St Benedict's School Pānui ā-rorohiko (Online Newsletter) Term 1, week 2, 2025
Upcoming Events from our Calendar
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Term 1, 2025
Sports Uniform
Tuesdays Room 9-13
Thursdays Room 7-8 and Rooms 3-5
Week 2 Term 1
Friday 14 February School Picnic @ Bishop Park
Week 3 Term 1
Tuesday 18 February BSLA Whānau Evening Mānuka Syndicate 5:30 Sausage sizzle meeting begins at 6pm
Friday 21 February School Picnic @ Bishop Park postponement day
Week 4 Term 1
Monday 24 February Andrew Chinn here for workshops 9-945 Manuka, 9:45 -10:30 Kowhai, 11:05-11:50 Kauri, 11:55- 12:40 Choir, 1:40-2:40 whole school concert Parents and pre-schoolers welcome at any stage through the day.
Items found in the School APP
School Notices
Teacher Messages
Documents Section
St Ben's Handbook
Widget link
Newsletter
SchoolDocs (Board Policies)
Account information
Absences notification and rate of absences.
School Calendar
MyKindo for lunch orders
FWFC Facebook and Instagram
Parish Invitation
Catholic Character
On Monday 24th of February , Australian religious songwriter and singer, Andrew Chinn, will be visiting our school to share his songs with our children. Andrew’s songs, such as “These Hands”, “Rainbow”, “An African Blessing” and “Rise Up!” are used in classrooms and liturgies around Australia, New Zealand, USA and
Canada. The concert will take place in our library, at 1:40-2:40 and our tamariki will be the stars. We
look forward to seeing you there.
Tumuaki Korero
Tēnā koutou e te whānau ō Hato Penetika,
What a fabulous run of weather we have experienced as we return to school!
It has been a delight to see our tamariki reconnecting in the playground. Even with the limited space, our tamariki are making it work and enjoying their play and lunchtimes. Four square has made a resurgence, and it’s fabulous to see our budding cricketers of all ages practising together. I even spotted knucklebones being played in the playground during our first week!
Our tamariki are also making good use of the shaded areas in the adventure playground, while our younger students are having fun “supervising” the groundworks team. They’ve brought their own diggers and have been busy shifting leaves and twigs in the junior playground.
Ways to help our school
The strength of our school is our school community and the many ways they help us provide the extra touches that makes St Ben's such a lovely place to be. The adventure playground our tamariki are enjoying is a direct result of HOK now FWFC fundraising efforts. FWFC are a great group of people who are looking for some new members who would also be willing to take over some of the executive roles. Please consider stepping forward to help our school by joining this great group. More information can be found in their section further down the newsletter.
Helping to cover our new reading resources for classrooms and the library is also a way you can support our school. Let Coralie know in the office if you can help.
Curriculum Changes and Supports
We are well underway with implementing the refreshed Mathematics and Statistics Curriculum. Over the holidays, our kaiako participated in professional learning around resources to support the curriculum. I want to sincerely thank our kaiako for giving up their holiday time to complete this training, especially since we only received notice of it during the last week of Term 4, 2024.
The new resource our school is using is called Maths No Problem. From our yearly planner, sent home last week, you will have noticed that we have two additional teacher-only days allocated by the Ministry of Education to support kaiako understanding of the refreshed curriculum. These dates are Friday, 4 April, and Thursday, 19 June (with Friday being the Matariki public holiday).
At St. Benedict’s School, we follow the New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Curriculum for Years 0–8. Maths No Problem is just one of the many resources our kaiako use to support tamariki in their learning. Our focus is on providing a variety of experiences and carefully selected activities to best meet the needs of every tamaiti.
In Terms 3 and 4, we hope to run curriculum evenings to help you better understand what we teach, including expectations for progression across the refreshed Mathematics and Statistics Curriculum.
We are also progressing with the implementation of the refreshed English Curriculum for Years 0–6. This week, we received the exciting news that the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) has been approved to support our teachers from Years 0–8. This is fantastic as our first BSLA cohort moves from the Mānuka Syndicate to the Kōwhai Syndicate.
Our Kōwhai teachers are already trialling the new structured literacy resources and will begin professional development in Term 2. We also have our Mānuka BSLA information meeting next Tuesday and plan to run a BSLA session for the Kōwhai Syndicate in Term 3 or 4.
Groundworks
The very noisy groundworks continue, and it’s exciting to see the progress being made. A huge thank you to our wonderful neighbours for their patience and understanding during this disruptive period.
If you haven’t had the opportunity yet, pop through our staffroom to see the incredible amount of work currently taking place. Next week, the first parts of the canopy will be installed, which will involve a lot of drilling. The project’s completion is scheduled for the end of Week 2, Term 2. The great weather we’re experiencing is certainly helping the project move along at a good pace.
After School Care
We currently have vacancies for each day within our After School Care programme. Please contact Emma in the office if you wish to register. ASC has now moved into its own dedicated space in old Room 5.
Enrolments for 2025 Please ensure that you have completed enrolment papers for your pre-school tamariki who are joining us in 2025. This allows us to plan a great transition from Early Childhood Education to School through a series of visits. Equally if you have whānau or friends who are considering enrolling their tamariki, please encourage them to make appointments so we can accommodate these new enrolments.
