Congratulations to Charlotte Madams from Room 7 who now has her Black Tip in Taekwondo. She is part of The World Tae Kwon Do Federation. This is a really great achievement as it takes lots of hard work and dedication to get to this level. Charlotte will spend the next 12 -18 months working towards her Junior black belt. Well done Charlotte!
Supported by current research and the Ministry of Education’s “Assessment Position Paper Assessment”, St Mary’s School Tauranga is placing greater value on student voice in the Assessment and Reporting. Our assessment and reporting processes put the student at the centre whilst refining our teacher feedback and feedforward strategies to further develop our learning vision ‘ To develop Assessment Capable Students, Teachers, School Leaders and Parents’ in 2015.
In 2015, using each child’s personalised, Google SITE ePortfolio, each student from Year 1 to 6, will share their PROGRESS toward the criterion based National Standards in Reading Writing and Mathematics, collated in a digital Learning Story.
Access to Technology devices has allowed both students and their teachers to interact, co construct and create far richer narratives of a learners achievement and progress than any report card could replicate.
Students and their teachers can design the story of a child’s learning through a collection of learning artefacts, collate, archive and share rich authentic learning and assessments in real time with parents.
You will soon be able to access your children’s learning stories through a link on our website here {**************Add link to a Coming soon page!)
For the second year running, St Mary’s was the most successful school in New Zealand at competitive Jump Jam. At the North Island finals held on 1 November, our Boys team and the Senior team were North Island Champions, and the Junior team performed out of their skins to get second place in their first year of jump jam. The secret to our success was the huge team effort from everyone involved; from the coach, and the parents who did an incredible job assistantant coaching and costuming. Also we mustn’t forget our three teams of children who performed with such confidence and did everything asked of them and more. A special mention of Tewi Curtis-Lowe, Toby Taylor, Jasper Hawkes, Joe Vincent, Dominic Piceno, Alisha Yeatman and Bella Broadmore, who leave St Mary’s this year after three wonderful years of jump jam success. Also a very special mention of Colleen Curtis–Lowe and Lee Ann Taylor who have done an amazing job over the last three years, with their costumes for the boys resulting in perfect scores every year. We are sooo going to miss these mums!
Kim Artus
Jump Jam Coach
What a fantastic day out with two fabulous boys teams! Well done to our Golden Eagles, representing England, who triumphed over the other nations and won the WBoP title. A mighty effort in the wind and rain!!
Also doing very well were the Super Strikers, UAE, who finished a credible 6th from 16th nations.
An additional highlight for the teams was to see the REAL World Cup trophy, which was brought to the Bay Oval by Chris Harris.
Thanks to Paul Wills, Julie Wilkinson, Rachel Dew, Kel Jones and Ross McCurran who supported the teams.
Kellie Low, Sports Coordinator
Many of you will have noticed our tree of remembrance which is on the blackboard in the foyer.
Teachers and students have been writing the names of our loved ones who have died on the leaves of the tree as we remember in this month of the Holy Souls our loved ones who have died. Parents are very welcome also to add names of loved ones on leaves so we can add these special people to our prayers.
On Friday our Sursum Corda choir travelled to Auckland to sing at the midday Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral. This was the most enriching and wonderful experience for all who took part. We were very privileged to have Father Edwin accompany us and also to have our Principal Mr Fuller with us for the day. A special thank you to the parents Mrs McFall, Mrs McCann, Mrs Rejthar,Mrs Curragh and Mr Sokimi who joined us.
We were warmly welcomed by Monsignor Bernard Kiely and his assistant priest Father Larry Rustia who celebrated the Mass with Father Edwin. Sursum Corda sang at the Offertory, during Communion and at the end of Mass. Following Mass Sister Mary Neven, former Principal of St Mary’s College spoke to us about the Cathedral and allowed Sursum Corda to have time to explore this most beautiful church. They sang absolutely beautifully and their outstanding behaviour during the entire day made us feel very proud of them. They represented our school superbly. The congregation at St Patrick’s midday Mass was very appreciative and complimentary and in fact Father Larry asked if we could come back every Friday to sing at the Cathedral!
Our congratulations to Sursum Corda!
We were extremely fortunate to qualify 5 out of 10 teams for this years Western Bay of Plenty 7's tournament. The WBOP 7's is a tournament that has been running for approximately 13 years and to qualify half of the potential 10 teams through our South Cluster Sports was a great achievement. Teams to qualify included; Over 40 kg Rugby, Under 40 kg Rugby, Year 6 A Football, Year 6 A Netball and Year 5 Miniball.
Of the five teams involved we were fortunate enough to have two teams finish first, two teams finish third in their divisions and one team finish fifth. Our over 40 kg rugby team had an outstanding day defeating the likes of Te Akau Ki Papamoa and Greenpark Primary School. This was the first time we have won this division so great to have the boys and the coaching to pull off such a result. Thanks to Mr Barry Ririnui for coaching this team. The other team who were able to claim top prize at this Western Bay of Plenty event was our Year 6 A Football Team. This team was coached by Mr Steven Dunn who did a splendid job with the team. Our under 40 kg rugby and Year 5 Mini-ball teams finished third in their respective divisions and our year 6 netball came fifth
Many thanks Mrs Lowe for her organisation and to the parents, teachers and students who made the day such a success.
It is with pleasure that we announce to our school community the the application for resource consent to improve school facilities and increase the student roll capacity at St Mary's Catholic School has been granted
