Kia ora tātou, Talofa lava, Malo e lelei

‘Striving to be the Best Versions of Ourselves’ – you have heard this, our 2021 theme, plenty of times already this year, and it builds on our theme of ‘doing the little things well’ that we worked on last year. But … we all need a little help to be our best versions all the time! To help us as educators, we are part of next Friday’s Dunedin Catholic Schools’ Kāhui Ako Expo Teachers Only Day to be held at Kavanagh College. Our overarching work for the Kāhui Ako is UDL – Universal Design for Learning – an approach used by many organisations around the world to remove barriers to improvement. One of the National Educational Learning Priorities for New Zealand is Equity and Excellence, which you will also find as one of our strategic goals for the next few years at Kavanagh. We are looking forward to next Friday when we can all gain a little help to focus on how we can continue to improve equity and excellence at our place.

As part of our expo next Friday, we have keynote speaker Jehan Casinader with us. You are very welcome to join us for this presentation as Jehan speaks about story-telling, mental health and promoting wellbeing. This is a presentation that will be valuable to anyone interested in these issues. You can find out a bit more about Jehan and the other work we will be doing that day in the article further in this newsletter.

We are currently working with ERO in their new model which aims to be an evaluation partnership instead of a snapshot accountability audit. The SLT and Board Chair have met with ERO three times now this year and it is particularly affirming to talk about the evaluation for improvement approach we are already taking at Kavanagh. Again, this approach is the ‘little bit of help’ that keeps us on track to be the best version of a school for your children. You will hear more about the ERO process as the year goes on.

‘Loving God, we believe that everyone is a gift and belongs to your family for we are made in your image and likeness. As a community of Christian believers, may we always celebrate your presence with us and appreciate both the gifts and responsibilities of belonging to this community of faith. Amen’

Let’s keep living our college values and striving to be the best versions of ourselves. Kia Kaha.

Warm wishes