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Welcome, nau mai, afio mai, namaste, konnichiwa, nĭ hăo, talofa, komosta, vanakkam, auybowan, ഹലോ
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Newsletter
12 May 2026
Term 2
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Our St Brendan’s Identity: Inspiring Navigators
As the only school named after St Brendan in New Zealand, our unique vision is 'Inspiring Navigators,' drawing inspiration from St Brendan, the courageous explorer. His faith, sense of adventure, and determination inspire our learning journeys, guided by our GRACE values: Gospel, Respect, Aspire, Compassion, and Explore. These values, instilled by the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (SMSM), shape how we learn and care for one another.
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Our four Houses also reflect St Brendan’s journey:
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- Tralee – St Brendan’s birthplace. Life is a gift, treasure it.
- Clonard – Where St Brendan was educated. With knowledge, we grow.
- Galway – Where St Brendan began his journey. On your journey, make a difference.
- Annagh – Where St Brendan passed away. Learn from today to create a better tomorrow.
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St Brendan’s Feast Day: Friday, 15 May
Celebrating St Brendan’s Feast Day is significant for our community. While the actual date is 16 May, we will be celebrating this special occasion on Friday, 15 May. We warmly invite you to join us for our 9.30am Mass at Our Lady of Grace. Our teams have planned a fun-filled day, and we welcome you to visit our classrooms from 2.30pm to see our school in action. Our Navigators will also be holding a bake sale in the afternoon.
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Sacrament of Confirmation
We celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation on Sunday. We are grateful to Archbishop Paul Martin for celebrating, supported by Fr Maleko and Fr Ron. We acknowledge our St Brendan's teaching team for all their support, and we thank Mrs Sarah Chard for leading the sacramental programme.
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Community Gratitude
A huge thank you to everyone for your fantastic support of our Colour Run today! It was a brilliant day of fun and school spirit. Your enthusiastic support and fundraising efforts are vital for our school community. Money raised from the event will support our 2026 Year 7-8 Camp and ongoing improvements to our school grounds.
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Thank you to everyone for your generous contributions to this week's collection for the Upper Hutt Food Bank; all donations are needed and deeply appreciated.
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Pink Shirt Day – Spreading Kindness
St Brendan’s will participate in Pink Shirt Day, standing together to stop bullying and promote aroha and kindness by focusing on this in the coming weeks through our Positive Behaviour for Learning. PB4L, programme.
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Welcome New Students
We extend a warm welcome to our new students and their families who have recently joined our school community. Helena in Room 11, Selena in Room 7, Kieffer in Room 8 and Katrina and Eiden in Room 3.
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Celebrating Our Support Staff - It’s ‘Support Staff Week’
We want to shine a bright light on our wonderful Support Staff team, whose wonderful work contributes to all aspects of our school.
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We have a terrific team of Learning Support Assistants: Michelle Wos, Ti Tufue, Lauren Staats, Tam Oosterkamp-Parks, Laura Bates, and Ann-Marie Puglia. Our amazing Office Administrators, Deena Sumner and Katrina Martin, and our fabulous Finance and Payroll Administrator, Clare Owen. Our librarian, Sandra Keane, is a school taonga, and our dedicated caretaker is Steve Keegan.
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We are incredibly grateful for everything you do; your commitment, positive energy, and hard work truly strengthen the St Brendan’s community every day.
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Reporting to Families
This year, the Ministry of Education introduced new curriculum for Maths, Statistics, and English. This means we have had to change from the old curriculum to the new curriculum. In the middle of the year, you will see some changes in progress and achievement reporting compared to previous years. This is the result of changes in the curriculum expectations for each year level. These updates are designed to give you clear, consistent information about your child's progress nationwide. We will provide you with more information closer to the end of the term.
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Lots is happening at St Brendan’s, we thank our team for coordinating so many opportunities for our students. Please keep an eye out for all updates and communication via Hero.
