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7th March

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-e.sletter

Birthday Wishes
Miss Reeves 14th March 22 years old

(ra)er of the *ee+

Father, may everything we do begin with your inspiration, and continue with your saving help. Let our work always find its origin in you, and through you reach completion. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the oly Spirit, one !od, for ever and ever. "#$%

Gospel Values for Term One: Love, Forgiveness and Justice

,uote of the Month

&"nd still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the $arth, '(ou owe me.' Look what happens with love like that. )t lights up the sky. Hafez

/ool ,uote 0oom 3 (oetr)

+oom , have been work together to come up with a piece of poetry inspired by the change of month to "utumn. -his is what they created.... In autumn the leaves come down Pitta patta Flip flop Pitta patta he crunchy ones fall all over the !round "runch crunch crunch But not the shiny ever !reens# Into the pile of leaves we $ump "runch crac%le crunch &n the !round they are oh so colourful' &)t is when we are at our darkest hour, when we can see no evidence that !od loves us or that he is even there to listen to our prayers, much less answer them...and yet, we still obey. )t is then that the devil is reminded that his cause is lost.* Tom King

School News
Subway Tuesday 11th March. office Forms or in are the available from the school classroom. Working Bee Thank you to all those helped out at that the e

Working Bee. I think

can all agree that the grounds are looking a lot tidier. There ill be another one happening so please keep an eye out for dates. Friends at St Pats The !"M the school$ ill be held all are Thursday March 1#th at elcome to attend and share their ideas. St Patricks Parish

(rincipal1s /ommentar):
-ena koutou e whanau "s we hit the midway point of the term, it is great to see that all of our students are focused on learning across all curriculum sub/ects, and are having fun at the same time. 0ur wonderful staff are also heavily engaged in working hard to provide the highest levels of educational opportunities for our students and they are without fail all committed to the spiritual, physical, social and academic welfare of all of our students. ) see the amount of effort, commitment and physical hours for e1ample that our support staff put in for the benefit of all the students, often without recompense or recognition and ) see the effort that our cool wee group of teachers puts in and ) know that our school is in a really good position to continue with the wonderful academic successes that we have been en/oying. " mum of one of our newer enrolments was concerned that my replacement would want to change everything here. ) assured her, as ) do

Council Invitation to attend a gathering after Mass March. shared on %unday morning &'th tea There ill be a

follo ed by a talk about the %tations of the (ross and hat they mean as Follo ing ill be this some e are in the )enten %eason. there

games or crafts.

you now, that the 2oard will not hire someone that will take the school in any direction apart from forwards. 0n that note, one of the many uni3ue features of St 4atrick5s school that ) am going to miss when ) leave here is the commitment and dedication and passion of those families that are here because they realise that it is in the best interests of their children, spiritually, physically, academically and socially to be here. 0ther families come and go, some bouncing their children from one school to another, for whatever reason, but it is those families that are the stalwarts of this school that ) will miss the most. -here is something 3uite refreshing about being among a group of people, from all walks of life, that are committed to our school and who repeatedly give service for others, without e1pecting 6or receiving7 recompense, acknowledgement or reimbursement. "s ) anticipated, ) did upset some with my earlier comments about those that never seem to be able to contribute, but for those that read all of the comments, you would realise that ) wasn5t being specific or targeting anyone. aving spent an e1traordinary amount of time pondering this very issue, ) can only conclude that e1pecting people to do 8service5 seems a wee bit like something that Father 9evin Foote told me about many families in remote rural parts of the

4hilippines, where it is those with the absolute least that give the most. Where families living in ab/ect poverty would share their last meal with a passing stranger or always manage to give alms. - "- is what ) often see here, where it those families that can often least afford the time or the resources, that always give more, always stretch themselves thin and then when asked, give again. ) will miss that. 0ur senior class finished :nd in %ew ;ealand in the first :<=> Sumdog competition. Seven of our students did not complete their =<<< 3uestions so we were unable to compete to our usual standard. Five of our students finished in the top =<< students in %ew ;ealand? 4atrick =>th, Laney ::nd, #organ :@th, %oah A,rd, !inny @,rd. 0nce again, this confirms that the direction of mathematics in our school is not only on track, but better than most other schools. Just my thoughts folks %aku noa na #e rongo 6in peace7 Barcy 9emp

/ongratulations Mrss Lidd)33

0n Sunday :nd #arch Stephanie and 2en welcomed a baby boy Baniel Josiah Liddy to their family. e weighed a health C pound A ounces and all three are doing well. We hope #rs Liddy will bring her new edition in to meet us sometime soon.

