Gospel Value for the Term Virtue for the Fortnight

TRUTH CONFIDENCE
Confidence is having faith in something or someone. It is a kind of trust. When you have self-confidence, you trust that you have  what it takes to handle whatever happens. You make sure of yourself and enjoy trying new things. When you are confident in  others, you rely on them and confide in them.

The children have been saying the following affirmation:
“I am confident. I love to try new things and I give them the best I have to give. I appreciate my gifts. I welcome new possibilities.”

SPECIAL CHARACTER:
All classes have begun a new strand in Religious Education lessons this week: ‘Sacrament’. Please see the enclosed sheet which gives details of what each class will be covering over the next few weeks.

This Sunday is our first school/parish mass for the term. We would love to see all families at mass this Sunday at 11am at St Philomena’s to share the celebration of the eucharist with us.

Following mass there will be a cake stall run by our Home and School committee to raise funds for our school. You will have received an empty plate at the beginning of the week. Can you please fill it and bring it along to mass to help with fundraising efforts. You may like to bring along a little extra cash also to purchase your home baking for the week.

The final Mass In Slow Motion session is being held at St Joseph’s Church this coming Wednesday evening, 4th August at 5.30pm. All are welcome to attend, remember a plate of finger food for a shared meal.

GRANDPARENTS’ MORNING:
On Monday we celebrated the feast of St Joachim and St Anne, Jesus’ grandparents with a liturgy over at the Church.

We invited our grandparents and special friends to join us and then they came and watched the children working in the classroom and had morning tea with the staff. It was wonderful to see so many grandparents/special
friends come along and share this time with us. The children really enjoyed their morning, thank you for taking the time to join us.

Grandparents are certainly very special people in children’s lives.

RONALD MACDONALD:
The children in Rms 3,4 & 5 had a surprise visitor on Tuesday, Ronald Macdonald. He reminded them of some very important road safety messages.

MATHSATHON:
Thank you for the huge effort with sponsorship for our mathsathon that was held today. The children will bring
home their sponsorship forms with the number of facts they got correct. Could you please help your child to collect their money and return it to school as soon as possible. Thank you to the Home and School Committee for organising this successful fundraiser.

We look forward to Friday 6th August for the Parent/Children competition. You will have received a notice from the Home and School Committee about this during the week.....do come along and join in the fun.

ENRICHMENT:
Our four Yr 6 children involved in the Enrichment Programme will be going to St Joseph’s on Tuesday morning for their first session for the term.

PARENT INFORMATION AFTERNOON TEA:
We have scheduled another Parent Information Afternoon Tea which is being held on Wednesday 11th August, so put it in your diary.

Pat Swanson will be sharing information about what he did while on his two terms of Science Fellowship Leave. Pat presented to the staff and Board of Trustees this week and it was really interesting to hear about what he had been doing so do try and come along.

NATIONAL STANDARDS:
The Staff and Board of Trustees are continuing to develop their knowledge on the newly introduced National Standards. We are planning to have an Information Evening early next term to share some of our knowledge with you. You will notice in the school foyer and in the children’s classrooms posters showing examples of expectations at different year levels in line with National Standards.

NATIONAL STANDARDS NEWSLETTER TIPS:
The Ministry have developed information to help parents, families and whanau support their children’s learning in reading, writing and mathematics at home. Here is the latest one:

Everyday Mathematics -Activities For Home:
Play games with your children. Cards and board games are good options because they use guessing and checking -think snakes and ladders. Monopoly, number hangman, chess, draughts and dice games. Choose games that everyone wants to play. Use lots of maths terms (e.g. ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘back’, ‘forward’, ‘over’, ‘under’) while
you are playing. To keep older children interested, make sure the games are sufficiently challenging.

It is important to remember that learning is a partnership between Home and School.

CROSS COUNTRY:
It’s great to see all the children training so well for cross country. The whole school trains for ten minutes each morning at 9.50am. The children are able to bring sports’ shoes if they wish as the ground is pretty muddy at present.

ICAS ENGLISH:
ICAS English is being held on Monday morning.

SPORTS:
Jets vs Welbourn a win 1-0 (Fergus Conley)
POD= Ben Leary

NEW BLOG:
Room 1 now has their very own blog. So sign in and go see what they are doing. http://stpiusfuturekids.blogspot.com/

P.O.D. CERTIFICATES:
Mr Swanson now has some Player of the Day certificates for those teams that have run out coaches to see Mr Swanson. A big thanks to Kevin Gibson and Lone Star for providing extra certificates.

SCHOLASTIC BOOKS:
All book orders must be in by Monday 2nd August. (This Monday coming). Thank You, Frances

AFTER SCHOOL CARE:
Staff from the YMCA have approached me about after school care. I know some families have indicated a need
for this service so I have asked the YMCA to conduct a survey to gauge interest. Could you please fill in the enclosed survey and return it to school by Friday 6th August.

HOME AND SCHOOL NEWS:
NEWSLETTER ADVERTISING:
The Home and School Committee have advised that we have room on the back of our newsletter for new sponsors. The cost is $125.00 per year and remembering that we send out a newsletter weekly I’m sure you’ll agree it is cheap advertising. Please see Trish is you are interested.

QUIZ NIGHT:
Due to commitments for other fundraising activities the Home and School Committee have decided to
postpone the Quiz Night until 25th March 2011.