Principals Message

Dear Parents and Friends of St Kevin's

The school has been engaged in a Green Week. If you look on the school calendar published on the website you will find through out the year weeks that are filled in green. These weeks are designed to focus the school on teaching and learning. They are weeks with little in the way of class time disturbance. It is no coincidence that this Green Week occurs the week before school examinations. Senior students have been briefed on the examinations and the high expectations around behaviour and equipment allowed in the examinations e.g clear plastic bags, no cellphones etc. The Year 11 students in particular must prepare and organise themselves so they can experience the conditions they will face in the NCEA End-of-Year Examinations. As winter sports begin to finish it is well timed for students to start to put their attention toward the academic part of the year. 

We have had a set of visitors in the school and were pleased to welcome the Youth Mission Team based in Christchurch. They have been working with the Religious Education classes with their theme based on the Ten Commandments.

The Southern Secondary Catholic Principals recently had a meeting and following the great success of the Catholic Schools Sporting Tournaments earlier in the year Roncalli College will be joining the other four schools next year. The Junior Tournament will take place at a similar time as this year, during Term Two. The Senior Tournament will shift to a time at the end of Term One. St Kevin's will be hosts next year and this will provide us the opportunity to set a new standard. 

Another important initiative announced recently has been the creation of Education Waitaki where in conjunction with Aoraki Polytechnic, St Kevin's, Waitaki Boy's and Waitaki Girls' will be offering trade courses next year. The first courses will be a Level 4 qualification in Carpentry and a Level 3 qualification in Hospitality focused on Cookery. These courses will be mainly offered to Year 13 students and will provide students the opportunity to study an alternate course while still participating in a full range of school activities e.g sport, ball etc

I wish students well in their examinations next week. I am thankful for all of the well-wishes over the course of my treatment and it has been refreshing to be back in school and to see the energy with which our teachers encourage and support our students. St Kevin's is truely a family.

May God Bless You

Kerry Ryan

Deputy Principal