Welcome back to Term 2! We have had such a lovely start back to the term and it has been wonderful to see all of our tamariki.  A special welcome to Hugo and his family who have joined Te Ākau. We will hold a Pōwhiri/Mass on Wednesday 17 May at 9:30am in the church to welcome our new families, we invite you all along. 

Our Term 2 P.E. sessions have started off with football lessons this week and swimming lessons start on Monday. Please remember to wear P.E. uniform on Mondays and Wednesdays. Classes are also preparing for the upcoming Eastern Zones Cross Country, they can bring P.E. shoes to change into before their training.

Please remember Denise and her family in your prayers. There is a rosary service at St Anthony’s Church at 7 pm tonight and the funeral for Denise’s mother, Agnes McArley is at Holy Cross Church at 10 am this Friday.

In Te Maunga, we started off the term discussing a whakatauki:

“He toka tū moana ahau” - I am a rock, stood firm in the ocean. No matter what storms come my way, I will remain.

We talked about what this means to us and how God helps us get through our storms and brings us peace. 

And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!” John 16:33 TPT

Peace. When stormy seasons come, the one thing we all long for is connection and peace. We need to know that we are not alone, and we need to find some peace amidst our trials to rest in while we wait for the circumstances to blow over. 

This verse promises us both of those things. It is one worth clinging to because it is a reminder that Jesus loved us so much that He went out of His way to not only pay our sin debt and make way for us to live eternally with Him in heaven BUT also to make sure we were prepared for the things that would come against us in this life. 

Following this, we shared some difficult trials we have come across and what helped us, which led into a big conversation around “working together”. Our hope for this term is that we will work as a team and support each other. As an ice breaker to this idea, we learnt a new game called ‘Matamata-Rongo’. This is a Māori game incorporating awhi awhi (hug), to capture their mauri and goodwill (peace) towards a whakataetae (competition), hakari (feast), or hui (large/ceremonial gathering). It is a ‘meet and greet’ protocol where you pass a rākau around a circle in a precise way. We had a lot of fun, and learnt a lot about what “working together” looks like, sounds like, and feels like. 

Here are a few photos capturing some moments of the game:

We are in need of some new volunteers to help with school lunches. If you are able to help for a couple of hours on a Friday just once a term that would be much appreciated.

It is very straight forward to learn and your help will mean that we can keep offering school lunches to the students each fortnight. Please email Debbie at debanded65@outlook.com

Tomorrow lunch option is pizza.  Thanks to Anna Kempton and our year 6 helpers for organising this for the students.

The vision technician will be visiting St Anthony's on 30 May to screen our Year 7 student's vision.

Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand provides a vision screening programme for all Year 7 students.

•   Vision – pupils will be advised of results at the time of screening. If further assessment is recommended you will be notified by mail.
•   Children who wear glasses and/or are under professional care and have regular checks will not require vision check from our service.

Non-consent – please notify your school if you do not want your child to be screened.
This screening is not a full assessment of your child’s vision. If you have any concerns, please see an optometrist.

Note - they will also be screening the new entrant class as well on this date.

Wellington Storm Floorball 

Brief overview over upcoming training dates (more details and other training opportunities on our website):

Term 2 dates:

Eastern Bays Scouts takes youth aged 5-18 which includes Keas (5-8) Cubs (8-11),Scouts (11-14)
Every year Scouts help 13,000 young people in New Zealand enjoy new adventures, experience the outdoors, make new connections, and gain confidence. We give young people the opportunity to reach their full potential and include Land, Sea and Air Scouts in Wellington
Contact us for more information
easternbays@group.scouts.nz