Join the river of justice and peace, to take up climate and ecological justice, and to speak out with and for communities most impacted by climate injustice and the loss of biodiversity.

Kaha whakaharahara | Fantastic effort by our tamariki and kaiako for an excellent time of learning during Te Wiki o te Māori. They focused on learning the correct punctuation of various sounds and words/ phases while exploring about the history of Te Wiki o te Māori | Māori Language Week. The other focus was learning about Poroiti and how to make this musical instrument - we hope by now you have been serenading with your child/ren’s version of it.

I had a time of learning in Christchurch last week attending the Transtasman Principals’ Conference. We were challenged, inspired, and given ideas to improve the teaching further and learning here at our kura. One valuable exercise was to visit some colleges and gain feedback from teachers of English and Mathematics as to what they would like to see students arriving at college prepared for. They were kind enough to take us through NZQA prerequisites for Numeracy and Literacy as well as the key points that set a child up for success.  As a staff, we will now look at how we can even further prepare our senior students for college life. 

It was inspirational to listen to Dr Jordan Nguyen, about A Human’s Guide to the Future. Dr Jordan talked about the impact of technology and science in our world and challenged us to think about how we could use the tools (especially A1) to build a better future. He told us that one fantastic use of A1 at the moment is monitoring the Siberian tiger which is at great threat due to habitat loss and poachers. A1 has given them far greater skill at using the cameras and as a result, poachers are being more readily caught before they kill. 

Ka pai to our wonderful FOSA team for another great Quiz night - well organised and well run. We are grateful to the small band of people who gave us the opportunity to come together and have fun! Special shout out to Etienne, Olivier’s big brother who worked hard to collate the questions and organise the presentation. Well done team!

Raising approximately $1,200 for the event we would like to acknowledge our sponsors:-

• $150 Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries Voucher
• Family Pass to the Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder Exhibition
• 2 x Chocolate Fish Kai Moana Café Vouchers worth $60 each
• Family Pass to Zealandia Te M­āra A Tāne Wildlife Sanctuary
• Circa Theatre Two Person Admission to Trees Bees and Me – Circa Theatre or Sleeping Beauty: The Pantomime – Circa Theatre
• 2 x complimentary tickets to the Roxy Cinema, Miramar 
• Desserts supplied by Vince of Wholesale Bakery
• We were also supported by Kevin and the Seatoun Bowling Club who provided the venue and 2 bottles of sparkling wine as a quiz prize
• And all the St Anthony's School families who contributed with donations for our 2 hampers

Now we switch our focus to the Bazaar...Thanks to those people who have already signed up to help with next year’s Bazaar - we need everyone so please email Silke to let her know what area you would like to help out in - silke.koepl@gmail.com 

It has been another busy end to term and our tamariki are ready for a break. We wish you all a happy holiday and look forward to seeing you all back for the final term of 2024. 

Just a reminder that we have our Teacher Accord Day (Curriculum and assessment teacher-only days) attached to Labour Weekend on Friday, October 25 so please plan for a long weekend if you can. 

We begin Term 4 with a Sexuality Education Unit which is based on the NZ Health and Physical Education Curriculum. This is complemented by the ‘Myself and Others’ Religious Education document that details the Catholic perspective and focuses on the concept that ‘we are all made in the image of God’. Please watch out for the parent letter we will send you so that you know what is being covered at each level. 

We also begin the term with Kiwi Hoops so the PE uniform can be worn on the first day of term and each following Monday. 

I end by thanking all those whānau who come along to help in a variety of ways - sorting library books, mending things, doing the garden, listening to our tamariki read, and helping with transport and supervision for our outings. Your help ensures that our children have the help, support and opportunities to thrive - tēnā koutou | thank you!

Ngā manaakitanga

Denise 

As Spring is upon us we focus on the

The Principle of Stewardship

We have a responsibility to care for the gifts God has given us. This includes the environment, our personal talents and other resources. We invite you to take time to watch and reflect on this 2 minute video

Tena koutou katoa

You’ll have seen that the first committee meeting of the 2025 St Anthony’s Bazaar took place on Tuesday evening. Our gratitude to Silke Koepl for leading the committee.  The Bazaar is first and foremost an opportunity for us to develop better relationships with one another as we work alongside each other as well as being a significant fundraiser for our school which takes place every 2 years.   

The last bazaar in 2023 was a tremendous success thanks to the generosity and commitment of parents, friends, and the wider school community.  In this brief article, we discuss how the funds raised were used to improve our school junior playground.

