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

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Following on from my 2019 Staffing Communication to Parents on 18 October, I am delighted to let the community know that we have appointed Jeannine Winton, an experienced teacher to teach Hoiho Class (Year 2/3) while Sam Cripps is on Maternity Leave.

Jeannine, who is currently teaching Year 4 at Queen Margaret College, has been appointed to the fixed-term position. Jeannine is a fully registered, proficient teacher with a passion for creating a lively, dynamic and creative learning space. With over 18 years of primary school experience, she has taught from Years 2-6. Jeannine works at the forefront of innovation in primary education with a particular focus on literacy, mathematics and inquiry-based learning.

Our new teachers for 2019, Jeannine Winton and Francesca von Lanthen (who has been appointed to teach Kea Class), will be attending our Transition Morning on Thursday 22 November and will spend some time with their new classes. You are welcome to come and meet the new teachers. We have arranged for them to be available to meet parents between 8.30am and 8.55am in the Staffroom.

Student Led Conferences - this afternoon (Thursday 15 November) 3.15-6.05pm

The students are looking forward to welcoming their parents to school this afternoon to share goals, achievements and next steps, having selected learning from a variety of curriculum areas, discussing the process of learning and the progress made to date. Teachers will be roving around the groups and will be able to help facilitate if necessary. There will be other families in the classroom at one time working with and listening to their own children. Student Led Conferences are approximately 20mins each and we hope you enjoy the time with your children.

Ngā manaakitanga

Jennifer Ioannou

PRINCIPAL

Charter, Strategic and 2019 Annual Plan

The Board is thrilled to share a visual for our School's Charter and Strategic Plan 2019-2021. 

The Board and Staff have completed a first draft of the 2019 Annual Plan. It is the document that sets out our intended priorities to continue to make St Anthony's the best school it can be and it also outlines the philosophy and values that drive those priorities. The document is attached below and we would welcome any comments via the Board email address (bot@stants.school.nz) where you can also indicate whether you would like more information or an opportunity to meet to discuss any particular issues. Comments by 10 February 2019 please so that our Plan can be finalised and signed off at our Board meeting in Week 3 of Term 1 2019 and submitted to the Ministry of Education by 1 March 2019.

Sit and Sip

Fr Philip Cody wrote an article in the November issue of the Marist Messenger that challenged us to think about mindfulness, sharing with us this quote “Drink your tea - slowly and reverently - as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves, slowly, evenly- without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment; only this moment is life” So this week you are encouraged to ‘sit and sip.’ Fr Cody invites us to ‘Take time to be mindful to God present right here and now.’

Congratulations to all the children who made their First Holy Communion recently. What a wonderful step in their faith journey. Please continue to keep them all in your prayers. Special thanks to Maureen Folan and Deirdre Walsh for their superb teaching and support of the children in their sacramental life. We are blessed to have them.

Our grateful thanks for Tui for leading a very successful Mission Fair. They worked hard and all the children had a wonderful time. Tui thanks all the families for supporting them by allowing the children to bring spending money. They raised over $619.50!! An amazing effort.

What a great day we all had at the School Fun Run on Tuesday! Congratulations to all our students, parents and teachers who got out there and made our day such a blast! Thank you to all the wonderful parent helpers who took time out of their day to help us run this event. We could not have done it without you! A special thank you to Mr Kelly who was the coordinator of the event and did an outstanding job. 

The Fun Run was a fantastic opportunity to bring our community together, raise awareness of the importance of fitness which was linked to our term's inquiry "Connected to Hauora", whilst raising money for our Supernova. 

Check out Thursday's Cook Strait News for an article about Tuesday's event!  http://cookstraitnews.co.nz

It was fun but when you ran a lot you got really hot and really sweaty.  James 

Even though I was coming last with Marita it still was pretty good. We started off a kilometre away from the others and then we finally caught up with them.  Nadia 

It was really fun and at the end, I was really tired. It was really cool.  Isabella

I liked that we got ice blocks at the end.  Jess

We ended in the middle of the pathway instead of the wharf.  I liked the Fun Run.  I would prefer two laps.  We could have done as many laps as we wanted.  Alina

We are very excited to announce that so far we have raised almost $6,000 through this fundraising initiative. Thank you to the whole community for your support of our school. We are getting very close now to our Supernova playground equipment!!

HOW TO ORDER YOUR PRIZE

STEP ONE: Please make sure you hand in any cash to the Office before 15 November.

STEP TWO: Between 15 November and 22 November simply visit schoolfundraising.co.nz and create / log into your Profile Page. Then click on the ‘ORDER PRIZES’ button and follow the prompts. If you have any questions, please contact the School Fun-Run team on 0800 377 170 and they will gladly assist!

On Wednesday 7 November some very fit members of Tui, Kea and Takahe classes went to Newtown Park for Eastern Zones Athletics. Thankfully the weather held for the day and everyone had a great time competing in such events as high jump, relays, vortex, discus, sprints, long distance, shot put, quoit and long jump. St Anthony's students obviously understand the benefits of exercise as 43 students took part, which was an impressive number! There was wonderful sporting prowess on display and also great support from those students cheering on their friends!

A HUGE thank you to Ms Taylor, Michelle Flood and Brent Hudson for all their help keeping an eye on the children and also helping to run events. A big shout out also to Hagan, Theo and Eddie for helping Mr Kelly run the vortex event. You guys are superstars and were a massive support. Well done everyone!

Mr Kelly, PE/Sports Coordinator

Hauora - Well-Being

Maia Bouras (Year 8)

What is well-being?

