I was inspired by the beautiful Whakataukī quoted above after a fantastic morning spent at the park. With so many of our sports events being canceled due to being at level 2, we made the decision that at least we could have a school athletics day and more importantly whānau could come and view our tamariki in action. A blessing that many Kura do not have at these times.

Then our House Leaders led our tamariki in the house relays and there were some great scenes to behold. Our definite favourite was the egg and spoon race! Ka Pai to James, Marimatina, Mia, Chloe, and Sophia for an awesome effort. Check out our Facebook page for a great video of this. 

Yesterday, our Senior Leaders, parents, Board, the leadership team met with our Evaluation partner, Mary Elys to consider the feedback from both tamariki and whānau regarding our strategic plan and direction for the next 3 years. My grateful thanks to our students and adults who contributed so effectively in sharing their thoughts and ideas. We will collate these and once the Board has considered it, we will share these ideas with you all once again for your feedback. A huge thanks to everyone for their efforts so far. 

We were delighted to award principal certificates for being Respectful at our assembly this week. Ka Pai to you all. 

Also this week we awarded 3 of our special certificates - Te Hāpai Ō which refers to those children who really impress us all for a particular action or behaviour. 

The first went to Cobie Smith for going above and beyond with his learning and active leadership with his iTime project - well done Cobie as we were really impressed!

Harry Frampton and Serephina Bloom was also awarded this certificate for being wonderful examples of showing true inclusion. We are thrilled to have such fantastic caring tamariki at our school. 

We were thrilled to present Sophia Meech with her prize for coming second in the NZ wide Young Reporters for the Environment Photography competition. It was also a successful day for Sophia as she recieved her Gold Badge for the A.R.I.S.E progrmame - brilliant effort Sophia!

A reminder to everyone to please not swing into the driveway entrance for drop-off or pick-up. This week we had an incident with a driver not seeing a pedestrian and pram and it reminds us all as to why the entranceway can not be used during school time. 

Our film - The Green Balloon is close to final production and we hope you have all planned to join us on Friday, November 26 for our great film evening. All our tamariki have played a part in the film and we are truly inspired by the wonderful production that has been created. Tickets for this evening are now on sale. 

Ngā manaakitanga

Denise

As we fast approach the Christmas period, we are hoping to take part in the ‘Christmas Food Parcel Appeal 2021’ for St. Vincent de Paul Society, Holy Trinity Parish. This appeal asks us to create parcels for local families in need or donate food and necessary items. These will go to people who will benefit from our help such as house-bound people (often elderly) with few family or contacts, struggling families with young children and refugees who may be finding it difficult to cope during this time.

We hope to get underway with our collection in school from the beginning of December so ask that you begin to think about collecting some items that we could use for our hampers, such as:

• Christmas Treats, Sweets, Toys, Gifts
• Canned & Packet Ready Meals
• Canned Meat and Fish
• Cook-In Sauces ( e.g. Chicken Tonight )
• Condiments ( e.g. Chutney, Relish )
• Pasta & Sauces, Noodles
• Biscuits, Crackers, Other Snacks
• Jams and Spreads
• Cereals, Muesli Bars
• Canned Fruit and Vegetables
• Coffee, Tea, Chocolate Drinks
• Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Care Products

Gospel

He entered Jericho and was going through the town and suddenly a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance; he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man. He kept trying to see which Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way. When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I am to stay at your house today.' And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully. They all complained when they saw what was happening. 'He has gone to stay at a sinner's house,' they said. But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, 'Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.  And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man has come to seek out and save what was lost.' 

Luke 19:1-10

Reflection

Zacchaeus was a very wealthy man, who had taken advantage of his position of tax collector. But still, Zacchaeus was interested in seeing and hearing Jesus. His encounter with Jesus was transformative; it gave him a new commitment to justice. Zacchaeus volunteered to give half of his wealth to the poor and to pay back anyone he had cheated four times the amount he took unfairly. 

“I must stay with you today.” Jesus’ words to Zacchaeus were a shock. Jesus’ words to Zacchaeus are also His words to each one of us: “I must stay with you today.” Whether we’re having a good day or a bad day, whether we’re struggling or succeeding, Jesus comes to be with us. He wants to be with us. Zacchaeus’ life changed forever the day Jesus came to his home. Our lives change every time we welcome Jesus, who comes to us, seeks us out, and calls out to us so He can stay with us. Jesus is the guest who brings God’s love into our hearts and our homes, who changes our lives every time we let Him in. “Come down quickly,” He says to each and every one of us. “I must stay with you today.”

