Dear Parents,

It was wonderful to be able to welcome the new children and their families to our school community this morning at school prayers. This has been followed by our Whanau Picnic this evening. Our Whanau Picnic is a great opportunity for families to connect. It also gives teachers an opportunity to meet parents and whanau of the children in their Home Group.

The children have had a great start to the school year, getting to know their classmates and teachers during camp week (week one). This culminated with the opening school Mass last Friday.

This week has seen the children introduced to their home group programme of learning and home group routines. We also had our Ash Wednesday liturgy to celebrate the beginning of the Season of Lent.

This year we have three teams:

One of the main supports for a child’s learning is clear lines of communication between the school and the child’s home.

We encourage you to keep in regular contact with your child’s teacher, read any notices they send out and read this weekly Principal’s Message. You will receive an email notification of its posting on the school website every Friday at 6 pm. Home group emails are sent via our eTap student management system. 

Teachers are happy to meet with parents before or after school, if they don’t have a meeting. They are also happy to receive queries via email. They will respond to emails either by phone or by inviting you in for a korero (chat).

The most effective way to get answers to any queries is to go directly to your child’s teacher.

Ka Manaakitia e te Atua

Alister Bridgman

Tumuaki

The Principal’s Message will cover the following topics:

• Welcome To Our New Students
• Hero
• Lent
• North Harbour Basketball Registrations Close February 27th
• Arrivals & Departures
• Attendance
• Shore-to-Shore
• Preference of Enrolment – Signing Session
• Parish News
• Community Notices

We’d like to extend a very warm welcome to our new students who joined us at the beginning of Term 1, 2026:

Abel, Adam, Angeline, Arabella, Astrid, Bella, Carmela, Chaily, Chelsea, Chrissie, Dominic, Eva, Felicity, Grace, Harper, Hazel, Iain, Isaac, Jacob, Jia, Josh, Kaitlyn, Katherine, Leo, Léon, Maddox, Madeleine, Olivia, Raylee, Ristario, Roa, Skye and Stella

Here’s hoping you enjoy the year ahead and your education journey here at St Josephs.

We are transferring to the HERO Student Management System (SMS) this year. We are retaining the eTap SMS that we currently use for the year while the transition process occurs.

The first step is the recording of Attendance. Teachers began this year recording attendance on the HERO SMS. The platform is proving easier to navigate and we believe that you will have a similar experience.

We would now like parents to download the HERO App and record their child’s absences through this app. Details as to how you download the app are available through this LINK.

You can also download the HERO app using ‘Play Store’ or ‘Apple Store’

Please retain the @School App on your phone. You will still need it for the information it holds, other than attendance. When the transfer to HERO has been fully completed, we will let you know and then you can delete the @School App.

ReadySetSignIn

Week two of our Lenten preparation see’s us thinking about the big and small changes we can make in the world. Here are a few things you could do as a family.

Our Mission focus this term is the CARITAS Lenten appeal (monetary contributions) and the Parish Foodbank – they are in need of things like pasta, sauces, tinned fish, tea, coffee, milo, biscuits, general household cleaners / bathroom items. Many thanks to those who are able to contribute. 

Thank you for endeavouring to get your children to school before 8:50 am.

We appreciate there will be a variety of reasons why this can’t necessarily be achieved all the time, including traffic. The reality is the Government’s Attendance expectations do not take traffic into consideration traffic.

If your child arrives after the bell has gone they need to be signed in at the office. Through the new app you will be able to see a record of your child’s attendance.

If you take your child out before 2:50 pm, they will need to be signed out.

A reminder that these procedures apply no matter what the weather is like.

Please be kind to the duty teacher and office staff requesting you to sign in or out. They are fulfilling the Government’s expectations.

Next open hour for the signing of preference forms will be on Tuesday 24th February 2026 from 10:00am -11:00am in the parish office. For more info, regarding requirements, visit: Catholic Schools – Catholic Diocese of Auckland. 

Latest News from St Joseph’s Church Takapuna

Lent at St Joseph’s Parish

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