Newsletter for Ruma Kororā, Kea and Kākāpō

Contact Emails:

Leigh@sjr.nz anna@sjr.nz Jackie@sjr.nz stephanie@sjr.nz

Kia Ora Whanau

Welcome back to St Joseph’s and especially to the Junior Syndicate for 2024. Leigh, Anna, and Jackie are looking forward to working together with you for another year. Joining the team working part time is Stephanie Dwyer who will be working with some students for literacy intervention and also in Kea on Wednesday and Thursdays. Also an invaluable part of our team are our teacher aides. Angela Christie, Rosita Kennedy and Karin van Doorn will assist with the learning in the junior school.

Virtues

Each fortnight a new aspect of one of the virtues is introduced at Assembly. These aspects are then specifically taught back in class. Students showing these virtues during the day are then rewarded with tokens which are points towards their house. Students place their golden tokens in their relevant house group container which will be outside the office during the day.

General ‘bits and bobs’

Encourage independence in your child through helping them to take responsibility for bringing in their reading folder, library books, remembering to bring sun hats and also remembering to pack everything they need into their bags at the end of the day.

All books in the reading folder must be returned each day. PLEASE DO NOT PUT FOOD OR WATER NEAR THIS FOLDER.

When students come back into class at 1.25pm after their lunch break we will have ‘Read and Feed.’ They are able to have a piece of fruit or vegetables while the teacher reads to them. Please come with a snack prepared as it’s only 5 minutes and we won’t have time to cut or peel everyones.

We have achieved our Bronze status as an Enviro school. We are therefore encouraging children to bring in Waste free lunches. Bringing morning tea in a small container is a good idea. This ensures that your child does not eat all their food at morning tea.

Please ensure your child can both put on and take off their jersey, shoes and socks. Ideally if they have shoes with laces they should be able to tie them themselves. Please ensure all clothing and personal belongings are named - especially hats and jerseys. Refer to the school website for uniform requirements.

Children are not permitted to enter the car park without an adult under any circumstances. Please ensure when entering or exiting the school through either gate that you close the gate firmly behind you.

No toys to be brought to school please, including News time. Exceptions to be discussed with the classroom teacher. We also don’t encourage treats for birthdays to be shared at school.

Outside of school hours no child is allowed to play on the playground without their parent or caregiver. Students are unable to enter the classroom before 8.30am as prior to this teachers sometimes have meetings and also use this time for preparation.

If you have a problem with another student we would appreciate that you approach us. Do not approach someone else’s child.

Communication - apart from newsletters also please check your child’s reading logs for notes.

Curriculum

Religious Education

• All aspects of the Religious Education programme are integrated as much as possible throughout the school day.

• We will cover the six strands of God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, Church, Sacrament Communion of Saints and also prayer and the Liturgical year.

• Some activities include homework to involve the whole family so please take time to discuss the programme with your child. The RE scrapbook needs to be returned each day.

Please click below for a link to how you can help your child’s learning at home.

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Literacy

Each class will have a slightly different approach to what will be sent home each night. Please check in with your child’s reading teacher if you are unsure.

• Poems are sent home on a Friday as a home reading task.

• Library day will be Friday.

• Reading logs need to be signed every night so that we know that your child is reading. (Comment if you wish). Books MUST be returned the next day so that another book can be sent home.

• A poetry book will remain in their reading folder so you can read these together and enjoy.

• Phonics – This will be run in conjunction with the Literacy programme at school.

Inquiry

• The start of the year will see the whole school focusing on ‘Who I am’. We will be specifically looking at our own Whakapapa and historic family stories. Please make sure you take the time to talk to your child about their family history and also complete the questionnaire that was handed out at the Whanau Hui’s.

• We will also continue with ‘Circle Time’ as a regular timetabled item. Circle time gives children the ability to socialize with, learn more about, and relate to their classmates. Nurturing social-emotional development early on is an important part of school life and has been shown to help in academic and professional aptitude later on.

Numeracy

Incorporate maths into your day to day lives:

• Talk about ½ ¼ when cutting a cake or a pie etc.

• Counting forwards and backwards, identifying numbers, leading through to counting in 2s, 5s and 10s which in turn lead into times tables.

• Telling the time, sharing out .

• Simple at home games include: Snakes and Ladders, jigsaws, Connect 4.

• The Numeracy Programme is based on teaching children the knowledge and strategies to incorporate maths into their day to day lives.

• Learning strands: geometry, measurement, statistics, number and algebra. At this learning stage number and algebra take up to 80% of our Maths time.

• The staff have undertaken a number of professional development opportunities around Mathematics last year and on our Teacher Only Days at the beginning of 2024. We are planning to share some of our new knowledge with you all at a parent meeting this term (Refer to the school calendar for the dates on this).

P.E./Fitness

• Fitness will be done three mornings per week as a syndicate.

• Once a fortnight we have specialist coaches from Sports Canterbury to assist with teaching of specific skills. We are also very fortunate and grateful to have Vanessa Rowland sharing her physical education expertise on a Wednesday afternoon during our junior ‘tumble’ time.

• Children are expected to participate in Fitness/PE unless they have a written note from home. If your child is at school it is expected that he/she will take part in daily fitness to the best of his/her ability.

Open communication is very important and we hope that as parents you will always feel happy to contact us with any concerns no matter how big or small you may think they are.

Nga mihi

Leigh, Anna and Jackie