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