LDtmiBp2KbcKxK7  
Please contact HOK if you have any questions at hok@st-benedicts.school.nz.

Unclaimed Cup Cake container.  Please collect from the office.

Entertainment Book

Parent Road Patrol Roster

NICHOLSON ROAD
(Mornings and Afternoons)
Parents: Please be present from 8:25am - 9:00am and again from 2:45am - 3:15pm

Wider Community Notices