What a joy it was to see the many grandparents that came to our Grandparents Morning on Wednesday - poignant in one sense as for some it was their last time to gather with us after many years of coming along and then wonderful to meet the next cohort of grandparents! Scripture summarises it beautifully as  ‘Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.’ Proverbs 17:6. Thanks to all those who came as our tamariki loved sharing the morning with you.  It is such a special time that one grandmother joins us by Facetime from the other side of the world!  

Our Teacher Only Day, provided teachers the chance to join with Holy Cross and St Patrick’s School to gather and begin to unpack Te Mātaiaho | Curriculum Refresh  - a day of sharing and learning. Then I went on a course to explore Tā Totou Whakapono Our Faith. It was gratifying to see the quality of work that has happened to develop our new Religious Education Programme - it clearly aligns with 21st-century teaching and learning. 

We have some very clever tamariki as you will see further in this newsletter and we add to this, with the wonderful effort of our recent International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) results that some whānau opt in to for their tamariki. Between Australia and ourselves, students sit tests to be compared against one another. The success levels are Distinction - the top 10 % of participants, Credit - the top 75% and Merit - the top 60 % 

Our results showed:-  

• Digital Technology saw credit awarded to both Isobel Mulhern and Issy St Just
• Mathematics Credit - Ethan Tye and Merit for Abby Johnson and Issy St Just
• And watch this space for the English results

Our Year 7 & 8s - Te Maunga had a wonderful day sailing at Worser Bay today. Our grateful thanks to Sam Cripps and the parent help that made this great day possible. We were blessed with the weather!

As we count down to the end of term it is a very busy time, particularly as we farewell our Year 8s. Please keep an eye out for the notices informing you of the various activities. 

Key dates are:-

• Assembly - Te Awa leads this tomorrow at 2:15 pm
• November 29 - Yr 7-8 Semifinal for Epro 8 is at Raroa Normal Intermediate
• November 30 Epro8 Semi-Finals Year 5/6  team is competing at Raroa Intermediate
• December 1, 1:30 pm Oral Presentation Cup Finals - join us in the church to watch our finalists (Years 7 & 8) in action as they compete
• December 12, 5:30 - 6:30 pm End of Year Assembly - whole school
• December 13, 9:30 End of Year Mass
• December 14, Last day of term, 11 am picnic and games at the beach, 1 pm end of school day

As Te Maunga has explored the concepts of  “I am the Light of the world” and “Imagine peace for all” they have developed the following understandings and statement of what peace is:_ 

True peace comes from knowing and loving Jesus.

Peace is a waka that everyone shares and journeys together on in unity.

Peace is taking time to get to know people and supporting them.

Peace is without crime. It is agreement, kindness, and respect.

Peace is paying attention.

Peace is being kind to the environment, and others and being inclusive.

Peace is taking care of your belongings.

Peace is forgiveness and knowing when you have gone too far.

Peace is where we are all living together in harmony and we are friends.

Peace is constantly all around us, you just have to find it. It comes in many forms. All that matters is that you take the first step to bring and model peace. 

Peace starts with you. It is in you, dig deep to find it.

Parliament Trip

Te Moana and Te Maunga went to Parliament.  We loved seeing behind the scenes and learning more about how Parliament works.

Back at school, we looked into the process of how bills become laws. We created our own mini parliament and our bills went through, first, second, and third readings as well as select committees. Here are the successful bills that we think should become laws: 

All prices should be able to be made exactly with coins

There should be no more 99-cent prices or any price ending with 5 cents. We shouldn’t be spending the extra money. All prices should be rounded down to the lowest amount e.g. $1.98 becomes $1.90.

By Ethan, Rebecca, and Luna

Food should be cheaper

A special place to get food near a supermarket will be made for those people with lower incomes. To be considered people will have to sign a form from the government to apply for a card to purchase from this shop. It will be based on their incomes. 

The food will be in an average quality range, not higher or lower. If they buy meat there will be a place to cook it and bring it back with them or anything else that has to be cooked.

By McKenzy and Betty

Emergency Management Bill

• They help the sick and treat them
• They tell you what to do when you’ve got a bad injury
• Emergency management helps you by giving you splints, casts,moon boots, and lots lots more
• What they do is extremely important because if we didn’t have them a lot of us would be stuck and struggling
• They don’t get paid enough and remember they came to our school and taught us all we needed to know about injuries and other stuff
• When covid-19 hit we had doctors overloaded with patients because it was such a big thing
• Why not we give them a little repaying for those hard couple of years in the pandemic?
• They gave us vaccines and all we needed during all those tough times.
• They should get a 30% raise.

 BY Charlie and Luka

Clothes should be cheaper 

• For those in need, there will be special machines available to purchase clothing from
• They will be affordable
• Thrift shops will control them

By Gila and Tamiregnaw

When you get a raise, taxes will not increase

• When you get more money taxes will not increase
• This will help people who might need a lot of money for kids and to pay rent and food

By Natan

Visual Pepehas

We have been revising our pepehas and have created a visual to represent the different parts:

Friday Lunches

This week we have pizza available to order.  Order forms came home this week but if misplaced can be found under the FOSA section of our school website.

Treasurer for 2024 Still Needed

Unfortunately, we have had no one reply to say they can help out by taking on this role. Our current treasurer is leaving at the end of this year so we really need someone to step up and help out.  It isn't a hard role and you get to meet lots of our school families as well as the wider community.  There will also be a handover so you will know what to do. Please get in touch with the school office if you could help out.

Tau kē | fantastic to hear that Kahu has been selected to represent Wellington in two tournaments for Touch. With it being his very first year playing touch, it shows what a talented athlete Kahu is to already have achieved this. Great to hear that he loves the game and is succeeding. Ka pai Kahu!