You are always invited and welcome to join us at all our celebrations and liturgies!

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1 @ MONTE CECILIA CATHOLIC SCHOOL truth respect Term 2 Week 2 Issue 5 integrity courage We are growing our roots in term 2 by using the 3 R s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. You are always invited and welcome to join us at all our celebrations and liturgies! Kia ora te whanau, Welcome back to another exciting term at our fantastic school. We started our term 2 with a bang - straight into learning and working on the goals we had set at the end of term 1. Lots of exciting learning is planned for term 2 along with all our important special character celebrations. Our sports and fitness focus is able to be spread out onto the field as well which is exciting! We are even able to start using the very flash confidence course on the field! We have so much space which we are truly grateful for, and we intend to use it to its potential whilst looking after the taonga we have in our care. FLIPPA BALL 8 May The Monte Sea Monkeys started the term two season of Flippa ball with a 3-0 loss to Dio Anglefish. The team faced a tough challenge as we were two short on the day but our five players (against the Dio One of the very important tri annual events is Catholic Schools Day. More information will follow in Mrs Leigh s Korero. We will also share photos after the actual day along with some stories from the children. Significant ladies - please book 24th May in your diaries for a morning of aroha and pampering from your special children. I was so pleased to see so many children at our family Mass today, thank you whanau for supporting your children in their faith journeys. Let us all keep working together to achieve harmonious unity in Christ. Blessings, Michele Mill. team's seven) played the best Flippa ball of the year. The passing was outstanding and the team work was top notch. The player of the day was Harriet Shaw who did an excellent job getting to the ball ahead of the opposition, winning the ball in the contest and then passing it to her team mates. Coach, Craig NET BALL 12 May The Y4 Monte Miracles netball team had a great start to the new netball season. Whilst we didn't quite win (6-4) it certainly wasn't a walk over. The girls worked well as a team and looked awesome in their new uniforms. Player of the day went to Rico for some great Intercepts! Barbara

2 DRS Korero Mea ana te atawhai haere mai i runga i te aroha me te awhi Mercy invites us to love and to care It is hard to believe that we are already in Week 3 of Term 2, as well as half way through the month of May, a very special month in our Catholic tradition when we honour Mary the Mother of God. Mary, as the Mother of the Church, is the example, as well as the guide and inspiration, of us all. We pray the Hail Mary every day at Monte through the month of May. Mary was also present with the disciples on Pentecost Day, which we celebrated on Sunday as one community during our Whole School Mass. We remembered the ANZACs during our special Liturgy on the first day of Term 2. This was followed by the children learning about the sacrifice of the brave men and women of New Zealand 100 years ago. The children showed compassion for the victims of the war, including the families of the those who did not return home. On 9th May we had Mother s Day Prayer Assembly, praying as a school community for our Mothers. Leading up to Mother s Day, the Middle Hub children wrote poems and prayers, asking our Loving God to care for their Mothers. Some of the prayers were shared during the 1st Celebration Assembly this term. DRS Conference Last Thursday and Friday I was away at a DRS Conference, which was a very rewarding experience focussed on spiritual renewal. We were very fortunate to have Monica Brown, one of Australia s most highly respected Christian composers and workshop facilitators. Her expertise is in religious education, worship and ritual, and scripture story telling through the integration of creative process. ( ) More information about Monica Brown and her work can be found on the above mentioned website. The staff at Monte Cecilia Catholic School will have a fantastic opportunity to meet Monica Brown during our Cluster Meeting this Wednesday at St Dominic s Catholic Primary School in Blockhouse Bay. Catholic Schools Day Catholic Schools Day happens once every three years and is a time to celebrate Catholic education. Catholic Schools trace their origins to the first Benedictine Monasteries in the early 6 th century. We are going to celebrate this special day with a Whole School Mass at 11am, with a day of fun, art and games! Prayer Intentions For all those in Catholic schools, that God helps them to bring light into the darkness of life, spreading hope for a world of justice and harmony. For our parish and school community, that we may be a united family of love; living and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ as one. Amen

3 DRS Korero continued Strand Learning Most children have completed their Holy Spirit Strand learning and the Faith Journals will go home on Friday this week for you to comment on your child s learning. You will be able to read about the key concepts and attitudes of the God Strand, which the children will start to explore in Week 4. The focus for family/whanau for each year level in the God strand is as follows: Year 1 God is the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen. Each person is God s unique creation made in love for love. We are part of what God made and saw that it was good. We are called to respect our own dignity tapu as persons made in God s image, the dignity of others and the value of all parts of creation. We are sacred and Holy because we share in the Tapu of God. We are also called to respond with praise and worship of God. Year 2 God is gracious a great giver of gifts. The greatest of these gifts of love is Jesus who revealed that God is Abba his loving Father Matua, who is also our Father. Our response to God s gifts of grace is to truly appreciate them and to live lives of gratitude. Year 3 God is present in the world in creation, and speaks to people through the scriptures especially when they are proclaimed in the Church. God is active through people who accept his gift of grace Mana Atua and God s activity in the world is expressed through different cultures. Year 4 The Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is a loving community of three persons who are one God. One of God s great gifts or taonga is the natural world of creation, which we should respect because it is tapu. Another of God s gifts of love is the Ten Commandments Year 5 God is always faithful pono. This is one of the basic messages in the Scriptures. God calls people into a relationship sealed with a covenant. People may go back on their word and so awful things can happen, but God s love aroha is constant. In the new covenant of Jesus, Christians are called to trust in God, and to build up God s Kingdom or Reign - Te Rangitiratanga on earth. Year 6 The names and images for God found in the Old and New Testaments tell us something about what God is like. Christians come to know God through Jesus and respond in faith through worship and action. Catholic beliefs about God have been summarised in the Creeds. More information can be found on pages: 17 year 1, 20 year 2, 23 year 3, 26 year 4, 29 year 5, 32 year 6, of the Family- Whanau Book. You can also ask your teacher for more information, check out your child s hub and their Faith Journals. Please, read through the God Strand attitudes which the children will be developing in Term 2. These can be found on the God Strand Title page which is glued into the Faith Journals. Your assistance with the development of these attitudes will be very welcomed. God Bless, Hanna Leigh DRS

