"Achieving More Than We Ever Dreamed Possible"

I love the vision we have set for our school. It is a vision for both individuals and groups, for children and adults. It is also wero or challenge because it requires us to be active- this is how this vision will be realised. There is much we can do and the learning and activities of this term provide examples of this.

I would like to take us back to our overarching concept for the year: 

The Gifts That Surround Us:  My Story, Our Story, The Story.

What is at the heart of this concept? 

1. Dignity, celebration of, and support for each individual (My story)

Supporting students to become the people they are called to be    

2. Knowing, Valuing and Celebrating the people and places around us (Our Story)

Our whānau- Their beautiful and inspiring stories… these are our stories - We seek ways to hear about, build on and celebrate these.   - The taonga / treasures/ gifts in our community… 

Our School - Learning more about our Faith, the history of our school, the people and places of significance ….

Our local area- Places of significance- Holy Cross Church, pa sites, Miramar of old, people within the Miramar community.  

3. Authentically and intentionally strengthening our Catholic Character… sharing stories of faith, understanding the teachings of Jesus and how these apply to us today. A question for us all to consider is how are we living our faith, modelling the values of which we speak?  How are we making Christ visible in our school and homes today? (The Story) 

The photographs shared below celebrate:

Learning- pride in achievement, students loving their writing tasks

Students taking the next step in their faith journey, receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation

Music opportunities within the school- thanks to Donald, Margaret and the incredible generosity of the musicians associated with Arohanui Strings.

A uniform worn with pride (our identity)

The generosity of our wider community members- one who knitted over 150 pairs of slippers for our tamariki

A life well-lived, Mrs Patricia Clarke 

Relaunching our lanterns which celebrate those who live the Holy Cross WAY and our beautiful motto, 'Ka Whiti Mai Te Rā - Let Your Light Shine '.

During the week I read, and shared with staff, a reflection by Cardinal John. I was moved by the powerful message it contained and invite you reflect upon this also. 

“Just to be is a blessing, just to be is holy.” 

Abraham Joshua Heschel

'I thought of this reflection a few days ago when a beautiful book was given to me called “Benedictus – A Book of Blessings.”

As I have been using this book to pray with and reflect I have also been thinking of how good it would be, what a blessing it would be, if we could see that everything is a blessing, that all is gift and that God is the Giver behind the gift. 

The author of this book, John O’Donoghue, wrote in the introduction:

“In the parched deserts of post-modernity a blessing can be like the discovery of a fresh well.  It would be lovely if we could rediscover our power to bless each other. I believe each of us can bless. When a blessing is involved it changes the atmosphere. In the light and reverence of a blessing, a person or situation becomes illuminated in a completely new way.”

What a privilege it would be for each of us to change the atmosphere around us, to illuminate persons and situations by living in such a way that we are a blessing for everyone else. We can do this if we see that it is a holy thing just to be alive, it is a blessing.

However that is not possible for everyone, for many people life is a struggle, there are crises to contend with, the heartache of broken relationships, the challenge for many of putting food on the table, staying warm and dry in the winter, the challenge of loneliness for many... Such situations are opportunities to be a blessing for one another.

Perhaps, this prayer might help us. I know it helps me at the beginning of each day.

“May I live this day

Compassionate of heart

Clear in word

Gracious in awareness

Courageous in thought

Generous in love.”

Ka Whiti Mai Te Rā - Let Your Light Shine

-Holy Cross whānau, let us illuminate people and situations around us that we may be a blessing to all.

I pray that individually and collectively we will Achieve More than We Ever Dreamed Possible.

Monday 26th July                          Term 3 starts

Friday 30th July                              Year 7 & 8 Royal NZ Ballet Firebird at Opera House

Wednesday 4th August                   RED opera (room 3,5,6) at Michael Fowler Centre 

Friday 6th August                           Term 3 Powhiri

Tuesday 10th August                      Learning conferences (after school)

                                                        Bookings available at the start of term 3

Thursday 12th  August                   Learning conferences (after school)

                                                        Bookings available at the start of term 3

Friday 27th August                          Year 8 immunisation (Gardasil)

Wednesday 1st September              Year 7-8 El Rancho camp

Tuesday 14th September                 Feast of the Holy Cross

Friday 17th September                    Wellbeing Event for Year 5-6 

Friday 24th September                    Mercy Day

Sunday 26th September                  Holy Communion- Holy Cross Church

Wednesday 29th September            Catholic Schools Day

Friday 1st October                           End of term 3

Last Friday we were delighted to share with whānau some of the fantastic learning from the term. Celebration's of this kind will occur each term as they provide a powerful and authentic way for our students to talk with whānau about their learning, achievements they are proud of as well as areas they wish to develop.

Again the turn out was fantastic with over 70% of whānau present. We loved seeing grandparents, aunts and uncles come along too. 

Reporting Progress

Early in Term 3 your will receive your child's mid year report.  The report format is similar to that used last year except the final section will be completed together in Week 3 at our mid-year learning conferences. These will happen on Tuesday 10 and Thursday 12 August. 

We remind you that you are always welcome in your child's classroom- children love to share the work they are doing and our teachers are happy to speak with you about your child's learning journey; they also value your input.

