Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

It has been another busy week at the College this week having had Ash Wednesday, the cricket game against the Willows cricket club in Christchurch, the swimming sports championships and the start of our Friday options for years 12 and 13.
The Willows game, unfortunately, did not go our way but I am reliably informed that our team was a credit to the school. I would like to thank those members of staff and whānau who travelled up to support the team and the past students who came to both play and watch the match.
As it was Ash Wednesday, I was back at the College participating in our distribution of the Ashes. It was a privilege to be able to give out the ashes to the staff and students and it reminded me very much that our Catholic rituals help to articulate the most important aspects of our humanity. The ashes, as a symbol of our mortality, remind us that no matter how important we think we are, we are still only a moment in time. It serves to remind us that the valuable things in our lives are the relationships we have with each other. I would also like to thank Mr Harris and Father Wayne for their excellent organization of the service.

I chose this image today of two friends having a chat in the sun because it captures a moment of being young, enjoying friendship, discovering new learning, enjoying nature and laughing.  All essential ingredients for a happy healthy life. 

We have had no further Covid cases today.  Our next update will be on Wednesday next week. 

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today we were very lucky to have had good weather for the swimming sports with a blue enough sky that we could convince ourselves that we were warm! I would like to thank those students brave enough to have climbed into our chilly school pool today to earn house points; for their participation. Swimming sports can be a challenge as no one wants to feel foolish in their togs but our senior leaders and staff really stepped up to ensure that everyone enjoyed the day and had some fun with bright house colours, lots of cheering and lots of loud music. I would like to thank the PE department, those staff involved with supporting the students today and especially our groundsmen for the time they have put into keeping the pool running.

Today it was announced that interschool sport can go ahead without the need for vaccine passes.  This feels like a positive step in terms of a slow emergence out of restrictions which we know is the plan, however, there are a few things for schools and sporting bodies still to work out given we remain in the RED phase, so I ask for your patience around this.  Remember, you can best support your young person in sport by volunteering to coach, manage or drive them to events and by being a role model of sportsmanship on the side lines. 

Have a great weekend!

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today we were blessed with a brilliant day for our Athletics Sports! I would like to Thank Mr Hose and Ms Sarah Clapperton for their excellent organisation of the event as well as the volunteers and ground staff who set up and packed down the fields for us. Your work is appreciated.

In Covid times, schools have to make difficult choices around curriculum events such as Athletics. We have decided that, on balance, it is important for these events to go ahead for the mental health of our students. The downside is that we have to exclude caregivers in order for this to happen.

We hope to be able to return to a more normal arrangement soon and ask that you support and encourage your student to keep participating in sporting events as and when we are able to offer them. Being active is one of the 'Five Ways to Wellbeing', a healthy body supports a healthy mind.

Another event which has been interrupted has been our annual 'Meet the Teachers' evening. We thought hard about this as the size of our cohort would mean that not all caregivers would be able to attend under current Covid rules. We also felt that meeting the teachers for the first time and not being able to see their faces, would be problematic so we have produced a virtual 'Meet the Teachers'. The link has been emailed to Year 9 caregivers and caregivers of new students in other year levels. Please forgive the 'ums', 'ah's and shuffling, being in front of a camera is not natural for any of us but we do hope you enjoy what we have done! Thank you to Mat Harris for his fantastic editing and to James Devereaux for his support for Mat in making this happen.

Have a wonderful weekend

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This week, although short, has been a busy one at the College as we are organizing our summer events including regular sports games, our school athletics and swimming events. Unfortunately with our being at the Red traffic light setting, we will not be able to welcome whānau to the events as we normally would, but it is our goal to continue with as many sporting opportunities as we are safely allowed to; for the mental health and wellbeing of our students.

Part of the '5 Ways to Wellbeing' focus we have at the College focusses on physical activity as vitally important to promote all aspects of health in our young people. I have reiterated to many classes this week that under the current rules, it is very important to be wearing masks in indoor environments to avoid being deemed a 'close contact' and subsequently missing sports events through having to isolate.

Pre -season training has commenced for Netball this week, new HOF of Physical Education Mr Hose is taking his first group to Volleyball in Timaru tonight and we have cricket games coming up against various teams, so we are getting moving - literally!

This week we are also acknowledging loss in our community. We were saddened to hear of the death of Frank McAtamney, past pupil and All Black who died aged 87 this week. We extend our thoughts and prayers to his family.

