March has definitely been a month of opportunities for both our tamariki and kaiako - a big but welcome change for us with many events and opportunities opening up again after a couple of years of disruption. 

For our tamariki they, of course, had a wonderful time at the Marine Reserve but then this week our Year 3 & 4s went to Eastern Zone Football and had a blast! As one said, ‘ she can’t wait till next time.’ Shout out to Miramar Rangers for leading this initiative!

Then our Year 5 - 8 took advantage of an invitation to view the film - RED, WHITE & BRASS. This was a debut feature film for director Damon Fepulea’i who co-wrote with co-producer Halaifonua (Nua) Finau. Inspired by the true story of writer and producer Nua, RED, WHITE AND BRASS follows a community of Tongans who form a brass band as the pre-game entertainment in a desperate attempt to get tickets to the 2011 Rugby World Cup Tonga vs France game. The best thing about the film, which our tamariki thoroughly enjoyed was when I asked them what they learnt by viewing it was ‘never give up!’

Our staff have also participated in a range of professional development from looking at Pope Francis’ writing - Christus Vivit CDJ known as Christ Lives or Christ is alive, Learning through Curiosity, Waste Minimisalation, Phonics, and Ngā Taonga Tākaro which was a PE Workshop. So a great deal of learning for us all over this past fortnight and we look forward to scaffolding this to our tamariki over the next term. 

Finally, I extend my thanks to the Student Council, led by Issy and Jamie for an excellent start to their leadership roles. They are showing great initiative and gathering ideas to present to the staff which we are grateful for. We all especially enjoyed the St Patrick’s day fun that they created. 

 He tino pai to mahi | You've done a good job

With the end of term nearly upon us I remind you of the following dates:

• Futsal Clinic Monday, for all classes so PE uniform that day please
• Eastern Zones Football Year 5 & 6 Wednesday, March 29
• Palm Sunday, April 2
• Holy Week Liturgy - our tamariki are working hard to lead you in this time of prayer and drama, Tuesday, April 4, 5:30 - 6:15 pm
• Eastern Zones Football Year 7 & 8 Wednesday, April 5
• Last day of term, Thursday April 6
• Good Friday, April 7 

We Celebrate St Patrick - Who was he?

Magonius Sucatus Patricius was a British man who was kidnapped by Irish raiders when he was 16. He ended up spending six years in captivity in Ireland - it was during that time that he became a devout Christian. He escaped eventually, believing God told him in a dream that he was to leave Ireland. So he walked to the coast, hopped on a ship, and returned home. There, he dreamed that an angel told him to return to the Emerald Isle as a missionary. St. Patrick spent more than 15 years studying religion before becoming ordained and returning to Ireland.

St Patrick had a lasting impact on Irish Christianity. He merged Christianity with more traditional parts of Irish culture, including adding bonfires to Easter celebrations and creating the Celtic cross, which incorporates the sun with the cross. St Patrick was largely responsible for helping convert the Irish to Christianity.

He died around 461 AD.

How did we celebrate St Patrick's Day

Our Student Council developed and ran an excellent treasure hunt of 'letters' to ultimately spell céad míle fáilte | one hundred thousand welcomes. They created the clues with a range of tasks and when the various groups solved it, they were able to access the QR code to secure the letter. In their tuakana teina groups, our children had loads of fun. As some of our Year 3 & 4s said:

It was very nice because of the word search

I liked it because we got to do drawings with our eyes closed that Abby then guessed

I liked being blindfolded and trying to put the beard on the leprechaun

I really liked solving the riddle

The Year 3 and 4 students were invited to join in a Football Tournament held at Miramar park. 

We played football today. It was really fun! There were lots of coaches from the Miramar Football Club. We were good sports and scored lots of goals. The other school’s teams were also very good!

-Sam Tye

Today we went to a Football Tournament. The Miramar coaches were running it. My team played very well but if I gave out a Player of the Day trophy it would have been to Caleb for helping us out when we were a player short (good job bro!). We were lucky to win all games. It was so fun. 

-Alexander Meech

At Football we sat down, then they told us who we were versing. First game we tied, the last four games we won. We lost one game and the rest were ties. We were playing with small goals. It still worked. We played as St Anthony’s It was for Year 4s and 3s. The teams were really good. All the teams were really good. All the teams were from different schools. In one game, I scored four goals. We played at Miramar park. When the tournament ended we got in the car which was a Mercedes. We got stuck but one of the Coaches gave us more energy for the car. 

-Caleb Ackerly

We played football today it was very fun. The first game was a little hard. I was offside once and I scored one goal. I went in Miss von Lanthen’s car but Miss Smyth was driving it. 

-Paige Smith

We are learning to write Acrostic Poems- our challenge was to write a sentence for every letter that relates to the topic!

Roblox

Running away from scary adopt me people. 

Only Roblox

Best game ever!

Lots of fun games

Otherwise if I don’t get robux I'll rage!

X (cross) the road so Brookhaven onliners don’t catch you

Mya Hsieh

Hello Kitty

Horses are Hello Kitty’s friends

Elephants are Hello Kitty’s favourite animal

Look at Hello Kitty, she is cute!

