Term 2 Week 6 Newsletter #5

To Love/AROHA	To Learn/ĀKO	To Lead/ĀRAHI

St Joseph’s Catholic School

“Excellent Education befitting our Catholic Character”

94 Seddon St Pukekohe 2120

Term 2 Week 6 6 June 2024 Newsletter #5

Principal’s Message

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

I hope you enjoyed your extra long King’s Birthday Weekend with your family. On Tuesday, our teachers joined other teachers from the Franklin area for a Teacher Only Day. We joined together at the Due Drop Centre, Manukau, and were entertained by the prize-winning Pukekohe North Kapa Haka Group, which was stunning. Throughout the day we listened to presentations by Dr Russell Bishop and Dr Alison Davies (both renowned NZ educational experts), Te Kahu Rolleston (a Maori spoken word poet and educator), and we were entertained by Te Radar (a New Zealand comedian and television personality). It was an inspirational and powerful day with the opportunity to re-energise with our local teaching colleagues,

I spoke in my last newsletter about the government’s recent emphasis on regular student attendance in schools and was pleased to inform you of our average daily attendance. This is different to “regular student attendance” by your child. I recently received information from the Ministry of Education about our Term 1 2024 Regular Attendance Data. This is calculated differently from the daily average. In Term 1, we had 68% regularly attending (over 90% attendance), 20% irregularly attending (80-90%), 6% moderately absent (70-80%), and 6% chronically absent (less than 70%), which is more than 15 days away from school in Term 1. When you register your child’s absence on the eTAP app, you can track his/her absence percentage.

I continue to stress to you about lateness to school and the MOE data showed that only 64% of our students regularly arrive at school each morning on time. That means 90 students are regularly late to school. Often we have over 20 children signing in late on one morning – that is almost a whole classroom of children. Parents, you need to ensure your child is at school in their classroom when the bell goes at 8:45 am every morning. That means they need to arrive at school earlier than that. Our first school bell goes at 8:30 am which is the ideal time to arrive, giving your child time to hang up their bag, bring items into the classroom, and catch up with friends or their teacher before the school day starts. Remember, as a Catholic school, we begin our day with prayer. This is an important aspect of our school life. When your child is late, they often disturb the class by coming in late at morning prayer time and miss out on an important part of our Catholic school life.

I know everyone enjoyed Book Week and Thursday’s Book Character Parade. The children excitedly showed me their costumes and explained their reading bingo challenge. It was wonderful to see everyone excited about all the ways they can read.

Next term we will be opening an additional classroom in Room 13/Aroha. While we welcome the growth in our school numbers, it does mean a reshuffle of some of our Year 1 students for the remainder of the year. You will be notified before the end of the term if this movement concerns your child.

As our winter weather sets in, I hope you stay warm and dry and keep the winter ills at bay.

Nga manaakitanga ki a koe.

Special Catholic Character

Values Awards

Maia West: ARAHI: For showing leadership when she volunteered to go first in our team’s Proclaiming the Word competition. She is a wonderful example to others.

Liam Millar & Tilly Wilson: ARAHI & AKO: They have been coaching their peers in speech-writing. Tino pai!

Hifo Lolo & Loti Mamatuki: Aroha: always quietly helping out without being asked. They take great care of our environment.

Ongo Fakava: Aroha: For supporting younger students during Jump Jam, showing Aroha to someone who was nervous about doing Jump Jam and normally does not like to participate. But Ongo encouraged him in a loving way to join in and he did! Both of them were dancing, smiling and having lots of fun during our fitness.

Proclaim the Word Finalists 2024

Congratulations to this year’s Proclaim the Word Finalists. They will be participating in our school final this Friday and we wish them all the very best of luck.

Year 2: Caleb Hewitt, Aubree Knowles, Xanthe Kempthorne, Hannah Logan

Year 3 / 4: Maia West, Jake William, Lucy Watling, Destine Arthur, Sophia Hewitt, Desiree Fermin

Year 5 / 6: Leanne Domingo, Keith William, Renzo Johnston, Rosalinda Emelio, Marius Vicente, Aria Bal, Marjiam Pena (in absentia on Friday)

Caritas STOP IT! Challenge

This Friday 7 June, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart we will all be participating in the Caritas STOP IT! Challenge. This means we will have a day of no devices, so please don’t bring Chromebooks to school.

This is to walk in the shoes of those who do not have the privileges we have, in countries which Caritas supports.

All tamariki have been given a sponsorship form which they can hand these in to teachers on Friday morning.

For more information about the Caritas Challenge and the important work Caritas does, visit https://www.caritas.org.nz/caritas-challenge

Pentecost School-Assisted Mass

We were so proud of our tamariki on the Feast of Pentecost. They represented their cultures and our school with so much mana. The power of the Holy Spirit was indeed at work! Thank you to all whanau for supporting your children to participate in this very special Mass. Special thank you also to Davina West for her support with the music. Years 4-6 ākonga contributed lovely baking and raised over $600 for our Year 6 camp.

Bishops send latest NZ Synod consultation document to Rome: Towards October 2024

A new consultation document prepared by the bishops as part of the Holy Father’s Synod 2021-24 process has been sent to Rome.

This document, titled Towards October 2024, follows the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference being asked to establish a consultation process to discern responses to specific questions related to the Vatican’s Synodal Church in Mission report. That report was published after the First Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, held in Rome last October.