This term in Room 1 we have started our “ I AM Sacred made in the image of GOD” unit. For our end of term assessment, students were asked to choose a learning area covered in class and a role model that shows this in the world. Students would then present their findings to the class. The 3 learning areas are; Being an upstander, Body positivity and challenging gender stereotypes.

1. Being an Upstander: To live the Holy Cross WAY we understand that being an upstander is important. An upstander is the opposite of a bystander. This term we wrote narratives about being an upstander and it had to have one of the 4B’s in it. Here are the 4B’s we can use to be an upstander. 

1. Be a buddy - put yourself beside the person being bullied and start a friendly conversation. Butt-in (interrupt) - interrupt the bullying. Ask if they want to sit with you or do something else. 

2. Be brave - Speak out - tell the person bullying that you don’t think what they are doing is okay. 

3. Bring in back-up: Tell someone! Get the person some help by asking for the support of a teacher or people around you.

2. Body Positivity: These lessons helped students value diversity of body and beauty representation in society. The challenge that Room 1 has been exploring is how to question social norms around what beauty standards are. Some of the social norms they have been exposed to are; boys want to have muscular bodies and girls want to be lean with big hips. We have challenged this by identifying the trends we see in advertising and addressing them. 

3. Challenging Gender Stereotypes: A big part of our term was spent learning about stereotypes.  A stereotype is an assumption that people make about a group of people. A gendered stereotype is an assumption or label we put on boys or girls. For example, boys are tough and don’t cry and girls don’t like math or science. This term we wrote letters to “Billy Elliot’s” father to explain why Billy should be allowed to attend ballet lessons.

Here are some photos of our assessments and what we have been doing this term. 

This term Rm 2 has been learning about identity, gender and well-being in our unit called ‘I am Sacred Made in the Image of God.’ We have explored various topics including: Hauora - a Māori model for well-being, how to be an upstander, body positivity, labels and identity, gender stereotyping in NZ, gender stereotyping in Saudi Arabia, advertising and its messaging in the 1950’s, masculinity and most recently - feminism! Each lesson has been accompanied by rich tasks to help us think critically about our learning. 

Most recently, we have been putting together research projects about a person we feel exemplifies one area of our learning. We’ve gone from Winnie Harlow and Messi who taught us about body positivity to TJ Perenara and Kate Sheppard who taught us to be Upstanders. On top of that we’ve conducted our own statistical investigation into stereotyping in the school, learnt more kupu (words) in Te Reo Māori and even had a go making some stars out of flax for Matariki. It’s been a busy term and we deserve our break!

Bring on term 3 and camp!!!!

Room 3 welcomed me as their new teacher this term and have been amazing in making the transition a relatively smooth one, albeit a steep learning curve for me!

This term we have been focusing on relating our Garden to Table programme to our classroom learning and real life contexts. As part of this work we have researched a plant, flower, vegetable or insect found in the garden. We have created a poster using the information we found and recorded ourselves talking about our research. In addition we have been part of making soup along with Room 6 for our Matariki celebrations in Week 9.

We have created Art related to the seven stars of Matariki as well as the Māori Creation of Ranginui and Papatuanuku story to go along with our Garden to Table work.
Our literacy work has focused on reading for information using journals and Connected Journals to learn about non fiction topics and locate relevant information. We have written about factual topics as well as writing instructions for everyday tasks.

In Maths we have focused on improving our basic facts - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We have also learned about fractions and problem solving using the four operations and fractions. In other subjects P.E has focused on ball skills and cross country running, We have been fortunate to be part of the NZ Opera for children ‘Red’ originally scheduled forTerm 2 but postponed until early Term 3. Online apps have been used to supplement classroom learning and give further opportunities for learning at home in language and Maths.

It's been a very busy term but we are looking forward to more exciting opportunities in Terms 3 and 4!

This term Rm 5 have been busy with a lot of science learning in the garden. We have researched over 11 different plants, all of them we have used at sometime in our cooking. In fact, you may have eaten some of those plants in our Matariki vegetable soup last week. 

We have been practising for the Opera Red which used a lot of our energy. We learnt how to do a soundscape of the Aotearoa bush, vocal exercises (which was both funny and serious) and we all enjoyed singing parts of the story, like ‘put it in your backpack’! The story of Red is based on Little Red Riding Hood. We are hoping to perform this in Term 3 with the opera singers.

The Māori creation story has involved us creating artwork of Ranginui, Sky Father and Papatuanuku, Earth Mother. We also learnt how to tell the purakau (story) using the tradition of oral storytelling, sitting in a circle and using our hands to perform actions.

We are learning how to greet people in te reo Māori and can say ‘Kia ora’, atamarie (morning) and pomarie (good evening).  We can ask how are you, Kei te pehe koe? And reply with, Kei te pai ahau! Most of us are also able to say the names of the 7 atua of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, as well as count to 20 in Maori, say the colours and days of the week. Today is Ratu - Tuesday.

Everyone enjoyed learning about St Joseph and how he showed God’s love by being an amazing father to Jesus and lovely husband to Mary.  We liked prayer in the garden, prayer through colour, meditation and this helped us to really think about and show kindness.

