Advent at St Kevin's College

9S have been very busy in Religious Studies class preparing for Christmas. The lead up to Christmas in the Catholic Calendar is called Advent.

First up, the class bought a set of Christmas cards from The Pacific Leprosy Foundation. The Christmas cards are the Foundation’s main charity drive and St Kevin’s has supported them for many years. 

Next, 9S learnt how to write a Christmas message to a relative, plus stamp and address an envelope - something none of them had done before!

The class also made Advent calendars for Oamaru Hospital - the A&E Department often have children over the Christmas season and the Advent calendars cheers their day. The picture shows the advent calendars complete with lollies very kindly supplied by Rainbow Confectionery. 

Their final challenge was Secret Advent Santa. Each student was secretly given a name of another student by the teacher and was challenged to secretly and repeatedly do little acts of kindness for that person right through the Advent Season. There have been lots of examples of students receiving a nice note or a block of chocolate. 

Finally, Peter Rodwell spoke to the Juniors at assembly last week about sustainable housing for Tonga after cyclone Gita. Elisabeth Plieger, Krystalee Sheehy, and Kate Gibson were inspired to collect a bag load of presents: soft toys, stationery, books, etc. to be delivered to Tonga hospital for any children stuck at the hospital over Christmas. Peter has agreed to make sure the bag gets to its destination for the Advent season.

Well done 9S for your kind and thoughtful Advent acts and attitude. What a wonderful way to blen our family values and the charitable idea of completing random acts of kindness without expecting reward!

Thank you also to Mr Tiernach Farrell for your creative thinking and leadership.