St Patrick's School Kaiapoi - School Newsletter

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

I had great pleasure today - an end of term St Patrick's tradition  - to take seven wonderful 'Students of the Week' to McDonalds for lunch.  At our fortnightly School Assembly Mr O choses one token from the House Containers in the Office and on the token is a student's name, they become our Student of the Week. We give these tokens out to students who are showing the 3C's - being caring, co-operative and being called to others, in our school playground.  Over lunch we had some great discussions about our term, the highlights, the lowlights and what we are looking forward to doing in the holidays. 

It is time to reflect on the term we have had, celebrate and share our learning and prepare for term three. It was wonderful today to share the Year 1-4 Team's Matariki Learning Celebration, with their families / whanau. The children shared their team Matariki posters they had collaboratively created and they particularly enjoyed having their families join them in the Matariki Macarena! Thank you so much for the beautiful Kai created, to enjoy together as a school community.

We had the most fabulous whole school trip to Otautahi Christchurch, last Thursday. We were amazed by the Dinosaur Exhibition and the Discovery Room at the Museum, impressed by the Turanga Library and excited by the Margaret Mahy Playground! Everyone we met commented on our impeccable manners and excellent behaviour We couldn’t have done this trip without our incredible staff and parent / grandparent helpers - an enormous thank you so much for coming with us! Please enjoy our stunning photos of this most enjoyable trip. (see photo gallery below)

To celebrate the end of the term and to thank the children and staff for their hard work and good behaviour especially on our School Trip, they have a special treat arriving at school tomorrow afternoon ...... Mr Whippy!

Please save this date in your Diary - Thursday 28th July 2pm or 7pm.

This is an important meeting for all parents and caregivers to attend. This is a Community Consultation meeting where we consult and discuss with you regarding our upcoming Sexuality Education Health Unit. We are required to consult with you as parents and caregivers so that you are aware of what we teach in our Sexuality Education Programme. You do have the right as parents and caregivers to withdraw your children from Sexuality Education. It is important to come to this Parent meeting to find out what we teach,  to ask questions and  to clarify what the programme is about. Please know that our Sexuality Education Programme aligns with the teachings of the Catholic Church. We teach Sexuality Education every two years at St Patrick's School and we plan to start teaching this important curriculum area, in week 3 of term 3, in Years 1-8. 

Wishing all of our students, staff and families a safe, enjoyable and relaxing school holidays. We  will keep those families in our thoughts and prayers who are unwell and wish them a speedy recovery. Please reach out if you need any help or support over the holidays.

May God's blessings be upon you and your family always,

Kind regards

Trish McKendry

Congratulations to the following students who received Principals Awards over the last fortnight:

Jessica Young, Finn Bettjeman, Lucy Hilton 2x, Archie Eustace 2x, Leah Duggan, Athena Blake, Ezekiel Simanjuntak 2x, Ryker Frankish 2x, Charlie Hickland 2x, Violet Morgan, Neva Joslen, Conor Shiel, Estel van Dam, Owen Amboy, Axdyn Williams - Mills 2x, Ciara Dean, Serenity Obina 2x, Harper Evans, Cojay Manera, Axel Rawson, Seamus McCollum 2x, Joshua Pickering, Zavia Williams - Mills 3x, Ruby Manera, Jamie Wirth, Sadie Hooper, Elsie Joslen, Mary Venzon, Aisling Spollen 2x, Tiffany Obina, George Venis, Gabriel van Dam 2x, Paulo Pesefea, Everest Rawson

A special happy birthday to: Jaks Joslen, Harrison Hickland, KC Hipolito, Violet Morgan, Solomon van Dam

PTA News

Kia Ora St Patrick’s Community.

Please read below to keep up to date with what we are doing.

Face Book Page

Do you follow us on Face Book? This is the best way to make sure you have the most up to date information for all that we are doing. You can find us by searching St Patrick’s Kaiapoi PTA.

Breakfast Club

This is still up and running and we are in desperate need of some non-perishable lunch items to fill the cupboards back up. If you are in a position to donate any items such as, muesli bars, crackers etc we would be so appreciative. The Breakfast and lunch club is for all children whether they are in need of a full lunch or just a top up as these winter months can increase the appetite! Full bellies makes for happy classrooms, which is what we all want:) If you have any questions please contact us at pta@stpatkai.school.nz

Family Donation

Just a reminder that we offer the 2 types of Family donation each term. This consists of the $150 to one family to assist in paying for an extra curricular activity for a child/children in that family. Also we have the donation of 1 term of swimming lessons to one family. We feel that it is so important for our children to have confidence in the water and participate in after school activities. We also understand that these things can come with a large cost so we are hoping this can help many families. The swimming lessons will be available at both The Kaiapoi and Rangiora pools and this is valid for whole year, it does not need to be used straight away. If you would like to apply for either of the above please see Trish McKendry and ask for an application. This is handled very discreetly with only Trish knowing the recipients so please don’t be afraid to apply. You have until the end of each term to apply. It takes a village and we are very happy that we can offer this to our school community.

Fundraising opportunity

The PTA will be helping with the setting up and packing down of the Kaiapoi Art expo. In exchange we receive $300 for the help. If there is anyone available on Wednesday 13th July at 6pm and Monday 18th July at 6pm that are not afraid of a little heavy lifting then please contact us on pta@stpatkai.school.nz Thank you so much in advance.

Uniform

Next uniform order date: Next full order is in term 3, Please have your orders in by week 2 August 5th. Estimated delivery 19th August.

Please contact us at pta@stpatkai.school.nz with any questions.

Hot Chocolate Tuesdays

Every Tuesday in term 2 and 3 we will be selling Hot Chocolates outside Totara for $2 each. Your children can bring a cup or we can provide one. We now have a “pay in advance” card available for this to save the weekly coin search. Please email us on the above email address or send us a message on Facebook if you would like to do this. These work on a buy 9 and get 1 free system so $18 will get you 10 hot chocolates:) We also have a sign up sheet available in the office for parent help for this if you can spare 1 morning every few weeks:)

Naked Baker

All orders due back in tomorrow the last day of term, July 8th and they will arrive the first week back in term 3. Term 3 will see the return of the ever popular Heller’s Bacon fundraiser and the delicious Whitaker’s chocolate! More info to come. Watch this space!

As always if any questions please reach out.

Our next meeting is Wednesday the 3rd August at 6.30pm in the staffroom. All welcome, we would love to see some new faces:)

Ngā mihi

The St Patrick’s PTA

The Pals Workshop was a great experience as there were many other schools there. We learnt about other leaders and the skills needed to be a leader. We ran our own sports game and we made a big schedule, with lots of fun things to do at lunchtime and morning tea. Then we had to present it to all of  the schools there. We told them about all the things we wrote down, like our slogan that we made up on the spot, ‘never give up, never let down’.

It was a very interesting experience and I would happily do it again.

Debbie at OurKidz is offering a School Holiday Programme for the 2 weeks of the School Holidays.

We have enrolment forms at our School Office or you can download them from their website ..... https://www.ourkidz.co.nz/

Looking to learn an instrument?

There are still spaces available for students, both adults and children.

Learn piano, clarinet, saxophone, guitar, voice or flute.

Contact :Erin Grigson - NZ Modern School of Music

erin@grigson.org

(please note change of email address