We had a fantastic Matariki and Celebration of learning last Friday. It was so nice to show our whanau the garden, share our Inquiry Research posters (based on our plants from the garden), take care of our visitors and show manaakitanga.

Room 6 students have involved themselves in a raft of learning experiences this term.

From plant and soil health investigations to preparing and sharing nutritious delights, our Garden to Table programme has provided students with numerous rich and thought provoking opportunities. 

A huge highlight has been our Performing Arts programme focus and the upcoming performance of RED, a children's opera, now scheduled for Term 3. Our most recent rehearsal with three of the Wellington Opera cast gave students a tiny taste of what to expect on the night and showcased all the mahi and effort of the Garden to Table classes.

Within the contexts of Literacy and Inquiry, a classwide goal to build information literacy skills has been successful. Students have looked at how they could gather and use information in texts, create texts to communicate their findings using the features and structure of a report. Thank you to our school librarian, Kirsten, for her targeted sessions and support assisting students to access HCM online library resources.

It was wonderful to see so many whanau join us for our Matariki celebration and students sharing their new knowledge with so much confidence. A fabulous way to end the term!

Kia ora!

Room 12 have been busy finding ways to work together while showing aroha. They also love to say Yes! to helping each other with problems and tidying up. Take a look at some of these photos of friendship, teamwork and problem solving. 

Every week Room 12 go outside to ride the bikes around the track. Ka pai to all the students who have done the mahi and can now pedal around on their bikes. It truly is an exciting sight to see as they zip and zoom around with large smiles on their faces. 

What was that? It’s a dinosaur roar!!!

So began our dinosaur topic for R 12. The children loved this topic and extended their knowledge of interesting dinosaur facts and wonderful rich vocabulary associated with dinosaurs. Our junior paleontologists dug  for dinosaur fossils in the sand and measured out exactly how long a Tyrannosaurus Rex was on the court. For a wonderful three weeks our writing and some of our reading was around that glorious topic of dinosaurs, but sadly, they have now they have all gone back into the box, ready for the next group of junior paleontologists to make new discoveries. Ka kite dinosaurs. 

We have changed our school app to SZapp which is connected to our e-newsletters.

This will make our e-newsletter easier to read on your phone and we are making a big

saving by changing to this App.

Please download our new school app to your phone and remove the old SchoolAppNZ .

The link to download the app is here : Installation guide

and the code to unlock the app is : 5500

If you have any problems please call the office and we can assist.

Thank you to those families that have already returned their SOLD raffle tickets.

We have more BOOKS available to sell, please pick up extra books from the office if you are keen to sell more over the holidays.

If you are struggling to sell your tickets please return them to the office so they can be reallocated.

The year 7 and 8 students are very grateful for your help and all the money raised will enable the students to have an amazing experience at El Rancho camp.

Great news! We are so  pleased to be able to advise you that the performance of Lucy Mulgan’s Red Opera will be on Wednesday 4 August, at the Michael Fowler Centre, for a 7pm performance.

As we are in a larger space, there will only be one performance with all five schools involved (Kelburn Normal School, Holy Cross School, Newtown School, Northland School, Miramar North School), alongside the three singers and Orchestra Wellington.

Schedule for the day:

2pm                      Students and teachers arrive at the venue

2.15pm                  Health and Safety briefing

2.30 – 4pm            Staging rehearsal with Jacqui and Brent

4 – 4.30pm            Break

4.30 – 6pm            Final rehearsal, with orchestra

6 – 6.45pm            Dinner break

7pm                      Performance

 Costume

Reminder of clothing for performance :  white or pale colored top and dark pants (no logos); and closed shoes.

Breaks

There are two allocated breaks within the students’ time at the venue. There are multiple areas within the venue in which each school will have a space allocated for these. We ask that students bring with them enough food and water for the day/evening.

Tickets for the performance

New tickets will have to be allocated for the new show at MFC. If you previously purchased tickets and would still like to go to the show please contact the office for replacement ticket from Tuesday 27th July 2021.

For those they do not have tickets and would like to go to the show tickets are available to purchase from the school office from Tuesday 27th July, cost $6.00 each.

If you cannot go to the show and would like a refund please contact the office and we can organise this for you. 

We are extremely lucky to be able to offer our year 7 and 8's students the opportunity to attend the performance of The Firebird ballet on Friday 30th July 2021.

This is  a new ballet, choreographed by Loughlan Prior who created the amazing production of Hansel & Gretel in 2019, with well-known music by Igor Stravinsky.

In Loughlan’s retelling of the story, the Firebird emerges as the mother and protector of the natural world, conveying the glorious cycle of life, death and renewal. Dramatic and very topical and relevant to school-aged students. An added bonus is that students will see the whole ballet, not just one act as in previous years.

Tēnā koutou katoa

YEAR 9 ENROLMENTS AT ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE IN 2022

St Patrick’s College is now accepting enrolments for 2022 and the forms can either be downloaded from the College website – www.stpats.school.nz under Enrolments or you can request a Prospectus from the College office.  Please note that enrolments close off on Friday 30 July 2021.