10 May

Dear Parents

At Sacred Heart School we have been fortunate to have our PTA funding our ipads and laptops for classroom use. Next week Mrs Stupples and I will be attending an expo showcasing the latest technologies for schools.
Every day I see the integration of technology into our class programmes but not at the expense of learning and teaching. One of the concerns I have at a primary school level is placing too much of an emphasis on the latest “toy”. I have heard of instances where editing skills and handwriting are not taught as everything will be written on a computer and it has a spelling checker and keyboard.
While I believe the day is not far away where every pupil will have a ‘device’ at school hooked into our school network, it is still important that children are taught literacy and numeracy skills, balanced with a digital environment to prepare them for the world of tomorrow.

Just to show how the world is changing listed below are some web based facts:
In 60 seconds….
• 600 new You Tube videos
• 695000+ facebook status uploads, 510040 comments, 79364 wall posts
• 694445 Google searches
• 13000+ iPhone applications downloaded, 925 iPhones sold, 81 iPads sold
• 38 tonnes e-waste generated
• 12 websites got hacked, 416 attempts
• 1100 acres of land farmed in Farmville
• 2600000 CD’s & 1820TB of data created
• 168 million emails sent
• 370000+ minutes voice calls on Skype
• 98000+ Tweets, 320+ new Twitter accounts
If you don’t understand some of this, in all likehood your children will



*REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (From Lectio Devina)

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Jesus speaks these words to his disciples just a few hours before he is crucified and before his disciples abandon him in terror. They also form part of the longer teaching Jesus gives his disciples in John 13-17. Jesus wants his disciples to share his joy. He is a deeply joyful person and here he tells them the way to share this joy for themselves: remaining in his love and loving one another.
The love between Jesus and God the Father is mutual. Jesus makes it clear that the way he remains in his Father’s love is through obedience. It’s just the same for us. This on-going relationship between us and Jesus transforms us from being servants into Jesus’s friends (verses 14-15).
Jesus gives the disciples one commandment ‘love one another, just as I love you’ (verse 12). They are to follow his example of love. To love each other in the same way he loves them. Without this they cannot share his joy, nor can we.
This deep and practical love in a community makes Jesus’ love and life a reality to the giver and the receiver. By living constantly in his presence, Jesus is in our midst and through his Word we receive confidence about life with the Father. In short, this is the mystery of Christian living.
MEDITATION: Why does Jesus insist on love as the critical condition? How do we remain in his love? Consider what it means to love fellow Christians the way Jesus loves us. What does it mean in practice to lay down your life for your friends? What can we learn from 1 Corinthians 13 about love?
PRAYER: We do not just choose the Christian life ourselves; we are in fact ‘chosen and appointed’ (John 15:16). It is an overwhelming idea to think God knew and chose us for his own loving purpose. We can join this great song of praise in Psalm 98. Read these verses through several times and offer them as your own prayer of praise to God.

Parish Sacramental Preparation Programme
Attached to the newsletter is a letter from the Parish about a Sacramental Preparation Programme for parents. Please return this to the office if interested.

Do you know how beautiful and valued you are in God’s sight?
Dove Catholic Fellowship for Women invite all women to a Day of Refreshment: theme “Beautiful”. Saturday 16 June 9am-4pm St Francis Xavier Parish Centre 27 Benhar St Mornington Dunedin. Cost $40. Pre registration not required. Sponsorship available. Come and be blessed. Contact Jo 09 420 5050 www.dove.org.nz

School Assembly Times
For the next 3 weeks we will be changing our Assembly day back to Monday at 2.15 pm.



Cross Country
The school Cross Country will be held on Wed 23rd May (Cancellation Thurs 24th May).
This year we are going to involve all the children and make it a House Day competition.
The children will be asked to wear their house colours.

Otatara Bus
The Otatara bus will not be running on Friday 1st June. Parents will need to make alternate arrangements for their children.

2012 School Fair ~ I am asking for parents from each classroom to volunteer to be on a ‘Fair Committee” to help organise and run the fair in November.
Every 2nd year the PTA/School hold a school fair to raise funds for equipment/resources for your children. The last school fair raised over $10,000, the majority of which was spent on the sports equipment trolleys and the resource cupboards in the corridors.
To help with the organisation, we plan to have different classrooms responsible for different areas of the fair. Many hands make light work of the task, so please consider this. If unsure, volunteer yourself and a friend. Unfortunately if we do not get a committee together, the fair will not go ahead as planned, and parents will be asked for increased donations.

School Donation
The school donations are now due. These have been set the same as last year and we would appreciate these being paid at the office at your earliest convenience.

Activity Fee: 1 child = $70 2 x children = $100
Compulsory Books: Rooms 1 & 2 = $15 Room 3 – 9 = $30

Altar Servers
Saturday 12th May 7.00 pm Rylee Hewitt & Georgea Newell
Sunday 13th May 10.30 am Bronte Adams & Emma Brooks
Children’s Liturgy Liza Adams

Lost Jersey – with the name Monique Nolan. Please check if your child has this.

Achievements
Congratulations to Ben Bryan, Robbie Humm & Isaiah-Runi Tagomoa who all received ‘Player of the Day’ for their rugby teams last Saturday.

Squash Southland - ‘Whack n Run Competition’ Yr 3 - 6
Any children interested in playing in this competition on a Tuesday @ $25 each, can obtain a brochure from the office.

Tap Dancing – Saturday 19th May 8.30am – 7pm
Come along and watch local Tap Dancing Song & Tap, Slow Tap, Speed Tap, Waltz Tap, Duos, Solos & Championship Tapping @ Repertory House, Adults-$5, Children-$2.


What has been happening in Room 5???

On Friday while the Year 2 children from Room 5 were doing PE in the hall Mrs T-K set a challenge for the Year 3 children. The challenge was to make the tallest tower in 25 minutes, BUT all we had to make it was sellotape and newspaper.
Take a look at some of the pictures of us making them and the final product of our towers.





We learned how to work as a team and how it is important to make a plan before you start ~ Josh N

I learned that it is important to talk to your team members otherwise you won’t get things finished ~ Benjamin D

Mr Forde came to judge which tower was the tallest. The tallest tower belonged to Kade, Sarah & Aleck. They worked well as a team and made a part each of the tower then put it all together at the end.

I loved making this tower. I built a tall top piece to make it taller and it worked because my team won ~ Kade P

It was a very close call with Josh N & Phoebe initially having the tallest but their tower fell over before Mr Forde got into the room.

Next time we would make sure we would work better as a team, have a plan before we start and make sure we had a strong base at the bottom of the tower.