School Camp 5 - 7 Dec 2017

   School Camp 5-7 Dec 2017

Last year’s camp we went to Otamarakau and slept in a tent/marae. The best thing, for me, about the camp was that it was right next to a beach and a train track.

 At the beach there were kayaks that some people paddled in. There was a really deep bit in the water where you could jump in. At night we roasted marshmallows and burnt our faces looking at the fire.

 We drove to Kiwifruit Country and met a dog called Tilly. We went in a giant kiwi fruit cart and looked around at all the kiwifruit trees. Our guide was telling us all about the trees.

On the last day of camp, we planted trees next to the river bank. We got a shovel and dug up holes. We said good bye to the camp and drove off. When I thought we were going home we went to a lake and did a treasure hunt for things.

Then we drove back to school and went home, exhausted but happy.

By Patrick and Lochie.

Visiting Kiwifruit Country.

                   Campfire and toasting marshmallows

Planting karaka trees along the riverbank

                           Camp Otamarakau 2018 - done!

Christmas Choir 30 November - 3 December

Christmas Choir 2017

From November 30 – 3 December 2017, St Joseph School choir performed at the Anglican Church Christmas choir show. We sang songs like “If I were a Butterfly”, “Fill Every Valley Up” and “This Little Boy” sung by Sophia Martelli and Esther James. These two performed a duet with the rest of the school singing the chorus of “This Little Boy. It was a lot of fun. We all practised for about a month and 5 weeks it took us 2-3 weeks to decide which songs we would sing. It took about 4-5 weeks for Sophia and Esther to practise their duet. After the last performance at the church, we had ice blocks and lollies.

World Milk Day

WORLD MILK DAY! Thanks Fonterra the kids love having their free milk in schools every day! #milkmoostache

Little Garden Seedlings

Planting our seeds from the New World little garden promotion. Thanks To New a World for the donation! 👍They'll be great for our community garden.

Keep NZ Beautiful

Collecting rubbish around the school, roadside and Centennial Drive for Clean up NZ week! 
This year we only collected 2/3 of a bag and most of that was from Centennial Drive. We must be doing a good job at keeping our school clean!

Inter-school Cross Country

A beautiful afternoon for the Cross country - and a good decision by Hinuera to postpone until today.


Ready, set, go!
Everyone that does well at their own cross country goes to the Inter-school one. All the students at our school went because we are a small school. The inter-school one was held at Hinuera and all the schools around the Matamata area took part.
Parents came to do transport and watch the races. When we got there we put our tent next to a tree. The cross country was on a farm so there was cow poop everywhere. Joe, me and some other people stepped in it. We were cheering on the little kids and running with them. Charlotte did well in her race and came 7th. I thought the cross country was great. The best part was having a sausage and then we got to go home early!
by Patrick

And they're off! The 5 year old girls race begins...

Tyler approaches the finish line

Kyla and Tessa - almost there!

Mass for Bishop Denis

Year 5 and 6 students attended the Mass at the Cathedral last Friday to celebrate the milestones achieved by Bishop Denis Browne. 80 years old this month, 55 years as a priest and 40 years as a Bishop. What remarkable service to God, the Diocese and particularly to our parish here in Matamata. May God continue to bless and guide you and all the best from us!!

The altar at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary

With Bishop Denis Browne

Bishop Steve loans his Mitre to Ryan! 

Te Reo Singalong

Sharon & Alan from Te Reo Singalong came to to teach us Maori words for Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori! It wasn't just for the little kids but for all ages. To teach us Sharon and her husband Alan dressed up and di a play to help the Juniors understand and learn the words for colours and animals. At the start there was a book about colours and Mr M was in the show. He was the colour pink! Everyone laughed. After an hour it was over. It was really fun!        

by Talia

Mud slide heaven!

A wet drizzly morning tea meant that we were all stuck inside. Lunchtime came and the rain had lifted. What can we do? Wet playground, wet grass, puddles. Let's have a mud slide!!!
Great fun in fact "the best day ever" was how one student described it.
Apologies to our Mums and Dads - our PE uniforms will need quite a soaking tonight!

Wig Wednesday for Child Cancer

St Joseph's Catholic School held a Wig Wednesday today  to help raise funds for The Child Cancer Foundation. Everyone wore the craziest wigs they could find which made for a very colourful day indeed!
Thank you to Rexine from the Matamata Chronicle who came down and took these photos of us and our stunning hairdos. Don't we look wacky!

Matamata Community of Learning / Kaahui Ako Survey

This survey is an opportunity to find out about your perceptions and views of your child's/children's experiences in the school. 

The survey should only take about 10 minutes to complete. Your participation in this survey is voluntary and your responses are anonymous. The responses will be collated and used to provide evidence to inform decision making about next steps with regard to professional development in your school.

Please click on the link below to complete the survey:

WhanauStJS-M-2017

Staff and students click on the appropriate link below please:

StudentStJS-M-2017

TeacherStJS-M-2017

Many thanks

Parent Interviews

If you wish to make a time to meet with your child's teacher to discuss their progress and learning please make an appointment by using the link to our Google Sheet or by clicking on the picture below. Simply add your child's name in the time-slot you require, then press enter. No need to save or share.

Please ensure that your Year 2-6 student attends the interview so that they can discuss their goals with you. You will also have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about their learning, academic progress or social needs.




If neither of these dates work for you, or you feel you may need a longer time to discuss your child's learning please speak directly to the teacher concerned to organise an alternative time.

Preschool Tabloids

What a fun afternoon of activities we had today! A group of children from Kid's corner - and a few of our younger whanau came along to our school for our tabloids. The weather didn't stop us  - we just moved the games into the hall!
The Year 4-6 students organised a series of simple games and guided our younger students and our little visitors through the various activities - three legged race, ball over and under, follow the leader, throw the bean bag into the hoop, "noughts and crosses" relay and a feijoa and spoon race. We then finished with a relay tag race.

It was so lovely to see the caring way that the older students assisted the younger ones - and everyone spoke about having made new friends! A true example of tuakana-teina in action!

Palm Sunday 2017

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the final Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Holy Week, and it commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified. 
Palm Sunday is known as such because we receive palm fronds to participate in the reenactment of Christ's arrival in Jerusalem. In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, and to the lavish praise of the townspeople who threw clothes, or possibly palms or small branches, in front of him as a sign of homage. This was a customary practice for people of great respect.
Palm branches are widely recognized symbol of peace and victory, which is why they are used on this day. The use of a donkey instead of a horse is highly symbolic, it represents the humble arrival of someone in peace, as opposed to arriving on a steed in war.
The colors of the Mass on Palm Sunday are red and white, symbolizing the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world.

PAL's - Physical Activity Leaders

On Wednesday we played games as teams and it was super comic. There was one were we had to make the duck fall out of the bucket. We had to use the pipes we got given to make the duck fall out the bucket.

Jack