Naumai e te whānau o te kura St Anthony's Tēnā Koutou Katoa 

Dear Parents and Caregivers

I hope you have enjoyed viewing our Term 3 picture highlights in the Ponderance section above, reflecting on our successful and enjoyable past term.

The first week of Term 4 has started very well. Welcome to Atelaite Lene who started in Kiwi Class on Monday. Atelaite is the sister of Ethel in Kea Class and we wish her a wonderful start at St Anthony's.

This morning at 9.30am, our school was involved in the New Zealand ShakeOut, a national earthquake drill and tsunami hīkoi, where we evacuated to Star of the Sea on Fettes Cresent. The whole school was at this meeting place in 11½ minutes after the bell first sounded to signal an earthquake.

The ShakeOut was held across the world to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake, Drop, Cover and Hold - and to practise a tsunami hīkoi (evacuation) if in a coastal area. New Zealand ShakeOut was first held in 2012, and then again in 2015. A reminder that you can find our Emergency Plan on our website which details what our school procedures are in the event of an emergency http://www.stants.school.nz/emergency-plan/ 

We are looking forward to our Annual Grandparents' Mass tomorrow morning at 9am. We will be starting with a pōwhiri welcoming our three new students and their whānau to St Anthony's. Look out for photos on our school Facebook page tomorrow afternoon!

We hope you like our new newsletter! Our school is very passionate about effective communication with our whānau. As such, we have researched effective newsletter platforms on the market and have decided to sign up with Schoolzine which is extremely popular among Australian Catholic Schools and has just come into the NZ market. We are very excited about Schoolzine's interactive features and hope you will find the new platform easy as well as enjoyable to use. Please note that we will continue to use Signmee for other school notices for the remainder of this school year. 

We are also pleased to announce that we have set up a School App with Schoolzine so you can stay in touch with everything that is happening at our school. The newsletters can be retrieved from the App, you can view the School Calendar, link to our website and Facebook page. To download the App, please refer to the installation guide-  http://www.schoolzine.com/szapp-installation  Note: Once you get to the Asia Pacific page on an Android phone, you may need to search Seatoun; for iPhones you may need to search Wellington.

If you have any questions regarding any of our new systems, please do not hesitate to contact me.

This term is only 9 weeks and is set to fly by! The staff and I look forward to continuing working in strong partnership with you. If you have any questions in relation to your child's learning or well-being at school, please do not hesitate to contact the classroom teacher in the first instance. I look forward to seeing you at the various school events that we have planned this term. Please check out the School Calendar or your Term 4 class newsletter for more details.

Ngā manaakitanga

Jennifer Ioannou

PRINCIPAL

Back in June we announced that the Archdiocese of Wellington has allocated St Anthony’s with funding to refurbish our Junior Block. The funding allocated covers renovating the building, better utilising the corridor, and connecting the spaces including break out areas. The area around the skylights in the corridor is currently leaking, and this will be fixed as part of the work.

We have already been working with our architects, so the planning is well underway but the work will not be completed until next year. We will keep you updated as the project progresses.

October is the month of the Rosary and as always the children are praying the Rosary each day in preparation of leading you in prayer on Tuesday 30 October at 6pm. We will finish just before 6.30pm, so we hope you can join us for this short, but powerful time of prayer. All students are asked to be at school by 5.50pm.

On 31 October, Tui Room will be holding their annual fair to raise money for the two missionaries that we support as a school. A range of stalls (craft, sweets, cakes, drinks) as well as activities, will be run by the senior students and we ask that you support their efforts by allowing your child to bring some spending money to the school that day.

Please keep in your prayers all the children who are preparing for their First Holy Communion. This is the sacrament that becomes their spiritual food and we pray that they will always take the time to make use of this wonderful sacrament.

As our Catholic Catechism says

All gather together. Christians come together in one place for the Eucharistic assembly. At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active parts to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the offerings, those who give communion, and the whole people whose "Amen" manifests their participation.

God Bless

Denise Johnson, DRS

As you are aware, our Term's inquiry focus is "Connected to Hauora". We’re very excited to be involved with AIA and Sovereign in New Zealand's Healthiest Schools Challenge! We look forward to the next six weeks, offering an awesome way to combine activity with learning as students count their steps in the real world to experience an animated global adventure led by NZ hockey legend Gemma McCaw and rugby legend Cory Jane.

All students have received a pedometer this week and very excited to be wearing it and taking note of their steps.

The next six weeks is about learning and having fun whilst being active. Six weeks can be a long time when it comes to looking after pedometers and they commonly get lost, broken or have technical glitches. If this happens, don’t panic - Mrs Ioannou has more in her office! Additionally, they’re not a requirement for participation and it’s just as easy to participate without them.

As well as our sports stars Gemma McCaw and Cory Jane giving us simple tips to feel healthy and well, every week during New Zealand’s Healthiest Schools Challenge, teachers will be receiving health and wellbeing topics to focus on with their classes. 

Here are a few of the topics:

• How to fit more activity into each day
• Staying hydrated, what are the best options
• Snacks and easy ways to eat better
• And much more

Go on, get involved, get going, get healthier.

We are three weeks out from our School Fun-Run! We hope students have started towards their fundraising goals! Thank you for supporting us with your fundraising efforts, we’re looking forward to raising the remainder of funds needed for our school's SUPERNOVA!

