Safeguarding and Strengthening Catholic Character

At St Joseph's School, we work to evaluate and strengthen the education with a special character provided by the school. As part of our evaluation, we focus on different dimensions of our Catholic special character as set out in Catholic Special Character Evaluation for Development (NZCEO).

Dimension 4 is Te Kaitiakitanga me te Whakapakari i te Tuakiri Katorika | Safeguarding and Strengthening and Catholic Special Character. By considering this dimension and its focus areas of stewardship and legal obligations, we evaluate how the school safeguards and strengthens its Catholic special character.

See Catholic special character evaluation for development (NZCEO).

Stewardship

We ensure that the governance and management of St Joseph's School safeguards and strengthens our Catholic special character. Our strategic planning includes continued strengthening of our Catholic special character. The board recognises their responsibility to protect the proprietor's interests in the areas of special character, employment, enrolment, and property.

Board responsibilities for stewardship include:

• striving for educational excellence for all students
• having policies and procedures that reflect our Catholic special character
• ensuring that the vision and strategic direction of the school clearly reflect our Catholic special character
• participating in regular review of Catholic special character and our religious education programme
• incorporating an understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, te ao Māori, tikanga Māori, and mātauranga Māori into policies and procedures
• having clear expectations for being culturally responsive.

The board focuses on areas of employment and professional development as part of fulfilling its stewardship responsibilities.

Employment

The board complies with employment provisions of the Education and Training Act 2020 and our integration agreement, including processes for the appointment of special positions and acceptability requirements for special positions. The board consults with the proprietor or proprietor's appointee in determining the acceptability of applicants.

The principal and teachers are expected to understand and comply with the Code of Professional Responsibility | Ngā Tikanga Matatika, which provides required standards for ethical behaviour, and the Standards for the Teaching Profession | Ngā Paerewa, which describes the expectations of effective teaching pratice. St Joseph's School is also guided by Catholic School Elaborations – Standards for the Teaching Profession in supporting the personal and professional growth of our staff.

Professional development

St Joseph's School encourages the professional development of board and staff members, particularly of the principal and director of religious studies. We support an ongoing programme of Catholic special character professional learning and formation, including the principles of Catholic social teaching. We also encourage professional development of cultural competency, including an understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, te ao Māori, tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te reo Māori.

Legal obligations

St Joseph's School complies with all relevant legislation, including the specific requirements for state-integrated schools set out in Schedule 6 of the Education and Training Act. We comply with the conditions of our integration agreement, which was entered into by the proprietor and the Minister of Education, and establishes a partnership between the proprietor and the Crown.

Our integration agreement describes the special character of the school, and requires the school to be operated in a way that maintains and preserves our special character. Our integration agreement also sets out conditions for employment, enrolment, and property, and other requirements that contribute to safeguarding the special character of the school.

See Proprietor and Integration Agreement.

We review our compliance with the following requirements as part of our special character review:

• the number or percentage of special positions
• consultation with the proprietor and make-up of appointment committees for special positions
• maximum roll compared with actual roll
• number of preference and non-preference students.

Release history: Term 3 2024, Term 3 2022

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