Summer Letter 2013

Kim Broström, 28. juni 2013

Dear students and parents.

It is almost time for the Summer holidays at ISJ; today at 10:30, we will sing the roof off of the school hall with the song ”Ferie, Ferie, Ferie” (Vacation, vacation, vacation).

As you already know, we had a completely new website a couple of months ago. We will frequently upload important news onto the website, and it is important that you browse www.sanktjoseph.dk every once in a while in order to stay up to date.

To finish the year, I now provide you with a good old-fashioned newsletter!

By the way, thank you for the summer party on the 20^th of June.

It was truly a pleasure! Everyone, whom I have talked to afterwards -students, parents as well as staff were happy with the event. We will definitely have another successful party next school year.

Renovation:

During the last six months, we have painted the entire first floor of the main building; classrooms as well as the hallway. Furthermore, we have sound proofed three different places in the building: the café, the rooms for working in groups on the third floor as well as on the first floor. In our beautiful old building, the ceiling is very high up. However, we do have a profound wish that we could e.g. use the hallway areas as an integrated part of the school’s learning environment. In order for this to work in the best way, soundproofing is needed. For example in the café, it has been a big improvement.

New Chairman of the Board:

The school board has reinvented it self, Sister Susanne Hoyos is extremely busy and expressed a wish to leave her post. In her place, the board has elected Peter Navarro as Chairman. Peter was elected as a member of the board as a representative of the parent circuit at ISJ; and by the way, he is also the father of Josef in 2.b.

The Oldies bell:

On Friday the 7^th of June, we had an Oldies dinner for former students as well as former and current employees at ISJ. We had a wonderful evening with approximately 200 participants. On that occasion, we also inaugurated our new “Oldies bell”, which we in the future will use to ring the bell for new students to the school and to ring the bell for the graduating students to join the Oldies. The first ring of the bell was yesterday at the graduation!

In connection with the inauguration of the bell at the oldies dinner, teacher John Axberg had the chance to ring the bell for Helle Dahl to join the Oldies. Helle will retire this SummerJ.

(Please, see the picture from the school website and read about the story of the bell)

Teacher for a day!! – May 15^th, 2014:

Every third year, the entire staff goes on a trip together. The trip has a social aspect to it as well as a cultural/pedagogical aspect. In 2011, we went to Rome, -in 2014, the faculty plans to go to Barcelona.

We will follow the same procedure as in 2011 and leave around the vacation of St. Bededag (Danish public holiday in the spring):

Thursday the 15^th of May, 2014: Parents day.

Friday the 16^th of May, 2014: St. Bededag.

Monday the 19^th of May, 2014: The school is closed.

You will, of course, receive more information about this, but you can already note it down in your calendar:

Thursday the 15^th of May, 2014.

Again, we offer the opportunity of being “teacher for a day” at ISJ.

In 2011, it was a great success, and we hope that you will get on board with the idea again.

Be the Change:

With the title “ Responsibility for your fellow man and the world”, every second year we host a big project week. The purpose is, among other things:

– That the students understand the necessity of taking responsibility for their “fellow man and the world”.

– To raise money for a specific charity project.

Last time, we raised money for the organization “Rope of Hope”, which helps street children in South Africa. This year, the title is ”Be the Change”; and we will raise money for a Caritas project in Niger, which builds schools for nomadic children. In the year 2011, we raised 54.000 kr. (DKK), which we are going to top this time!!

The students and the parents will, of course, learn more about this as the time draws nearer. We will e.g. have a visit at the school from an employee of Caritas, who will tell the students about the project and show films/pictures.

”Be the Change” will be held from September 4^th until Friday the 13^th of September. The students will work with projects from around the world related to the topic and Thursday and Friday, we will invite parents, siblings, grand parents and friends to join!

You should pay special attention to the following:

On Thursday the 12^th of September at 3 pm – 5 pm, we open the doors for grandparents, friends and parents who are unable to attend the Friday arrangement.

At 5 pm the fun exercise run “Be the Change” will be held for students, parents and staff.

The distances will be 2 or 5 km and there will be nice prize drawsJ Further information on registration and participant fee will follow in August.

On Friday the 13^th of September at 4 pm – 6 pm, the big final day will be held for parents and siblings.

Goodbye to employees

This year, we say goodbye to Helle Dahl, who after 39 years at ISJ has chosen to retire.

