Principal's Message

We are enjoying having some new faces in our staffroom this year and I hope you get an opportunity to meet them before long. We have a few staff on parental and extended leave this year and we are grateful to the new teachers who have been employed to cover these positions. I would like to warmly welcome the following – Mr Brent Ford (HOD English), Whaia Maya Tate-Manning (Te Reo), Miss Kerryn Olsen (RE, English, Social Inquiry), Miss Natalie Paterson (English), Mrs Bronwyn Lewis (Foods), Mr Pesamino Tili (DRS with Mrs O’Kane, RE and Year 7) and Mrs Caroline Larson who has returned to teach ESOL. We also have Mr Kalas Taukamo with us from Dunedin College of Education throughout this year and he will be working in 7DGR. While some of these staff are part time, I am sure you will come across many of them at school events during the coming months.

Today we fondly farewell Mr Dave Eathorne after thirty years of loyal service to Kavanagh College. Dave and his family have been committed supporters of our college and his contributions to sport and the mentoring of the student cleaners, as well as keeping our college clean and well maintained has been hugely appreciated. Many in our college community have also benefitted from the quiet contributions he has made – the celebration frames he creates when students have achieved highly, the Christmas decorations in the office every year, and the hand crafted special creations he has made to hang in classrooms and throughout the college. Thank you for your unwavering service, Dave, and we wish you all the best for your new ‘life beyond school’. We are pleased to have Mr Ian Davis join our staff as the new property manager. Ian comes to us from King’s High School and I am sure that Dave has given him a good set of instructions so far!

Apologies for the postponement of our Year 7-9 ‘Meet and Greet’ afternoon on Tuesday. The weather was certainly against us and a wet barbeque was not looking appealing! We have rescheduled this for Wednesday 19th and I hope many of you are able to join us for this.

We again gained some very good NCEA and scholarship results in the 2019 year. Although these are only provisional results at present, we continue to achieve at a level above national decile 8-10 achievement in many areas. Particularly exemplary were our NCEA Level 2 boys of whom 91.7% gained Level 2 compared to 79.7% of boys in decile 8-10 schools. We were also well ahead in the number of excellence endorsements gained at all three levels compared to other decile 8-10 schools nationally. Well done, Kavanagh students and staff! These results are particularly good considering the challenges that occurred in our college last year.

There is much ongoing media information about the Coronavirus outbreak. Please continue to be assured that we are taking all precautions advised by the Ministry of Education who are, in turn, being advised by the Ministry of Health. We are also using the current situation to review our pandemic plan documentation. Fortunately none of our returning international students have come from areas that require an isolation period.

It is a challenging time for those in Southland at present and also for those suffering drought conditions in other parts of the country. Let us remember and pray for our wider communities as they look forward to some relief from these situations.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Theme for 2020 “Do the little things well’

‘Ahakoa he iti he pounamu’ (Although small it is highly treasured)