Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

As we come to the end of our first term for the 2024 year I am very pleased with how the school is tracking both in terms of teaching and learning and it's overall health.

Teachers and faculty leaders have done an excellent job of embedding the Cambridge curriculum alongside of our NCEA offerings. This has taken a lot of planning and hard work and I am very proud of the way in which our staff and students have stepped up to the challenge. In a recent survey conducted with the year 11 students, they fed back to us that although it was a challenge, they are enjoying the structured nature of the courses and have improved in areas such as personal time management. I believe that if we expect a lot from our young people, they will deliver.

I would like to thank the staff and students for their efforts this term. Our staff have supported students in retreats, milestones within their spiritual life such as confirmations, artistic and sporting events. We have also hosted a brilliant group of young international students and gappers, thanks to the tireless work of June Campbell and our ODENZ agent May Britt Christiansen. Thank you to the hostel staff, our wonderful learning assistants in the Ako Hub and our dedicated grounds and admin staff.

You all make our College the dynamic, warm and hopeful place that it is.

I have included a picture of our grotto which has recently had its original lighting reinstalled in time for ANZAC Day.

Have a safe, restful and happy break.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This is feeling like a very strange 'end of term one' as we approach the holidays after having two, three day weeks. Next week students may find it tough going to school for the final week as they are all getting very tired and Covid is certainly making its rounds. I do encourage you all to 'hang tough' until the holidays as we rely on terms one and two for laying the foundations of our learning for the year.

Last week our Student Council met for the first time this year. They were tasked with giving feedback on a number of issues. One of these was the amount of time students miss in term one for sport. This has been a topic of conversation with our Senior Leadership Team as we are pulled between giving students as much in - class time as possible, with the need to also develop all round students with the ability to work in teams, develop their physical and sporting capacity and learn the skills they will need to be good citizens. As parents, you are best equipped to judge how well your student is coping with the demands of their school work, any extra employment they have and sport. Please do not be afraid to let coaches and sport staff know if you are concerned about your student's ability to manage all of the demands on their time.

It is ok for caregivers to say 'no' to sports or sporting events for which your students may have been selected. If this is done in a timely manner and with good communication, teams can manage. I am also personally not afraid to turn down sporting opportunities if families feel that their students are being disadvantaged in the classroom. Whilst I value sport and the opportunities it can provide, I also ascribe to a 'balance is better' approach. Most of our students will have all of their lives to play sport, the same cannot be said for making the most of their very plastic young minds in terms of their academic ability at this stage of their lives.

I hope Easter was a blessed time for you and your family

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today I thought I would write about our new study periods and the thinking around these. This year, because we have moved to a ten day time table and because we are introducing Cambridge at Year 11, we have made the conscious decision to allow regular study time in the timetable for all students in Years 11,12 and 13.

The thinking behind this is as follows:

We are trying to focus assessment on doing five subjects well rather than six subjects in an average manner. We believe that study periods will enable students the time to consolidate their learning.

We are aware that the Cambridge course does signify a significant step up in terms of the pace of learning required and the academic language used compared to NCEA. We feel that it is only fair to extend study times to Year 11 students to give them the best chance of passing these examinations.

Finally we are also very aware that many of our students are working after school and on the weekends. We are therefore trying to make purposeful space in our time table to ensure that homework and independent learning is done without students having to choose between work and study. We are aware that many families are struggling and students working in after school employment enables them to support themselves, thereby relieving family financial pressure.

We do ask however, that all families carefully balance the commitments your students are taking on. Whilst we fully support young people in work, sports and cultural endeavors as a school our main focus is academic achievement. A balance is required in order for students to attain the best grades they can. If families need support in talking to your young people about this, please speak to our Deans who are happy to help.

Best of luck to our cricketers for the weekend

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today we have been fortunate to have struck a beautiful day for Athletics. Athletics day is an opportunity for all of our students to have fun, compete and support each other. It is the first opportunity in the year for students to compete in their house teams and for younger students to get the feel of what being in the secondary house competition is like. It is also their chance to show us what they can do. I saw some very speedy year 9 participants today and am feeling that there are some champions among them!

