24 May
Dear Parents
It
has been a very busy week with Mrs Buxton & I at a Literacy conference in
Wellington, and also our school cross country on Tuesday. A big thanks to the
teachers and parents for making it so successful.
Next
week I am away on an e-Time school tour looking at how schools have integrated
devices such as laptops, ipads etc. into classroom use more effectively,
especially with ultra-fast broadband almost upon us. Please contact Mrs Buxton
if there are any queries while I am away.
Last
week I mentioned the Ministers pre-budget announcement regards to class sizes
and performance pay. As there hasn’t been any more concrete information, I will
wait until the Budget today before commenting on how changes will affect us.
*REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (From Lectio Divina)
THE HELPER
Today the Holy Spirit, the third person of
the Trinity, is in the spotlight. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his
imminent departure, but first he wants to entrust them to the Holy Spirit. Why
was this so important? Jesus knows that the Holy Spirit’s main role is to
reveal new aspects of God and his Word (15:26). In doing this he will help the
disciples understand Jesus better.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist
together as the Trinity in perfect love and understanding. So there could be
none better than the Holy Spirit to reveal and teach whatever the Father and
Son choose to say (16:13). The Holy Spirit remains our personal guide on how to
live and share Jesus’ message of love (15:27). We know from this and other
passages that the Holy Spirit does this in four ways: he inspired the authors
of the Holy Scriptures, people like David, Isaiah, John, Luke and Paul; he
reminds us of Jesus’ words; he helps us understand the Scriptures; and finally
he fans the fire of God’s love in our lives. It is a mutual love which
strengthens Christians on their life journey.
Jesus does not promise his followers an
easy life; he does promise God’s help in our trials and our endeavours to be
his witnesses to all men (15:26, 16:12).
MEDITATION: The promise of help from the
Holy Spirit comes with a purpose, to enable us to speak about Jesus and live in
truth. In what ways have you experienced the Holy Spirit helping and teaching
you? What does Jesus mean by the term ‘truth’? Does he mean only words and
ideas?
PRAYER: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more
of the Father and Son to you. Ask for his help so you can play your part in
continuing Jesus’ work on earth and demonstrate his fruit in your life
(Galatians 5:22-23). Prayerfully read Psalm 104 throughout the week. Let God
direct you to a few verses at a time. Use these verses to praise the greatness
of the God of creation.
Cross Country ~
Congratulations to all the children for their efforts on Tuesday. The
weather was perfect which enabled us to get all races completed. The first 6 placing’s
in the 9 – 11 yr olds go onto the Zones. Well done to these children who will
be going through: Shaun Clapperton,
Devan Fiebig, Ben Oosterbroek, Matthew Francis, Jared Rutten, Joshua Cooper,
Tylee Fiebig, Sionelle Cahill, Kate Johnstone, Amy Ingham, Emma Brooks, Paris
Johnson, Justin McLean, Cory Foleni, Shaun Wilkes, Jake Meikle, Tom Nally,
Caleb Brown, Caelan O’Connor, Lucy Blue, Aimee Brookland, Briana Henson, Ella
Richardson, Bridie Kinney, Erik Cahill, Callum O’Connor, Rohan MacKenzie, Ben
Henderson, Harry Oosterbroek, Kayson Timu, Nellie Boyle, Emma Harrington,
Isabella Wild and Georgea Newell.
Room 1 Teacher ~
Unfortunately Mrs Mitchell has been forced to resign due to an on-going
medical condition. We thank her for her input while here and wish her a speedy
recovery.
For the rest of the term Mrs McKenzie and Mrs Russell will job
share. As the children already know both these teachers, this will mean we can
provide more consistency and stability for the children and parents.
BOT ~ At
last night’s Board of Trustees meeting, Ian Harrington stood down from the
chairperson position and Megan Roulston was elected the new Board Chair. I wish
to thank Ian for his service as Board chair. It is often a thank-less position
but vital to the effective running of the school. While I make day to day
decisions, the governance role of the Board provides me with the resources and
backing to ensure we are doing all we can to enhance your child’s learning.
We also welcomed Paul Brooks as a new Bishop’s Representative on
the Board.
Activity Fees ~ Thank you to the families who have paid the Activity
Fee. These are due now. Please contact Christine if you require our bank
details to make an automatic payment. Families are also encouraged to make
smaller payments over a regular time frame, to get this paid.
Activity Fee: 1 child = $70 2 x children = $100 3 x children $125
Compulsory Books: Rooms
1 & 2 = $15 Room 3 – 9 = $30
No Otatara Bus – Fri 1st
June ~ The
Otatara bus will not be running on Friday 1st June.
Parents
will need to make alternate arrangements for their children.
Altar Servers
Saturday 26th May 7.00 pm Aimee & Patrice Brookland
Sunday 27th May 10.30 am Ben Henderson & Mathew
Brooks
Children’s Liturgy Aletta Reid
Ski
Trip ~ We will inform you when more information comes to
hand. Please do not send money to school until advised.
Achievements
Corbyn Shuttleworth got 5th in the
Kartsport Southland Club Champs held last weekend. He was also awarded the
driver of the day trophy, the only driver ever to be awarded it twice.
Aubrey Page got ‘Player of
the Day” last weekend for the Waikiwi Rippa Rugby.
Georgea Newell who got her
1500 mtr in 36 minutes at Waverley Swimming Club on Monday night.
Aimee Brookland
danced at the Invercargill Tap Dance Assn competitions last weekend and got 1st
in: Novice Waltz over 10yrs, Troupe any age, duo Open 12 yrs & under.
2nd in: Slow open 10yrs & over, Song & Dance
Open 10 yrs & over, Impromptu open 10yrs & over & trio open any
age. Aimee also won the Championship Open under 12 yrs & a Special award
for Personality 10 yrs & over.
Year 4/5 Netball – Stars & Shooters
Could
the players please bring their gym shoes to school on Monday 28th as
we have a Netball Development Officer coming to take the teams for a practice
at lunchtime.
PTA
Entertainment
Books ~
If
you bought a 2011 Entertainment Book these run out on the 1st June 2012. If you
haven't replaced this with the 2012 version or would still like to purchase an
Entertainment Book we still have a small number available from the office.
The cost is $55 with $11
from each book coming back to the school to be used to help purchase new
science equipment.
School
Fair - Sunday 4th November 2012 ~ As Peter has already explained in the past
couple of newsletters, the PTA is making arrangements for our bi-annual school
fair. This is a special year for the school and a reunion to celebrate its 50
years is being held this same weekend. We are hoping that many past students
will attend the school Fair as their last event for the weekend.
In order to make this a
special event and run a successful fair, we do need more helpers, and ask for
at least one volunteer from each classroom to help with the organising of that
classroom’s event, and where possible any other general fair requirements that
they may have the ability and time to help with. As an example Room 6 has in
the past helped organise and run the Devonshire Tea stall for the day of the
fair. The parent helper would co-ordinate a parent roster (using parents from Room
6) for the stall on the day of the Fair, help in ensuring we had all the
requirements for this stall i.e. ensure we arrange for scones to be made, that
the overall grocery requirements include the coffee, tea, milk, sugar, cream,
jam, serviettes, gloves etc. and arrange for any necessary urns. Other types of
events include bouncy castle(s), pony rides, cake stall, cake walk, face
painting, ice cream van, BBQ, chocolate wheel etc - these get shared out
between classes, BOT and the PTA and any willing volunteers.
The PTA has a working
document which tells us what we need to organise, order or purchase, with
quantities for all the stalls we have run in the past, so in a lot of cases
it's about working through this document and allocating who will organise each
requirement for the stalls involved. The more volunteers we have the easier it
becomes for all as the jobs are shared amongst many. This is a great event for
the school and our community, and we have raised more than
$10,000 from the last few
school fairs. We're keen for parents to get involved and to hear about any
proven money making ideas which we may be able to add to this year’s fair.
