Vocational Pathways- Earn as You Learn Careers Day

Recently, a group of St Kevin’s College Year 11 students visited several of the district’s infrastructure services – Network Waitaki, SouthRoads and the Waitaki District Council’s water treatment plant and reservoir – to find out about career pathways in the different sectors, and help establish relationships between schools and employers.

This was one of the school’s “earn as you learn” careers days, funded by the Ministry of Education, encouraging young people to look for local training opportunities.

Thank you to our Vocational Pathways team Mrs Sue McErlane and Mrs Paula Eatherley for supporting these wonderful opportunities.

You can read more about the experience here:
https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/community/exploring-career-opportunities/

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today Jacob is the star of my post! In the photo below he is pictured with two of our TA team who decided that since it was Friday they would raid the staff room for chocolate chippie muffins for him as a treat because he has worked so well this week.

Jacob, along with other groups of students, has been part of a study by the University of Auckland this year where members of our staff are learning how to do high quality "narrative assessment". Narrative assessment is a different approach to assessment which focuses on documenting the learning journey of students and classes where we minute the achievements of learners as they occur rather than building up to large end of unit tests or examinations. It is a very naturalistic type of assessment and works well when we want to document milestones of achievement. With the addition of smart phones and other technology we are also able to film and photograph moments of mastery - its like Facebook for learning!

This approach is not new. If we think of the typical kiwi childhood, we all had our milestone learning documented in our Plunket books. We acknowledged readily that different children walk, eat, crawl and roll over at different times. This is what makes each learning journey unique, and makes each person unique. I would like to acknowledge the incredible work put into this project by Mrs Dooley our SENCO, Mr Ryan Gower our Head of Math, Sue Booth, Esther Dupu, Tanya McLaren and Tina Souness our TAs, AE coordinator and Student mentors.

Have a great weekend.

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui
Paul Olsen

Covid-19 Update

Kia ora koutou

We wanted to give you an update on some changes taking place next week and what they mean for your children and whānau.

You are probably aware the Prime Minister has announced that face coverings will be required on public transport from next Monday, at Alert Level 2 and above. This does not apply to any child who is under 12 years of age and does not apply to school transport (we have good systems in place to manage safety on school transport).

Public Health officials have advised that children under the age of 6 should not wear face coverings.
Children and young people do not need to wear face coverings at school. Other public health control measures are in place including children and staff staying home if they are sick, contact tracing, and hygiene requirements.

If your child doesn’t need to wear a face covering but they want to, that’s fine. Face coverings are another way we can help keep ourselves and others safe, along with good hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, appropriate physical distancing when out and about and staying home if we are sick.

We’re continuing contact tracing by having QR code posters at our entrances, so please check in every time you come onsite.

If you haven’t already downloaded the NZ COVID Tracer app the Ministry of Health’s website has information to help you do that. We’ll also keep a visitor register for anyone who doesn’t have the app and also for anyone who comes onsite for a period of time. This will help us with contact tracing in the unlikely case it is needed.

If you have any questions about face coverings or anything else, please get in touch.

Ngā mihi and God bless
Senior Management SKC

Class Act 2020

A big congratulations to our head students Annie Metcalfe and Alex Houston who have been named as our Class Act recipients for 2020.

Class Act recognises success of our region’s senior secondary school students across academic, cultural and sporting pursuits.

All Class Act recipients will be offered a University of Otago Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship in recognition of their success.

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/school-news/class-act-st-kevins-college

2021 Enrolments

Spaces are filling fast!

If you wish to apply for admission to St Kevin's College for your child in 2021 please fill in an Application form and return it to the school office as soon as possible.

You can find information about the enrolment process here: 

https://www.stkevins.school.nz/enrolment/enrolment

If you have any questions about enrolling, please contact Leanne from our school office at lwolfe@stkevins.school.nz, or phone (03) 437 1665.

High Performance Programme

Did you know we have a High Performance Sports Programme at St Kevin's College?

It aims to develop our top sports people and equip them with the physical, mental and emotional skills to improve their performance. Accountability, commitment, excellence and integrity are the key focus areas to develop this group of young people as not only athletes, but as people and students.

There is a Junior and Senior Programme and students are able to develop their physical fitness and sport specific skills during class time. As well as this, they cover important topics such as nutrition, injuries, recovery, tactical awareness, sports psychology, goal setting, interpersonal skills and leadership. Sport specific coaches are used to develop each students’ skills, and guest speakers also get to address the students when the opportunity arises.

