Kia Ora Whanau,

Welcome back to all our families; and welcome to the new families joining our school community. It was lovely to see you all as you brought your children into school this morning.

The students had a great day with their new teacher and the fellow students in their Home Groups. Teachers have taken their HGs around the school in order to re orientate the students and introduce the new students to our school.

It has been great to walk around the learning spaces this morning and see all students settling in quickly and quietly. They are participating in a variety of activities that allow them to develop their learning relationship with both their teacher and their peers.

This year we will be celebrating 130 years of education at St Joseph’s School, which was founded by the Mercy Order. In 1849 Bishop Viard opened the first school on the North Shore, St Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. Following land wars and the depression this school was closed in 1850. In 1893 the building was handed over to the Mercy Sisters and was reopened as St Joseph’s School for boys, locally referred to as St Joseph’s, the Orphanage, the Convent or even St Mary’s. Over the year students will be looking at a variety of topics linked to this school theme. This theme links nicely with the introduction of the NZ Histories Curriculum in Aotearoa schools for 2023.

Over the coming year staff will be looking at opportunities for parents and whanau to come into school. We appreciate that over the last few years this has not been possible. We had a great starter with the parent teacher meetings last week. Thank you for taking the time to meet with your child’s teacher. This was a wonderful opportunity for them to hear from you all about your child. Keep an eye out on team and school notices to see opportunities for you to be involved in school life.

Tomorrow you will be receiving an email from your child’s team. It will contain information about what is happening in Term 1 for them. Please keep an eye out for it. Contact your child’s teacher if you do not receive it.

Take care,

Alister Bridgman
Principal