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IMPORTANT - MEDICATION
A friendly reminder to please bring in your child/ren’s medication along with the completed Medication Agreement, to the school office as soon as possible.
We are unable to administer any medication without the correct documentation in place. Medications must be handed directly to the office — please do not send them in your child’s bag.
If you have any questions or need another copy of the Medication Agreement, please visit or contact the office.
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On days when you need to collect your child early, please notify their classroom teacher and the office via email office@stbrendans.school.nz or phone at 04 939 1909. We will aim to have them waiting at the office at the arranged time for your arrival.
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We continue to work with the Ministry of Education and the Archdiocese of Wellington to review our enrolment policy and procedure. We have been overwhelmed with interest in enrolment and continue to carefully manage our roll maximum of 290 as set by the Integration Agreement. If you have a child already attending St Brendan’s who has a sibling turning five next year and haven't already applied to enrol, please do so here: Online Enrolment
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Families are very generous with their offers of sweet treats for classes to share as part of birthday celebrations, but due to the increasing number of allergies across our school, this continues not to be a safe practice. When we have special events involving food, our team plans appropriately.
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As per our school policy, available on SchoolDocs, phones, and other personal digital devices must be handed into the office in the morning, they are secured and returned to students at the end of the day. We invite you to visit the site at https://stbrendans.schooldocs.co.nz (note that there's no "www."). Our username is "stbrendans" and password "navigators". We will continue to draw your attention to policies under review each term.
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- Log into Hero
- Click/tap on STUDENT BILLING
- Scroll down to VIEW DONATION PAYMENTS
- Select receipt year (if applicable)
- Then DOWNLOAD TAX RECEIPT
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A non editable word doc will download. This is your receipt to send to IRD.
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ROAD SAFETY ON SUTHERLAND AVENUE AND PALMER CRESCENT
In the first few weeks of term, we have witnessed lots of near misses on our streets! We ask that you drive to the conditions in and around our school in the mornings and afternoons. Please remember:
It is NOT safe to double park or park on yellow lines when dropping off or collecting.
It is NOT safe to complete U-turns close to our crossings; please consider driving around the block.
We are all role models, and our aim is to keep everyone safe.
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SCHOOL NEWS - NGĀ MAHI O TE KURA
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2026 UVPSSA FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT
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Our St Brendan’s football teams had an awesome day at the tournament! All of our students had lots of fun giving football a go and represented our school with positive attitudes throughout the day. A huge congratulations to our Year 3/4 team, St Brendan’s Galway, who won the cup for their grade!
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Last week, the Navigators went to H2O for water safety lessons. We did four activities: survival strokes, life jackets, a boat, and rescue.
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My favourite activity was definitely the lifejackets, which taught us what to do if our boat or plane were to sink. We were taught to always stick together and make a huddle. They told us that in the middle are the people who are prioritised, like children and old people, and also if any planes or boats pass by, we would be spotted more easily. If we saw any land nearby, we would make a chain and hold tightly. The best part was when we made a chain so that we were able to move as one, not be scattered, and to also preserve our energy.
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Thank you to our instructors at H2O. They were really kind to us, and we had lots of fun.
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It's time to start collecting Yummy Apple stickers again! During Terms 2 and 3 collect these stickers and send them to your class teacher or cut out the Yummy apple square from a bag of apples. Ensure it says "Yummy". These will be converted into points and exchanged for a variety of balls for lunch time play.
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All of the Year 2/3 classes have been studying the novel the "The Faraway Tree". Students and teachers were absolutely captivated by the adventures in different lands and the amazing characters.
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To celebrate our learning and bring the magic to life, we had the wonderful opportunity for the children to compare the world we've imagined in our literacy sessions with the one on the big screen.
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Here is some writing about the characters:
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Joe is the youngest child he was capable of flying the very tired aeroplane to save his friends. Joe used the plane to cross lands. One of the places he went to was the Land of Birthdays. At the land of birthdays he wished for something silly. He wished to be his favourite character in a video game and then he couldn’t eat !!!!
