Kia ora, 

Thank you to everyone who attended the official opening of the Pump Bike Track last week. Our official visitors were well impressed with our manaakitanga and the overall vibe of our school so well done everyone. The children have expressed their thoughts in the newsletter for you to enjoy. 

It has been my pleasure to move throughout the school over the last two weeks to see the learning in action. I have been really impressed with the engagement of the learners and to see the range of learning opportunities that are being used. I extend my thanks to the staff for their commitment to continuing to explore new ways to present the learning to our tamariki.  When the team is open to reflecting on what went well and what didn’t, and are prepared to try another approach we are guaranteed to improve student outcomes - Thank you to each of our teachers who work so hard for each and every one of our tamariki.  You are superstars.

I was recently reading about the Lion Foundation’s Community Champions and they featured one of their champions - Rick Pickard. I loved his saying that has guided his voluntary work as his attitude is 

“one hand to help my family and the other hand to help everyone else”

What a wonderful way to shape your life. Thank you to the number of parents who support the teaching and learning by helping out in a myriad of ways - we so value your help. We are also blessed to have not one but two past pupils - Pieta Proudfoot and Sam Crombie who have chosen their old school to give back to on a regular basis. Shout out to them as we love having the extra help!

Now we need everyone’s help

It is your chance to volunteer as we need to form the Bazaar team. This is a great way to build relationships, work alongside each other, and raise funds for our community and we need you! Please email me today with your offers of help.

As you know we were due to have an ERO visit in March and I thank all the whānau who responded with feedback for us. Due to it being postponed in Lockdown, ERO recently rang and had phone conversations with both Vanessa and myself. They were very complimentary about our experiences this year and the progress we have made. Last week, I was fortunate to attend the Wellington Regional Principals Meeting to hear ERO speak about their new model beginning in 2021. Their approach is still underpinned by the Treaty of Waitangi and the principles of participation, partnership and protection

ERO’s aim is to prioritise the things that matter most through an approach that is: 

Collaborative | Tailored | Flexible | Targeted | Informed by evidence

Their focus is to develop a partnership for evaluation and improvement. They will do this through:-

• An evaluation partner will work alongside us and our school 
• The evaluation relationship, developed over time, will enable ERO to understand the context of our school more fully 
• Together, we and our evaluation partner will develop a bespoke and differentiated evaluation approach to support our school’s internal evaluation for improvement 
• Resources could include working with others who can assist the school’s improvement journey.

It was wonderful to hear the new approach and we look forward to seeing how the trial of this will go in 2021.

Thanks to everyone for responding so positively to Padder Tennis. We have just confirmed that this will be proceeding tomorrow so we will forward to once again seeing all the children having fun and learning this wonderful sport. 

Key Dates to Note

• School Assembly tomorrow is canceled due to being at Level 2
• Girls in Trades and Technology Event: September 1, Year 7 & 8 girls
• Student-Led Conferences - September 3, 3:30 - 6 pm (Te Moana will begin at 2 pm)
• Whānau Sharing - Thursday, 17 September⋅2:15 - 3 pm
• Week 8: Social Justice
• Teacher Only Day - September 25 (this is the Friday of the last week of term)
• Term 4, Tuesday, October 27 is the other Teacher Only Day. Please note that this will mean a longer Labour Weekend for our whānau

Have a good weekend and we look forward to seeing you at Student-Led Conferences next week. 

Ngā manaakitanga.

Denise

Prayer for Protection

The learning tunnel is probably the best thing to think about when you are feeling a little stuck in a situation. You know what a tunnel is: one end leads and the other leads out. When you are five years old you go to school, right? So that's you starting to enter the Learning Tunnel. 

When do you get out of the Learning Tunnel? Well it can’t be when you finish learning, because you never do. So that's why there's multiple learning one for everyone in the world, you never come out at the same time as some else! You do come out of the tunnel but go back in once you start learning again.

This question might have come up in the first paragraph: Do adults have learning tunnels? The answer is yes. Your parents, aunty, uncle, grandma and grandpa all have learning tunnels. Even the littlest mouse to the eldest elephant have learning tunnels. Why do we have learning tunnels? To, of course learn! If you are feeling stuck, call on someone else who is further in their learning tunnel to help you get out of a cave in! Easy.

So how far are you in your Learning Tunnel? Far? Just started? Or somewhere in between? Remember no matter how far you go you’re always still learning!

-Iosbel Mulhern, Year 5

Have you ever found something so difficult that you feel stuck in a box? Well if you have the learning tunnel it will help you. Have you ever wondered about going inside the really good learning tunnel?

You can learn something you have never heard before. Learning something new can make you a little bit smarter. If you ever walk past your very own learning tunnel you can get better at maths and more that you have never learned before. If you don't know what 3x3 is you would be in the dark. But if you learn it you would be in the light.  

We use the learning tunnel to help us with our maths or a question we do not know. It also can help you understand the question.

