“Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora a mua”

“Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead”

Jesus taught his disciples not to emulate the rulers of the Gentiles who exercised authority over them. Instead, He taught that in order for us to be leaders, we must become servants first.

Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

Kia Ora e te whānau, Hello, Ni Hao, Malo e lelei, Hallo, Kamusta, Namaste, Talofa,

Welcome to Week 4.

This whakataukui speaks to the importance of working together. It acknowledges and values the importance of both the leader and the followers for both are essential and co-dependent. At St Josephs we are all learners who lead by example to support each other to be the best we can be.

Special Character - A Leader who serves

Every year on February 22, the church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. Confusing to many, this feast is less about an ancient piece of furniture than it is about the office of the pope and his role as a sign of unity and peace. To be seated is to be in a position of patience and listening, hospitality and charity. Remembering the Chair of St. Peter, through this lens, recalls Peter’s role (and the role of all popes since) to be the Supreme Pontiff. (or Pope) A leader who serves.

School Mass - Leaders who serve

We pray for the leaders of our country who are navigating our way through this Omicron Pandemic. In response and continued adherence to the Ministry of Education health guidelines, we are disappointed to announce that our whole school mass and commissioning of staff this Sunday is postponed. We are very hopeful that we will be able to hold our first whole school community mass early in Term 2.

Omicron Pandemic Plan - Leading the way forward

As Omicron becomes more prevalent in communities, I feel it is timely that we update you on our school pandemic plan which is ready to click into action should it be required. As a staff, we are confident we have good strategies in place to ensure our students are as safe as possible and that good learning programmes can continue.

What will this look like at St Joseph’s?

• Home Learning Packets will go home with students on Friday 25 February. These packets will only need to be used if your child is directed to self isolate.

• If your child is directed to self isolate, access to a device may be required. If you need a device from school, please contact your child’s teacher.

• We will utilise current communication practices as developmentally appropriate for our year level groupings. eg. Seesaw, Google Classrooms

• In the unfortunate instance that teachers/students are in isolation, we will move to a ‘hybrid learning’ model where teachers will potentially have some students learning at home and some learning in the classroom.

This next phase will be complex, but manageable. If at any time you are not sure about the learning or need support, please email your classroom teacher. Working together will get us the best outcomes.

Omicron in the community: what this means for you | Ministry of Health NZ

Chromebooks - Learners who Lead

This week we received 60 new school Chromebooks. Our Year 7 & 8 students have already set up their devices to explore Google classroom and a new program called "Flipgrid" that they are using to video their oral language, Pepeha work.

Mā te Atua e manaaki

Betty Brown

Congratulations to the following students Emily C, Taiana, Ruby, Ella, Denon, Emily A, Cooper, Mason, Finn, and Fairlane for demonstrating some of the attributes of a St Joseph’s learner: respectful, conscientious, risk taker, thinker, creativity.

A fantastic effort!

Tēnā koutou tamariki mā.

On Monday the 14th of March, St Joseph's School is having a mufti day. If your child/ren is willing to wear mufti, please send them with a gold coin. All donations will go towards helping the Families in Tonga.

For Vinnies, Room 6 is gathering materials to make recycled toys for the SPCA. These are some of the materials we will need. If you have them spare can you send them in to Room 6: cotton , rope, bottle top, old socks, cardboard old t-shirts, newspaper, wire, wool, feathers, string, old fabric, broken tennis balls, toilet paper rolls, milk bottles, little bells, orange coloured material and sticks.

Room 3 have been learning about how special Waipukurau is and in their classroom they have done sketchings of the pukurau fungus. The students learnt that Wai-is the Maori word for water and pukurau-is a large white fungus that grows in the area.

Room 4 has been learning about CHB as a district and what is special about it and this week they have been collecting data to display in different graphs.

Just a reminder that everyone is wearing the correct school uniform like proper earrings, shoes, and no nail polish.

Hope everyone has a lovely week.

Molly and Hannah

Another week gone!

We are working towards selling some more flowers this week as they were so popular! We will be outside Story's tomorrow (Thursday) 10am to 12pm or if sold out sooner. They will be $20 a bunch, keep an eye on our Facebook page for photos.

Our AGM is on the 7th March at 7pm room 2. This is where we reflect on the year we had and when we elect our officers. The AGM will then be followed by our usual monthly meeting. Anyone is welcome to join us for this meeting and you are welcome to join the committee. Please contact me through our Facebook page if you would like any further information on who we are and what we do. Please note, as we are meeting on school grounds as per the Ministry of Education, we need to sign in and wear a mask while on school grounds and follow other health recommendations.

Facebook page: St Joseph's Parents and Friends Group - Waipukurau

Email: stjosephspfg@gmail.com

Have a great week!

Sarah Martin - Chair and the PFG committee.