Friday, September 23, 2016

Principal's Comment

Kia ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College

Welcome to the final blog for the term. The many posts during the term highlight “Excellence” in all its forms, woven through the fabric of College life. After a very successful visit from the Education Review Office (ERO), I thought it would be timely to share our vision for excellence and how it is strongly linked with equity in an Edmund Rice and Dominican College.

In the media, we often hear about “shallow excellence” - people celebrating easy achievements gained from the talents they already have. Our challenge and aim as a College is to celebrate “authentic excellence” which has come from hard graft, personal best and high expectations.

In education, personal excellence is fostered when you create a learning environment that is fair and just (equitable) for all students to achieve their best. Equity recognises that life is an uneven playing field and that we should aim to provide more support to those in need. The result is captured in our College Touchstone - “Liberating Education”.

One of the challenges we face is that programs and strategies that may be considered fair, are not necessarily seen as equal. As a Catholic school with a strong sense of social justice, we risk criticism that “I am not getting my share of the resources”. This mixes equality with equity - clearly they are not the same.

St Kevin’s College staff are committed to giving students the extra helping hand they need to display personal excellence. This is the advantage an education based on Gospel Values offers and I am pleased to report that it has been highlighted in our ERO review as an area of strength.

As we depart for the holidays, I would like to thank the staff for their hard work this term and wish everyone safe travels and a restful break.

May God bless you
Paul Olsen, Principal

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