Helle has meant incredibly much to this school, and we will truly miss her. On behalf of the entire school, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Helle tremendously: you have truly meant a great deal to many ISJ students, parents and colleagues. Thank you! Enjoy your well-deserved retirement!

We also say goodbye to Søren Bim and Jannie Lorentzen, who have both found a job in their local areas, Frederikssund and Allerød. Thank you for good work at ISJ and the best of luck in the future.

Furthermore, we say goodbye and a big thank you to Souad Abou Hait, who has taught at the school for the last two years.

In the after school program, we say goodbye to Martin, Rebekka and Mie, who are all starting their studies. Thank you so much to you too: The children have been crazy about you!

IT in middle school (4^th -6^th grade)

In the newsletter from December 2012, you could read the following:

The board and the school management have decided that, from August 2013, all students in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade need to bring their own laptop that is solely to be used for schoolwork. This laptop should, therefore, have a place in the school bag just like a pencil case, books and a lunchbox have it. The laptop should be able to connect to the wireless network and contain the office programs – this could be OpenOffice – which is free software. It is clearly best to have a computer that is not too big and heavy and with a long lasting battery. Whether it is a PC or a Mac is secondary when it comes to school work, our network and printers support both computers. Mac does unfortunately have the disadvantage that it is not only popular amongst the students, but also among thieves. This gives cause to remind you that it is a good idea to have a good insurance on the computer.

I can add that we – in consultation with a small committee selected by the parents’ committee –have chosen to purchase student lockers for the computers. The lockers can be rented for 15 DKK a month, which will be charged via the tuition fee.

This will apply to all students from 4^th – 9^th grade from now on.
Students who are interested will be able to register with their class teacher in the beginning of the new school year.

After the Lock Out

During the lock out in April, the students lost part of their lessons. The government of modernization has stated that in general, schools should make sure that all students receive the lessons corresponding to the state schools’ minimum requirement. At ISJ, we have, for years, been exceeding those standard requirements, which have made the students well prepared to lose a month of teaching.

Immediately after the conflict, the school made sure that all our 9^th grade students had extra lessons in the exam subjects.

In the coming school year, we have raised the number of weekly lessons for all grade levels and will in this be compensating for the lessons lost this spring. We have decided to spread out the extra lessons on a whole school year in order to maintain reasonable schedules for both students and teachers. This is also the model that most other schools in the country have chosen to use.

The supplementary teaching will be given broadly across multiple subjects in the various grades. In particular, Danish, Math, English and Special Education will be favored. This way, the state subsidiary + tuition fees from the lockout will be used for their intended purpose: For teaching and additional expenses related to running a school. A part of these expenses are, as known, unaffiliated with the lockout, such as property tax, renovation, electricity etc.

We further refer to a number of mails concerning the lockout that has been published on the intranet.

Schedule for Morning Assembly:

We wish to protect our lovely tradition for assembling every morning to sing a song. However, this also means that 10 minutes are cut from the ordinary class hour in the first lesson, which is not desirable.

Therefore, we have decided that from the 1st of August, all bell ringing will be pushed 10 minutes. This means that in the future, morning assembly will take place at 8 am, but the first lesson will not start before 8.10 pm.

This way, time has been ear marked for the morning assembly meaning that the secondary classes will attend their first lesson at 8.10 am, on days when they do not have morning assembly.

In the future, the schedule for the morning assembly will look like this:

Primary: Every day from 8 am. Monday and Thursday in the gym. All other days in the theatre hall.

Middle school: Every day from 8 am in the theatre hall

Secondary: Monday and Thursday 8 am in the theatre hall.

New Class Schedules

The class schedules for the coming school year can be read on the intranet in the category of your own class from Monday the 1^st of July.

Friday the 30^th of August

All classes end after the 5^th lesson at 12.45 pm. Later that evening, we will have our annual summer party for employees and the board. Up until this, all teachers will attend a pedagogical day for head, body and soul.

The After School Program (SFO) will be open as usual.

Parent-teacher meeting

Below, is a schedule for the parent-teacher meetings this Autumn. It is important that you all attend both the joint meeting and the meeting in your own class.

That some classes have their meeting before the joint meeting and others after is due to the fact that several teachers are class teachers in two classes. This way, those teachers will be able to attend the class meeting in both classes.

Please, mark your calendars already.

Monday the 23rd of September. A-track in Primary:

5 pm – 6.30 pm class meeting 1a and 3a