Recently we were lucky to have Kane Jury from the Talent Development Manager from the Pulse Energy Highlanders to take a skills session with the rugby group. Thank you Kane for sharing your expertise!

If you would like to learn more about the programme please contact our Head of Sport, Mr Craig Smith at csmith@stkevins.school.nz

Junior Student Led Conferences

Bookings are now open for Caregivers of Year 9 and 10 students for Student Led Conferences. Please find below the link to the interview site.

https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/code?z=HgIbFK

The event code: z9kzw

Interviews will be held on the afternoon of Friday 4th September.
Students are currently working on their slide show presentations.

Senior interviews will be held next term after the end of term exams.

Covid-19 Update

Kia ora koutou whānau and friends of St Kevin's College.

Following the announcement from the Prime Minister we will remain at Alert Level 2.
Just a reminder that while everyone is onsite at Alert Level 2, we must adhere to key health measures including:

- Good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette
- Staying away if sick
- Keeping the appropriate physical distance from others
- Cleaning and disinfecting our high touch surfaces daily

Displaying QR code posters at our entrances and encouraging all of our community to download the NZ COVID Tracer App and use it if they come onsite
Keeping a visitor register for anyone who cannot use the app and for other visitors who come onsite for a period of time.

We know all these things will help to keep our community as safe as possible. Because of these measures, your child does not need to wear a face covering while at school. We will of course support them should they choose to do so.

For those of you who might be finding things more difficult than usual, a reminder that there is a large range of support available for businesses and the community. We encourage you to go to the covid19.govt.nz for more information, or get in touch and we will help you to find the information and support you need.

Ngā mihi
Paul Olsen

Auckland Engineering Competition 2020

Recently we had teams enter the Auckland Engineering Competition. This was held onsite at SKC where students worked in groups of four to work out a mathematical solution to an engineering question. 

This year the question to consider was how many satellites can be launched into orbit before astronomers on earth can no longer observe the night sky without interruption. They looked and talked about different angles of approaching the question and were given 8 hours to put forward a solution.

 
Well done to the following students who took part:

Team 1:
Marcus Herrera
Yi Tao Sun
Carter Andrew
Fergus McMullan

Team 2:
Emily McCoy
Tuaiva Taafaki
Bea Bagongon
Alyssa Colina

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today we were able to partially return to school Mass by celebrating with the junior school only. Students were socially distanced and used hand sanitizer as they entered the chapel. While this meant there was a little less volume in the singing, it was great to be back together at Mass which is the heart of our school.

New Zealand is doing very well in controlling this latest outbreak and we are constantly reinforcing to our students the need to keep vigilant with hand washing, cough etiquette and monitoring their health. There are a number of students wearing masks and those who have needed Covid-19 tests have been very responsible about having them done. This week Ms Walshe clarified our stance on the Ball, but given today's announcement we will wait until Monday to confirm the date.

 

We are planning to focus on girls uniforms next week as we have noticed a drift from regulation standards. Please encourage your students to check that they do not have excess jewellery or coloured nail polish and that long hair is tied up . As always your cooperation in this is very much appreciated. Wearing our uniform is about self discipline as much as anything, and an ability to adhere to something this simple is a small step in a student's pathway to citizenship.

Finally a big "good luck" to those playing sport this weekend under Level 2 Covid-19 regulations. Sporting bodies have worked extremely hard to ensure that our young people still have access to sport amid this latest outbreak and I would like to publicly thank all of those in our community who have prioritised finding safe ways for this to happen. Have a great weekend.

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui
Paul Olsen     

Aoraki Maths Competition 2020

Earlier this month we had some Year 9 and 10 teams head to Timaru to participate in the Aoraki Maths Competition. 

Congratulations to Jordan Smith, Oliver Davison, Jonathan Jorgensen and Drewbert Monoy who finished second place in the Year 9 section. This is a great result as there were about 30 teams from all over the Aoraki region!

Well done to all those that took part!

ITO Trades Academy

Our SKC Primary ITO Trades Academy Students have been learning new skills this term, including fencing, animal handling, drainage and water troughs. 

