Kia Ora

In this, the second week of the term, we had Open Day. The weather proved to be favourable as we opened up the College to over 600 visitors. This is a day that our senior students shine, many of them volunteering to host tours of the College and welcome new families. They always prove to be marvelous ambassadors for the College, and we have received many messages of congratulations for the role the seniors played in introducing many people new to the College.

Winter sport is well underway, and once again, it is pleasing to see the large number of boys who take advantage of the many opportunities they have, in our extensive winter sporting programme.

The relaxation of restrictions to the Orange level means we can congregate as a full College inside safely, for such events as assemblies. Towards the end of the month, is our first College mass of the year, on May 27. On this day we celebrate St Bede’s Feast day, which opens with mass at 9am, and all parents are invited. This is a special day particularly for the Year 9s, who in house groups participate in the haka competition, which is staged in front of the whole school. Practices at lunch and break are the norm for the next two weeks as competition mounts!!!!

All secondary school teachers in the country have been involved in a series of Accord days to plan the imminent changes in NCEA. Assessment of senior programmes, is secondary to the pathways we develop, so that students acquire the skills necessary along the pathway to the next step post College.

We are also challenging ourselves and our thinking in relation to the following two questions:

Is the picture we are painting, and the courses we offer, anything boys aspire to do and what in reality post school employment/training will look like

What are students interested in learning? The creation of developing a curriculum that is responsive to our students passions, pathways and abilities in the senior school is also being discussed.

Bullying-Free New Zealand Week will be from 16-20 May in conjunction with Pink Shirt Day, on Friday. The week follows the theme He kōtuinga mahi iti, he hua pai-ā rau: Small ripples create big waves.

Throughout the week the Prefects, Student Wellbeing Committee and staff will be highlighting through a range of forums key messaging alongside our BLE values of Everyone Matters and Be Courageous. Senior students are currently making a video which we will use to launch the week on Monday.

On Pink Shirt Day students will be able to wear mufti bringing a gold coin which will be donated to support adolescent mental health initiatives cross the country. We will also be launching ‘Fried Chicken Friday’ as event that we propose to use once a month to keep youth mental health front and centre for our students with proceeds raised going to the Centre of Wellbeing to support ongoing work in this area.

Nga mihi

J. G. Boyle