Term 3 Week 4 10 August 2023 Newsletter #12
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Tena Koutou Katoa Talofa Lava Kamusta Malo e lelei, Mauri Malo ni Faka talofa atu Namaste Greetings to all
Tena Koutou Katoa Talofa Lava Kamusta Malo e lelei Mauri Malo ni Faka talofa atu Namaste Greetings to all
We have settled into a very busy term. There are so many things happening. We have our school cross country today and next week our Year 7&8 Ārahi students are off to their winter camp in Turangi. This is the last year that we will have Year 7&8 students and the last year we will attend this camp; one that has been a tradition for our St Joseph’s School for many years. I know the children are excited as they prepare for this amazing opportunity. At St Joseph’s School, we don’t leave children behind (unless it is their parent’s wish) and our staff and families go above and beyond to ensure the camp is affordable for all. This year, Mrs Robin Burns (our assistant principal and Ārahi Team leader), has worked very hard with all of the fundraising initiatives. This fundraising and a successful grant application have contributed to significantly reduce the cost of the camp for each child. This is an amazing effort. I am sure these children will make life-long memories they can recall in future years.
Our Year 5&6 Ako 2 students are immersed in their production for our school centennial in September. It is the story of how our founding order, the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM), established the first Catholic school in Pukekohe – our roots. It was over time with the first St Mary’s Convent School growing, that our St Joseph’s School was built for the younger children in 1923. We have a lovely foundation story and I hope you can bring your families to the Thursday night public performance for our community. This will be advertised shortly.
Thank you for submitting your responses to our recent community health survey. Road safety continues to be highlighted as the topic that families ranked as being the most important. We are pleased that our new crossing on Seddon Street is finished; which included widening the footpath to our new school gate entrance. We are noticing the difference in traffic slowing down in front of the school. The seven key areas of learning in our Health & PE Curriculum are mental health, sexuality education, food and nutrition, body care and physical safety, physical activity, sports studies, and outdoor education. We have had some comments about sexuality education. To clarify, our objectives are about personal growth and development and these are always taught with an age appropriate Catholic lens. Teachers at Level 4 who cover our Positive Puberty lessons have all attended “Living Life to the Full”, a two-day course run by the Auckland Catholic Diocese.
Please read your child’s Team Newsletter sent home at the beginning of each term. In this, parents are informed about the upcoming education programmes in each area of the school.
There was great excitement at Tuesday’s assembly when Mr Tim Reynolds brought in our school bell. As part of our centennial preparation, Tim has had a clanger made so that we can ring our bell again. The bell (originally a ship’s bell) was on the west side of the original brick school building until it was demolished in 1988. Some of you may remember it sitting on a shelf next to our school’s front door before our latest renovation of the administration block in 2010. It was then hung on the external wall of the staffroom and has been a symbol of Leadership for our school ever since. Until today, it had not been rung for 35 years! We look forward to ringing this bell on special occasions, especially during our centennial weekend.
To our parents (or grandparents) who were past pupils or have been associated with our school through the years, we are looking for photos across the generations. We would love you to share these with us. Have you had a look at the “St Joseph’s School, Pukekohe – 100 Year Centenary Celebrations” facebook page?
We would love to see you at the weekend’s celebrations.
God bless
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Special Catholic Character
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Values Awards
Leilani Cairns – ARAHI & LEADERSHIP: For taking the initiative to teach a new item to the Pasifika Girls’ performance group.
Zach Afoa – ARAHI & LEADERSHIP: For stepping in to do AV at 10am Mass last Sunday.
Max Dittmer – ARAHI & AKO: He has been working hard, showing great Mathematical thinking and sharing his understanding in DMIC lessons.
Shircel Nunez – ARAHI & AKO: She is always contributing her ideas for our production dances.
Breonna Johnson – ARAHI & AROHA: For showing love and leadership to help new classmates to the school with their learning.
Isaac Galang – ARAHI: For showing respect and courtesy to his driver when getting on the bus after school. He was a good example to others and a credit to our school.
Assumption of Mary Feast Day Mass
Next Tuesday 15 August is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary to heaven. As this is a Holy day of obligation, our tamariki from Years 1-6 will attend Mass at 9am at the Church. Whanau are very welcome to attend. Please send a grocery item for the Parish food bank with your child, which we will offer at this Mass. You can send this Friday, Monday or Tuesday morning.
Assembly
Aroha tamariki presented a lovely liturgy at Tuesday’s Assembly about our school value of Aroha; showing the love of Jesus to all in so many ways each day at school and at home. Mr Reynolds brought our old school which has been refurbished for our Centenary, as explained by Mrs Hall above.
Congratulations to the Elive family – Sofia, Mateo, Noah and Josiah, who were all baptised recently at our Parish Church. Their Grandad was their sponsor.
St Pat’s Kids Choir
New members are welcome to come along to our Thursday practices at the Church.
Please note these dates on your calendars:
1) We will have practices on Thursdays this term 3pm – 3:40pm
2) There will be no practice Thursday 7th September and Thursday 21 September
3) Masses we will sing for: Sunday 27 August 5pm and Sunday 17 September 10am.
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Term 3 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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SchoolDocs Term 3 Policy Review
This term we are reviewing the Learning Support section: Learning Support Coordination, Identify Learning Support, and Gifted Learners.
Parents can view our school policies and procedures online by visiting the schooldocs website. SchoolDocs updates, modifies, or creates policies in response to changes in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools, and regular reviewing from the SchoolDocs team. To review:
- Visit the website https://stjosephspukekohe.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
- Enter the username (stjosephspukekohe) and password (mission).
