Principal's Message

The college is busy again and the energy is wonderful! There is something very special about the start of the school year once learning gets underway, timetables settle, and students are excited to see one another again and meet their new teachers.

We had a wonderful mihi whakatau yesterday morning in the Christian Brothers’ Hall where we welcomed our new year 7-9 students and new staff into our college. Moving this from the auditorium – where many of you may have experienced the first day welcome – to the hall, gave us the room to create a stronger sense of inclusion, and walk our new students through the hall to join the manawhenua, symbolising becoming part of our college community.

Staffing Changes

For 2021, Mrs Rachel Mortimer has joined the senior leadership team as Assistant Principal with oversight of the Year 12 & 13 area. Rachel will continue to teach senior chemistry this year.

Alongside the new students joining us, we welcomed three new teachers and three teacher’s aides, into Kavanagh College.

Ms Laura Cooney joins us from Campion College, Gisborne, and is teaching Maths, Science and Chemistry. Mrs Adrienne Buckingham rejoins our staff, having spent a short time at Kavanagh College a few years ago. Adrienne is teaching English while Mrs McGarry is on parental leave. Mr Kalas Taukamo spent some time team-teaching in the year 7 area last year, and this year is with us full-time, primarily as a year 8 ako (learning) teacher.

We also welcome three new teacher’s aides – Hector Nafatali, Jacob Brown and Skye Haig who will be working with students and in classes this year.

Tomorrow we farewell Mrs Melanie James-Addison who has worked closely with some of our learning support students over the last few years. Thank you, Melanie, for your dedication and we wish you well for your change of lifestyle.

Mr Lawrence Bishop (Maths) is on leave for Term One and his classes are being very competently looked after by Mr Greg Boyle and Ms Laura Cooney.

Uniform and Phone Use

We are reminding students this week about our uniform regulations and about phone use at school. Students have been asked to begin the year well and maintain this throughout the year, in terms of both personal presentation and mobile phone use. If you would like a reminder about rules for both these aspects, please visit our news centre on the website.

Theme 2021

In next week’s newsletter, I will give you information about our new strategic direction for the next four years. These four big goals will be our main focus and they involve reviewing and improving various aspects of our college so that we can be confident that our daily college life reflects our mission statement. Our theme for 2021, builds on the idea of ‘doing the little things well’ which we focussed on last year, and also emphasises God’s plan for each of us. This year our focus is

‘Striving to be the best version of ourselves – Kia Kaha’

All the best for a fun-filled and sun-filled long weekend.