St Benedict's School Pānui ā-rorohiko (Online Newsletter) Term 1, week 10, 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 10

Monday 7 April - House Dance Off - 2pm
Wednesday 9 April - Yrs 7 & 8 - Technology 
                                           Kapa Haka - Hemi
Thursday 10 April - Mission Fair - 11:15am - 12:15pm
Friday 11 April - Stations of the Cross
                                 Term 1 ends - 2:50pm
                                     
 Wednesday 23 & Thursday 24 April - 9-3pm School office open

Saturday 26 April - 2-3:30pm New School and Second Hand Uniform sale

Term 2, 2025

Week 1
Monday 28 April - Resurrection Liturgy 10-10:30am
Tuesday 29 April - Swimming begins - Rooms 9-13 (Keith Spry Pool)
Wednesday 30 April - Kapa Haka / Te Reo lessons
                                         -  Yrs 7 & 8 - Technology 
Thursday 01 May - Class Liturgies - Rms 8 & 9 / Class Mass - Rm13

Tuesday 27 & Thursday 29 May - St Patrick’s College Open Day - 10-11:30am & 12:30-2pm

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

Tumuaki Korero

Tēnā koutou e te whānau ō Hato Penetika,

As we draw to the end of Term 1 we reflect on what a great start to the year it has been.  Classes are settling into a solid pattern of learning and new friendships are being developed. Everyone is ready for the Term break.  I hope that you have an opportunity to enjoy some wonderful family time and also enjoy some wonderful Easter masses. 
Regards 

Cheryl Taylor

Tumuaki Tuarua (Deputy Principal)

Mission Fair 
A great day was had by all at the Mission Fair yesterday.  Thank you to the Year 6-8 students who were creative in thinking of ways they could raise money, resulting in a huge $1,838.30 donation for Caritas.  Thank you for sending children with pocket money to donate.

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Court update
The canopy has been completed, and the lighting is close to being installed. In April we will start to see the multipurpose turf laid. It has been phenomenal watching all the different contractors work together to improve this area of our school. We would like to invite our whole school community to the official blessing of this space on Tuesday 3 June 

Enrolments for 2025
We have had a flurry of enrolments this week so please do get in touch if you have friends or whānau who are considering St Ben's. 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.

Year 5/6 Camp

The first combined Year 5 & 6 camp was a success, students were challenged and experienced a wide range of activities.  All students pushed themselves outside of their comfort zones, enjoyed all of the activities on offer and were supported by their teachers and fantastic parent helpers.

Camp was fun - Jackson
I loved rock climbing - Jono
I loved the water slide - Daniel
I liked it all - Peyton
I liked the kayaking - Jakeb

House Dance Off 

Congratulations to Ngatoto who won the House Dance off on Monday.  Thank you to our judges, Emma and Mary Ann.

Moving March Crazy Socks/Shoes

We celebrated the end of Moving March with a crazy sock and shoe day.  Thank you for your support with encouraging your tamariki to walk to school.  Keep it up!

Room 5 Play 

A group from Room 5 shared The Grasshopper and the Ant play with their class as a follow up to reading.  It was great to see them working together enthusiastically and presenting this to the rest of the class. 

Library News

Library News
Our lovely library has not only been a place for our tamariki to read books during the breaks, there are some who continue to enjoy the variety of games available.  In particular some of our Year 1 and 2's enjoy doing little jigsaw puzzles.  These puzzles are both stimulating and enhance social skills as our tamariki converse between themselves about the colours and how lovely the puzzle looks when they have finished.
Congratulations to our team of competent Student Librarians who are working hard to keep the library tidy, issuing and shelving books during the breaks.

Donna Wilson

Catholic Character

In Year 7/8, we are exploring Charism as part of our Religious Education. Charisms are unique gifts from God that help us share His love, kindness, truth, and wisdom with others. Through these gifts, God’s power works through us to bring people closer to Him, strengthen their faith, and encourage them to receive His grace through the sacraments.

At St Benedict’s School, we place great importance on Gospel Values. Our core values—creativity, Perseverance, Integrity, and Empathy—are inspired by our Founding Order, the Brigidine Sisters, and guide us in how we learn, grow, and live out our faith.

Palm Sunday Art for Easter

Room 5 have been busy creating art for Palm Sunday.

School Cross Country

We will be having a WHOLE SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY DAY on Thursday 1 May (PP Friday 2 May) at Nairnville park.  This will be for ALL students in Years 0 - 8.  Please find the course map below that will be run by the different year groups on the day.  We are in need of at least 2 parent helpers to help Marshall.  Please email molly.kelly@st-benedicts.school.nz.  Helper roles can be shared so that parents can watch their tamariki race OR they can be placed in a spot with easy viewing of the finish line.

Qualifiers from each year group will go on to represent St Ben's at Northern Zone Cross Country Years 4 - 8 (Grenada North Park in the afternoon on 13 May - PP 15th May) and Junior Invitational Cross Country Years 0 - 3 (Amesbury School on 21 May - PP 23 May). If your tamariki qualifies, you will be notified via email by Wednesday 7 May.
Course Map

Board Policy Review

Each term the School Board, Teachers and community are invited to review our School policies. The below flyer explains the process.  To access the school’s Policies and Procedures, please click on the below link, and enter our username and password.