Hauora, well-being is a philosophy which explores the way that we think, how we act and why we act in the way we do. There are four sides to well-being:

• Taha Whanau - Family
• Taha Tinana - physical well-being
• Taha Wairua - spiritual well-being
• Taha Hinengaro - mental and emotional well-being

Having a healthy well-being is essential, as healthy well-being can bring about good thoughts which lead to good actions. A healthy well-being can be defined in many different ways due to different opinions and attitudes.

How can we have a healthy well-being?

A healthy well-being is brought together by the many different actions we can take. To have a healthy well-being is to be healthy and balanced in your thoughts which then affect other things such as actions and feelings. A healthy well-being is brought together by different actions that have positive effects on your body and mind. These actions might be eating wisely or they could be praying and connecting to God. Anything that makes you feel good, positive and strong inside.

How does it relate to our everyday life?

Since God gave us the gift of life, having a healthy well-being and spreading good actions towards others is like your gift to them and to God. Just like you use your talents to give a gift back to God. Your actions to have healthy well-being may just be everyday actions such as helping others, talking to people or eating healthily and exercising. So in your everyday life try to make time to take actions that encourage a healthy and positive well-being. It is important to make sure that you’re not just giving but also feeding yourself. This can be done through activities such as praying, sports, healthy organic food, mindfulness, socialising or just even taking time to relax.

Hauora, well-being is a way of thinking and feeding the soul which is brought about by activities and thought. If used in the right way it can bring many positive effects into your life.

Bowling Club Evening

A big thank you to everyone who came along to the Bowling Club Fundraiser- we raised an impressive $967 for the school, plus an extra $150 to donate to our friends at Seatoun Bowling Club. It was great to see so many families having fun together.

What a wonderful community event!

Parish Magazine

Articles include:

Young Vinnies

St Anthony’s School has recently started up a Young Vinnies group for Years 5-8 students. 

Food for thought

The Holy Cross Food Fair last month was an amazing celebration of the nationalities that make up our very multicultural parish

We are still calling for donations for the baking team. 

(Remember points for your child/ren's House will be accumulated, with the winning House team receiving freshly baked muffins.....!)

• flour (plain and self-rising)
• sugar (caster and icing sugar) currently on special at Pak n Save!!
• condensed milk
• cocoa
• chocolate block (dark and milk)
• chocolate chips (dark and white)
• desiccated coconut

Also please save, clean and bring in plastic strawberry containers and more glass jars/bottles.  The preserving team have requested:

• tinned plums
• tinned chopped tomatoes 

Very many thanks for your continued support!

SVdP Christmas Boxes 2018

Christmas is not far away and we are again seeking supplies for the Christmas boxes we distribute each year.  From very generous collections last year, we were able to assist/surprise 58 families with a box of supplies and gifts for children.

We are starting our appeal this Sunday, so donations could be made from Monday 19 onwards and dropped off at school.  We so look forward to the generousity of our local families and community to enable us to spread with good word and give a little at Christmas time to those who might be struggling.

SwimWell Team at Wellington City Council

Are you looking for enjoyable and rewarding part-time work? Have you been a keen swimmer or previously involved in coaching children’s sport? Are you a parent interested in developing new skills or keen to help the next generation?

WCC is looking for part time aquatic education instructors to help teach our SwimWell programme at each of our four facilities (Karori Pool, Keith Spry Pool, Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre and Tawa Pool).

We are looking for positive and energetic people who have a passion for the water, a great customer service ethos and would get a buzz out of teaching life skills to children.  Experience is preferred but not essential as we will provide training to applicants with the right attitude.  For more information please visit the Wellington City Council Careers page

Wellington Diving Club

This term WDC are hosting a FREE “Bring a Friend” day on Sunday 25 November – this will be a great opportunity for families to come down to Kilbirnie Pool, get active and have-a-go.

After all that fun there will be some supervised bombing fun off the springboard! Full details attached. Any enquiries, please email admin@wellingtondiving.org.nz

*** SAVE THE DATE ***

Carols on the Green returns to the Seatoun Bowling Club this year for a fun evening for the whole family. Come along from 5pm (Friday 7th December). The bar will be open. Entertainment for the kids. Food will be available but you can bring your own food too. Christmas Carols playing in the background with a compulsory sing-a-long! So get your friends and family together, grab the picnic blanket or deck chair and head on down to the bowling club, 16 Dundas Street, Seatoun. AND It's all for a good cause. Proceeds from the day will go to Foster Hope (to buy Xmas gifts for kids who might not normally get one). Last year people asked if they can bring a gift of their own to donate to the charity, absolutely but if you wrap it can you please label it as For a Girl/Boy and the age group it's appropriate for.  

Sisters of Compassion - On the Eve of Advent

We warmly invite you and your community to join the Sisters of Compassion at our Advent Family Day. This festive day is centred around setting up the nativity crib at 11am with Christmas carols for all to follow. Throughout the day, get creative with nativity arts and crafts or search for nativity rocks in the Christmas treasure hunt. 

10am - 3pm , Saturday 1st December, 
Suzanne Aubert Heritage Centre
Our Lady's Home of Compassion
2 Rhine Street (off Murray St), Island Bay

We look forward to seeing you there! 

The Rock Academy

Summer Holiday Programmes are available in December and January.   Ideal for young musicians, busking trips, song writing and much more.  Suits guitarists, singers and pianists.  Beginner to advanced, ages 7 to 15.

December:  19, 21, 29 and January 23 to 25, 30 to 1 February.

Contact:  geoff@therockacademy.co.nz or phone 021 565 750

Need a Babysitter?

Kilbirnie Christmas Parade and After-event

This year's Christmas Parade is on Sunday 2 December from 10.30am – 1.30pm.  The Kilbirnie Shopping Centre is on Facebook, so please do like us and share our Santa Parade posts and event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2090140674583396??ti=ia  We want as many people to come as possible!