A Vocation

Father Vince bought Ferdinand along to St Mary's today.  Ferdinand is from the Philippines and spent 10 years in the seminary over there.  He is now studying in Auckland and will be ordained in NZ and become part of the Palmerston North diocese.  Ferdinand spoke to us about a vocation being a call from God.  At the age of 16 he decided he wanted to be a priest but his parents and grandmother were not supportive.  They encouraged him to experience the world first.  As Ferdinand said, to have an appreciation of the world showed him how great God is.

Bronze Medal

We were treated to a visit from Westley Gough today.  He was one of the NZ track cycling team who won a bronze medal in the Teams Pursuit.  We were lucky enough to be able to touch the medal and it really is as heavy as it looks!  Westley spoke about how setting small achievable goals is the best way to work towards the bigger goals.  While he won his medal on the track, he is also a keen road cyclist and encouraged us to sign up for the Tour of the Bay later in the year.

Tech Arts

FutureInTech

Two fabulous FutureInTech Ambassadors, Rob and Hayley, visited our Senior school to tell us all about their jobs, and about their science journey towards where they are now. 

Rob is an Earth Scientist and studied the Sciences and Geography at High School. All of his interests involve being outside and exploring wild open spaces. He completed his Degree at Massey University and now works for the company Fulton Hogan. He has particular knowledge about volcanoes and earthquakes.

Hayley is from Waipawa and has a Zoology degree. She studied at Otago University. During High School Hayley found the Sciences particularly interesting. Hayley has always enjoyed being outdoors and she knew she never wanted a job that would involve sitting behind a desk. After leaving uni she travelled to Canada and worked in the mountains caring for a Grizzly Bear named Boo. Her job now is in Biosecurity and she is a Vector Controller, which involves eradicating possums. 
Possums can carry a nasty disease called TB, which is easily transferred to cows.

Thank you Rob and Hayley for telling us about your jobs.

Cross Country Training

Our first day out training this week. There were some promising improvements on last week. It's going to be hard to pick the top runners for the school competition.

Netball Tournament

It was great to get out in the sunshine for our netball tournament this afternoon.

Marble Movies

At St. Mary's we have Marble Week each term. During this week all the children play each other at every chance they can.

It was suggested that we write a book of marble games, then Daniel took the idea one step further; why not make movies showing others how to play marble games. Here are the results, take a look...

Tech Arts Week 5

Room 2 hard at work in Materials Technology and Electronics.

Science Fair

Room 2 students have completed their science investigations. They have learnt a variety of key competency skills and broadened their scientific, investigative knowledge.

All investigations look impressive! In many, the students have carefully and thoughtfully written their Hypothesis, Method, Results and Conclusions.

It is also lovely to see investigations that have involved family members, a real team learning experience! 

Check out the Science Investigations...

Science Investigations Year 8 Girls

Science Investigations Year 8 Boys

Science Investigations Year 7 Girls

Science Investigations Year 7 Boys

Science Fair

Today we joined Rm 3 and started putting together our Science Fair presentations.  We left quite a mess in Mrs Jackson's room but have some great work to show for it.

Tech Arts

Hard at work in Materials Tech.  The Year 7s were busy filming their movie in Media Studies.  Mrs Jackson couldn't find them!