We trust you all had a lovely extra day last Friday and enjoyed an extended Labour Weekend. The day saw us, teachers, creating with lego and using digital tools as part of our journey for the MoE focus of Assess to Learn. The primary purpose of assessment is to improve learning and teaching and our journey is to involve our tamariki more effectively in this important aspect of learning. As a result, Katrina- our professional development leader took us through various assessment tasks as if we were the students. As you can see below lots of fun and learning by all.

Today we held a school assembly as we are conscious of the many children that we wished to acknowledge for numerous reasons. With the limit of 100 and our bubble numbering close to 90 now we simply could not open it to all of you for which we are sorry. 

Our R.E.A.L focus was Learner for the Principal Awards and here are our superstars, with Seraphina taking Te Moana Īta's one. Ka Pai to the 5 of you!

Each assembly we take the top 5 students with the most R.E.A.L points from each class for the month and put them in the draw for a prize. The winners were:-

Thenmooli Mogan, Tamiregnaw Geda, Leanne Crosbie, Isobel Mulhern, and Zoe Bouras - well-done everyone for being respectful, excelling, aware learners!

All of Te Maunga were acknowledged for their excellent participation in the Young Reporters Competition and we invite you to watch out for the next issue of the community newsletter Pānui Te Motu Kairangi, as Sophia Meech's second-place for the Year 11 - 14 Photography section will be shared in it

It was with great delight that we awarded the ARISE badges for a number of Te Maunga students. This is a home/ school learning opportunity for our seniors to pursue passions and challenges that they may not always take on.  These challenges as an extension of school-based learning. The students are encouraged to be intrinsically motivated and take responsibility for their own personal learning (self-management). 

ARISE stands for:-

Attitude – be the best you can be 

Risk – manage and take calculated risks
I am loved by God – make Te Atua my alpha and omega

Strive – have a strong work ethic  

Empathy – have the capacity to understand those I encounter – walk a  mile in another’s shoes

Our Bronze recipients 

Our Silver recipient

Our Gold Recipient (Chloe has the distinction of being the first ever to achieve the Gold Medal) 

Congratulations to them all and we look forward to seeing more recipients over the next weeks!

After assembly, the bells went for New Zealand ShakeOut, our national earthquake drill, and tsunami hīkoi and you will be pleased to know that all our tamariki knew what to do. It was a brisk walk up to Star of the Sea and we were pleased to achieve this in 8 minutes. Just a reminder to you all, that in a real event this is where you would go to collect your tamariki as once we evacuate, we stay there. 

Faith News 

At the moment our parish is holding mass at the following times and churches under Level 2 guidelines:
-St Patrick's Church Kilbirnie - 5.30 pm Sat Vigil  & 10.30 am Sunday
-Holy Cross Church, Miramar - 8.30 am Sunday
Click here to register for Mass at your local parish, or another parish in your area. This booking system will be open from Wednesday 9 am to Friday midday each week while we are in Alert Level 2. 

On Monday November 1st we celebrate All Saints’ Day and on Tuesday November 2nd, All Souls’ Day. We will learn and talk about the significance and meaning of these as part of Learn about Faith.

On Wednesday November 3rd we will hold a Pōwhiri to welcome new students and families to our school community. Unfortunately we cannot hold this in the church so will not be able to extend the invitation to come along, but please make sure to introduce yourself and welcome Anna McGrattan, Caleb Ackerley, Mason Papier and Riyanshi Thakur to our community!

Gospel

Jesus said to the crowds:
“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”
John 6:37-40

Reflection

Lord, thank you for your unconditional love for me. You never give up on me, even though I have sometimes kept my distance in following your plan for me. I place my trust in you, for I know that eternal life awaits me, with the souls of those who have already passed. I will make a special sacrifice today for all the souls entrusted to me. Amen.

In Te Awa we have been learning about Halloween - where it originally started out and why people still carry out traditions like carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating. We started out by doing some research to answer our big questions. Then we carried out some explanation writing to create paragraphs explaining Halloween. We also got creative and wrote some spooky Halloween stories - have a read!

One day there were 2 girls Emalayer and Phoebe. They were getting ready for trik-or-treating. Emerlayer and phoebe were both ghosts. Once they were ready they went to seatoun to trik-or -treat.

