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

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome back after the holidays! I hope you had a wonderful Easter and holiday break with family and friends. A very special welcome to Emilia Bloom who started in Kiwi Class on Monday. Emilia is the sister of Seraphina in Hoiho Class.


Term 1 Student Report Comments

We hope you enjoyed reading your children's End of Term Report comments (which were uploaded to LINC-ED at the end of Term 1), and hearing more about their progress, achievement and next learning steps. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch with your child's teacher.

You can access your LINC-ED account by clicking here: https://stants.linc-ed.com/wp-login.php If you require assistance, please contact Yvonne in the Office. 

Teacher Only Day @ Te Papa  Create, innovate and collaborate

Effective Technology learning is about learners building the skills to understand, create, design and evaluate.

On the final day of the school holidays, our teachers were very fortunate to have a fantastic innovation and technology session at Te Papa's Hīnātore | Learning Lab. https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/learn/for-educators/hinatore-learning-lab

At Te Papa, we engaged in activities around Unplugged Coding, Stop Motion Animation, 3D modelling and Virtual Reality, and received many ideas for our classroom programmes which are integrated throughout the curriculum. We are also very excited to have ordered further technology for classrooms; BeeBot + Dash Robots and STEAM products, including Flexo and Strawbees kits.

Hoiho and Takahe Classes are visiting Te Papa later this month to be exposed to the technological opportunities similar to what our staff experienced last week. All classes will also be exploring new applications and opportunities to engage with technology in innovative ways. Watch out for portfolio posts on Seesaw (Juniors) and LINC-ED (Seniors) to see what students are up to!

Ngā manaakitanga

Jennifer Ioannou

PRINCIPAL

Board of Trustees Election

The election of parent representatives to the Board of Trustees for a 3-year term is to be held in June this year.

The Board of Trustees is made up of 5 parent representatives, 3 Proprietor’s representatives, a staff representative and the Principal who are responsible for the governance of the school.

The following is a timeline for the election:

Parent electoral roll closes - Wednesday 8 May 2019 (noon)

Supplementary roll closes - Wednesday 22 May 2019 (noon)

These are available for inspection at the school office.

• Nominations called for by                    Friday 10 May 2019
• Nominations close at noon                  Friday 24 May 2019
• Voting papers posted (if necessary)   Wednesday 29 May 2019
• Election Day - Voting polls close      Friday 7 June 2019 (noon)
• Results declared                                    Thursday 13 June 2019
• Elected Trustees take Office                 Friday 14 June 2019

Eligibility for Voting

If you are a parent, guardian or immediate caregiver of a student who is enrolled full time at the school, you may register to vote for the Board of Trustees election. The school will use the information it has on its students’ parents/caregivers to compile this electoral roll. You may wish to check with the school office to ensure the school has your correct postal address on their database. Electoral rolls are open for inspection at the school and can be viewed during normal school hours. 

Nominations

Anyone can be nominated and stand for election to the Boards of Trustees, except those who fall within the categories listed on the back of the nomination form.

Parents can nominate themselves or someone else.

Non-parents wishing to stand for election must be nominated by a parent on the school electoral roll.

Nomination forms will be posted (or hand delivered) to all eligible voters on the electoral roll.

Additional nomination forms can be obtained from the school office.  

Nominees are invited to send to the Returning Officer a brief personal statement which may include nominee’s experience, qualifications, previous involvement with the school and reasons for standing for election.

The names of people who have been nominated can be inspected at the school office or with the Returning Officer up until the close of nominations. The list of candidates’ names, as they come to hand, will be updated.

Voting Procedures

All voting forms, with instructions for their return, will be distributed by mail on Wednesday 29 May 2019 to people eligible to vote. 

Any questions on the election process can be directed to the Returning Officer, Yvonne Small, at the School Office phone 380 6971 weekdays 9.00-3.30pm or by sending an email to office@stants.school.nz

Easter Liturgy

Come and celebrate the Easter season with us next Tuesday 7 May. The liturgy begins in Kiwi Class at 2pm and will move through the school as each class shares their item. There is another showing at 2:15pm (beginning again in Kiwi Class) if you are unable to make it at 2pm. 

Scripture Alive

On Tuesday 14 May we have some students representing our school in a Scripture Reading Competition held at St Anne's in Newtown. This is a new competition that is being held for the Catholic schools in the East and South of Wellington. Our representatives are: Selma Smith for Year 5 and 6, Eve Williams for Year 7, Olivia Napp for Year 8, Marimatina Peni for the Samoan Reading and Katelyn Wilson for the Te Reo Māori Reading. We also have a drama group of Year 5-8 students who are going to perform at the competition as well. 

Faith Reflection

We are in the season of Easter. Life is our subject. In our Southern Hemisphere we have finished daylight saving, the leaves are tumbling off the trees and winter is close by. Nature is retreating. Life is on hold! But even here, in the gathering darkness, there are glimpses of light. Autumn and winter do not shut out life; this is a time for renewal, for re-energising in order to re-emerge with a stronger, better life.

While Easter is essentially a spring festival, we southerners can use the season to rejoice in God’s gift of life to us, and the way this gift is refreshed and returned to us every day. We can celebrate every night as our “winter time” and every morning as our “spring”. Life retreats in the night, to be restored and re-energised. The new day returns life to us with a new chance to use it well. Let every morning be a resurrection morning. Make Easter permanent.

Years 5-8 students met their ambassadors for our Wonder Project on Tuesday. We are fortunate to have both of these experts who have a connection to our school – Federica Vaino who is Lorenzo’s mother (Hoiho) and Tim Brooks whose parents are longtime parishioners and his younger brother, an old boy. Federica and Tim explained their careers as engineers and then had the wonderful task of revealing what our rocket packs contained.

Over the next 6–8 weeks, students will work with our Wonder Project Ambassadors to design, build and launch their very own water rocket.

Yesterday, students engaged in stimulating provocation activities exploring our Term 2 Inquiry theme of how we stand tall with our indigenous partners in the Pacific.

We would like to offer CodeCamp again this term. If you think your child/ren are interested in going this exciting programming experience, please see below and contact CodeCamp directly.

Parent Feedback on Movin’March:

Movin’March was a month-long event organised by Greater Wellington Regional and local Councils to encourage students to walk or wheel to school.  To help us improve our programme, please complete Greater Wellington’s parentsurvey before it closes on Monday 20^th May.  Respondents can go in the draw to win a $100 Prezzy card! 

We appreciate your help - your comments will help us encourage more students to walk and wheel to school.

St Mary's College Open Day

Thursday 13 June at 9am, School Hall


Yummy Sticker Promotion 2019

The Yummy Sticker promotion has kicked off again for this year, so you can start to collecting Yummy stickers and bag cut-outs from fruit NOW.  The promotion is now in its 22 year and there is another $200,000 available to spend on sports gear for schools. 

The promotion finishes at the end of Term 3 (Friday 27 September), so there is plenty of time to collect as many stickers & bag cut outs as possible.  

Please print off sheets at home to enable you to 'stick labels straight on'.

There are 2 vacancies that will be available within the Attendance Dues team at the Archdiocese of Wellington very shortly (Accounts Receivables Advisor & Senior Credit Controller). The vacancies are advertised with Jackson Stone and Partners recruitment agency, and the cut off date for applications have now been extended to the 6 May 2019. All applications and queries can be made directly to the recruitment agency. Please note one of the roles can either be a part time or full time position.