Filter Content
- Inspiration
- Principal's Message
- Reflection
- Faith News
- Board Update
- Important Dates for Term 3 & 4
- Makey Makey, Coding, Microbits, Robots - a great time of Learning
- Te Awa Report Writing
- Te Maunga Poetry - a response to learning about the lives of St Peter and St Paul
- Matariki - Thursday 23rd July at 5 o'clock
- Success Once Again
- Hero App
- Uniform Reminder
- Scholastic Book Fair
- Fundraising News
- Need A Babysitter?
- Community Notices
Ka mau te pai - That’s fantastic - Week 12 - We have made it!
My grateful thanks to all of you - whānau, tamariki and kaimaihi for the resilience and energy you have all brought to the long term. We all began in our homes with Distance Learning and then for the last 6 weeks have been back together. It has been wonderful to witness the sheer joy of our tamariki being together again. A special thanks to Francesca, Helen, Lucy, Ronan, Amy, and Kirsten who have worked tirelessly to lead the learning and look after the wellbeing of our children - you have been amazing! Our grateful thanks to the parents - Anna and Simone, who spent hours cleaning and restacking all our reading material. A mammoth task and one that the staff was so thrilled to see done - thank you. Thanks too to all the whānau who joined in and moved the bark to the senior playground. Terrible day but a job well done!
A special thanks to the Board of Trustees for the energy and commitment that they give to being the governance for our school. Together they bring a great deal of expertise to helping guide the decision making and we are grateful. It was especially gratifying to see the first stage of the senior playground underway and the children are loving the space - thank you.
We hope you can all join us for our first school assembly in a long time! This assembly will begin at 1:30, followed by afternoon tea in Te Aroha to celebrate being together.
I hope you have all enjoyed seeing the Seesaw posts of your children in action with learning new digital tools. It is wonderful to see all the learning and the skill levels that are developing so quickly. Language such as computational thinking, debugging, beebots, microbits are all part of the classroom talk now.
Tomorrow, our tamariki have the option to come to school in mufti for a gold coin donation. This is our opportunity to give to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. The funds will go to Caritas for their Pandemic Appeal. As Pope Francis says "We believe in the love of people that we have around us, and there we find hope' so it sending in a donation is one way that the children can spread the love.
Last year, consultation with you all was made on our school uniform, and a subcommittee of parents, staff, and children discussed and finalised the uniform that is to be worn at St Anthony’s. The BoT approved the decisions made and this list is now posted on the website. There are two areas of current issue that I ask you all to support:-
- At the time there was much debate over whether we should have leggings or not for the PE uniform and in the end navy track pants were decided on. So if your child does not want to wear shorts, then the other option is the track pants not leggings.
- Sports shoes are not worn with the school uniform. They need to come in their school shoes and change into their sports shoes to play in, returning to their school shoes after lunch.
Should there be an issue about anything on a given week, such as a hole in the shoe has developed, please inform the teacher by email or a note.
Please see the full uniform outline below- (note we do have a wonderful school beanie for these cold days) and we look forward to your support in this matter.
Our teachers have been busy writing reports for our tamariki. These will be posted on Hero tomorrow afternoon so please watch out for these. We have detailed below the information regarding uploading the Hero App on your device if you haven’t already done this yet.
Term 3 begins with:
Week 1: Marariki Learning & Celebration
Week 2: Book Week & Grandparents’ Morning - Your child/ren will be coming home with an invite for their grandparents and we will also post one on Seesaw so that it can go digitally to those out of Wellington.
Below we have included a number of important dates for you to mark in your calendar, please note especially the upcoming Teacher Only Days that are scheduled.
I wish you all a wonderful holiday break with your children. If you aren’t able to get away then hopefully Wellington will be blessed once again with some sunny weather. For those of you traveling, travel safe, enjoy your new ventures and we look forward to everyone’s safe return in a fortnight.
I end with a shoutout to all you wonderful whānau who made us the best school in Wellington for walking & riding. See the news from Movin March below and well-done team!
Ma te Atua manaaki God Bless
Denise
Years ago, while involved with youth groups, I came across a book helpful both to young and older. It was put together around a quote from “an anonymous desert monk”:
Don’t lurk like a lizard beneath a rock. Stand up. Bathe your face in the sun. And reflect it on your brothers and sisters.
While the book expanded in many practical ways, the quote itself is sufficient challenge for anyone. Initially, I made efforts to live it, but quickly found the strong magnetic pull of the temptation “to lurk”. It is much easier to sit back, to tell myself that I don’t have the skill or couldn’t possibly do the task as well as someone else.
