Principal’s News for Week 4 Term 2

Celebration of Learning and fish and chip family evening Monday 9^th June at 5:30pm

Our school wide goal at St Joseph’s is ‘To engage every student in deep learning for success.’

Many of you have already begun to read our school blogs and have a chance to learn about what is happening in our classrooms. Some of our children are creating their own blogs and sharing their learning with an audience that goes beyond the classroom.

How can this kind of learning really work? Why is it important? Why are teachers changing the way that they teach? Why do some of the classrooms look different?

We invite all of our families and friends to come to a special evening on Monday 9^th June at 5:30 pm to find out the answers to some of these questions and more. Share your fears, hopes and dreams for your children with other families.

Come along and listen to some of our students share the way that they learn as well as find out how we can deeply engage our children in their learning and how you can support them too.

Bring along your fish and chips or picnic style food to share with your family at 5:30pm and enjoy having a St Joseph’s family get together. After we finish eating, we will begin our celebration of learning. We aim to be finished by 7pm.

St Jo’s Has Got Talent Thursday 3^rd July 1pm matinee and 6pm evening performance

Mr Cartlidge is coordinating the school production this year. We are looking forward to it. Here is his message about it.

At the end of the term we will put on our bi-annual senior school production, ‘St Jo’s Has Got Talent’. All of the children in Years 4-8 will be performing a couple of items and there will also be some individual acts, showcasing some of our children’s hidden talents. The children have started practising their class items and you may receive some requests for costume items in the coming weeks. I would be really keen to hear from parents available to help out with choreography or hair and makeup on the day. If you have any other skills that you think would be useful leading up to the musical please let me know.

We will be putting on two performances in the Saint Kevin’s Auditorium, in week nine of this term, a matinee at 1pm on Thursday 3^rd July, and the main performance at 6pm on the same day, gold coin entry donation for both performances. We would love to see all of you there!

Regards

Paul Cartlidge pcartlidge@stjoseph.school.nz

Students as Leaders and Parent Updates

I have created some new sections on the principal’s blog to be more open and transparent about life at St Joseph’s on  http://jennyljackson.blogspot.co.nz/

You will find a link that shares the student leadership news and another link to keep you up to date with some of our parent meetings. You will find links to our other school blogs and sites on last week's message  below.

There are also links to our blogs under the learning tab on our website.

Thanks to our Year 8 School Councillors who sold pumpkins from the school vegetable garden to our families and parishioners this morning. They chose to raise funds towards organising the next disco with profits going to the Home and School.

 

Pumpkin's galore  for sale.

Micha had to chase us for her pumpkin !

Thanks to the Criddle family for buying the first pumpkin

Sacrament of Confirmation

On Saturday 7^th June  twenty  of our children will be receiving the ‘Sacrament of Confirmation’ at the 5pm Mass. The children need to be at the Church at 4.45pm to receive their medals. They will then return to their seats. We will be having a practise with Bishop Colin on Friday 6^th at 1.15pm.  The children will tell you what to do. You are welcome to join us at this practise if you can.  We will be having a cup of tea after the Mass. You can leave your finger food at the hall before Mass. Please bring along enough for your family and maybe a little extra for Prayer Partners, Parishioners and other visitors who may join us.

(Please look for the pink notice coming home today. This has some important details for parents and sponsors).

The Confirmation Mass is also a Family Mass. If your family is joining us please bring along enough food for your family.

Parents of the children who were confirmed last year are asked to help with the cup of tea after the Mass. Please let me know if you are able to help (tomorrow, Friday, or early next week would be good).

Many thanks.

Ann Dooley

DRS/Sacramental Programme

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Lachlan Brookes and Halalova Asi - For receiving the Principal’s award last week for assisting an elderly lady across the road on her mobility scooter after church last week.

Special Character - Week 4

SPECIAL CHARACTER - Week 4

Congratulations to the children who were presented for Confirmation at Sunday's mass.