Bearing this in mind, what new commitments can we make to God today, just as Zacchaeus made his new commitment to justice?

In Te Moana Īta we have been practicing our explanation writing skills. Explanation writing has an opening paragraph that introduces the process and paragraphs that describe the stages of the process clearly broken down. Have a read of some of our pieces - check out more on our St Anthony’s Author’s Website!

How do Snakes get their Food? 

Hiss hiss squeak! That's the sound of a snake catching a mouse. Snake’s love mice for breakfast. So I’m going to tell you how do snakes get their food? 

Snakes have teeth but they aren't very good at chewing. Instead snakes swallow their prey whole. Some snakes like the African Rock Python can swallow prey as big as an antelope! 

The snake’s mouth is structured in a way that allows it to open very very wide. A snake can open its mouth 4 times the size of it! They can open their mouths 150 degrees and sometimes even wider.  

Snakes love yummy warm and cold blooded animals like rodents and rabbits for breakfast. Birds and eggs for lunch. Frogs, slugs and fish for dinner.

That is how snakes get their food. 

By Joseph

Have you ever wondered how honey is made? Well here’s your lucky day.

Only honeybees can make honey. Bees collect juice called nectar from the blossom. They suck the nectar out with their tongues. Bees take the pollen from the flowers and sprinkle it onto other flowers. They see ultraviolet markings on petals that are invisible to humans. 

Bees convert the sugar to honey wax. By chewing wax until it becomes soft. They store honey up as food to last through the winter. They get energy from honey and they need honey to feed all of the bees.

That's how honey's MADE!!!!!

By Suki

How does a flower's life cycle work?

Do you ever wonder how a flower’s life cycle works? Today you are going to get all the information about how it works. From seed to a full grown flower.

It starts off as a seed. People first plant the seed with soil then they wait for it to grow. Fun fact: did you know that a flower needs 95 days to grow until it is an adult flower. For the seed to grow into a proper flower the seed needs water and sun.

After you plant the seed and wait for a few days you can see a difference. That is called a small plant where it has little baby roots in it. The roots make the stem grow fast so the more roots grow the faster the stem grows.

Then the small plants turn into adult plants then that's where bees get their pollination from. An adult plant is a full grown flower.

So that’s how a flower’s life cycle works from seed to a small plant to a full grown flower.

By Monesa

Geometry

We turned into real life compasses on Monday with Te Moana Wēta so that we could experience exactly what it is like for a compass to draw a circle. We used skipping ropes to help us - it was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be! It helped us to really see what the radius, diameter and circumference of a circle is.

3D Shapes

Te Moana Īta’s next activity was to construct 3D shapes out of ice blocks sticks and blutac. Gravity proved to be our biggest challenge and we had to think carefully how to position our ice block sticks to help them stay upright.

Itiiti rearea, teitei kahikatea ka taea
Although the rearea is small it can ascend the lofty heights of the Kahikatea tree

Week 4, Term 4 already!  It’s been another busy start to the term.  Although we are ready as a school to move to online learning if needed, we acknowledge our ability to come to school with gratitude and pray for our whanau and friends living under different alert levels in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sphero Bolts

Adding to our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) resources, last term the Board approved the purchase of 15 Sphero BOLTs to complement our digital learning journey. A Sphero bolt is a coding robot that lets kids learn coding through hands-on play. Students can try programming the BOLT to do many different things. To start, there's programming it to move, programming its LED lights, programming its sounds, and mixing in loops to run programs for longer periods of time.  

St. Anthony’s School, House Relay!

