Kia ora koutou

Well, Week 7 saw our ranks seriously depleted and now we watch with joy as our tamariki are returning to school, thrilled to be back in their learning teams. Our Creatives in Schools project is well underway- the children have explored their cultural heritage and learned about symbols, whānau have given feedback and now the children have begun their prototype mosaic, learning the skills and art of mosaic. We thank Holly, our wonderful teacher aide, who painstakingly packaged up all the art supplies for those learning from home and to the staff who were the 'delivery team.' It meant that those isolating at home were able to begin their mosaics as well. Ka pai Holly and to the rest of the team. In Week 10, Helen Revill joins us for a week of mosaic making so please watch out for our notice as if you have any spare time, we would love you to join us.

March 17 was a very busy day for our awesome Irish teacher, Alison Reid. She told us that this year in Ireland they are having not one but two days off - a special bank holiday this year for the Irish but instead Alison shared her cultural heritage with Te Maunga as they learned about St Patrick's life and legacy, created limericks and baked traditional Irish Soda bread. Then with the whole school, Alison took on the task of teaching them an Irish dance called The Walls of Limerick. If you watch the link here, you will understand Monesa’s comment about her legs tiring in her article below :) so we say ‘Go raibh maith agat Alison’ for sharing your culture so actively and helping our tamariki gain a greater appreciation about Ireland and St Patrick. 

We have increased the sharing of what the various learning groups are doing in the newsletter to counteract the fact that you, our whānau are not visiting the classrooms at present and so are missing out on seeing the wonderful learning and creations that our tamariki are producing. We hope you enjoy this but do look forward to seeing you pop in once again when on April 5, many of the restrictions that prevented you from visiting the classrooms will no longer be in place. We are looking forward to welcoming you all back into the learning spaces.  

Noho or mai | Stay well, look after yourself, goodbye

Denise

Mother Teresa’s words are so relevant today in the challenging world that we live in - we are the hands and voice of Te Atua and in discussions with our tamariki we often talk of how the Holy Spirit|Te Wairua Tapu can only be present through us. So when we watch our wonderful students playing an amazing game of football, with 6-year-olds among the seniors, or hear the laughter of a well-fought game of chase we know the Spirit is at work. Te Moana has been focusing on the taonga of whakapono|faith; tūmanako|hope and aroha|love so during this Lenten journey it is a good time to stop and reflect on these great words of scripture...

How can your whānau show love this week?

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Annunciation and if ever we have a wonderful model of faith it is in Mary. She was only around 14 or 15 when she became pregnant with Jesus and despite the societal expectations of the time, Mary showed her depth of faith in Te Atua by saying yes. Would we be so strong?

Colour Mixing and Making Potions in Te Ākau

 We have been extremely lucky to receive some new science resources thanks to our Board of Trustees. One of these resources was a Science Kit which the children in Te Ākau had a lot of fun exploring. We started with colour mixing. First, we predicted what colour two different primary colours would make. We had many different answers and it was fun to see if our predictions were correct. This then lead to lots of discussion about what other colours we might be able to make and eventually ended up making potions. Thankfully we had a couple of child-sized lab coats to protect our uniforms when there was a sizeable spillage and safety goggles to protect our eyes – just like a real scientist!

“I made colours with food colouring and water. Some of the water spilled.” Mya 

“I really, really liked pouring the colours into the funnel and then it went down the hose and into the pot.” Lola

This week we have been very busy creating templates for our mosaics which we are going to be working on with Mrs. Revill in Week 10. From our mood boards which we worked on in Week 2 of this term, we each chose a ‘symbol’ that represents our culture and drew these on a square piece of paper. We then used 1cm square cardboard pieces to create our mosaic templates. Mrs. Revill is going to help us with the ‘real deal’ where we will be working with ceramic tiles and grout to complete our masterpieces. Watch this space – it’s going to be AMAZING!

As we consider our prayer life during this season of Lent perhaps we could say the following prayers as a family for the Ukraine

We pray for the Church: that in this time of crisis, she may speak words of truth and justice, act
with compassion and be a sign of Christ’s love for all those who are suffering.
Lord in your mercy...

