Dear Parents,

Today has been a lovely day of celebration. It included the final school Mass for the year, Christmas Carols and the “Thank You Morning Tea”. It was wonderful to see so many parents and whanau at the school celebrations.

The Principal’s Message will cover the following topics:

• Edmunds Cup
• Farewell
• Welcome
• Last School Day for 2020
• Mufti Day
• Angel Tree
• Sports Reports

Ka manaakitia e te Atua

Alister Bridgman

Principal

The Edmonds Cup is presented each year to a Year 6 student. It acknowledges the participation and contribution the student has made to the life of St Joseph’s in the fields of leadership, empathy for others and upholding the Special Catholic Character. Congratulations to Meera Thomas who is this year’s recipient.

We farewell Hilary Miles, Rosalind Gould, Harriet MacPherson, Rachel Leahy and Josie Tschan. We thank them for all they have done to support our students and staff. We wish them every success for their futures.

We welcome back Alice Simmers and Meidy Lambert to our school community. We also welcome Angela Murdoch, Michelle McEwan and Niamh O’Reilly. We look forward to them all joining our staff in 2021.

Tuesday 15th December: 1:00pm

On Monday and Tuesday next week, students can wear mufti.

Thank you for the gifts we have received to date. If you feel as a family you could contribute new gifts in one of the following categories, please place them in the labeled baskets in the school office foyer:

• 4-8 year olds
• 9-13 year olds
• Teenagers
• Mothers or Fathers

Please do not wrap the presents. They will be wrapped by our Parish Youth Group.

The Winning Game

Every week on Tuesday, the St Joseph’s Knicks play basketball at North Harbour. Recently we won our final game. The score was 12 – 4. We came 3rd place out of 14 teams. We were so excited that we came 3rd place!!! The team was Will, Cory (me) Seth, Joseph, Nathan, Raphael and Mason (me). We were so proud of ourselves and our coach Ashton.

By Mason and Cory

St Joseph’s Hornets Big Win!

The St Joseph’s Hornets basketball team got a victory on Wednesday the 10th of December 2020. They were playing the Campbells Bay Blue team. The St Joseph’s Hornets were losing at the first half. Then we stepped up the game. In the end the score was  14 to 10,  the St Joseph’s Hornets WON. Yes, the St Joseph’s Hornets won and came first in the Junior Breakers League. The whole team got a medal, had a photo and then celebrated with McDonalds. Thank you Matt Walsh and Janie Ryder for coaching and managing our team!

By Isaac and Terrence

And Last But Not Least… Year 5 Celtics Win Their Final Game

The Year 5 Celtics recently won their final game, getting 11th place in their league. They were in a league with mostly Y6 teams and had a tough start to the season.  They lost their first six games, then tied a game, winning the last two. They could have become despondent, however they showed up to every game and played their little hearts out. This was especially tough as they won their league last year, going from being a big fish in a small pond, to little fish in a big pond!  So great to see good sportsmanship, resilience and fight in this awesome Y5 team.

(parent contribution from Camille)

Victory For the St Joseph’s Dolphins!

This Sunday the St Joseph’s Dolphins versed Kristin for the top place in the Flipperball competition. We jumped confidently into the water and we were nervous at the same time. Then the whistle went, so James rushed out to get the ball the rest of us dove into water. James snatched the ball out of the air, as quick as lightning and passed it to Sam. Then Kristin tried to wrestle for the ball but Sam quickly passed it to James, who shot a goal. We got the ball again and again, scoring goals. It was getting so intense struggling to defend, we got fault after fault but we stayed strong. Finally the whistle went and we had won! The score was 3 to 2 to us at the end of the game! We rushed up to get the jelly beans and the shiny gold trophy. “HOORAY”, we shouted! We had won. We proudly held up the trophy for the parents to take photos. VICTORY is sweet! Thank you to our coach, manager and parents! 

By Hayley and Sam