Kia ora whanau

Isn’t it great to be back. We were delighted to welcome all the children back to school. We have a number of new children and and new families. We look forward to welcoming you all at our Week 3 Friday (23 February) School Prayers, in the hall beginning at 8.50 am.

Thank you to the many families who came in on the 1st & 2nd of February to meet with their child’s teacher. It is very important for teachers to meet the families of the children they teach. Through developing the family/teacher connection, we are better able to support your child.

There is another opportunity to catch up with your child’s teacher at the Whanau Family Picnic on Friday 16th February from 5.30pm – 7.30pm. There will be food trucks on the court area and families can bring their picnics picnic and spread out the picnic rug on the bottom field. There will be team signs so you can meet other families in your child’s Home Group / Team, as well as your child’s teacher.

The first two weeks of the school year are focused on the children developing their relationship with children in their Home Group, their teacher, and teachers in their team. Over these eight days they are doing a variety of team building, relationship building activities. They have been doing these activities with their Home Group this week. Next week they will continue these Home Group activities in the morning and in the afternoon they will be involved in a team rotation. This will see each Home Group doing an activity with another teacher in their team. They will have met each teacher in their team by the end of the rotation. This has been designed in order that all children and teachers in the team, get to meet each other and have time to interact together.

As a school, we have a strong focus on a wrap around support for our children. This includes the child’s family, their Home Group teacher, the teachers in their team, and the greater staff.

On Wednesday, February 14th, we will be celebrating Ash Wednesday. We will be having a school liturgy in the school hall beginning at 11.15 am. Whanau are welcome to join us.

• Welcome
• Whanau Family Picnic
• Government Policy/New Timetable
• Waterwise Instructors Course
• PTFA
• School Fee Payments 
• Kidz Can Music Company Notice 
• Community Notices

Kiwi Team:

Johaana, Sophia, Hazel, Samuel, Ria, Quinten, Michael, Astro, Celestine, Zoe, Kyan, Rafael, Ethan, Ryio, Bianca, Chris, Rowoon, Wesley, Alexious, Ella, Gia and Ann

Kakapo Team:

Peyton, Wayne, Bryce, Patrick, Felix, Harry, Kassandra, and Joanna

Kakariki Team:

Hugo, Ryan, Maggie, Juliet, Caierah, Austen, Sergie and Emil

A very warm welcome to all of our new students.

We are so pleased you have joined our St Joseph’s School community! 

At the end of last year, the Secretary for Education shared with Principals the expectations of the Government regarding their “One Hour Reading, One Hour Writing, One Hour Maths Policy”.

“One Hour a day reading, writing and doing maths for student years 0 – 8

From the beginning of Term 1 2024, schools and kura with students in Year 0-8 will spend an average of one hour a day teaching reading, writing and maths (pānui, tuhituhi, and pāngarau). This could be in dedicated lessons and in other learning areas as students read, write and engage with maths in a variety of purposes and contexts.

Teachers will deliberately and purposefully dedicate time to teaching these core skills. Teaching techniques like investigations, collaborative learning and games will continue to be used so students stay engaged with their learning

This change sets a clear expectation that all year 0 – 8 students should receive regular, focused instruction in these core areas. Many schools and kura are already teaching an hour of reading, writing and maths each day.

Learning to read, write and do maths is important in everything we do. Daily teaching has been shown to lift student progress, when coupled with a high quality curriculum taught using evidence-informed teaching practices.
Tahurangi-New Zealand Curriculum”   Tahurangi-New Zealand Curriculum

The NZ Catholic Bishops Conference has had a similar expectation in place, since 2011, with the teaching of their NZ Religious Education Curriculum, that all Catholic Schools are required to deliver. For the age group our school caters for, the expectation is 20 – 30 minutes a day, 4 – 5 days a week.

At our Teacher Only Days at the beginning of the year, the teachers reviewed both the “One Hour Reading, One Hour Writing and One Hour Maths” Government policy, and associated expectations and guidelines; along with the NZ Bishops Religious Education expectations and guidelines.

For 2024 we will be implementing the following programme to ensure we are continuing to meet both the NZ Bishops and the NZ Government’s expectations.

As you will see, this timetable meets the expected requirements.

The day begins and ends at the same time. The morning break will change to 11 am – 11.25 am and the lunch break will change to 1.10 pm – 1.50 pm. There is an additional brain food break at 9.50 am. The read and feed along with 10 minutes for eating lunch, are still in place prior to the two main breaks.

The whole school will be running to this timetable and programme.

The timetable and programme will begin on Monday, the 19th of February. The times of the breaks will remain in place for 2024. The programme will be reviewed by the teachers at the end of each term.

Children will continue to do their additional activities like library, swimming, Waterwise, ETOC trips, along with school Masses and liturgies and attend parish masses through the term.

We are looking forward to carrying out this timetable and measuring the impact on the children’s learning.

PUPUKE SCHOOLS WATERWISE INSTRUCTORS COURSE
A Waterwise Instructors Course is planned for March/April 2024.
Dates:-
Thursday 21 March – 4pm – 8pm. Introductions. Theory session. Course aims and objectives –
discussion of manual – (which will be distributed before course starts)
Rigging an Optimist, How to sail, Capsize drill – swim wearing a buoyancy vest.
Monday 25 March – 4pm – 8pm. Sailing. Safety craft set up and use. Theory session two
Wednesday 27 March – Sailing and Safety craft use. Theory session three.
Thursday 4 April – Sailing and Safety Craft use. Final theory session.
Sunday 7 April – 8.30am – Noon – Sailing and Safety craft use practice session
Plus a date to be advised one day 4 – 8pm in the next week 8 – 11 April
All sessions need to be attended, if there are any queries or problems with dates please discuss
with Gordon McLeay Course Coordinator 0212178731 bgmcleay@gmail.com

As we have welcomed a substantial number of new students this year, we thought it would be timely to post a few reminders when it comes to making school fee payments:

• School statements can be viewed on the @School App under the black “Accounts” icon.
• We ask that payments towards the Attendance Dues are made on a regular basis as directed by the Auckland Catholic Diocese. They also ask that the Attendance Dues are paid in full by the beginning of Term 4, if not before.
• Payments can be made in full; on a term-by-term basis; or via automatic payments (weekly/fortnightly/monthly). The amount/frequency of payments is up to parents’ discretion.
• When making a payment, please include your child’s name and their home group as a “reference”. 
• There are no facilities to make payments in the school office. Payments are made via direct bank deposit to the St Joseph’s School account (# 12 3026 0270264 00).
• Please keep in mind, school fee payments are only entered into our system on a weekly/fortnightly basis (not in real time). So, your statement may be slightly out of date. Simply check back the following week if you can’t see your most recent payment.
• Statements are occasionally emailed in bulk to parents as a reminder; however it’s up to parents to keep track of where they are with payments.
• No statements will be sent home with your children.
• Contributions towards Teaching & Learning, Capital Works and Special Character are tax deductible.
• Tax receipts for the current tax year can be viewed/downloaded on the school app. If you require past tax statements (from previous years), please email Lizzy and she can send them to you (secretary@sj.school.nz).
• You can view the school fees on our school website, as well as see an explanation of what the Attendance Dues and contributions go towards. https://www.sj.school.nz/finance/

St Joseph’s School – Kidz Can Music Company Flyer

Please check out the latest community notices  which you can find on our school website.