Nau mai haere mai - Welcome to the learning year of 2022- it has been wonderful to see how quickly our tamariki have settled into school. We say ka pai tō mahi (good work) to all our whānau who helped set up for this success with your participation in the whānau conferences. Some excellent information was shared by all. A special welcome to our new students and Sophie Smyth, the teacher for Te Awa, Penny Duncan who will be teaching in Te Ākau on Wednesdays, and Holly Lousley, our teacher aide. We are thrilled to have them as part of our team and we look forward to you making them feel welcome. 

Having secured the Creatives in Schools contract late last year we are thrilled we now have the funds to achieve a two-fold project - to achieve art that will reflect the bicultural essence of our school using our values to strongly link this visually. To also address the need for a visual celebration of cultures where our tamariki are enabled and empowered to partner with their whānau and other whānau within the school. The design of a visual representation will be created that truly reflects their cultural and spiritual identity. We are beginning with the multicultural focus and have an exciting term planned to explore our whakapapa in preparation to creating a multicultural visual for our Kura. Our tamariki are busy creating ‘mood boards’ (see the examples by Te Moana below) to reflect the signs and symbols that are important in their culture and over the next two weeks we will be asking for your input as whānau so watch out for this opportunity. As part of this initiative, we are delighted to welcome Helen Revill as our lead creative - meeting with us on zoom at the moment, she is busy planning a wonderful learning time for us all. Helen will spend a week with us later in the term as the children begin the work to bring the vision into ‘life.’ 

This past Tuesday was Safer Internet Day with the theme of exploring respect and relationships this year. While the internet is a fantastic tool in our life, it does pose significant risks for our tamariki. We have noticed over the past couple of years the increased level of knowledge on ‘adult’ topics that children were previously unaware of has risen significantly as they more readily gain access to social media and platforms such as YouTube. We encourage you to continue to have discussions with your child as to what platforms they are accessing and what they are viewing.  In class, we have been exploring the challenges and risks of the internet as well as looking at our school cybersafety agreement. Please take time to read through this agreement with your child and once you have both (child/parent) signed it, send it back to school as we will be putting it in the children’s books so they can refer to it over the year.

Next Thursday, February 17, 5:30 pm we are holding our whānau gathering at Scorching Bay Beach - it is a BYO picnic, fish n chips, pizza, etc. We hope you can join us for this time of getting together. We did discuss last year that the sun lasts the longest at the far end of the beach so whoever is there first, that is the place to set up. It will be a lovely way to connect, outside without masks :)

Last Sunday, the parish took up the retiring collection for the people of Tonga. We thought as a parish school we would hold a coin trail next Friday, February 18 in support so please send along your coins for the fun way of raising funds which will then be forwarded to Caritas NZ, our national aid agency who is working on the ground in Tonga.

It is great to see those who follow us on FB- Facebook www.facebook.com/St-Anthonys-School-Seatoun or Instagram - Instagram.com/Stantsschool/ so if you don’t already do so, do add us in as it is a great way to see the school in action. 

Please make your calendars for lending a hand for our working bee on February 26 - we have made it from 2 pm so sport is over.  Have a wonderful weekend - albeit a wet one by the sounds of things!

Ngā manaakitanga

Denise

It is fitting at this time of uncertainty for many with CoVID19 that we take time to reflect on the Sermon on the Mount and think about how we are looking out for the more vulnerable within our community. The seniors over the term will be unpacking the Beatitudes and their relevance of them in today's world so we will share their work with you.  I have added a link for you to take time as a family to hear the Beatitudes in Jesus' time and then the Beatitudes explained in the words of a child.

As GPBS eNews shared...

Standing on Level Ground

The Sermon on the Mount is the most recognised passage of the gospel. Matthew’s gospel pictures Jesus on a hillside preaching. Luke tells us Jesus delivered this famous sermon on a plain. Does it matter whether this is the Sermon on the Mount or the Plain? Scholars have speculated that Luke didn’t know any better. As a Greek convert to the faith, he may have never been close enough to the geography of Israel to know the difference.

But in the context of Luke’s whole story, it’s a shrewd move to have Jesus preaching on level ground. Jesus literally levels the playing field by blessing the poor with the advantages of the rich, promising satisfaction to the hungry, and laughter to those who grieve. He likewise assures those who’ve made it that “it’s trouble ahead”. If Jesus stands on a par with the crowds and doesn’t enjoy a privileged place, we can be sure the justice of the kingdom will make no exceptions.

