comments at our last meeting.

As a school we are very invested in our students

future and want to ensure the learning that our

tamariki receive at PCS is fitting with our vision of

excellence.

All of our students in year 4 to 8 have 1:1 devices.

When you check in with the students about their

learning, the devices are the highlight for them.

They have the ability to choose what they are

learning, and can research and express their learning

digitally. The new Digital Technology curriculum

that is being introduced by the Ministry of

Education is part of this. Students future involves

technology and we are providing the learning and

platform around this at school.

Our students in year 0 to 3 use ipads to facilitate

their learning. Year 4 to 8 students use

chromebooks with google classroom and contracts.

Having said that, our staff have a focus to ensure

learning is integrated with dance, drama, art,

science, health and pe with the core curriculum

areas of maths and literacy and of course our

religious education. We will continue to provide a

vast amount of opportunities for our learners. We

too are aware of “screen time” so assure you that

the kids are getting lots of variety in their learning.

As a school we are excited to be looking towards a

future in the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme.

Our Board are currently discussing the opportunities

this offers to you our whanau. I am excited about

the step forward for our school around digital

learning. I will keep you updated with our

progress.

TERM BREAK

Have a wonderful and safe term break with your

loved ones. It is a time to recharge after a long wet

period with lots of illness. Term four is going to be

“action packed”!

God bless,

Kathryn Carey (Principal)

Greetings, Kia Ora, Talofa, Bula Vinaka,

Konnichi wa, Dobrodošli, Sawa dee, Failte

We have had a wonderful two weeks with Te Wiki

o Te Reo Maori and Social Justice all going on in

and around the school. Speak to your tamariki

about the learning that has been going on! I have

loved seeing our tamariki learn new animal names

in Te Reo Maori in the Kiwi class and how to order

a coffee in the staffroom—hei heri atu rate for me!

Social Justice Week has been a focus around

“weaving the bonds of belonging”. The tamariki

have been learning how to be kind and caring to

our neighbour. Who is our neighbour? Everyone!.

Our students are taking their learning into the

community coming up with ideas to reach out to

those that may be lonely or needing a friend.

APPRAISALS

Our teachers are working hard and it has been

great to gather student voice and spend time

observing the great lessons going on in the school.

Every teacher is inquiring into their practice with a

focus around acceleration for each learner. Lots of

deliberate acts of teaching are occurring, where

students are asked:

What helps you learn?

How do you know you are right?

What gets in the way of learning?

Where are you going next?

This leads me to into “integration of learning” that

we have a large focus on.

DIGITAL LEARNING

We had some great questions around our digital

learning at our mahi tahi tua rua evening. The

Board had a wonderful discussion about the

Special points of interest:

Olympic Ambassador visits the school

Year 3/4 Rippa tournament

Duffy Show

Far North Speech Competition

Friday 22nd September 2017 Week 9

PLEASE NOTE!! A friendly reminder to all drivers to STOP at the bottom of the hill when leaving our school drive into Eden Terrace. The best option is to go back out onto Dominion Road where there are less pedestrians. Thank you.

This calendar gives you an idea of what is coming up during the term. Put the dates somewhere important to remember them. Dates can change at times, so please check this calendar each newsletter. If there are last minute changes we will notify you by text, and add comments onto our school Facebook page. Make

sure you contact Helen in the office to ensure you are part of our “phone tree”.

A reminder, for safety of our children,

please drive slowly in the carpark. No child

is to leave the gate area unsupervised.

Please do not park in the yellow lines.

Sep/Oct 2017

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Wk9 18 19

Whole school

waiata

20

Olympic Ambas-

sador visiting

21 22

Newsletter

Far North

Speech Comp

23 24

Wk

10 25 26

Whole school

waiata

27

Kiwi Sport

28 29

Assembly

McAULEY DAY

Singing Comp!

30 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Wk 1 16

First day of term

4

17 18 19 20

Newsletter

21 22

Wk2 23

LABOUR DAY

HOLIDAY

24 25 26

Duffy Show

1.30pm

27

Assembly

28 29

Whanau, let us always remember to show whanaungatanga at Pompallier. Our values are in-terwoven in all that we do. Aroha, Atawhai, Tika and Pono. As a Mercy school we serve others and treat others as we would like to be treated. Part of Social Justice Week was to “Weave the Bonds of Belonging” stated by the Pope. We are reminded that our neighbor is the person next

door, or the person we pass in the street. A simple smile or offer of a helping hand can make the difference! Lets be the difference.

It’s competition time—holiday writing!!!!!

Hiwi the Kiwi has been and we have a writing challenge!!! The winner gets their very own fishing rod and reel val-ued at $150. We also have some books to give away too. Get writing about the key messages you learnt from “Hiwi the Kiwi” about: Sustainability Kai moana Water safety You can also use our theme of “Caring for God’s Creation”. Your piece of writing needs to be appropriate for your learning level. Try to use all of the great learning from the classroom and present your final piece to the best of your ability. Make sure you proof read, edit and submit your final entry in a tidy format. All entries to be in by Friday 20th October 2017 at 2.45pm

It was all go in the kitchen at PCS a couple of weeks ago, as our senior students bat-tled it out for the PCS MKR title! The lucky judges Mrs Dromgool and Mrs Watson were overwhelmed and these two teams were outstanding!!! The overall winners were BOTH TEAMS!!! Next time, the staff think they all need to be judges!!! Thanks Mrs Murray for the motivation and support for this great competition!

