Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I am posting this comment early today, as in a couple of hours from now we will either be commiserating or celebrating and I wanted to celebrate our term as a whole before we focus on the result of today's game.

This term has been a tough term with a lot of stops and starts and interruptions, but we have navigated through it as a community. Thank you to you all for your patience, for your support of your young person and for continuing to support our school community in the variety of ways that you do.

The Ball was held last Saturday, and I would like to thank all of the people who helped to make that a success. Not only the staff and the caregivers who contributed but also the Ball Committee who did a great job of drawing all of the pieces together so that the students had a wonderful night.

Today we have had the privilege of having a number of our Alumni in the College. They attended our Assembly this morning and we were thrilled to have had Colin Mansbridge, CEO of The Crusaders and ex SKC Head Boy, to speak to our school. The central theme of his speech was valuing the connections we make as a team and supporting one another. His words will serve as inspiration for today for our young people, whether they are showing love to each other in celebration or showing love to each other in supporting the team through a loss.

"So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1Corinthians 13:13)

Well done to all of our teams who have played over the course of the week. We have had a fairly even spread of wins and losses and lots of good, fun competition!

Have a happy, positive and safe holidays.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I'm mixing up the blog time table a bit this week as there is likely to be a lot of news over the next couple of weeks which may need to be communicated from my office.

Given the disruption from the rolling strikes, the leadership team have proposed an alternative time table to students for next week where there will be silent, supervised study time available during the school day for any senior students who need support to complete internal assessment tasks.  We realize that the nature of the strikes has meant that many of our senior students are under considerable pressure to finish assessments and we would like to ensure they have the opportunity to do this at school.   We also acknowledge that it is often difficult to study at home.  Some students have limited internet access and others struggle with distractions; students may also need help to interpret questions. 

We have sent a survey out today to students asking that they indicate if this is something they would like to do.  If you believe this is the case for your student please encourage them to complete the form and return it so that we have an idea of how many we are catering for in terms of relief etc. 

I have selected this picture today of the wonderful Owen Elliot who has been working with the grounds staff to create native tree catchment areas for our water run off.  This is part of a planting programme which we are undertaking to combat the results of climate change.  These involve flood mitigation, planting out areas of lawn with native grasses which do not require mowing and continuing to plant trees on the hills behind the College to prevent land slippage. 

I would like to thank our grounds staff for their efforts. 

Have a great week

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

As we come to the end of another busy week and anticipate even further disruption as we head towards the end of the term, it was with great sadness that I heard about the increase in the pace of industrial action which will be occurring from this week onwards.

As a Principal, I am unable to comment on the merits or otherwise of this course of action. Unions do what they feel they must to be heard. That is the nature of industrial action and it is the right of all workers to undertake such action. What I can say as a Principal is that our teaching staff would prefer not to be in this situation at all.

I am aware that the current climate is very stressful for both staff and students, not to mention the impact it may be having on our families and community.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask parents and caregivers to please consider doing the following things to support your young person, with particular focus on senior students sitting NCEA.

Please speak with your young person about the deadlines they have, the work they need to get through and if they feel confident in approaching it. Whilst staff are on strike, they are still able to help students when they are in the classroom and are welcoming any questions your young person may have. Please encourage your student to ask questions and ask for support if you feel they need it.

Secondly, there may be a temptation for young people to be picking up extra paid employment on days when they are rostered home. This feels like a gray area, as it is normally illegal for students to work during school hours, but in this case, they may feel that that is an option. If your student is choosing this, please ensure that they are up to date with the work they need to do before considering extra shifts.

Thirdly, most teachers still run 'GoogleClassrooms' where work and resources are placed. Please encourage your young person to check these frequently as well as emails for any extra work or information which is uploaded.

Lastly, if you feel that your young person is feeling distressed by missing school due to strike action, please reach out to our Student Advocate Esther Dupu. Esther is not bound by the strike action and is available to talk with your student. Similarly, our Deans are also available to speak to students about course choices and long term plans.

As the mother of a current Year 12 student, I am acutely aware that our Year 12 students entered the school during Covid, had three years of that and are now trying to study for University qualifications during industrial action. I am praying for a swift end to the situation and I know our teachers are hoping for that aso.

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Thanks to the amazing Lorenna Marshall for this wonderful picture of the cloud formations over SKC last week. The weather is playing a bigger and bigger role in the way we view what we are doing in education as the climate continues to change. This week I attended the SPANZ (Secondary Principals of New Zealand ) conference, where unsurprisingly, emergency management was a hot topic given the effect of the cyclone in the North Island. The keynote speakers all discussed the idea of change management from managing climate change, to Covid, to changes in AI. All of these developments present education and educational institutions with challenges but also with the opportunity to look for different ways to look at education and what it means in the 21st Century.

The rapid growth in AI technology is currently causing a lot of angst in education in New Zealand. On one hand the technology is able to aid administrators in writing up basic reports or standard procedures. One the other hand the fraudulent use of these tools is something that is challenging to the way in which schools administer NCEA. It is also often difficult for students to understand where the line between their research process and plagiarism lies. In essence, if a student uses text that they have not written themselves and submits it as their own work without referencing where the text came from, that is plagiarism. The same thing applies if the text is written by an AI programme. Plagiarism processes are laid out in the NZQA guides given to students at the beginning of the year. If you have any questions around this process, please direct them to our head of Curriculum Mr Craig Smith. Mr Smith is delegated by the School Board as responsible for these investigations.

Enjoy the first King's Birthday Weekend this weekend.

God Bless

Jo