St Benedict's School Pānui ā-rorohiko (Online Newsletter) Term 3, week 6, 2025

Upcoming Events from our Calendar

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Term 3, 2025

Week 6
Thursday 21 August: 1:30pm - 3pm PUM for some teachers and support Staff- school open and classes combined
Friday 22 August:  1:30pm - 3pm PUM for some teachers and principals - school open and classes  combined

Week 7
Tuesday 26 August: Pickleball  Rooms 9 - 13 - 9 - 12:30
                                        ICAS Maths
Wednesday 27 August: Te Reo lessons  R 5, 4,3 ,7,2,12, Kapa Haka @ Library 
                                        Year 7&8 Tech
                                        Artsplash during day and 5pm
                                        NIWA Science Fair set up 12:30-4:30pm (Victoria University)
Thursday 28 August: Room 12 Class Liturgy
                                         NIWA Science Fair Judging Day 9am-12pm
                                         Pickleball Wellington - Rooms 9 - 13 - 9 - 12:30

Week 8
Monday 1 September: Assembly R3
Tuesday 2 September: Pickleball Wellington - Rooms 9 - 13 - 9 - 12:30
Wednesday 3 September: Kapa Haka @ Library 
                                                    Year 7&8 Tech 
                                                    Board Meeting
Thursday 4 September: School Open Day 
                                                Class Mass - 9:00 am -Room 13
                                                Class liturgies 9-9.45am, Rooms 5,7
                                                Pickleball - Rooms 9 - 13 - 9 - 12:30
                                                Art Exhibition 3-6pm and strategic plan contribution
Friday 5 September:        Father’s Day breakfast

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School Board Elections

We have received four nominations for our School Board. Please keep an eye out in your inbox for your link for voting and information about our candidates. 

Catholic Character

Feast of the Assumption

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Sacramental Programme 2025 have been confirmed
The full Programme will run over Term 2 and into term three finishing on the 16th November with the First Communion Mass.
The Timetable is as follows...
                 Sunday 7th September 11.15am Confirmation Session 2
                 Saturday 13th September 2.00pm Confirmation Practice
                 Sunday 14th September 2.00pm Confirmation Mass with Archbishop Paul Martin
                 Sunday 2nd November 11.15am Communion Session 1
                 Sunday 9th November 11.15am Communion Session 2
                 Saturday 15th November 2.00pm Communion Practice
                 Sunday 16th November 2.00pm Communion Mass
Please note that the Sunday Sessions start immediately following the Sunday Mass and all participants and their families should attend Mass before the sessions.
The Programme is being run on behalf of the Parish by Pat Collier and Natasha Telles.  
Please contact via email: sacramentalprogramme@stfrancisohariu.nz

Tumuaki Korero

Tēnā koutou e te whānau ō Hato Penetika,

What a very busy few weeks we have ahead of us as we prepare to wow you all with the amazing art work of our students. We look forward to hosting you at our Art Exhibition and encourage you to take part in our strategic plan review stations placed throughout the exhibition. Further information about these events can be found within this newsletter.

Wellington and New Zealand competitors
Over the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of accompanying some wonderful St Benedict’s tamariki who have represented our school with pride. Last week it was the St Benedict’s Warriors handball team who showed perseverance and creativity as they tried to receive the award for best trick shot. The team came second in the Wellington competition and received an award for Best Team Spirit which was evident throughout the day.

This week our wonderful mathematicians competed in the MathsWell tournament at Victoria University. Our Year 5/6 team placed 10^th out of 42 teams and our Year 7/8 team placed 9^th out of 44 teams. Thank you to Camilla and Juan who enabled this event to go ahead by volunteering to be markers.

We have a group of students who are competing in the AIMS Games in Tauranga from the 30 August - 5 September. This event involves 430+ schools and 14000+ athletes. We wish the very best of luck to: Immy, Eliana, Winston, Noah, Raff, Charlie, Dominic, Ezra, George, Harrison and Hosea who are competing in Gymnastics, Tennis, Cross Country and Basketball. Thank you to the whānau who have supported them. 

Working in partnership growing our tamariki:  Positive Behaviour for Learning and KiVa Update
At St Benedict’s we are laser focused on growing our tamariki in to being community minded young adults who can use their gifts and talents to make the world better for others. This is in partnership with you all. As we come to the middle of Term 3, it is timely to share the ways we strengthen this partnership through our processes.

Minor disagreements can happen in the playground or classroom that tamariki don’t tell us about but later share with you at home. As a supportive community, you may respond by advising them to "just ignore it" or "not to worry about it," as it might seem insignificant at the time. While we do want our tamariki to be resilient and dealing with annoying behaviours is often part of life. We also want to be aware of any growing issues. Your whānau might hold a key piece of information that helps us identify behaviour patterns before they become entrenched.

You can support us by sending a quick email to your classroom teacher along the lines of, "I don’t think this needs to be followed up, but my child mentioned... Just letting you know in case it’s part of a bigger picture." We have many ways to support tamariki with their behaviour and it’s always more effective when we can address issues early, as patterns emerge, rather than when they are fully established.