Lemon is Hello Kitty’s most sour food

Octopus is the animal Hello Kitty is scared of!

Kitty is a cat

Ice cream is Hello Kitty’s favourite food

There is Hello Kitty gardening 

The train is coming to Hello Kitty’s house

Yellow is a colour she likes but pink is her favourite 

Veadpotnin Kim

Kitten

Kittens like string and pats

I like kittens, they are fun to play with

They like to play and have fun

They love food

Even a pinch of cat food

No more food for kitten

He waka eke noa.  We are all in this together 

Bazaar gratitude

Our bi-annual Bazaar in early March was a wonderful opportunity for whakawhanaungatanga for our whānau and wider parish community to work together and build our relationships.  Establishing and strengthening those connections are particularly important after the last few years of Covid restrictions.  

Ngā mihi nui especially for the hard work of Emma Mulhern who was our amazing Bazaar coordinator who led the team with skill and expertise. Our thanks to our amazing parents who led the various teams and to the key people in our parish community - Kim, John, Anne, and Antoinette who supported Emma in so many ways.  It was a wonderful day and a fantastic fundraiser which brought our school and parish community together.  

St Anthony’s School Annual Plan

Every year the Board reviews and approves the annual plan which sets out the planned actions for the year ahead.  These actions relate directly to our goals in our Strategic Plan.   

The annual plan sets out what will happen, who is responsible for when it will happen and be completed, and what we expect to achieve.  Our annual year report details the outcomes (what was actually achieved).

The annual plan includes teaching and learning actions with targets that are measured.  In setting these targets, the Board looks at previous years’ achievement results, multi-year programmes for teaching and learning, and other influences that contribute to improving student achievement. 

Here’s an example of planned actions aligned with a strategic goal:

Strategic Goal One: St Anthony’s is a nurturing and supportive Catholic school environment for ākonga, whānau and kaiako

2 of our planned actions:

1.1 Continuing to strengthen whakawhanaungatanga (belonging and connection) between our school and parish community

1.2 In the school’s centenary year, we learn about and celebrate the origins of St Anthony’s School. We investigate whenua, mana whenua, and the history of learning and faith here...

For the full strategic plan and annual goals, please see our website

Health consultation survey results

Every 2 years, we consult with St Anthony’s School whānau about our health and physical education programme to ensure it meets the needs of our school community.

Ngā mihi nui to our school whānau who completed our Health Education survey late last year.  We are grateful for your insights and feedback, particularly the engagement from the year 7 & 8 parents - ka pai to you all. 

The St Anthony’s School community loves the range of sporting and physical education programmes that are available at St Anthony’s School and emphasise the benefits of such activities. The Board and staff are building on existing well-being initiatives to include more education about raising awareness of and managing risks in digital and other environments. Continuing the focus on our tamariki’s well-being is an essential part of our health and physical education programme.

Mauri tū, Mauri ora. An active soul for your well-being.

 Introducing our Board member - David Crosbie

Kia Ora Koutou. You may know me, or at least my two ‘sprogs’ - Lilly and Gila - who are St Anthony’s biggest advocates, often referring to the School as a club. For those that don’t know me, I’m somewhat of a town and country boy, originally from the undulating bucolic lands of rural Norfolk where an expansive sky is ever present. From studenthood to adulthood in Londinium (London) I moved globally east until settling in the Fiji Islands. So when the call came to move to another Pacific Island, named New Zealand, I jumped at the chance - but was unaware I needed a jumper. Or three. Our two eldest, Glen and Glenys, graduated from the hallowed halls of St Anthony’s only a few years ago and are now riding through teenage life with aplomb. Or so I’m told (by them). 

As an advisor to the United Nations and overseas governments,  I often seem to find myself in unusual culinary situations (I’ll save those stories for later). However, Wellington’s double flat whites and horizontal wind always provide a neutralising remedy on my return. 

I’m really looking forward to serving the Board, in seeing how this delightful school, with its caring and nurturing ethos to each individual tamariki can excel even further. 

The Baking Team from the St Anthony's Bazaar would like to thank everyone for their kind donations of ingredients and baking to sell.  This was a tremendous help to our team and greatly appreciated.  We would also like to congratulate the bakers of all entries of both Junior and Senior Cake Competitions.  Our team were impressed with the exceptionally high standard of every entry this year - well done to all.

Thank you!

Vanessa

Our orchards like many other growers in Hawkes Bay and Gisborne, have been badly affected by the recent cyclone.  Yummy are fortunate to have orchards spread widely across the Bay, which has meant some of our orchards have been completely devastated but some have survived.  It has been a tricky time for sure, but we are managing to pick the majority of our crop this season, so that’s some good news 

The other good news is, we will push on with the Yummy School Sticker Promo again this year.  This is something we really value being part of, and I’m sure schools will value free sports gear even more this year.  Even in these tough times, it’s great to be part of a community and give back to schools and kids, so thanks for being part of this promotion 26 years on!

 You can start collecting anytime now (if you haven’t already started), and some more good news – we will be switching over to compostable stickers in the next few months.