Principal's Message

By Kate Nicholson | Posted: Tuesday October 20, 2020

Greetings

Community is so important in a college – the shared vision that parents, whanau, students, and staff have for our purpose and our daily operations. Therefore, it was wonderful to see that the working bee organised by the PFA brought together a good number of parents, students, and staff to tidy up the gardens surrounding the carpark on Rattray Street last Sunday afternoon. This has made the rhododendrons stand out even more than usual and is a visual reward for those who made it happen. Thank you to all those involved! We really appreciate your support.

We had a full assembly yesterday, awarding our swimming champions and other students who achieved great results in recent national sporting events, singing with Fr Vaughan Hook, and listening to a beautiful music performance from Oscar Robertson, Lexie Tomlinson and Emily Kerr-Bell. It was great to hear from the Enviro Prefects – Rosa Latton and Liberty Bray – along with guest speaker and ex-student Elliot Blyth, speaking about the emphasis on recycling and care of our planet as we celebrate Enviro Week at Kavanagh College this week. The Enviro team have worked hard this week and have encouraged the use of our new recycling, waste, and compost coloured bins around the college, and the Clothes Swap tomorrow in the Gym is going to be very popular I am sure! Hopefully, the actions taken this week by the group has encouraged a renewed sense of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) within our college community.

Please keep an eye on the college calendar over the next few weeks because there is plenty happening! The Sports and Cultural awards will be held on the next two Wednesday evenings. This year we have changed the timing of the sports awards to an evening event to allow more parents to be part of these celebrations of the hard work and dedication put in by their children.

We have also changed our end of year routines this year and we will hold a final full school assembly on Tuesday afternoon, November 10th, prior to the senior prizegiving night on Wednesday. It is very important for our younger students to aspire to high levels of commitment and excellence and give them the opportunity to see the successes of older students who are their role models. Therefore, we will be celebrating the Class Act and the Mana Pounamu recipients in this assembly, farewelling some long serving staff, having our head student 2020 speeches and we will announce our four head students for 2021. Some of this will also be acknowledged at the prizegiving, but the students are a community in themselves; working together and celebrating one another’s successes as well as creating a culture that supports aiming high and aspiring to excellence is very important, hence this change.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St John Paul the second who was Pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. One statement attributed to him is ‘Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ This is certainly at the forefront for me as we work on our strategic planning for the next few years – we don’t intend to be satisfied with mediocrity and we will certainly be respecting and remembering the purpose and mission of our college, ‘promoting excellence in learning and teaching in a climate of faith and pastoral care …’

Have a refreshing long weekend.

Ngā manaakitanga

Theme for 2020: ‘Ahakoa he iti he pounamu’

(Do the little things well)