We are again suffering a period of general illness and exhaustion among tamariki, and you may have seen articles in the media highlighting this. This is causing some of our tamariki to become emotionally dysregulated when they’re annoyed by others’ behaviour. Their patience is running low. They are sometimes making choices that result in damaging others belongings, forgetting safe play boundaries, focusing more on their own needs rather than the groups, and reacting to playground disagreements instead of walking away or seeking help, which escalates incidents.

You can help us by discussing with your tamariki ways to respect others' needs and belongings as well as how to recognise when they are becoming emotionally dysregulated. I also have a series of books called Aroha’s Way available in my office for any whānau to borrow if you think this might help.

We rely on communication with you to support your tamariki and welcome this as one of the many ways we keep St Benedict’s EPIC. Sometimes your communication will result in us following our PB4L or KiVa procedures, these are the processes that allow us to respond to behaviour effectively.

This might raise the question of who and how do I contact St Benedict’s. For any classroom related matters, please contact your child’s teacher directly, all teacher emails are firstname.lastname@st-benedicts.school.nz; our office is also able to send on any communication to your child’s teacher.  If further assistance is needed, you can reach out to the relevant Syndicate Leader:
Manuka Year 1-3  anne.minto@st-benedicts.school.nz
Kowhai Year 4-6 cheryl.taylor@st-benedicts.school.nz
Kauri Year 7-8 rebecca.blackwood@st-benedicts.school.nz

Please be assured that I liaise with our syndicate leaders and teachers closely, however, as the kaiako/teachers with the most contact with your tamariki, they are best placed to initially investigate any concerns and provide support.

Year 7 and 8 Information Evening
Year 6 families, please join us for an information evening to meet the Year 7 and 8 teachers, see the classrooms, hear about the classroom programme and listen to some former students' experiences. This is a great chance to get a feel for our Intermediate school and ask any questions you may have. We hope to see you there on Tuesday 16 September @ 5:30 pm in Room 13. 

Whole School Art Exhibition and Strategic Plan - 4^th September 3-6pm
We would like to invite you to a special opportunity to help shape the future of St Benedict's School. During our upcoming Art Exhibition, we will be holding a strategic plan review session.

This session will use a SCOT review process to gather your feedback. A SCOT review focuses on:

• Strengths: What are we doing well?
• Challenges: What are the obstacles we face?
• Opportunities: Where can we grow and improve?

Your valuable insights into these areas will help us create a strategic plan that truly reflects our mission: "To provide a challenging, co-operative, supportive environment which incorporates Catholic ideals, attitudes and practices where children, teachers, parents and community work together to continue the full development of the child in learning for life".

The current strategic plan focuses on three key goals:

• Excellence in Education: Providing a tailored curriculum that ignites a journey of discovery and excellence.
• Catholic Character: Nurturing a transformative Catholic education that sparks the flames of faith and deepens bonds with our parish community.
• School Climate: Cultivating a positive school climate through improving communication, enhancing environments and strengthening governance.

We will have dedicated feedback stations set up during the exhibition, and members of the school board will be available to discuss your ideas.

Can you help us?
We are looking for volunteers to support the preparation of new resources and the ongoing upkeep of our library. These tasks are perfect for a quick 20-40 minutes in the morning or prior to pick up and are toddler friendly. It doesn’t need to be each week, just when you have the time to help.  We will even provide hot drinks!

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

Year 7 and 8 Information Evening

Year 7 and 8 Information Evening Year 6 families, please join us for an information evening to meet the Year 7 and 8 teachers, see the classrooms, hear about the classroom programme and listen to some former students' experiences. This is a great chance to get a feel for our Intermediate school and ask any questions you may have. We hope to see you there on Tuesday 16 September @ 5:30 pm in Room 13. 

Rooms 4 & 5 connect with Malvina Major residents

Room 5 have enthusiastically replied to their MM penpals this week. The handwriting has improved greatly as the students focus on asking questions and responding to information shared by their correspondents. This week we will make envelopes and attach some old nz stamps for authenticity!

St Patrick's Primary School - 100 years

St Patrick's Primary School, Kilbirnie, is celebrating 100 years on its current site.  All Welcome Mass: Sunday 14^th September, Time:10:30am Where: St Patrick's 3 Childers Tce.  Followed by a Luncheon in the School/Parish Hall (Food supplied by our current families)

Sports Update

Handball Finals - Years 7 & 8 

Congratulations to the St Ben's 'Warriors' Handball team who qualified for the finals placing 2nd overall.  Also receiving the 'Team Spirit' award.

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New Basketball Singlets

St Benedict’s school and the Year 7 & 8 Basketball teams would like to extend a huge thank you to our generous sponsors who made it possible for our players to take the court in their brand new uniforms this season.

A big acknowledgement goes to:

Ian from Khandallah New World

JP Tocker from Deloitte

Mana Hogan from Roof Project

Soots Leilua Orthopedics Ltd

Your support means so much to our school and our basketball community. Not only do the uniforms help our players look and feel like a team, but they also build pride, confidence and spirit every time they step onto the court.