The first house they went to they got to pick 3 lollies out of the huge tub.The next house they had to do a cartwheel or a trick to get candy.Once they had passed a few house’s they got to there friend’s house. She let them pick 4! But before there friend could give them the candy she had to make sure that no one was looking.

It was 9:00 so they went home. Phoebe got stuck in her ghost costume. After about 10 minutes she got out of her costume! Then they went to bed.

-Bianca

On hallows eve two kids were walking through a graveyard. Suddenly Gila and Jessie felt a hand, it was a zombie bride. The hand was greasy green. We heard screeches and thousands of hands came out. We dropped our candy and ran. 

We saw Betty and Mckenzy. We said run! Suddenly, we saw Betty turn into a zombie. We screamed. Then she glitched and we ran as fast as a cheetah. 

We ran all the way to Gilas house. Suddenly Gila screamed and we said whats wrong? Zombie apocalypse ! They got in and saw their parents. 

Gila remembered the legendary zombie apocalypse. In 1995 maleficent came to town. She made a scientist make a zombie potion. She dropped 2 drops of the zombie potion but a kid ran past and she dropped the potion. She flew away but millions of people swam in this sea. People tried to tell them and they did not listen. They Jumped in. They changed.

-Jessie

Once there was a square pumpkin named spooky. All the other pumpkins didn't think he was a real pumpkin. So spooky went into the scary forest to prove he was real scary. He did not know there was scary stuff in the haunted forest so when he saw them he dodged them and then he saw a little house. On the front door it said only square pumpkins can come inside. So spooky went inside and he met all the other square pumpkins. He made friends and lived with them forever until he was a big pumpkin! He said goodbye to his friends and he was off!

-Emily M

Hello my name is Cedric and I want to tell you my story. I worked at a very packed place in apartments. I wanted to get away from town. I owned a little cottage near a little river.

I hopped in the car and I drove off. One hour later I was feeling a little hungry and I stopped at a small gas station to get some food. I got a drink and 2 pies. As I was walking out the guy at the cash register gave me a weird look. I got in the car and I kept driving. I finally got to my shack, I was very tired so I went straight to bed.

I woke up in the middle of the night to my car going off. I tried to go back to sleep but it happened again. This time I watched. A BIG creature stepped out and knocked on the car door. But he didn’t go back to the bushes he jumped the fence and tried to open the door. But it was locked. I was scared for my life. It was viciously twirling the knob. 30 minutes later it suddenly stopped and the thing scurried off. 

I woke up and I turned on the 7:00 breakfast news. The reported sad last night two girls were captured at the lake. I turned off the news and packed my things. I still get shivers to this day. 

-Cedric

Halloween was first celebrated in Ireland. The people dressed up so they could scare away ghosts. The people in Ireland moved around the world and Halloween spread. Dressing up is a custom borrowed from disguising yourself in England, Scotland or Ireland. We carve pumpkins to lead the good spirits to our houses.

-Emily K

Ireland first started Halloween years ago. Some people dressed up as scary costumes to scare away the ghosts. In Ireland they carved out turnips before pumpkins to try to keep the souls happy and guide them.

-Gila

Entries are open for the 2022 Weetbix TRYathlon.

The TRYathlon is all about giving it a TRY and is a rewarding and fun day out for you and your child.

Participants need to be aged 7-15 years old on event day, and can complete the TRYathlon as an individual or in a team of two.

To enter the TRYathlon visit  www.tryathlon.co.nz/

(This year) Our school has created a School Group which you can join when you enter from home. Search for [St Anthony's School] when prompted. By linking to our school group it will give us the chance to win some great prizes.

The direct link to register into our school group is https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=44544&G=141278

Event details are:

2022 Wellington Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon
Kilbirnie Park, Kilbirnie
Sunday, 27 March 2022

Friday Lunches

This Friday we are offering Pizza.  Order forms should have come home this week but just in case they haven't made it home you will find the link to the form below. Thanks to our parent volunteers Jacinta and Anna and their Year 6 helpers for getting this organised for the kids this week.

On Saturday 30 October (Rain postponement Saturday 6 November) at St Catherine’s College, Upper Bourke St, Kilbirnie 9am – 2pm. No whiteware or car batteries. Cost per item from $2 - 10. Cash only. Proceeds to the college.