How are you, at this time in life, poor, hungry, sorrowing, or excluded?
How are you rich, satisfied, celebrating, and admired?

Commit yourself to levelling the playing field. Share your surplus: money, time, love, joy, faith, talent, attention, respect.

“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests – look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular”.

Kia ora, Talofa, Bula vinaka, Malo e lelei, Fakatālofa atu kia te koulua, Kia orana, Hola, Hallo, Ni Hao, Namaste and Greetings.    

Nau mai, haere mai 

A warm welcome to returning students, new students and their whānau. We pray that this school year at St Anthony’s is filled with joy, friendship and great learning for all our students.  

We welcome our new staff to our school and are thrilled that you have joined our small school with a strong spirit.  Thank you to Mrs Johnson, our Principal, for her outstanding leadership and to all our staff for your energy and commitment to our tamariki and for the care and personal attention you give to every student.  We are looking forward to an exciting; no doubt, at times, challenging; and rewarding 2022!

Whaowhia te kete mātauranga | Fill the basket of knowledge

School Board

The School Board oversees the governance of our school and sets the overall strategic direction for the school. The Principal is the board's 'chief executive' and manages the day to day operations of the school in line with the board's direction and policies.

Membership of the School Board is made up of the Principal, parent representatives, Proprietors’ representatives and a staff representative.  For more about the Board, see our page on the school website:

http://www.stants.school.nz/bot 

For new whanau, our School Board meetings are scheduled for twice a term and we welcome parents, whānau and our wider school community to attend the meetings.  Our meeting dates are posted on the parent calendar.

Friends of St Anthony’s (FOSA)

FOSA is a dedicated committee of parents who come together to support the aims of the School Board through fundraising to supplement the school budget, and organising events to bring together the school community in social activities.

FOSA organises and runs activities such as fortnightly Friday lunches, movie nights and quiz evenings.  FOSA is also involved with organising our biennial bazaar - this is a joint effort with our parish.

It’s time to get our committee together for 2022.  We would love for you to be part of this committee.  

The time commitment is :

- a once a term meeting to plan activities 

- leading or being part of a smaller group to focus on running a specific fundraiser for the term. 

Involvement with FOSA is a great way to help our school with minimal time requirements.  We look forward to many putting up their hands for this small but vital task. 

Working Bee, Saturday, February 26 from 2 - 5 pm

In case you’re wondering what a working bee is, this is an occasion where a group of volunteers come together to do work for a common purpose.  In our school, it’s a great opportunity to get to know other whānau and serve the school through an hour or two of your time (and some physical effort!).

The goal of our first working bee of 2022 is to clear the trees and growth behind the library as well as to beautify the back fence and picnic tables by painting them (oil with a stain) now they have been water blasted.  You’ll need to wear old clothes and we’ll supply the stain and paint brushes for the latter task. 

Ma tini ma mano ka rapa te whai | Many hands make light work.

We've started the term brainstorming ideas to gather a picture of who we are as a school so that all cultures can be reflected on our final piece of artwork. By interviewing each other we learned more about the cultures and heritages within our classroom and came up with some symbols to reflect these and then asked for feedback from our partners.

Te Maunga have had a great start to the new school year! The tamariki are really stepping up to their senior status and enjoying their role in helping to lead the school. To help guide the rest of the school, they must first be able to guide themselves, and have been developing these skills with a unit of work around position and orientation in Maths!

We have discussed the phrase ‘get my bearings’ as the students have been learning how to use a compass and measure angles carefully with a protractor. These navigation skills will come in useful when we set off into the city on Friday for our first outing!

 

 Please look at the checklists for your whānau to be ready for when Omicron reaches us and watch the attached video

T

The internet is a wonderful tool but can also be a place of danger for our young tamariki. Please take time to read the 5 things you can do for safer internet. 

Each year we need to make sure the details we have for your family in our systems are up to date. Families often change address, phone numbers and email addresses and we need to make sure that these are accurate so we can contact and communicate with you efficiently especially in the event of an emergency.

The 2022 student information sheet should have come home this week -you only have to fill in one per family so hopefully, this won't take too long. We would appreciate it if you could complete the form and return it to school as soon as you can so we can ensure all your information is as accurate as possible.

Many thanks for your help with this.

Our Friday lunches are back starting this week and we are starting with Pizza.  Order forms should have come home this week but just in case they haven't made it please find one attached.

Thanks to our parent helpers and the Year 6 group who will be getting this to the students every second Friday.

Ballet, Jazz & Contemporary Dance at Worser Bay LSC