More details will be given closer to the time, however, the run will start at 9.30am at Seatoun Beach. 

We would love some volunteers on the day, so please call the Office on 380 6971 if you can help us have an amazing day! If you can’t help, we’d still love to have you come down and cheer the kids on to create a great atmosphere for the kids.

Did you know that you can WIN a $30,000 Ultimate Family Experience by setting up your student profile online and raising $1 online? Just head over to schoolfundraising.co.nz. Once you’ve created your page there are some great things you can do. You can sign up for online fundraising, pick your target prize and become a fundraising superstar. 

If you’re having any trouble setting up your student profile or fundraising online, please get in touch with the Fun-Run team on 0800 377 170.

We are delighted to share with our community key information about what our Intermediate (Years 7/8) offers our students. It's the place to be!!

Our current Year 6 students, who will be in Year 7 in 2019, will learn more about our fantastic Intermediate programme at the Transition Morning on Thursday 22 November. For more information about our Intermediate, please click the link:

Intermediate Years 7 & 8

Please feel free to share this information with your friends and whānau!

Term 3 Disco
Last term's Disco raised $805 towards the Supernova which is a fantastic amount!
Thank you to everyone who made the night such a success for the students, especially the Disco Committee. We really appreciate your support!

Lunches

There will be no Lunch Orders on Friday 19 October due to Grandparents' Day. These will resume on Friday 26 October.

Family Portraits with Icon Photography - Saturday 17th November

Don't forget to book a space for a family portrait. We need a minimum of 25 families to sign up for this before we can go ahead so your support is greatly appreciated, so don't forget to bring your form in if you want to 

Its a $15 sitting fee which all goes to our school.  

The forms went  home before the school holidays but if it didn't arrive please see Kirsten for another one.  

Get out the Butter and Scales... 

Just as you’ve put your oven mitts away after baking for Grandparents Day this week, we are hoping that you can bring them out again one more time and provide some baking for our school to sell at the Anglican Church’s Spring Gala on Saturday 27 October.  

A cake, a slice, some sweets - just one item per family would be greatly appreciated.

Drop off to Kirsten in the library on Friday 26 October or to 9 Ferry Street on Saturday 27 October between 9am and 10am.

Also if anyone has some time to help on our stall please see Kirsten.  The fair runs from 11am - 2pm at St George’s Church in Seatoun.

It's a great chance for us to do a small bit of fundraising within the wider community so we would love as many baking donations as possible!  

Thanks for your continued support.

FOSA

The date for the 2019 School and Church Bazaar has been set for Sunday 17 February 2019. We will be having a Vigil Mass at 5pm on Saturday 16 February which will replace the Sunday 10.30am Mass at St Anthony's.

Our next Bazaar meeting is on Monday 29 October at 7pm in the Gascoigne Room. All welcome!

For the next fortnight, House Points can be collected by bringing 'baking team' items:

• flour (self-rising and plain) 
• sugar (white caster and brown sugar) 

We are also looking for volunteers for the baking team. If you could please bake a couple of cakes, loaves, slices, biscuits, cupcakes, make fudge, toffee or sherbet or other items that we could sell at the cake stall, your help would be much appreciated. Please contact Simone Meech (mum of Alina in Takahe and Sophia in Kea) on 021992424 or ollie-simone@outlook.com

Worser Bay Life Saving Club Open Day

Calling all clubbies to “give surf a go” with your local Worser Bay Lifesaving Club.  We’re all about fun, family, fitness and friendship at Worser Bay, the community club that can. The junior surf programme runs from October to March for 7 to 13 year olds.  Learn about beach safety, build confidence in and around water, use paddle boards and take part in junior carnivals.  The Worser Bay Lifesaving Club open day is Sunday 28^th October, 2pm to 4pm, 251 Marine Parade, Seatoun. 

Special Childrens’ Open Day at the Capital Trout Centre - Sunday 28th October 2018

Children must have a licence to fish for trout and free licences/tickets are now available from Steve’s Fishing Shop, 49 Ghuznee Street (off Cuba Mall) or Hutt Valley Hunting & Fishing, 444 Cuba Street, Lower Hutt.

The Centre is located behind the WCC Administration buildings on the way to the Wellington City Council Southern Landfill, on Landfill Road, Happy Valley, Wellington and is open to the public on specific days.

Children do not have to bring any gear as Club members will assist children to catch a trout on fly fishing tackle.   

As the Centre is manned and maintained by volunteers we rely on donations to cover our expenses of purchasing the fish from the hatcheries, fish food and general maintenance. Donations are always appreciated.

Team Wellington Skills Sessions

For players aged 7-13, every Wednesday from 4-5pm at Crawford Green, Strathmore.  Cost:  $100.  Skills sessions are part of the Team Wellington Player Developjent Progreamme;  coached by Team Wellington players and delivered inline with NZ Football's Whole of Fottball Grassroots Programme.

Register at  www.twfc.co.nz/skills-sessions

St Benedicts School Fair 2018 - Sunday 28th October

Where: 50 Nicholson Road, Khandallah

What: Loads of fun for the family including, photo booths, bouncy castles, cake stalls, second hand clothing, toys and more

Time: 11am-2pm