St Anthony’s Day

September 2016 Youth, Schools, Education Students from opposite sides of Wellington Harbour got together to celebrate their shared patron saint’s feast day. Mac Duggan and Will Gentry, San Antonio’s School Eastbourne…

September 2016

Youth, Schools, Education

Students from opposite sides of Wellington Harbour got together to celebrate their shared patron saint’s feast day.


Mac Duggan and Will Gentry, San Antonio’s School Eastbourne

On Friday 13 June we went to St Anthony’s School in Seatoun. We went on the bus early in the morning. It was quite a long drive to where they are from where we are in Eastbourne. When we got there, we sang Ka Waiata to answer the song they sang to us during the pōwhiri. Then we did activities outside. There was frisbee tag, softball and hula hooping and inside there were mosaics, bead bracelets and sea drawings. After we had ice blocks! It was fun day that we got to spend with a bigger school to celebrate the feast of St Anthony who is the patron saint of both our schools.


Tiana Krafft-Soffe and Inés McArley, St Anthony’s School Seatoun

St Anthony’s students at Seatoun welcome St Antonio’s students, visiting from across the water, with a pōwhiri.

St Anthony’s students at Seatoun welcome St Antonio’s students, visiting from across the water, with a pōwhiri.

On St Anthony’s Feast Day, our school joined with San Antonio School to celebrate the life of St Anthony. When San Antonio arrived we greeted them with a pōwhiri, which included our singing Hallelujah and they responded with a waiata – Te Wairua Tapu. It was just about morning tea time, so each of our house leaders were given a small group of San Antonio kids to show around while enjoying some delicious morning tea. During the rest of the day we all were split up into mixed groups and enjoyed fun activities like friendship-bracelet making, sports activities and heaps more. We all loved having some nice, cold ice blocks after a fun-filled day of activities. Overall everyone had a great time, making new friends and participating in some great activities.