1. Principals News Week 9 Term 3 2020

Excellent Special Character Review    

Every three years we have an external review of the school as a school of special character.  I am pleased to say that the review of our school and the ensuing report are excellent.  The full report is here, but here are some snippets from the report:

"The faith-based leadership of board, leadership and staff can be seen in the behaviour and attitudes of ākonga (students). 

Strong faith based leadership also flows into effective curriculum leadership and the desired

impact is growth and development of ākonga (students).  These initiatives place St Joseph’s as a leading school in the diocese in Religious Education and integrated curriculum development.

The methodology for planning teaching and assessment is the result of effective leadership and staff collaboration and a strong focus on the growth and faith development of ākonga. This curriculum development is impacting positively on the growth and development of ākonga (students) who are immersed in faith and knowledge.

Staff also convey a “sense of belonging, feeling blessed and supported.”

Parents spoken to showed a great appreciation for the opportunities their children receive to grow and develop in their faith.

The rapport between ākonga and Kaiako (teachers) at junior, middle and senior levels was natural, engaging and mutually respectful and reflected well the spiritual culture and values of the school."

We are very happy that our report reflects what we think is important and indicates that we are successful in our aims.

Revisioning and Community Connection

After our movie earlier this term we got lots of parent feedback to help the Board with strategic planning and revisioning for St Joseph's.  Two of the strong themes that came out of it for the way that St Joseph's is seen, was love (aroha) and family (whanau).

This next step is to find out more about what you want about specifics and the choices we have to make for our school - and yes we will be looking at uniform too.

To do this, again we need your input at a Family Fun Evening. 

Family Fun Evening - Friday 28th October starting at 5.30pm at St Joseph's

• Bring your own takeaway tea and we will have a picnic celebration outside (hopefully it's fine or in the hall if it's not fine).
• Games with prizes will be organised for the children
• We encourage the children to dress up and there will be prizes for the most imaginative costumes.
• There will be boards set up in the staffroom for parents to share your ideas and vote on the areas you think are most important.  This will not be a difficult or time-consuming task.  There will be a raffle prize and tickets given to every parent who participates. 
• The questions we will be considering will be given out by the start of next term so you can consider them in advance.

After this, our Board will be able to draft some vision statements and strategic goals which will also be given out for feedback before we finalise them.

We hope to start 2023 with a new vision statement, and a clear idea of what this will look like and be like in our school.

Deciding How We Connect as Community

One of the things we got as strong feedback after the movie is that you want more social events.  Previously this has been handled by parents in the Home and School Association.  Now, we need to find a way to do this differently as the Home and School Association is now likely to come to an end.

So we have invited parents to join us on Tuesday 27th September at 6.30pm in the school staffroom to decide what to do about the Home and School and where we go from here.  The first and most important thing to consider is how do we come together as a community and make connections with each other. 

Please don't feel you are too busy for this, - YOU are our COMMUNITY and if our community is saying it wants more connection, then we need YOU to make it happen.    You won't be given a "job" to do.  Ideally, all of our cultures will be represented in our community.

 

So please come to both these dates:

Tuesday 27th September at 6.30pm - How We Connect as Community

Friday 28th October 5.30pm = Family Fun Evening

Teacher Only Days in Term 4

Please note we are closed for teacher professional development in structured literacy on

Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th November.

Enrolments

We have a small number of open places available and we are taking enrolments for 2023.  Please share this with your friends and family and encourage them to look at St Joseph's.  Our buildings are in need of revitalistion (which is happening) and right now we don't have a state of the art reception area but look at our review above - we are high performing in the areas that really matter.

Singing Cup - House Choirs

Our Singing Cup House Choir competition is next Friday at 2.15pm - please come as this is a great event and the children have been preparing all year.

Ma te Atua e manaaki a aroha,

(God bless, and love)

Lorraine