Nau mai, haere mai ki 2021 school year

It has been wonderful to see all our tamariki back and settling into their new spaces. Thanks to those of you who joined us yesterday to welcome our new staff, children, and parish priest to our St Anthony’s community with the pōwhiri and mass. We are delighted to have our new staff members, Sheryl McKnight and Amy Grant as part of our teaching team along with our new tamariki - Peyton, Jessica, Monica, McKenzy, and Danny so please take time to welcome them all, if you haven’t already done so yet. It is also great to have Gabriella and her whānau back with us. We have also been thrilled to welcome Father Bill Warwick and hope you can all join us for Ash Wednesday mass, next week which will also give you a chance to welcome Fr Bill to our community.

This past Tuesday, our staff & BoT along with the staff & BoT from all the Catholic schools in the Wellington region gathered at St Mary’s of the Angels for the Commissioning Mass. This is an annual event to allow us a time of prayer and blessing for the new school year, after which we have a chance to catch up with one another over light refreshments. This year it was also a chance to meet with our newly elected Archbishop - Paul Martin SM. A past rector of St Patrick’s College Kilbirnie, Bishop Paul is known to many of us and so we look forward to working alongside him when he is formally welcomed to Wellington after Easter.

Excitement is building with Bazaar with only ‘9 sleeps to go’ and the team is working hard to make everything a great success. Please read through the Bazaar update in the newsletter and support the team by responding promptly. Also please watch out for the cake boxes that will come home tomorrow - we look forward to seeing all the wonderful goodies arrive next week. 

A number of notices have been sent out through Linc Ed (Hero App) and Schoolzine over the past week as various permissions and notifications need to be made at this time of year. If you are having any issues with either of these platforms please come and talk to Kirsten, our office manager as it is important that we get this sorted. 

We look forward to seeing you at Scorching Bay Beach tonight for the school picnic and then at the Bazaar set up on Friday next week. Please continue to pray that we are blessed with a beautiful day. 

Ngā mihi nui

Denise

Upcoming Dates

• Shrove Tuesday - February 16 when the school will hold a liturgy to burn the palms in preparation for Ash Wednesday
• Ash Wednesday - February 17. Please join us for mass at 9 am.
• Bazaar set up - Friday 19 - come along to the school when you can to help the teams
• The Grand Day Out has Arrived - Saturday, February 20 - we look forward to seeing everyone here

Having all the loose parts for our playground construction time has meant that we have invented some cool stuff inside the Mouse House. Using the plank we can now escape through the holes and we have boarded up some parts so we can play ‘Escape Room.’ 

It is really fun and lots of kids are coming inside to hide and we cover for them as they are being hunted. 

Brea, Monica, and Leanne

"I have loved meeting Danny and playing with him". - Sophia

"I loved building the castle in discovery time". - Sam

"I love playing with the dollhouse and the babies with Marianne". - Paige

"I love looking for words that I know in my reading book". - Danny

At St Anthony's we have the wonderful team from Dynamite Music who come each Tuesday to school to provide drum, piano and guitar lessons to those students who are interested.  Please see the attached flyer which has pricing and enrolment information.

Harbour City Gymnastics

"Gymnastics is a great and fun activity for developing confidence, coordination, strength and agility. Harbour City Gymnastics, Hataitai Park, are currently taking enrolments for Term 1 classes - from preschool to adults. Email our office office@hcg.org.nz for further information or to register"