Today we remember the events of 22nd Feb 2011 and the catastrophic earthquake that changed our lives forever. We remember and pray for those especially within our community who lost love ones. Today our students, alongside staff, acknowledged through prayer and remembrance our city as a whole and the on-going effects that we see in Christchurch. Kia Kaha.

It is hard to believe we are almost at the half way point of Term 1. The focus of our staff this week has been on settling our students into clear routines and a very clear focus around our academic expectations.

I include in this week’s newsletter several documents that I will speak about. Firstly attached is a letter from Br Bernard Gartland on behalf of our proprietor, the Christian Brothers, explaining an impending change of Proprietorship to the Christchurch Diocese. Andy Steel, on behalf of the BOT, has also added a letter on behalf of our Trustees. This process is still very active and has been underway for a long time as the Christian Brother’s move their vocation to those more in need. As is explained in both letters, while the Christian Brother’s may be transferring Proprietorship, our Edmund Rice Charism firmly remains as a lens to the Gospel message.

I also include our two annual goals for 2019. These goals have been identified as areas of strategic development through consultation with staff, students, and parents/caregivers, as well as our data that is gained through testing, national norms and NCEA data. While we have included a lot of information and detail, it is advantageous for our community to share and understand the goals that we are all working together to achieve. Please feel free to pass on any feedback regarding these goals. Alongside these two very specific strategic goals, I have also compiled a 30 page document on goals and aims that become the roadmap for our staff on ensuring that we are still aiming to improve all areas of school life. I report on this document at each monthly board meeting, this document is also available on our website.

Earlier in the term we celebrated our excellent Level 1 (83%) and Level 2 (91%) which were a significant improvement on 2017 and are certainly comparable to highest achieving schools in Christchurch. While we were pleased with Level 3, we believe we can improve our performance at this level, and have dedicated one of annual goals towards Year 13 achievement. We believe that boys learn best off each other, especially older boys influencing junior students, hence our focus on this particular age group.

Our second goal is purely to focus on the tasks our students get given in class are aimed at the individual. We believe students from all levels need meaningful tasks to engage them in their learning. While this sounds simple, it involves a lot of work and is very complex for staff to manage, however our staff are committed to achieving this.

I look forward to watching our staff, students and parent/caregiver community working together to achieve both of these aspirational goals.