Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

As we head into the final week I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff and supporters of SKC for all of their work. This year has been challenging in many ways and in more than equal parts, very satisfying in others.

We could not do any of what we do without our supporters including sports and cultural coaches, our Te Ngakau Nui Team, our Foundation and Hostel Trust. I would especially like to thank our School Board and our presiding member Eugen Dupu for their stewardship of the College.

Next year, we are looking forward to our Year 11 Cambridge trial, the introduction of our Marine Biology course at Year 12 and to welcoming a new group of Year 9 students into the College. Added to this we will also continue to work alongside St Joseph's school to plan next steps for Catholic education in North Otago.

As exciting as it is to look forward, I am sure that our whole community is anticipating a restful summer break. Fingers crossed for sunshine!

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

The last week has been all about transitions as we welcomed our Year 9 cohort for 2024 and said farewell to many of our senior students who finished their final NCEA examinations ever!

We have had a very settled couple of weeks with juniors sitting examinations for the first time in several years. For many of our young people, the examination process can be quite intimidating which is why we feel it is extremely important for them to be 'trained' into sitting examinations from Year 9.

Under the Cambridge system as well as the new NCEA standards, all students will have to achieve results in exam conditions. Parents and caregivers can support students by doing the following:

Prior to examinations

• Identify times and places where study can happen
• Talk to your students about what they need to learn
• Help support your student by testing their knowledge, this can be done using flash cards, orally asking questions or speaking to them about relevant topics, or even hanging a poster on the back of the toilet door!
• Finding out when the examination is and planning to arrive in plenty of time
• Ensuring they have the appropriate equipment eg pens, rulers etc

After examinations

• Ask about areas where your student felt they did well
• If they failed an exam, speak about this as a learning opportunity and help them to identify what changes they need to make to approach an examination in the future.

As we approach the final weeks of the year, it is important that we stick to routine as much as possible so that we finish in a settled and positive manner.

I was thrilled at the positive and professional manner in which our volunteers welcomed our new students on transition day this week. It was great that we had far more volunteers than we needed and I hope that our new recruits felt that they were welcomed.

Have a great (and hopefully sunny) weekend

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This week the serious business of examinations has continued at the College with NCEA assessments following on from the CAA or Common Assessment Activities which our junior students sat last week. CAA's are the tests of literacy and numeracy that need to be passed in order for students to qualify for NCEA certificates. Students who sit complete NCEA Level 1, 2 or 3 courses in New Zealand from this year forward will not be eligible for the certificates unless they have passed both the literacy and numeracy CAA's, no matter how many 'credits' students may collect. This system is replacing the old 'literacy and numeracy standards' where certain standards across the subjects qualified as literacy and numeracy 'rich' enough to qualify the students as being literate and numerate.

At this stage with the refresh of the NCEA standards at Level 2 scheduled to launch, we are not sure how the literacy standard for university entrance will look. Previously, if students sat certain literacy rich standards at Level 2, they collected enough credits (10) to count as having 'university entrance literacy requirements'. This week, the Senior Leadership Team has been undertaking course counseling with our year 10 cohort with regards to the Cambridge trial for 2024. Under the Cambridge system, students qualify for NZ universities if they have three AS or A level passes as the literacy requirement is built into these. Most of our students have been keen to give Cambridge papers a go as well as mixing in some NCEA at Year 11.

In whatever systems students are working, anywhere in the world, the difference between success and failure is attitude and well established learning behaviours such as time management, note taking, revision techniques and prioritizing. If you feel that you would like some help to establish these sorts of routines with your young person, don't hesitate to get in contact.

Today, I have included a picture of Lorenna with her 'Remembrance Day' garden. In 1945 President Harry Truman called upon American citizens to observe November 11th as 'Armistice Day' which both honors those who have died in war and those who continue to attempt to build peace.

Have a peaceful weekend.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I would like to begin this week by thanking the numerous supporters of the College who have been in touch with my staff and myself this week to offer support in the wake of the newspaper headlines we have had to deal with. Your support, your rational approach to the facts and your maturity in understanding that we have complaints systems which provides clarity and fairness of process, gives me great peace. I would also like to thank the staff of the College, who despite the reputational and personal risks to themselves, continue to support students to head into the outdoors, many for the first time in their lives, in a culture that seems to be keen to pretend that life is a zero risk game. Our investigation into our camp is due to be completed by next week. There will be a procedure for sharing that information with parents which will be communicated in the coming week.

It has been a week also of celebrations as we said farewell to our Year 13 cohort and some of our Year 12's at senior prizegiving. As usual Simba was stealing the show, and despite some technical issues, the night went very well. I thought our Top 6 dance was fantastic and it was very special to see Eugen Dupu, our Presiding Member graduate his last daughter Lena. The biggest star of the night has to be, as always, our Dux of the school Chloe Wilson. We will be excitied to see 'where to from here?' for Chloe. Best of luck to all of our graduates. We will miss you!

Our Foundation Community Builder Kara Cox has asked all graduates to please send her a non -school email which we can use to keep in touch with our Alumni. If your graduating young person has not done that yet, can you please remind them to?

Finally, I took this snap today of some of our junior students enjoying the sun on our new -old seats. I say new - old, because these seats were rescued by Mr Kerry Ryan many years ago from the old Carrisbrook rugby ground. After languishing in the Stables for many years, we have finally started putting them to use around the grounds.

Have a great weekend.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

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

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Happy Friday! We seem to have been blessed with great weather for Tournament Week, and as tired students drag themselves back through the school gates, we are hearing some wonderful reports about how the sports events have gone. I have received two emails from different people this week from different parts of the South Island commenting on how well our students have represented our College.

