Family Group Activity

Today we worked in our family groups to design and make wearable arts for our Term 2 Family Group Activity.
We had to bring a number of recyclable and reusable items from home to make our wearable arts. We had an hour to make our 2 designs. It was a huge rush. The family groups had to work together to make sure that they had 2 models completely finished and looking good.
Once we had finished we met in the stadium to show off our costumes and the judges had to pick a 1st, 2nd and 3rd from each category. They said that picking the winners was extremely hard. 


Here are some photos of all the entries-

Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions 1861-2011

Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions

Treasuring our Past: Shaping Our Future

1861-2011

Along with the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, our school celebrates the 150^th anniversary of the founding of this order of Sisters, the same order which established St Joseph’s Ashburton.

The order was founded by an inspiring French woman, Euphrasie Barbier in 1861,    as she followed her devotion to the Trinity and her desire to devote her life to the foreign missions. Euphrasie called her new Congregation Our Lady of the Missions, a name which expressed the group’s special character and spirit. In 1864  Euphrasie sent the first four Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions from Lyon in France to the Congregation’s first mission in Napier, New Zealand. From this time on many foundations grew and the order and its schools continued to flourish throughout New Zeaalnd, Sydney, Australia and the Pacific Islands .

The Sisters of the Mission came from France to the Christchurch Diocese in 1868. The Sisters arrived in Ashburton in 1884 and the Sacred Heart School opened on 21^st May 1884, with 17 girls as the first students. In 1894 the school was moved from its original site on Wakanui Rd. to its present site. While the Sisters have long since left our school, the history of the school should be remembered and celebrated and the three fundamental beliefs of Euphrasie Barbier reflected in our own school’s special character. They are  Contemplation (prayer and reflection), Communion (loving union with God and others), Mission (living the Gospel and taking the Good News to others).

Euphrasie set out often, enduring long sea voyages, sickness and shipwrecks to visit the various groups before she died in 1892. The primary work of the Sisters whether in NZ, India, France or England is the empowerment of women and the care of children. Euphrasie Barbier’s passion was to take the gospel to far places in the world and to bring education and opportunities for all peoples particularly women and children and the marginalised.  Education is central to the missionary work of the Congregation.

In the world today RNDM’s take courageous and prophetic positions which confront situations of injustice and exploitation.

Sisters of the Mission can be found in Kenya and Senegal, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam, British Isles and Ireland, France and Canada, Bolivia and Peru, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and New Zealand.   We have individual sisters on mission in Cambodia, East Timor and Sudan.

Now in 2012 there are about 100 sisters living in New Zealand and some 20 sisters living in the following countries: Australia, Canada, British Isles, France, Kenya, Philippines, Rome, Samoa,and Sudan.

Our children will be studying the life and work of Euphrasie Barbier as well as developing an understanding of the work  of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions today. We will welcome Sister Imelda Lindsay into our school to talk with the children, and we will come together with the Parish on August 15^th to celebrate Mass in honour of our Founders.

First Communion

Sunday the 13^th May was a special day for our Year 4 students, and five other children in our parish, as they made their First Holy Communion. On Friday a Special Character assembly was held where the Year 8 family group leaders presented the children with prayer cards. The children then celebrated their First Holy Communion on Sunday. We congratulate Isabella, Eimear,Brooke, Magdalene, Alex,  Megan, Samantha Mae, Jorja, Amber,  Hannah, Eilish, Hannah, Isabella, Tasha, Emilea, Gorgia, Jet, Parker, Jacob,Alex, Ethan, Cameron and Ged along with Ellie, Julian, Marguerite, Eddie, and Jonathon. Making your First Communion is such an important event in your faith journey.

2012 Lenten Appeal

 Lenten Appeal

The three main focuses of Lent are Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. Every year St Joseph’s participates in a whole school almsgiving activity, where money is raised and sent to the Catholic Aid organisation, Caritas. The Caritas theme for Lent 2012 was “Called by faith to act with generous hearts.”

This year our Lenten effort was The Tables-a-thon. It reflects the generosity of our school community that an amazing total of $3152.40 was raised this year. A cheque for this amount has been sent to Caritas.  We appreciate your support in this Lenten project and it is great to see that our virtue of Generosity is alive in our school community. Generous donations to the National Lent Appeal, have exceeded $600,000 so far.

God's Earth, Our Earth

In Term 2 all classes in our school will be taught a major unit on Sustainability. This unit is integrated with Religious Education, where the focus is teaching children that God is the creator of the universe and we are the guardians,the kaitiaki, of this creation which is our world. Catholic schools are becoming increasingly involved with teaching and practicing sustainability, and they are fortunate to be able to link this practice to Biblical statements and church teaching. The land is God's gift to all of us. This source of our livelihood and our very being is increasingly being put at risk, and with it the lives of millions who depend directly on the produce of the earth. As Catholics we are called to ecological conversion- to think and act in ways which take into account the future of the planet and its people. Schools are to offer a practical example and education to students showing them what it means locally to adopt principles of living sustainably and preserving our global economy.(www.Caritas.org.nz)

Learning Outcomes:
Students will learn that

• God is creator of all that is good, the source of all being, seen and unseen, of Tapu and Mana, giver and sustainer of creation which is entrusted to the care of human beings, who, as creatures, are utterly dependent upon God.

• Because creation is entrusted to humans, the natural world is not just a resource to be exploited.

• We cannot use and abuse the world and matter as material for our actions and desires: we must consider creation a gift that has not been given to us to be destroyed, but to become God’s garden.

• We are stewards of the environment which is God’s creation. And in order to pass it on to the future generation we need to conserve and sustain the environment.

Room 7 Artwork from the Jesus Strand