Principal's Comment

Dear Kevinians and Supporters

Thank you to those who managed to complete the caregiver's survey sent out earlier this week. The link that was sent out inadvertently required you to log into a Google Account which made the process rather difficult. The "open" survey can be found at www.stkevins.school.nz under Contact Us and Caregiver's Voice. The first 40 responses have been very positive and feedback has been very constructive.

This Thursday we were pleased to be able to host Nola and Patrick Tipa at Staff Professional Development. Nola is the Education programme leader for Ngāi Tahu and is based at our local Moeraki Marae. Staff focused on improved pronunciation of Māori names and gaining an understanding of Teaching as Inquiry.

Also on Thursday, we welcomed Professor Hu and Dr Lam from the University of Canterbury's Confucius Institute. They were visiting in preparation for the arrival of our Mandarin Teacher in Term 3. St Kevin's College joins with Waitaki Boys' High School to offer this language. We are exploring ways to offer basic Mandarin to our more senior students through the development of evening classes. I was honoured to receive a scroll from the University to mark the visit.

Finally, next week we welcome representatives from the Education Review office to the College. This is an opportunity to share with ERO the developments and success we have achieved over the last three year. I am looking forward to the visit as it is a time to compare our self-review process with the results of an external review.

May God bless you all.
Paul Olsen, Principal.