St+Joseph's+Taihape

At SJS we have spent 12 months gathering the data and sowing the seeds for a new school curriculum.

Parent and student consultations occurred in a variety of settings including: · Written surveys · “School Gate” surveys · Online through survey monkey · School social events · Opinion box · Parent information evenings and discussion groups · Student conferences.

We’ve come up with this vision statement – “St Joseph’s School is a **community of learners** **focused on excellence**, reflecting **Catholic values**” – which we’ve broken down or clarified to reflect the feedback from consultation (below).

// At St Joseph’s school we believe that everyone is a learner. We support each other in our life-long quest to gain new knowledge, improve our skills and develop our talents. We have the confidence to give things a go and innovate in a climate of respect and forgiveness. // // At St Joseph’s School, ‘excellence’ means being the best that you can be. We achieve our goals by looking forward and understanding what steps we need to take to ensure continued improvement. // // The Catholic faith and traditions are evident in all aspects of St Joseph’s School. We nurture a closer relationship with God and follow the example of Christ through our core values of forgiveness and love. We show integrity by serving God and helping others in our daily lives. // We’ve introduced a Six-Values framework that we follow – one per term, meaning that each is covered twice in a three year period. The weekly programme was influenced initially by practices seen at Our Lady of Lourdes Palmerston North although we are putting our own spin on it. At St Joseph’s School we are high-FLIERS!
 * Community of Learners **
 * Focus on Excellence **
 * Catholic Values **

**F**orgiveness (Murunga) **L**ove (Aroha) **I**ntegrity (Ngākau Tapatahi) **E**xcellence (Hiranga) **R**espect (Whakaute) **S**ervice (Whakaritenga Mahi) With these frameworks in place we are now focussed on developing curriculum statements that complement our school vision. Like many, we are aligning our values with Key Competencies. I will update here with our progress as it happens.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be a lead principal in the Massey region for NZC. This has allowed me to access high quality discussion and material around curriculum design and purpose and has broadened my understandings of what the new St Joseph’s curriculum can potentially be.

I’ve added a powerpoint presentation that I shared with our cluster following the last lead principals workshop. Hopefully there is something there that helps others.

Thanks //Danny// St Joseph's Taihape