Kia ora Whanau

This week began with our AWESOME school cross country. The children had a great time running their year level route. Hats off to the Year 6 students who very kindly supported the younger ones, leading them, running alongside and giving them heaps of encouragement. A highlight was the Mums and Dads race. Thanks to the Mums and Dads who agreed to enter the race. The children really enjoyed watching you run. Congratulations to each and every one of you for winning your age group.

The next AWESOME school event is Book Character Day. We invite all the children to come along dressed as a book character on MONDAY, 14th August. We will commence our Book Week with our annual Book Character Parade. This involves all of the students and is a seriously fun event. Parents are welcome to join the children. You can then check out the Book Fair in our library. Have a look at the Book Week 2023 poster below, to see the various Book Week events the children will be participating in.

The week ends with a “Hats Off Weekend Wear Day”. Children wear their weekend clothes with the addition of a hat. We also ask the children to bring along any books, in good condition, from their bookshelves, that the family no longer needs, to donate to the Pacific Libraries Project. The books will be sent to school libraries in the Pacific. This is a wonderful opportunity to support our neighbouring Pacific communities by donating good quality children’s books to their school libraries. You are also welcome to send along good quality adult books which will go to the public libraries. Instead of a book, the children are welcome to give a gold coin donation Thank you for your support of this very worthwhile cause.

Tuesday next week, 15th August, the school will be attending Mass at 11 am for the Feast of the Assumption. This feast day marks the occasion of the Virgin Mary’s body and soul being assumed into heaven at the end of her life. This is also the NZ Catholic Church day. Whanau are welcome to join students and staff for our school Mass. Please note it begins at 11 am.

See you Monday.

Take care.

Ka manaakitia e te Atua.

Alister Bridgman
Principal

The Principal’s Message will cover the following topics:

• Te Reo Maori
• Book Week 2023
• Pacific Libraries Project
• PTFA “Stars In Their Eyes Musical Bingo”
• Confirmation/1st Holy Communion Student Reports
• Touch Rugby Registrations
• Speech Competition 
• Cross Country 
• Kea Team’s Maritime Museum Visit
• Community Notices

Confirmation 

On Thursday evening, it was a BIG day for me because I was going to have my Confirmation! I was so excited that I wanted to find which Saint I was going to pick. I immediately thought that I needed a saint that was brave and courageous because I am not courageous and brave – yet! 

So I went on my tablet and searched, “what are some Saints that are brave and courageous?” The first Saint I saw that was eye-catching was Saint George. He was a very brave man with his horse because he fought many dragons! Unfortunately for him, he died on the 23rd of April 303 AD because he believed in God. He was even tortured on a wheel of knives while spinning! But he still loved and believed in God. That’s real bravery and I want to be like him so I chose him as my Saint!

On the day I was going to be confirmed, I wore a white long-sleeved shirt, jeans and a bow on my collar. Uncle Edwin was my sponsor and I was very happy and grateful. When I waited for my turn to get confirmed, I was feeling special.

After the last song, (“Hearts On Fire”) I got a present from Uncle Edwin Macmac. It was a prayer from Saint Christopher! I thanked him and went to Mr Bridgman and he had a ring of candy? He gave me one and I got a rosary from the parish. I also saw some of my friends. Finally I got home! I changed into pajamas and rested. 

Suddenly, my Mum and Dad said, “Happy Confirmation” and gave me a present!  I was delighted! I opened it and it was a special ‘Confirmation In Christ’ keepsake box to put all my treasures in! I thanked them both and my mum said that it was the last in stock so I was lucky! I put my small, special things in the keepsake  box, like my rosary, and closed it. I loved it and I will never forget this day in my life!         

Reported by: Sylvester, HG1

My First Holy Communion!   

On Sunday August 6th, I  had my first Holy Communion. Everybody who was doing their First Communion wore white clothes –  the girls wore dresses and the boys wore white shirts with ties.  At Holy Communion we had the Body of Christ (bread) and the blood of Christ (wine) for the first time. 

When I was walking up to the altar to get the host and the wine, I felt nervous, but also really excited to taste the host and the wine. After the communion, the priest told everyone to go up to the altar for a group picture.

 After the whole thing, I had to take pictures again, but with my family. We stayed there for a while. Then we walked down to the old hall to celebrate. There was food on a long table so we helped ourselves to some treats and some food.

When we went to the old hall, we saw a lot of people. Parents were talking to other kids’ parents  and there were kids playing with balloons. The celebration was  amazing but it was so hard to get around the place because there were so many people there blocking our way!