Did you know that the cost of school playgrounds must be funded by the school board? Our school raises playground improvement funds in a variety of activities with the main fundraiser in 2023 being our bi-annual school and parish bazaar.  The priority for 2023 bazaar funds was to improve the safety of the junior playground to meet the current standards for playground equipment and surfacing and to improve the look of our playground ready to celebrate our centenary. 

The board explored various options, one being another form of wet pour on the existing surface at a cost of $40, 000 (just for the surface) or another option was to make improvements/renovations to the playground equipment to meet minimum space requirements and reduce fall risks. We chose the latter as it gave us more value for money and allowed us to make other improvements to the court area as well. Just under $20, 000 was spent on these areas so the added bonus was updating our main gates so that our little ones could no longer climb through onto the roadside.

These improvements give our students a safe, stimulating environment to enjoy during their school day and we as the Board express our sincere gratitude for your fundraising efforts. Now we look to the 2025 Bazaar and invite you all to sign up to help.

Strong families: healthy habits for life: Speaker Series 7 November

Continuing our popular parent and whānau community education programme, please join us on Thursday 7 November at 7pm for an empowering workshop. 

We are delighted Joel Bouzaid (www.joelbouzaid.com) is leading this workshop 'Strong Families: Healthy Habits for Life’.  Joel, an inspiring speaker with 15 years’ experience as a leader in the health industry, takes us on a collaborative journey to support our family’s well-being.

In this interactive session, we'll identify and co-design individual family goals. By placing emphasis on the power of habits, we'll map out 1 to 3 key habits tailored to each family's aspirations. Whether it's enhancing sleep routines, improving nutrition, increasing physical activity, or fostering mindfulness, we'll chart a course for sustainable change rooted in your family's vision.

Expect to leave the workshop with newfound motivation, inspiration, and practical strategies to start positive change for your family.

This event is free and entry is open to everyone in our school community and the wider Motu-Kairangi community.  We strongly encourage parents, family members and friends to join us for what promises to be an informative and inspiring evening.

We can't wait to see you there.  Please join us for drinks and (healthy) nibbles from 7pm, Joel starts our workshop at 7.30pm.  Register at:

https://www.eventbookings.com/b/event/strong-families-healthy-habits-for-life

The last week of term 3 already!  

We send our best wishes for you and your tamariki and hope you enjoy a restful and restorative term holiday.  Mā te wā.

We have been working hard on our Information Reports and posters. Here are a few examples:

Olympic Values

The Olympics is a massive sports event that happens every 4 years. Where people come and compete for their country in various sports. The Olympics gets over 30 million viewers just online making it the 2nd most viewed sport event, just under the FIFA World cup. The Olympics has 3 main values that are very important: the 3 values are excellence, respect, and friendship. 

Excellence is about trying your best even if you don't end up winning, it's about being able to cope with disappointment and losing. If you get hurt in a game and still continue playing it shows your excellence and also determination. All amazing athletes have excellence because if they give up after one loss they won't be able to get any wins. It takes patience to have excellence and a strong mind, you have to practise something again and again until you master it, Especially in sports. 

A big part of the Olympics is fair play, which is shown through the value ‘Respect’. This means playing by the rules and being kind, or respecting the referee and your opponents. You can show respect to your opponents by giving them a hand when they’re on the ground even though they aren't on your team. This is called Integrity. Integrity is having the quality of being honest and having strong values. You can also show respect to your body by eating healthy, training, and developing your skills.

Friendship is one reason people love playing sports so much. Friendship stops discrimination and grudges against people and this is not good in sports, especially if it's a team sport. Friends help you when you're sad and they don’t feel bad about telling you what you should improve on. You can also learn from your friends and look up to them because if one person had 5 peoples skills they would be a fantastic player.

These are the 3 main values of the Olympics. Every value has a
different meaning and a different thing to do with playing in the
olympics. Do you think you can also show these values in your
next sports game?

-Adrian

The Olympic Values

The Olympics revolve around three extremely important values, Friendship, Respect, and Excellence. Through these values Pierre de Coubertin (the man who is considered the father of the modern Olympics) believed that they could make the world a better place. Athletes are expected to show these values on and off the field. Coubertin’s famous quote is “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not the winning but the taking part; the most essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

Friendship at the Olympic games is about supporting your competitors and helps break the barriers between people. When athletes display Friendship to each other it promotes spectators and people watching to go out and display Friendship to the world. Friendship is the heart of sport and should be one of the key reasons we play.

