Welcome back to school for Term 2.

Dear JCS Whanau

This Term promises to be more settled with less Covid cases, being in the Orange Setting will allow for us to do a lot more in person, as a community. I will continue to keep you updated as to the Covid cases, in the staff and student community, as we become aware of them.

It is great to see nearly all our tamariki back in the class learning now. We welcomed 12 new students and their families to JCS at our Mihi Whakatau on Monday. Near the end of each term, we have a special morning tea and information meeting for all the new parents. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and learn how we do things at JCS. This meeting, together with visits for the NE students, help new whānau settle into JCS more easily. There are some great learning adventures lined up for the term with students studying: animal classification, biomimicry, animal enclosures, pewter jewellery making, water and a stream study, coding using various bots and more. We will be exploring how God is our Creator and our Source. There will be trips to the zoo and animal dress up days. Manu will have a "100 days of being at school" celebration day.

There will be ongoing professional learning in the areas of Te Reo, wellbeing, teaching from a Biblical worldview and writing delivered by our Kahui Ako and expert partners. Students from Years 5-8 are using an excellent online writing tool called Writer’s Toolbox. It is an interactive tool which allows students to self-assess and plot their progress against specific features relating to good sentence structure.

A Korero Hui and Talanoa Fono will be held this term to look at the progress being made and ways we can better serve our Māori and Pacifica community and be culturally responsive and honouring to Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Samoan language week will be celebrated. This year Matariki is being acknowledge by the government by awarding a public holiday. We will be learning about Matariki and how we can celebrate the seasons and God’s bountiful provision for us and about the constellation of stars He has created called Matariki, (The Pleiades, The Seven Sisters cluster).

An open day for all and an open evening for parents of students going into Year 7 and 8 next year will be held on June 15. These events will be opportunities for visitors and prospective parents to come and see the work that our wonderful Kaiako and tamariki do at JCS.

On the sports field we will be playing soccer, touch rugby and netball. Teams will represent JCS at the Auckland Christian Schools soccer and netball zone days.

Closer ties are being forged with Love Avondale, an organisation which helps those in need in our community in various ways. This will allow our students to serve those in the community less fortunate than themselves. There will be a Mufti Day with a gold coin donation in support of our TEAR Fund sponsor child Benimana who lives in Rwanda. We have been sponsoring Benimana for many years now.

It is with a grateful heart that I can say that a formal written report will be issued for each student on the last day of Term 2 detailing your child’s academic progress. We have had the opportunity to do ongoing, authentic assessments with students back in class learning.

May you know the peace, love and courage of our Lord and Saviour each day, when the sun is shining or when it is cloudy. I read a lovely quote recently from F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I will share with you in closing.

“It was only a sunny smile

and little it cost in the giving

but like morning light

it scattered the night

and made the day worth living.”

We look forward to an exciting and more settled learning journey with you and your wonderful tamariki, this term.

Yours in His service

Sandra Bosman