Term 1 Week 5 2 March 2023 Newsletter# 03
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Tena Koutou Katoa Talofa Lava Kamusta Malo e lelei, Mauri Malo ni Faka talofa atu Namaste Greetings to all
It is so nice to have been at school for two 5-day weeks! Our younger students have been enjoying their swimming programme and our older children started their lessons this week. Of course, our Year 5-8 swimming sports on Tuesday was a great success – the first time in three years that everyone has been able to attend our swimming sports day. Thank you to our parent volunteers who supported this day.
Last week’s house colour mufti day raised $350 for the Catholic Caring Foundation’s 2023 Cyclone Relief Appeal for our Catholic schools on the East Coast.
Yesterday, our school leaders participated in our South Auckland Kahui Ako Student Leadership Day at Holy Cross School in Papatoetoe. During the day, they took part in coaching and team-building exercises, as well as hearing an excellent motivational speaker, Johnnie Timu, who spoke to them about ownership and personal responsibilities that would build their leadership capabilities now and in the future.
There are still far too many children arriving late for school. We really need our students to arrive at 8:30 am each morning, ready to start in class at 8:45 am. Please make an effort to enable your child to do this. This week we have an average of 88% of our children attending each day. That means we have 36 children missing learning every day; that is more than a class size.
Work on Seddon St has been put on hold as they have discovered some conflicts between the design and the existing underground services. The school does not know when this project will restart.
Congratulations to our DP, Lori Mravicich, who is one of four representatives from NZ that has been accepted into the Mayfield Project which brings together passionate professionals across Oceania with an interest in education and designing more impactful learning for students. She will be presenting the project at the Learning Environments Australasia Conference in Christchurch this May. We are so lucky to have someone with this expertise working in our school.
Exciting! Our school fair is only 9 days away! Jenni Logan and a team of parents have been working solidly behind the scenes to ensure that this will be the best fun-filled day on our school calendar. Thank you to you all who are contributing in any way to make our school fair a success. Please make sure that your family and friends come on Saturday 11th March between 10 am and 2 pm and enjoy the food, raffles, activities and performances. Our Kapa Haka and Pasifika groups are going to be stunning.
Stay safe and God bless.
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“It is always the one who sows who gathers the harvest in its entirety.”
– Euphrasie Barbier 1863
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TERM 1 KEY DATES
Please note these dates are subject to change For further dates see calendars on the Skool Loop app or at: www.stjosephs.co.nz
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Special Catholic Character
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Values Awards Recipients:
Frian Pena, Simon Vicente and Lucas Kriletich. For Arahi – They showed leadership by seeing something wrong and taking action and doing something about it.
Cortez Onehi, Meg Noble, Sophie Clark, Molly Randle, Lucas Kriletich, George Farrell. For Aroha – Love for God. They have made a great start with their Lenten promises.
Aubree Knowles. For Aroha: her wonderful caring heart looking after classmates despite being new herself.
Caroline Dang. For Aroha: Showing love and care towards others.
 
St Pat’s Kids Choir: Practice is on today from 3-3:40 at the Church. New members are welcome. The choir will be singing Sunday 12th March at 10am Mass and Sunday 2nd April at 9am Palm Sunday Mass
World Day of Prayer :An Ecumenical Service is to be held this Friday 3 March at 10am at St Patrick’s Church Pukekohe. Observed on the first Friday of March each year, this is a worldwide movement of informed prayer involving people of many denominations and languages in more than 170 countries. Each year the service is written by women in a different country. This year that country is Taiwan.
We share the hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, opportunities and needs of their country.
Please come along as we host several religious groups from Pukekohe in this time of Ecumenical Prayer. Our Arahi Roopu will be attending.
ST PATRICK’S PARISH RETREAT
Monday 13 March – Friday 17 March
Sessions begin with Mass followed by a retreat session.
There is a 9:00 am Mass and retreat session, repeated at 7:00 pm. You choose.
Retreat Master is Father Richard Shortall SJ.
This would be a perfect introduction to Jesuit spirituality for families enrolling their children at our new Saint Ignatius of Loyala Catholic College which will have a Jesuit charism.
