Kia ora tātou, Talofa lava, Malo e lei lei

Next week, Mercy Day will be celebrated on Thursday 24th September. The Mercy charism is a big part of Kavanagh College, along with the Dominican and Edmund Rice charisms. Not many schools have three charisms! In the formation of Kavanagh College, the amalgamation of the various schools that came together meant that we continue to remember the ethos of their relevant founding orders and their charisms, and incorporate them into our ‘way of being’ at Kavanagh College. Mercy Day celebrates the day that founder Catherine McAuley opened the House of Mercy in Baggot Street in Dublin to care primarily for vulnerable young women and children in Dublin during the 1800s. In time, the Mercy sisters became known as the ‘Walking Sisters’ because they worked out in the community providing active and practical support. One of the values of the Mercy order is one of hospitality, and the idea of ‘a good cup of tea’ was important to the early sisters of the order. I would like to think that parents and families visiting Kavanagh also feel the warmth of hospitality. I am very pleased that many of our students have recently been helping out in the community bagging up woodchips and helping with the cooking of meals to be given away to members of the community. Thank you to those parishioners who have encouraged this connection with the church in such an active and practical way – being able to reflect the Mercy charism of our college is our special character in action.

Our leadership team and timetabling staff feel like we are already working in 2021, although it is only September! Our planning and structures for next year are already well underway and you will be aware that your children have been asked to nominate their subject choices for next year – hopefully you have had the opportunity to discuss this with them. This year’s process has been a little constrained due to alert level 2, in that we have not been able to provide the information sessions to parents that we usually do. If you consider that you and/or your child need more guidance on subject course choices, please contact the dean and they will be pleased to help.

Similarly, the planning for our changes to curriculum and pastoral structures for years 7-9 are also well underway. Many of you have already heard about this and we are thrilled with the positive response from parents, but because we have not been able to hold meetings with large gatherings some of you may have missed out on this information. Please keep a watch on your inbox over the next few weeks as we email more information about this new junior school structure which we are calling our foundation years: ‘He tina ki runga, he tamore ki raro’ – In order to flourish above, one must be firmly rooted below.

Ngā manaakitanga

Theme for 2020: ‘Ahakoa he iti he pounamu’

(Do the little things well)