E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangaranga maha o te Motu, Tihei mauri ora! 

Ko Tākitimu me Aotea ngā waka. 

Ko Ruapehu me Puketapu me Silisili ngā maunga.

Ko Ngaruroro me Whangaehu me Vaitafe ngā awa. 

Ko Ngāti Kahungunu me Ngāti Apa me Ngāti Hāmoa ngā iwi.

Ko Hinemanu me Kahuwairua me Fa’asaleleaga ngā hapū.

Ko Omāhu me Tiniwaitara me Vaiafai ngā marae. 

Ko Tala Moemai tōku ingoa, Nō te upoko o te ika āhau ahakoa he Māori me Hāmoa āu.  He tumuaki āhau ki Te Rotokura. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

Kia ora and welcome to Holy Cross School for 2024! I thought I would start this newsletter with my pepeha, a traditional way of introducing myself and making connections to my tīpuna (ancestors), my whakapapa (genealogy), the whenua (land) and those that are new. In English, my pepeha explains that Wellington is my tūrangawaewae (place I call home) and my ancestors and family are from Ngāti Kahungunu in Hastings, Ngāti Apa in Wanganui and Iva and Avao, Savaii, in Samoa. 

The purpose for making connections is for people to understand my history, the lands that I come from and that I am a guardian or kaitiaki of these things just as I am the new kaitiaki for Holy Cross School. 

A kaitiaki is a guardian, keeper, conservator or protector. This year as a school, our overarching theme is Kaitiakitanga and we will be exploring the ways we look after our land, our history and important things to us. 

As the new leader of our school, the following whakatauki comes to mind, “Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua”. I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past. This whakataukī or 'proverb' speaks to perspectives of time, where the past, the present and the future are viewed as intertwined, and life as a continuous process. I look forward to lots of learning, creating and strengthening relationships and leading our teachers, students and families into the future. 

Teacher Only Day at the Home of Compassion: In week 1, we had our teacher only day at the Home of Compassion. We invited all the staff and had a wonderful day of prayer, reflection, special guests and food. The purpose of the day was to start with connections to our Catholic character and learn about what it means to be Katorika Māori (viewing Catholicism with a Māori lens). In addition, we are focused on more encounters with Christ outside of school. This can be through reflection, prayer, action or service. 

We started with a guest speaker Pā Gerry Burns who intertwined the past of Meri Hōhepa with the introduction of Catholicism in Aotearoa. Next, we had the chance to explore the Home of Compassion and look at the different facilities they offer now and in the past. After lunch, Matua Tala did a presentation about what he would do to bring to life our school motto “Let your light shine”. His focus is to care for his staff who will then care for the students and families through our school values; Whānau, Aroha and YES! 

Staff had the opportunity to reflect on themselves and what they value. They filled out the forms that we sent home for the parent conferences with a focus on what they are kaitiaki of and what strengths they want to develop this year. We finished the day in the Chapel with Fr James Lyons who talked to us about what it means to be a teacher in a Catholic School. The feedback from staff was positive and some have already been back to visit the cafe while others are investigating a mini retreat / sleepover at the Home of Compassion in the near future. 

Liturgies at School: Over the past two weeks we have had our beginning of year and Ash Wednesday liturgies. As per normal, there was a strong element of student participation and lots of planning from our Acting Director of Religious Studies Simone Meech. Thank you for the hard work you have already put in and we look forward to your continued service. This year we will look to advertise our liturgies early to invite our families and parishioners to celebrate these special times with us.

Pōwhiri for Tumuaki Tala

On our first day back at school, we had a pōwhiri for Matua Tala to begin his journey into principalship. It was a moving ceremony led by Ethel and Craig Rofe that honoured the mana of the school and Te Ao Māori. In attendance, we had guests from the Archdiocese, Holy Cross Parish, Principals of the local schools and colleges, whānau from our school and lots of Tala’s family and friends. A key moment from Matua’s speech was "Ehara toa i te toa takitahi, engari, he toa takitini" My success and my strength is not that of a single person but instead the strength of many.

On that note, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Ethel and Craig for leading our students with karanga, whaikorero and leading our school haka and to the Meredith-Faletolu, Semu and Soli families for helping to organise the lovely siva that was performed by our Samoan students. We would also like to thank the students that took time over the holidays to work on their items or speeches. It was pretty clear that they had worked hard. Thank you Alazanda, Charles, Marlon, Asher, Amalia, Lilith, Lofi, Ledayna, Terissa, Toby and Mason C. 

New Students and Teachers

This year we welcome new teachers, returning teachers, new families and siblings of current or past students at Holy Cross. We officially welcomed these people today with a pōwhiri. 

Nau mai, haere mai to our new and returning kaiako (teachers); 

• Christina Petris (Rm 1), 
• Clare James (Rm 5), 
• Kirsten Puddick (Rm 11). 