Today, the whole school arrived dressed in sports gear and house colours, getting ready to go down to Seatoun Park. Our school house leaders (Sophia Meech, Mia Adams, James Pink, Marimatina Peni, and Chloe Blades) were beginning to sort out their house groups into the youngest to the oldest line, which was then split into two groups, one on each side of the field. Once the house leaders had given the baton to each person at the front of their line, Mrs. Revill would blow the whistle to signal the beginning of the race. The younger children went at the front of the relay line, and the house leader would run alongside them to cheer them on and make sure they are doing well, leaving the older kids and seniors at the back to finish off the race. Everybody did so amazingly, and there were lots of different and efficient strategies to be seen. Special congratulations to Eymard House, lead by James Pink, for coming in first place in the relay. By Mia

St. Anthony’s School, Long Jump, Hurdles and Bean Bag Throw

The morning was divided into parts, class athletics, and house athletics. The class athletics involved Long jump, Hurdles, and Bean Bag throwing. The classes rotated around the different sports. Long jump was set up between two cones and a ruler. The students got a run-up and jumped from behind the ruler, and then their leap was measured. For Hurdles, everyone in the class lined up in two teams and the first people in line raced each other. A teacher flicks on a timer, and the first one at the end gets the time. The two with the highest time race, and so a winner is decided. In the bean bag throw, six hula hoops are laid out, so there are three on each side and two teams. Each team was given three hula hoops, and the people at the front of the line tried to throw their bean bags into the hoops. The front hoop was worth 5 points, the middle 10, and the furthest hoop, 15. Everyone did really well and enjoyed themselves. by Sophia

Egg and Spoon House Races!

The last competition we did today was an egg and spoon race that we all did with our houses. When you drop the plastic egg it breaks into two parts, and a fuzzy yoke ball that is hidden inside drops out. You run as fast as you can and try not to drop the egg. If you do, then you pick up the three pieces of the egg, put it back together properly, and continue running to the next person in line. It was super fun and we would all love to do it again! by Chloe

A film company will be filming using the old parish presbytery on Friday 19, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23rd of November.  Note you will not be able to park on this section of Falkirk street on these dates for drop off or pick up or use the side gate.  

Over the last few months, we at Reid Research Services Ltd., have been working with Empathy,  a Wellington-based research company and the Ministry of Education on a survey on the NZ Curriculum.   This was Stage One of the project, where the researchers from Empathy conducted in-depth interviews with Principals, Teachers,  Parents and other associated people.  These valuable results have been presented to the Ministry of Education. 

To further validate these results and to quantify them, we are now conducting a very short (5-10 minutes) online survey, which we ask you to provide your valuable input into the project.

We also ask that you send the link in this email to others in your school network – be they other teachers, parents, family or whanau.  

SURVEY LINK

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C7F8T6W

We sincerely appreciate your participation and input, in what is a very difficult time, but feel sure there will be very valuable information gathered from your contribution in the Stage Two questionnaire.

We will be closing the survey on Tuesday 16 November 2021.

Kind regards,

Ngaire Reid FRANZ

REID RESEARCH SERVICES LTD

www.reidresearch.co.nz

Does your child love to JUMP, DANCE, TUMBLE and PERFORM? Does your child love trying new challenging but rewarding skills? Then try out cheerleading at BIGAIR GYM! Cheerleading is a high energy sport that is quickly becoming more popular around the world! It is a unique sport, as it encourages individual development (eg. cartwheels, tumbling) as much as team development (eg. stunting, pyramids). Your child will gain confidence and pride as they learn new complex skills and achieve goals, they will also learn to be an essential part of a team as they gain a passion for this amazing sport of Cheerleading.

BIGAIR OWHIRO BAY is offering a FREE CHEERLEADING class on Friday 3:30 pm–4:30pm for ONLY the remainder of Term 4 for 8yrs + who would love to give this a go! Please be aware, if your child is already enrolled in a Bigair class, they may only attend this complimentary class in addition to their current Bigair Gym class. If you child is interested and is under 8 yrs, then please also inquire to the office about what classes we offer. Please book your interest by emailing: wgtn@bigairgym.co.nz or call the office on 04 383 8779.

Girls Cricket Opportunity

Music School Holiday Programmes

Lots of fun, modern 'cool' songs and activities with personable inspiring teachers. Perfect for building confidence in creative children who would like to explore music or take their playing to a new level. Ideal for budding singers, guitarists, pianists and bassists. Contact us today to book or for more information.

December 2021 Dates

From Monday the 20th until Thursday 23rd December, 2021. 8:45 am until 3:30 pm.

January 2022 Dates

From Tuesday the 25th until Friday 28th January, 2022. 8:45 am until 3:30 pm.