Thank you to Agrilearn Ltd for providing training, Road Metals for supplying materials, and Dave Heffernan for the loan of his sheep

Student Representative Board Of Trustees

Nominations are invited for the election of one Student Representative to the Board
of Trustees.

Nomination forms can be obtained from the school office. Nominations close at noon on Friday, 4th September 2020 which is 14 days before the election date and may be accompanied by a signed candidate’s statement.

The voting roll is open for inspection at the school and can be viewed during the hours the office is open.
There will also be a list of candidates’ names for inspection, as they come to hand, on the St Kevin’s College Blog, Student Noticeboard and the e-newsletter.

The poll closes at noon on Friday, 18th September 2020.

Signed
Dee Hayes
Returning Officer

Aoraki Badminton

Last week the Boys Badminton team were in Timaru to compete in the Aoraki Festival badminton competition.

They won all of their 4 games:

SKC vs WBHS 5 - 1
SKC vs TBHS Red 6 - 0
SKC vs Opihi College White 6 - 0
SKC vs Twizel Rockets 4 - 2

Well done boys!

Thank you Dr Maret for supporting the group.

Level 2 Biology Freshwater Investigation

Level 2 Biology classes visited the Kakanui stream recently to do their Freshwater investigation. Students are looking at a range of factors to determine the health or otherwise. The main measure is the macroinvertebrates such as Mayfly larvae and Caddisfly as well as snails, worms and others.
Students carry out kick sampling then sort and identify what is found. 

Other factors such as pH, dissolved Oxygen, Algae, Temperature and substrate are observed, measured and recorded. The result is a pattern between the factors and the quality of the Macroinvertebrates found. In this case there were a lot of Mayflies (which are the most sensitive to any substances in the water) found and different types of Caddis with a few Worms and Snails (the least sensitive).

This suggests a healthy stream but doing the sampling when the water is cold means we can only have a snapshot. This is the third year of SKC doing this and we are building an interesting picture which also gives students a better understanding of what is going on in streams.

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

As we wait tonight for the announcement at 5:30pm of our current Alert Level status I feel it is timely to remind our community about the importance of talking about the Pandemic in a way which is helpful to our students here at school.

While most of our students fall into the category of young and healthy, there are students in our school who are at greater risk because of preexisting conditions or have parents or caregivers in similar situations. We need to be mindful of these students and of those who struggle with anxiety and depression as we head into another difficult time as a country.

The Prime Minister's message of "Be Kind" has been selected not only because it's simple and straightforward but because it summarizes all we need to know when dealing with each other in times like this. Christ said, "love one another as I have loved you". These are the moments when we need to heed this very clear message. We need to cut out all the noise of partisanship, conspiracy theories and hate and instead focus on making the life of the person next to us, that bit easier.

 

Pictured: A dance move learned last week in Year 10 Dance Class

So I ask you please, to do the following: Don't blame anyone or anything for this situation. True we are annoyed by mistakes we may perceive, but being negative towards the State, the North Island, the Government, does nothing to ease the mind of your student and increases the fear they feel. Stick to the facts. We have an incredibly open system in New Zealand, so look for your information from the Ministry of Health's website, not Facebook or your Mum's Sister's Neighbor😊.

Finally, let's celebrate the really good things that we have here in our amazing little country. This helps to keep our students focused on the positive.

We at the college are ready for online learning if we need to be and encourage you to get in contact with us if you need support.

Kia Kaha SKC

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui
Paul Olsen

Vocational Pathways- Gateway

Year 12 and Year 13 students have the opportunity to explore future Vocational Pathways on Fridays during school time by doing GATEWAY.

Here are some photos of students out on Work Experience last week. We are very grateful to all the organisations who mentor our students.

In these photos:

Rebecca Dodd - Montessori Oamaru Ltd
Isaac Adamson - Anvil Engineering
Cameron Mather - APEX Engineering
Aria Packer - Havenwyck Pets
Sarah Jones - Glen Warren Te Ana A Raki Kindergarten

Beginner Horses Required for Equestrian Programme

St Kevins College is looking for horses to lease for our junior programme.

These need to be calm and sensible and able to walk and trot with beginner students on the reins. The college pays for feed, shoeing, strangles vaccine, teeth floating and transport to and from school at holiday periods.

If you have a horse available, please contact Jo Walshe at jwalshe@stkevins.school.nz

Covid-19 Update

Kia Ora Parents and Friends of the College,

Following last night's announcement that our region was going back into Alert Level 2, the management team has met to look at what this means for us.
Our aim is to take a conservative approach to implementing systems for Covid 19.