Nau mai haere mai to our ākonga (students) and their whānau (families); 

• Quinn Morrison, Laraze Mason, Ethan Dang, Katlyn Dang, Bianca Handscomb, Olive Eastwood, Zach Dejoras, Ali Semu, Nevaeh Vitale-Kameta, Sophie Archer and Charli Bath. We are blessed to have you at our school and we look forward to you making an impact in our classes and school. 

The Holy Trinity Parish has sent us the schedule for the Sacremental Programmes in 2024. Enrolment forms are available for children in year 4 or older who have been baptised in a Catholic Church and would like to receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. We will also run a Baptism Programme later this year. 

Please find below the dates for the sacramental programme for 2024. if you are interested in your child receiving the sacraments please complete the enrolment form or pick up one form the office.

If you have any queries about the programme please don't hesitate to get in touch with Simone Meech Acting DRS or directly with Patricia O'Donnell who is running the programme triciao2285@gmail.com. Enrolments need to be in by 29th February 2024.   

Sacramental Programme 2024 

Inspire Photography will be here on Tuesday 20th February 2024 to take our school photos. 

Please check your child comes to school in their correct clean summer uniform. Please no PE tops, school polo shirt or dress.  

Hair should be tied neatly back off the face and shoes should be clean.

Please read the Inspire Photography information for parents sheet below:

ROOM 1 & 2

ROOM 3

Room 3 whānau has made a strong start to the year with our tamariki settling in well to learning. Our focus this term is understanding what the term Kaitiaki means; how can we be caretakers of our classroom, of our learning and of each other? We have constructed a class treaty together and are currently working in Rōpu groups as we learn to be a team together. 

A couple of special things that are happening at the moment for Room 3 whānau- 

We are learning the ukulele for CubaDupa. We have some fabulous singers in Room 3. Garden to Table has also made a great start. Here are some pictures of our learning in action so far. 

ROOM 5

Room 5 has had a great start to the year. We have settled in well to our new room (lucky for us we have the newly renovated room!) and we are now starting our work in earnest. 

We have had our first Garden to Table session this week with Olivia and Esther and made potato and herb pizza and started working to tidy up the garden again after the summer break. 

We have got into our daily fitness and other class routines well and have attended Mass and Liturgy so far this term. We are beginning to use chromebooks to assist us in our work and are looking forward to after school sports beginning this week as well as all the other things happening around the school.

ROOM 7

In Room 8, we have had a great start to the year! We have learnt the classroom routines quickly, and shown we can work at our tables without interrupting others. We always stop and have a fruit break at 10am. This week we have worked on our Lenten Promises.  We are looking forward to working together in 2024.

ROOM 11

Garden to Table Room 5 Week 3 Term 1

Garden:

Today in the garden we had to start again because it was dry and overgrown and there were so many weeds!

We learned a garden karakia which we will say before each session.

Our jobs today were to work on the compost by adding paper (carbon), we added oxygen by using the corkscrew. We watered the plants, we gathered parsley, silverbeet and parsnip seeds. 

The group with Olivia set up the Bukashi recycling bin which is for food scraps that cannot go into the compost like noodles. 

Kitchen:

In the kitchen we met Esther who is helping us out with cooking. We were making pizza so we had three groups: one group rolled out the dough, the second group washed and cut up herbs for the topping and the third group washed, cooked and sliced the potatoes. 

We made a dough for the next group to use and set up the tables and chairs so we could eat together. 

The pizza was crispy and yummy, we loved the topping of potatoes and herbs and the rosemary brought it all together.

Thank you to Esther for helping us cook a delicious meal!

We are very privileged to have Arohanui Strings working in our school teaching violin, double bass and cello and it is exciting to have lessons start up again. 

If your child is 7 years or older and interested in learning music, Arohanui Strings is a great place to start learning the basics. Margaret has a fun approach to learning music. Instruments are provided and lessons are FREE. These take place on Tuesday afternoon after school from 3.00pm-4.45pm . Please contact the office if you would like your child to have this opportunity. 

Children's Asthma Study

GKR Karate hire our hall on Monday and Wednesday for Karate classes, they have kindly offered our students a free lesson to come and try Karate. Details below.

If your child loves doing cartwheels, handstands, trampolining, flips, dancing, or parkour, then they will thrive at Bigair Gym! Bigair Gym classes are excellent for fun, focus and fitness! Children learn new skills and develop personal confidence and self-achievement! Strong focus is given to safety and technique, ranging from fundamentals to advanced skills. The structured classes follow a Bigair Badge Programme, which creates focused learning, and allows children to achieve and feel personal progression! Bigair classes include GYMNASTICS, TRAMPOLINING, TUMBLING, FREE RUNNING(thats parkour with flips) & CHEERLEADING! Inquire about Bigair BIRTHDAY PARTIES too!

Book online for Term 1 now at www.bigairgym.co.nz or please contact us for any inquiries:

Bigair Gym Owhiro Bay: ph. 383 8779, e. wgtn@bigairgym.co.nz at 14 Landfill Road, Owhiro Bay.

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