Kia ora koutou

Mānawatia a Matariki — Happy Māori New Year!

We had a wonderful time last Friday with our Coffee and Chat morning for our parents to chat with one another or catch up. Covid abruptly changed the many ways we as a community gathered so this was a lovely way for some to reconnect and/or meet others for the first time. We had a great group come along and now plan to hold one every few weeks so please mark the following dates in your calendars now. 

Fridays  July 21 - 8:45 am on

              August 11 - 8:45 am on

              September 1st, 3pm

Suzy Tye is leading this wonderful initiative for which we give our grateful thanks. To allow greater flexibility in notifying you, please email the office if you are happy for us to add you to the ‘phone tree’ list. It will of course only be used for coffee invites ?

What a fantastic finish to term with our Matariki celebration last night - once again a wonderful night of kai, activity, and performance and we thank all our whānau who come along to celebrate with us. Congratulations to our tamariki who sang their waiata and a group of Year 4 - 6 who performed the play on Matariki. Our thanks to Francesca von Lanthen and Sophie Smyth for planning and leading this evening.

We have many tamariki achieving some wonderful things outside school life and so we have decided to feature some of them. This week we feature Jessie, a very talented Year 6 student who trains and competes in dance. Jessie shares with us:- 

I dance for Nova Mega Crew, which is an independent competitive hip-hop crew coached by Myah Miranda. Nova started at the beginning of this year, after the company we danced for closed, as the Director moved to Australia. Many of us previously danced for Stellar Mega Crew.

 This term (Term 2), we competed at Velocity Kapiti (silver medallist), Impact Kapiti (gold medallists), and most recently Hip Hop United, where we were gold medallists and were the only Junior Mega Crew to be selected to attend Worlds in Portugal. Our next competition this weekend is at Impact, Lower Hutt.

 Dance is one of my passions (my other passion is Muay Thai kickboxing). The long hours of dance training are worth it as I get to challenge myself mentally and physically, and I get to spend time with my dance family.

Ka mau te wehi Jessie

Te Ākau has enjoyed learning about the Sun, the Moon and our planet, Earth. We are looking forward to learning more about the Solar System and gravity! Here’s some of our writing so far...

Margaret

The Sun is as bright as 50 light bulbs joined together.

The Sun is burning hot.   

Patrick

The Moon is made of rock and metal. 

It is very cold.   It is very dark but the Moon reflects off the Sun.

The Sun is very hot. The sun is very bright . It gives us light and heat.

The Sun looks like a giant red fire ball.   

Nikodimos

I can see the Earth. The Moon orbits the Earth. The Moon is a rocky moon. The Earth orbits the Sun. God made the Earth. 

The Sun is hot. The Sun has energy and light. The Sun is so hot. It is like fire.

Justin

I am Earth. I have land. I have water. I have air.

I am the Sun.  The Sun is hot.

Cadyn

We live on Earth.  The Earth orbits the Sun.  The Earth is the 3rd planet away from the Sun.

The big Sun is a big star. The Sun glows and it gives us light and keeps us warm.

Hugo

The Sun is hot. It gives us energy and keeps us warm. The Sun is breathing with flames.

The Moon is made of rock and metal.

Ralph

The Sun is hotter than Mercury.

Leo

The Sun is so hot. The Sun is in the day.

Nora

The Sun is as hot as a fireball. 

The Moon is made of metal and also rock.

I live on Earth. Earth is the best because it has trees and it has water.

Painting Earth

“We put foam in paint and mixed it together and used our fingers or a brush. The colours are the water, the land and clouds.”  - Justin

“The foam was soft and squishy. I liked using my hands.”  - Nora

We used paper airplanes to learn how to measure distances. 

We used a piece of paper to write down our numbers and we used a metre long ruler to get our numbers and sometimes the wind blew the paper airplane and moved it so we threw them three times. We used a calculator to work out the average number and Sam’s went the furthest - 5.5m! Sometimes our distances weren’t perfect metres so some of our distances had points in them like 4.5m. We tried to make cooler paper airplanes but it was too hard and we had to ask Miss Smyth to do it for us so we decided to just do the regular paper airplane. We had to use a video on youtube to make them because it would have been too hard to make them because lots of people in our class didn’t know how to make paper airplanes and Miss Smyth would have had to do all the folding. We decorated our airplanes with pens to make them look cool.

8 Stars?

Black sky filled with lots of stars. A cluster appears right above us, and we know who they are, they are the nine sisters of MATARIKI! Their names are Waitī, Waitā, Ururangi,Waipuna-ā-Rangi, Pōhututiawa, Tupānuku and last but not least we have MATARIKI! Winter is the coldest season but at least we can celebrate MATARIKI!

