Thank you for ringing in your school absences

A huge thanks to all families who ring the school office, or text on our mobile number  (021 2969437) when your child is going to be away.  It is much appreciated by the office staff if they do not have to ring you to find out where your child might be when they have been marked absent by their classroom teachers.  So thanks very much.  Keep up the great work!!

Visit from renown Illustrator 

On Wednesday 17 June 2015, the school received a visit from Bruce Potter, a renown Illustrator of 118 books, two of which he also wrote.  He is also a singer/songwriter.  He did two shows, one for the juniors and another for the middle and senior children.  He wowed them with his artistic talent, sang a song, read a couple of his books and displayed his comedic talent as well, judging by the continuous laughter throughout his show.  He was an inspiration to us all. 

‘Mathematics A Matter of Balance’

The raised  awareness of maths education through the  recent media  debate is both timely and welcomed  for us here at St Mary’s.

The promotion of effective Mathematics teaching, learning, assessment and reporting are top strategic priorities in our daily work. St Mary’s recognise the indisputable importance of children acquiring solid basic facts knowledge as the building block  to understand relationships and connections between numbers.

In St Mary’s classrooms, basic facts knowledge is explicitly taught and applied to maths problems.  St Mary’s focuses on teaching a few efficient problem solving strategies for students to confidently apply to rich problems. It is essential students  know the basics  by heart to free their working memory to further their understandings with more complex multi dimensional mathematics. We encourage students not only to know their basic facts but to  apply and reason with this knowledge. Knowing maths requires concentration,effort and  practise to allow children to draw upon this knowledge automatically. 

Teaching staff have  been learning approaches to mathematical teaching guided by Jo Boaler’s  award winning research, including using Stanford University’s online tutorials. https://www.youcubed.org/

St Mary’s staff have undertaken Professional Learning and Development in Growth Mindset v. Fixed Mindset attitudes with Carol Dweck, the world expert  in Growth Mindsets. We know teachers and parents are key in giving messages to children about their Maths mindsets. We recognise that success comes from sheer persistence and hard work, especially in mathematics.  We believe that every child can excel in mathematics. A recent student survey of our middle and senior students, shows well over  80% of our students enjoy maths learning, can talk about their maths learning, know ‘where they are at’ with their learning and  believe that both their teacher and parents think they are good at maths. We continuously seek  to develop and refine our maths teaching and learning experiences for both students and teachers.

St Mary’s is  fortunate to have six teaching staff who hold Maths papers at Masters level, with more staff  who will enroll in Post Graduate level Maths papers in the second semester of this year. All our staff are actively involved in ‘Teaching as Inquiry’ with many selecting a major focus on researching Mathematics based investigations.

We need you to help us at home with your child’s maths basic knowledge. Your role is vital. Some of the ways you can help us are:

Talk with your child about their learning in Maths and their current Maths Goal ( accessed on your child’s Term 2  Maths Learning Story)

Use the ‘language of Maths learning’ with your child by becoming familiar with the Maths Progressions at your child’s level (accessed in the Maths Learning Story)

Praise your child for their learning and growth. Make a supportive comment and commitment to your child on the Learning Story, how you will help with their basic facts learning.

Ensure all your messages to your child about Maths are positive.

Visit our school website for useful links including www.nzmaths.

View Jo Boaler’s ‘Beautiful Maths’ You Tube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OgKnrPNZiI to gain understanding to balanced approaches to teaching and learning maths.

Diary our Term 3 Maths Parent Workshop on Wednesday 5 August, times to be advised.

Enrol in ‘How to Learn Math’- Stanford University’s MOOC (8 sessions / 15 minutes) 

    or 

‘How to Learn Maths - For Students’ ( or students/teachers/parents).

“ Every time you make a mistake in maths you grow a new synapse”  Carol Dweck

Janet McCarroll, 

DP

Special Character - 24 June 2015

During this term as a school we have been focusing on the teaching and learning of one of our four school values- the value of MERCY.

When our Cluny Sisters established our school over 70 years ago they established the values of Truth and Mercy as the two key values for our school. The Latin words Verax et Clemens (Truth and Mercy)are still seen today in our school crest and remain our key values.