On behalf of the players, teachers and families.
Thank you for investing in our kids and their love of basketball.

New Sport Shed System 

We are introducing a new system for the use of sports equipment from the top P.E. shed. The bottom P.E. shed is strictly only for teachers when they wish to play a game with their class.
When students wish to use a piece of sports equipment at morning tea and lunch the students will line up at the top P.E. shed outside of Room 3 and 4. The sports monitors will be outside the shed for a period of 10 minutes at the start of playtime to issue sports equipment to play with (we will record the students name and classroom).  The monitors will not open the shed after that period of time. When the first bell rings to signal there is 5 minutes of playtime left the sport monitors will be waiting to check off students who have returned their piece of sport equipment. If a student does not return the equipment they issued twice, then the student is not allowed to issue sport equipment for a period of 1 week.
This makes sure that P.E. equipment is not left lying in the playground and is available for everyone to use.
Written by Winston, Year 7 Room 13

KINETIC YOUTH

Kinetic Youth! Designed for athletes aged 7–13 years old this programme focuses on building strong athletic foundations through a fun, play-based approach to movement. Each session will help participants develop dynamic movement patterns that support overall athleticism while highlighting softball-specific skills. Perfect for young athletes at all levels, this programme is all about moving with purpose, building coordination, and laying the groundwork for success in softball and beyond. The programme will run for three consecutive weeks in each regional hub, so every athlete has a chance to get involved.

• Link to register: https://www.sporty.co.nz/viewform/361234

Student Celebrations

Our students continue to be EPIC

Congratulations to the students who received awards at our recent Assembly 

Congratulations to Murphy House who enjoyed an ice block for their EPIC Award

Congratulations to Aedan and Eli who both had their Kung fu grading recently for their blue belt brown tip. Both boys did well and had been training hard together for it for the past few weeks.  

Thank you to Mrs Taylor and the students of Room 9 who helped make a memorable stay for Frank and Shaun during their 5 week experience at St Ben's.

ASC Book Now – Holiday Programme Week 1 (22–26 Sept)

We’re excited to invite your tamariki to join us for a fun-filled Holiday Programme running for Week 1 only: Monday 22 September to Friday 26 September.

You can start booking your tamariki now to secure their spot. Bookings will close on Monday 8 September and spaces are limited, so don’t miss out!

We’ve attached our brochure with all the details, and you can use the link below to book: https://forms.gle/UcSH16TVauj2cuBz8

We’re looking forward to an exciting week together!

School dates 2025 and 2026

School dates for 2025 
Term 3  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)

School Dates 2026
The Ministry of Education (MoE) have allocated two school days for delivering the new mathematics curriculum in 2026. Our Professional Learning and Development (PLD) days have been allocated at the beginning of the school year and subsequently make our start for 2026 a bit unusual.  The School Board have approved the following dates for 2026.

Please note there are two Teacher Only Days that are yet to be allocated in Terms 2-4, we will confirm these once they are allocated:

Thursday 29th and Friday 30th of January Whānau teacher Meetings
Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd of February MoE Mathematics PLD Staff only 
Term 1 Wednesday 4th of February  - Thursday 2 April 
Term 2 Monday 20 April - Friday 3 July 
Term 3 Monday 20 July - Friday 25 September 
Term 4 Monday 12 October-Tuesday  15 December 

FWFC

Kia ora e te whānau ō Hato Penetika,

Friends and Whānau Fundraising Committee 

Kia ora e te whānau,

Father’s Day Breakfast: Friday 5 September, 7.15am-8.45am
Hey-Ho Daddy-O!
Our famous Annual Father’s Day breakfast is nearly here. Join us to celebrate your dad, father figure and/or role model with breakfast, coffee cart, baking, lolly jar guess, hole-in-one competition and a raffle. Your support for this event helps raise money for our school and kids. Siblings are also welcome.
To make the magic happen for our father figures, we need some help. Can you help make this event a success with help on the day or with some preparation duties? 
Volunteer here: https://forms.gle/PvUvWsrY4FtHCqFt7 

Please contact Sarah or anything FWFC related: sarah.garty@hotmail.com 

Entertainment Book

'Yummy Stickers'

Thank you to Naomi & Elijah for their collection of stickers.  We now have 2100 stickers.

This promotion runs until 20 October so send in your stickers and keep munching on 'Yummy Fruit'.   

Sticker sheets can be found on the 'Yummy Sticker' website: www.yummyfruit.co.nz or just pick a sheet up from the office.

Children's Opera - "Noyes Fludde"

Call for chorus members in Children's Opera - "Noyes Fludde"

NOYES FLUDDE is a work by renowned composer Benjamin Britten, telling the story of Noah and the Ark, which we will be performing on October 17 and 18.
We are currently looking for children to take part in the 'chorus of animals' - no audition is required, just a desire to sing and be part of what will be a terrific occasion!
 Any enquiries should be directed to Michael Stewart at dom@wellingtoncathedral.org.nz

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