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Silky is a kind fairy who is very pretty and beautiful. She has sparkling and silky hair.
Hevin
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Moon-Face is kind of weird because he has a moon face! His face is yellow and looks like cheese.
Marcus
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Saucepan Man is very loud and annoying. He sings silly songs and bangs his pans so loud that he is now nearly deaf. If you say something to him he hears something else and you have to shout at him so he can hear you correctly.
Lillian
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Dame Snap is a very grumpy and mean teacher. She has curly hair that stands up high and very pale skin. Her skin is pale as she lives in a spooky castle and she never goes outside because she doesn’t like people. Her scream is extremely loud !!!!!
Peyton
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Mr. Watzisname has a long itchy beard and his name is Mr. Watzisname because he always forgets his name.!
Barnabas
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On May 10th, I participated in a Jiu-Jitsu competition in Feilding. It was my first time competing, so I was very nervous, especially since my opponents were bigger. But I gave it my all and won two medals: a silver and a bronze. I'm very happy with my achievement and would like to share it with you.
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My advice is: don't give up and never stop trying!
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Returning to the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge course for another year, Ben and Logan proved that they aren’t afraid of a little dirt...or a lot of it.
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It looks like an absolutely amazing day was had by all, and we couldn't be more impressed by their spirit and stamina.
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Huge congratulations, Ben and Logan! You’ve made us incredibly proud
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SCHOOL DOCS
School Policy Review
Our school policies are maintained and reviewed via SchoolDocs.
Website: stbrendans.schooldocs.co.nz
Username: stbrendans
Password: navigators
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Policies being reviewed this term:
EOTC Governance Roles and Responsibilities
EOTC Risk Assessment and Management
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GRACE AND GRATITUDE - HE KŌRERO AROHA
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- Thank you for your support of our non uniform day held on 30 April, we raised $337.10 for camp.
- Thank you to the parents who helped on the Year 2/3 Movie and Navigators Water Safety trips.
- Thank you to everyone who supported at the Colour Run today.
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TE ARA O NGĀ UARA - LIVING OUR VALUES THROUGH PB4L
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PB4L : OUR HANDS, WORDS, AND ACTIONS: KEEPING IT POSITIVE!
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In our PB4L lessons over the last few weeks, students have been exploring how their hands, words, and actions affect those around them - in the classroom and out on the playground. The goal is to keep these interactions positive, helping everyone at St Brendan's feel happy, safe, included, and cared for.
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A significant part of this focus involves encouraging students to show empathy, use kind words, and have the courage to speak up when they see something that isn't right. We have also been discussing what it means to be an "upstander” - someone who supports and helps others, even in small, everyday moments. These conversations are a living expression of our GRACE values.
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This PB4L focus also serves as our acknowledgement of Pink Shirt Day on Friday, 15 May. By learning to be upstanders now, our students are building the skills to stand together, stop bullying, and celebrate the beautiful diversity and kindness within our school.
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These lessons link beautifully with Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 22:39: “Love others as you love yourself.”
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We invite you to chat with your children about this at home this week:
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* What does kindness look like at school?
* How can you help someone feel included if they are playing alone?
* What is one caring thing you did for someone else this week?
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Aroha mai, aroha atu - when love is received, it can be given.
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NGĀ WHAKAARO A TE POARI - BOARD NEWS
As we continue through a busy and exciting Term 2, it is wonderful to take a moment to reflect on the many positive things happening within our St Brendan’s School community. Our school continues to thrive thanks to the dedication of our staff, the enthusiasm of our tamariki, and the ongoing support of our whānau and parish community.
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One of the highlights of the past few weeks was the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation for 35 sacramental candidates at Our Lady of Grace Church. It was a truly special and faith-filled occasion, and it was beautiful to witness our young people taking this important step in their spiritual journey. The reverence, pride, and joy shown throughout the celebration was something our whole community could be proud of. We were especially blessed to have Archbishop Paul Martin with us for this significant occasion. His presence made the day even more memorable for the candidates and their families, and we thank everyone who helped prepare the children so thoughtfully for this sacrament.
