St. Joseph's Catholic School Fairfield (New Zealand)

Infobox NZ school
name = St. Joseph's Catholic School
badge = ‎
motto = "In others we serve Christ"
type = State-integrated , Full Primary (Year 0-8), Coeducation
established = 1950
address = 88 Clarkin Road,
Fairfield,
Hamilton,
New Zealand
coordinates = coord|-37.7663|175.2736|format=dms|display=inline,title
principal =Arnna Graham-Sommerville
roll = 350
decile = 8 [ [http://www.minedu.govt.nz/web/downloadable/dl7698_v1/decile-changes-2007-2008-web-state-s-integ.xls Decile change 2007 to 2008 for state & state integrated schools] ]
MOE = 1946
homepage = [http://www.stjosephs.school.nz// www.stjosephs.school.nz]

St. Joseph's Catholic School is a full primary (Teaching Year 0 - Year 8), state integrated school in Fairfield, Hamilton, New Zealand.It currently has 14 classrooms and a roll of approximately 350 students. It neighbours Woodstock School.

St. Joseph's School has a range of people from many nationalities and ethnic groups. On 15 August 2007 to recognise the diversity of the school, flags were put up on a number of flag poles. These flags were chosen as people from the school were born in that country, or one/both of their parents were. Each morning these flags are put up by senior (Year 7/8) students, and taken down in the afternoon.

In 2006 St Joseph's School created a sustainable garden with the $2300 that the Hamilton City Council Envirofund gave in July 2006. This resulted in an award from Enviroschools, for the garden and numerous other reasons. In the garden itself are 4 miniature worm farms, built in 2005 for selling worm juice, along with numerous other miniature vegetable gardens. [cite web|url=http://www.stjosephs.school.nz/page/57|title=St Joseph's Catholic School Sustainable Garden Project 2006]

When students leave St Joseph's School at the end of Year Eight, most boys attend St. John's College, Hamilton, and most girls attend Sacred Heart Girls' College, however some attend .

History

In 1948 the Diocese of Auckland bought some farmland, and built St Joseph's Church Fairfield. In 1950 it was decided to make it into a school as well. The original building was a big centre room, which was the church, with smaller rooms coming off the main being classroms.

Events

*1950 The school is established.
*1970s A block of classrooms burnt in a fire.
*1975 The school celebrated its 25th jubilee.
*Early 1980s The Diocese of Hamilton is formed and takes over the school and church.
*August 1999 St. Joseph's School's roll reaches 300.
*2000 The school celebrated its 50th jubilee.
*2004 The school's oak tree, one of its icons and central items, was cut down and removed due to rooting problems. This tree had been there since the area was a farm. It is now used for furniture.

Church

In front of the school is St Joseph's Catholic Church. This can seat about 500 . It has one of few pipe organs around.
The school and parishioners gather regularly for Mass, and it is also used for Sunday Mass. The parish and school meet together often.

Awards

St. Josephs school has a variety of awards, some being accessories for school uniform

"Optional extras-Both genders and both age groups:"

*School (navy) beanie*
*School (maroon or red) jersey*
*School (maroon) vest*

*These items have the school logo.

Physical education

A physical education, or P.E. uniform is worn whenever students are learning physical education, and at inter-school sporting events.The physical education uniform is made up of a maroon polo shirt, black sporting shorts, white ankle socks, and sporting shoes.

Houses

St. Joseph's School has four competitive houses. Each is named after a holy person (the colour listed is the house's colour):

*Saint Bernadette (Blue)
*Saint Joseph (Yellow)
*Saint Patrick (Green)
*Saint Teresa (named after Mother Teresa) (Red)

The houses compete for points to win the house shield. Points are given by members of staff.There are 2 elected house leaders, usually 1 boy and 1 girl; who form the student council. They are joined by the head boy and the head girl, along with the leader of special character.

Academia

St. Joseph's Students are offered to be part of various competitions such as:

*International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) Tests (computers, science, writing, mathematics and English)
*Kids' Lit Quiz
*Waikato science fair
*Otago Problem Challenge
*Australian Primary Schools Olympiad (APSMO)
*Newspapers in Education NewsCruise Challenge

Students at St. Joseph's are taught mandatorily in religious education right from new entrance to year 8

port

St. Joseph's School offer many sports to their students to create school teams:

*Athletics
*Basketball
*Cricket
*Cross country running
*Football [cite web |url=http://www.forcethree.com/main.cfm?id=58 |title= Force 3 : Clubs : List of Clubs |accessdate=2007-12-01 |format= |work= ]
*Gymnastics
*Hockey*
*Netball
*Softball
*Swimming
*Tee ball
*Touch rugby

Some of these teams compete regularly in weekly round robin competitions, while others train for annual contests.

*Note that the school does not have a hockey team, but has students that are part of the 'Saints Combined' hockey team with the other local Catholic Schools in Hamilton.

References

External links

* [http://www.stjosephs.school.nz/ St. Joseph's Catholic School Website]
* [http://www.catholic.org.nz/nzceo/pages/schools/schools-hamilton.html| Hamilton Diocese Catholic Schools]