As all families gather around the warm fire they see something falling from the sky. Is it a shooting star? Or a plane crashing? What could it be? BANG! CRASH! Everyone is startled from the loud noises. Crowds of people running towards the loud noises. There’s a shiny, sparkly bright light thing lying on the ground, what is this shiny thing? As everyone gets closer to this thing they release it’s a STAR! Heads are all looking up in the sky counting the stars. “There’s only 8 stars in the sky!” Shouts someone from the back row.

“We should try and fling her back into the sky!” A little child screamed. Thinking hats are on even their thinking faces are on! “What can we use to fling her back up?” Shouts my best friend. “I have  a really big slingshot at home, I could get that.” Says a 11 year old girl. Running fast towards the 11 year old girl’s house, puffing and stopping. The 11 year old girl runs straight in her house puffing away. It took like 10 minutes later she came back out with a really big slingshot. As everyone runs back they quickly say “ come on guys let's get this over already!”  “We made it, it's finally time to sling this star back home”. 

12345678910! 

WHOOSH! 

Now when you look up in the sky you can still see the 9 sisters.

Looking up in the sky and singing songs while eating and warming up by the fire. “ Why can’t we go inside?” says a little boy. “So we can look up at sky and wave to the sisters” replies his mum. 

- Gila

A day in the life of Ururangi

“What a loser”, teased Waiti, while the others chortled at the stage of falling asleep they had caught me in. They had thrown a bit of a smaller star at me and watched me yelp in surprise. Tears had brimmed in my terrified eyes, and I was now furiously blinking them  away. Suddenly, but thankfully, my eldest brother Matariki let himself in and began to tell the twins off. By twins, I mean Waiti and Waita, Tupu-a-nuku and Tupu-a-rangi, the trouble-makers of the family. Anyway, now that Mata had gotten me out of THAT situation, I would have to thank him in front of the whole family. Now THAT would be embarrassing!

A day had passed since I had to thank Mata, and now, I was whiling away my time by observing the humans while they prepared for the new year celebration, which was named after Matariki. While some people were gathering kai, others were helping to prepare a hangi in celebration of the end of the harvest. Suddenly, I began to feel uneasy, you know, that sick feeling in your stomach that you get when you fall, or drive down a hill. I began plummeting to the Earth, away from that dark home in the sky that I knew. 

Finally, I thumped onto the ground, though more gracefully than I would have thought after falling thousands of feet. And, after a while, it finally hit me. I had become a shooting star! How would I get back?!

In my head, a horrible little voice cackled, “ Maybe, you won’t get back.” , it said, “ Maybe, you’ll stay here forever and die!” I mentally stomped the voice flat, until it’s words were reduced to far away echos. I began to brainstorm on how to get back. The best idea that I had was to shine as bright as I could and hope that my brothers and sisters would be persuaded by Mata and Pohutukawa  to come and rescue me. As I waited, I took in all of this amazing place, the grassy fields, the flowers, the amount of light…

In around three hours Matariki, Pohutukawa , and all of the other stars of Matariki  had been persuaded to come to my rescue . Together, we flew back up into the sky, and, once we got back, Waiti and Waita helped fix my newly discovered broken point. THe twins had stopped teasing me and we had started to become friends. Actuall, come to think of it, the others were starting to warm up to me as well! ‘Well, all in a day of the life Ururangi’ I thought, happily. 

-Olive

Matariki

I ran outside rushing to get the sweet sweet kumara that was bursting out of the hot steaming hangi that my dad and I made last night. I couldn't wait to eat the yummy kai. I got my blankets and camp chairs. I also got my hot runny milo from the microwave that Mum brewed up with her special powers. I was so enthusiastic to see Matariki and all the little stars shining in the blistering cold night sky.

I sat down and I watched the beautiful night sky and the vibrant Matariki stars. The magical life enters my body as I float away from the sparkly stars that live in my body. The stars felt like they were coming down on me as they lived in my cold cramped house.

-Cedric

The internet is a big and sometimes dangerous place. It has people of all ages all across the planet. You can get tricked and scammed. It can be fun, but be careful who you're playing with and who you’re friending! 

Someone might say they are one of your friends or someone you know when they're not. They might also try to get some personal information from you, track you, and use the information about you!

Never give away any of your passwords or login information. Also, don't give away any bank account details unless you know them really well and you know it's them. Giving away your location is dangerous too, especially if you put it on a public social media platform.

Always stay safe online and remember to always check if you know the people you have friended and/or followed. Don’t give away any of your personal information or passwords!

By Alice

Often, when we are gaming or scrolling through social media and a friend request comes up, we don't hesitate to accept it. They say you’re cool to have many friends on games, but it's really not. Also, when a random number messages you with a link, it's really hard not to click it, but just remember not all things are what they seem online.

“Free iPhone! Click this link to claim now!” or, “Free Robux with every step you take!” are only some of the scams some advertise on the internet. Younger children and even adults or adolescents are manipulated into these.

