2019 SPRING Newsletter 3

We are cALLed

... Haere mai me tou ake ahua

This year our school theme is We are called Haere mai me tou ake ahua.

God calls us in many ways and to do many things as His people. He also accepts us as we are, which is the te reo part of our theme; come as you are. In Term 4 at Monte, we will follow this call as Contributing Disciples of Christ. We, as a Catholic School believe that God is our source of strength and this will

permeate all our learning. We plan to continue to CONTRIBUTE as Christ’s Disciples in everything we do in term 4. The major curriculum area will be Health and PE, along with the digital curriculum and of course our Religious Education Curriculum underpinning all planning and integrating learning in all areas. As whānau, we ask you to listen for God’s call and help us to help your children to hear God’s call to CONTRIBUTE as CHRIST”S DISCIPLES as we grow together as a school community in faith. We look forward to continue building on our strong learning community together. E tu kotahi tātou.

We need to be strong at being good citizens, doing well in our work and our learning, achieving our goals, be strong for Jesus in the way we live and how we use our values in our daily lives.

We will be people who love to learn;

people who show respect and are resilient

so as to become contributing Disciples of Christ who make a

difference in our world

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

TRUTH

o Knowing the difference

between right and wrong

RESPECT

o Respecting and including

others

o Owning up when you

make a mistake

o Being aware of others

feelings

o Being honest

o To demonstrate

consideration towards

others

INTEGRITY

o To stand up for what you

know is right

COURAGE

o To be proud of being part

of a Catholic community

Others can rely on you o Taking Risks

Genuine honesty in

actions and words to self

and others

o To use right judgment

and persevere

† give it a go † be strong † get stuck in † keep going †

Dear whanau, Well here we are at the end of term 3

heading into term 4 – the last school weeks of 2019!!

Once again Term 3 was a great term filled with so much learning and so many different opportunities and growth

possibilities for all our ākonga. We are all ākonga at Monte; adults and children have

a job here; to learn everyday at our wonderful school. As we learn we also teach each other. By doing this we are putting

into practice some part of the key competency in our New Zealand curriculum:

Participating & Contributing. “This competency is about being actively involved in communities. Communities include

school... drawn together for purposes such as learning... This competency includes a

capacity to contribute appropriately as a group member, to make connections with others, and to create opportunities for

others in the group. Our community is about āko in the context of our Catholic

faith.

The concept of āko describes a teaching

and learning relationship, where the educator is also learning from the student

and where educators’ practices are informed by the latest research and are

both deliberate and reflective. Āko is grounded in the principle of reciprocity and also recognises that the learner and

whānau cannot be separated. In a reciprocal learning relationship and

teachers are not expected to know everything. In particular, āko suggests that each member of the classroom or learning

setting brings knowledge with them from which all are able to learn. Keown, Parker, and

Tiakiwai

What our Monte Cecilia Tamariki bring with them in the context of their own identity

and culture, is one of the richest resources we have as a school. This is a resource we are committed to valuing and nurturing as a

staff. The term was a very busy one where we

once again took every opportunity to focus on the various language weeks to CELEBRATE some of our cultures here at

school. All our learning, even with this cultural and language focus was always well

integrated into our other curriculum areas and of course always steeped in our special

Catholic Character. There will be some pictures later in upcoming newsletters.

What’s in store for TERM 4 learning@Monte?

We have a duty as a Catholic School to allow for each child to encounter Christ at

our place, and the opportunities we create have this thinking as the foundation. I am known to always say to staff to continually

look at all we do through Christ eyes, and plan from there.

As I have written in the introduction page of this newsletter, we will be taking the We are cALLed part of our them to answer as

CONTRIBUTING DISCIPLES of CHRIST. We will teach and learn with our ākonga about

how they can be contributing disciples of Christ in a variety of different ways through

the Health and PE Curriculum, the Digital Technology curriculum and in their everyday thinking, choices and actions. You

could help us at home by encouraging your tamariki ……

0 to contribute to their learning in a positive manner. Learning is not done to them—it is done by them and is their

responsibility to take ownership of their learning.

0 to think about why they come to school. Learning is their job, albeit unpaid! Sharing

that learning with others is important.

0 to feel like they can be of service to others. Ako - teaching and learning is a

reciprocal relationship at Monte. We receive and we give. Being good at something doesn't always make you “better” than

others, humility is a good trait.

0 to try this concept at home. The adults don’t have to do it all; grow responsibility

from a young age. Respectful reciprocation can be taught in so many ways.

Monte will again be a busy place filled with a variety of opportunities to keep our

tamariki engaged, successful and happy in the learning journey.

We also continue to invite you to attend our school and church activities. We do

however fully understand that working parents cannot get to all of our (MANY)

school events, but really appreciate it when you can.

