OLS Newsletter 27th June 2016 - Our Lady of the Snows School

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“Building Faith, Achieving Excellence”
Term2~27thJune2016
FarewelltoFatherLito
Itis with greatsadness that we here atOurLady ofthe
SnowsSchoolbidfarewelltoFatherJoseLito.Forthose
ofyouwhohavenotheardFatherLitoisleavingtheMid
CanterburyParishtotakeuptheParishPriestpositionin
HokitikaontheWestCoast.
ThroughouthistimehereinMid-CanterburyFatherLito
has been a vital part of the Our Lady of the Snows
community, saying many of our school Masses, visiting
and teaching the children in the school, supporting
families and parishioners and being the face of the
Filipinocommunity.
I will personally miss his sunny nature, steadfast faith
teaching and dry sense of humour. It has been an
absolute pleasure working with Father Lito and being
partofhisministryhere.Asaschoolwewillallmisshim
andwishhim theverybest in his new position.Wewill
certainly not forget him and if you are ever in Hokitika
remember to pop into Mass on Sunday or past the
presbyteryandvisit.
TonyLamb
Principal
SchoolLearningCelebrationandHangi
This Friday we are celebrating our learning and
achievementsforTerm2.IncorporatingMaori weekthe
students of both Room 1 and 2 will be performing a
culturalshow,followedbyareflectiononTerm2atOLS.
At the completion of the concert we have a Hangi that
will kindly be put down by Carl McHugh (Fish) with Mr
Lamb assisting. Please feel free to come down and help
dig the hole on Thursday afternoon from 5pm ;-) BYO
shovel… Notices have been sent out advertising this
eventandIthankallthoseparentsthathaverepliedand
willbeattending–I’msureyouwillallenjoyit.Forthose
that may wish to attend on the day the details are as
follows.
Friday1stJuly2016
11.30am-GatherinChurchfortheconcert
Noonish–Hangi
SoupForOLS!
This Wednesday 29th June Mrs. Cara McGrath has
cookedupa hugebatchofchickenand vegesoupto
warm the tummies of the children and staff at OLS.
Soupwillcost$2permugandchildrenmaybringtheir
own mug or they may have a recycled soup cup on the
day for no extra charge. Thanks to Cara McGrath for
startingthisgreatideaforwinter,welookforwardtothe
first batch. Next Wednesday 6th July Mrs Lamb will be
supplying pumpkin soup for round two. Same price $2
per cup. All proceeds are to go towards learning
equipmentforthechildrenatOLSJ
MusicFestival
LastTuesdayeveningthepupilsfromRoom1performed
in the Ashburton Schools Music Festival. The
performancewasanabsolute triumphfor OLSwith our
wonderful children getting up on stage and performing
their twosongs in front ofa fully booked events centre
crowd. They also performed with the other schools
presentinthemassedchoirsongswithgreatgusto.They
lookedfantasticintheirbrightredsportstopsandstood
out for their excellent behaviour and smiles. We would
like to say a HUGE thank you to Fiona Maginness our
talentedandwonderfulteacheraidewhotrainedthemin
all the songs and conducted them on the night. Her
effortstogetthewiderangeofabilitiessingingtogether
and to the level they performed at was outstanding.
Thank you also to Mrs Hungerford for supporting with
may practice sessions and to Mrs Ryan for leading the
children in their warm-up scales every morning when
they were lining up for the start of the day. To the
children,youwereamazingandyoudidOLSveryproud.
MtHuttHelpers
Last Thursday we had a huge crew from the Mt Hutt
SnowsportsteamdescendonOLStohelpoutcleaningup
ourgroundsandpaintfreshlinesonthecourtsatschool.
The amazing ski and snowboard instructors did an
fantastic job clearing all the leaves, pruning the trees,
painting the lines on the courts and dragging all the
fallenbrachesfromthepropertytotherubbishheap.We
would like to thank the for their efforts and James
Mackenzie the area manager for making this possible,
Deidra O’Shea Mt Hutt’s HR manager for arranging the
team to come to OLS and Matt and his team for their
sterlingefforts.Thegroundslookfantasticandtheteam
from Mt Hutt really gave us a fantastic example of
community.