We pray for world leaders, that guided by integrity and wisdom, they may work together so that
peace may flourish.
Lord in your mercy...

We pray for all those caught up in violence, remembering especially the people of Ukraine; that
in this time of fear and conflict, they may know God’s presence and peace.
Lord in your mercy...

We pray for all those suffering from hunger as a result of conflict and injustice, in countries such
as Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
Lord in your mercy....

We pray for our parish and our local community: that in this time of Lent, we may reach out in
solidarity to our brothers and sisters in need.
Lord in your mercy...

May they be held in the palm of God's hand

Yesterday it was St Patrick's Day and we learnt to Irish dance. It was fun and before we watched river dancing. My partner was Lola. It felt good and I saw people having fun as we danced to the music.

-Alexander, Year 3

Irish Dancing

I was really excited on St Patrick’s Day because we were able to do Irish dancing. We did it with Mrs Reid and we did it on St Patrick’s Day and we did the dance at school and why we did it was to celebrate Ireland since St Patrick is from Ireland.

Firstly what we did was Mrs Reid taught us some facts about Irish dancing and then she also showed us the first few steps of the Irish dance we were going to do.

Next what we did was Mrs Reid told us to stand up and first try it ourselves. After I tried it myself I actually thought this is going to be so much fun to learn. But I found it a bit challenging because you really need to use your leg muscles and also you would mainly use your legs to dance.

After we put the song on and finished off the dance with the song and because the song went quicker it was a  bit harder. We also had groups to dance with and there would be two pairs in each group. 

Lastly we put the dance together and it looked really cool. I am really proud of myself that I was able to learn another dance and also from another culture. 

By Monesa

On Thursday we had a Zoom call with Claire and Nicola and they showed us around the gallery. We did some drawing and we did it in Te Awa. We were supposed to go to the gallery but it was cancelled because of Covid. They also showed us some animations. I felt cold because the room was cold. My favourite part was drawing from a random line and I drew a snake and it had sharp teeth. I really liked this because I liked watching the animations.

-McKenzy, Year 4

Hilma af Klint

Te Maunga was fortunate to be able to visit the gallery to see the exhibition in person as well as attend the art workshop. They learned a great deal and created some excellent pieces from the inspiration of Hilma's work. We are only sorry we had so many isolating at home and missed out. 

Kia ora koutou

Sparkling fresh seats for the junior playground – we need your help
We did an awesome job of staining the back fence at the last working bee.

When can you come and help us get the project finished?

We need one more push to finish!

•     We have 15 litres of stain
•     Many hands might light work!

 Please email Mrs Johnson:

•   She’d like to know when you’re available for 1 or 2 hours  
•   Email: principal@stants.school.nz

We appreciate you!

 Ngā mihi nui | Huge thanks to our FOSA volunteers
Our thanks and gratitude to everyone who signed up to be part of the Friends of St Anthony’s (FOSA).  This is the group 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.

Mrs. Johnson will be in touch to organise our first hui.

 You are invited to the School Board meeting, 17 May at 6 pm

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.

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 next meeting is Tuesday 17 May at 6 pm. 

 Nau te rourou, naku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.

This week Pizza is available to order on Friday. Thanks to Anna Thurston and the Year 6 helpers for getting this organised for the children.

Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA), is a small not-for-profit national charity located in Johnsonville. Our ideal candidate will be confident, highly organised and reliable, provide high levels of attention to detail, have great communication. You will be able to work unsupervised and should enjoy the challenge of a varied role and working to deadlines within the organisation.

You will have experience in the following areas:

• Must have previous experience with MYOB or Xero
• Accounts payable and receivable
• Financial reconciliations
• General ledger
• Payroll
• Preparing financial reports to management and accountant
• Proficient with GST
• Grant recording and tracking
• Charity reporting

This is a part-time position, ideally 5 hours on a Wednesday or Friday, 9.30 am to 2.30 pm.  Rate is $28 per hour as a part-time employee.

If you have a warm and friendly can-do attitude, enjoy being part of a small team then you’ll fit right in.  (We currently use MYOB but could take this as an opportunity to look at another operating system).

Hello,