1. Principal's News Term 1, Week 8 2023

Reporting

Last year we asked parents for feedback on our Educa reporting system.  One of the things you wanted was more accurate indication of where your children are performing in the curriculum in relation to expectations.  Taking this into account, we have been working on the Progress and Consistency Tool (PACT).  There is a lot of work and training needed in order to use this tool effectively and it uses several pieces of work, so the judgement isn't just on one thing.  The staff are working on Writing at the moment and hope to have the first curriculum-leveled report on Educa to you early next term.  This will be a writing and religious education report.

The report will come with a graph that looks like this (this one is one I did for reading last year):

The green (teal) mark shows the student's results and the green mark on the vertical axis shows the curriculum level.  The black line with dots shows expected curriculum progress.  The shaded area shows where most students perform.  So for this student we can see that the student is performing slightly above expected level and on the upper half of where most students perform.  The student is working at level 3 of the curriculum.  

The really good thing about this process of tracking students is that it tracks progress.  So every time we make an entry, it will show all their entries and so over time there will be a line showing how the student is progressing.  

That is unless the government changes things!

So next term you will get the usual piece of student work shared in Educa and hopefully, all going well, we will be able to give you the graph as well.  This will be the last learning thing I'm working on with staff in week 10 this term.

The reporting schedule on Educa this year is:

Term 2:     Writing and Religious Education

                Health and Physical Education - Movewell Cooperative Games

                Inquiry Curriculum - New Zealand Histories

                Reading

                Maths

Term 3:    Science and Writing

               

Term 4:        Religious Education and Drama

                    Maths

                    Reading

                    Maths

Our Visioning Process

A big thank you to our lovely families who turned out last year for our movie and gave really useful feedback on the school afterward.  Then again on our October Family Fun Evening which had a great turnout and again, very useful feedback.  We haven't forgotten this!  We were fully expecting our rebuild to start in the first 1/4 of this year and we will be working alongside this with developing a new vision, and a new "look" for the school which reflects who we are.  The big things that you value about St Joseph's were:

God

Education

Family

Inclusion

Welcoming

There has been a little hiccup in the building project, but we are working very hard with our diocese to keep the project on track.  You will hear more about our visioning and how we are revamping the whole school approach and outlook as we move forward, keeping the things that are important central.  I will be sorry not to see this stage of the journey but please know that we have everything lined up and it will continue to unfold.

Plans for Holy Week

Please join us for Holy Week celebrations (3rd - 6th April).

JH1 (Yr 1 & 2) - Palm Sunday - Monday prayers - 9.15 am

Kiwi (Yr 3 & 4) - Washing of the Feet - Tuesday - 12.00 pm 

Kakapo (Yr 5 & 6) (LFR)  - Last Supper - Tuesday - 12.15 pm

Takahe (Yr 7 & 8) - Stations of the Cross -Wednesday - 2.30 pm

Here are the Parish times for Holy Week and Easter.

Rippa Rugby

Congratulations to our year 8s and Mrs Winders.  All of the year 8s have had training from Sport Waitaki in being Physical Activity Leaders (PALS).  They have been coaching throughout the school in PE classes and yesterday they organised a Rippa Rugby tournament for the whole school.  This was very well planned and executed.  Everyone participated with enthusiasm and it was a lovely example of how well our children work together and enjoy each other's company across the age groups.

Board

A warm welcome to Staju Thomas and Sandy Mascerenhas to St Joseph's Board as Parent Representatives.

Teacher Only Day Next Term

Monday 24th April is a teacher-only day given by the Ministry and most schools in North Otago are taking it this day.  The following day is ANZAC day so school will be starting on Wednesday 26th April.

Assembly Today

Our flagpole has been fixed.  Mr Jelgesma and myself fixed it last week using a cherry picker.  It was quite a mission as a deluge of rain came along in the middle of it, but it's done!  So we will be starting assembly at the flagpole again to celebrate the winning house.

Ma te Atua e manaaki a aroha,

(God bless, and love)

Lorraine