SkiTrip8thJuly
On thelastdayofTerm2, wehaveourfirstFull School
"Don’tdigupindoubtwhatyouplantedinfaith”~ElisabethElliot
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day skiing. We are positive that we will have had a
decentdumpofsnowbythenwhichwillmaketheday
thatmuchmoreenjoyable.
Thankyoutothosethathaverepliedtotheskiinglink
sentoutorhavephonedtheofficetohaveitcompleted.
We do however have a few families that have not yet
repliedandmustdosoassoonaspossibleregardless
of wether your child is skiing or not – we need to be
abletoaccountforallstudents.Canthosewhohavenot
yetrepliedphoneme(Glenda)intheofficeMon-Thurs
mornings
Skiing Link to Parent Helper and transport form:
http://goo.gl/forms/U9bywm7JKc
Skiing Link to Child participation and consent
form: http://goo.gl/forms/fQOnbkrOct
MuftiManiaDayThursday7thJuly
Thursday7thJulyisMuftiManiaDaytoraisemoneyfor
the Catholic Mission Organisation Caritas. All children
are invited to wear Mufti on the day and bring a gold
coin( or better;-) )donation for thisimportant charity.
Welookforwardtoanexcitingday.
HockeyinSchools
This term we have been having Tania from MidCanterbury Hockey at OLS teaching thechildren basic
hockey skills. Tania returns this Thursday 30th for
more lessons. Please remind children to bring sports
shoes,shirtsandshortsiftheywish.Theyarewelcome
to participate in normal uniform but are welcome to
taketheoptiontowearsportsuniform.
FromTheFriendsoftheSchool
We are still needing donations for the mid winter
raffle!Pleasebringanydonationsintotheschooloffice
as soon as possible so we can get tickets out. We
appreciatethecontributionsalreadymadeandaskthat
anyonewithanything todonateplease let usknow as
soonaspossible.ManythanksJ
Upcoming Dates
June
30th OLSBoardMeeting
July
1st SchoolLearningConcertandHangi
7th CaritasMuftiMania
8th WholeSchoolSkiDay
8th MidYearReportsgohome
8th LastDayTerm2
25th FirstDayTerm3
26th OLSBoardMeeting
31st FirstCommunion
August
5th Day#1FridaySkiingProgramme
FirstHolyCommunion
Confirmed dates for First Communion Programme for
Methven2016isasfollows:
Children will receive lesson 7,8 and 9 – please learn
lesson 7 and 8 at home and we will do lesson 9
together.
ThursdayJuly7th–Parentsandchildtoarriveat6.15
with FIRST CONFESSION in church at 6.30. Parents
then go to parish Centre while the children and I will
do lesson 9. Ensure they have had dinner before they
arrive.
Wednesday July 27th – After school practice – we
require as manyMums as possibletoassist setting up
the church and arrange the “First Communion
Breakfast”
Sunday July 31st – First Communion. Each family is
allocatedapewsoinviteasmanyfriendsandfamilyass
youwish.
AnyqueriesortoborrowclothingpleasecontactAlison
Lilleyon0272272343or3028343
SeesawDigitalProfiles
Asdetailedinapreviousnewsletterwearenowusing
digital profiles for the main form of learning
communication between home and school. We are
usingaprogrammecalledSeesaw.Thesedigitalprofiles
are personalised for each pupil and accessible by
parents for keeping up to date with work and
assessment at OLS. If you have not already
downloaded the App or signed up online please
contacttheofficeforinstructionsonhowtojoinor
refertothenoticesenthomeonthe15thMarch.We
strongly encourage all parents, both Mums and
Dads to sign up and add your children so you can
see all the amazing things they are doing at OLS.
Every child already has a number of posts and
assessment data ready for you to view, comment on
and this platform enables you to keep an eye on your
child’s progress in the same way you keep an eye on
social media. Seesaw will enable us to build a strong
home and school partnership and keep families up to
datewithalltheworkandexcitingthingsyourchildis
doingandachievingatOLS.Welookforwardtoseeing
yourfeedbackonyourchild’spersonalpage.
DigitalFormsatOLS
As mentioned in the last newsletter we are nowusing
online digital response forms for parents to fill out
permissionandconsentforschoolactivitiesetc.
Please keep an eye out for links to response forms
includingtheskiingformsattheselinks:
Consentform:
http://goo.gl/forms/cYHzLpm3VTnS6xZ02
Parenthelpform:
http://goo.gl/forms/1PqEl8vegT62gYM23
.