Community News
Northern Netball Club *egistrations on Friday +th March at ,ictoria -ark .etball (ourts for interested players aged +/. (ompetition starts March 01th. Waimate all 2unior grades March Team &.&'pm entries Junior ill be at for

Soccer -ractices for starting on Tuesday 11th (entennial %chool field. competitions need to be in by #th !pril. (ome along and have some fun3 More information contact Tim %oper 451 1#1#. 2

%tudents 0epresenting Our %chool

Congratulations to those students that have represented our school in the wider district over the past few weeks. -uesday the :A th of February we had four students head to -imaru with !areth 0udemans to complete the annual 4olice Competency -est Challenge. 0ur students had no practice and last minutes changes to their team but this didn5t stop them from completing the course in a time of >.>, minutes. Well done to these four and thank you to !areth for taking time out of his day to supervise the event.

Waimate JAB *egistration %unday 14 midgets

th

ugby day on

March from to

1pm. For all ages from through 6nder 1&. %ubs are 7&' and includes a free t8 shirt more 551#. !isco Fundraiser for ith payment. For information

contact 9irsten on 451

"fter the rain forced the swimming sports to be put back a couple of days, our students headed to the town pool to compete against other schools around Waimate at the +ural Swimming Sports. -he students were competitive and managed to pick up , , rd places. Well done to those that placed and also to those that competed. " huge thank you to Simon Cootes and #ike Cadogan for taking the students to the pool and to -oni 0udemans for helping out on the day on behalf of the school.

the %chool

Waimate production

:igh of the

;Frankenstein on Friday 1#th March.

-antomime<. To be held

-hese photos have been taken at our St 4atrick5s Swimming Sports.

Donations

#any thanks to all of those people and organisations that have recently made donations that have directly or indirectly benefitted our school. -hese recent donations have enabled 1 Main North Road us to upgrade the data pro/ectors in both classrooms Oamaru to fully interactive, ultra shortD throw mimio pro/ectors, with builtDin audio. -his allows us to eliminate the mimio bars on the whiteboards and the speakers and potentially allows us to use nearly any hard surface as a pro/ection screen. -he school has also /ust The purchased several new laptops Warehouse in the senior classroom to enable us to continue our =?= 27 Eden programme 6at no cost to Street parents7 with the latest models. -he board are currently considering a draft )Cstrategy that would ensure that our students continue to have access to the latest and best technology at all times and still use 2(0B 6bring your own devices7 if they so desire. %o other school in the district has this. Bon5t listen to those that would tell you that this is the way of the future, because the future is already here and will 3uickly become history. ) thank especially our farming families for their efforts through C#4. "lso those families that have purchased uniforms at 4ostie 4lus, your donations all helped. ) now urge you to start supporting the Warehouse in 0amaru as often as possible and encourage others to do the same as well, as this Saturday they will kick off a @ month long fundraiser for us through the cardboard coins programme. 4urchases attract a cardboard coin which shoppers can then place in one of three charity containers at the entrance to the store. For every cardboard coin collected the Warehouse will pay each charity real money. -he Warehouse has kindly given us this opportunity for the following @ months. -he funds raised will go towards the construction of a Shade sail area over top of the /unior eating area. 4lease support the 0amaru Warehouse. 4lease also take every opportunity to support !ordon andy machinery in 0amaru as they have done our school a significant service with the supply of our new John Beere lawnmower. #any thanks to "ndrew Craig for putting the hard word on the management team over that one.

%t (atric+1 %chool .ould li+e to than+ the follo.ing sponsors