March / April Update

School Swimming:
Yes! Sister Rose did succeed in having school swimming go right through to the Monday of Holy Week. The children continued to enjoy the water and had more free playing time in the water. Lesser women than Sister Rose would not have had the courage to persist that late in the season.

Junior students demonstrating their skill at the recorder during a lunchtime concert.

Cooking class is a lot of fun…

Music Studio:
Our new music studio is being built in our grounds. Financed by a gift from Powerco it’s going to be a cute little building in the same style as the convent. What we need now is a piano and piano stool in reasonable condition to put in it.

A work in progress…

Back drive:
Our back drive is being surfaced which will allow us, at last, to put our vans in the carport.

Sausage Sizzles:
The nuns and children are running a series of sausage sizzles to raise money for the girls’ camp in December. Having some money in hand will reduce the cost to the children who come from large families with not much spare money. The Sausage Sizzles are run outside Harvey Norman’s in the city. The shop provides the barbeque and the sausages and the bread. All we have to provide is the onions, rubber gloves and serviettes. The girls are very good helpers.

Easter:
Students participated in a Day of Recollection during which Father gave a talk on the Holy Shroud.

Easter was a wonderful but hard-working time for our pupils. Some were in the choir for the ceremonies and many of them were in the Children of Mary who set up the Altar of Repose and cleaned most of the brass. The results were beautiful.

The Altar of Repose

Children of Mary outing:
For the feast of the Annunciation on 25 March the Children of Mary went for a tramp through the Manawatu Gorge. They also stopped at the cheesecake shop at Woodville, so a good time was had by all. This was most suitable as the Children of Mary work hard and pray hard in the parish.

School and Convent gardern

The Crusaders:
Sister Mary Rose and Sister Mary Margaret are running the Eucharistic Crusaders this year with Father Fortin as chaplain. As the meetings now take place in our classrooms just downstairs from the Convent we can hear the happy cries as the Crusaders take part in their meeting and then have a little play before they go over to Benediction as the conclusion of their meeting.

Painting of St Dominic recently donated to the Community

Graduation:

Four of our Sisters and Father Laisney and Father Cranshaw have received their Graduate Diplomas in Secondary Teaching. This is a great credit to the students, and to the Community at St Dominic’s which supported them!