Yet again another exceptional year of

speakers at our 2017 PCS Speech

Competition. We are all so proud of the

achievements of our students and a special

mention to our finalists who spoke in front

of the entire school. Public speaking is a

real gift and we encourage our kids to

keep striving to improve. It is not easy,

but lots of practice will help reach goals we

set as individuals. Our fantastic winners

are:

Year 0: Brody Cutler

Year 1: Charli Holloway

Year 2: Hannah Jackson

Year 3: Holly Schrafft

Year 4: Danika Lucich and Alyx Cutler

Year 5: Isaac Dijkstra

Year 6: Ash Lucich

Year 7: Wikitoria TeKuru-Tahitahi

Year 8: Harry Hone

Our year 5 to 8 students go on to compete

at the Far North Speech Competition being

held this Friday 22nd September. Good

luck!!! Thank you to our wonderful

judges, who have such a difficult role!!! Judges: Leonie Murray and Elloise Jennings (Head Girl of Kaitaia

College)

Congratulations to our Te Kahu SHINE

girls who graduated last Wednesday with a

dinner, make-up and celebration.

This programme is all about the following:

develop holistic personal life skills

Improved confidence and under-

standing of value

Enhanced social support networks

Greater understanding in relation to

gifts and talents

Greater awareness of community

contribution and participation.

We are excited to have our next session

booked in for 2018 where our Kakapo

year 7/8 girls continue with this wonderful

programme. A huge thank you to Rachel

Baucke-Bartlett the co-ordinator

BOARD OF TRUSTEES September 12th 2017

We opened our meeting at 5pm as always with a prayer, by Bonnie Greenall. After our prayer, we began by sharing and discussing the Principal, financial and correspondence re-ports. Main points covered and discussed in this meeting: Joanne Ryken & Stacey Cutler, ALL 2017 We watched and listened to a presentation from both Joanne and Stacey about how the

(Accelerated Literacy Learning) programme has been going within our school. We seem to be having some really impressive results and hope that we are able to continue this programme next year.

Phil Gunn, DRS Phil gave us a wonderful presentation updating us on where we are and what we are looking to

in the future with our Catholic teaching and special character within our school and church. It was great to hear all the positives and engaging learning our children are doing around this.

Maintenance / Property Abe has addressed the need for a few new bells around the school for our teachers and children

to be able to hear in all areas of the school, he will be working on this. We have another quote to consider a shade area over the court. Very expensive.

Thank you to Mark Greenall, who has temporarily filled in some of the driveway holes, this of

course is a temporary solution and we are still needing to find a more permanent fix for this. Manaiakalani This is an opportunity for our school that has been proposed. It has a focus on digital learning,

with support for whanau with devices and schools with connectivity. All schools in the Far North Muriwhenua area have the opportunity to take part. As a board, we have decided this is a huge opportunity for our children to stay ahead in digital learning forum. Part of the programme includes the chance for each of our children with their own learning device, which they own, loaded and ready for learning. There is a lot more to discuss with families as the program devel-ops.

Sadly as a board, we are saying farewell to Betty Harris in her Parish Rep role. The board will

arrange for a replacement as soon as we are able. Thank you for your time on the board Betty, for your contribution and your kindness.

Mahi Tahi Rua

This was a great evening and as the board (in our lovely Hi-Viz vests) we were really grateful to all our families for taking the time to talk to us and give us your feedback. This will all be looked over in the coming months to see where we can implement any of the ideas we have re-ceived and clarify some queries.

We closed our meeting at 7.00pm with a prayer, thank you Father Carlo. Next Board meeting is Tuesday October 10th 2017 at 5.00pm. Miranda Dickinson Secretary

On Tuesday, I was Principal for the Day. I made a

special card for the Mill whanau on behalf of our

school. My job was to go and collect all the students

messages. I was on duty at lunchtime and the most

fun I had was talking to all of the students in the

classes.

I also love writing in the newsletter!

Calista Shanks

Year 5

receive their own Duffy Book to take home. These are sponsored by the school to encourage the children to enjoy read-ing. If you would like to help with this sponsorship,

Numbers, Forgiveness, and a question of faith

Matthew 18:21-35

Who doesn't love a good yarn?!

My good mate Mike loves yarning so much that he has been known to repeat, recycle and reimagine stories over and over again. We’ve been friends since 1985 when we were in the same junior class at St James Primary school and in the thirty odd years that we’ve known each other I reckon I heard every single one of his stories and recollections including some in which I was there but have very different memories from the version of events that Mike tells.

Jesus loved using stories and yarns to teach and enlighten, and in this week’s Gospel Jesus is asked how times a person should forgive another, Jesus replies 7 times 70 and then he tell us a story of an indebted servant who is given a reprieve from his payment deadline and slavery, only to turn around a treat a fellow servant who owed the first fellow money exactly oppositely to the mercy just shown to him.

What a jerk! It takes a dark turn from there and you can read just how dark using the bible reference at the top of this column. Jesus’ message in this story is simple but not easy. Treat others how you would be treated yourself regardless of their position in life relative to yourself and regardless of your own need. See, I told you it wasn’t easy.

Those numbers by the way, had deep meaning to the Hebrew people. 7 was a number of wholeness and completion and so too was 70, only with a deep spiritual connotation to it. So 7 time 70 is to forgive as God would. Harder still.

Mike’s stories remind me of this lesson in a way because many of them involve some sort of prank or trick one or other of our friends has played on another. If we as mates hadn’t continued to forgive each other for our mistakes our friendship isn’t worth it. And so here is the faith question,

Are you ready to forgive others as God has forgiven you?

God Bless, Phil.

Principal for the Day is up and running again for the

year! I love the help and input from our wonderful

students. Remember, the way to apply is as follows,

pop a on a piece of paper:

Your name, year level and class

Why you want to be Principal for the day

What you would like to do in this role

Ideas for the school

The previous Principal for the Day draws the names out

of a hat! Good luck!

I am looking forward to receiving lots of wonderful

applications!!!!!