Like most people, I love winning, but what I love even more is when, win or lose, our students rise to the occasion and are good ambassadors for their teams and the College. We have had some good results across the codes and the general feeling is that in all cases our students played their best games.

Next week, on the 5th September at 7pm in the library, we are holding our Caregiver consultation evening with regards to the Cambridge trial for senior curriculum which we are running for 2024. I encourage any parents and caregivers of Year 10 students to come along as this will affect your young person. During the evening we will share with you our rationale for this trial, the associated costs and the way the Cambridge system works. You will get a chance to ask questions, give feedback and hear from Heads of Department with regards to what they think Cambridge courses have to offer our students potentially in the long term.

Thank you to the two lovely young ladies who agreed to be my models today for the blog snap. I absolutely love this time of year when the grounds are filled with blossoms. It's a magic place to come to work.

Have a great weekend.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Please consider this last week's blog as I did not get a chance to write my Friday comment given that I was out attending the wonderful 'Man of Steel'! production. I could not have been more proud of the work put into the show by the amazing team of Director Mr James Devereaux and Musical Director Theanne Bulatao who along with an awesome team of staff volunteers, created an exceptional opportunity for our students to be involved in the first musical we have done for many years. It was great to see a wide range of students on stage from those who are extremely well versed in musical theatre to those giving it a go for the very first time. I had a sore face from laughing so much!

                                                 Photo courtesy of Lorenna Marshall

Last week also saw our Student Council visiting businesses to gather feedback on what we should be teaching our students to make them fit for employment for the 21st Century. These have been being returned steadily and the two overwhelming themes are that we need to concentrate on financial literacy and skills around being a decent citizen such as turning up on time, working in a team and respecting others. This helps us to understand that our strategic direction, which is primarily focussed on living and working as a community, is driving in the right direction. Please keep returning these.

Since Monday, myself and a team from the Foundation have been visiting Alumni in Alexandra and Gore, following on from our roadshows in Christchurch and Timaru last week. There are another two roadshows planned for Wellington and Auckland coming up. Thank you to all of those who attended these. The purpose of the roadshows is to reestablish connections with our past students in the lead up to the 2027 Centennial year. We understand how important these connections are for our College both now and into the future. If you are a past pupil, we encourage you to join our Alumni Facebook page and to reach out to Kara Cox our community builder so that we can add your name to our database for newsletters and events. On September 9th we are hosting the first female students from 1983 and are looking forward to a good night of laughter and reconnection.

I am hearing some good results from Tournament week. We will post these as the week goes on.

God Bless

Jo

 

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I thought I would feature Lorenna Marshall's gorgeous picture of Simba our school cat tonight because not only is she looking amazing for an old lady but she captures some of the special spirit of SKC. We have "family" as our first FIRE value because we really want our students to feel as if our community is an extension of their own homes. Having our beautiful gardens starting to come into flower, the trees blossoming and of course our favourite furry friend running around, helps us to feel much calmer and more at home.

  

In the last couple of weeks we have been lucky enough to open our home to new students from Germany. These girls have already made friends and are attending classes. Having students from the other side of the world in our community is an amazing experience for all of us. We are very glad they have come and we welcome them with open arms. I would like to thank Mrs June Campbell who does such a good job of looking after our International Students for her love and support and all of you in the community who welcome them into your homes, teams and hearts. "Danke"

Congratulations to the girls' Trap Shooting team for their awesome win last week and to the girls' Rugby team, who along with WGHS had a nail biting win. I am reliably informed that the hat trick for senior girls sport was achieved by the girls' Footballers this week as well. Well done also to Jake Harquoil who was 2nd in the Skeet competition and to the First XV, Football Boys First XI and the Basketballers who also had wins.

Culture was the winner on the day along with Mr Herbst and Mr Devereaux and their teams at the Bishop's Shield event in Gore last weekend. Our drama teams were amazing, our scripture readers and speakers were outstanding and our debaters proved that being an argumentative teenager does pay off at times! I was incredibly proud of the whole team and of our wonderful staff who coached them.

I posted earlier today about a couple of Covid cases which we have recorded at school. I envisage this will be the beginning of another wave, please be vigilant and keep sick students at home. If you need test kits please contact the school. The rules are that students begin a 7 day isolation from the first sign of symptoms.

Have a great weekend.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College

We have started the new term with a 'hiss and a roar' here at the College with a range of things happening including preparation for Bishop's Shield, the final countdown before the musical and the opening of the new toilet block.

We have the added excitement of still smiling about the win against Waitaki in the rugby which could not have come at a better time given the fact we had a number of past pupils in the College who all enjoyed celebrating with us. I would like to thank the coaches, managers and players of all of the codes which participated in Waitaki Week for their hard work and dedication. I was proud of the sportsmanship of our students and the pride with which they played for their school.

If you visit us at the College you will see we have made some changes to the way our office is laid out. We have turned what was an office space for two into an office space for four and we have created a sitting area for whanau. We are waiting on final painting to be done and for a service window to be fitted so that students do not have to enter the office to do minor things like sign in. We are hoping this will lessen the chances of spreading Covid and other bugs going forward and also offer a degree of privacy to parents waiting for appointments. My sincere thanks goes to Te Ngakau Nui, our parent support and fundraising group, who donated the funds for the refurbishment.

Congratulations to those students who competed in the Scripture Reading competition this week!

Have a great weekend

God Bless

Jo

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