WelCom December 2023
Charlotte Kempton and Harry Frampton, students at St Anthony’s School
St Anthony’s School in Seatoun celebrated its centenary over the weekend of 13, 14 October. St Anthony’s has been running since the 1920s to the 2020s!
On the Friday, students showed alumni, past teachers and community a snapshot of our history. We had been learning about the different decades during the term. Students presented learnings about each of the decades, starting from when St Anthony’s was built in the 1920s. Activities included role plays, quizzes, old-time games, and even some aerobics. One of the teachers made tunics like girls used to wear and some of our juniors wore them.
On Saturday at the centenary Mass, we met people who came to the school from the 1940s to the 2010s. Talking to them was really special because we got to hear about what it was like and what they did.
At the end of Mass, our principal Mrs Johnson invited all the alumni to have their photo taken by the altar.
Something special to me {Harry] was how my brother Liam Frampton was able to be the photographer. As well as taking photos, he also helped with the filming and editing.
Something special to me [Charloette] was seeing everyone smiling and having fun and remembering their good times at St Anthony’s. It was awesome hearing them talk about how different their learning and classrooms were. They were amazed at the cool learning spaces we have now and all the digital stuff like robots.
Mass on Saturday was performed by two priests, Fr Bill Warwick and Fr Doug Shepherd. It was followed by luncheon in the senior block – Te Aroha. It was packed! Lots of people were talking and laughing. Then the oldest person there who had gone to St Anthony’s cut the first slice of the cake. Her name was Dawn Proctor and she came to school here in the 1940s. The oldest pupils who were to have come were twins who had gone to St Anthony’s in the late 1930s. However, they unfortunately got sick and couldn’t attend so Dawn took on the job of cutting the cake.
We all had a great time celebrating, with the adults having a final big dinner on the Saturday night – more talking and laughing.
We would like to end by saying a big ‘thank you’ to all the people and old students who attended. It really did make the day one hundred times better.