National Catholic lay organisations, agencies of the bishops conference, religious, diocesan bodies, educational institutions, young people’s groups, parish groups and groups involved in previous synodal processes took part in the consultation, between February and April this year.

A statement about the document Towards October 2024 and the document, are online here: https://www.catholic.org.nz/news/media-releases/synod-4/

St. Pat’s Kids Choir

We will be singing this Sunday 9 June at 10am Mass

New members wishing to join – email maireadg@stjosephs.co.nz

Upcoming Practices: Wednesday 12 June & 26 June. No practices 19 June or 3 July.

Key Dates

Term 2 Key Dates

Please note these dates are subject to change For further dates see calendars on the website at: www.stjosephs.co.nz or the eTAP app

School Board

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 26th June.

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.

School Notices / Upcoming Events

School Attendance Dues

Term Two Attendance Dues are now due for payment.

Please pay your account in full at the beginning of each term, or by regular automatic payments into our account: ASB 12-3023-0338374-01 ref: student’s name

Term One Attendance Dues should now be paid in full.

We would like all 2024 Attendance Dues to be paid in full before 30 November.

The Catholic Character Contribution is a voluntary contribution forwarded to the Catholic Education Services Board. The St Joseph’s Development Trust Contribution is a voluntary contribution which the Trust is extremely grateful to receive. This is used in our school for improvements to our site and facilities. Both of these voluntary contributions are tax deductible.

Parent Communication

Congratulations!! We have most families on the eTAP Caregivers App now.

If you do not have this app you will miss out on important information and dates.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NOTIFICATIONS TURNED ON IN THE APP AND IN YOUR DEVICE SETTINGS.

Dedication to our loved ones on Matariki

Matariki is a time to remember those who have passed, celebrate the present and plan for the future. Matariki Hunga Nui: Remembrance is honouring those we have lost since the last rising of Matariki. We would like to honour those of our whānau – family that have passed in the last year in our upcoming Grandparents day liturgy. If you have someone that you would like to honour please email the following details;

Full Name (of the deceased)

Date of birth – Date of death

Students in the school that they are related to e:g Uncle of (child’s name)

Attach a photo

Please email the above information to suitk@stjosephs.co.nz no later than 20th June

Friends of St Joseph’s School/PTA

Grandparents Day is coming up on the 27th June. We need parents to help serve tea and coffee to our wonderful grandparents. Please let Jenni know if you are available to help at jenniferl@stjosephs.co.nz We also ask each whanau to bring in a plate of food for the morning tea in the hall. If your eldest child is in Arahi (years 4-6) please bring something savoury and if your eldest child is in Ako or Aroha (year 0-3) please bring something sweet. These can be dropped to the hall on the morning of the 27th June.

STEAM Club

Steam Club and Little Steamers will continue this term. There will be no Steam Club or Little Steamers on Thursday 4th July.

Second-Hand Uniforms

The second-hand uniform shop is open on Mondays and Thursdays 2:30 – 3:00 pm.

ROAD SAFETY

Please encourage and support your children to use our two crossings on Seddon and Dublin St. It is very dangerous to cross right opposite both our small gates. Please be good role models for our tamariki and use the crossings during school drop-off and pick-up.

HEALTHY SCHOOL LUNCHES

Please provide your child with a healthy school lunch. This could include sandwiches, rice, crackers & cheese, yoghurt, fruit, vegetables etc. Too many children are coming to school with food in packets. Sometimes this is the only food they bring and is not nourishing for developing brains.

We wish to remind you that we are a water-only school.

Celebrations

Aroha We thoroughly enjoyed Book Week celebrations and meeting the author Victoria Muir. We thought her story “The Queen of Clumsy” was very funny. Each day we shared big books, tiny books, old books, baby books and our newest book. We completed Book Week celebrations with our amazing dress up book parade.

The Queen of Clumsy was a book about Margie and her special and unique talents. In Aroha we wrote about our special and unique talents. Here is some of our writing.

Ako Our team have loved book week, meeting a real-life author, dressing up and learning about our teachers’ favourite picture books. Last Friday, we visited the Botanic Gardens at Manurewa to learn about the Goodness of God’s creation. We learnt how plants grow and how our native plants are suited to their habitat. A big thank you to all the lovely parents who came with us.

Arahi Our Year 4’s made us super proud yesterday with their Liturgy of the Sacred Heart. They gave us amazing examples of how to live our lives with a Sacred Heart. Tino Pai Year 4’s.

The teachers were extra excited about Book Week!

Community Notices

Come work for us – Advocacy Lead at Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the Catholic bishops’ agency for justice, peace and development, part of a global federation. We’re on the hunt for an Advocacy Lead to join our team and bring about positive social justice through education, advocacy, and Māori engagement. The ideal candidate will have strong writing and research skills, experience in an advocacy and/or policy position, and a relevant tertiary qualification. Reporting to the Chief Executive of Caritas NZ and the Regional Coordinator of Caritas Oceania, they will be responsible for contributing towards the establishment of the advocacy function and framework for Caritas Oceania and Caritas NZ and coordinating programmes aligned to the Caritas mission. This role offers an exciting opportunity within a close-knit Wellington-based team. Visit https://mclaren.co.nz/vacancies/?ja-job=4240637

Click to participate or learn more: https://aut.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Cip0TC9wLfEIXc

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Call us on 09 238 7745

Email us at stjoesoffice@stjosephs.co.nz

94 Seddon St Pukekohe 2120

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Term Dates 2025