Newsletter Week 5 -Term 2 2021
St Joseph's Catholic School Morrinsville 1 June 2021
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Kia ora Koutou,
A special congratulations to our students that made the sacrament of Confirmation this weekend. This is the second of three sacraments they will make this year, the final sacrament for this group of children is First Holy Communion later this month.
Congratulations to our two teams who have qualified for the regional semi-finals EPro8 TechnologyCompetition which will be held next week:
Yr7/8 - The Boy Builders - Charlie Vowles, Zion Faaiuaso, Alex Maddever and Ken Collins
Yr5/6 - The Master Builders - Emily Vowles, Kian Sonnendecker, Ryan Mourits and Cameron Devaney.
The EPro8 Challenge is the inter-school science and engineering competition. Every year over 10,000 students from 800 schools from throughout New Zealand take part. Students take part in a series of competitions and events designed to promote science and engineering. We know you are going to shine!
We wish our General Knowledge Team from Year 7 and 8 the very best as they compete against other Catholic schools in the Waikato. We look forward to hearing how you go. We know you will give it your all.
Thank you for everyone's support last Friday for Gumboot Friday. A very special cause that
supports our young people in need with free counselling. Special thanks to student Alison Van Vliet and helpers for leading the team with this fundraiser.
2021 has once again seen us as one of the lucky recipients, with a generous donation of $800.00 from the Morrinsville Combined Lions Clubs. These proceeds are a direct result of a lot of hours and hard work collecting casualty calves, lambs and kids from around the region. Special thanks also to the farmers that allow the Lions to collect their causality animals. You can be assured that your hard work and generosity does not go unnoticed and we are very appreciative of your support.
We wish to advise that with nationwide changes within the banking system, cheques are being phased out of use. Therefore, we as a school are no longer able to accept cheques as a form of payment. We will continue to take payments in the form of cash or on line.
Thank you for you co-operation with regards to this.
Have a fantastic week, take care and God bless.
Arohanui
Andrea Colebourn
Principal
Reminder: Teacher Only Day Friday and Queens Birthday Monday
Friday, June 4th
Teaching staff are attending professional development.
Therefore, school will not be open for tuition and we ask
parents/caregivers to please make the appropriate
arrangements for your children on Friday.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Reminder: Monday, June 7th is Queens Birthday weekend, so enjoy the extra long weekend.
Our St Joes Kids
Excellence and Honours Badges
Congratulations to our recipients:
Honours Badge for:
Brooke Devaney - Academics
Excellence Badges for:
Abby Sommerhalder - Service, Cultural
Tahnay Sonnendecker - Service, Academic
Kyralee Martinson - Cultural
Brendan Unka - Sport
Brooke Devaney - Cultural
Sonechka Lee - Cultural, Service
Emma Van Vliet - Service, Academics Cultural, Sports
Classroom Certificate Winners
Honours Badge
Excellence Badges
Congratulations to our Whakaute Core Value Recipients, showing respect in our school.
Congratulations to Our Explore Writers
Recently some of our talented Explore writers entered a Matariki poem competition through Write On - School for Young Writers. Congratulations to Abby Sommherhalder and Anastasia Van Leeuwen received Highly Commended in their division. We are very proud of their writing talents and look forward to seeing their poems published through School for Young Writers.
Please see these inspirational poems below.
Wellington Lantern Festival Vote for Sheina
Sheina has made the top 5. Voting closes tonight 1 June at 11.59 pm. Please vote for Sheina!
Click on the link to vote for your favourite https://www.wellingtonlanternfestivalvote.com
What do you know about Among Us?
What is it?
Among Us is a popular multiplayer strategy game with a ‘whodunit’ plot. The game provides players with a series of tasks that they must complete in order to do this. But there’s a twist... one or more of the players within a team will be allocated the role of alien Imposter. The Imposter’s job is to sabotage the repairs and covertly kill the crewmates. Throughout the game, players participate in meetings where they communicate with each other to try and determine who the Imposter is. During these meetings, players can vote on the suspected Imposter and the player with the most votes will be ejected from the ship. The Imposter wins by killing all crewmates or successfully sabotaging the spacecraft repairs and the crewmates win by successfully identifying the Imposter or by completing all repair tasks.
What are the risks?
Interacting with strangers
Children have the ability to join games with strangers and communicate with them through the in-game chat. Whilst giving your child boundaries around who they are allowed to play with, showing them how to set up private games, and supervising offers some protection, you cannot turn off the ability to join public games all together, meaning that none of these precautions are fool-proof.
Unmoderated chat
The in-game chat is unmoderated, meaning that children can very easily be exposed to inappropriate or aggressive language. There is a chat filter available within the game but it is not password protected, so if parents turn it on, children can very easily turn it back off.
Inappropriate gamer names
Players have been known to set inappropriate or derogatory usernames. These usernames are visible to all players within a game.
Violence and gore
This is not a major concern as graphics are cartoonish and visuals of blood and gore are minimal, however, kill methods are fairly violent and could be frightening for younger users.
Screen time
As with many online games, this game is characterised by short play sessions and prompts to ‘play again’. Getting kids off the game and managing screen-time may be difficult for some.
How can you make the game safer for your child?
A few things that parents can do to improve safety for children playing include:
Turning on the chat filter and doing regular check-ins to ensure it remains turned on. To turn on the chat filter: Open the app, click the settings toggle at the bottom of the screen, and tap the censor chat button so that it reads ‘Censor Chat: On’.
Give your child boundaries around who they are allowed to play with and use the ‘Local’ and ‘Private’ game options to enforce these boundaries. This means letting your child know that they are not allowed to play games that are ‘Public’. Where possible, have your child host the game so that they have the ability to kick players out in the event that a stranger joins or someone is acting inappropriately.
Provide heavy supervision- particularly for young players. The ability to quickly and easily turn off the chat filter or slip from a private game to a public one means that parents will need to provide heavy supervision while children are playing this game. Ensure children are in public areas when playing at home (not in bedrooms) and check in regularly. Some parents find that projecting their child’s screen to the TV allows them to keep a close eye on what is happening.
ALL OF THIS INFORMATION IS FROM OUR CYBER SAFETY HUB. CHECK IT OUT!
What's Happening This Week?
Pizza Day Thursday, June 3rd
Yummy Pizza Day - No Sausage Sizzle
Pizza Orders will be delivered to your classroom.
Fundraiser for Winter Olympics Camp 2021
Thank You for Your Support
Upcoming Events
- CIS General Knowledge Quiz - Tuesday, June 1st
- Pizza Day -Thursday, June 3rd - no sausage sizzle
- Teacher Only Day - Friday, June 4th
- Queens Birthday Weekend - Monday, June 7th
- Feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus - Friday, June 11th
- Whole School Cross Country - Tuesday, June 15th
- Basketball Fun Day - Wednesday, June 16th
- Fieldays Begin - Wednesday, June 16th
- House Spirit Hour - Friday, June 18th
- Matariki Celebration - Sunday, June 20th
Reflection
The Visitation
Proudly Sponsored by
Contact Us
Email: admin@stjoes.school.nz
Website: https://www.stjoes.school.nz/
Location: St Joseph's Catholic School - Morrinsville 11 Linden Street, Morrinsville, New Zealand
Phone: +64 7 8895306
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StJosephsMorrinsville/