1. Principal's News Term 3 Week 3 2021

Learning at St Joseph's

Looking ahead to next week when my surgery is planned, and I will have some time away, I have been considering what I love most about my job and it is definitely the teaching and learning aspect.  The very best thing is seeing our learners enjoy their learning and making progress.  I also love the problem-solving of figuring out what makes aspects of learning difficult for some and how we can get past that - and it's different for everyone.  I also love that the biggest part of learning is actually about how to be a good human being and get along with other human beings and we all have to learn that one way or another and all the little hiccups aren't setbacks, they are opportunities for learning.  Here are a few photos of learning happening in school today.

Behaviour Plan Review    

We are doing our scheduled three-yearly review of our behaviour plan.  We are a school and our main focus is learning.  So behaviour mishaps are opportunities for learning and our behaviour management systems should be learning systems.  We also need to acknowledge that people can heat up and do or say things they regret and our job is also to help the children to learn to cool down and self-regulate.  Then if they have crossed the line of acceptable behaviour, the response is about putting it right and we use Restorative Justice to make this happen.  Behaviour that has caused damage also requires consequences in line with natural justice and this is part of putting things right.  None of us is perfect and we are all learners.  

This is a draft of what the staff are looking at regarding how we present our behaviour plan.  If anyone has any thoughts or feedback on this you can send your thoughts directly to principal@stjoseph.school.nz and they will be considered in any adjustments we make.  Thank you.

The main part of what we do is teaching in the blue zone, the zone where people feel calm, safe and happy.  Everything we do aims to bring children back to this zone where they can learn about themselves, their reactions, other people and their reactions, and thus be in a place to take on curriculum learning.  We acknowledge that children's feelings can escalate, and our role is to help with de-escalating as best we can.  The individual behaviour plan happens when our efforts to bring things back into the whole class teaching phase is not working for an individual child and they need a more tailored approach.  

Policy Reviews

We welcome your input into our policy reviews.

Our present policy reviews are on "Behaviour Management" and our "Concerns and Complaints Procedure"

If you would like to give input here are the instructions:

The community login for the site is at schooldocs.co.nz. To login, click the link and enter the following details when prompted:

username: stjosephsoamaru

password is: veritas

Go to the tab at the top that says, "Current Review"

Upcoming Events

Please support us in our main community events this term which are Cross Country on 27th August and Singing Cup on 1st October.

Note Teacher Only Days

School will be closed on these days:
30 August

17 September

NEW ONE: 1st November - this is for professional development in structured literacy.  The date is a late confirmation as it has been extremely difficult to get the trainer for this and our Community of Learning is doing it together.

I hope the rest of term goes well for everyone and I will be praying and wishing well for our school.  

God bless and aroha

Lorraine