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

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Thanks to the amazing Lorenna Marshall for this wonderful picture of the cloud formations over SKC last week. The weather is playing a bigger and bigger role in the way we view what we are doing in education as the climate continues to change. This week I attended the SPANZ (Secondary Principals of New Zealand ) conference, where unsurprisingly, emergency management was a hot topic given the effect of the cyclone in the North Island. The keynote speakers all discussed the idea of change management from managing climate change, to Covid, to changes in AI. All of these developments present education and educational institutions with challenges but also with the opportunity to look for different ways to look at education and what it means in the 21st Century.

The rapid growth in AI technology is currently causing a lot of angst in education in New Zealand. On one hand the technology is able to aid administrators in writing up basic reports or standard procedures. One the other hand the fraudulent use of these tools is something that is challenging to the way in which schools administer NCEA. It is also often difficult for students to understand where the line between their research process and plagiarism lies. In essence, if a student uses text that they have not written themselves and submits it as their own work without referencing where the text came from, that is plagiarism. The same thing applies if the text is written by an AI programme. Plagiarism processes are laid out in the NZQA guides given to students at the beginning of the year. If you have any questions around this process, please direct them to our head of Curriculum Mr Craig Smith. Mr Smith is delegated by the School Board as responsible for these investigations.

Enjoy the first King's Birthday Weekend this weekend.

God Bless

Jo

Principals Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

I thought I would choose this amazing photo taken by Mr Devereaux for the blog today as it reminds us that there is always something good that can be found in things that are bad. As we move into the winter season with all of its challenges of colder weather, coughs , colds and dark nights, we are also blessed with these amazing sunrises and sunsets.

This week we welcomed Mrs Strauss and her husband to our school. Mrs Strauss is a highly qualified mathematics teacher and is also a skilled netball coach. We have really enjoyed getting to know her this week and we are sure our students are going to love having her as part of our community.

This week we also had the Life Education bus in the College speaking with our students about drinking, smoking, vaping and making good choices around these. In Ball and Waitaki Week season, the school works very hard to ensure that our senior students understand their responsibilities to each other at parties. If your young person is attending parties, please ensure that they have discussed with you how they will keep themselves and their friends safe at these events. The College does not organize or endorse post event parties. Responsibility for running parties and allowing students to attend are solely the responsibility of the parent community.

Well done to those brave souls who ran the Cross Country this week. Congratulations to Mr Hose and the team for their excellent organization of the event. It has been a busy time for the PE department over the last week having just completed the Year 12 Bike Trip as well.

Have a great weekend.

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today we celebrated Pink Shirt Day in the College which is an international movement aimed at bringing attention and awareness to bullying.

Bullying is a problem in all schools to a greater or lesser degree as young people work through the complex emotions that come with transitions, discovering who they are and navigating friendships.

In the teenage years, the brain goes through what is known as a 'pruning process' which is like a shutting down of parts of the brain. This process means that young people, much more than adults, are driven by the emotional centers in their brains rather than the frontal cortex, which is the place where our ability to reason is located.

In a nutshell what this means is that teenagers are more likely to react emotionally to perceived slights and so in turn may bully others back using aggressive emotions or they may withdraw and feel persecuted accessing those emotions which make them feel as if everyone is against them. Our job as teachers and parents is to help our young people to deal with these processes by helping them to reason through the issues as they present them, for example asking "Are you sure that that is what that person meant?" or encouraging them to speak face to face with others rather than relying on impersonal methods such as texting.

Our school runs a Restorative Practice discipline system which supports young people and families to work through these issues. This system takes time and is forgiveness based which is in line with our Catholic character. It is sometimes hard for families and even teachers to understand why we can't just move directly to punishing young people if they do wrong, in other words, "bully the bullies". In our College we focus more on the mantra of "hurt people hurt people" and we respond in that spirit. For more information on Bullying please look up our Pastoral Tab, look up School TV and click on the Bullying tab.

