2006 Events Summary

Maranatha Christian School had another great year last year, the culmination of which was  an eventful and fun filled Term 4.  It was fantastic way to end 2006.

The 'PTA Party Explosion' Rocked!  Children had a great time on the bouncy castle and at the dance.  There was some cool music and an awesome perfomance by a local dance group.   The end of the dance saw a 'dance off' featuring some excellent moves by Maranatha students.  While all this was happening, the cafe was a place for parents to relax and enjoy the spectacle of the auction which went off very well.  The evening culminated in an excellent fireworks display enjoyed by everyone.  A big thanks to our awesome PTA for organising such a successful event.  We look forward to many more!  

Students had a fantastic time at the triathlon in the fourth term and Maranatha Year 4, 5 and 6 swimmers did very well at the Western Zone Interschool Swimming.  It was great to see one of our students qualify for the Interzone Swimming Competition.  These events were a continuation of many successful sporting  competitions last year.  All three Maranatha touch rugby teams had a strong showing in Term 1's tournament.  Term 1 also saw our own senior swimming sports, Christian schools athletics and Western Zone athletics.  In Term 2 our focus was cross country where our Year 4, 5 and 6 students competed in the local school zone event.  Wellington Christian School's swimming competition also featured in Term 2 and ran very smoothly this year thanks to the cooperation of all our schools and their parent communities.  Term 3 saw both the Western Zone soccer and netball tournaments take place.  Maranatha teams did very well in both competitions with the Year 6 girls netball team qualifying for the Interzone competition.  2006 was the third year in a row where Maranatha netball teams have qualified for the Lower Hutt Interzone Tournament.  Thank you to all our students and their sporting involvement.  We want to give them as much opportunity to get involved in physical activity as possible so if you are part of the parent community and you can help in some way, please get in touch with Richard Marenzi, the sports coordinator at school.  For 2007 we especially need netball coaches for saturday morning netball.  Also if you are interested in managing or coaching a Year 7 and 8 mixed basketball team for a midweek tournament at Walter Nash Stadium, please get in touch.  Thanks again for all those who have helped throughout 2006 with sport and we look forward to even more sporting opportunities as we continue to develop the sports programme.

Maranatha Christian School was again a part of the Lower Hutt Christmas Parade at the end of the year.  We entered two floats this time and they were very well received.  It is great to be able to get the christian message out there at this time of the year and have our school active in our local community.  Once again a big thank you to our PTA!

EOTC Week was a great success again in the fourth term.  We want to give our children valuable experiences in outdoor education and as a part of this, Maranatha runs this event for its seniors every second year along with senior camp every other year.  This time the senior school enjoyed a variety of activities within our local Wellington area.  Some of the highlights were the trip to Matiu/Somes Island, the barbeque and swim at H2O Xtreme and the rock wall that came to school courtesy of Hangdog Adventures.  Other skills taught were first aid, orienteering, tent pitching  and rope lashing. The bush walk through Belmont Regional Park was a great challenge too.  Team work and leadership were also a focus for the week.  In 2007 we look forward to another great senior camp for Year 5, 6, 7 and 8.  We will need to start thinking about fundraising now so we can make camp as affordable as possible for everyone.  We look forward to some creative and fun events to help us raise the funds needed.  We did well in 2005 but I think we can probably do even better this year.  Details of the camp will be out as soon as possible so we can start setting ourselves a target.

What a great time we had putting on the school concert for our parent community in week ten of the fourth term.  It was based on our theme of God's creativity and each class took a day of creation and performed a theatrical interpretation of the creation story.  Well done to all the classes and to the whole school for the effort that was put in to bringing the creation story to the stage.  We had lots of great feedback from those who were able to see it.

Our prizegiving ceremony went very well.  We had the opportunity to honour our students for there many achievements.  We saw some entertaining items and presentations including some wonderful speeches from our speech finalists.  One of the key events of the evening had to be the farewell to our Year 8 leavers.  We prayed for them and let them know that Maranatha Christian School wishes them every blessing from God as they continue their education in their next school.  A big thank you to everyone involved in putting together this wonderful evening. 

As we continue into the  new year, we look forward to the many learning opportunities that our students will have.  The staff at Maranatha Christian School have  a great year planned.  We look forward to working with everyone in the school community and beyond to make 2007 another very successful year.

God bless you all.

Maranatha Christian School staff