Kia ora whanau,

Wow, what a busy term we have had. It was great that we were able to open up towards the end of the term and return to ‘school as normal’.

Some of our highlights from Term 3 have been – The Commonwealth Games, MSports Rugby promo day, Rippa Rugby Activation programme, Parent/Teacher/Student conferences, Rippa tournament, Gymnastics lessons, Strike Music performance, ICAS Competitions, Kakariki speech competition, Jester’s Pie Day, Kakapo North Harbour Gymnastics Trip, Social Justice Week, School & Cluster Cross Country days, Kiwi & Kea Swimming lessons, PTFA Quiz night, North Shore Football tournament, Life Education lessons, Cans for Christmas appeal, Queen Elizabeth II Memorial, Kakariki Market Day and ending the term by celebrating Mercy Week. 

Thank you to all of the Parents and Caregivers who have been able to come in and assist with some of these school trips. We really appreciate it.

Today’s School Liturgy was focused around Mercy Week. This is an important week for all of us who belong to schools founded by the Sisters of Mercy. Last Saturday was the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy and today we celebrated the Mercy Charism of our school with our first whole school liturgy for the year. It is a special day to give thanks to God through Mary for the gift of mercy – Aroha, compassion and deep care for others.

Catherine McAuley’s Prayer for Children

My God, will belong to you forever. Teach me to trust in you because I know you love me and will always be near me.

Help me always to obey you though it’s hard. Take from my heart all fear.

Help me never to be sad, but always joyful, knowing that you are my God and that someday I will be with you in Heaven.

Amen

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

• Welcome
• Book Week
• Attendance Fees Due – Beginning of Term 4
• Board of Trustees
• Pupuke Waterwise Instructor Course
• Sports Edition Term 3
• Community Notices

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

Thank you for all of your kindness and support this term, as we have navigated and juggled our new responsibilities. We really appreciate it. We look forward to welcoming Mr. Bridgman back in Term 4.

Have a lovely holiday break upcoming.

Laura Bateman & Natasha Luxford

Co-Acting Principals (Term 3)

Please see the following link with all of the information that you need to know about our PAWSome Book Week!

Just a gentle reminder that school Attendance Dues should be fully paid by the beginning of Term 4, as requested by the Auckland Catholic Diocese.

You can access your child’s school fees statement via the @School App. Simply click on the black “Accounts” icon; then download the statement:

If you have any issues accessing your App or have forgotten your log-in details, please contact Lizzy (secretary@sj.school.nz) to reactivate your account.

Keep in mind, school fees are only updated 2-3 times per week. Please allow a few days for the statement to reflect your most recent deposit.

Payments are made via direct bank deposit to the St Joseph’s School account (# 12-3026-0270264-00). Please include your child’s name and home group in the “reference” section, when making the deposits. There are no facilities to make payments in the school office.

Should you find your current circumstances are making it difficult to pay the Attendance Dues, please contact the Principal directly at principal@sj.school.nz

Many thanks!

This week we welcomed our new Board of Trustees and held our first board meeting. We thank our Board members for their time and commitment, in helping our school be the best it can be.

The Kakariki Team are fortunate to be able to participate in the Waterwise Programme, run at the clubhouse by Lake Pupuke. This is a fantastic opportunity for our children to learn water safety & confidence, kayaking and sailing skills. We have some amazing parent volunteers that help out at these sessions and we are required to have a minimum number of trained Waterwise Instructors for these sessions to go ahead.

If this is something that you are interested in, we now have the October/November dates for the Waterwise Instructors Course.

Please see the information below:

Monday 17 October: 7pm- 8.30pm – Introductions, Theory session – Course Aims and Objectives – Discussion of Manual – (will be distributed before course starts)

Wednesday 19 October: 4pm- 8pm – Rigging Optimist, How to sail, Capsize drill, Safety craft set up and use. Theory session.

Tuesday 25 October: 4pm – 8pm – Sailing and safety craft use. Theory session.

Sunday 30 October: 8.30am – Noon – Sailing and safety craft practice session.

Tuesday 1 November: 4- 8pm – Sailing and safety craft use. Theory session.

*Plus a date to be advised 4 – 8pm (hopefully the next week) – Sailing and use of Safety Craft assessment session.