We have explored with the children what Mercy looks like and feels like at St Mary’s using the words love, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness to help the children gain a deeper understanding.

We have used the parable of the Prodigal Son and The Unforgiving Servant to illustrate Jesus’ teaching on Mercy.

Each class has created with the help of Mrs Cooper their own Mercy Tree. Onto the branches they have tied cards with acts of mercy they have shown or been part of. The staff too have created their own Mercy tree which is in our school foyer.

We encourage you to talk to your children about their learning of Mercy and how they can show this value in your families and homes.

Next term we will be focusing on the value of Truth.

Gold Group Sponsor - BDO

Are you financially smart?

Dad, where’s my uniform?  

Dad, have you made my lunch?  

Dad, can you take me to school?  

Dad, I’ve lost my notices ….. Sound familiar!  As a parent of two children at St Mary’s Primary School, this is a regular morning conversation in our household.  Niamh is Year 4 and Ciarán is Year 2 and while their morning routines can use a little improvement, they sometimes show a little more responsibility when it comes to money.

I’m Paul Manning, a director of BDO Tauranga providing accountancy, taxation, audit, insolvency and business advice to a range of clients and industries.    We know that sitting down with your accountant to look at budgets, view month-end results and ponder future income doesn’t excite many people.  But, it’s certainly exciting the ones we’ve been working with using the new real-time business advisory tool, ‘CrunchBoards’.  

It’s a game-changer. 

CrunchBoards is a visual tool of dashboards that provides decision-makers meaningful budgets with multiple scenarios, as well as providing awareness of trends and KPIs.  Best of all, it gives businesses the ability to analyse data live – anytime, anywhere you’re online giving instant access to relevant and critical data to show exactly how the business is performing now and a live business plan that shows you how to make your business better.  That means businesses are deciding where to next; not just looking at where they have just been.  

So, just how financially smart are you?  Talk to me about a free demonstration of Crunchboards or any business advisory matter.  

Phone 571-6280 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Samoan Assembly

I am sure for all that were present at our last school assembly you would have been extremely impressed by the performance of our Samoan Cultural Group.  This group is a collection of people from within our school community, led by one of our parents, Ati Aaifou-Olive.  The inclusion of this performance was a great way for us as a school to recognise Samoan Language week and further reinforce the importance of growing culturally responsive practice at St Mary’s.

Ben Fuller

In the last week of May, New Zealand celebrated Samoan Language Week. 

Samoan is the third most spoken language in New Zealand.  Learning other languages gives us insight into the people, the culture and traditions of other countries and helps us to understand our own language and culture.  Even speaking a word or two of another language is a good opportunity to expand our horizons.

At St Mary’s School we had the wonderful opportunity to expand our horizons and participate in a performance by our local Samoan community.  

Riley and Mariah Gardiner Hano reflect on the performance:

At the last Principal’s Assembly, we celebrated Samoan Language Week.  The Samoan group – Ella Aaifou-Olive, Riley, Mariah, Harlem and Khalia Gardiner Hano performed a siva (dance) and taught the school a sasa (clapping dance).  We even got some of our teachers, our Deputy Principals and Sister Teresia to get up and dance too. 

We hope you all had as much fun as we did!  We were all so excited to be able to share our culture with you.  

A very special thank you to Charlie and Ati Aaifou-Olive for teaching us our dance and supporting us. 

Faafetai tele lava

Riley and Mariah Hano Gardiner

Catholic Conference

This week a representation of our school’s leaders will be travelling to Wellington to attend the 2015 Catholic Education Convention.  This convention is held every three years and is focused on the advancement of educational practice and enrichment of faith.  It will showcase good practice in our schools and other educational activities.  While a number of us are away at this conference Mrs Sally Washer will be acting Principal.

Pastoral Care Survey

Many thanks to all who completed the Pastoral Care Survey.  It is great to see the many people from within our community who both recognise the importance of this as a school and are prepared to support it.  We are currently working across our school, including the PTA, Board of Trustee members and members of staff to review and refine systems of support with the aim of providing help where it is most needed and that is sustainable.