-Kahu Wilson, Year 5

The learning tunnel is a fun motivational piece of art that helps learn and motivates us to do our work. I always like to go up to it and have a look before I do any work or tests. It is also good to go and look at when you are upset. It usually makes you feel a bit better.

This learning tunnel helps us get ready for work and helps us stay focused during our lesson. For example the other day I went up to have a look when it first got made and it made me feel really motivated for my work. It works when we learn something and we go in the tunnel until we are done and then we come out.

We use this learning tunnel to help us do our work and motivate us to do our work and be good at our work. We also use this to help us feel better if we are upset or are a bit stuck.

I think this learning tunnel is so cool, especially because Mrs Revil made it.

-Jessica Thompson, Year 6

On Tuesday August 18 the pump bike track was officially opened.  This was a wonderful event which was attended by a number of important people.  St Anthony’s School got the bike track first as we won the Movin’ March competition.  The students all sat out on the deck or nearby and listened to a number of speeches.  Luckily the weather was beautiful and sunny.  As the oldest and youngest students at the school, Glen and Paige cut the ribbon to officially open the bike track.  Thank you very much to everyone that attended.

Everyone was sitting on the ground and on the deck.  There were lots of special people there and the bike track set up.  There were also some other obstacles in the playground which only bikes could go on.  Mrs Johnson and Paul Eagle spoke at the event and the lady who brought the bike track to St Anthony’s.  The police were also there.  The deputy mayor came too.  After the speakers were finished everyone got their bikes and scooters and went on the track.  We got the track because we won Movin’ March.  There was a special afternoon tea in Te Awa Īta for the parents and our visitors afterwards. 

-Joseph O'Donovan, Year 4

On Tuesday of last week we had the opening of the pump bike track.  The police were there as well as Paul Eagle and the deputy mayor.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I got a photo with the police along with Joseph and Bianca.  Glen and Paige cut the green ribbon to open the bike track.  Mrs Johnson read a karakia and then Francie, who is Katelyn and Kahu’s grandma did her karakia.  We got to have a go on the bike track after that.  We went up in the line.  The bike trainers set up an obstacle course for bikes.  When you go on the bike track it’s a lot of fun and it gives you a little nudge on every bump.  

-Blythe Lindsay, Year 4

On Friday morning we went down to the court and played padder tennis. Paul was our padder tennis teacher and Paul as an expert at it. It was a little hard at first.  Then I got it.  There were different bats.  It was really like tennis.  I learnt some new tricks like walking the dog and keeping the ball alive.  It was very tricky. I was a little scared but I did it anyway.  We went into groups.  We had to beat other teams but I don't know who won.  We did hard stuff.  I want to practise the hard stuff.  Walking the dog was easy peasy but the other stuff was hard.

-Emily McGrattan, Year 2

Pilates

Aligned Pilates would like to offer the parents and friends of St Anthony's four consecutive pilates lessons with the entire fee of $60 going to our school as a fundraiser.

This is for new clients only and the offer is available for term 3 only with the start date to be advised once interest has been registered.  If this sounds like something you would be interested in then please let Kirsten know via office@stants.school.nz by next Friday 4th September.

Please note that if classes are missed then there is no refund or make-up class allowed.

Classes are 1 hour and are held at the Miramar Salvation Army Church Hall. 

Please see the time table below:

Monday 9.30am (babies and preschoolers welcome, toys provided)

Monday 10.45am 50+clsass

Wednesday 7.30pm Open class 

School Lunches

The next Friday lunches will be on the 4th of September. Look out for the Subway order envelopes coming home early next week.

Thanks to our parent helpers Jacinta Handscomb and Irene Limantara and their year 6 helpers Katelyn and Lachlan.

Entertainment Books

Support local businesses whilst saving and make a difference!

Join Entertainment today & we’ll receive an EXTRA $10 or $20 on top of the 20% we already receive from every Membership purchase!

https://www.entertainmentbook.co.nz/orderbooks/1042q81

FIRST CHILDRENS OPEN DAY for the season

Capital Trout Centre Open Day Sunday 6th September 2020

Children must have a licence to fish for trout and free licences/tickets are available from  Monday 24th August 2020 at the following stores.:

Capital Fishing , 49 Ghuznee Street (off Cuba Mall)

Hutt Valley Hunting & Fishing, 8 Te Puni Street, Petone

The Centre is located behind the WCC Administration buildings on the way to the Wellington City Council Southern Landfill, on Landfill Road, Happy Valley, Wellington and is open to the public on specific days.

Children do not have to bring any gear as Club members will assist children to catch a trout on fly fishing tackle.

As the Centre is manned and maintained by volunteers we rely on donations to cover our expenses of purchasing the fish from the hatcheries, fish food and general maintenance.

Your donations will be appreciated.

Contact: Strato 387 7878 (wk)   386 3740 (hm)

email: strato.cotsilinis@gmail.com

Wellington Phoenix Holiday Programme