Over the next 72 hours, we will try to limit the number of events where students are not able to have some form of social distancing.

This will mean the following:

No face to face assembly today - we will hold this virtually.

No house singing on Thursday

No Mass on Friday

We will also implement Covid 19 hygiene measures as required under Alert Level 2.

This will mean the following:

The use of hand sanitiser in classrooms and around the school

The reintroduction of the one-way system for the stairs

The use of the contact tracing app for people visiting the school

Classrooms, where possible, will be arranged so that students are not in each other’s breath zone.

We are watching carefully for announcements from the Prime Minister and the Director-General of Health with regards to further movements. We are also implementing the recommendations from the Ministry of Education.

At Level 2 all students are able to attend educational institutions, and hostels remain open, but we ask that if your student is sick, or you have suspected symptoms of Covid 19 in your household, that students stay home from school.

We have our online platform ready to switch to distance learning if that is the path we need to go down after Friday. If there are families who need support with obtaining internet access or computer hardware, please contact the college as soon as possible so that we can have a seamless transition, if need be, to online learning for all of our college family.

Our mandate here today is to “keep calm and carry on”, remembering that for some of our students this move the Alert Level 2 may be distressing. If you feel your student needs support from our pastoral team, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We ask also that you keep an eye on emails and Facebook posts from the college for updates.

God Bless
Paul Olsen

Aoraki Sports Events Cancelled

With the recent COVID-19 developments all Aoraki events planned for this week will be cancelled.

That is:

Girls Badminton – Thursday

Cross Country – Friday

Netball – Sunday

Bus Notice

Ritchies, our school transport provider, has advised us that from tomorrow - Wednesday 12 August - there will be a change to morning bus routines.

All buses approaching from the southern aspect of town will now each drop-off their own SKC students (after WGHS and OIS) and THEN proceed back towards WBHS to drop-off on Thames Highway, adjacent to Waitaki Ave.

All buses approaching from the north into Oamaru will now go directly to SKC to drop-off their own students and then onto WBHS to drop on Thames Hwy before continuing to OIS and WGHS stops.

This should mean that some SKC students will arrive at school a little earlier than previously, and no students will have a later arrival than usual. The afternoon routine will remain unchanged.

These new routes have been developed in response to identified safety concerns in the mornings at the Waitaki Ave bus interchange. Parents are asked to contact Ritchies directly if they require further information.

With these changes we also ask that caregivers dropping off are mindful of the one-way system given more buses will be coming up the driveway.

Trapshooting Success!

Our team of Clay Target shooters Clark Ewing, Hunter Reading, Thomas

Cochrane, Maddison Jones, Harry Murphy, Rueben Collett and Elizabeth
Weatherly competed in Timaru in the weekend in perfect shooting conditions.

Results:

- Harry Murphy 2nd Single Rise
- Maddison Jones 1 st Single Barrell (ladies)
- Maddison Jones 3 rd Point Score (ladies)
- Clark Ewing High Overall Score for the day
- Cark Ewing 1 st Points Score
- Clark Ewing 3 rd Single Rise
- Clark Ewing 3 Single Barrell

Rueben Collett gained his National Clay Target Association (NZCTA) 50 badge by shooting 50 targets without a miss in a row .

The team also took part in the Kilwell Trophy National Postal shoot. This is a NZ Competition held by Squads sending in their scores run at nominated events around the country. The team achieved 192 points out of a possible 225.

As part of the National Postal Shoot Clark shot 258 targets in a row without a
miss. As well as qualifying for another NZCTA 200 badge, his score will go
through to the NZCTA and results will be announced at the National Secondary Schools Clay Target competition in Christchurch in September. With a score like this we are hopeful for another successful outcome. Last year he won the event on a score of 197 while gaining his first 200 badge by shooting additional targets earlier in the day.

Past Pupil Hamish Robertson Contributes to Otago Nuggets Recent Success

How great to see two past pupils involved in the Otago Nuggets recent success!

Talented basketballer and past pupil Hamish Robertson found a way to contribute to the Otago Nuggets’ successful campaign despite picking up a shoulder injury which ruled him out of the tournament.

https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/basketball/robertson-helps-nuggets-out-sideline

Year 12 PE Leadership

This year our Friday timetable has changed to meet the modern learning needs of all of our students. We have created the opportunity for students to have a whole day of alternative classes on Friday's as well as having a normal timetable from Monday - Thursday.