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We have been looking ahead with excitement to today's Colour Run. This event has become a favourite on the school calendar and is always filled with energy, laughter, and school spirit. Events like these are a wonderful reminder of the strong sense of community we share at St Brendan’s. We thank the staff, volunteers, and families who continue to support these opportunities for our tamariki to connect, participate, and create lasting memories together.
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We are also looking forward to celebrating St Brendan’s Feast Day on Friday, 15 May at Our Lady of Grace Church as a school community. Feast Day celebrations are always a special occasion within our Catholic school calendar and provide a wonderful opportunity for us to come together in faith and fellowship. We warmly invite all who are available to join us in celebrating this important day for our school.
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Another exciting development within the school is the ongoing refurbishment of two of our classrooms. It has been fantastic to see the progress being made, and we are all eagerly anticipating the completion of these upgraded learning spaces. These improvements will provide modern, welcoming environments that will benefit both current and future students for many years to come. We acknowledge the patience and flexibility shown by our students, teachers, and families while this work is underway and look forward to seeing our tamariki back enjoying these refreshed spaces in due course.
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As a Board, we remain incredibly grateful for the strength and support of our wider school community. St Brendan’s continues to be a place where faith, learning, and community come together in such a meaningful way. Thank you to everyone who contributes their time, energy, and care to make our school such a special environment for our children to grow and flourish.
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m.jansson@stbrendans.school.nz
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COMMUNITY NEWS - NGĀ PITO KŌRERO O TE HAPORI
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PATCH TO THE FUTURE – KIDS SPACE DESIGN COMPETITION
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This year marks the 10th anniversary of the New Zealand Space Agency, making it a great moment to celebrate New Zealand’s growing role in space and inspire the next generation.
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The New Zealand Space Agency is inviting students from across New Zealand to join the mission through Patch to the Future, a national design competition for Year 1–8 students (aged 5–13).
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The challenge: students design a space themed mission patch for the New Zealand Space Agency. Mission patches are small, circular designs that represent an idea, goal, or mission. Astronauts wear them on their spacesuits to celebrate and symbolise their mission and they’re a fun, creative way for students to explore space and New Zealand’s place in it.
Students will be judged in one of three year group subcategories: Years 1–3, Years 4–6, and Years 7–8, with one winning design selected from each group.
The prizes: each subcategory winner will receive a certificate of recognition. One overall winning design will then be selected from the three subcategory winners.
The overall winning student will have their design produced as an official New Zealand Space Agency mission patch, receive a limited edition New Zealand Space Agency jacket featuring their design.
The key details:
• Open to Year 1–8 students (ages 5–13)
• Opens: 30 April 2026
• Closes: 11:59pm, Friday 5 June 2026
• Entries are submitted as PDFs by email to nzspaceagency@mbie.govt.nz
You’ll find all the details, resources, and submission information on the Patch to the Future webpage here: Celebrating 10 years of New Zealand’s space sector | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
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NOEL LEEMING FRIENDS & FAMILY DEALS
Don't miss out - Noel Leeming Friends and Family is back! Head in-store to Noel Leeming with your barcode and enjoy storewide deals on a huge range of tech and appliances. Plus, 2.5% of total sales will go to Variety - the Children's Charity. Offer runs from 11 - 24 May 2026 in-store only. T&Cs apply.
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GASAV NE FÄEAG ROTUẠM TA - ROTUMA LANGUAGE WEEK
Celebrate: 10-16 May 2026
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The 2026 theme for Rotuma Language Week is "Ȧf'ȧk, putua, a'pumuạ'ȧk ma rak'ȧk 'os fäega ma 'os ag fak Rotuma, la se maoen 'e 'os tore" - Treasure, nurture and teach our Rotuman language and culture so it may live on through generations.
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56 Palmer Crescent, Heretaunga, Upper Hutt 5019
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office@stbrendans.school.nz
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