On Sunday I am also taking a group of staff and students to bid farewell to Sister Mary Horn and the Dominican Order who are leaving Oamaru after many many years of dedicated service. Our College has the dual charisms of the Christian Brothers and the Dominican order. With the departure of the last of the order from our midst, we do feel an added responsibility to ensure that we consciously continue to deliver a curriculum in which 'Veritas' is a cornerstone.

Have a great weekend!

Jo Walshe

Principal

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Welcome to the first formal post of the year from me in my new role as Principal. It has been a somewhat surreal start to the year with the emergence of Omicron in the community in New Zealand, but after a holiday season where we got sunshine on Christmas day and a successful start to the year for our new students and teachers, we do feel as prepared as we can for what is to come.

The messaging to the school has been very clear. We understand that this year we will have to work with Omicron so we are preparing to have 'business as usual ' as much as possible by finding new and innovative ways to connect. Mr Devereaux has kindly lent us his expertise from Auckland where schools have been operating with hybrid learning models for 18 months. It has been wonderful to be able to tap into his experience.

Mr Devereaux using 'Google Meetings'

We are encouraging staff to get creative in their thinking around how we communicate. Mr Harris has worked on a livestream option which we used with our Prefect Induction Mass today and we have a very energetic team putting together a 'meet the teachers' presentation which we hope will give parents who are new to the College an idea of who we all are, even if we are unable to meet each other face to face just yet.

Te Ngakau Nui, our Home and School organization is very keen to recruit new members. You can join this lovely group by contacting the College and we will pass your name on to the organizers. This group is for both men and women. You can join the committee or simply add your name to the list of willing helpers for fundraising events. Meetings take no longer than an hour and are held sparingly.

I wish everyone a safe and relaxing long weekend.

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Happy New Year to all of our College family! I just wanted to drop a note today to let everyone know that we are getting everything ready at the College for the return of our students.

I took this picture of the flower beds by the library this week as they looked so beautiful! I would like to thank our gardener Tracy for the hard work she has put into planting these out. We are very blessed to have a beautiful environment at the College which has a positive impact on the way we feel about ourselves, our work and each other.

I look forward to seeing you all soon!

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

It was with great sadness this week that we heard of the death of Owen Gould. Owen was a staunch supporter of rowing in the college for many years and on the night he passed was working with many of our students doing what he loved. Owen was a man of great passion and selflessly gave his time in order to coach many of our past and present students in rowing. North Otago owes a debt to Owen and indeed many young people will be feeling that they lost a great influence from their lives. I have included this photo from our 'out takes' from the Sports and Cultural photos this year, as you can clearly see the joy on the faces of the student rowers as they interact with him. Rest in Peace Mr Gould and may perpetual light shine upon you.

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui

Paul Olsen 

Principal's Blog

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Over the past two days I have been attending a meeting of the Otago/ Southland Secondary School Principal's group in Wanaka where we have been lucky enough to have heard from some very interesting speakers. I was very impressed with a presentation by Dr Chris Bowden on the impact of trauma on children and how schools can support recovery. It is very exciting to hear about the research being conducted around brain development. In the past few years schools, social agencies and the health system have all benefitted from research in this area as we learn more about how the brain functions and why people respond the way they do to stressful situations. The more we understand, the better tools we can develop to target the response.

Today at school we had a mufti day to support the building of the new stadium and we hosted the icon Te Ara a Maria (Mary's way). This is a beautifully painted piece which blends the traditional symbols of French Catholicism with Māori Taonga to represent the journey of the Catholic faith to the Māori via the first French missionaries. Painted by Damien Walker, this lovely piece served as a focus for our students in RST and liturgy today of not only devotion but also provided the backdrop for learning about how iconography is used to express ideas.

I wish all of you a happy and safe long weekend.

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui

Paul Olsen 

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This week leading to the holidays has been a busy one at the College with our continuing the process to put our new senior management team in place, finish what has been an interrupted term with our junior classes and run mock exams. Not all subjects have run exams at this stage, but departments where study for exams was largely done prior to lock down decided to continue with the scheduled 'mocks' to take the stress off students around the actual NCEA exam period.

