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Welcome
Welcome
A warm welcome to our new families, and welcome back to classroom teaching, Mr W! We also welcomed our new cleaners on Monday. Please look out for Indijit and Shisher, and say hi to ensure they feel welcome. Thank you.
Reminder: Teacher Only Day 30 May - School Closed
A reminder that we have our final Maths Curriculum Teacher Only Day for 2025 coming up soon on 30 May - the school will be closed on this day. The teachers will join with St Anne's and St Bernard's teachers once again in a professional learning session facilitated by the Ministry of Education. Please make arrangements for childcare that day.
Save the date: In term 3 we have a school-allocated teacher only day to meet with the 12 other Catholic Schools in our Kāhui Ako on Friday 1 August.
Relief Teachers
We are now feeling the effects of seasonal colds and flu at school. Today we had 40 children away across the school - mostly due to catching influenza. We also had four staff away due to sickness. This is a normal occurrence. Sometimes staff are away because we also provide opportunities for them to take part in professional learning opportunities to strengthen their practice and support your child.
When a teacher is away, we always work to replace their teacher with an experienced teacher. However this is becoming more an more difficult as time goes on with New Zealand having a very small pool of experienced relief teachers.
Sometimes we need to employ a reliever with a 'Limited Authority to Teach' (LAT). This is an untrained teacher who has proven experience working with children, and the skills needed to be in the classroom on a temporary basis. Sometimes we need to split a class of students across other classes in the school if their teacher is away. All staff and those appointed on a temporary basis are background-checked and police vetted.
Helping Your Child to Cope With Their Teacher Being Away
To help you when your child feels worried about having a relief teacher because their teacher is away, we have put together some ideas to support your child with at home.
Before School:
Support them to know it's okay to feel a bit nervous or unsure.
Remind them that relief teachers are there to help them learn and stay safe.
Encourage them to think of one nice thing they can say or do when they meet the relief teacher.
What You Can Help Them to Say to Themselves:
“I can handle changes, even if they feel tricky.”
“I’ve done hard things before, and I can do it again.”
“Other kids might feel the same way—it’s not just me.”
Coping Tools to Practise With Them:
Take 3 slow, deep breaths if I feel worried.
Use my calm-down tool (e.g. squeeze my stress ball, draw, or count to 10).
Ask for help if I need it.
After School, Support Them To:
Share one thing that went well today.
Talk about anything that was hard so they don’t carry it inside.
Share something they could try next time their teacher is away.
Catholic Character
Catholic Character
May - the Month of Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. We revere Mary as the Mother of God, a central figure in Christian tradition and a model of faith and obedience.
As Catholics, we venerate Mary, but we do not worship her as a deity. We believe she played a crucial role in God's plan of salvation by conceiving and giving birth to Jesus. Mary is also seen as a mother figure, and Catholics often ask her to pray for them and intercede on their behalf with God.
May is often referred to as the Month of Mary – a month where Catholics across the world pray special devotions to our Blessed Mother as ‘Queen of the May’. This could include the singing of Marian (Mary-focussed) hymns, reading scripture associated with Our Lady, and praying the rosary. Here is a resource that could help you and your family to pray 'The Rosary': https://www.usccb.org/how-to-pray-the-rosary
Learning Updates
Learning Updates
Maths Update
All of our teachers are now well into learning about the new maths curriculum content that was introduced at the start of the year. The main change we have noticed is that some concepts are taught earlier than they were previously. In accordance with new Ministry of Education expectations, all children in the same year are taught the same concepts.
"Whole-class explicit teaching is a vital component of effective practice. Every student deserves access to rich learning that covers the knowledge, skills, and competencies aligned with their year level. However, we recognise that within any classroom, students will have different needs. Some will require additional support to engage with the content, while others may need opportunities for extension." (Hon. Erica Stanford, Minister of Education)
Over the weekend the Ministry of Education launched it's revamped parent pages in the MOE website: https://www.education.govt.nz/parents-and-caregivers. You may find these pages helpful. Below is linked one page which gives you an overview of the Maths curriculum, along with English. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Maths - Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT)
In Term One, all of our Year 4-8 Learners sat standardised Maths tests to evaluate their achievement against national norms. We administer this test every year. The test has not yet been updated by NZCER (NZ Council of Educational Research) to assess updated requirements in the NZ Curriculum. This is expected to happen in 2026.
Below are the results for the same cohort of students our school over two consecutive years (2024 Year 4-7 students , and 2025 Year 5-8 students). It has been good to see a shift overall in results with fewer children below expectation, and more above expectation as detailed below.
Above is the 2024 Mathematics PAT Results for Year 4-7 cohort of students.
Above is the 2025 Mathematics PAT Results for Year 5-8 cohort of students.
* Numbers in brackets provide statistics for all students in the national reference group.
** Percentages may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.
According to Maths PAT, in 2025, our students achieve better than the national sample:
26% of our Year 4-8 learners achieved Stanine 7-9 (above average)in the test, in comparison to 22% across the national sample.
14% of our students achieved Stanine 0-3 (below average) in the test, in comparison to 23% across the national sample.
Also:
Fewer (10%) students achieved 'below' (Stanine 1-3) this year than at the same time as last year (15%).
More (26%) students achieved 'above' (Stanine 7-9) this year than at the same time as last year (22%).
Given that most of our students are already doing well, we will be interested to see how this data improves even further over the coming 12 months as we teach the new content in the refreshed Maths Curriculum.