This Sunday is the feast of the Ascension.  After Easter when Jesus rose from the dead and returned to His disciples, He was with them for forty days until he ascended into heaven.  Before He went He told them to go and spread the Good News.  He told them God had given Him, Jesus, all authority on heaven and earth and Jesus told His disciples to go and baptise and preach in His name.  He promised them He would be with them forever.

Staff have recently planned for our Holy Spirit teaching.  We have four key ideas we would like children to grow and develop through their time at St Joseph's.  These are:

• The Holy Spirit acts in us, and in the Church,
• Images of the Holy Spirit, 
• The Trinity - three persons, one God,
• and stories about the Holy Spirit - the Baptism of Jesus and Pentecost.

If you would like to know more about our background work about the Holy Spirit you can check out the DRS blog at: http://stjoe soamarudrs.blogspot.co.nz.

Blessings,

Lorraine Frances-Rees

Principal’s News for Week 3 Term 2, 2014

Learning at St Joseph’s

If the conditions are ripe, learning will flourish. We are all learners and we never stop learning. Learning is a precious gift to each and every one of us from God and we want to make the most of it.

 Learning has always been a dominant feature at St Joseph’s school and was highlighted as a strength in our 2013 Education Review ‘most students meet or exceed national expectations in learning. Achievement information is used very effectively to enhance students’ learning and ensure that all students are “reaching for the stars”.

During my sabbatical last term, I had a chance to read an excellent book called OPEN:  How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price. I have been writing a review of each chapter and you can read more on my own principal’s blog at  http://jennyljackson.blogspot.co.nz/

The message about being open to learning in the 21^st Century has encouraged me to be more transparent and share our school learning with you. Traditionally learning was about gaining knowledge. Knowledge is readily accessible to us now thanks to the World Wide Web.Our focus is no longer on gaining knowledge but on supporting our children how to learn effectively. We call it ‘learning to learn’. It is the process of discovering about learning and the skills which, if understood and used, help learners learn more effectively and so become learners for life.

Sharing the way we learn, helps each other and our students. Our staff  have begun creating class learning blogs and sites to share learning with students and families. We are making our learning OPEN. You can read these news blogs at home with your children and learn along with them.

Some of the blogs are still very new but will continue to develop. Some of our children have also begun to share their own blogs. Please take the time to access them and see what you can learn.

Learning is contagious – we want everyone to catch it and keep on learning !

http://stjosephkawakawa.blogspot.co.nz/  Year 1

http://rumarimustjoes.blogspot.co.nz/  Year 2

http://stjosephtawa.blogspot.co.nz/    Year 3

http://pohutukawastjo.blogspot.co.nz/ Year 5

 http://rumakahikatea2014.blogspot.co.nz/  Year 6

http://stjoesmanuka.blogspot.co.nz/     Year 7

https://sites.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/manuka-clas/  Year 7

 https://sites.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/ruma-matai-2014/  Yr 8

http://stjoe soamarudrs.blogspot.co.nz      DRS Religious Education

http://cjgymnastics.blogspot.co.nz/  Gymnastics Club

https://sites.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/st-joseph-s-oamaru-21-century-pedagogy/ 

We hope you join in with us to celebrate learning at St Joseph’s as we all Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith.

Sports Committee

This week our newly formed Sports Committee met for the first time. This consists of a small group of parents representing the majority of our sporting codes. They will meet regularly with Mrs Souness and I to further support and strengthen sport at St Joseph’s. This will also be a forum for listening to views and ideas for improvement and for providing a platform for consensus of decisions. The representatives are: Joanne Cant, Justin Fowler, Carrie Bleach, Micha Brenner, Glynn Cameron, Tina Souness and Jenny Jackson

School Uniform

There are still a few families having trouble accessing the complete winter uniform. I will be arranging to meet with our suppliers next week. In the meantime, if your child doesn’t have the full school uniform, please send a note to the office and we will let the staff know.

 We do expect the uniform to be worn correctly. All boys need to tuck their shirts in and black or navy shoes must be worn. Girls must tie their hair back and only wear plain hair accessories in keeping with the school colors.Long sleeved colored T shirts should not be visible. It is vital that ALL clothing is clearly named.

