Term 2 Week 3 Newsletter #4

Tena Koutou Katoa    Talofa Lava     Kamusta    Malo e lelei    Mauri   Malo ni  Faka talofa atu    Namaste   Greetings to all

We are well into Term 2 and our students are looking very smart in their winter school uniforms. Although cold this week, I hope everyone was able to enjoy the sunshine over our mothers’ day weekend. What a spectacular night sky we had on Saturday evening!

Today is Support Staff Day! We extend our sincerest gratitude to the invaluable support staff who tirelessly contribute to the smooth functioning of our school. Their unwavering dedication, from ensuring the cleanliness of our environment to providing essential administrative support and of course support to our students’ learning. This mahi  greatly enhances the teaching and learning experience for both the teachers and students alike. Their hard work behind the scenes does not go unnoticed, and we deeply appreciate the positive impact they all make on our school community every day. Thank you for your commitment and tireless efforts.

I wish to thank those parents who stood for our recent Board bi-election. It was pleasing to see so many parents interested in being more involved in our school and I hope you will consider standing again in our 2025 elections. Our newly elected parent rep on the school board is Davina West. She has two children, Maia and Isaac, in our school. Joseph Emelio is our newly selected Proprietor’s rep. He is the father of Rosalinda. Robin Burns is our newly elected staff representative.

You would be aware of the government’s recent emphasis on regular student attendance in schools. At St Joseph’s, we have been monitoring daily attendance for some time and I am pleased to say that this term we are already meeting the 2030 goal of 80% of children attending 90% of the time i.e. with only up to 5 days absence a term. In the last two weeks, we have had an average of 94% attendance. Thank you for trying to send your children to school every day. If you are interested in more information about student attendance, follow this link: A guide for parents and caregivers

https://parents.education.govt.nz/essential-information/attendance-every-day-matters/ 

It is pleasing to see children coming to school with a wide variety of healthy lunch options; such lucky children. Remember we discourage pre-packaged food as the only option for your child.

Our teachers are currently completing a paper with Te Kupenga Catholic Theological College on the Old Testament. This is quite a commitment which includes six face-to-face 3 hour modules and three written assignments. This week we finished our fourth session at a twilight meeting. You will know that many of my teachers are mothers with young families and so I thank them for prioritising their personal faith development and knowledge as a teacher in a Catholic school.

Winter sports are underway. You would know through reading your child’s Term 2 Team Letter that during Terms 2&3 we encourage children to bring a change of old clothes when playing sport on our wet and muddy fields. I enjoyed going to watch our Y5&6 at Franklin orienteering last week and football is coming up shortly. Our older children are busy writing their speech topics for the term and soon to practise their Proclaiming the Word prose; both opportunities to develop confidence in oral language and speaking in front of an audience.

A couple of reminders for our next few weeks. We have Book Week in week 5 which will include a book character parade. We haven’t done this for some years so it will be exciting to see what our children come up with. And another reminder of our Teacher Only Day on June 4th which gives you an extra long four-day weekend with King’s Birthday Monday on June 3rd. I’m sure you will be looking forward to this mid-term.

I hope to see you this Sunday at our school-assisted parish 10 am Mass at St Patrick’s Church. It is Pentecost Sunday and we encourage our children to wear any national costume that may be relevant to them. Pentecost Sunday commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit on Mary, the Apostles and other disciples enabling them to speak different languages and enlightening them to go out to spread the Christian church’s mission to the world. This is an important feast day for our Mission Sisters as their vocation was also to go out on mission.

I wish you and your whānau good health as we move into our winter season.

SchoolDocs: Policies and Procedures 

https://stjosephspukekohe.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm

In Term 2 we are reviewing topics in the Governance and Management, Parents and Whānau, and Documentation and Self-Review Policy sections. Not all policies are reviewed by parents. This term parents are invited to comment on the following topics: Equal Employment Opportunities, Teacher Relief Cover, Safety Checking, and Police Vetting.

Click on the Current Review tab on the banner, scroll down to Term 2 review topics where you will find links to the policies being reviewed this term, read over the policy, then Start your review and submit your feedback. We consider all feedback given. This term’s policies will be approved at our School Board Meeting on 26th June.

Our next Board meeting is on Wednesday 22 May.

If you would like to contact the Board directly at any time, please do so through our email address schoolboard@stjosephs.co.nz 

The St Joseph’s School Development Trust

The St Joseph’s Development Trust was formed in the 1990s.  At that time the school did not meet the diocese’s criteria for funding the new school hall, so the school and parish community fundraised and built the hall themselves. The Trust was established as a mechanism to fundraise separately from the school and to build, operate and own the hall building. 

Since that time, the Trust has funded through donations received from the school community, parish and benefactors, for other capital works. It operates to receive donations and assist when there is a shortfall in the funding for chosen capital works that are not funded by the diocese or the school board.  This means that those capital works can be completed faster and to a higher specification because the Trust can provide some contribution towards the works when there are shortfalls from the diocese or MOE. Works that the Trust has assisted with in the past ten years, include the site development and beautification, structural changes to classrooms, additional steps up to decks, improved lighting, contributions towards playground, play and safety equipment, turf and shade sails.

The Trust also administers the maintenance of the hall and oversaw the repair work that was required as a result of the fire in the hall in 2017.

The current trustees are all ex-parents of St Joseph’s pupils. None of the trustees currently have children at the school. The trustees consider it vital that the Trust is representative of the school community and therefore that it has a representation of current parents as trustees. We are looking for parents who have experience or knowledge in various areas including building, engineering, site development, trust management, legal, accounting or government tender and policy work. Most importantly, we are looking for people who are community-minded and have the interest of our St Joseph’s School Community at heart. The Trust only meets 1-2 times a year in the evening, so it does not involve a large time commitment.

If you are interested please let our principal, Ursula Hall, know.

Our next St Joseph’s School Development Trust  AGM and Trust meeting will be held at 6:30 pm, Wednesday 3 July, in the school boardroom.