- Select the Parents and Whanāu section on your SchoolDocs site
If you don’t have internet access, school office staff can provide you with printed copies of the policy and a review form.
If you would like to contact the Board directly at any time, please do so through our new email address schoolboard@stjosephs.co.nz
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School Notices / Upcoming Events
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St Joseph’s Development Trust:
The AGM of the St Joseph’s Development Trust will be held at 7 pm tonight, Tuesday 22 August, in our boardroom. If you would like to attend please let Mrs Hall know principal@stjosephs.co.nz . Thank you.
Attendance Dues: Term 1 and 2 Attendance Dues should now be paid. Term 3 attendance fees are now due for payment. Attendance Dues are compulsory. If any family is experiencing difficulty with paying their term/annual Attendance Dues due to financial hardship, please make an appointment with Mrs Hall to discuss the options available, or contact the Revenue Manager at the Catholic Diocese of Auckland on 09 360-3069. Financial assistance is not available for non-preference students.
NEW ENROLMENTS 2024
If your child, or someone you know, is turning 5 years old next year, we need them to enrol at St Joseph’s School now! Knowing how many children are coming helps us to plan ahead for our staffing. Please contact the office stjoesoffice@stjosephs.co.nz
Second hand uniforms
The second hand uniform shop will be open on Mondays and Thursdays 2.30 – 3.00pm.
Mitre 10 Sausage Sizzle – If you are doing any DIY this Sunday 13 August, pop down to Mitre 10 for a sausage cooked by our fabulous Arahi students and parents as we gear up for our last few weeks of fundraising before we head off to camp.
We would like to thank Hellers and Bakers Delight for donating the sausages and bread.
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 then displayed in the new entrance way of the administration block which was built in 1992.
In June 2010, after sitting for 22 years, the bell was hung on the outside of the renovated St Joseph’s administration block, facing north, not far from its original position. In 2022, the bell was taken down again, this time to have a clapper and rope made in order for it to be rung on special occasions; the first being our school centennial on the 8-9 September 2023. We thank Mr Tim Reynolds once again for organising this for us.
Pasifika Group – Last Friday we took a group of 40 students from our Pasifika boys and girls performance groups to entertain the children at Te Akonga preschool for their Pasifika Week celebrations. Everyone enjoyed the session and it was great to see the tuakana-teina between the older and younger children and to build those connections within the community. They were wonderful representatives of our school.
Aroha News
With the term in full swing there have been many things that we have been enjoying in Aroha. One highlight is that we LOVE Footsteps, where we have been learning the different elements of dance through exciting dance routines. Our favourite dance is called Superheroes! Some of our classes were also lucky to have a couple of lessons in tennis. It was super tricky to hit the ball, but it was great to see everyone give it a go. We are always impressed by the resilience of our students who are learning new things every day. We are seeing great examples of Aroha with students welcoming our newbies into our school. We love school and we love learning. Ka rawe Aroha!
Arahi News
This week we were fortunate enough to have a group of our Kiribati mothers and aunties come into the school to teach the girls in Arahi how to create some of the traditional Kiribati costumes worn. We definitely weren’t as quick as the mums, but everyone quickly learnt the basics and are looking forward to completing their pieces in the coming weeks before our Pasifika Week celebrations. We also had our final Footsteps dance lesson with Jenna. These lessons have been so much fun, learning to dance to four different songs…even one that our parents would know…’Boogie Wonderland’. If you ask nicely, maybe we will show you some of our moves. As you know, we are off to camp next week. Once again, thank you to everyone who has contributed to helping us get there!
Ako 2 News
We are always busy in Ako 2 at the moment, with our production well underway. In Literacy we are learning how to describe setting and characters using figurative language to make our writing more interesting. In maths, our students have been working hard to understand the connection that fractions, decimals and percentages have with each other. Right now we are learning how to add decimals together.
Last week we had our two netball tournaments where we placed in every grade we entered. A huge congratulations to all teams that participated! A big thank you to Renee Farrell, Carla van Tiel, Casey Morrison, and Shellee Samuel for coaching our teams, we could not have done it without you. Next week is our last footsteps dance lesson!
Don’t forget to get tickets to the productions. Every child in Ako 2 is involved, whether it be acting, dancing, singing, art or stage crew.
Ako 1 News
We have had a busy last few weeks in Ako 1. Our students have represented our school at the netball tournament, they all showed fantastic sportsmanship. We have been fortunate to be able to participate in tennis lessons at school, run by the local tennis club. This has been an enjoyable experience and who knows, we might have the next Wimbledon champion in the making! Ako 1 have also been hard at work in the classroom, our focus this term in writing is poetry. We have loved writing, editing and publishing our poems.
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St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College transition meeting for parents/students tonight Thursday August 10th 6-7pm at St Joseph’s School Hall.
Playground upgrades in Pukekohe
Franklin Local Board wants your ideas about how to renew the playgrounds at Colin Lawrie Reserve and Jutland Road Reserve in Pukekohe. Please share your ideas at akhaveyoursay.nz before 25th August.
AKOTECH CodeCamps October School Holidays – FREE PRIZE & EARLY DISCOUNTS
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Develop confidence & initiative through design, creativity, solving problems, presenting & collaboration. Create your own games, worlds and apps to make our world a better place.
We also have Literati Lab just for girls, which includes AI Art & Animation.
Enter our competition to win a FREE 4 day pass to one of our CodeCamps
Pukekohe Christian School: 25th – 28th September
Book Now at www.akotech.nz
Competition: www.codecamp.co.nz/competition
EarlyBird Save Up to 21% Until 25th Aug
Siblings Save 6%
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