Happy end of Term 3 everyone, another term which has flown by with so much packed into it. 

Our amazing Across School Teachers have organised and supported so many opportunities this term. From PLD around supporting English Language Learners, Understanding & Managing Anxious Behaviours in our tamariki to Language Week Art and Speech Competitions with the culmination of an uplifting Māori Mass; as well as working alongside teachers in our schools.

It has been and continues to be an uncertain time in education at the moment but collectively we support each other as Catholic Schools and remain positive for the future of all ākonga in Catholic education. Our Special Character permeates all that we do and we are proud to be a collective Auckland Central Catholic Schools Kāhui ako.

Have a restful, yet fun filled holiday break with whānau and friends.

Last week, our Country celebrated Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

We held our annual Te Miha Māori (Māori Mass) which took place at Christ the King Church, which was a great success. Our language is said to be our “māpihi maurea,” the window to our soul. It is through this understanding that, I believe, all our whanau and different Kura who attended te Māori Miha last Thursday, came together as one - to uphold our reo and to uphold our Māoritanga. 

The reo that belonged to our tūpuna now belongs to us, and the more we use it to connect with our culture, and our heritage, the more we realize it can never be taken away. Recent times have also proved challenging with the passing of Kiingi Tūheitia. I believe our coming together for the Miha also serves as an example of the Kotahitanga that he was ever much a symbol of in his life. So finally, in the kupu of the late king, “Believe in you, believe in me, believe in Māori.” 

A big mihi to all who contributed in some way to the wonderful week that we had, tena koutou. 

Nō reira, toitū te Reo, toitū te mana, 

Tena koutou, tena koutou, oti rā tena rā tātou."

Tane Wilkaire, 

St Peter’s College

We recently transformed our cultural weeks into a single, vibrant celebration. Each day, students and staff were encouraged to wear traditional attire, showcasing our diverse cultural backgrounds. Morning prayers were led by different cultural groups, featuring prayers in their own languages and national anthems. Lunchtime performances provided a platform for students to showcase their talents through dance and song.

The week-long extravaganza began with a celebration of Māori culture, followed by Asian, Pacific Island, European, American, and African cultures. On the final day, everyone at St Mary’s, including teachers and support staff, had the opportunity to dress in their cultural attire once more. Students also brought in cultural dishes to share with the school community.

The week was a resounding success, filled with colorful clothing, impressive student-led performances, and delicious food from around the world. Positive feedback from students indicated a strong desire to continue this ‘celebration of cultures’ every year from now on!

On Friday, 6 September students at St Dominic's Catholic Primary participated in a range of activities to learn about Social Justice.

Activities about water filtration, carrying water, building shelters and engaging in prayers helped students to learn about the issues that face marginalised communities. After beginning the day with a liturgy, students rotated through the different activities with their buddy classes fostering the tuakana/teina relationship.

It was an amazing day that resulted in areas of the school being planted out with native trees and shrubs, artwork being created and a positive attitude towards helping those in need.

INAUGURAL GRANDPARENTS DAY!

The sun shone, voices lifted, joy filled the air. What a beautiful day we had to celebrate our first ever Grandparents Day at Marist School, Mt Albert. The day began with a lovely liturgy celebrating the feast day of St Joachim & St Anne, grandparents of Jesus, parents of Mary. A very full church of grandparents and community then moved over to the hall to see performances from our Senior Kapa Haka group and musical items from our students who have been working with Mrs Judith Fullerton.A delightful morning tea was then provided by the PTFA and Marist whānau. There was a great buzz!The hall was filled to capacity with our community spilling out onto the deck and forecourt. The weather was perfect! Grandparents also took up the opportunity to be with their grandchildren in their Hubs.

Cans for Christmas (Marist School, Mt Albert)

On Friday 30 August Good Shepherd School held their speech finals competition. 3 entrants from each year level presented their speech to the whole school and whanau. All the children had worked extremely hard to write and practice their speech. The standard was super high and both the judges had a very hard time picking the winner for each year level. Our overall winner was Jasmine Dove, who won the year 6 finals. She will be representing Good Shepherd School at the Eden/Albert primary speech competition.

