Dear Parents / Caregivers

On the 24th June, New Zealand is celebrating Matariki. It’s a time to celebrate new life, to remember those who’ve passed and to plan for the future. And it’s a time to spend with whānau and friends – to enjoy kai (food), waiata (song), tākaro (games) and haka.

Tūpuna (ancestors) would look to Matariki for help with their harvesting. When Matariki disappeared in April/May, it was time to preserve crops for the winter season. When it re-appeared in June/July, tūpuna would read the stars to predict the upcoming season – clear and bright stars promised a warm and abundant winter while hazy stars warned of a bleak winter.

Because Māori follow the Māori lunar calendar, not the European calendar, the dates for Matariki change every year.

Te Wānanga Aotearoa has a website which has great information about Matariki that you might like to check out.

Our school celebration for this special day on the New Zealand calendar will be held on Thursday 23rd June. We are inviting all our school families to breakfast, beginning at 7.30am. Please join us for this school community event. In order to assist us with catering, please complete this google form

Should it rain, the breakfast will be postponed to Thursday 30th June. Families will be notified by an automated email if there is a postponement.

The following topics will be covered in this weeks Principal Message:

• Matariki Breakfast
• Matariki Public Holiday
• Staffing
• Rabbits
• Community Notices
• PTFA Fundraising

Ka manaakitia e te Atua

Alister Bridgman

Tumuaki

School CLOSED Friday 24th June

Schools throughout the Auckland region are experiencing ongoing staffing difficulties with COVID and winter illnesses. These difficulties are further enhanced by the current shortage of teachers available for relieving. This has seen schools closing and moving to distance learning for a period of time, or implementing a timetabled programme when specific classes stay home on specific days.

Teachers, like students, are not permitted to come to school if they have COVID symptoms, COVID or are in household isolation. This also applies to our pool of relievers. To date, we have been able to manage the staffing to ensure all homegroups are covered each day.

While we endeavour to provide homegroups with the same reliever, this may mean that homegroups can have different teachers throughout a week, if the homegroup teacher needs to be absent for a period of time.

The “constant”, is the programme of learning. Teachers plan together as a team. The planning is done online. Relieving teachers have access to this planning and therefore can deliver the intended planned programme for the day.

Please ensure you do not send your child to school when they are displaying any symptoms of illness. Please keep your children and home until the symptoms have cleared.

Thank you for your support in ensuring that the spread of winter illnesses is minimised in our school community.

Message from one of our St Joseph’s families:

We are hoping to find a new, loving home for our two mini lop eared Rabbits. We’ve had them for three years but we don’t have appropriate outside space for them. So we have made the difficult decision to let them go somewhere where they will have more space to run around.  They are very cute and friendly. Brother and sister – must stay together – Tiger and Jumpy. Both de-sexed. A hutch and run are provided but it’s not big enough for them to stay in all day. They’ll need an area of the garden to play in. We will be very sad to see them go, so would really like to pass them on to someone in the St Joseph’s School community so that we know they’ll be looked after well. Please Contact Jo on 02102868289 if you think you can help. Thank you!

Please check out the latest community notices that are on our website:

• Kelly Sports Holiday Programme
• Birkenhead Holiday Programmes
• Rippa School Rugby Holiday Programme
• Badjelly the Witch

Dad’s Pies & Rolls!

There is nothing better than a warm pie, fresh from the oven in the winter months – they’re a delicious lunch after winter sport or the perfect dinner on a raining day served with mash and mushy peas! Yum!

NB: All products come bagged and frozen. One box = 22.5cm W x 39cm L x 10.5cm H.

Dad’s Pie options:

Standard Pies – $45 per box containing 12x 200gm pies

• Classic Mince
• Steak & Cheese
• Mince & Cheese
• Pepper Steak
• Beef, Bacon and Cheese
• Bacon & Egg
• Chicken and Bacon
• Buffalo Style Chicken
• Butter Chicken

Specialty Pies:

• Gluten Free Angus Mince – $65 per box containing 12x 180g pies
• Vegan Mince and Cheddar – $60 per box containing 16x pies

Dad’s Rolls options:

• Sausage Rolls – $45 per box containing 24x 120gm sausage rolls
• Garlic & Cheese Rolls – $45 per box containing 24x 120gm rolls
• Beef Rolls – $55 per box containing 18x 200gm rolls
• Vegan Sausage Rolls – $60 per box containing 24x 120gm rolls per box

Surti Samosas

As New Zealand’s only major manufacturer of samosas, Surti take pride in being locally produced using locally sourced ingredients whilst maintaining “the traditional taste of India.” Surti Samosas are precooked so you can just pop them in the air fryer to enjoy as an after school snack or enjoy fresh from the oven for lunch or dinner!  All products are Halal-certified.

Surti Samosa options:

Surti Samosa’s are 110gms (just shy of a pie!)

Carton of 24 Samosas – $60 each

• Vegetable
• Lamb
• Butter Chicken

Bag of 10 Samosas – $25 each

• Vegetable
• Lamb
• Butter Chicken