Whanau Day

Whanau is family in Maori.

My school, Point Chevalier School held her Whanau day and invited parents, grand parents, uncles, aunties, children and babies to our school.

It was great to see about two hundred visitors to join us today to share in some of our activities. Our students are always very enthusiastic about having their families come into school and see what fantastic learning is taking place here.

Visitors were welcomed with a powhiri in Te Whare Pupuritanga led by Emerson Nikora and our kapahaka group. This solemn event is an eye opener to me as I had not been closed up to a Karanga or a call to welcome the visitors. As a respect, during the Karanga, there were no further entries into the Te Whare Pupuritanga or Auditorium. We remembered our students who died in the WW1 and WW2. The formal ession ended with a Hongi, which is a Maori greeting by rubbing noses.

Throughout the day, our mini showcase gave visitors the opportunity to view some of our bands, our Jump Jam aerobic teams, both of our choirs and to hear about some of this year’s projects from the Envirogroup. Visitors were welcomed to attend class time with their children. I had a mum come to my ESOL room to see what her son was doing with me.

In the evening, we had a Rock concert in our auditorium.Featuring School Rock Bands from neigbourhood schools featuring :Pasadena Intermediate (The Wild Cage Creatures), Ponsonby Primary (Workbench), Point Chevalier School (The Dynamites, The Chevrolites, and The Pt Chev R&B singers) and LE Rock Tutors. I took Sam and his two friends to the concert. We raised food for the City Mission. The music was loud, I wished I was young again.

http://www.ptchev.school.nz/

St Andrew's Day

New Zealand is a country of diversed ethnicity. The Maoris came, then the Pakehas meaning foreignors. Among the British stocks are the Scottish. My Sisiter-in-law Karen originally from Christchurch has Scottish ancestry. Dunedin proudly claims to be the the most Scottish city in New Zealand.

New Zealand is one day ahead from and yesterday, we celebrated St Andrew's day with Scottish Bagpipes, Drums and men wearing Scottish Kilts.

St. Andrew's Day is the feast of Saint Andrew, celebrated on 30 November each year. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and St. Andrew's Day is Scotland's official national day,

Very little is really known about St. Andrew himself. He was thought to have been a fisherman in Galilee (now part of Israel), along with his elder brother Simon Peter (Saint Peter). Both became followers (apostles) of Jesus Christ, founder of the Christian religion.

St. Andrew is said to have been responsible for spreading the tenets of the Christian religion though Asia Minor and Greece. Tradition suggests that St. Andrew was put to death by the Romans in Patras, Southern Greece by being pinned to a cross (crucified). The diagonal shape of this cross is said to be the basis for the Cross of St. Andrew which appears on the Scottish Flag.

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/standrew.html

*** A perverbal question: What is underneath that Scottish Kilts? A news broadcaster Tamati on National TV refused to confirm or deny what was under it.***