Principal's Message

While we move through the urgent, operational tasks on any given day, it is easy to lose sight of the important. Although I am speaking from my ‘work’ perspective, I know this can often ring true for our home lives as well. I have had some great opprtunities recently to step back from the urgent and open up some space to consider the important.

I had the pleasure of attending the National Catholic Secondary Schools Principals’ conference. Of all the professional development opportunities I attend, I find this annual event the most grounding. It reminds me of what is important and what our purpose is. This year at conference, we were fortunate to have time to delve into and reflect upon ‘A Consistent Ethic of Life’, a revised document offered to us by the NZ Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Pope Francis is quoted in the document “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.” While schools are dealing with major curriculum change, a potential change in educational direction due to a new government, and ongoing funding challenges, it is easy to get caught up in ‘the urgent’. Our place as a Catholic school in New Zealand’s education landscape, is to highlight ‘the important’. We need to remember that if society is to protect life, human rights and the dignity of all, then the holistic, faith based education that we offer needs to keep ‘the important’ top of mind. Our role is to ensure that we are helping our young people to be critical thinkers, and to consider the ethical stance that we are asked to take ‘hei ākonga mā te Karaiti’ (as disciples of Christ).

While we are subjected to a commercialised Christmas season and all the expensive trimmings that go with this, I think our challenge is to move our thinking from the urgent to the important - who in our community needs their dignity restored and their human rights put first; and what can we do about it?