Dear Parents / Caregivers

We’ve had a great first week back at school for Term 3.

We had an action packed Term 2 and all of the Teams have lots of exciting activities planned for this term.

Thank you to everyone for following the guidelines which we’ve put in place under the “Orange Alert Level”. We appreciate you all doing your part to keep our staff and tamariki safe.

It’s great that we have been able to return to our finish time of 2:50pm and we thank you for your patience with the pick up procedure.

The coffee cart was in full swing this morning for the BOT meet and greet – lovely to see people coming along to say hi and find out a bit more about what being a Board member involves.

The following topics will be covered in this weeks Principal’s message:

• Welcome To Our New Students
• Kahui Ako – Rosmini Baking 
• School notices
• BOT Elections
• Sacramental Programme
• Community Notices

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at principal@sj.school.nz

Kind regards

Laura Bateman & Natasha Luxford

Co-Acting Principals (Term 3)

During Matariki, as part of a Kahui Ako initiative, 25 students from the Kakariki Team volunteered to be part of a collaboration with the Rosmini Food Technology department. 

Before we left school, the children learnt about Matariki and the constellation of stars. During our session, some Year 13 Rosmini students assisted our Year 5 & 6 students to design, bake and decorate Matariki themed cookies. 

They had an amazing time and were able to share their creations and the spirit of Matariki with their families and friends. Below is a recount written by Yuan, one of our Year 6 students.

Matariki Baking at Rosmini

Reported By Yuan

There were 25 of us, both Year 5 and 6, that went to Rosmini to bake Matariki stars! At school, we had to plan our design for each star, representing their meaning. 

After a while, we went to Rosmini and a Rosmini teacher came to us and we followed her and some other Year 13 Rosmini boys to the food tech room. We put on hair nets and aprons, and the teacher leading the work informed us of our first instruction. 

One person in their group had to get the butter, another had to get the flour, and another got the other ingredients, while the last person waited. All of the ingredients were put together in a bowl and were mixed. The dough was created and stayed in the fridge until we needed it. The dishes we used were scrubbed, rinsed, and washed to make them clean.

A while later, the teacher told us that there were some pre-baked stars for us to design with icing and sprinkles. She taught us about using the icing and detailing with a toothpick. You had to dunk the star in icing, then use the toothpick for different colours of icing. The final result was laid on each group’s black paper and arranged like the Matariki cluster. 

The dough in the fridge was used, by rolling it thin and flat, and cutting it out with a star cookie cutter. Twelve were made by the groups and then baked in the oven. We used this time waiting for the stars to bake to clean the counter we worked on. 

Finally, our stars were done, and we were given bags to put our own creations inside to share with our friends and family. We had lots of fun and we hope to go and bake at Rosmini again one day.

Drive by pick up

If you are doing the drive by pick up option, it is really helpful if you could please have a sign that is clearly visible in the windscreen or on the dashboard of your vehicle, with your child’s full name and home group number. This speeds the process up for everyone.

Reporting an absence

On days that  your child is absent, please use the link on the school web page to notify the school before 9am. By reporting the absence on the website , both your child’s teacher and Julie Kelly (in the school office) will receive notifications. Please refrain from ringing the office to report the absence.

Thank you!

Reminder: School Board Nominations Close

Wednesday August 3rd 

A reminder that nominations for the five parent representative positions on our school board close this Wednesday, August 3rd. Nominees do not need to have a child at the school.  

To nominate yourself, or someone you know: 

1. Visit https://myschoolelection.nz 
2. Click the ‘My Nomination’ button  
3. Select ‘St Joseph’s Catholic School (Takapuna)’ and fill in the rest of the form. 

If more nominations are received than there are positions, voting will take place between Wednesday, August 10th to Wednesday, September 7th. 

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