We have also celebrated Catholic Schools day at the College with a smaller gathering of students from Year 8 at St Josephs representing their connection to our College. The students had a busy day with us with technology classes in the morning, pizza for lunch with the senior leaders and then participating in our liturgy to celebrate Catholic Education in New Zealand. One of our staff commented this week that he saw us as not only educating the students in terms of their brain but that we also educate their souls. That sentiment struck a chord with me as perfectly encapsulating the essence of what makes a Cathoolic school different.

Have a great holiday period. I urge our senior students to take time to regroup, rest and revise.

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui

Paul Olsen 

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This week has been a great week in the College that has made me feel very proud of my community. I spoke to my staff this morning about the mahi being done by the various boards we have in the school and just how much I appreciate the support these groups give us and the way in which the mission of the school, to live our values of Family, Integrity, Respect and Excellence really is held sincerely by the people who serve on them. It is so much easier to paddle the waka when we are all heading in the same direction!

This week we have worked hard to ensure that our students are feeling prepared for external examinations and completing their NCEA requirements. We have reinforced to students the importance of asking for help and letting someone know if they need assistance prioritising their learning or with study tips. I appeal to anyone out there who might be concerned about their student after lockdown to please get in touch with the pastoral team. I have reinforced to the students in assembly this week that we need to assure ourselves that with the correct approach, everything will turn out fine.

I have included a picture this week of Jacob's cooking class. Jacob enjoys cooking on a Friday with Tanya and Sami. Sami is a talented young cook who volunteers his time to help out with these lessons and I wanted to give a shout out to him for the work he is doing here.

As it is Maori language week this week, I leave you with this thought

'He taonga rongonui te aroha ki te tangata'

Good will towards others is a precious treasure

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui

Paul Olsen       

 

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

The sun is shining brightly, we are in Level 3 lockdown as opposed to Level 4, the blossom trees down the driveway of the school look absolutely amazing, the birds are singing and its Friday! I am following the advice from 'The Five Ways of Wellbeing' and 'Taking Notice' of the good things that I see around me, and as we head into the weekend I strongly advise our students to do the same because there are a lot of really good things going on.

I have been thrilled to see the variety of different activities that have been popping up on the Google classrooms and it has been wonderful to see the different ways teachers have chosen to engage with you from making movies and robots, to photography, to passion projects. There have also been a number of different competitions which have been shared up to keep you entertained over this lockdown period. Mr Farrell sang a song to our staff this morning which was written with his Year 11 group which we loved! Jocelyn has shared recipes online and, as you can see from the photo included, Mrs Plunkett has even found a way to continue with her putiputi flower placement onto a Kakahu which was made during the last lockdown.

For anyone having connectivity issues or issues with computers, we are here to help. You will have seen our post about the Skinny Jump deal and we can also help with Chrome books if needed, just contact Leanne in the office.

Covid lockdowns are frustrating and can be challenging, but how we think about the challenges they present really can make a big difference to how well we deal with them. Looking for the good things and maintaining positive self- talk is enormously important. It helps us to keep a steady course, especially those senior students sitting NCEA. It would be a mistake to bank on getting learning credits at this stage. What would not be a mistake is focussing on having a balanced, cohesive, and well advised approach. Please contact the Deans, Mr Harris or Ms Walshe and your whanau teachers if you need any help.

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui

Paul Olsen       

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

On Friday, the staff enjoyed a trip down to East Otago High School in Palmerston to share a training day with our colleagues there. There were two aspects we were working on, the first being the changes to NCEA which are coming into effect over the next few years and the second, a look at the latest thinking around Restorative Practice. We were thrilled to have Richard Matla from Restorative Schools there to facilitate the day and it was great to be able to share thoughts and experiences around the implementation of both systems with staff from another school. We are looking forward to working with East Otago more in the future as there is a good fit with us both being coeducational schools in a rural setting. I would like to thank the staff there for making us feel very welcome.

This weekend we are hosting the Bishops' Shield competition here in Oamaru. This competition attracts the best speakers, performers, debaters and theologians from the other schools in our Diocese and we are thrilled to be able to host them this year after the cancellation of the competition through Covid in 2020. We are still short of billets for the weekend so I urge you to contact Jo Walshe jwalshe@stkevins.school.nz if you are able to take students. These are fine young people who will be very easy to host and I would appreciate the support.

May God bless you.

Ngā mihi Nui

Paul Olsen