We warmly welcomed several new international students from China, Japan and Mexico into our school whānau at the beginning of Term 3 (Monday 22 July 2024) with a tour of our school, orientation and mihi whakatau.
One week later, we welcomed a further 44 students and five teachers from JinCai Experimental School, China with a mihi whakatau led by our Junior kapa haka students, orientation and tour of our school. This group of students were only within our school for one week and were once again, hosted within our school whānau. They continued their travels down to Rotorua and Tāupo, to enjoy sightseeing, after leaving us.
We welcomed five students from China for a short two-week New Zealand experience on Monday 12 August 2024. Three headed into Year 7 classes with buddies and two into Year 9 classes. The Year 7 students are from Inner Mongolia, whilst the Year 9 students are from Guangdong and Tianjin. We hope their stay gave them a wonderful taste of New Zealand and Sancta Maria College life.
We farewelled several international students from Wuxi and other areas in China, on Friday 17 August 2024, as they return home after a short but fulfilling stay with us. As a parting gift, one of their students played a beautiful piano piece for the whole school to enjoy, after Assumption Mass.
In addition, we farewelled Xuanting( Sean) Liu, Luotong (Michelle) Liu, Sinuo (Cindy) Li, Zhaoming (Chris) Wang, Kexin (Amy) Chen, Shuyan (Wendy) Xu, Siqi (Minnie) Yang, all short-term study students from Inner Mongolia, Tianjin and Guangdong in China throughout the remainder of term 3.
At the end of term 3 we said a fond farewell to several students from Mexico and Japan who enriched our community for a short time.