1. Principal's News Term 1 Week 2 2021

 Getting Learning Underway

The first 2-3 weeks of the year are all about setting up the routines, expectations and structures which will make learning run smoothly throughout the year.  This time is so valuable and sets the children up for a great year of learning.  During this time your child's teacher is also getting to know them and vice versa and learning relationships are being formed.  Once this is done we can re-establish the rhythm of learning and off we go.

This year our main reporting tool to parents will be through the Seesaw app.  You will be able to see real examples of your child's learning and reflections on achievement and progress.  You will get more information about this in the next couple of weeks and receive your first post.  This will be the basis of your learning conversation in the goal setting interviews.  This year our goals for the children are focusing on the bigger picture of what they are like as a learner and how they can grow their capabilities as learners and hence achieve to their full potential.

At St Joseph's we look at each individual learner and this takes time.  We are lucky to have a well trained, experienced and dedicated learning support staff.  Last week our learning support team went through each child who needs a little bit of extra support for whatever reason.  It is great to work with our learning support staff as they work individually with children and bring a great in depth perspective into each child.  We have made plans for all children needing a little extra help and teachers will be able to tell you more about that when you meet for goal setting.

Here is our learning support team - Adrienne Spillane, Michele Fatafehi and Rowan Stringer:

Please remember to book your goal setting interview:

To book your time go to: https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/

and use event code: cwrq7

Community Celebration

We invite you to celebrate the start of the year with us and other families by coming to mass with us on Sunday at 9.30 am in the Basilica and joining us afterwards at school for a sausage sizzle and water slide for the children (weather permitting).

Homework

Please note that in the senior school we encourage the children to source their own books for personal reading, we do not send instructional reading books home in the senior school.  Our approach to homework is based on our experience as teachers and on sound research evidence.  Please check out the "Homework" page on our school website for a full explanation of our reasoning and expectations.

Curriculum

For information on curriculum and how we do teaching and learning at St Joseph's, our curriculum is online and you are welcome to have a look at it here.

Year 8 leadership camp

The year 8's along with Mrs Winders and myself are excited this morning to be beginning our two day leadership camp to prepare our year 8's for their growth this year as leaders.  This growth is personal, social, emotional and spiritual and will continue throughout the year.

Office Staff

A huge thank you to our office staff who have set us up very well with the administrative systems to get the year underway.  I feel so blessed to have such an experienced and capable office team in Anne Rzepecky and Paula Brien.  

Please help our office staff by reporting ABSENCES early.  You can email office@stjoseph.school.nz or text 027 434 8860, or ring and leave a message 03 434 8856.  If the office staff have to ring people who have not told us where children are, they are wasting valuable time where if a child genuinely was missing we would lose time identifying this.  

By the same token please return FORMS by the requested date as when our office staff have to follow up things like that it takes them away from doing the rest of their work and we would really appreciate your cooperation with that.

Hungry Horse - Home and School Fundraiser

Please let us know if you can help with this as our Home and School have to work really hard to find people to do the shifts with this cafe.  A couple of hours commitment a year would be a really big contribution and the money raised from this goes into essential learning items for our children.

We hope to see you at our community celebration on Sunday.

God Bless and Aroha

Lorraine Frances-Rees