1. Principal's News Week 1 Term 2 2018

Bishop Michael's Ordination

Lilly, Mrs Brookes and Alexie during the diocesan choir practice

We have a new Bishop - Bishop Michael Dooley.  During the holidays our head students Eleanoa Asi, Samuel Plieger and Anika Winders, with Morgan Baillie (standing in for Sebastian Spillane), attended Bishop Michael's ordination in Dunedin.  Two of our Dominican choir members who are also members of Parish music groups, Alexie Phillips and Lilly Kelcher, also attended.  All six students represented us as part of the diocesan choir for the evening.

Our St Joseph's representatives having lunch in Dunedin with some of our parishioners

Here is what Samuel has to say about it:

"Last Thursday I was privileged enough to attend the Bishop's ordination as part of the Dunedin Diocesan choir. I enjoyed the service because I have never been to an event like that. I enjoyed the laying of the hands because it’s a special and holy moment and a tradition that has been around for years. There were a lot of people there and every bishop from New Zealand attended and many priests including Father Wayne, our parish priest."

Drama
This term our curriculum focus is drama and dance.  Like all of the New Zealand curriculum, the performing arts curriculum areas have specific skills, conventions, knowledge and processes.  It is more than just, "doing a play."  During the last school holidays our senior leadership team and myself got together for a whole day to plan curriculum development for St Joseph's over the next two to three years.  One of the things we will be unpacking further with the staff is the full New Zealand curriculum.  This had got very sidelined during the times of National Standards, to the point where it was barely taught in teachers' college.  So it's time to bring it back in all its glory.

Of course reading, writing and maths are vitally important but once you've learnt to read and write (usually by about year 3-4) you need something to read and write about and a rich and interesting curriculum is the best way of developing real literacy skills and numeracy skills.  That's what makes school an interesting and fun place to be whilst learning.

These are the ways we plan to use drama as an authentic context for reading and writing:

Script writing - stage directions, narrator, prop instructions  - understanding how to write those parts,

Reading material to match the theme,

Visual language - design program, static images,

Moving images,

Vocabulary development - performing arts - elements and conventions,

Oral language - listening and responding,

Writing  - sequence, setting, character development, description, plot development,

Poetic language - understanding meaning of lyrics - metaphor and simile,

Structure of narrative,

Procedural writing- instructions of how and what to do,

Readers' Theatre - journal plays - for reading fluency and meaning,

Writing invitations, posters,

The language of advertising.

The term will cumulate with a wearable arts performance for the junior school and our biennial senior school production.

Make a diary date for:

Thursday 5th July, St Kevin's Auditorium at 7pm - for

Jumanji - Finding the Four R's

- yes, really.

God bless and aroha,

Lorraine Frances-Rees