We warmly welcome the following children and their families into our school community: Rosa (Rm8) and Florence (Rm4), Freddie, Nina, Keira, Thomas, Mila and Cooper (Rm3).
Mā te Atua koutou e manaaki,
May God bless and care for you.
Tania Savage - Principal
Buddy Class
Room 12 and Room 5 enjoyed library time together today, reading and sharing stories with each other.
Room 5
Ms Barnett has shared photos of her students in Room 5 who have settled in well to their new classroom.
Student Celebrations
Congratulations to the below students who received an award at our recent Assembly.
Scholastic Book Club
Scholastic brochures were distributed last week and all orders are now due at the school office by Friday 14 February.
This year we would prefer if people paid online with a credit card, although IF NEEDED you can still order with cash (correct change, please). Return any cash orders to the school office.
To order and pay with a credit card, go to mybookclub.scholastic.co.nz
All orders earn rewards which buy books for the school library.
School dates 2025
The downloadable PDF below will give you a printable calendar for your fridge. It has been updated to reflect the new MOE Maths PLD days.
Since the Board set the dates, the Ministry of Education has announced there will be two mandated teacher only days to support the new curriculum during the year. Unfortunately we have not been able to choose our dates and have been allocated the following dates Friday 4 April 2025 and Thursday 19th of June.
Finalised school dates for 2025 are
Professional learning – Leading by Learning 28th January with Geoff Childs
Staff Retreat 29th January with Pa Gerry Burns
30 and 31 of January Whanaungatanga meetings and Staff meeting days
Term 1 Monday 3 February –11 April ( Easter and Anzac Day in holidays)
Friday 4th April MOE Mathematics PLD teacher only day.
Term 2 28 April- 27 June (Includes Matariki and Kings Birthday)
Staff call back day in school holidays Friday 11 July
Thursday 19 June MOE Mathematics PLD teacher only day.
Term 3 s 14 July – 19 September Kāhui Ako Teacher only day 1st August
Staff call back day in school holidays Friday 3 October
Term 4 6 October- Wednesday 17 December (Includes Labour Day)
Sports Updates
Weet-Bix TRYathlon
Individuals can register to be a part of the St Ben's group through the following link:https://raceroster.com/
FWFC
Kia ora e te whānau ō Hato Penetika,
Friends and Whānau Fundraising Committee
AGM FWFC held our annual AGM on 10 Feb. We have an exciting year of events, which we will share as soon as we have locked in details. FWFC welcomes Tom Anderson to the Committee! Our fundraising goals/commitments for this year relate to the school canopy project including basketball and netball hoops.
Uniform Sale Thanks to those that supported our uniform sale in late Jan. We raised over $1,200. Huge thanks to Chrystal for her work leading the sale.
We need you! FWFC needs a Chair, Secretary and a Treasurer. All currently in the roles will remain on the Committee, and will be able to provide support to new people into the roles. The Chair leads the Committee and is a regular conduit between the school and FWFC. The Treasurer tracks payments in and out of the FWFC bank account and then provides updates to FWFC a couple of times per term. The Treasurer also works with the Chair to complete our Annual report. There is no requirement for Book Keeping – and if you can export a transaction list from your internet banking you have all the skills necessary to be our next Treasurer! The Secretary organises and keeps records of our meetings, updates the school newsletter and some light touch administrative tasks. Sarah, the current Secretary, is also able to job share but can't commit to the full role.
We are also looking for Class Reps to run class Whatsapp groups for classes 3, 5, 7 and 9.
All roles are important in keeping our school fundraising and community events running. It's also a great opportunity to be part of a kind, supportive and fun group. We hope you'll consider helping out! Please contact Sarah : sarah.garty@hotmail.com or any of our Committee to discuss.
Ngā mihi nui, FWFC
Entertainment Book
Lost Property
Black drink bottle and a size 4yrs Kathmandu jacket - Please claim from the office
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
| Term 1, 2025 | ||
| Thursday | 13 February | Robilliard family |
| Friday | 14 February | Rohorua family |
Monday | 17 February | Rubio family |
| Tuesday | 18 February | Shultz family |
| Wednesday | 19 February | Siby family |
| Thursday | 20 February | Smith family |
| Friday | 21 February | Southee family |
Monday | 24 February | Stephen family |
Tuesday | 25 February | Tait family |
Wednesday | 26 February | Taylor family |
Thursday | 27 February | Thomson family |
Friday | 28 February | Titus family |
Wider Community Notices
ezlunch lunch orders
- Every parent who orders an ezlunch goes into a weekly draw to win $100 Kindo Credit for themselves AND $100 for your school. Starts Monday 10 February 2025 and runs through to Friday 11 April 2025.
- Plus, all orders automatically enter the Grand Prize Draw for a $1,000 JB Hi-Fi Voucher + $500 for their school!
Thank you to JB Hi-Fi for making our Grand Prize rewards possible!
JB Hi-Fi has partnered with Kindo in 2025 to streamline BYOD for schools, and we appreciate their generous support. 
