Principal's News Term 1 Week 8 2021

Engagement in Learning

In 2021 our main achievement target is engagement in learning.  We undertake standardised and normed engagement surveys with our students and we know that they are strongly emotionally and positively behaviourally engaged at St Joseph's.  Our next step is to ensure that strong learning behaviours are in place so that  children can transfer their key competency skills from one discipline to another and gradually and efficiently become lifelong learners who can do it on their own.

The first part of our investigation is to look more closely at what we think learning is.  What activities are actually learning activities which are not?  Can we transfer great self management skills from the farm or football field to the reading group?  Or from the reading group to the cross country course?

This week our staff have looked at this in some depth and so have our board and over the next couple of weeks we will be finding out what our year 4-8 children think about it.

Here are our Board members looking at children's learning this week:

Rory McGeown and Andy Bradley

Samara Tamati and Vic Rapson

Leigh Thomas, Sharni Cunning, Fr Wayne

St Joseph's Board of Trustees

I would like to introduce you to St Joseph's current Board of Trustees.  At St Joseph's we are really truly blessed with an excellent Board.  They are focused on our children's learning and are constantly making decisions and promoting excellent learning for all of our children.  They are very respectful of the management and governance division and highly appreciative of the work of our staff.  

Our Board are:

Sharni Cunningham (parent representative) - Board Chair

Andy Bradley (parent representative) - Deputy Chair

Rory McGeown (parent representative)

Vic Rapson (parent representative)

Samara Tamati (parent representative)

Fr Wayne Healey (proprietor's representative)

Adrienne Wylie (proprietor's representative)

Rebecca Laming (proprietor's representative)

Jan Plieger (proprietor's representative)

Leigh Thomas (staff representative)

Lorraine Frances-Rees (CEO)

Sharni Cunningham, St Joseph's Board Chair

Palm Sunday

We are celebrating Palm Sunday this Sunday and it brings back memories of lockdown last year, how we struggled and succeed to celebrate Palm Sunday despite being separate - through the crosses people put on our gates and through our parish being able to set up Zoom masses.  Luckily this year we are able to celebrate in person and thank you to Kakapo Class who shared their rendition of Jesus's entrance to Jerusalem at our school mass this morning.

God Bless and Aroha,

Lorraine Frances-Rees