Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,
It has been a very long time since I have written a blog as I have been out of the country more than I have been in it in the last six weeks. At the end of Term 3 and over the holidays I was lucky enough to be able to travel around Switzerland, Germany and Norway to meet with 17 different agents who represent international students. I also attended four, one day fairs where myself and daughter Bridie had the opportunity to present St Kevin's College as a destination for international students. The international student market is a very big industry in Europe because families place huge value on their students being able to move out into the world and see how other cultures live. It was incredible to be able to meet with agents, parents and some returnee students to understand the role that travel and the English language plays in the lives of young people from that part of the world. I found the people very warm and welcoming. They were eager to share their views and ideas with us and they were very tolerant of my non existent foreign language ability.....
At the assembly, I shared with our students my thoughts about how brave our international students are to come to the other side of the world at a young age to experience our way of life. A constant issue we have is trying to find homestay accommodation for students, so if you feel that that is something you would like to get involved in, please give June Campbell a call. This is a paid programme.
I have also just spent three days in Brisbane with members of the wider St Patrick's Parish and St Joseph's community looking at some of the concepts around education that are being adopted in Australia. We were very well looked after by our Australian host schools. The energy and excitement the communities we visited had for education was palpable and we were lucky to be able to glean several very helpful ideas from the trip. Special thanks must go to Eugen Dupu who coordinated the trip for us and to Glenn McConville from Brisbane Catholic Education who arranged the school visits for us.
I am looking forward to being able to work through our term 4 activities over the next two weeks at my own desk. Please keep checking the Facebook page for details about our end of year celebrations and please check with your senior students that they have looked at their end of year examination timetables for clashes. This is especially important for those sitting subjects out of their cohort lines.
Enjoy the long weekend.
God Bless
Jo
