Principal's Comment

Dear Kevinians and Supporters

Happy St Kevin's Feast Day. Today the College has taken the opportunity to celebrate our patron, St Kevin of Glendalough. St Kevin was an Irishman who lived in the 6th century and is noted for his commitment to prayer, education and the environment. His message is just as timely 1500 years later as we face issues of global warming and social injustice. Mrs Austin emphasised at the liturgy the links with the our Christian Brothers heritage and noted that we join St Kevin's Toorak, Melbourne, in celebrating the occasion. I am looking forward to visiting the historic ruins at Glendalough during my sabbatical in term three.

Earlier in the week at assembly Mr Greg Richardson, from Agribusiness presented the certificates for National Certificate in Rural Machinery Level 2 to Callum Knowler, Adam Blakely, Patrick Perniskie, Jackson Reid, Jacob Turnout, Clayton Byrne, Isak Gunnarsson and Shaun Kelliher. Congratulations and thank you to Mrs Eatherley for organising the programme.

On Thursday, we hosted representatives from the Sophie Elliot Foundation and Police who delivered the first seminar in the Year 12 "Loves Me Not" programme. St Kevin's is pleased to be part of the New Zealand pilot and feed back has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you to Mrs Burton for coordinating this very important work.

I would like to end by wishing everyone a relaxing and warm Queens Birthday weekend.

May the blessing of St Kevin be with us and enrich our lives.

Paul Olsen, Principal

World Smokefree Day

The annual Smokefree Day Inter-house Challenge was once again accepted with gusto!  As the College celebrated St Kevin's Feastday students wore their house colours with pride and the inspirational ideas meant there was fierce competition in both the Junior and Senior competition.

Congratulations to:

SENIOR

1st - Magee / 2nd - Clancy / 3rd - Treacy / 4th - Whyte

JUNIOR

1st - Clancy / 2nd - Magee / 3rd - Whyte / 4th - Treacy

OVERALL

Magee - 7pts / Clancy - 7pts / Treacy - 3 pts / Whyte - 3pts

Loves-Me-Not Programme

Yesterday all Yr 12 students were involved in the Loves-Me-Not programme, run by the Sophie Elliott Foundation in conjunction with New Zealand Police.  The focus of the programme is to give students an awareness of healthy, non-voilent relationships and the College has been excited to have been one of nine schools chosen nationwide to take part in this pilot scheme, ahead of a planned national rollout next year.  This is an opportunity to give valuable life skills to our students before they leave school and go out into the wider community as adults.

A number of staff at the College attended a training day on Tuesday in order to participate as facilitators on the day alongside national and community facilitators.  Mrs Burton - the SKC Loves-Me-Not Co-ordinator - is very pleased about how well the day ran and, as part of the pilot, a series of evaluation sessions will be held to improve the programme where necessary.  Thank you to our students, staff, parents and caregivers for your support of this valuable opportunity.

Home & School Raffles

Thank you to all of you who have returned money and/or raffle tickets to the school office.

With Queen's Birthday approaching we would ask students and parents to take the opportunity to return any of the remaining raffle tickets still outstanding.  There are opportunities for the Home & School to sell these before the closing date in July.

Please hand in all money and/or tickets by FRIDAY 7 JUNE.

SKC U16 Rugby Notice

THE TEMUKA U16 HAVE DEFAULTED THIS WEEKEND'S GAME AGAINST SKC U16

St Bede's Exhange - 4 June

St Bede's Exchange June 4

1st Hockey / 1st Rugby / U16 Rugby

Our guests from St Bede's arrive at the College in time for a welcome at 11.30am.

ALL GAMES WILL BEGIN AT 12.30pm 

Rugby on College grounds

Hockey at the Hockey Turf, Centennial Park.

Agribusiness & St Kevin's

Greg Richardson was on hand at assembly to present the boys with their certificates.

Congratulations to the students who were presented with their Agribusiness Certificates in assembly this week. To complete this ITO Level 2 Unit Standards course, they were required to attend weekend classes and pass theory and practical assessments in Fencing, Riding Farm Bikes and Driving a Tractor. These are vital skills for all young people who intend to work in the agricultural environment.

Maori Consultation Hui

On evening of Thursday 23 May we held our Maori Consultation Hui.  This was lead by members of the Moeraki Marae - David Higgins and Patrick Tipa.  Our Kapa Haka Group performed to whanau and staff and after a shared dinner we discussed Maori initiatives within the College, with strong contributions from students present.  It was an overwhelmingly positive experience for all involved and a followup hui will be scheduled for Term 3.  Our sincere thanks to Patipatu Runkaka ki Moeraki for their support and facilitation and also to the College families who attended and gave voice to the evening.

SKC Hockey Images

Scores from last weekend:
SKC Girls 1st XI v Pirata Black (1-1)
SKC Boys 1st XI v Excelsior (2-5)

Otago U17 Netball Representation

Photo thanks to the Oamaru Mail

Congratulations to Yr12 student Merekite Wahitapu on her selection into the Otago U17 Netball team having impressed the selection panel during two hard fought trials.  

Merekite has a dedicated attitude to netball at the College and with her consistently impressive performances, this recognition is very well deserved.

Congratulations also to all of the girls who have made the U14 and U15 North Otago Representative teams:
U14 - Whitney Cleveland, Zoe McCormick, Ellie Monk, Jessie Conlan and Cliantha Whippy
U15 - Rachel Esselink, Ashley Pink, Peta Grant, Emma Slater, Georgia Sillibourne and Sophia Alaloto

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers

I would like to begin this weeks blog with a huge thank you to our staff, students and Home & School Committee for supporting a very successful Open Day at the College. We were relieved that the weather held so that we could display our superb grounds and classrooms. One visitor made a comment after the student led tour that "although the grounds and physical surrounds are impressive, the people are even more so". So once again thanks for your hard work and efforts to market the College.


Congratulations also to our newly appointed Board of Trustees. We had our first meeting on Wednesday evening under the chairmanship of Mr Steven Bolstridge and I feel the College is blessed with the caliber and breadth of skills and experience present around the Board table. 

On Thursday evening we held the combined St Josephs-St Kevin's consultation meeting for our Maori parents. I would like to formally thank Mrs Sara Plunkett for organising the the evening which was held in the College staffroom. Thank you also to Mr David Higgins and Mr Patrick Tipa from Te Runanga o Maoeraki for their facilitation of the evening.

God bless you all
Paul Olsen Principal

Catholic Schools Day 2013

On Wednesday staff and students from St Joseph's joined the College to celebrate Catholic Schools Day at a special Mass in the Chapel.  Father Wayne lead the service and the St Joseph's Dominican choir performed.

It was lovely to have so many parents and caregivers join us on this day, where we celebrate Catholic Education in New Zealand and recognise the success of the Values based education that our students receive at the College and at St Joseph's.  The down pour of rain did little to dampen the joyful spirit of the occasion with the focus very much on the students and the importance and value of their place in our College Community.