Fr Wayne's Retirement
We celebrated our last official school mass with Fr Wayne yesterday although he will be doing one more with Fr Fredie when he arrives. It was a lovely mass as always.
Each class gave Fr Wayne a gift with some of his favourite sayings on it:
- Pukeko class gave him a purple high-vis vest (for his e-bike he says he is going to get) and on the back it says, "You are the cat's pyjamas."
- Kereru class gave him a mug with, "You are the bee's knees written on it."
- Kiwi class gave him a picture of Fr Wayne helping them at mass and the words, "It's not enough to be... you have to do."
- Hoiho class gave him a pencil case with a picture of Fr Wayne with students and the words, "Let go...and let God."
- Takahe class gave him a photobook of photos to remember his time at St Joseph's and just some of the many things he has done for and with us.
We are so grateful to Fr Wayne.
We also had a lovely celebration on Sunday with many families and children turning up and sharing one of Fr Wayne's last parish masses. The church was full. We enjoyed a friendly morning tea afterwards in our hall and Fr Wayne gave all the children ice creams.
As I said at the mass on Sunday, working with Fr Wayne over my time at St Joseph's has been a true blessing and a highlight for me.
In order to run our school effectively we must have a full board of trustees. Elections are coming up soon and nominations are open now. Please consider if you would like to be on our Board. We welcome people of all backgrounds and I am most happy to have a chat with you about what it entails. The Board is the employer of the staff and is ultimately in charge of the school's strategic direction, property maintenance, health and safety and administering school finances. All of this is managed by the principal but the Board sets the direction with the principal as a full member of the Board. Next term when the elections close we are organising some really specific high-quality training for our new board so that you will know exactly what to do and have support to get up and running and onto the board's most important job - employing a new principal. Please consider if you could take on this very important role.
EPR08 Challenge
Our Year 7 & 8s were able to develop their Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths (STEAM) skills last week with two days using the EPR08 kits.
Swimming Sports
We enjoyed our swimming sports last week. It had a really lovely atmosphere with everybody giving it a go and our confident swimmers supporting our learner swimmers to show what they had learnt. Everyone was supportive and courageous in what they did. Congratulations to Ellie, Eva F, Eva M-Z, Manaia, Analiese and Emily McG who qualified to represent St Joseph's at the North Otago Swimming Sports.
A big thank you to the wonderful parents and grandparents who have helped us out with our swimming lessons and swimming sports. We could not do it without you.
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The children made an extra special effort last week to ride, scooter or walk to school. This is great for their exercise and wellbeing. We had a special day where the children were allowed their wheels in the playground and had visitors from the council talk about safety.
Teacher Only Day
The first day of next term, Monday 24th April is a teacher-only day and school will be closed. Most of the North Otago schools will be closed on this day. The government has allowed us this day in order to work on the new curriculum developments.
Ma te Atua e manaaki a aroha,
(God bless, and love)
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