Friendship is supporting others and can have a positive impact on your sporting career.

Respect is about showing integrity and fair play. Showing Respect can have a positive impact on your audience and inspire them to show Respect to everybody. You should always Respect the referee, your teammates, and your competitors. You should also Respect your body. These are things like training, nutrition, and staying away from body-enhancing drugs that may harm you later on. You don’t just use Respect in sport, you can use Respect anywhere you go.

Excellence is about striving to be your best and conquering your goals not just in sport, but also in life. Excellence is about having grit and showing perseverance as well as determination and doing the best you can. Being able to cope with failure and having the resilience to carry on is another important part of Excellence. Excellence is only possible through hard work, persistence, and practise. Having a growth mindset will allow you to learn from your mistakes and help you become a better athlete.

-Joseph

Government House

Recently, Te Maunga visited Government House.

We learnt a lot about who lives there and what the House is used for, as well as who our current Governor-General is and what she does. Aside from that, we also learnt some other interesting facts like:

This table takes 4 hours to set!

This room used to be a greenhouse, full of all sorts of plants and vegetables.

The land used to hold an asylum before Government House was built. There are some remains on the grounds, like this brick wall. Prisoners built the asylum and drew on the bricks all sorts of symbols.

They have a tennis court, a pool, and a few orchards on the grounds, including olive trees, citrus, and other fruits.

This hill, which is now apparently a great rolling hill, was once a vegetable patch:

If the light fixtures are not a beautiful chandelier that takes 3 days to clean, then they are in the shape of a pineapple! If you had a pineapple, you would not eat it, you would put it on display and host a party to show off your pineapple!

Theatre Sports

Te Maunga have begun Theatre Sports on Friday afternoons. We are learning to work as a team to build something that an audience can follow. For our first session, we were put into small groups. Someone had to offer an idea and ‘be’ something, and the rest of the group had to follow. We made a great story, which began with a tree and built up to an amazing image.

The Year 5/6 basketball team St Anthony’s Chargers had a successful and fun season. They came 4th place in their division against some tough competition. Huge Thank You to Marc for being an awesome coach! Well done team! 

Exciting news! We are starting Little Angels Mainly Play at St Anthony's on 18th October running throughout term time. 

We're looking for enthusiastic volunteers with a flair for hospitality to help make this a fun and welcoming experience. Want to make a difference for families and preschoolers for just 2 hours a week? Reach out to Lisa Halliwell at lisa@paratu.net and join us in creating something special!

These were found at the bowling club.  So if you were at our quiz and left your glasses behind then come and collect them from the school office.

Looking for a way to get a little bit extra this side of Christmas?

PFI (People For Information) is a research recruitment agency – we recruit people just like you to share your feedback on new products, new ideas, advertising, etc.

Topics can range from shopping to skincare to banking, and each person taking part receives a koha for their time and input (with either a direct credit or vouchers).

The best part? You can fit this around the family – we offer daytime sessions, evening sessions, in person or online via Zoom.

It’s up to you – if you’re keen to find out more please click on one of the links below which will take you to either our website, Facebook page or our LinkedIn page.

We look forward to getting you on board and involved!

www.people4info.co.nz

Beyond the Page is back for a seventh year! During the next school holidays, from 28 September – 13 October, you are invited to libraries across the Wellington region for over 120 awesome and totally FREE events for tamariki and their whānau. From interactive storytimes with Orchestra Wellington and the NZSO, workshops with award-winning authors and illustrators like Paul Beavis, Steve Mushin, and Isobel Te Aho-White, and classes on how to become a D&D Dungeon Master, through to meet-and-greets with Llamas at the Llibrary, immersive theatre experiences, and even the chance to create your own Alien Junk Monster – there’s something for everybody at this year’s festival.

All events are free, but some require registration as space may be limited. Find out more, and view the entire calendar of events, at www.beyondthepage.nz.

• Info on the WCL website about our school holiday programmes: School Holiday Programmes (wcl.govt.nz)
• Direct link to the event calendar – you can filter by location to find events near you: Events – Beyond The Page
• Entry form for this year’s Beyond the Page Writing Competition: 2024 Writing Competition – Beyond The Page
• Keep up to date by following us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyondthepagenz

Thank you so much for your wonderful support – we’re very excited to be hosting Beyond the Page again this year!