Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Happy New Year to all of the College whānau! It has been a very busy and productive start to the year with the grounds team getting lots of work done including replacing the water tank on the hill which was damaged and removing rotten trees from the grounds. It is always sad when older trees have to be removed, but we are very conscious of replacing removed trees with others. Since 2020 we have planted over 5000 trees on SKC property and work hand in hand with local groups to ensure we are planting for both diversity and ornamentation.

2022 was a very good year at the College as we attempted to find our new post - Covid normal and we live in perpetual hope that 2023 will be even better. As Christians, we are called to hope. Over the holidays I have had that reinforced for me personally as I have had the chance to interact with my new granddaughter. This beautiful new life reinforces my need to hope and be optimistic that the world she will inherit and contribute to, will be a good place. Of course, I think she's the most beautiful baby on the earth right now and am sure she will never do anything wrong at school! (Yeah right!!)

With regards to start up procedures, everything has been posted on the website in terms of dates, keep scrolling for the uniform shop and also times for older year levels' arrival on site. If there are any issues, the office will be open next week.

Whilst there has been a lot of speculation about Covid in the news lately, we do not foresee any new protocols needing to be introduced. Please continue to be mindful about testing when unwell and let us know if your young person does have a positive test.

Here's to a great 2023!

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Well, we very much know it's the end of the year, we have a lot of tired but happy faces returning from Year 10 Camp, our Year 9's have had a very good last week of mixing fun and formal classes and our teachers all look a bit shell shocked after what has been an interesting year to say the least!

In my prize giving speeches I extended my thanks to the wonderful team here at SKC who make our College what it is and to those of you in the community who work tirelessly with and for us in order to ensure that the College is a well appointed community with plenty of resources which benefit our students. I thank you again today for the incredible year we have had and I invite anyone who is thinking about joining the College community, through one of our groups, to please not hesitate.

Thanks Santa for visiting our hostel this week! 

I will be sending out a form for caregivers to fill out in order to feed into the College any ideas you have with regards to our Strategic Planning for the next three years. Please feel free to contribute your ideas and comments. Remember that the Strategic Plan is a document which captures our big ideas rather than specifics, and should set a set of priorities against which we measure the value of the multitude of initiatives that come into the purvu of a school to think about which ones to focus on.

Thank you for all of your support this year from both the wider College community and myself personally. It has been a delight working with your beautiful young people.

God Bless and have a very merry, peaceful and joyful Christmas season.

Jo Walshe

 

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I feel as if I always begin this blog by talking about what a busy time we have had lately, but it is actually always true!

I was very lucky to be able to catch up with some of our Alumni in Auckland recently along with my husband Jimmy, Russell Dixon and my daughter. We took the opportunity to speak with our Alumni about our plans for the College and our desire to reconnect our College community, especially after the last few years. What I learned from those meetings is that we have an amazing community of past students with incredible stories out there. These connections are vital not only for preserving our heritage but also for our current students in order for them to understand what areas life's journey can take our Kevinians to. We met with business people, members of the armed forces and pilots to name a few. Unfortunately our trip to Canterbury to play the "Willows' tournament was postponed due to our fickle NZ weather so we will have to catch up with our Canterbury friends at a later date.

I posted earlier in the week about our Covid numbers, at the moment we are seeing the odd case, so summer holidays will be a welcome break.

Yesterday Mr Devereaux held our transition day for our new Year 8 students. This was very well run and received by the students. The feedback I have had from caregivers was that they had very tired young people at home last night which is exactly what I want to hear! Again this year numbers have been very tight, our advice is to please enrol early to avoid disappointment. St Kevin's has a capped roll which means it can only accept a limited number of students at any one time.

I would like to thank all of our staff as we move towards our final week and thank them for their tireless work in what has been a demanding year.

Have a great weekend - let's hope there's some sun!

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Thank you to those of you who attended the Senior Prizegiving last week. It was a wonderful night of celebration which showcased our students in all of their areas of strength, academic, cultural and sporting. Congratulations too to Fergus McMullan who was awarded our Dux of the College prize. I have spent some time today speaking with Fergus about the role of women in religion in the lead up to his scholarship exam on the topic. I think I can safely say what makes a Dux, apart from hard work, is an enquiring mind and the discipline to follow that through! Good luck Fergus!

One award I omitted to mention on the senior prize giving list was the Mana Pounamu scholarship won in the senior section by Oshyn Guthrie and the junior by Hannah Burke. The award is in recognition of the achievement of Māori students across a wide range of activities and carries significant weight. Both students were worthy winners and we look forward to seeing what they achieve in the future. The award is presented in Dunedin at the Otago University College of Education to students from around the region. We are very proud of these fine young women who have a variety of skills in sport and cultural activites.