Then I realised that the desert monk is not challenging me to DO but to BE. Jesus came to tell us that, in the eyes of God, we are loveable – even though we sometimes get it wrong. Knowing that, “lurking” is not an option. I will stand and be seen. My hope, my joy, my generosity will make a huge difference to how I see others and how others see me.
Our Grandparents Mass will be on Friday the 31st of July at 11:30am. This will also be our Beginning of Term/Pōwhiri Mass where we will welcome our new families to our school. Mark this date in your diaries, it will be great to see you there.
Working bee thanks
A huge thank you for your help at our working bee to move the mountains of bark to the senior school playground. Despite the damp weather, the good spirits and enthusiasm made it easy to get this job done and we are thrilled with the results. We appreciate your support.
Welcome celebration for our principal and deputy-principal, Friday 3 July
We are looking forward to seeing you this Friday at the celebration assembly and afternoon tea for our long-overdue welcome to our principal Denise Johnson and our deputy-principal Francesca van Lanthen. Assembly will start at 1.30 pm.
New Board member
We welcome Janine Smith to the Board of Trustees as a parent representative. Janine and Craig have two children Cobie and Charlie at St Anthony's and another preschool daughter Paige. Janine is currently a manager at the Ministry for the Environment and has experience in environmental policy issues and in building partnerships with natural resource sector agencies and communities. We look forward to your involvement Janine.
Fundraisers for Term 3 quiz night and Term 4 fun run
Plans are underway for a quiz night fundraiser in Term 3 and a fun run fundraiser in Term 4 (for the children but adults are welcome to join in too). We would really appreciate your support and help. Dates will be published shortly.
Please contact the school office (office@stants.school.nz) if you are able to help organize these events.
Term 3
Week 1 Marariki: Thursday 23 July at 5 pm
Tērā ko Matariki e ārau mai ana E hahu ake i ōku maharantanga mōu.
There I see Matariki gathering above recalling to mind memories of you.
Matariki ... A time to celebrate new life, the changing seasons, and of planting and harvesting.
A special event that we invite you and your whānau to join with us for a winter's evening to celebrate Matariki 2020. This year the official date will be in the school holidays so we will hold our school gathering on Thursday 23rd July at 5 o'clock.
Visit our beautiful school, see our Matariki artworks and writing. Enjoy our Kapa Haka group singing and dancing. There will be a sausage sizzle and a cup of warm cocoa for us to enjoy.
As this is the time when Maori traditionally brought their crops in from the cold to store for the winter we thought it would be especially thoughtful if we brought winter crops such as pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, parsnips and other ingredients that can be stored and donated to the Sisters of Compassion Soup Kitchen in the city.
Please join us for this special evening of whānau engagement to celebrate our wonderful school community, our families, and friends. We will especially welcome our new families to our St.Anthony's community.
Week 2
Book Week: A time of reading and celebrating our many wonderful authors. The week ends with our Book Character Parade so we hope you have a wonderful time in the holidays, planning and designing these. Part of this day also is...
Grandparents Mass/ Pōwhiri to welcome our new families will be held on Friday 31 July at 11: 30 am. This will be followed by a time of sharing and light lunch. At the start of term, we will ask for your help in preparing for this.
Week 4 Monday 10 August 10 - 11 am - Whānau sharing of learning in action or Tamariki sharing their learning with whānau. (Note this is a change from the Signmee)
Week 9 Thursday 17 Sept 2:15 - 3 pm - Whānau sharing of learning in action.
Teacher Only Days
As you will be aware the government awarded teachers, 8 Teacher Only Days (TOD) over 3 years. COVID19 has caused some challenges around this but at this stage, we are planning to have a TOD on Wednesday, September 9 so that the whole staff can attend a seminar put on by Catholic Education. We suspect that this will not eventuate (due to an international speaker) and if that is the case will transfer this day to September 25, the last day of Term 3.
The other TOD is scheduled for Term 4, Tuesday, October 27. This means that families will have an extended Labour Weekend and this date is confirmed.
We do attempt to make sure that all key dates are on the parent calendar so please refer to this as well.
Over the last couple of weeks, Te Awa has been working hard to develop our report writing skills. The first step in doing this was to examine and look at reports and pick out the key features that we noticed such as; headings, subheadings, pictures, facts and accurate information. Next, we started planning! We each chose an animal that we wanted to research more and used our devices to gather information which we wrote onto our planning sheets.
Once we had all the information ready, we came up with the subheadings that we could use to divide our facts into different sections. When we were writing our reports we made sure to keep them in the present tense and use formal language. After editing our work we published our reports by turning them into some fabulous posters which we can display in our classroom! It has been so interesting to read all of the wonderful animal reports displayed and see what talented writers we have in Te Awa!
