This week has been a funny mixture of goodbyes and welcomes as we celebrated our leavers on Wednesday night and this Friday welcomed our new Year 9s for 2021.
As teachers we are in the position of being able to help students transition through what are often the most important years of their lives in the college environment and at the end of the day its our role to ensure that we have helped parents and caregivers to nurture students through to being the best people they can possibly be. On Wednesday I joined with our community in celebrating that. I am extremely proud of the young people we are sending out into the community and we feel sure that they will contribute to New Zealand economically, socially and spiritually.
Today Mr Harris ran a very successful orientation day for the one hundred Year 8 students coming next year. Our orientation focuses on ensuring that the students understand that this is a place where they can feel safe to be themselves and to make lasting friendships. We focus on having fun, making friends and feeling confident to interact with other students like prefects and existing Year 9s. It is very important to us that students go home over the holidays and have the feeling that St Kevin's is a welcoming place that they want to come back to in the New Year.
Hopefully this lovely sunshine will last through the weekend.
May God bless you.
Ngā mihi Nui
Paul Olsen