This weekend I will be traveling to Auckland with Jimmy and Russell Dixon to catch up with our Alumni in the North. We will be presenting at the Rydges Hotel on Sunday 20th at 7pm. We are keen for anyone who is available to join us to hear where our future plans are taking us as we emerge into this new era. I will feature this event in the blog for next week.

Have a safe and happy week.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Welcome back to the last term for 2022. For many of our seniors, this is a bittersweet time of year as they feel torn between wanting to leave the school and venture into the wide world and at the same time, coming to understand how much they have been held by us here at the College in terms of support.

It is also a difficult time of year for them in terms of motivation as they struggle to focus on these last tasks of graduation and sitting examinations. Our advice is to keep reminding them that they need to consciously plan to tackle this last part, ensure they have a study plan, a time table of what needs done by when and some clear boundaries around themselves in terms of their physical and mental health.

If your student needs support, please do not hesitate to contact our Deans.

This week we attempted to support our school leavers by holding a transition day where we looked at a range of topics from fixing cars to understanding stress and ran workshops for our students about these topics. I would like to thank Mr Smith for his work on this programme.

Our other great achievement this week was the Mr North Otago competition which has raised money for our gym floor to be repaired next year. I would like to thank all of the people involved with Te Ngakau Nui and especially those brave men who put themselves out there for a good cause. If you would like to get involved, contact us here at the college.

Have a wonderful long weekend

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

And just like that another term has ended!  I was asked to speak to the Year 9 and 10 students today to give them some advice about the holidays.  My advice was for them to ensure they get good quality sleep (teenagers need a lot more than adults), to get out and about and not be stuck in front of devices all day and to help out their caregivers.  I explained to them that 'wellbeing' can be gained from helping others out.   I was recently at a conference where the keynote speaker Kathryn Berkett talked about the effects of dopamine on the teenage brain.  What is scary is that thrill seeking behaviour increases dopamine. What is exciting though is that so can cleaning your room because you are flooded with feelings of satisfaction. 

If you would like to hear more from Kathryn, I would recommend this you tube clip Why children need stress

I would like to congratulate our senior students for getting through their mock exams with very little fuss this week.  It is important if your student has not done well that they seek advice as soon as they can from their teacher so that they know what to focus on when they come back.

Have a great holiday period.  Thank you to the gorgeous students in this photo who volunteered to express their joy at holidays on behalf of the student body .

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

What a past couple of weeks it has been for the College in terms of getting people back out onto the stage. It has been with a great sigh of relief that we have been able to hold our Singing Festival in the traditional way again after such a long time of cancellations and downsized, online versions. I can confidently say that everyone in the auditorium on Singing Festival night felt that the old magic was back where we saw amazing young people share their gifts and talents with us. We have also participated in the Hui Ako at the Opera House last week and our Pacifica students have performed recently too. I cannot thank the staff, families and teachers who have supported these events enough. To be able to enjoy seeing our young people perform again has been magic!

Next week (Tuesday 27th) we have former student and Silver Fern Jane Watson coming to speak. Tickets cost $25 each for adults with school aged students for $5. The aim is to try to raise money to re- paint our gym floor and I would really appreciate it if this event could be supported. We have tried to make it a quick stop on your way home from work with a complimentary glass of wine and some nibbles. Please bring your netballers along as we have not been able to get Jane back home before and we may ever have this chance again given that she is reengaging with professional netball after her maternity leave.

The focus for our senior students over the next couple of weeks is preparation for mock exams. Students need to be mindful that in the Covid era, we cannot ever be certain of being able to attend the real thing, so these exams are very important if students need future derived grades.

Have a great week.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This is a very late Blog which is traditionally done on Friday but I was not able to write to the the fact that myself, Mrs Jennifer Herbst, Mr James Devereaux and four amazing young people, Mikey, Anika, Sam and Samuel headed away to the Edmund Rice Conference at Liston College in Auckland as soon as school finished.

Over the weekend we have listened to some very impressive speakers including the leaders of the protest at Ihumatao and Iafeta Matalasi who was featured on the Sunday programme last year after having won a battle to be able to meet his son's killer in a Restorative Conference.

The Edmund Rice charism, which is one of the founding charisms of our College, is based very firmly in the idea of social justice and guides our decision making processes. Fundamentally for us this means that we need to try to give students the opportunity to access education no matter the barriers they face. Edmund Rice organizations are involved in working with the poor and the homeless in many countries and in New Zealand also work with corrections services and of course education.

It has been a very intensive weekend of talking, listening and challenging ourselves as well as for Mr Devereaux; reconnecting with friends from his old school. We would like to thank the ER network for hosting us, also Liston College staff and students and I would personally like to thank Mr Devereaux for his impeccable organization of the trip, his Auckland navigation skills and for knowing pretty much every helpful person in the city!

