3. School Notices - Week 4, Term 3

(a)  Altar Servers
Saturday 16th August - Ben Cullimore, Lachlan Brookes, Elizabeth & Nicholas Plieger
Sunday 17th August - Abbey Mabon, Emily Hayman, Tia Hunter and Kelsey Mills

(b)  Birthday Greetings to:
Campbell Fowler and Cameron Mather

(c)  Home & School Reminder
To all our school families who have not yet donated a prize or a $10.00 donation towards the Quiz night held on Friday 12th September 2014.  Please put your family name on the prize or donation so we can tick your name off.  Prizes and donations are to be dropped off at your child's classroom.

(d)  Help Required Urgently
As we have had only 1 response to help with the morning tea after the First Communion Mass this Sunday, we are wanting to know if there is anyone from the school community who is able to help.  Please ring the office asap (434 8856) and leave a message.  Many thanks.  Ann Dooley

(e)  Lost Property
Please check the pile of clothing that has accumulated by the Uniform Shop.  If it has not been claimed, they will be given to the Uniform Shop to sell.

A  size 10 pinafore was taken by mistake from the change rooms in the hall after gymnastics on Friday. It is named Whiston 434 3443 and Polly Harper on it.  Please return it to the school office.

(f)  Community Notices - Please check the notice board for full details

• Guitar Lessons at Weston School - Contact Weston School on 434 5445 for further information.
• The Impact of Alcohol on Adolescents - held at Waitaki Girls High School on Friday 29th August 2014.
• Sister Margaret Mayce is a representative of the Dominican Sisters International at the United Nations in New York.  She will give a presentation in the Dean O'Reilly Lounge beside the Basilica in Reed Street on Sunday 14th September at 2.30 pm.
•  Inspiring Garden Tour - Cancer Society Fundraiser - Sunday 23rd November 2014

4. Enrolment Notice for 2015

Enrolment meetings for all age groups take place on:

• Tuesday 19th August 2014
• Wednesday 20th August 2014

Our 5th junior class is opening in Term 4 ready for 2015.

Please contact the school office on 434 8856 or 027 203 1516 to arrange a time.  Go to the Learning tab on our school website and check our class blogs on www.stjoseph.school.nz

You are welcome to visit and see our learners in action.

5. Congratulations



Sports 

Congratulations to Jerome Misiloi who got selected for the North Otago U13 rep rugby team.  Well done.

Principals Award

Congratulations to the whole school who received the Principal's Award last week by showing respect and reverence at the St Dominic's Day Mass at St Kevin's College. They were all fantastic.

6. Cross Country

Congratulations and well done to the children who participated in the Cross Country on Tuesday. It was a great morning and was excellent to see so many parents and supporters out encouraging and supporting the children. A big thank you to all our staff, marshalls and Sport Waitaki for their help in ensuring this was a success. Special thanks to the Oamaru Racecourse for letting us use their track. Students in Yrs 4-8 who qualified for the North Otago Cross Country will receive a note next week. Trophies and certificates will be presented at assembly on Friday 22nd August. Junior School Senior School

7. Health Snippets - Poisoning

Poisoning
Our houses/basements/garden sheds are full of toxic substances which can cause harm if used wrongly.  Children are particularly vulnerable as they are naturally curious and have little sense of potential danger.

Medications:

• Store medications out of reach of children.  Ask for child-proof lids
• Supervise when children take medications
• Don't share medicine, only give it to the person it is prescribed for
• Make sure you do not exceed the daily maximum dose of a medication.  For example if both mum and dad are giving paracetamol to a child, they need to communicate when a dose has been given to avoid over-dosing.

Cleaning Gear:

• Store out of reach of children.  It is tempting to keep dishwashing tablets in the cupboard next to the dishwasher, but this is very harmful to children if swallowed.
• Explain to your child that the bottles of cleaning materials are not to be played with and are dangerous.
• Keep your garden shed locked if it contains poisons.

1. Principal News Week 3 Term 3

Whitestone Learning and Change(LCN)Big Event

On Tuesday afternoon, the staff from Weston School, Papakaio School and St Joseph's united together to focus on aligning educational goals across our schools. Working together as part of the Whitestone LCN has meant that our schools firmly believe that collaboration is more important than competition. Collaboration to share our expertise and knowledge to benefit all of our children. Together and collectively we have the capability to achieve more for our learners and their families than individually. St Kevin's College and little Wonders are also part of our network of educational centres focussing on parent engagement and student agency (students driving their own learning).
You can learn more on the Whitestone LCN blog and by watching this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w2RYdZYAJo&safe=active
Special thanks to Maria Dickie who has been involved as a parent in the network from the beginning and came and participated in our session as well as kindly helped me to prepare for our visitors and clean up afterwards with our staff.

Board News
We are pleased to announce that Sharni Cunningham has been appointed to the Board of Trustees. Sharni has filled the parent trustee vacancy and will remain on the board until the next elections in 2016. Sharni is married to Gerard and has two daughters at St Joseph's Indya in Year 4 and Mackenzie in Year 6. Sharni has a wealth of experience to share in all areas, in particular, she will be an asset on the Grants Committee. Thank you to Sharni for stepping up to contribute to our school by taking on such an important role.

New Ministry of Education Parent's website
Our children have taken home bookmarks that provide information about this new site. You can access it here at www.parents.education.govt.nz
The goal of the website is to provide a central place to give you as parents and caregivers, information and answers to commonly asked questions in plain language so that you feel well equipped to engage in your child's education.

The Living Garden presentation on Friday
On Monday evening, a group of us attended a presentation about a new initiative from the community gardens. The Living Classroom (TLC) committee have the resources to visit our school once a week and help to set up and sustain our own school garden. Mr Jelgersma has built a long raised garden for us beside the new junior playground for the whole school to utilise. On Friday, representatives from the Community Gardens are coming to share a video and talk to us about their work. Everyone is welcome to come to our celebration kotuitui at 2:30pm on Friday and learn more about this initiative.

St Dominic's Day
Tomorrow we will be joining St Kevin's to celebrate St Dominic's Day as we are a Dominican school. Here is a special prayer for St Dominic's Day.