Principals Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I thought I would choose this amazing photo taken by Mr Devereaux for the blog today as it reminds us that there is always something good that can be found in things that are bad. As we move into the winter season with all of its challenges of colder weather, coughs , colds and dark nights, we are also blessed with these amazing sunrises and sunsets.

This week we welcomed Mrs Strauss and her husband to our school. Mrs Strauss is a highly qualified mathematics teacher and is also a skilled netball coach. We have really enjoyed getting to know her this week and we are sure our students are going to love having her as part of our community.

This week we also had the Life Education bus in the College speaking with our students about drinking, smoking, vaping and making good choices around these. In Ball and Waitaki Week season, the school works very hard to ensure that our senior students understand their responsibilities to each other at parties. If your young person is attending parties, please ensure that they have discussed with you how they will keep themselves and their friends safe at these events. The College does not organize or endorse post event parties. Responsibility for running parties and allowing students to attend are solely the responsibility of the parent community.

Well done to those brave souls who ran the Cross Country this week. Congratulations to Mr Hose and the team for their excellent organization of the event. It has been a busy time for the PE department over the last week having just completed the Year 12 Bike Trip as well.

Have a great weekend.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today we celebrated Pink Shirt Day in the College which is an international movement aimed at bringing attention and awareness to bullying.

Bullying is a problem in all schools to a greater or lesser degree as young people work through the complex emotions that come with transitions, discovering who they are and navigating friendships.

In the teenage years, the brain goes through what is known as a 'pruning process' which is like a shutting down of parts of the brain. This process means that young people, much more than adults, are driven by the emotional centers in their brains rather than the frontal cortex, which is the place where our ability to reason is located.

In a nutshell what this means is that teenagers are more likely to react emotionally to perceived slights and so in turn may bully others back using aggressive emotions or they may withdraw and feel persecuted accessing those emotions which make them feel as if everyone is against them. Our job as teachers and parents is to help our young people to deal with these processes by helping them to reason through the issues as they present them, for example asking "Are you sure that that is what that person meant?" or encouraging them to speak face to face with others rather than relying on impersonal methods such as texting.

Our school runs a Restorative Practice discipline system which supports young people and families to work through these issues. This system takes time and is forgiveness based which is in line with our Catholic character. It is sometimes hard for families and even teachers to understand why we can't just move directly to punishing young people if they do wrong, in other words, "bully the bullies". In our College we focus more on the mantra of "hurt people hurt people" and we respond in that spirit. For more information on Bullying please look up our Pastoral Tab, look up School TV and click on the Bullying tab.

Have a great weekend

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

It was wonderful to see the number of bright young faces who attended our Open Day yesterday and our Open Night last night. Every year when I see our older students acting as tour guides for our potential enrolments for the following year it really hits home just how quickly the secondary school years fly by and how much our young people change in those short five years. To all of you parents and caregivers out there wrestling with the decision of where to send your young person, I wish you all the best.

Anyone walking around the grounds at the moment will notice that there is a lot of building and maintenance activity occurring at the moment. We are very conscious after the repeated flood events which have hit the North Island of our need to ensure that we minimize the potential impact of any flooding events over the course of the winter. To that end Ken McCallum and his Construction class have been laying extra drainage and the Foundation has initiated major work on the hill behind the hostel to clear debris and insert drainage. I would like to thank Ross Robertson and Eugen Dupu as well as the grounds' staff and contractors for all of their work on this so far.

In addition to this we are embarking on a programme to plant more intensive native bush areas to help manage soil erosion. The added bonus of this is that our tui population is increasing every year and is a beautiful sound track to our school environment.

Tui Call

At this stage, it looks as if next week will bring more industrial action with years 9 and 10 both being flagged as being rostered home. We will also have our Year 12 PE class away on their bike trip and will finish the week with our Pink Shirt Mufti day on Friday. Please keep a close eye on notices as they appear over the course of the next few days.

Have a great weekend

God Bless

Jo