Tēnā koutou katoa,

After the fantastic Fiafia night last week, we are all very excited about Polyfest on Saturday. We expect our group to perform sometime in the morning. It is a wonderful day with many stalls with food and other items and a lovely day in Hagley Park to watch the amazing performances from our students across Canterbury.

Last weekend our Bishop Lyons Shield Team all performed beautifully and shared their talents and faith in the activities throughout the weekend. Our students were placed in each event, with the debaters and religious questions team each winning their events, and Emily Ng winning the senior prepared speech. Villa Maria College brought the Shield home with us for the first time in 12 years!

While winning was very enjoyable of course, it was the sharing of faith and manaakitanga together as rangatahi katorika (young Catholics) that really mattered. Our students made great connections with other leaders over the weekend. The hospitality of Marian College was incredible with so many of their staff and students around all weekend to make us all feel at home in their beautiful school. The high point for us all was the beautiful Mass we celebrated together at St Bede's on Saturday night.

Year 9 students have participated in their Encounter Day, formerly known as Retreats. This is an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day work and spend some time building relationships and focused on their relationship with God in particular.

Our student leaders arranged a speaker, Mary Goulding, for Hui time this week so she could share her story with our ākonga. Today they have also arranged a time for reflection on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our Muslim community. There are also several fundraising and service efforts initiated by our leaders that we hope you can support. We are gathering Easter baskets for Ronald McDonald House, as well as an Easter Raffle to raise funds to support The Battered Women's Trust and later in the term we will be fundraising to assist the Japanese people who have been displaced by the recent earthquake - this is a cause that is very close to our hearts in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Please encourage your daughter in her giving during this Lenten season.

Ngā mihi mahana,

Deborah Brosnahan