You know when a website asks for cookies? Those cookies are what track your browsing activity on sites such as Google or Chrome and other search platforms. When a site asks you for those and you accept it without reading what the cookies are they're taking contain, then you could lead yourself into a tunnel with no end. With cookies, they can be shared with other things called parties. When websites share your cookies with third-party apps, that information can lead to identity fraud, addresses being leaked and many more terrible things. So make sure to always read the terms and conditions before accepting. Even if they are several pages long.

Everyone loves to document their lives with photos and videos, right? Posting on social media is the most common. Usually, we repost things without thinking about the location in the background or things we could be naming like date of birth and upcoming events around our town or home. This is totally ok as long as nothing that hints at private information is contained within them.

As we know, Technology has its benefits, but it's always wise to think before you act online.

By Issy

During Term 2 at Tech, we had the opportunity to create stopmotion. We could create our own or work in groups. First, we spent a couple of weeks experimenting with different kinds of stopmotion and then the following weeks, we made a big project. Each video that we made, contains over 200 frames. After we did the stopmotion, we added background music and other effects to create a complete short film. It was lots of fun and we enjoyed the challenge and seeing it all come together. 

The Term 3 statement will be emailed to all families in early July. Please check that the invoice has not gone to your Spam/Junk Inbox and that all your children are listed on the statement.

If you are paying by regular instalments, payments should be set up to close the balance by 30^th November 2023 or by arrangement with the Dues team.

Financial assistance is available to families experiencing financial hardship (loss of income/redundancy, family reasons, etc.). It is a condition of the assistance application that the family has an affordable regular payment in place.

If you have any questions, please contact us:

Phone: 0800 462 725       Email: dues@wn.catholic.org.nz         Text: 021 08907902

The Strathmore Pharmacy Team is thrilled to announce our new winter service contracted by the Ministry of Health -- the Minor Ailment Service (MAS), which is an initiative designed to provide convenient and accessible healthcare for minor health conditions, ensuring that children and their families receive the care they need without barriers.

Our experienced pharmacists will consult and provide treatment plans on various conditions, including pain and fever, diarrhoea, dehydration, minor eye inflammation and infections, minor skin infections, eczema or dermatitis, scabies, and head lice.

The service will be available from 12 June 2023.

Consultation and treatments under the Minor Ailment Service scheme are FREE to children under 14 years of age, whānau members (of any age) experiencing the same symptoms as a child under 14, Community Service Card (CSC) holders, as well as Māori and Pacific members of our community.

There is no appointment required. Just come to the pharmacy to see us! Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 8:30 – 6:00pm and Saturday 9:00-1:00pm

Whakanuia a Matariki! Celebrate Matariki with Wellington City Libraries these holidays, 1 – 16 July. Join us at the bonfire for hot chocolate and cosy stories, become a celestial navigator with our star maps and introductory D&D sessions, unleash your creativity with nature-inspired art and LEGO® sessions as well as puppetry performances and much more! All events are totally free, but some require registration as space may be limited – visit wcl.govt.nz/kidsholidays for the full schedule.

Hockey School Holiday Programme for July 2023

Looking for something outdoors to keep the kids entertained these school holidays.  Wellington Hockey is excited to be offering a school holiday programme for kids aged 5 to 12 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of the school holidays.   This programme is designed to be fun and engaging for both kids new to hockey with no previous experience and those who already play.    

The school holiday programme will be held at National Hockey Stadium, Mt Albert, Berhampore rain or shine and led by our Development Officer, Regan Fricker.   

Bring lunch and snacks, a drink bottle, a jacket, and a change of clothes in case the weather changes.  Sticks and sports equipment will be available.  We will make the most of our time on the turf where possible but if it is too wet or cold, we will move indoors for activities, games and movies.

Who: Children aged 5 - 12 years

Where: National Hockey Stadium, Mt Albert, Berhampore

Time: 8:30am to 3pm

When: Tuesday 4^th July,  Wednesday 5^th July, Tuesday 11^th July and 12^th Wednesday  

Cost: $45 per day with a discount when booking multiple days. 

Register now via player management system PlayHQ https://www.playhq.com/hockey-new-zealand/register/e9b3ee 

If you have any questions, please email regan@wellingtonhockey.org.nz 

School Holiday Painting Sessions

School Holiday "Art Sessions" to schools in Wellington CBD. 

https://www.pinotandpicasso.nz/wellingtoncbd/

School Holiday Boredom Buster! KPA Battle Squad launching TVNZ2 26 June & TVNZ+

NZ’s hottest dance show KPA Battle Squad featuring kids aged 7 to 17 who are keen on street dance styles. 

KPA Battle Squad launches on 26 June on TVNZ2 at 3.30pm and then streams on TVNZ+ 

KPA Battle Squad consists of 8 x 15 minute Episodes and 8 x 5 minute Tutorials / Lessons which enable kids to learn the dance styles and practice, something interactive they could do over the school holidays.