Principal’s Letter – April 6

ST JOSEPH’S CATHOLIC
SCHOOL
TAKAPUNA

Principal’s Letter – April 6

Principal’s Letter – April 6

Dear Parents and Whanau

Welcome to Holy Week. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday. Yesterday we had the unique opportunity to participate in the Palm Sunday Mass by watching it online. Monsignor David Tonks celebrated this Mass for the Diocese of Auckland in our own St Joseph’s, Takapuna Parish Church. All the Easter celebrations for the Auckland Diocese will be online this year. While we are not able to gather as a school, or as a parish, to pray at this very special time in our church calendar, we are able to do it within our families. Suggestions for Prayer at Home over Holy Week 2020 is a resource your family might like to use to celebrate Holy Week in your home.

National Lockdown

We are now in our second week of our national lockdown. How is it going? It is certainly an interesting experience being at home 24/7 with a daily walk around the block. There is a variety of advice on how we can make this lock down a positive experience. Jacinda Adern had a conversation with psychologist, Nigel Latta, on tips and tricks to look after yourself while we’re all staying home to save lives. It is worth watching. Link

Term 2 Planning

The leadership team and teaching teams have been having online meetings planning for the new term.

Schools open Wednesday 15 April for online learning.

The feedback I have received from students, teachers and parents is that the Online Programme of Learning we have designed is one that the students are enjoying. This is great to hear as we wanted our Online Programme of Learning to be one that the children could do with relative independence, and to be one that they would enjoy, as well as being one that did not create any additional stress. 

We are very aware that every family will be having a different experience with their isolation. We have families who are essential workers, still working while caring for their family full time, families who are experiencing loss of employment, families who are having difficulties having children underfoot 24/7, and not having the ability to go out to do the various activities you would do in the holidays. And together we are all struggling with the challenge of a changed world – of isolation and uncertainty.

Our Online Programme of Learning is designed to be something fun that the children choose to do or that you can use as a way of entertaining your children. It has not been designed to replicate the teaching and learning programme that occurs in the normal school day. Please use our Online Programme of Learning as and how you want to as a family.

There are no set expectations from teachers.

They will continue supporting children with their activities in the new term. They will provide new activities to challenge them, should the children wish to do them. Teachers will also continue to respond to any parent queries in the new term.

The key to learning is that it must be fun and children are always learning whether or not it is a school designed activity.

Wellbeing and Welfare

The Ministry of Education have provided a range of resources and links focused on wellbeing and welfare. They are listed below. They contain a wealth of information for us all. Please read and share them.

Prayers

Our Staff and Board of Trustees have you all in their prayers. This is indeed a challenging time for us all. Pope Francis, in his address to Italy said:

“Let us try, if we can, to make the best use of this time: let us be generous; let us help those in need in our neighborhood; let us look out for the loneliest people, perhaps by telephone or social networks; let us pray to the Lord for those who are in difficulty in Italy and in the world. Even if we are isolated, thought and spirit can go far with the creativity of love. This is what we need today: the creativity of love,”

May you all make the best use of this time with family fun through the creativity of love.

Ka manaakitia koutou e te Atua.

Alister Bridgman

Tumuaki

Wellbeing information updated including new tip sheets for families, caregivers and whānau

We have slightly updated the wellbeing information on our website to better reflect how the COVID-19 response has changed over the last weeks. Included in there are three new tip sheets for parents, caregivers and teachers:

If you know someone who might be struggling in your school or early learning service community, there are a large range of supports in place that may be able to assist including:

Information in languages other than English:

Welfare

If you are aware there are people in your community who cannot get access to essential goods such as food, they can contact the local Emergency Coordination Centres (ECC), part of Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Groups. These groups coordinate the regional multi-agency response and provide a range of support activities.  This is intended for people who don’t have any other options available to them and operates 7 days a week from 7am to 7pm – https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/resources/news-and-events/news/cdem-group-0800-numbers-for-supporting-communities/  
  
Further welfare supports include:

2020-04-06T15:13:01+00:00 6th April 2020|

Contact us

address St Joseph’s Catholic School, Takapuna
2 Taharoto Road
Takapuna
Auckland 0622
New Zealand

phonePhone: +64 9 489 4994

mailoffice@sj.school.nz