Dear Parents & Whanau,

Welcome to the end of Term 2. 

Today Team Kakapo had a wonderful early morning learning celebration. This saw the children showcasing their projects on animals they want to ‘save’, sharing with their parents and fellow students. It is great to see them sharing what they have learnt about their animals and why we need to be saving them. These projects reflect our school’s self-directed learning philosophy, and the students owning and being responsible for their learning. It is wonderful to see their excitement as they talk to you about their animal.

Thank you to our staff for all their support of our students and their learning through this term. We are truly blessed with a wonderful, passionate, dedicated staff who always keep our students at the centre of their day at school.

The Principal’s Message will cover the following topics:

• Student Led Conferences
• Teacher Only Day
• Maths Professional Development
• Term 3 Dates
• Mufti Mania
• PTA Update
• Team Kakapo Expo

Ka manaakitia e te Atua

Alister Bridgman

Principal

Thank you for attending the student led conferences. These provide a wonderful opportunity for the children to share all their learning with you, with the support of their teacher.

Term 2 has also seen the new reporting process, where you see your child’s report on the @School parent app. Both the format of the report and the delivery of it are new.

This is the beginning of our journey to “real time” reporting – the students and their teachers sharing samples of the learning that is happening and an opportunity to see the progress being made throughout the year (rather than just twice a year).

In Term 3, there will be an opportunity to provide feedback on both the format of the report and the @School parent app.

Thursday, August 10th, our school (along with Rosmini and Carmel Colleges) will be having a Teacher Only Day. The schools will be closed to students. Please put this date on your calendar.

In 2019, the staff began a professional development programme on the Mathematics Curriculum and the delivery of it. The programme has been restarted this year, after it was put on hold in 2020.

The programme includes staff participating in workshops with the facilitator who provides demonstrations of teaching lessons, working alongside the teachers.

Two concepts the teachers are being encouraged to do are to make greater use of materials in the maths lessons and to make great use of mixed grouping cooperative learning. Both the concepts assist all students with their learning in maths.

Teachers will be working with the maths facilitator through the Teacher Only Day.

Here are several dates to take note of for Term 3:

• July 26 – First day of Term 3
• August 2 – PTA Meeting 7:15pm
• August 5 – Cyber Safety Information Evening 7:00pm
• August 10 – Teacher Only Day
• September 10 – Cans for Christmas Collection Day
• September 13 – Book Fair Week
• September 17 – PTA Quiz Night 7:00pm
• September 24 – School Cross Country Day
• October 1 – Last day of Term 3

Thank you for the gold coin donations for today’s NZ Catholic Primary Schools’ Mufti Mania. As a school, we raised $600.00 – a truly AWESOME result! The money will go to children and families in need via Caritas New Zealand.

Thanks to everyone for your support.

Jester’s Pie Day

A MASSIVE thank you to all that supported our first Jester’s Pie Day on Wednesday 30th June. From the delight on our children’s faces, I think it was well received!

We sold 199 pies and 61 sausage rolls providing $459 to PTFA short/ mid/ long term ‘buckets’. We also had 3 pies donated, resulting in $17.40 going to the Tiaki/ Pastoral Care ‘bucket’.

Thank you, also, to the parents from local businesses who rallied their team and ordered multiple pies so they could enjoy their very own pie day! We appreciate you.

Same again next term?? Please give us your feedback, by emailing pta@sj.school.nz.

Quiz Night – Save the Date: Friday, 17th September 2021

Book the babysitter and Save the Date for the 2021 St Joseph’s School Quiz Night & Auction!

When? Friday, September 17th 2021

What time? From 6:30pm

Where? St Joseph’s School Hall

Who? All welcome. Tables of 8-10 people.

There are many ways to support this event:

• Get a table together, come along and have a great night out! Or grab your tickets and we can put you on a table with others – great way to meet others within the St Joe’s community!
• Donate items for the Silent Auction or Live Auctions. If you, your family or the business you work for would be interested in donating items or would be keen to sponsor the event we would be extremely grateful. Email pta@sj.school.nz and we will send you the sponsorship information. It’s a great way to showcase your business and get the school community behind your business. Donations could be anything – big or small – e.g./ sports memorabilia, gift voucher or merchandise for your business, clothing, gift basket, weekend away at your holiday home etc
• Donations of items for the “Bottle Board” (i.e./ bottle of wine, beer, spirits etc)
• Volunteer to help out before, during, after the event
  Look out for more details in the coming weeks…