There is no cost for the training sessions.

If you are keen to get involved, please email laurab@sj.school.nz with your name and contact phone number to get registered.

UPDATES FROM THE COACHES & MANAGERS

NETBALL   

St Joe’s Twinkle Toes – Year 1

Twinkle Toes just finished their first year of netball and had a great time learning the game and making new friends.

St Joe’s Shooting Stars – Year 2

Our Year 2 netball team – the Shooting Stars – began the season with a mix of returning players and new ones to the sport. Throughout grading, the experienced players really helped the new ones learn the game, and the team had some impressive wins to qualify for the top competition grade. Naturally the wins got harder to achieve as the competition really levelled out, but the Shooting Stars rose to the challenge. The team was supported by a brilliant bunch of families who every week cheered them on from the side-lines. Out of seven competition games, the team won five, lost two, and scored a massive 59 goals to gain first place! It was very exciting for us all to watch the team receive hard earned gold medals at the prizegiving. Congratulations Olivia, Esther, Capri, Hannah D, Olive, Talia, Amaia, Erin, Hannah D’L, Mackenzie and Mekeia – we are all so proud of how much your skills improved, the level of netball played, the fair play displayed and the wonderful friendships made.

St Joe’s Diamonds – Year 3

The year three netball team had a great season, making it into grade one at Kidzplay netball. The team all played together fantastically well and made sure the opposing team had to work hard to score any goals against them!

St Joe’s Phoenix – Year 6

A big congratulations to the Year 6 netball team 1, who made it into grade one at Netball North Harbour this season. They played exceptionally well throughout the competition and it was fantastic to see their skills develop on the court and the girls really come together as a team.

HOCKEY   

St Joe’s Red Sticks – Years 4 to 6

Team: Grace, Chad, Thomas, Louie, Joseph, Paulo, Noel, Beckett

We had a great winter season. We had some wins and losses. We worked together and got to try different positions.
Thanks to Coach Steve for teaching us moves and good drills. Sometimes we would fall down and be sad after some games, but we stayed strong and never gave up. We had great support from the parents who came to every game they could see. We scored some great goals by teamwork and a lot of FUN!
– Joseph Dowd Yr 5

Congratulations on a great season winning the Year 5/6 open grade, 2nd division, a great result for a team playing together for the first time and some players new to the game of hockey. We take a break for Summer but look forward to playing again in Winter 2023.

FLIPPABALL   

St Joe’s Dolphins – Year 4

The team had a good term, coming 6th in their league and have improved a lot on their skills; plus they played really well as a team, all the while having fun in the pool.

St Joe’s Swordfish – Years 4 & 5

They won their final to finish 1st in the C grade division, remaining unbeaten all term!

St Joe’s Sharks – Year 6

Big shout out to St Joe’s Sharks year 6 Flippa ball team. Finished this term in 2nd place by Golden Goal in extra time to a very physical Campbell’s Bay team. The team has really focused on their team play this term and have made big improvements with every player in the team involved. Their sportsmanship is to be commended.

BASKETBALL   

St Joe’s Rockets – Year 1 & 2

Rockets Breakers Basketball team improved every week in their first year of basketball.

St Joe’s Hornets – Years 3 & 4

The Hornets had a fantastic term playing together – we had some new recruits and everyone played as a team. Great team spirit was shown throughout the term which shows in their results – we are currently first equal with one game to go! There has been a high level of cohesive play on the court and the players put absolutely everything into it each week. They really have come a long way together. Thanks to Coach Anthony and all the players’ parents for making it a great season so far. Gooooooo Hornets!

St Joe’s Warriors – Years 5 & 6

As a team with almost no experience in the sport, we have not yet had any wins but are working really hard.

And a HUGE “Thank You!” to all our other players, coaches and managers:

Netball

• St Joe’s Magic – Year 4
• St Joe’s Hot Shots – Year 6
• St Joe’s Dragons – Year 6

Flippaball

• St Joe’s Orcas – Years 2 & 3
• St Joe’s Marlins – Years 5 & 6

Basketball

• St Joe’s Raptors – Year 3
• St Joe’s Knicks – Years 3 & 4
• St Joe’s Magic – Year 5
• St Joe’s Heat – Year 5
• St Joe’s Celtics – Year 6

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