My family and I stayed there for a while to celebrate. It was such an amazing Sunday!

Reported by: Unice, HG1

We invite parents to enrol their children for:

Touch Rugby (Term 4) – Years 1-6

Played at Becroft Park or Sunnynook Park (this will be confirmed by the organisers in September) on Thursdays after school.

Games start on Thursday, 19th October until Thursday, 14th December.

The cost is $45.00.

Registrations close Friday 25 August 2023

How to enrol?

Please go to www.sj.school.nz   

 – scroll down to the link to SCHOOL/SPORTS PAYMENTS

 – this will take you to Enrolmy

 – Log in/create a login (if you haven’t already got one)

 – Click “See School Activities”

 – When you click  ‘Book Activity’  if you have already registered your child for an activity through your enrolmy login, please just select the box of the child you are wanting to enrol. 

Please consider your child’s schedule carefully before booking, please take note of Spring netball or other summer sports.  Any refunds will be charged a $5 administration fee unless they can be transferred to another activity.

School Speeches 2023 

Speeches are not just big long scripts you have to say in front of a class, speeches are a way to express yourself by showing that you have the courage to speak in front of the class. Possibly other schools as well.

Speeches are done for improved social skills and mostly courage. Today I will tell you about our speech competition at St Joseph’s. For the Kakariki team, speeches were mandatory and were created by each person at school to be presented later in class, as a performance. They had to be between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length. They also had to be persuasive. We tried to add rhetorical questions, humor and interesting facts that we had researched.

In most people’s case, it was really nerve racking. I mean why would speaking to the school not be scary, especially for us year five and sixes! For most people it was about something special to them and that was the difficult bit. The judges of the top ten speeches in the hall were Mr Bridgman and Mrs Foster and it could not have been easy because all of the speeches were entertaining!

My speech was in fact about myself. I did not make it to school finals this time. Zoe and Mikhail won the speech competition at St Josephs and they went on to compete against the North Shore Catholic Schools. Zoe won the Catholic Schools Competition! Congratulations to them both!

Reported by: Paulo, HG4

Winner of the Kahui Ako Speech Competition was our very own Zoe 🙂 

Last Friday I went to the Maritime Museum. My mum was a parent helper. When I arrived at the Maritime Museum the first thing I did was to get on the boat. But before I got on the boat I had to put on a blue jacket and a life jacket. When I got on the boat I was scared since it was my first time on a boat. But after a while I realised it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. We sailed under the harbour bridge. Then we turned around to go back to the Maritime Museum. When we were back I took off my blue jacket and my life jacket and handed it to someone else.

-Mandy

I went to the Maritime Museum. I saw a huge and big boat. It really looks like Bishop Pompalliers boat. I enjoyed the scavenger hunt. I found the bunk bed.

-Emma Lu

Two days back the Kea Team went to the Maritime Museum and I went in a bus. There were so many boats and old sails. At the end of the day we had a paper on it. It was pictures and we were trying to find the things that were on it.

-Jerome

We went to the Maritime Museum and it was so, so fun and we went on a boat and it was so, so cold!

-Sienna

Last week on Friday, we went to the Maritime Museum in the city. We went in a bus to get there. I was excited. When I got inside, I sat down on the mat. They told us what we were going to do. We ate our morning tea. The the other group went on the boat. We looked around the place. When I got on the boat, it was amazing. The water splashed! When on the boat, We went under the Harbour Bridge.

-Miro

A few weeks ago, I went to the Maritime Museum. We went on the boat and I felt excited. We went under the bridge and so many people  said it was the Harbour Bridge. It took a lot of minutes to get back. When we got back, it was lunch time. I also got one spring roll from the Sunday Market.

-Reagan

At the Maritime Museum, my parent helper was Kyri’s Mum. At first we ate our morning tea, then we got on the boat. After we got on the boat, I was feeling bored because the ship was too slow for me. I helped to put on the sails and found a secret room on the ship. Then I found another secret room but it was dark and dusty. After we got out of the boat, another group of children went on another boat. After the other group got on the ship, we went to look around the museum. It was amazing! After that we ate lunch. Then we went back to school, then to home.

-Cyrus

I was in my group going to the Maritime Museum. I was excited to go to the Maritime Museum and I learned all about ships. At the Maritime Museum, I saw boats. I ate lunch with my group. I rode a boat with my group and I relaxed on the boat. At the Maritime Museum, there was a teacher. Her name was Leichelle. She teached us all about Aotearoa and the biggest ocean.

-Yve

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