1. Principal News Week 1 Term 1 2016

Welcome to the new school year at St Joseph's Catholic school. We have begun the year with a focus on the charism of Jesus, the reason and purpose for all of our Catholic schools. We are preparing for the season of Lent, the six weeks before Easter. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday next week. You can learn more about Lent and the charism of our school by reading the Special Catholic Character news on this blog from Mrs Dooley. You can also sign up for brief reflective emails and video snippets about ways to have the Best Lent Ever by going to this link at dynamiccatholic.com.

Growing our Catholic faith and developing a closer relationship with God doesn't just happen automatically. We have to actively work at it through reading the Gospel, through prayer and striving to be the best we can be, Just like Jesus (JJ) our greatest role model. It is the same as playing sport, if you don't practice or put in any effort, you won't succeed.
One of the ways we practice is by attending mass as a whole school. Thanks to Mr Cartlidge and our new Year 8 leaders who led our first community mass yesterday with a creative Gospel video.

Jesus calls his disciples

Fr Wayne uses a fishing rod during his homliy about the gospel

Everyone engaged in the Yr 8 video depicting the gospel message to follow Jesus

Year 8 Leaders 2016
Our new Year 8 class were presented with their leadership badges by Fr Wayne after mass. Congratulations to all of the Year 8's who applied for their leadership roles last year. We are looking forward to them contributing to the leadership of our school as they plan and action events and happenings this year. I will keep a record of our leadership meetings on the Students as Leaders tab of my principal's blog. You can read about the Catholic Character Leaders plans for kotuitui on this link.

Year 8's with leadership badges (thanks Joanne Cant for this photo)

New Families
A very special welcome to our new children and their families. This is our highest starting number for several years and largest intake of new children across the school. We look forward to all of you Reaching for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith in 2016.

Twenty - three new children from across the school

We also welcome our new staff members and thank them, along with all of our staff, for helping our school year to get off to a great start. All of the staff and board members came together for a special retreat before school started. You can read more at this link.

Miss Suzy Lind, Miss Stephanie O'Malley, Mrs Tua Misiloi

Our Senior Hub 2 learners are very pleased with the new air conditioners installed upstairs during the holidays. A huge thank you to our school Board of Trustees for prioritising our resources based on student and staff feedback. The air conditioners are especially appreciated during this hot weather. They will double as heat pumps in the winter and help to save power costs as well.

Year 8's busy learning in the cool room upstairs while the temperature reaches 29 degrees outside

Families are invited to join with us when we share our 2016 learning plans with you. The new internet filtering system called Linewize has been installed to ensure devices usage is safely monitored. We will explain how this works and offer suggestions for internet safety at home. We will also be launching the Parent Portal. Parents with students at St Kevin's College will be familiar with this portal. It will give you online access to school reports among other things. Come along and meet our new staff and learn more on the 17th February.Family Learning Hui - Meet the Teacher evening 6pm-7pm Wednesday 17th February

School Uniform - new polar fleeces

Due to parent feedback about the expense of our school jersey, we are in the process of getting the new maroon coloured school polar fleeces made. As mentioned last year, our children can still wear their jerseys. The polar fleeces will cost $46.00 for sizes 4-12 and $52.00 for sizes XS-XL. There is a sizing chart in this blog. Orders can be made to the office.

All children are expected to wear a hat outside during Term 1. Please ensure your child has a navy school hat to wear. The St Kevin's kilt is an option for girls in Year 7 and 8 and the St Kevin's College blue long sleeved shirt is part of the uniform for all boys in Year 7 & 8. The boys roll their sleeves up in the warmer weather. Trainers are only acceptable when wearing the PE uniform.

Home Learning

Last year we set up our Teaching and Learning Site. 

This contains all of the information you and your child will need around learning. The best part about this is that children can continue with home learning from this site. Apart from reading and basic facts in the junior classes, any home learning will be accessed independently from our site. Further information about home learning can be accessed on the site at this link.

We are looking forward to another exciting year of learning for staff, children and families as we Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith together and strive to become the best we can be in all that we do.