Heather McLeod (Deputy Principal)

Assistant Principals and Deputy Principals from our Kahui Ako recently came together for a dynamic and intimate first hui. This small, focused gathering provided a valuable opportunity to share insights, enhance leadership skills, and collectively discover our core purpose. By collaborating and exchanging ideas, we aimed to strengthen our leadership capabilities and forge a unified vision for our educational community. With a focus on effective and responsive leadership, we are committed to fostering a robust network that will drive our collective success and make a meaningful impact.

We look forward to continuing our journey together at our next hui on Tuesday, 29th October, at 3:30 pm, hosted at Monte Cecilia Primary School.

Our recent webinar on enhancing reading and oral language skills for English Language Learners (ELLs) was great! We covered effective strategies such as sequencing to help students organize story events, combining sentences to improve fluency, and using anticipatory reading guides to engage prior knowledge. Additionally, we introduced three-level guides to deepen comprehension through literal, inferential, and evaluative questions. Thank you to everyone who joined and contributed to the discussion.

If you were unable to make it here is the link to the slides  bit.ly/BlendELLs and here is the link to the recording  Zoom Recording  Passcode: 2JtCbX#8

This term, staff members from across our primary and secondary schools participated in an RTLB workshop hosted by St Mary’s Primary, Avondale, and led by Julia Langford, an Educational Psychologist.

The focus of the session was on understanding and managing anxiety. The session explored what anxiety is and when it becomes a problem, the different types of anxiety we may encounter in educational settings, the importance of adults and our reactions, and, finally, some strategies we can apply.

Julia discussed examples of what anxiety can look like, as well as how we can best support students showing signs of anxiety. It was also an opportunity for schools to share the issues they are facing, further strengthening our Kahui Ako network by exchanging ideas and strategies.

Thank you to those staff members who attended, and remember to keep your eyes peeled for the next session. If you would like a copy of Julia’s presentation, please reach out.

Last week was premiere of the school feature film Chasing Stars, followed by two further screenings at Event Cinema in St. Lukes. The screenings were the culmination of two years of work from the students involved, starting with creating the story, casting, and then writing the screenplay in 2023. After a year of filming at school and all around Auckland,
as well as months of editing and post-production work, the film was finally ready for the September 16 th  premiere. The
cast and crew, along with friends, family and invited guests made appearances on the red carpet along with an enthusiastic audience.

Congratulations to the student producer Ava Crowe and student directors Gloria Chan, Kacee Conway and Franziska Wood, as well as to Maddy Low who not only took on the lead performance role for the film, but also contributed significantly to the post-production and coordinating the music for the film. Many students were involved and put significant amounts of time and effort into this project and were rewarded with the experience of seeing their own work on the big screen.

The full film will be available to view online next Term, as well as a full soundtrack of the songs and the score which will be available to stream.

Keith Paterson
Film Producer

A further screening of the school film 'Chasing Stars' has been organised after the previous screenings were sold out early. This will be at "The Vic" cinema in Devonport on Mon 7th and Tue 8th Oct (2nd week of the holidays). Tickets are $12 and are on the school website or mctech.nz/chasingstars
There are only 36 seats available each night so make sure you are getting your seats before it sells out again.

The Special Character group on the 26th of August 2024 hosted St Mary’s College in a shared scripture reflection evening held in the Chapel, and followed by pizza in the library from 4-6pm. The evening looked to show and explain how the Special Character group works at St Peter’s and how we practice Lectio Divina and run our weekly scripture reflections. 

This event acted as a form of inspiration into how St Mary’s could implement their own sort of weekly scripture reflection time, and aid their own Special Character group. The evening not only provided a time of reflection, but also allowed for new connections to be made further building on the relationship between the two colleges. 

Following the scripture reflection, students were invited into the library for some pizza and conversation getting to know each other. Although nerves were high at the start, things settled down as the evening went on, in the end resulting in a lot of laughter and good vibes. This evening was a major success evident through the positive feedback received from both St Mary’s and St Peter’s. These type of events are key to not only building our Catholic Faith, but also in meeting new people. 

Mohokoi Funaki, Special Character prefect, St Peter’s College

Everyday people in education, and others on the periphery have contributed to pages of everyday. And the magic lies in the coaching style questions at the end of every piece that encourage the reader to reflect on where they are in relation to the kaupapa being discussed. 

