Kia ora everyone,

Last week we farewelled a long-time parishioner - Eric Lepionka - who as a Polish refugee devoted his life to family, faith, the plight of the Polish people, and in his latter years to other refugees from other countries. At St Anthony’s we are reminded of Eric's legacy too in the wonderful rimu timber that lines our church today as it was Eric who did this work many years ago. Thinking of Eric, I thought how fitting that I read “No family chooses to exile itself from all that is familiar without desperate cause” - so as tensions rise in various places around the world consider how you can support those fleeing their countries - it may not be an opportunity of physical support but through prayer and financial support we can all make a difference. 

Francesa presented the Mid Year Student Achievement report to the School Board at the last meeting and we are delighted to state that the majority of our students are working at or above their expected curriculum level in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics. Those who are not at their expected level at this stage are making excellent progress due to the targeted teaching by the teachers concerned, as well as the support from our wonderful teacher aide Holly and volunteer help from Hilda Frampton. My thanks to Francesca for her time spent analysing the data, and collating the report for us all. Thanks to all the team for ensuring our tamariki's learning success. 

As part of learning this term about ‘Care for our Whenua’, we had Mina Holder from Project Jonah come and speak with our tamariki. They loved hearing about some types of whales in NZ waters, how humans are threatening their habitat, and ways to help if we find a whale stranding. Thanks to Alison Reid for organising this great learning experience as well as Care for Creation Day. This day involved an outside rubbish clean-up, a compost experiment an outdoor scavenger hunt, and planting seeds in a greenhouse. Students participated in these with their Tuakana Teinas, it was lovely to see them building these relationships as they worked together to care for our whenua.  

We hope you have seen the notices and promotion on Social Media for our upcoming Wellbeing Evening. This is an important time for sharing by both our children and staff as to what well-being looks like at St Anthony's. We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday, September 6, at 5 pm for pizza and 5:30 for our sharing. 

Nga mihi 

Denise

Have a Seat! (by Weekly Parables for Catholic Schools)
True story: I attended a meeting held in a conference room. The chairs arranged in the usual circle looked typically uncomfortable except for one large, ornate, padded chair which no one had yet claimed. I had walked far to be there and was tired, but the idea of taking that particular chair seemed selfish. So, I passed on it, choosing a tin folded chair instead. More people arrived. They eyed the beautiful chair wistfully. Each chose another place to sit. Finally, a pert little woman walked in and, without hesitation, made a beeline for the best chair in the room. As she plopped into it, there was a creaking sound, and the bottom fell out and she went through it! As we helped the poor woman up - bruised only in the ego - we all laughed at having coveted that precarious chair. We need it - the Chair of Humiliation. It looked appealing but led to embarrassment. Sometimes the comforts we seek and the honours we claim have a way of backfiring. Humility beats humiliation by a mile!
 
Who is your best teacher of true humility?
 
Practice humility. Surrender the larger portion. Let someone get ahead of you. Allow the quiet person to speak. Seek wise teachers. Listen to their words, watch their actions, and imitate their example.
 
“Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be - and experience - a blessing”.

Week 7 is Social Justice Week and we will be exploring the theme...

In Te Moana this term we have been working on our descriptive writing skills. We have been making sure to use language features, different sentence beginnings and show don’t tell to really capture a moment in time. Have a read of some of our setting descriptions:

Trees curving over the bumpy long wide path. Birds calling across the echoing tunnel to say hello. Creaking as loud as a siren the gate swings shut. Tasting the wet leaves on my tongueI (I don’t know why I ate them). Smelling the pollen travelling in the wind, as the leaves run around at the top of the trees.

The air blows down the path at full speed as the grass has a dance party on the ground. Damp drooping leaves let  little droplets of water hit the ground. Swooshing the swing slowly walks back and forth. Sticking off the ground the pointy rocks stay standing still, sharp and strong.

By Tom

The sunset going down as he jumps over the calm water. The trees blowing as the pinecones fall heavily down. The wind whispers as it hears the birds chirping to the nest. The breeze going past your face, smelling the calm green grass. The sunset going down as the leaves starting to sink. 

By Suki

Part of caring for our whenua and God’s creation is knowing plants needs and benefits. Using sphero we researched this and had a great time exploring!

Now that we had a better understanding of plants we researched photosynthesis and decided to see this process in action by creating an ecosystem out of a plastic bottle.

Art

By working together we created a collaborative piece of art to show different aspects of New Zealand native bush. See what different flora and fauna you can spot!

Friday Lunches

Subway order forms should have come for this week's Friday lunch option.  Unfortunately for this lunch option, we can not accept online payment so please ensure that payment is in the Subway order envelope.

Huge thanks to our parent helper Anna Kempton for getting this organised for the students.

And just a note from the team at Subway to ensure that you please just order what is on the envelope (no cookies, extra fillings, etc). 

You can of course still order the gluten-free bread option which is currently not on the printed envelope - you will just need to pop a bit more cash in the envelope for this :)

Next FOSA Meeting

Our next meeting will be on Monday 5th September at 7.30 pm at school.  We would love to see a few more faces so if you are able to please pop along to this short meeting.

St Anthony’s is partnering with the UP Foundation to give every kid in a school a chance to play futsal for free in Terms 3 and 4. Through this initiative we have Capital Football coming this Wednesday, for a futsal clinic with each class and then our tamariki are ready to take up the following opportunity so please mark it on your calendar. 

 Futsal is one of the fastest-growing sports in New Zealand and is a great way for tamariki to have fun, make new friends and get fit. 

As part of the programme the UP Foundation and Capital Football are running free play sessions at the Indian Sports Centre in Kilbirnie every Sunday from 2 pm-4 pm starting on Sunday 4 September.

 For more info visit https://www.capitalfootball.org.nz/GET-INVOLVED-1/Community-Football/Football-for-All