Speaking of which, we are very proud of our rowers this weekend who are competing at the NZ Rowing Champs . I wish everyone the best of luck for their events.

Over the holidays I sent out two forms, one asking for feedback regarding the strategic plan and another looking at the phone policy. I have sent the results of the phone policy survey back to families to let you know how that shaped up for us and what the policy is that we have set with regards to phone use at SKC. These should be in you e mail in boxes this weekend.

With regards to the 'not so exciting' idea of strategic planning, thank you to those of you who did give feedback. On Tuesday night, we also took the opportunity of holding our 'meet - the teachers' evening to gauge new families' ideas around our strategic direction. I would like to thank all of our new families for their input into the discussion around this. We are collating the information and will feed that back to families once it is through.

Our year 9's are due to have an election for student council this term. The Student Council provides vital student voice for our strategic thinking so if you have a young person whom you think would contribute to this, please encourage them to stand.

Wishing everyone a great weekend, especially the hostel who are away on their annual lakes trip.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Although it has been a very short week, a lot has happened since Wednesday. We began the week by welcoming all of our new students into the College, both new year 9's and students who have joined us from other secondary schools. Our day began with a mihi whakatau in our school auditorium which was well attended by families. I would like to thank those of you who were able to make it to this event. It is always great to see parents and caregivers at our College celebrations. Pictured on the school steps below are our year 9 cohort for 2024 and Mr James Devereaux, their Dean.

After the day spent in administrative matters on Wednesday, it was straight into classes on Thursday and aside from a few computer glitches, it was a good start. Cue today and we finished our week with the investiture liturgy for our prefect school leaders. Our focus for the liturgy was the idea of leadership as working for the common good.

Next week, we have our Dominican Excellence awards on Tuesday the 13th and that night our 'Meet the Teacher' event for year 9 parents. This year we are hoping to use this opportunity to gather family input on our strategic direction as well as provide the opportunity for families to let us know what is important for you as you begin your journey with us. We look forward to seeing you there.

Have a great weekend

God Bless

Jo 

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I had planned on starting my blogging year with a gorgeous picture of my wee granddaughter being baptized, but today's adventure on the bucket truck knocked that one off poll position because it lends itself to too many metaphors to be ignored!

The staff and I are fully aware that this year will be in equal parts trying, exciting, challenging, exhausting and in all measures fairly unpredictable.... With a change of government we are beginning to see a new paradigm emerge which has started already with the 'phones in school' debate and the signals around curriculum which are being sent. On top of the changes this will bring, we also have the introduction to the Cambridge system at IGCSE level, our ongoing strategic planning work with St Joseph's School and we are continuing with building our Alumni programme.

I am looking forward to the year, but as I signaled at the end of last year, I do expect we will run into a few hiccups along the way and I ask for our community to support us as we work through these. We appreciate your feedback and to that end I have sent out two surveys this week which I would appreciate if you would take some time to answer.

So back to the bucket. This week I heard Adrienne Spillane from St Joseph's School share a wise piece of advice about being at the bottom of something and not being able to see the top, but climb to the top and you can see it all. I thought of that today in the bucket truck, and noticed that 1, we need to paint the roof of the gym and 2, how many people were moving around the grounds setting up for the year ahead and 3 , How accessing a different perspective on things really helps us to appreciate what is going on in a wider sense than our own.

'Team SKC' past and present is a great team. I extend an invitation to all of you to join by engaging with us. Join the Alumni, come to social functions, coach and manage teams, volunteer for Te Ngakau Nui, join the Foundation, stand for the Board, come to Mass, or just pop in for a chat. In this way we can look at our community from different perspectives and we can build amazing young people who have the ability to do that same thing.

Keep an eye out for Mr Devereaux's fb post regarding start up procedures and as always please check the website for all of our start of year details.

God Bless

Jo