Archived Messages

Greetings from an Australian who has moved into Kuching to help establish a new International School, which is part of the family of schools named after St. Joseph. I have had some experience in

Australian Boarding Schools with Malaysian students. So, I have limited understanding of what is ahead of me!

We will follow the Cambridge curriculum in English, Maths and Science, and we will be implementing Internationally recognized methods in the Teaching-Learning process. We hope to establish relationships with other Secondary and Tertiary facilities in the South East Asian and Pacific regions.

I look forward to working with the Family of St. Joseph’s Schools in the coming school year and beyond. Our Marist Brothers Founder, St. Marcellin, wanted all students worldwide to have a decent, loving and caring education to help produce “Good Christians and good citizens.”

May we all continue to fulfill his dream.

Br. Paul Hough, FMS,

Principal,

St Joseph’s International School Kuching

Hi there!

Welcome to our website.

St. Joseph’s Private School, Kuching, was established in 2012 in response to a call for the setting up of a private institution which will be able to provide quality and holistic education.

The support we received and the response to our enrolment was overwhelming. We started off with 3 classes of Form 1 and 1 class each of Primary 1 and Primary 2 – with a total student population of 147. They will go down in history as the first batch of students for St. Joseph’s Private School.

We promise you an Education Beyond the Ordinary – an education that is different from the norm, an education that caters to the potential of the child. We cannot promise straight A’s for all our students in their public examinations but we can promise that every child will achieve whatever is possible with his/ her God given potential.

Our teachers are dedicated, qualified and experienced. They have been selected because of their caring nature and are not afraid to walk the extra mile.

We hope to produce students who are upright in their character, technologically competent, well balanced, sociably responsible and equipped with critical thinking skills – a holistic and integrated individual.

If your child is willing to learn, send him/ her to us. We provide you an Education Beyond the Ordinary.

Mr Gerald S. Lee

Director (2012 – 2016)

St. Joseph’s Private School recognizes the expectation of every parent of an education beyond the ordinary for his or her child. Thus, St. Joseph’s Private School Chaplaincy works with whole hearted passion in sync with all, including parents in creating a warm learning environment and supportive school community.

Within our nurturing school community we are more effective in ensuring that students excel in achieving their optimum. Thus, our Chaplaincy commits all our resource and expertise in enhancing spiritual and integral development of the entire school community students through appropriate and meaningful activities, including:

• Celebration of Holy Mass and other liturgical service
• Interpersonal relationship and support network
• Pastoral care for the entire school community
• Spiritual Direction and Guidance for students
• Personal Development and Leadership Course
• Interfaith Prayer and Interreligious Relation
• Spiritual talks, Retreats and Pilgrimage
• Individual and Group Counseling
• Bible Study and Faith Formation
• Reaching out to students in need

Our Chaplaincy welcomes all to partake in building a trusting and accepting school community. In warm partnership with our young together we attain an education beyond the ordinary.

I am very happy to join the hardworking and dedicated team at St Joseph’s Private School in providing holistic education to our children in Kuching. This includes spiritual and moral formation of our young.

We, as a team of administrators, teachers, and staff, work together to instill and nurture the much-needed growth and transformation in our students so that they develop into mature and wholly-integrated adults in all aspects of the human person. Academic excellence is only one aspect we stress on in this school. We want to make sure that our students excel in character of mind, body, emotion, and in the social and spiritual aspects as well.

The spirituality of Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, is based on growth and transformation. We believe that each human person and all creation are created good by God. As workers in God’s vineyard, we, Jesuits, try to bring out or draw out that goodness that is already present in each human person, and help them to foster right relationships with God, other people, and creation. Education is to help our young people to realize and be aware of their natural and inherent goodness, and nurture that goodness into full bloom in the best way they can, and all these are done in a holistic manner. Education is to inculcate human and divine values in our young, and teach them the ability to have these right relationships.

Fr Francis Lim Chin Choy, SJ

Dear students, parents and friends of SJFS,

C.S. Lewis, the celebrated English novelist, poet and lay theologian once said this of education: the task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

How apt indeed is this ecologically-friendly observation in the light of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si and for us living in Sarawak in this present age where progress and development is being attained at the high price of the destruction of our environment while the voice of mother nature struggles to make herself heard. If we apply this to the human mind as Lewis intended, we are looking indeed at an education that seeks to enrich and empower; and then to give back; where students enter to learn and leave to serve. Here teachers give of their time, resource and energy because at one time, they have been given generously.

As a young institution in the pursue of education beyond the ordinary, we strive to irrigate the desert of the young mind with waters from the living spring of experience in the hope that with the help of God, an oasis will emerge. Whether it is academics, sports or the performing arts, we dare to be different only because like the oasis, the alternative is not a choice. We do not want to be overtaken by the desert with its uncompromising uniformity that kills all life. The past six years has taught us one thing: we can change the landscape of our minds but if we continuously dig deep for the living waters of life.

2018 will be another exciting year as we embark on this journey together. We know that like all journeys, there will be mountains we have to surmount and valleys that we have to descend into. Let us keep join hands and our eyes on the goal – the creation of an oasis teeming with life in the minds of the young – so that some day, the desert will disappear and the jungle of paradise returns.

Welcome to SJFS; I am excited. Are you?

Welcome to St Joseph’s Private.

We welcome you to join us and be part of our community, at the start of what promises to be a great adventure, as we put down the first roots at St Joseph’s Private School.

The school has been many years in the planning from the initial brainstorming to receiving our operating licence, and getting the premises ready for classes to begin on 3 January 2012.

These are humble premises, but we are happy with what we have. We get to decide on the colours, the furniture and the plants . It was fun getting the place ready to welcome the first 105 boys and girls into our Form One classes.

These are early days, but they have been happy days.

It is a pleasure to see the bougainvilleas blooming and the students settling in and making rapid progress.

The founding staff has been such a blessing, and we place our future expansion in their hands with full confidence.

We are a small community, but our hopes are high as we look forward to our new campus and the years to come.

It’s good to be back! Always remember that our present situation is not our final destination. Looking forward to a new year with new resolutions for 2020. Let’s strive for the best together! Ora Et Labora.

Mdm Mildred Jong Lee Phin

Note: Mdm Mildred was the Headmistress for only about 6 months. She resigned from her post because of health reason.

St. Joseph’s Private School has developed a reputation for academic excellence and I am truly honoured to have been selected as the new headmistress of the primary school starting in January 2015.

As a headmistress, I desire to work closely with parents, staff and pupils so as to ensure that every child reaches his/her full potentials. This is only possible if we work as a team. I do hope parents would play an active role in their children’s education by making sure that their children are in school on time, attend school on a regular basis and they also help them with their school work at home.

Lastly, I believe that school should be fun where every pupil feels valued, safe and welcomed. It is my priority therefore to ensure that every child who sets foot in St Joseph’s Private Primary School feels that he/she is a part of a family within a learning environment where everyone thrives.