Term 1 Week 9 Newsletter #05

Term1 Week 9                                 31 March  2022                                  Newsletter#05

Principal’s Message

Tena Koutou Katoa    Talofa Lava    Kamusta    Malo el lelei    Mauri    Hello Everyone

We are quickly heading towards the end of our first term at school and I am pleased to say today we have 90% of our children back at school and no staff isolated at home. With the latest Red Level guidelines, we are nearly back to normal at school. Wearing masks inside, for our adults and Years 4-8, continues to be our biggest protection measure other than being vaccinated.

I will remind you that Omicron is not a mild illness, and we will continue to send home children who are unwell.  We understand the MOE will be supplying schools with RA Tests. When we receive these, they will be sent home with children who are symptomatic. Parents can now come back into the school grounds but we ask that you do not enter any of our classrooms.

Tomorrow your children will bring home their Term 2 Progress Report to help you (Child/parent/Teacher) to set their next learning steps at their goal-setting meetings. We have decided to carry on with these meetings via zoom as planned. I hope you have been able to book in a time. Please see below to find out more information on how to book. 

At school, we are looking forward to Holy Week and Easter ceremonies. Our Years 3&4 students, Ako 1, are preparing a Palm Sunday liturgy for us and we are hopeful our Year 7&8 students in Ārahi will be able to reenact The Stations of The Cross on our school grounds (weather permitting) and that parents might be able to join us. We will let you know if this is possible soon. I know Father Robert is looking forward to seeing more of us coming back to Sunday Masses and celebrating the Easter Vigil (Saturday evening) in our school grounds.

The children are very excited about the Easter Raffle. There will be multiple draws so please consider letting your child buy a $1 ticket. All funds raised will go towards our Y5&6 Camp in Term 4 making the camp more affordable for every child.

As you know, it’s great for any child’s wellbeing and learning to be at school with their friends, teachers and other school staff. You also know that we have very good systems in place to keep everyone as safe as possible. We hope that all of our children return to school soon. 

Stay safe and God bless.
Ngā mihi nui

Ursula Hall
Principal – Tumuaki

KEY DATES

     KEY DATES  TERM 1

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

Special Catholic Character

Since we are at the “red” traffic light setting, NZ Catholic are providing, free of charge, a digital link to their latest issue.  

https://indd.adobe.com/view/020aaf8c-8cb2-45cb-be32-6e89083cecec

School Board News

School Board Elections 2022

This year our next triannual School Board Elections will be held in September. Every board member brings their own unique set of skills and experiences to the board. As a member, you will need to work well in a team and have good communication skills. You may have financial skills and experience in managing people, knowledge and understanding of particular communities within your school, or experience working within the school and wider community. Please consider standing for our School Board elections later in the year. 

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

School Notices

Progress Reports will be sent home tomorrow, Friday. Please note that the automated absence comment does not always reflect Covid absences correctly. In some cases your child’s high absences is due to Covid isolation while a low absence may reflect your child’s involvement in distance learning programmes from home.

Term 1 Child/Parent/Teacher Goal Setting Conferences   – These sessions will be held on Thursday April 7th (week 10) and Tuesday April 12th (week 11) between 3:00 and 8:00 pm. As in previous years, we will be using the School Interviews online booking system but, the sessions this year will all be done online via Zoom (no face to face meetings). Please log in to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use booking code fqjrw  to select your times or use the link below to go directly to our school’s event. 

https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/code/fqjrw

Please contact the school office on 09 238 7745 if you have any questions.

School will finish early at 2:30 pm on both our child/parent/teacher conference days in order for teachers to have a break between the end of the school day and the beginning their zoom meetings   If you are unable to pick your children up at 2:30 pm, they will still be able to wait, as usual, for collection by 3 pm inside the school gates.

Covid-19 Omicron Information: 

If your child is unwell, do not send them to school.  If your child is being tested please let the school know, and when you receive their result (negative or positive) please let us know that too. This information helps us to be prepared. 

If there is a positive result within your household, then all must self-isolate from the day the person with COVID-19 tests positive until they complete 7 days of isolation. All members must get a test for COVID-19 on Day 3, and on Day 7 of the isolation period, or sooner if they develop symptoms. 

If someone else in your household then tests positive, you do not need to restart your isolation period. You can complete your isolation at the same time as the first person in your household who had COVID-19 if:

• your Day 7 test was negative
• you have no new or worsening symptoms

We assure you that we are following the same strict health and safety guidelines at school to mitigate the risk as much as possible. Mask wearing and the monitoring of symptoms remains one of the best ways to keep ourselves and others safe. 

