ST JOSEPH’S CATHOLIC
SCHOOL
TAKAPUNA

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Dear Whānau,

We continue to pray for Pope Francis. The daily reports that the Vatican shares indicate he is critical and stable.

Today the teachers have had their first maths professional development (PD) session with Dr Jo Knox. Jo is a Ministry of Education accredited education consultant and the director of Maths Development Ltd. Over the next two years she will be working with teachers around the delivery of maths, and the implementation of the new Mathematics and Statistics curriculum. Teachers of St Leo’s Devonport also joined us for this PD.

Next week we begin the church season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. The school will be having our Ash Wednesday liturgy in St Joseph’s church beginning at 1:30 pm. Whanau are welcome to join us for this liturgy.

Ash Wednesday signals the beginning of forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for Easter. As a school we ask children to focus on their prayer and to consider doing something to support someone on a regular basis, for no reward.

Prayer is an important part of living our faith. Families might like to support their child’s prayer life through Lent by praying with them daily. This will allow the child to see and experience the importance of prayer in their daily life.

Please help your child to select an activity or two that they can do on a regular basis through Lent, that helps others, for no reward. It can be an activity that helps the family or a member of the extended family. It could be something they can do for an elderly neighbour. While I am sure everyone would love to reward them for their efforts, we hope that what they learn by doing for others is reward enough and through doing for others they are forming a closer relationship with God.

Children also have the option to take up the Caritas Challenge. Print it off and stick it on the fridge, and then your child can mark off the activity they do each day.

Have a lovely week and we hope you can join us for our Ash Wednesday liturgy.

Ka manaakitia e te Atua

Alister Bridgman

Tumuaki

The Principal’s Message will cover the following topics: