St Joseph's School

We are proud of our school which was founded by the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1887. In 1898 the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions took over the school. Even though we have no sisters associated with our school we have a tradition of service and a ‘Mission’ to teach as well as the lasting legacy of our name St. Joseph, from our founders. St. Joseph our patron saint is our model of justice, love of God, service and faithfulness.

Our goals and values reflect the importance of the education of Catholic children as we teach our students the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and how to live the Gospel values especially through respect for others, our service to others, our sense of family and the values we promote. Our children serve in the community and we reflect our ‘Mission’ to be witnesses in our community through living the Gospel values. We too spread the Good News in the world.

We are proud of our students and promote leadership for all students. Senior students lead the family support and House groups. We promote service through our school St. Vincent de Paul group and regular visits to the elderly. Our senior students are active as peer mediators supporting our behaviour management programme. Other leadership opportunities involve them in liturgy preparation, as sports’ monitors and as librarians.

Academic extension is offered through a variety of opportunities such as; International Competitions and Assessment for Schools with some students achieving distinction and high distinction awards; the Young Leaders’ Conference, Math’s achievement awards and the Otago problem solving challenges; the BP Technology Challenge; North Canterbury and Canterbury Cantamaths competitions; chess and debating competitions. Our Year 7-8 EOTC camp to Wellington every second year is a triumph of home and school partnership and provides a rich array of learning opportunities for children.

Our children enjoy the opportunities to achieve offered through sporting opportunities run by parents and the school, such as soccer; touch rugby; netball and basketball competitions. Our children are involved in sports interchange and championship participation and quality physical activity. Each fortnight all classes have physical education sessions run by coaches. Every second year we have winter skills days which involve the seniors in skiing, the middle school skating and swimming and the junior school Hanmer visit to walk and swim.

The Arts is catered for through the school programmes, our biennial involvement in the Ashley Schools’ Music Festival Choir and the biennial School Musical. Year 1-3 children take part of the World Vision Kids for Kids Choir when it comes to Christchurch. Our children’s art work is entered in local art competitions. We hold our own A&P Show biennially with art entries to the local A&P Show other years.

Our parent community actively supports the school through fundraising and sports’ coaching, involvement in Board of Trustees and P.F.A. Parents are encouraged to be part of our school community and to work in partnership with teachers.