Visit the website https://st-benedicts.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm

Enter the username (st-benedicts) and password (3000stbens).

Winter Uniform orders

We will be moving into our winter uniform in Terms 2 & 3 and if you would like to order new items, please email the office before 11 April.  There may be a six week wait time for any orders received after this date. 

Student Celebrations

Congratulations to Sebastian and Flynn  who were the overall winners in the Hot Shots Orange Ball tennis league this season.

Relay For Life 2025
We took part in Relay for Life last Saturday, fundraising and raising awareness for the Cancer Society.
Our team of family and friends was called Fridge Magnets, because fridge magnets are often a random collection of odd things. We decorated our hang out booth as life size fridges, and stuck photos of loved ones on them with stickers that looked like magnets - this helped keep all of those we know who have fought or are currently battling cancer in our minds, as our team took turns walking or running around Sky Stadium walkway all afternoon, through the night and into the morning.Our highlights were:

1. sleeping over at the stadium,
2. decorating candle bags and doing a candle bag vigil lap of the stadium,
3. watching a movie on the big screen at 2am!

After 18 hours, 257 laps, 90km, we placed 47th out of about 160 teams, and we raised over $3000 for the Cancer Society.  We were really tired and sore afterwards, but it was an amazing thing to be part of!

By Alliana and Leon 

ASC Highlights

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

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

Futsal Tournament

Kia ora, 

Please fill in the following FORM to register your tamaraiki for the Futsal Tournament in September.  Further details will be sent out to families who register through this form closer to the time.  We will need parent volunteers to help supervise/coach on the day.  Please note that this is the same week as the Year 7/8 camp so they will be unable to attend.  Let me know if you have any questions. 

molly.kelly@st-benedicts.school.nz


GoogleForm

Touch Rugby

Another summer of touch rugby has come to an end and it has been wonderful to see so many tamariki from St Ben’s taking part in both the Monday competition and Sunday fun sessions.  Congratulations to all the teams on a very successful season and a special mention to our year 5/6 team who took out a well deserved 3^rd place in the year 5/6 competition.

A huge thank you to all the parents involved – from coaching, helping on the side lines, to joining in the Sunday sessions – it is all appreciated.  The next touch season will start in term 4 so keep an eye out for details nearer the time.  

Volley Ball 

Nairnville Recreation Centre offer a school’s volleyball league next term in Years 5 & 6 and Years 7 & 8. If you would  like to manage this and are interested in entering a Year 5&6 or 7&8 team, please contact Ms Molly Kelly - molly.kelly@st-benedicts.school.nz

FWFC

Kia ora e te whānau ō Hato Penetika,

Friends and Whānau Fundraising Committee 

Kia ora e te whānau,

Colour Run 2025
What a huge success our 2025 Colour Run was! Thank you to all who came and enjoyed the day and helped out.  We had 122 kids who fundraised and we collectively (with BBQ, bake sale and Candy floss) raised over $16,000.

This goes directly into the canopy and netball/basketball hoops!

Thank you to RealTime Survey, Roof Protect, Hellers, New World Khandallah and Foundation Bricks and Blocks Ltd who sponsored the event.   To the FWFC committee – you put in hours of work to make this happen, thank you!

Prizes
Please make sure you logon and select your prize this week – they will be sent ready for distribution early in Term 2

Lastly, a special shout out to those kids that went over and above in their fundraising efforts – amazing effort

Uniform sale
The winter uniform sale will be held on Saturday 26^th April, 2 – 3.30pm in the school library. There is a huge amount of good quality donations especially for Years 1 – 6 so a great opportunity to stock up on all you need for Terms 2 and 3 when winter uniform is worn.  

The winter sale is always very busy so if you have time to spare on that day and can offer an hour or so of your time then we would love to hear from you – please message Johanna Reidy on 021 228 6010 who is managing the upcoming sale (thank you Johanna!).

Mother's Day Shop
Our Mother's Day Shop will be running Monday 5 May (Term 2) during school hours. This is a FREE shop for our tamariki to find something to give their Mums/Mother figures to celebrate Mother's Day.

We need gift donations to run this shop - things like candles, books, costume jewellery, trinkets, picture frames, unopened beauty items, mugs, biscuits, seeds for the garden, ornaments, chocolates. Your donations would be really appreciated. We have a box for donations at the school office.

Any FWFC related questions or comments please contact: sarah.garty@hotmail.com 
Ngā mihi nui. 

Entertainment Book

'Yummy Stickers'

Thank you for your collection of 'yummy stickers'.  Keep them coming, this promotion begins in Term 2.

Thank you to families who collected 'Yummy Stickers' last year.  Students are very happy to have new free sports equipment this year.  Start saving your stickers, promotion begins again in Term 2.   Sticker sheets can be found on the 'Yummy Sticker' website: www.yummyfruit.co.nz or just pick a sheet up from the office.

Drama Lessons available at school

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

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.