Anyone can donate online to the Catholic Caring Foundation’s 2023 Cyclone Relief Appeal:
- Or to the Foundation’s bank account here: BNZ 02-0100-0242648-00 (Please use your surname and initials as reference, and Cyclone as a particular)
To get an emailed receipt, please email info@caringfoundation.co.nz to let the foundation know you have made a donation.
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SchoolDocs: Policies and Procedures:
https://stjosephspukekohe.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
In 2023, all schools will review the Legislation and Administration section and the Curriculum and Student Achievement section. Not all policies are reviewed by parents. This term parents are invited to comment on the following topics: Student Attendance, Enrolment, and Uniform/Dress Code.
Search for the policy (under the school emblem), click on the topic name link, read through the policy then click the red UNDER REVIEW flag (top right hand corner of the page) and submit your feedback. We consider all feedback given. This term’s policies will be approved at our next School Board Meeting on 29th March.
If you would like to contact the Board directly at any time, please do so through bot@stjosephs.co.nz
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Little Steamers: We are now going to be offering our Little Steamers club for students from Years 0-2 that will run from 3-4pm on Wednesday afternoons alongside our usual Steam Club. Led by Ms Sarginson, this club will explore the introduction of computational thinking skills using tools such as our BeeBots, Mice, Lego, and Makey Makey systems. We are only taking a very limited number to start so please get your names in quickly to Mrs Mravicich if you are interested in your child participating. Email lorim@stjosephs.co.nz
Attendance Dues: Unless you have set up regular automatic payments, all Term 1 Attendance Dues should now be paid. If you are able to pay your 2023 Attendance Dues in full, it would be appreciated, as this creates less work in the office. Thank you.
If you have any financial or wellbeing concerns, or need support in any way, please contact our principal, Mrs Hall: principal@stjosephs.co.nz or phone 092387745. We will do our best to help you.
 Skool Loop App: Keep in touch with what is happening at school through the Skool Loop app. It’s free to download! Parents can easily access school notices, newsletters and alerts. SMS the school about absences through the app. In a school emergency if we need to contact parents this is the quickest way to get a message to you. Please re-download the app to ensure that you have the latest version and do not miss out on any important information.
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School Swimming Sports: We had a brilliant day at the Y5-8 swimming sports yesterday, 28 February. There were races for all students; freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke for our competitive swimmers and novelty races for our non-competitive swimmers. Well done to Chanel who won the popular House Relay. Of course, the much anticipated bomb competition was a hit with only a few of the teachers getting soaked. I guess this is a warm up for the ‘Dunk the Teacher’ stall at the school fair. All in all, it was a great day, with great sportsmanship. Thank you to all the parents who were able to take the time to support us.
Learning in Arahi: We are nearly finished Week 5, half way through the term! Despite the disrupted start, the Year 7&8 students have settled in very well to their learning and the expectations of being leaders at our school. Our new Year 8 leaders have taken on their roles with pride and the Year 7s are diligently working hard to fulfill their roles and responsibilities. This term, we have a large focus on attending Mass and developing a deeper understanding of the rituals and meaning of parts of the Mass. As part of their Lenten pledge, Arahi will be attending church every Friday this term. So far, we have had very positive feedback from the parishioners about the behaviour and participation of our older students. We are very proud of them.
Upcoming Events for Arahi:
4 March 10am – World Prayer Day. We will be attending this at St Patrick’s Church, with some of our students taking part in readings.
10 March 11:00 – 1:15 – Help needed for cooking our Hot Dog lunch – please email Mrs Burns if you can help. This is a Year 7&8 camp fundraising activity.
11 March – School Fun Fair – If you would still like to help, but havent had a chance to offer, please get in touch with us now. We still need more adult helpers.
15 March 7pm – Winter Camp fundraising meeting. All Arahi parents are encouraged to attend.
Fair Volunteers
If you have signed up to help out with our fair, whether that’s setting up, packing down or on a stall we will be having a meeting on Thursday 9th March 6:30pm in the school hall. We still need helpers so if you are willing to do a longer slot (2 hours instead of 1) or if you can jump on a stall please let me know.
Thanks Jenni
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