Maths - Ways to help your child(ren) at home
Teach your child a new card game we can play together.
Let your child show you their favourite app with some maths in it.
Help your child learn to estimate things, like how much things weigh, how long they are, the cost of our groceries, or how long it will take to travel to a certain place.
Set up a reward system at home to encourage your child to remember what I need to do.
When you are driving or walking, play Launchpad with your child. Spot a number, then use it as a launchpad for seeing how many combinations they can make with that number (for example, there’s a 12 on a letterbox, that’ s 3x4, 2x6, 10+2, 100–88, and its half of 24).
Play online maths games with your child.
Keep playing with your child, and encouraging them, in the games they are learning, even though they may struggle a little.
Talk to your child about the maths you use every day and at work.
Show your child the family budget and explain how you pay all the bills and save.
Ask your child to figure out how much change you should get back from a purchase. If they get the amount right, you might sometimes let them keep the change!
Help your child memorise facts (for example, forwards and backwards from 100, the 7 times tables or doubling and halving numbers up to 20).
Ask your child to help make dinner and talk about any maths involved, like halves, quarters, litres, grams, and temperatures. Get them to do any measuring or weighing that is needed.
Show your child graphs and tables in your newspaper and talk with them about what they mean.
Tell your child about games you played with your whānau, where you needed to use your maths skills.
Have a games night at home where you play a board game together, like Monopoly, chess, backgammon or mah-jong.
Sports
Sports
Thank you to all of those parents and carers who volunteered for our school Cross Country event today - more in next week's news!
School Notices and Events
School Notices and Events
Year 7 Immunisation Notice
Our public health nurses are coming to school in the week starting 2 June to provide immunisation for year 7 tamariki.
· If you have changed your mind or your child’s medical situation has changed please contact us at gw-nphsimmunisation@tewhatuora.govt.nz, or call us on 04 587 2949.
· If you have not yet consented, but want to, please collect a consent form from the school office or contact us.
· If you declined the vaccines last year but you have changed your mind and you now want your year 8 child to receive the vaccine(s) please collect a consent form from the school office or contact us.
· If your Year 8 child missed out last year and you would like them to catch up on their vaccinations please collect a consent form from the school office or contact us.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at
gw-nphsimmunisation@tewhatuora.govt.nz, or call us on 04 587 2949
Ngā manaakitanga
Immunisations Team, National Public Health Service
Message From Inspire Photography
We would like to invite you all to view your pictures at Inspire Photography's online ordering site. This gallery and ordering system is live and working as of now. Please order by midnight on the 19th May 2025, so that SFDS can also benefit from this fundraising. Orders placed and paid for by this date aim to be dropped off at your school by the Friday 13th June 2025.
Orders to be posted will be processed at the same time as the prints that are to be returned to the school. Digital files are purchased 'as' is and retouching requests may incur fees.
Please check your child’s name is spelled correctly and let us know before the 19th May 2025 if amendment is needed
Please also take the time to check your order confirmation email and get in touch if you are unsure that you wanted to order does not match what you have entered on your order. Incorrectly-ordered prints can not be swapped or reimbursed.
The gallery will remain live and online for up to 12 months after the main ordering period closes, postage and packing fees may also apply as drop off at school is not available with late orders. The school does not receive any fundraising percentage on sales and payments made after the main ordering period finishes.
To view and order your photographs:
Go to their website at https://www.inspirephotocart.co.nz
Enter this access code in the box: stfran8868
If you require help with the ordering ordering process or have any questions around ordering, then please feel free to call or email inspire: orders@inspirephotography.co.nz.
SKIDS After School Care - upcoming theme - book in soon!
PSL Disco! -Save the date!
Dates to Add to Your Diary
Dates to Add to Your Diary
Please also check our SFDS Events Calendar - add a link to your own calendar to keep fully up to date!
Thursday 8 May 2025
Bee Healthy Dental Van
Tarawera (Rm 2) Pe Day - Wear PE Gear
12:30pm - 2:45pm Technology Ranginui (Yr 7 & 8)
Friday 9 May 2025
Bee Healthy Dental Van
Monday 12 May 2025
Bee Healthy Dental Van
Tarawera (Rm 2) Island Bay library 1.30pm
Tamure (Rm 5) Island Bay library 1.30pm (TBC)
Koura (Rm 6) Paekawakawa Reserve walk 1.30 (TBC)
Tuesday 13 May 2025
Bee Healthy Dental Van
Pohutukawa (Rm 10) PE day (Wear PE Gear)
Wheke (rm 7) and Parareka (Rm 8) PE Day (Wear PE Gear)
Wednesday 14 May 2025
Bee Healthy Dental Van
Pohutukawa (Rm 10) PE day (Wear PE Gear)
Thursday 15 May 2025
Tarawera (Rm 2) PE Day - Wear PE Gear
12:30pm - 2:45pm Technology Ranginui (Yr 7 & 8)
Friday 16 May 2025
Pink Shirt day
Monday 19 May 2025
Last day to order school photos so that the school benefits from this fundraiser
SFDS Board Hui 6.30pm - all welcome
Wednesday 20 May 2025
Southern Zone Cross Country TBC (Postponement date: 22 May TBC)
St Mary's College Open Day - Please email the office if you daughter is going!
Tuesday 27 May 2025
St Patrick's College Open day tour - Please email the office if you son is going!
Friday 30 May 2025
Teacher Only Day - Maths Curriculum (school closed)
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