Years 5 & 6 students, their teachers and an extraordinary group of parent helpers took off for camp on Monday morning. Thank you to everyone for your car park patience!
All the stories I have heard,and also from spending the day out at Camp on Tuesday, I have had clear indications that the camp experience was very successful, with many students overcoming reluctance and fear, trying out new activities, eating all their food with relish and no complaints, and most importantly being extremely supportive of their peers. Thank you so much to Mrs Erika Bon, who took the bulk of the responsibility for camp organisation, and her supportive teaching team, who enabled this event to happen, and then for it to be so successful. We are extremely grateful to the parents who stayed overnight, those who were day helpers and all parents for preparing your child for camp in a variety of ways. Parent helpers at camp really supported the children and often quietly took children aside and gave them extra chances to try something they had balked at earlier in the day. I am sure there will be some photos and writing published before long!
Our first Friends of St Joseph’s Meeting was held on Monday night . Already plans are afoot for social events and fund raisers. Funds raised from last year are already paying for the new i Pads in every classroom; subsidising the cost of Mathletics to keep costs down for parents and supporting the purchase of Word Q – a computer programme enabling assistance with vocabulary and spelling to writers.
As well as i Pads in the learning environments, the BOT has leased Chrome Net-books and each class has some of these too.
Years 3, 4 5 & 6 go Rosmini for HPE (Health Physical Education) once a week and are also involved in some online interaction, in a project called “Over the Back Fence”, in which senior boys act as tutors for the younger children. This is the 5th year it has been happening. Geoff Woods, who is the co-ordinating teacher from Rosmini, has recently written an article for the New Zealand Catholic Education Office publication Lighting New Fires and Ms Iskandar was asked to contribute comments on the impact it has for our school:
Over the Back Fence
I have been part of the ‘Over the Back Fence’ project since its very early days in 2010. I have taken part in both the physical sessions and the online health sessions. Over the years I have seen many benefits of the project (not just related to PE skills)for both the Rosmini boys and our children at St Joseph’s Primary School. One of the major benefits I have seen throughout the years is that our children are able to see the mercy value of ‘manaakitanga’ in action. It puts the concept of hospitality and ‘reaching out to others’ into perspective for our children as they are able to see how welcoming the Rosmini boys are to us – they are not only welcoming us onto their school grounds but they are also giving up their time to help us with our PE skills.
The project consists of ongoing reflection happening with teachers involved and Geoff Wood, as weekly we offer each other feedback on what worked well and what could be done better. This reflection is acted on as Geoff will either go back to his boys to tweak their planning or we will go back to our children and discuss what changes we need to make (often behaviour based). It is evident that the reflections are acted on, as week by week you see progress in the boys’ interactions with the children and their planning.
Meidy Iskandar Teacher at St Joseph’s catholic School Takapuna
We celebrated our beginning of year school Mass on Friday, welcoming our new children, staff members and Father Elric. A representative from each class received the new candles which have been beautifully decorated with our logo and prayer that incorporates our school’s vision:
“St Joseph, pray for all members of our school community that they love God, love learning and fully give of themselves.” If you want to have a look at one, try the prayer tables in your child’s room or the prayer focus in the foyer.
Following the Mass, our Year 6 students had a Leadership Day, with a guest speaker, activities around leadership and presentation of leadership badges. Photos will follow.
Thank you all for how well you have supported your children in their return to, or start at school. It is not easy to get back into routine and the heat and humidity of the last week has certainly been trying. Never mind, like the children, and Mother Mary McKillop, we need to “have an attitude of gratitude” and be thankful for what we have and not be moaning about what we don’t have!
Have a great week.
Phil