Have a great weekend

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

It was wonderful to see the number of bright young faces who attended our Open Day yesterday and our Open Night last night. Every year when I see our older students acting as tour guides for our potential enrolments for the following year it really hits home just how quickly the secondary school years fly by and how much our young people change in those short five years. To all of you parents and caregivers out there wrestling with the decision of where to send your young person, I wish you all the best.

Anyone walking around the grounds at the moment will notice that there is a lot of building and maintenance activity occurring at the moment. We are very conscious after the repeated flood events which have hit the North Island of our need to ensure that we minimize the potential impact of any flooding events over the course of the winter. To that end Ken McCallum and his Construction class have been laying extra drainage and the Foundation has initiated major work on the hill behind the hostel to clear debris and insert drainage. I would like to thank Ross Robertson and Eugen Dupu as well as the grounds' staff and contractors for all of their work on this so far.

In addition to this we are embarking on a programme to plant more intensive native bush areas to help manage soil erosion. The added bonus of this is that our tui population is increasing every year and is a beautiful sound track to our school environment.

Tui Call

At this stage, it looks as if next week will bring more industrial action with years 9 and 10 both being flagged as being rostered home. We will also have our Year 12 PE class away on their bike trip and will finish the week with our Pink Shirt Mufti day on Friday. Please keep a close eye on notices as they appear over the course of the next few days.

Have a great weekend

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Today we were blessed with a beautiful day for our parent - teacher interviews. We were thrilled with the turnout of caregivers despite our not having an evening option this year due to industrial action. This is a great time of year for families to speak with their young person about the goals and ambitions they have for the year and to identify any potential issues before we start Term 2 which is traditionally very busy.

I would like to thank those parents and caregivers who supported us on ANZAC day by bringing students down to march in the street parade. This is a time of remembrance of the fallen but I believe it is also a very important part of marking who we are as a community. The rallying call of ANZAC Day is one that ties our community together as well as to those who have passed before. For our young people to be a part of this is, I believe, very important.

At the College we celebrated our own ANZAC service on the 26th. As with the actual day, it was heartening to see those students involved in ATC and the Pipe Band contributing, not only to our service but to the Waitaki services as well. I thank Mr Derek Beveridge and Mr Paul Olsen for the work they do with our young people in these groups and for bringing them to our service each year.

On Monday I will be speaking with the students about uniforms. Last term I signaled that Deans will begin confiscating jewelry or items of uniform which do not meet our code. These will be held at the office for caregivers to collect when they are ready to do so. I would ask please that caregivers speak with their students about their uniform to avoid this becoming an issue.

Teachers unions have signaled further industrial action for this term. Please check out our strike action notices so you are aware of what days your young person is rostered home so that you can make appropriate arrangements.

I am looking forward to a busy and positive Term 2!

God Bless

Jo

Principal's Comment

 Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Happy Easter to our SKC Family. Yesterday we began the Easter celebration with reading the Stations of the Cross in period five for Holy Thursday. I would like to thank Mrs Herbst who put a massive amount of time and effort into the celebration and also her team of Prefects for presenting our Stations of the Cross with sincerity and devotion. Lena Dupu and Samuel Plieger did an outstanding job maintaining the flow of the readings and our students appreciated the effort. I believe that ending a hectic term with those moments of peace were incredibly healing for us all.

You will notice that we have started advertising our Student Led Conferences. We have taken notice of the feedback we got from the community after the last SLC's which indicated that you appreciated being able to speak to subject teachers and so we are maintaining that format. However, and I appreciate this will not be welcome news, we are only able to open these up during the day time as the industrial action being undertaken by teachers at the moment requires them to only work the hours they are paid for which is between 8:30am and 4:30pm. This is a difficult time for everyone concerned as we want to support our teachers and we also want to please our community so we are juggling the situation as best as we can. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

May the blessings of the season be upon you all.

Jo 🙏