St Theresa's Catholic School Plimmerton eNewsletter

Hello, Kia ora, Talofa lava, Hola, Namaste, Mabuhay, Ciao, Kia Orana, Ahalan, Konnichiwa, Ni hao, Selam, Xin chao, Bonjour, Bula, Dzien/Dobry, Shalom, Dia duit, Mauri, Halo, Bom dia, Gidday, Guten Tag, Hej

Mai i te Kopae ki te Urupa, tatou ako tonu ai - From the cradle to the grave, we are forever learning.

Kia ora koutou e te whānau,

It is a lovely surprise to have Holly and her family back at St. Theresa's for a few weeks while they await the next stage in this huge journey. The children in Room 2 were all very excited to see her and we keep the whole family in our prayers of 'Hope for Holly'.

Last week, I had the privilege of being with my Catholic Principal colleagues exploring the narratives of Parihaka up in Taranaki. What a special, sacred place Parihaka is and a great example of reconciliation and peaceful, active resistence.

Tomorrow night at 7p.m., our Catholic Character Leaders will be leading the Stations of the Cross in the Church. You are very welcome to join us.

Attendance continues to be a top priority for the Government, which has set a target of 80% of students attending school more than 90% of the term by 2030. To achieve this, schools need to aspire to reach an average daily attendance rate above 94%.

Last week, 24/3 - 28/3 our attendance rate was 92.64%.

In Term 2 from Week 4, I will be on sabbatical. During this time Deborah Norris will be Acting Principal and Pauline MacLean will be Acting Deputy Principal. I am excited to continue my study on the Neurosequential Model of Education and of course, to spend some time with my Grandbaby and family. I am very confident that the school will tick along beautifully while I'm away.

Kia pai tō rā whakatā - Have a great weekend.
Donna McDonald - Principal

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
John 8:1-11

In today’s Gospel, we hear about a woman who has committed a terrible sin. The people who bring her to Jesus think the sin is so bad that it cannot be forgiven. Jesus says that only people who have never sinned can judge the woman. Jesus does not judge her. We are reminded that God loves us and does not judge us. God sees the big picture, not just one puzzle piece. When we look at other people, we can try to see all the puzzle pieces, not just one and show others love and mercy. ~Loyola Press

So many SPARKs in Week 8!
What an amazing achievement - keep those lights shining!

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Please join us for our Easter Liturgy on Friday, 11th April at 10a.m. in the school grounds. The 'story' will start down at the Prayer Garden by Room 1. If the weather doesn't play the game, it will be held in the Church.

All of the children are involved in retelling the Easter Story. We will have our traditional Hot Cross Bun Morning Tea in the Staffroom after the Liturgy and you are all very welcome to stay and have a cuppa and a bun with us.

In Room 2, we are learning about God's gift, Earth. We learnt about how special it is. It is the only planet that is the perfect distance from the sun, has water and oxygen in its air.

We have loved learning about space.

We are very happy to welcome the following students and their families to our St. T's community. We wish you all many memorable and happy times.

Mason Lowry, son of Matthew and Hayley;

Liam Liang, son of Yuanhua and Rui Dan;

Noah Carson, son of Aaron and Natasha.

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On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to be able to enter 3 teams into the Parumoana Endzone Competition that was held at Ngatitoa Domain. Weather conditions were perfect and all teams were able to have lots of games against a variety of local schools. Thank you so much to the parents who transported and supervised the event - Olivia, Nicky, Anthony, Emma, Kare, Helen and Lucy. We can't do this without you and the children loved having the opportunity to go.

APRIL
Friday, 4th April - 2p.m. Uniform Fittings
Friday, 11th April - Our Easter Liturgy 10a.m.
Friday, 11th April - Hot Cross Bun Morning Tea
Friday, 11th April - End of Term 1

MAY
Wednesday, 14th May - Board of Trustees meeting - 6.oop.m.
Wednesday, 14th May - Board Meeting 6p.m.
Thursday, 15th May - Parent Information Eveing (Maths)
Friday, 16th May - Uniform Fittings from 2p.m. Please call the Office to book an appt.
Thursday, 22nd May - Powhiri and Mass of Welcome 9a.m.

JUNE
Monday, 2nd June - King's Birthday NO SCHOOL
Friday, 13th June - Uniform Fittings from 2p.m. Please call the Office to book an appt.
Tuesday, 17th June - Makariki Community Event 5p.m.
Thursday, 19th June - Teacher Only Day - NO SCHOOL
Friday, 20th June - Matariki - NO SCHOOL
Friday, 27th June - End of Term 2

From the start of this year, we have been utilising a new SMS (HERO) for our school invoices to parents. At the end of April 2025, we will not have access to any tax receipts from our previous SMS, for any previous years. You will have been sent a receipt for any payments made through the old system. If you need any of your tax receipts, please search your emails.

To make things easier and if you already have the HERO App, you can report your child's absence via this form of communication. Obviously, it's still an option to leave a message on the Absence Line or via email to the Office.

You need to download the App anyway, as much more information will become available to you via this platform and it will become our main means of communication.

For Term 1: There will be a total of 7 Fridays that pizza will be available for you to order for - that is for every Friday of the term until we break up.

To order pizza and/or ice blocks for your child, please follow ONE of the two processes below:
1. ORDERS FOR THE TERM: Pizza will be available for 7 WEEKS this term. So if ordering for the term, just multiply by 7. If you decide part way through the term, then calculate how many Fridays are left. Send an email to the team, outlining the following information for each child you are ordering for BUT in one email is fine.

Child’s Name:
Room No.:
Number of pizza slices - please specify if gluten free
Number of ice blocks
Cost: $1.50 per pizza slice and $1 per ice block
Multiply the order total by the number of Fridays.

2. WEEKLY ORDERS: These need to be sent to the same email address, with the same order details as in Option 1 and also paid into the same bank account number.
VERY IMPORTANT: The deadline for weekly orders is at 3p.m. on a Thursday. Unfortunately, no late orders can be accepted.

If you would like to pay in advance for a set number of weeks but not all the weeks in this particular term, please feel free to email these details to the team.
If your child is new to our school and only starts part way through the term, simply adjust the number of weeks for the remainder of the term.
kaiorders@stp.school.nz
Payment by internet banking only to 12 3254 0109325 00 using the reference PIZZA. The team would appreciate a screenshot of your payment, sent to their email address.

Check out our fabulous personalised school hats! Order form attached.

Personalised Buck Hat order form

Personalised Buck Hat order form 3.58 MB

NEWSLETTER APP
Here is the link to download the Schoolzine App. At the end of set up, you are asked for a passcode and this is 3025.

An important update for SZapp has been released to accomodate for iPhones which have been intermittently receiving push notifications.

SZapp is available from the App Store now.

Users with automatic updates enabled on their device will recieve this update automatically.

Schoolzine App

Community Connections

Out and about - mostly in Porirua!

School Calendar

School calendar

We're still collecting Yummy stickers which earn us points for sports equipment. A chart is attached for you to use and copies are also available from the Office.

Yummy Apple Stickers Collection Sheet

Yummy Apple Stickers Collection Sheet 342.43 KB

If you are interested in any secondhand uniform items, please email Kerry to check availability. Each item is individually priced with 100% of all proceeds going directly to our School.

If you have any uniform items in good condition that you are willing to donate to this fundraiser, please drop off to Gina. No soiled white shirts, old-style boys’ shirts or shoes please. For any further information, please contact Kerry Swadling: kerry@mischewski.co.nz