St. Peter St. Paul
Once Upon a Time
A long long time ago
The story started of a man
That some of you might know
His name was Saint Peter
Peter was a fisherman
Until he met a person
That had a big plan
The Man's dad was Joseph
Mary was his mum
This man was very special
He was God's only son
St Peter follow Jesus
Stayed loyal through it all
Until the rooster crow three times
Then Peter's faith would fall
Empowered by the Holy Spirit
He knew what he had done
He knew he must redeem himself
The first Pope he must become
He was killed for spreading Christianity
His life had quickly ended
Crucified upside down
And his faith was finally commended
Chloe, Year 7
We invite you and your whānau to join us for a winter's evening to celebrate Matariki 2020. This year the official date will be in the school holidays so we will hold our school gathering on Thursday 23rd July at 5 o'clock.
Well done to all our wonderful whānau who have helped us receive this wonderful achievement.
Congratulations to the students, staff and families of St Anthony’s School. You reached the highest number of walk and wheel trips over March 2020 for the Wellington City and we’ve made up a certificate for you to celebrate this enormous effort with your school community.
If you haven't already then make sure you download the Hero App which is part of our student management, school reporting and communication system.
Click https://hero.linc-ed.com/
Hero enables you to keep up-to-date with all school communication through a modern computer browser or through the app. Note, Internet Explorer is not supported.
Below is a reminder of our school uniform requirements.
|
All |
Navy blue polar fleece with school emblem Navy blue sun hat (compulsory in Terms 1 and 4) Socks - Navy knee-high socks, navy or white ankle socks (no low-cut socks) Tights - plain navy or black |
|
Years 0-6 |
Red polo shirt with school emblem combined with either: · Navy elastic-waist shorts · Navy trousers · Navy skorts Navy/maroon summer dress (Terms 1 and 4) Navy/maroon tartan tunic with white polo shirt (Terms 2 and 3) |
|
Years 7-8 |
Red polo shirt with school emblem combined with either: · Navy side-strap shorts · Navy trousers · Navy skorts Navy/maroon tartan skirt with white blouse |
|
Sports uniform |
School PE shirt with school emblem School PE black shorts Navy track pants (optional) Black/navy/white socks |
UNIFORM RULES
- Students must wear full school uniform. It should be clean, tidy and in a good state of repair.
- Anyone not wearing correct uniform will not be permitted to participate in school outings.
- Please name all items.
- Any clothing under shirts must not be showing.
- Black bike shorts are permitted under dresses or tunics but should not be seen.
Footwear
- Must be plain black, no canvas or fashion shoes – soles must be black.
- Plain black sandals and plain black leather trainers are permitted.
- Sports shoes may be worn at break times in the school grounds but uniform shoes
are to be worn to and from school.
Sun hats
- A school sun hat must be worn outside during Term 1 and Term 4.
- We encourage children to wear their sun hats during the other terms when we
have warm days.
Hair
- Long hair is to be tied back in a tidy manner.
- Hair ties and accessories must match uniform, i.e. navy, black or the school tartan. - No fancy hair ties.
Jewellery
- Earrings should be small round studs or sleepers that are gold or silver.
- Religious or cultural necklaces must be worn out of sight.
Exciting news! We will be holding another Scholastic Book Fair next term!
This will be run in the library during week 2 of Term 3 and will coincide with our book week celebrations and our book character dress-up day, which will be held on the same day as Grandparent's Day so they can enjoy the wonderful costumes.
Last year we were fortunate enough to be able to offer an Eftpos facility for payment but at this moment this year's fair will be cash only. We will let you know the times for coming to purchase books as soon as we can. If anyone is able to help sell the books either before or after school then please see Kirsten in the office.
Collect the Yummy cut-out labels from bags (each cut-out label is worth 10 stickers) and individual Yummy apple stickers for your school’s share of the $200,000 free DG Sport sports gear prize pool. Yummy apples are available from New World, PAK’nSAVE and participating Four Square stores. The more you collect, the more sports gear we get so get going and start collecting your Yummy cut-out labels and stickers now!
Entertainment Books
Just a reminder that we are promoting the Entertainment Book again this year. The good news is that it is a digital membership only this year so no hard copy will come home.
If you would like to support us by purchasing a digital membership then follow the link below. Our school receives 20% from each sale. Plus if you sign up now then you will receive 2 months FREE extra membership.
St Anthony's Entertainment Book Fundraiser
Holiday Classes for Children at the Wellington Sewing Centre
The Wellington Sewing Centre in Coutts Street in Kilbirnie is running school holiday sewing and craft classes for children 8 years old and over: make tote bags, zipped cases, decorated cushions and trousers! For more information and to enrol, check out the website www.sewingdirect.co.nz. Small classes and individual attention!