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Firstly this week a big thank you to those of you who gave feedback around our sexuality survey. It was great to gather a range of ideas and opinions. The College is not just an educational institution for academic subjects but also has to be a reflection of the values and attitudes we have in our community. Gathering feedback in a consistent manner over a variety of topics is very important and we really appreciate it when you engage with us.

I have sent two further emails in the last week or so, one describing our new toilet development which will start being built in the next couple of weeks and the second an email asking for support for our amazing team of parents and caregivers at Te Ngakau Nui. I urge everyone to think about lending a hand now and then by registering with Sam Growcott. If everyone did one thing per year it would help so much.

A big thank you to the amazing coaches and managers who took our tournament teams away this week. We have some very tired but happy young people in our College today. It has been great to see not only some pleasing results in terms of competition places but some personal bests for players who have improved over the season. For some of our senior students this has been a bitter sweet week as it is the last time they will represent us as a College before graduating. We thank those students who are in that situation and remind them that they are SKC forever, no matter what!

I have included this picture of the volleyball social games being held for juniors at lunch time today. Volleyball is becoming very popular at school and we have supported that by ordering some new gear for the gym to support the sport.

Please remember to purchase tickets for Tea with Jane on the 27th to help with our gym upgrade. You can order online at college@stkevins.school.nz or by phoning us on 03 4371665

Have a lovely first weekend of Spring

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This week has been a very busy one for me personally as I have had a lot of meetings to attend in Dunedin and online as well as having returned on Sunday from the Bishop's Shield competition. The advantage to that however, is that when you are moving between agencies and presenters, it is easy to identify common threads and get a real sense of what is 'on top' for educational stakeholders.

Without a doubt, the major issue being put under the microscope at the moment is school attendance and the consequences of students not attending on a regular basis. The general feeling seems to be that Covid has somehow diluted our urgency around ensuring that our young people attend school. There have always been truants, but the message is that across the country there is a real drop in attendance rates among those students who, in the past, would have been at school 90% of the time which is the indicator the Ministry of Education uses.

In order to help caregivers identify the real attendance of our students, we have moved from posting half days on our reports to posting a whole day percentage. If your young person is not attending school for 90% of the time or more, they are counted as not being in 'regular attendance'.

Whilst Covid isolation rules, immunity debt and subsequent sickness have all played their part, our message to whānau is please make being at school a priority for your young person and if there are barriers for you and / or your student, please let us know how we can help.

Have a great weekend everyone

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

This week has been a difficult week with extreme highs and lows and I am sure many of the staff and students of the College will be very happy to see the weekend arrive. Our thoughts and prayers have been with the members of our community this week who have suffered as a result of the accident on Tuesday night. As always when something this awful happens in our community, the ripple effects are felt far and wide. We pray for God's peace for all of those involved and we continue to offer our support.

This week we hosted 'Open Day' at the College which was well attended. Open days are not only a chance to show our community what goes on at our College, but they also cause us to reflect on what is important in the culture of our school and how we are able to celebrate that. We have had strong enrolment numbers and I would like to remind anyone still considering putting in an application that these are due at the end of next week.

This morning I watched the Year 9 performance rotation perform their lip syncs. They were great, and they all had a lot of fun playing with the new lighting system we have in the auditorium. This system digitalises the sound system and means we can link audio visual technologies such as speakers, projectors systems and TV's. Thankfully we have amazing young students who can actually drive all this tech!

Have a restful and hopefully sunny weekend.

God Bless

Jo Walshe

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I think we can all admit that what we asked of our boys yesterday was absolutely monumental. That they stepped up to play and gave 100% effort in the driving rain can only make us enormously proud as a college family.  I would also like to acknowledge the Waitaki Boys’ Team who equally, dealt  incredibly well with appalling conditions to take the game. 

I have been heartened this year by the general spirit of Waitaki Week.  It has been a real privilege to be able to lead the school this week and I am sure that the Principals of the Waitaki Schools feel the same way.  All games have been played competitively but respectfully, teams have had some real tussles on the field and walked off laughing and chatting with each other afterwards.  The spectators seemed to have had some real fun with their rivalry and I will never forget hearing our Pacifica community on both sides in full voice singing a hymn together at the Basketball. This, to me, is the face of sport in our community we want to see.  Well done everyone!

Yesterday morning we had Peter Dunne, Captain of the First Fifteen team from 1972 address the College.  His message was that students needed to make the most of their youth, opportunities and time at the College.  That they should embrace their friendships and not be afraid to be themselves.  He spoke very well and with real heart and reinforced for our students that being a Kevinian is a lifelong undertaking. 

Thank you to all of you for a great Term 2.  We now turn our faces towards Spring in the next few weeks and look forward to a successful second half of the year.

God Bless

Jo Walshe