Some of our Year 12 PE Leadership class went to Waitaki Valley School last Friday to take some PE lessons as part of this programme. This class allows students to develop their leadership skills in a PE context, as well as gaining NCEA credits.

A big thank you to Waitaki Valley School for hosting us. It was great to see the tuakana-teina relationship in action!

Redcastle Sports Round Up

This weeks results

🏑HOCKEY

Girls
Tainui/SKC Dev vs Pirata White 0 - 0
SKC 1st XI vs WBHS 2 - 1


🏀 BASKETBALL
Boys Top 5 vs Taieri Snr A
Junior Boys vs John McGlashan Kea 53 - 41
Girls Top 5 vs Kavanagh Snr A 19 - 70

⚽️FOOTBALL
Boys 1st XI vs Thistle Reserves 3 - 8

🏐 NETBALL
SKC Snr A vs Maheno Rebels 34 - 12
SKC Snr B vs Athletic Gold 25 - 24
SKC Blue vs WGHS Boom 18 - 17
SKC Gold vs WGHS Swish 16 - 9
SKC Red vs Valley Kowhai 21 - 33
SKC White vs WGHS Tawhiri 35 - 25

🏉RUGBY
1st XV vs Dunstan High School 7 - 27
SKC U16.5 vs TBHS Lions 12 - 50
SKC U14.5 vs TBHS Panthers lost

Cook Islands Language Week 2020

🌺 Kia Orāna! 🌺

This past week has been Cook Islands Maori Language Week 2020 (2-8 August).

This years theme was "Kia pūāvai tō tātou Reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani i Aotearoa" which in English means "That the Cook Islands Māori language may blossom throughout New Zealand."


Here we have Year 13 student Leonard (Lenny) Varu featuring in this short video greeting us and sharing his love for corned beef!

Lenny comes from Arorangi in the Cook Islands and joined us at St Kevin's College last year. Lenny has fitted in well at both school and hostel life, and is a crowd favourite amonst his peers and teachers. Lenny is also a talented rugby player and is in the school 1st XV.

Pākau Lenny!

 

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College, 

The faint signs of spring are beginning to appear as we move into August. Many of our beautiful blossom trees are out, the lawn mowing is becoming more frequent and the students have been able to enjoy a couple of warm days to lift their spirits. Spring is very much a metaphor for new life, growth and celebrating the many blessings we enjoy as members of our college community.

In the spirit of growth and development, we have started our 'check and connect' interviews this week, where we meet with each of our senior students to look at career planning and pathways and to ensure that they are taking the correct subjects. We encourage any students or whanau to feel free to contact the Senior Deans, Mrs Burton and Mr Rawson, if they would like further clarification or support in this area. Junior students will have staggered 'check and connect' dates once the seniors have been cycled through.

Juniors have also been busy this week at the Catholic Junior Quad tournament in Dunedin. While we lacked the numbers of teams to compete overall, we had some exceptional wins in all areas and students played fairly and with good spirit.

Finally this week, our Science department has been busy with a field trip to the Kakanui River for Year 12 students looking at the health of our waterways as reflected in the number of invertebrates living in the environment. This allows students to get an understanding of the potential impact of pollution on waterways and motivates them, not only to achieve their science standards, but to have in-depth knowledge of the fragility and beauty of our natural world. I thank the department for providing this opportunity for our students.


May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui
Paul Olsen     

Level 3 Biology Field Trip- Orokonui Ecosanctuary

L3 Biology students recently had two days of work to complete their study of factors affecting plant leaves, and how their structure can change according to the environment.

The programme is run by the Botany Department of Otago University in association with Orokonui Ecosanctuary which enables students to access great gear, expertise and the native plants in the Ecosanctuary.

Some students meet birds e.g. Kaka and Takahe that are new to them and they may even get to see a longfin eel in her habitat (among others). They have to work hard for the two days and make observations and record and process data then come up with an explanation.

This doesn't happen without support from other teachers especially Ms O'Neill who helped with data processing and getting students to Orokonui. The Orokonui and Otago University staff were impressed with the way the students worked and conducted themselves -so well done Kevinians!