Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Over the Easter break, I had the privilege of attending the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Hillary Award presentations. Four of our past students, Sean Hand, Sian Waters, William Plunkett, Jaln Rodger had their awards presented by the Governor General, His Excellency Sir Jerry Mateparae. Having this number of Gold recipients is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of Mr Dixon and his team who selflessly run the programmes within the College.

While the students were on holiday, the staff have taken the opportunity to continue their professional development in a number of areas. The implementation of the new NCEA Level 3 standards has been the major focus in the senior school. Br Damian Price, a visiting Christian Brother based in Melbourne  worked with staff to develop a shared understanding of our Catholic perspective of the Principles within the national curriculum. 

At assembly this week we took the opportunity to celebrate a number of superb student achievements.

• Hayley Evans Leigh McNamara were presented with their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
• Head Boy Jibi Kunnethedam, was presented with the $1000 cheque for himself and $1000 for the College for his runner up placing in the ANZ RSA Cyril Bassett VC Speech Competition held in Wellington on Wednesday 27 March. We also acknowledged his success in the Unity Race Relations Speech Competition. Jibi will be one of the two students representing the Aoraki region later this year.  
• Rowing medals for Maadi Cup were presented to Julia Fauth and Tiana Mihaere. Julia received a Gold in the A Final for the Under 16 Single Skull, and Julia and  Tiana recieved a silver for the A Final of the Under 16 Pair. These were outstanding achievements for the College and rowing in North Otago.  

Later today I will join four other southern principals on week long visit to China. The regional delegation is making links with education providers in Beijing and Wuhan. The trip is being facilitated by the Confucius Institute at Canterbury University. One of the expected outcomes of the visit is the establishment and resourcing of a course in Mandarin in 2014. This will further enrich the opportunities available for our students to be able to learn about China which is a rapidly emerging economic partner. In my absence, Mr Ryan will be in the role of Acting Principal.


God Bless
Paul Olsen 
Principal