Dear Parents & Whanau,

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums in our school community. We hope that you have a wonderful Mother’s Day with your family and that they spoil you.

It was lovely to be able to welcome back the children this week. They have returned refreshed and excited to see their school friends and teachers.

There are many wonderful learning experiences planned for this term. This includes the Jellybean music programme which is being taught by Kevin Kim. Kevin is a professional recorder player who also plays piano and ukulele. All of the home groups will be having weekly music workshops with Kevin this term. This is thanks to the PTFA Christmas Concert fundraiser at the end of 2019. This fantastic initiative will see our children receiving an amazing music experience, while their teachers can develop their teaching of music skills, which is a part of their progressive learning.

The Principal’s Message will cover the following topics:

• Welcome
• Teacher Only Day
• Gold Coin Mufti Day
• Communication
• PTFA
• Writing Workshop
• Jellybeans

Ka manaakitia e te Atua

Alister Bridgman

Principal

Welcome to our new students and our new families. It is wonderful to have you all join our school community. Welcome to Lorien, Benjamin, Martina, Seraphine, Liam, Amaia, Michael, Leo, Anna, Xavier, Ethan, Lino, Izabella, Arvin, Grace and Cyrus.

SCHOOL CLOSED

On Thursday, May 13th our school will be closed. St Joseph’s, along with Rosmini College and Carmel College are having a Teachers Only day. 

Friday, May 14th we will be having a Gold Coin Mufti Day for the people of India. As you will be aware, the people of India are battling COVID-19 and the daily number of cases continues to grow. The money we raise will go to NZ Caritas who in turn are supporting India Caritas.

This week you would have received an email containing your child’s Term 2 Team Newsletter. This newsletter has also been posted on the school website under the “News” tab – “Team Notices”.

On Wednesday you would have received information about the new @School Parent App. We are developing the ways in which we are communicating. The School Website and App will be central to the school’s communication channels.

As the App is new, we are still in the process of developing systems around its use. An example of this is “Accounts”. Currently school fee payments are entered manually, several times each month. Therefore when you look at your child’s account statement, it may not be completely up to date. Eventually our accounts system will be connected to the App which means your child’s payments will be updated automatically in real time.

Chocolates

Thank you for your support of this fundraiser. If you still have chocolates and/or money, could you please return them on Monday.

Meeting

The next PTFA Meeting is Monday, May 10th. Everyone is welcome to this get-together which begins at 7:15pm in the Staff Room.

PTFA Facebook Page

If you haven’t already, please join the St Joseph’s PTFA & Community on our private Facebook Group. Search for “St Joseph’s School (Takapuna) PTFA & Community” under “groups” on Facebook. You will need to answer a simple question before you are granted access. See you there!

Dear Parents,

There will be an information session for all parents/volunteers interested in helping with Story Writing in our new entrant classes

The programme we use at St Joseph’s School is based on individual children initially receiving adult assistance as they begin to write.  Therefore, we are most appreciative of any help you can give in the classroom from Monday to Thursday, from 9.05 a.m. for approximately an hour to an hour and a half. This session will be held in the staffroom on Wednesday 12th  May at 2.00 p.m. We would like all Parents or Grandparents who would like to help with our story writing programme to attend, if this is possible. It is crucial that we are consistent with our method of helping the children.

If you have helped with Story Writing in the past and now your children are older and you have some spare time in the mornings, please consider attending the session as refresher and then helping in one of the classrooms.

Debbie Pratt (Mrs)

Associate Principal/HG 18 Teacher

Kiwi Team