Here’s a useful website https://howlongtoisolate.co.nz

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE DUES
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Financial assistance is available to assist families who may need financial
support with the payment of Attendance Dues for preference students attending
both primary and secondary Catholic schools in Auckland Diocese.
Families facing financial difficulties can contact their school office, their Parish
Priest, or Auckland Common Fund Ltd at the Catholic Diocese of Auckland on
09-360-3069 for further information.
Application forms for this assistance are available from school and parish offices,
or can be downloaded from the Catholic Diocese of Auckland Website:

https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/catholic-schools-2/ 

Attendance Dues are the compulsory component of the school account and that Attendance Dues are paid for every child who attends a Catholic School in New Zealand. Without this charge, the CDA would not be able to provide new buildings, build new schools, repay the loans incurred for recent new builds or pay insurance and compliance costs on integrated buildings.

Please remember to contact Mrs Hall if you need any assistance with your child’s attendance fees. Start making a regular weekly / fortnightly payment now and as long as you have demonstrated that an effort to make payments has been made, at a level you can afford, we can support your application for assistance.

School Events 

Easter Raffle for Ako2 Camp Fundraiser

In Week 8 we will be selling raffles for our annual camp fundraiser. 
We will be selling the Easter Raffle for $1 and our Fruit Tree Raffle for $2 we are hoping for multiple winners. 
The raffle will be drawn on the last day of school – Thursday 14th April.

Ako 2 Inspiration Walk:  Last week Ako 2 embarked on an inspiration walk around Pukekohe as part of our Concept learning: Tūrangawaewae – My  Place, Your Place, Our Place. Each Kaitiaki explored a different part of Pukekohe to be inspired by the local places that make Pukekohe the cool place that it is! This week students will begin their assignment, which is to create an advertisement to promote Pukekohe. We look forward to sharing these by the end of the term! Thank-you to all of our amazing parents who came along to support us.

A big congratulations to all our certificate recipients last week. You have made us all proud and you should be proud too. 

Ako 1 News:  In  Maths we have been learning how to work out the volume of boxes using cubes.  This has involved a lot of investigating and thinking.  As we are learning about Our Place we have gone back in time to this term to learn about Pukekohe.  To end the term we are looking at fossils, thinking like Scientists and Palaeontologists to work out what creatures fossils once were.

Arahi News:  As you can see from above with swimming, Stations of the Cross and the Rosary for Ukraine, we have had a busy couple of weeks. It has been great to have most of our students back and to do what we do best…learn. In maths, we have been continuing to learn skills in measurement, such as volume and area. In Year 7&8 we try to solve these types of problems using decimals. The students have also been sharing their writing with their peers and learning to action the feedback that has been given. It is really great to hear the conversations of the students supporting one another and giving constructive advice. On Wednesday 30 March, we were extremely lucky to have John Wilcox from A.S. Wilcox & Sons come in to speak to the team about farming in Pukekohe. Our inquiry focus this term has been around understanding the place in which we call home, Pukekohe and the wider Franklin area. Be sure to ask your tamariki why Pukekohe is considered the food basket of New Zealand. We are looking forward to exploring our local area during our hikoi (walk) next week on Wednesday 6th April. 

Community Notices

USEFUL COVID INFORMATION 

We know that being fully vaccinated and boosted reduces the risk of severe illness due to COVID-19. We are encouraging all adults in our school who are working with students to be vaccinated including their booster. If they are eligible, I encourage you to get your child vaccinated, too.

You may still have questions about this. Follow these links to a video that answers many of the common questions about the vaccine:

Common questions about the vaccine (English) – KidsHealth

Common questions about the vaccine (te reo Māori) – KidsHealth

Like the links above, KidsHealth has some other great resources you may be interested in:

Why wearing masks and creating airflow helps – KidsHealth

Back to school with Omicron in 2022 – KidsHealth

FULTON SWIM SCHOOL HOLIDAY INTENSIVES // April 2022.  

Have you booked your child into our School Holiday Intensives yet?  Is your child hanging out for more learning time in our pool?  Do you want to give their water safety and confidence a boost?  Book your child online now for our Holiday Intensive program (select their normal class level).  Swim one week or two, the choice is yours.  Secure your space now www.fultonswimschool.co.nz

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