Term 2 Week 4 6 01 June 2023 Newsletter #08
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Tena Koutou Katoa Talofa Lava Kamusta Malo e lelei, Mauri Malo ni Faka talofa atu Namaste Greetings to all
What a wonderful celebration the Pentecost Mass was this past weekend. Seeing so many of our children in their cultural dress and speaking in their native languages was a treat. I know the pride both my mother and I felt sharing a video to all our relatives back in Croatia of her grandson saying a Prayer of the Faithful in Croatian. By celebrating the diversity that exists within our school community and by promoting inclusivity, we teach our children to respect and value every individual, regardless of their differences. Let’s continue to encourage them to be inclusive and kind-hearted, fostering a sense of belonging for everyone. As always, we appreciate the time and effort that goes into preparing for these masses, and so we extend our thanks to our DRS, Mairéad Gallagher, and all the staff and students that participated in our mass on Sunday. You are all wonderful role models of our school values of; To Love, To Learn and To Lead.
Thank you to all the parents and caregivers who picked up their children at an earlier time yesterday so that our teachers could hold their union meeting. The systemic underfunding in our education system needs to be addressed. To keep you informed, our key issues are; improved support in the classroom for the growing diverse needs of our children, providing more staff to improve student/teacher ratios, more recognition for the work primary teachers and principals do, and providing pay rates that meet inflation and that will attract and retain teachers to the profession. Teachers play such a vital role in our schools and the conditions for teachers are the conditions for our children’s learning. To all the parents who have expressed their support for us in our endeavours, it is greatly appreciated.
We would like to officially welcome Mrs Upashna Nadan to our Arahi (Yr 7&8) Team. She has commented to me on how welcoming, friendly and helpful the staff and students have been to her this week, another example of the beautiful spirit that exists within our school.
Lastly, please save the date, Friday 30 June, for our Grandparents Day/Matariki celebrations. Supported by our PTA, this has fast become a yearly tradition for St Joseph’s, and a very special day for our school community; we hope you are able to celebrate along with us. More details around the day’s events will be forthcoming.
Have a lovely, relaxing long weekend.
God bless
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Term 2 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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Pentecost School-Assisted Mass – Sunday 28 May
The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem ten days after Jesus ascended to heaven. Divided tongue shapes as of fire that appeared among them and settled slowly on each of them. All of the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other languages as the Holy Spirit enabled them to. You can read on from Acts 2:5 to hear the rest of the story about the events of Pentecost Day.
This meant that the disciples would have to live their faith publicly, not behind closed doors but out and about among the people despite their fears of being persecuted, because they had been followers of Jesus who was crucified. They were expected to carry on the teachings of Jesus, baptise people as he did and perform miracles as he did. This they could do only because of the power of the Holy Spirit within them. The Holy Spirit replaced their fear with courage and strength so they could begin the work of the Church to spread the good news / rongo pai of God’s love for all people, just as Jesus had taught them.
We too have a call to discipleship just as the apostles did at Pentecost. Through worship and humble acts of service in our ordinary daily lives, we too can carry on the teachings of Jesus and draw others to Christ (Christian witness).
Here are some photos from our beautiful Mass last Sunday. There was a wonderful feeling of community, cultural celebration and inclusion. We sang Holy Spirit songs in remembrance of Pentecost and our prayers of the faithful were spoken in other languages – Te Reo, Croatian, Samoan, Kiribati, Tongan, Filipino and Japanese. At Communion time Rupert Archer sang Schubert’s Ave Maria in German and our Ako 2 students performed actions to Wairua Tapu in Te Reo. We finished with Michael Mangan’s Holy Spirit rock which had a very Pentecostal feel!
Special thanks to all who attended this Mass.
  
Caritas Stop It! Challenge & Mufti-Day
On Friday 16 June, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our tamariki will participate in the Caritas STOP IT! Challenge. This means we will observe one whole day without the use of devices, which encourages us to appreciate that the material luxuries we are so used to are not a reality for tamariki in other countries such as Fiji. Students will be expected to ask whanau and friends for sponsorship for this 24 hours off devices. Sponsorship forms will go home in the coming days. Sponsorship money can be paid directly to Caritas online or else to us here at school. All info will be on the form. That day we will also have a gold coin donation YCC Day (Your Choice of Clothiner – Mufti) All money raised will support the work of Caritas in Fiji.
St Pat’s Kids Choir
The Kids’ Choir has practice tomorrow, Friday 2nd June at 3pm at the Church. Next week’s practice is Thursday 8th June at 3pm. The Choir will sing at 5pm Mass on Sunday 11th June.
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KING’S BIRTHDAY THIS WEEKEND – NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!
It’s That Time of Year Again: With the colder weather months comes an increase in the number of both staff and students who are unwell. We have already noticed a spike in the number of tummy bugs, flu symptoms and cases of Covid. Please keep your children at home if they are unwell, Covid test them, and please inform the school if they test positive.
PTA Meeting: We are holding a PTA meeting on Tuesday 13 June at 7pm in the staff room. We would love for you to join us. Thanks Jenni
Aroha News:
In Aroha we are enjoying our learning through many experiences including collaborative writing, fitness, learning about the Past and Present (Now and Then), fractions and learning about how the Holy Spirit works within us – to name a few. It has been great seeing new friendships developing in Aroha and students showing how they lead, love and learn in and out of the classroom.
Ako 1 News:
We are all working very hard in Ako 1 and loving learning. We are looking forward to finally going on our rescheduled visit to the Howick Historical Village on the 15th of June.
Ako 2 News:
We have had a busy last two weeks, finishing writing up our persuasive speeches, students will present their speeches next week to their kaitiakis, before the top 4 from each class present their speech to the entire team. We have some great topics and we can’t wait to hear them. On Monday Ako 2 went to the Howick Historical Village as a part of our Term 2 Concept. We had an amazing time and our students all looked very dashing, prim, proper!
Arahi News: We want to say a very warm welcome to Mrs Nadan. We have loved welcoming you into our learning community. Parents, please make sure to pop in and say hi to Mrs Nadan. We have had an exciting week working with the EPro8 Kits. These are engineering kits with pulleys, levers, wheels and other engineering equipment where students are tasked to work together to problem solve, follow instructions and construct simple machines. We would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who baked and helped out at our bake sale on Sunday. The baking sold out so incredibly quickly…must’ve been due to the scrumptiously delicious treats provided and the high calibre of our sales team. Once again, thank you very much for contributing. We made $423.20 in baking sales and sold 1.5 boxes of chocolates.
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School Centennial 8-9 September
Registrations for our School Centennial are now open. Please fill in the form at the following link https://www.stjosephscentenary.co.nz/register-now We look forward to reminiscing and celebrating with you.
Year 5 and 6 Barbarians : On Sunday 29th May, our Ako 2 boys represented our school in the annual Barbarians Tournament held at Bruce Pulman Park. They played three games, winning 2/3 games. There were many comments made by the public about their great sportsmanship and the way they carried themselves. We are very proud of their efforts and how they represented our school. A big thank you to Dane Rowlatt for coaching the boys, and all the parents who supported them on the day.
School Disco Coming Up!: Please note that it will be in the school hall this year. Tickets will be on sale starting Tuesday 6 June. Please send the ticket money to your child’s kaitiaki teacher.
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