Happy Mothers Day

We wish all the Mothers and women in our school community, who love and care for our tamariki, a Happy Mothers Day for Sunday. The wahine in the lives of our tamariki are central to their world. It was lovely to see so many Mothers taking the opportunity to have ‘coffee and cake’ this morning at school. The coffees were kindly funded by the PTFA, as a thank you for the wonderful Mums who ensure that their families support the school fundraisers. Thank you.

This morning we celebrated our school’s Saint – Saint Joseph the Worker –  with a school Mass. It was a wonderful Mass led by Monsignor David Tonks. The school children sang beautifully. Congratulations to those children who had ministries in the Mass. You did yourself, your whanau and the school proud. At this Mass we welcomed the children who began school this term. It is lovely to be able to welcome them and their families at such a special school occasion.

Over the last few weeks the Minister of Education has made a few announcements on their developing education policy. These announcements continue on from the One Hour Reading/One Hour Writing/One Hour Maths’ policy and the ‘no phones/devices’ policy that were announced at the beginning of the year.

The Minister announced the Government’s Education Priorities along with requirements for schools to do Structured Literacy beginning 2025 and the withdrawal of Government funding for the Reading Recovery programme. Schools now await direction from the Ministry of Education on what these priorities are going to look like, how they want us to implement them and what funding they will provide to support their implementation.

As a school we have run a very successful reading programme which has seen the school average 93% of students being ‘at or above’ their expected reading level over the last five years. We have used a variety of programmes, including Reading Recovery, Quick Sixty and individualised reading programmes, to support students who are ‘working towards’ their expected level.

Our teachers will be participating in Structured Literacy professional development, funded by the Ministry of Education, over 2024 / 2025. We will also be purchasing the resources that the Ministry of Education is funding.

As a school we will be developing our reading programme to reflect the Minister’s expectations and to meet the learning needs of our students. This year we will be continuing with the reading programme we have in place. Assuming our Year 1 – 3 teachers are giving access to the Structure Literacy professional development this year, we will be incorporating this reading programme into our school programme beginning 2025, in the year 1 – 3 reading programme. The Ministry of Education is intending to provide Year 4 – 6 teachers Structured Literacy professional development in 2025.

Next week our Year 6 students will be heading to camp on Wednesday. We know they will have an AWESOME camp at Carey Park and look forward to hearing about all the fun they had on their return on Friday. The year 5 students will be participating in E.O.T.C. activities Wednesday – Friday.

Take care

Ka manaakitia e te Atua

Alister Bridgman
Principal

• Welcome
• Mercy Values Weekend Wear Day
• Cereal Dominoes
• Rosmini & Carmel College Enrolments 2025
• Community Notices

We’d like to extend a warm welcome to four students & their families who have joined the St Joseph’s school community this week:

Dilon, Hugo, Jeri and Shevon

On Friday 17 May (next Friday) we will be having our annual Mercy Values Weekend Wear Day. This day sees teachers supporting students to reflect on the schools ‘Mercy Values’, ‘School Motto’ along with ‘Muck Up, Own Up, Fix Up, Move On, and ‘Above the Line, Below the Line’.

Thank you to all the families who sent boxes of cereal for our “Cereal Dominoes Run” earlier today. We’re pleased to advise that 402 boxes were collected for De Paul House, which is a wonderful donation from the school community. The children (as well as parents & staff) took great pleasure in watching the huge trail of cereal boxes collapse, one after another, in true domino fashion.

Carmel College Enrolments are open on line. They close 31 May 2024.
For all Carmel College enrolment enquiries please contact Jane Meurant – jmeurant@carmel.school.nz ph. (09) 486 1132 Ext 704

Rosmini College Enrolments are open on line. They close 4 June 2024
For all Rosmini College enrolment enquiries please contact Eunice – enquiries@rosmini.school.nz ph. (09) 488 3750

The Auckland Catholic Education Office requires your child to have a new Preference of Enrolment Certificate completed and signed by Monsignor David Tonks or Fr. Mark Napa for the college your child is enrolling in.

There are limited spaces at both colleges so we would encourage you to register your child promptly.

Carmel College Orientation Day is 1 November 2024.

Rosmini College has its Open Day next week while our Year 6 children are on camp. The college is kindly arranging an alternative day for our boys. We will inform parents of the date once the college has notified us.

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