If you are able to help we
would love to see you at our first Fair meeting on Wednesday 6th June at 7.30pm
at school. If you would like to find out more before the meeting, feel free to
talk to your classroom teacher, parents who were here for the last fair or any
of the current PTA. Times and days for future meetings will be discussed that
night. We estimate one meeting per month
of up to 2 hours. If you would like to be involved but are unable to attend,
please feel free to text Susanne Brown on 0212602243 or contact the office.
|
Todays Tip – Social Skills
Social skills are very
important at home and school.
Children need skills such as asking for something, asking to play
with someone, offering to share, patiently waiting, taking turns or asking
for help.
· Prompt your child to ask for help, take a
turn, share something, or give a compliment, then praise them if it
occurs. Let it go if your child does
not respond to your prompt.
· Praise your child any time s/he offers to
share or help you.
· Model and prompt your child with a
suggestion of the appropriate words to say.
· Try to give enough help; so children are
successful but not so much help that you take over.
· Occasionally prompt your child to help
another child in some way.
·
Encourage
play dates and visits with other children.
· Praise and encourage children’s ideas and
creativity; avoid criticism.
Example comments for young
children that you can make when encouraging them to:
Wait – “Super! You waited your turn
and let him go first, even when you wanted to be first.”
Asking permission – “That’s very
friendly to ask her if she wants to do that first.”
Taking turns – “You let her take
a turn – how helpful.”
More information can be found at http://www.incredibleyears.com
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We
have enjoyed reading Kyle Mewburn’s ‘Do Not Push’. Last term we enjoyed
listening to the kiwi author in person at Sacred Heart. This book grabbed our
attention as Cam finding himself in his normally familiar bush with a large red
button that reads Do Not Push. Would
you push it?
We
were excited in writing our own version of events that follows after the button
is pushed. Here are a few examples. More can be viewed on our class blog along
with some footage from our Cycling Safety session last week.
When
I came home my mum was eating ice cream out of the tub. She never ate any ice cream. She said ‘We
will have takeaways every day”. Then I went to the shop. But the door said. “No
money allowed in this shop.” I looked for the shop keeper but she was running
all over the place. So I took one of the cans and went home. When I got home my Dad was still in his in
his work uniform and he was eating cream ~ Amy
Once
everything was all crazy and my parents used waffles for their hats and then
eating them with ice cream. Outside everything was going crazy. Kids had no
rules. Everything was going crazy. When I was going to school I saw the
Principal and the teachers throwing a disco. It was a wild day!
Caleb
One day in the morning I woke up and it was
the first of April. “Today I am going fishing “, I said as I packed my gear. I
went to the river. I fished for ages. Then I finally got one. It was a brown
trout. Then I saw something red on the tail. It was a button. It said” DO NOT
PUSH” I thought for a second, should I push it. ”Ok “I thought so I pushed it.
The fish turned into a dog. Then I saw some fish fly in the sky. What did I do?
I went back to the house and it was upside down. I couldn’t get inside at
first, it was very hard but finally I got in. I went to the sink to get a glass
of water but only Fanta came out. Oh no! I went outside but the grass was
orange. WHY?
It
was time to go to school. I got to school but no one was there apart from some
strangers eating ice cream. I went in to
the classroom but it was filled with ice cream and everyone was playing on the
computer. They didn’t let me on at lunch
time they were having a food fight at home time they went into the hall. What a
weird day ~ Shaun
do
not push! Hey! My name is Emma M. I’m going to tell you my weird, awesome and even
weirder story. Ok here it goes. In the
morning on Sunday when there was no school
I saw a button on a tree in the backyard. The button said: do not push! So guess what? I pushed it. It
looked cool though. When it was Monday in the morning I woke up and I saw mum
wearing dad’s clothes, the baby sleeping on his changing table and my sister
wearing my clothes! I was not very happy but I went to school. I went back to
that tree later and it said: do push with a smiley face too. I pushed it and
everything went back to normal ~ Emma
Enjoy
reading the book ‘DO NOT PUSH’ which is available in our school library.
posted by Sacred Heart School @ 8:44 AM
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