4 Community Prayer Intentions Please pray for all members of our school community who are unwell or are needing our prayers at this time, especially: 0 Trevor Mill - husband of Michele 0 Members of the Haiu whanau 0 For the repose of the soul of Kurtis Haiu. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. 0 Our Students currently preparing for the Holy Sacraments of Reconciliation, Holy Communion and Confirmation 0 Newly elected Parish Pastoral Council Members who will be working to grow and evangelise our St John Vianney Parish. 0 Board of Trustees nominees for wisdom and guidance in supporting our school Vickie Boffey is our Director of Pastoral Care. If you know of someone in need of prayer please let us know. Monte Parent Prayer Group Prayer and reflection is an important part of life at Monte Cecilia Catholic School not only for the children but for all members of the community. Our parent prayer group meet on Tuesday mornings in the Parish Centre following 9am Mass to pray for the needs of our children and of our school. The time is relaxed, informal, prayerful and social. All parents, caregivers and Monte Friends are welcome! There is a Prayer Kete in the reception at school in which you can place any prayer intentions you may have. Our prayer group will include this intention in their prayer meeting. THE MONTE MEAL BANK In previous years we have been able to support families who experience a crisis situation through the provision of a much welcomed home cooked meal or baking. Clare Jennings has offered to co-ordinate our Monte Meal Bank this year. If you are happy to cook up a meal we can freeze, or be put on the Monte Meal Bank Roster send an to montececiliameals@gmail.com or contact Clare directly. Welcome New Students to Monte: Finn Aloua (Junior Hub) Noah Guizoni Fernandes (Junior Hub) Aaron D Silva (Senior Hub) Lucas Lane (Senior Hub) We are happy that you are here learning with us at Monte, and we hope that you and your whanau quickly feel part of our school family.

5 No Dogs / Pets at school please We have noticed that some parents are bringing dogs onto the school grounds. This is not permitted for Health and Safety reasons. We do have children who are really afraid of dogs. With our furry friends on site there is also the issue of allergies for some children. Please do not bring your dogs onto the school site, including the pick up and drop off zone. If you need to bring your pet along, please keep it in your car with windows open for air. Tying them at the gate leaves them unattended and could cause potential harm to children passing by, so this is not an option. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. WHOLE SCHOOL PHOTO Our whole school photo will be taken as a foundation photo at this site. Date still to be decided. More information to follow. End of Term 8 July 2016 ****** Term 3 Begins 25 July 2016 CATHOLIC SCHOOLS DAY Monday 16th May Our Lady Help of Christians Tues 24 May A tri-annual celebration We celebrate our Significant across all Catholic Schools in New Zealand Women at Monte BOOK WEEK in NEW Families week 6 and Grandparents Day on Friday 10 June Date to be confirmed Evening Meet and greet new friends and find out snippets of Monte information Monte is part of a larger Catholic School Family in the Auckland Diocese and the whole of New Zealand. We are also a part of a Community of Learning with ten other Catholic Schools in the wider Auckland region. The schools in our Community of Learning are: Primary: St Therese, Marist Mt Albert, Marist Herne Bay, Monte Cecilia, St Dominic s, Good Shepherd, Christ the King Colleges: St Mary s, St Peter s, Marist College, St Paul s As part of the Community of Learning (CoL), there will be increased collaboration and sharing of learning resources between us. We have common achievement objectives and will strive for a smooth transition between primary school and secondary school for our children. We have set three achievement challenges which will be submitted to the Minister of Education, and cohorts of students will be tracked over three years as part of this first step. To start with, our focus will be on writing, maths and NCEA endorsement. The aim is to shift and accelerate learning for all our students, targeting those who are not achieving national expectations. This is an exciting time for us as a school and as a Catholic system, as our CoL is uniquely Catholic. This means that along with the academic achievements, we can also focus on our special character as a commonality. Monte Cecilia Catholic School will empower our people to strive for excellence through collaboration and service; to be life long learners and contributors to the world, inspired by our Mercy Tradition We endeavour to keep you all informed, well in advance of what s happening around school we try to keep a healthy balance where everyone has the opportunity to engage in communications and information shared about their children and our school. We also send out notices or a flyer, when appropriate, about happenings and events, we also use our app as a reminder tool. Sometimes this could be 24 hours beforehand. Please also check our website calendar. And if you don t know please ask! Please note the days that support your child s faith journey and help them to attend celebrations that are not necessarily during school hours. Mass at St John Vianney is at 9am every Sunday.