Special Catholic Character

Mrs Francis-Rees is publishing the special character page directly on this blog. You can read about the Lord’s prayers and the significance of it on a previous post.

Congratulations
Please read about our children who received special awards last week on a previous blog.

Thanks for supporting our new Pulse news sheet and our news blog.

 We look forward to continuing to Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith during the next week.

Every blessing,

Jenny Jackson

Congratulations

Veritas Award
Congratulations to Kelsey Mills for receiving the Yr 8 ‘Veritas’ Award for term 1.  This award was a gift from the Breen Family to the school in 2002.  It was presented to the school in appreciation of 8 years of experience, Sam, Peter and Robbie Breen had at St Joseph’s.  They asked for this award to be given for ‘positive contribution to school life’.  This award is presented to a Yr 8 student at the end of Terms 1, 2 and 3 at St Joseph's.

Parish Cup
Congratulations to this family who received the 'Parish Cup' for Term 1. This award was donated to St Joseph’s School on behalf of the O’Neill Family.  As a token of their gratitude, they donated the Parish Cup for St Joseph’s children who contribute to the parish community either by regular attendance at Mass, or for service to the parish such as operating the overhead projector, alter serving or other services.  They saw the cup as a way of recognising, acknowledging and celebrating the children’s involvement in Parish life. 

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Principal's Award

Congratulations to Megan Small and Matthew Gough who both received the 'Principal's Award' recently for demonstrating our school values of respect, reverence, resilience and good relationships.

Special Character, Term 2 Week 2, 2014

SPECIAL CHARACTER

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer Jesus gave to His disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray.  It appears in Matthew’s Gospel and in Luke’s Gospel in slightly different forms.  It also resembles a traditional Jewish family prayer and has references to passages from the Old Testament.

The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of PETITION – of asking.  The first three petitions are about God and the second four are about people. 

PETITIONS ABOUT GOD	Meaning
Our Father in heaven,	Introduction: A way of addressing God
Hallowed be your name	1st Petition: May God’s name be recognised as holy.
Your kingdom come,	May God’s kingdom be present on earth.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	May (we help) God’s will be done on earth.
PETITIONS ABOUT PEOPLE
Give us this day our daily bread,	Please give us our basic survival needs.
And forgive us our sins, As we forgive those who sin against us,	The way we forgive others will be how we can expect God to forgive our sins.
Save us from the time of trial	In the alternative version of the Our Father this is, “delivery us from evil,” – it means save us from the test of temptation, may we make the right choices when tempted.
And deliver us from evil	Save us from evil – all the bad things that could befall us both material and spiritual.

This prayer pretty much has everything covered!

Lorraine Frances-Rees, Co-DRS

Our netballers were excited to get back on the netball courts again and we look forward to another successful season.

Last Saturday, St Joseph's Rugby Club held a club day with St Kevin's College at the St Kevin's grounds.  A great day was held by all in fine conditions.

Principal's Message

News Blog
Welcome to our very first weekly news and learning blog.  This blog compliments our 'Pulse' news sheet that will come home to every child each Thursday instead of the hard copy newsletter.  We hope that all families enjoy this new form of communication.  We aim to set up a computer in ruma koru ,our community room, for families who may not have access to a computer.

Yr 8 Mass
Special thanks to Mr Moore and the Year 8's who lead our school mass so well today.  Their dramatisation of the gospel focusing on Jesus the Good Shepherd was presented skillfully.  It was a reminder for all of us to know, understand and care for those around us.

Rugby Success
Congratulations to our 9 & 10 Year old rugby team who won the Junior Black's Challenge Shield last weekend. We are very proud of you all.  Now that the winter sports season is underway, a big thank you goes out to all of our coaches and managers.  Without them, the large range of sporting codes we offer at St Joseph's would not be possible.

Yr 8 Leaders
Our Yr 8's house captains started a Zumba initiative this week.  They lead some sessions before school and one session during a rainy lunchtime this week.  I was impressed with the way our Yr 8 leaders organised and lead these sessions.

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Jenny Jackson
Principal