Readers are forced to think about where they want to be and working through the questions will help them formulate a way forward. The questions are interactive and insightful, the journal is aesthetically beautiful and you just can’t help being drawn into its pages.

Teams are invited to work together on collaborative inquiries working their way through the pages and focussing on the areas they want to improve in, together. This way they can get their beliefs and goals out on the table and then continue to share what they have tried and hold each other accountable, all the while supporting each other's growth.

We have used articles from the everyday. journal in our Kāhui Ako PLD. Lizzie has been involved in delivering PLD in our schools as well. Check out her website for some free articles and how to get in touch with her.

At our Tongan Language Week celebration afternoon we were treated to a range of different dances - solos and groups. In the lead up to this final day, the children had spent several weeks preparing in class time, and refining in their own time. There were also Bible readings, prayers and speeches. This all followed a magnificent feast of Tongan food prepared by our lovely Tongan families.

We also had our McKillop day celebrations which included a trip by our McKillop house members and our Special Character team to the Mary McKillop Centre to learn all about Mary McKillop and the Josephite sisters in NZ. Following this, they led McKillop liturgies across the school.

And finally there are a couple of photos from our Feast of the Assumption mass. 

Mālō and Fakamālō Atu to the winners of our Tongan Language Week Art Competition!

Judges said “Your poster is so colorful and full of life, just like the beautiful sea around Tonga! The way you drew the sea creatures really shows how special and vibrant the ocean is in Tongan culture.”

Judges said “Your poster beautifully captures the vibrant colors and rich traditions of Tonga. It's clear you've put a lot of thought into showing what makes Tongan culture so special!”

Judges said “Your poster does an amazing job showcasing the unique and vibrant culture of Tonga! I love how you included traditional elements which really highlight the richness of Tongan traditions. You’ve clearly put a lot of effort into representing what makes Tonga so special!”

Thank you and well done to all of those students who entered - the judges said the level of art was fantastic - keep up the good work.

Congratulations to all our participants who took part in our speech competitions during this term’s Language Weeks.  Our students love for culture, language, faith and identity is remarkable. A special thank-you to our judges for giving such wonderful feedback and feed forward. 

Some results are yet to be collated from the other Language Week competitions due to the timing of them. Look out for the results in next term’s newsletter – Māori, Tuvalu and Fiji.

Cook Islands Language Week - Judged by Ngamata Tararo

Year 5-6 category winner: Helena Rekareka (Christ the King)

Speech can be found here: Cook Islands

Tongan Language Week - Judged by Sinai Siakumi-Philipp

Years 3-4 category winner: Kalani-Coco Kaitapu (Christ the King)

Years 5-6 category winner: ‘Alaipulotu Motu’apuaka (Monte Cecilia)

Years 11-13 category winner: Melenaite Falekaono (Marist College)

Speeches can be found here: Tongan Language

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

Years 11-13 category winner: Melenaite Falekaono (Marist College) Speech found here

Good Shepherd School celebrated the Olympics with an exciting day organised in conjunction with our PTA. The day began with an impressive opening ceremony, and from there each class participated in sporting events throughout the day. It was a day not to be forgotten!

We recently transformed our cultural weeks into a single, vibrant celebration. Each day, students and staff were encouraged to wear traditional attire, showcasing our diverse cultural backgrounds. Morning prayers were led by different cultural groups, featuring prayers in their own languages and national anthems. Lunchtime performances provided a platform for students to showcase their talents through dance and song.

The week-long extravaganza began with a celebration of Māori culture, followed by Asian, Pacific Island, European, American, and African cultures. On the final day, everyone at St Mary’s, including teachers and support staff, had the opportunity to dress in their cultural attire once more. Students also brought in cultural dishes to share with the school community.

The week was a resounding success, filled with colorful clothing, impressive student-led performances, and delicious food from around the world. Positive feedback from students indicated a strong desire to continue this ‘celebration of cultures’ every year from now on!

The Within School Leader team at St. Mary’s College for 2024 has implemented a PLD bite newsletter for 2024. Each WSL contributes to the COLfee News – printed and in e-copy for the start of each term. A little PLD bite to start things off for staff  – complete with tips, QR links and even some trivia!

This could be a great idea for WSLs in other schools to start doing!