God Bless, Michele Mill

SPECIAL CATHOLIC CHARACTER REVIEW In Week 2 of Term 4 (23 and 24 October) we will welcome the Auckland Catholic

Education Office Review Team to carry out our external school review. We invite you all to be a part of their welcome on the morning of 23 October. We will share the

timetable and you are all most welcome to chat with the reviewers while they are here if you wish to do so.

The review Team are: Colleen Gleeson, Philip Mahoney and accompanying principal of Sancta Maria Primary School, Gina Benade.

What else is happening in Term 4? Dates are updated on the Website

Calendar. † SUMMER UNIFORM – HATS are a non-negotiable part of our summer uniform:

PLEASE ensure your child has a named school sunhat at school everyday! Black school sandals are also to be worn. Both of these items are our official school

uniform.

† We will hopefully open our school swimming pool within the first week or two depending on how warm it is. (Please support the Monte PTA by using their online

shop to purchase swimming caps!) † We will have our Athletics Day in the middle of the term, so in KiwiSport the

children will be learning the related Athletics skills. † Start of Term 4 Mass on Friday of Week 1, to welcome all back to school and also

to welcome our new children and their families. † Monte’s RUGBYthon on 29 October for the children at school. This will be a

fundraising effort combined with fun times at school. † Y5 and Y6 children will go to their bi-annual camp at Whangaroa Peninsula.

† Indian Language Week and Festival of Lights. † Cecilia Day will be celebrated with an Cultural Celebration Evening on Friday 22

November. Book the date – it’s going to be a good night to celebrate our diverse community with kai, song and talent sharing!

† Our End of year Mass and PraiseGiving will happen in the first week of December

and the Annual Nativity Play in the last week of school. † Our school year for children ends on Friday 13th December.

Whanaungatanga I have already spoken about this in previous newsletters, but would like to reiterate it again

here.

As a staff we want to grow positive learning relationships between home and school. Our

teachers are dedicated professionals who have a passion for their mahi and for our

children to be happy successful learners.

The definition of Whanaungatanga is relationship, kinship, sense of family connection - a

relationship through shared experiences and working together which provides people with a

sense of belonging. It develops as a result of kinship rights and obligations, which also

serve to strengthen each member of the kin group.

As teachers, this is an important part of achieving success with our learners, we all want

the same thing for Monte ākonga.

Please remember you are always encouraged to share your ideas, celebrations and queries

with myself and our teachers. If you are unsure of events around school, please send an email

or simply give us what our children would say “an old fashioned phone call”, we are happy to

keep everyone in the loop and stay connected as a strong united community.

E tu kotahi tatou. Michele Mill

Please continue to PRAY DAILY for us all (Please notify us of bereavements to publish for

community prayer) We pray for our lives to be enriched by this community and for us all to hear God’s call to each of us

We pray for all our families who are struggling with illness in their lives and families.

We pray for all the unborn babies and mothers to be, in our community.

We pray for the families who have lost loved ones in our community. This month we pray especially

for Perekina, Joachim and Anhayha’s family who recently lost an aunty.

Keeping Connected HOME LEARNING PARTNERSHIP and COMMUNICATION

Please ensure you check your child’s Book

Bag and Home Learning Journal every day.

Teachers use the HL Journal to

communicate their hub expectations to

you and your child. Occasionally there are

paper notices in the book bag as well. It is

YOUR CHILD’s responsibility to bring this

Book Bag to and from school every day and

we strongly promote the Key Competency

of self-management. The Parent Portal is

an equally important means of

communicating to you about your child’s

learning and Home Learning. This Portal is

the PARENT’s responsibility to check, as

the children should not have access to

this portal. We encourage you to check

the portal at least once a week on a

Monday evening. Most notices are

uploaded on a Monday afternoon by the

leadership team.

Please read the Daily Notices (emailed and

published on the Website

www.montececilia.school.nz) to keep up to

date with what is happening at school.

The PTA also send out notices on the same

email feed as the Daily Notices which is

another communication channel and our

way of asking for your engagement as a

school family to help all our children.

All school families are signed up to our

communications on enrolment, so please

keep our office updated with your

contact and email addresses should they

change for any reason. We try not to send

out paper notices, so it is important that

you are connected to us electronically.

Each Learning Hub also sends out

communications at least once a week

through the Parent Portal. This

information is relevant to those specific

year levels. Sometimes, whole school

communication will be sent this way, but it

is mostly sent via email on the Website

notices. There are two apps which can be

downloaded so you can have access to both

our Parent Portal and our Website on your

smart phones. Instructions are on the

Website under the Information Tab. You

can also log in to the Parent Portal via the

Website. Our Monte Media Online News

is a page on our website which you can sign

up for, to read news of happenings around

school through the students’ voice.