19 July

Dear Parents

Welcome back to Sacred Heart for Term 3. I hope you all survived the severe frost of the first week of the holidays without any burst pipes. Everything froze at school for the first week and we had no water which would have been interesting if school had been open.

This term also promises to be busy with the Choral Festival, Life Education Van, Gym Festival, Polyfest, Ski Trip, School Photos, an Olympic Day as well as various specialist sport teams visiting, including the Stags, Sharks & Steel.

A reminder Assembly will be on Monday afternoons and the newsletter on Thursday.

Search for the Stars ~ This week the Year 5 & 6 children were fortunate to see the NZ finalists for this event. There were some extraordinarily gifted young people performing and proof that for a lot of children the performing arts, such as music and drama are just as important as Literacy and Numeracy.

Road Patrol ~ A big thank you to Reuben Boniface and his team of volunteers who are monitoring the pedestrian crossing on North Road before and after school. This is much appreciated.

Any other parent who is able to help out, please contact me.

We welcome Mrs Williams back to Sacred Heart after her time off on Maternity Leave. She now replaces Miss O’Neill in Room 1.

We also welcome Ellie McWilliam, Declan Hogan, Ben O’Connor and Caleb Hickey who all started on Monday. We hope they enjoy their time at Sacred Heart.

Our prayers are with the Humm, Walsh & Biddle families this week.

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

MOVED BY PITY

Mark doesn’t linger on the thrill of this first mission. But the disciples must have been bubbling over with excitement that God used them to do things for him. They must have been very tired too. Mark quickly moves on to Jesus’ own ministry in the north of Palestine, a region called Galilee. Jesus’ ministry was powerful and well known. But it took its toll on the spiritual lives of the disciples, leaving them no recovery time. As a wise leader Jesus realises this could lead to spiritual and physical exhaustion for the entire group. So he plans for them to go somewhere to relax and be refreshed, away from all the demands of others. They set off across the Sea of Galilee for a quiet place. This sea is more of a large lake and is narrow at the northern end. The local people, however, guess what Jesus is up to and run off on foot to get there first! As the boat beaches, Jesus looks at the waiting crowds and he can’t ignore them or their needs. When he sees how eager they are to listen to him ‘his heart was filled with pity for them’ (Verse 34).

Jesus gives himself to the people who were ‘like sheep without a shepherd’. Jesus and his disciples’ well merited break has to wait for another day!

MEDITATION: How do you balance the demands of work and serving God with the need for rest? Does your rest give your more time to spend with God in prayer and reading the Bible or less time? How do you feel when the needs of others mean you have to change your plans? What can we learn from Jesus’ response?

PRAYER: Psalm 23 is one of the most-loved passages in the Bible. It reminds us we are no longer ‘like sheep without a shepherd’. Jesus himself is now our shepherd. Read these precious truths slowly out loud. Savour the words and let God speak into your life and circumstances.

Meadow Fresh

Our school has been entered into the Meadow Fresh Art and Sports Gear give away. All you need to do is collect the ‘Cool Stuff’ for Kids stickers on specially marked Meadow Fresh milk and yoghurt products, put them onto the sticker sheet attached to the newsletter. Once this is filled out, bring it back into school and hand it to Mrs T-K. Every sheet that is entered will be rewarded with a share of the $500,000 that Meadow Fresh is giving away.

PTA & Fair Meetings

Unfortunately we didn't have the numbers for a fair meeting this week so the next meeting is to be Monday 30th July.

PTA Meeting @ 7.00pm (we will have a short meeting prior to the Fair meeting)

FAIR Meeting @ 7.30pm

Olympic Day

On Tuesday the 24^th of July the whole school is going to celebrate the Olympics by having our own Olympics at the Velodrome. The children are to come in their House Colours. They need tracksuits or shorts and sports shoes as they will be participating in sporting activities. You are welcome to come along, to watch, cheer us along or help. The programme will be:

10.00 - 10.30am Opening Ceremony

10.30 - 11.30am Activities

11.30 – 12.00pm Closing Ceremony

Maths Meeting for Year 4-6 Parents

Please come along to a parent information meeting and find out about how mathematics is taught to your child and all about our new Basic Facts programme. We promise this meeting will not go longer than an hour. We will have some helpful resources available for you to use with your child. The meeting will be at 7pm on Wednesday the 1^st of August in the School Library. Please contact the office if you will be attending.

Altar Servers

Saturday 21^st July 7.00 pm Bronte & Piper Adams

Sunday 22^nd July 10.30 am Charlotte Sherriff & Caleb Wolf

Children’s Liturgy Aletta Reid

Netball Results

Sacred Heart Stars beat Fernworth 8 to 7. POD was Aimee Brookland.

Sacred Heart Shooters won against Fernworth Flyers 3-0. POD Katelyn Maloney

Achievements ~ Congratulations to:

Kayla Boniface, Aimee Brookland and Jacob Downing were selected for the All Saints Year 5 Netball Team.

Will Cairns received the ‘Player of the Day’ award from his Marist Tigers Rugby team recently.

Sam Walsh received the ‘Player of the Day’ award from Waikiwi Transport Under 7 Rugby last week.

Scholastic Bookclub

Issue 5 closes on Wed 25th July. Cheques are to be made out to Scholastic NZ.

Southland Junior Netball Academy: 31^st July – 25^th September @ $95

This is a 9 week Skills Development Programme for 8 – 14yr olds.

If your child is interested, please email info@netballsouthland.org.nz

Squash Whack n Run

Pupils interested in playing Squash in Term 3, can obtain an entry form from the office. This is played on a Tuesday and is $25 per term.

Todays Tip – Encourage independence.

One of the best things you can do for your child is to enable them to be independent. A lot of parents think that they are helping their child by doing jobs for them (packing school bags, dressing them etc.) but this is actually not helpful to the child at all. Children (and adults) feel a sense of pride when completing things on their own and children are capable, and need the opportunity to show their independence.

· Encourage children to dress themselves, and only help with tricky things like buckles and shoelaces.

· Children can help to pack their own school lunches.

· Have children carry their own school bags when entering and leaving school. Parents should not have to carry their child’s belongings.

· Children should be unpacking their school bags independently each morning and getting themselves sorted for the school day.

· Drop your children off at the school gate to encourage further independence.

You will be surprised at what your child is capable of!

More information can be found at http://www.incredibleyears.com

Room 2 Class Happenings

Welcome back to everyone for Term 3. This term we will be learning about reading aloud, and the children will be reading a poem to the class. We have started by writing our own colour poems. We chose a colour, then thought about what that colour reminded us of. We also remembered to put some describing words in our poems to make them more interesting.

Ski Trip Friday 7 September 2012 ~ Expressions of Interest

We are trying to gauge numbers interested in the Ski Trip for bus purposes. Please fill your child's name on the slip below and hand into the school office by Wednesday July 25, to express interest for your child to ski. The invitation is open to Year 5 and 6 students.

Payment will be required with booking at a later date prior to the trip. The cost will be approx $115 (child) and adults yet to be decided. This covers helmet, ski/snowboard rental, lift pass and bus fare.

Please also indicate if you are interested as a parent help.

Mrs Winders and Mrs Tagomoa-Kaa

Sacred Heart School Ski Trip

Yes my child ________________________is interested in coming on the ski trip.

I can / cannot accompany my child as a parent helper.

Signed _______________________________________