Principal's Message

By Maria Menzies | Posted: Monday August 17, 2020

Greetings, Tēnā koutou

We are in unsettling times, and the worry about alert levels and what might be ahead of us is visible in many of our daily interactions with people we work and live with. Our students are no different and, in last week’s newsletter, I invited you to let us know if you have specific concerns for your child where we can support. It is also a very important time to remember that we have plenty to fall back on! Our Catholic faith and our trust and reliance on God is important at present. In times of worry and uncertainty, loss, and sorrow in our lives, even the most disengaged believer has been known to come back to their faith roots and remember the power of prayer. This is something that, as a Catholic school, we will be ensuring we keep going. The ability to use our faith foundation to provide perspective, hope and reassurance is a gift that we have as a school that many schools don’t. I encourage you to speak to your children at home about the power of prayer, reflection and hope at this time and use it as a balance to the endless media reports and social media they are seeing and hearing.

You will have received the information that we are unable to hold our parent evening tonight – we looked at ways to keep this going under current restrictions, but it became too hard. We will have another opportunity once we return to level 1. In the meantime, sexuality programmes will be beginning for your children in the next couple of months and it is important that you now what will be taught in these programmes. Please look out for an email that you will be sent by our DRS’ Kathleen O’Kane and Pesamino Tili. We look forward to the ‘Loves Me Not’ programme being run next week for our year 12s. This focus on healthy relationships for our teenagers is very important and will provide some preparation for life and situations beyond school.

It was great to read a positive media story celebrating the role of integrated schools in education. If you missed the report on a piece of recent research in the ODT last Tuesday, “State integrated school best value: report” then have a look at the following link which gives more information https://nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/media/state-integrated-schools-offer-best-value-for-money/?1 The first statement “State-integrated schools offer best value for money compared to their private and public counterparts and on average students at state-integrated schools are likely to gain university entry qualifications” may pique your interest.

Have a great end to the week. It is certainly good to be seeing more daylight hours and the promise of more to come.