Kia ora 

As I write this, I am currently sitting in Wellington attending the New Zealand Catholic Schools Conference. This has been a great chance to connect with others from throughout Aotearoa around our mission as Catholic Educators in a modern world. Currently the issues at the forefront of the nation are shared, and it has been encouraging to listen to others speak of the ways we can focus on improving the outcomes for our rangitahi by weaving our faith into our curriculum to connect and provide hope. 

One of the keynote speakers talked around purpose which spoke to my heart. During his speech he quoted David Brooks in his book The Road to Character. In it he said; 

 “You have to give to receive. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself. You have to conquer your desire to get what you crave. Success leads to the greatest failure, which is pride. Failure leads to the greatest success, which is humility and learning. In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself."

This idea of our purpose is often one we see in our young men, feeling the need to live up to expectations, to be the best all the time, and avoid failure at all cost for the fear of humiliation. Our world is different, I often look and wonder how I would have coped in this day and age as a young man. 

The superficial world fuelled by social media has created a disconnect between what is real or not, causing us to focus on what we have done, rather than living in the moment and learning to live through tougher times. 

As schools and families, we have responsibility to help our young men navigate the teenage years to connect them to purpose and support them when times are tough while enjoying life. We cannot always succeed, and success can come in many shapes and sizes, including in failures we endure. 

Whether in the class, on the sports field, or in our personal life, we need to be able to work through the tough times and connect to others through strong relationships which is why we see ‘Brotherhood’ as being such an important value at kura. 

Coming up we have our Special Character Week. This is a great example of how we can step out of our comfort zone, give our time to support others and enjoy the opportunity to come together and celebrate who we are. From Monday-Wednesday we have a number of activities planned. A reminder that these are school days and attendance at these is compulsory. 

I would also look to congratulate or sports teams and all our coaches for the mahi they have put in. Our 1st V had a wonderful win at home vs a tough opponent on Tuesday, while our 1st XI bounced back from their first loss to win convincingly vs Papanui 6-0. On Saturday our 1st XV retained the McKendry Cup for the 3rd successive year vs St Bedes with great crowd in attendance. Our 2nd XV, played in The UC Championship and also had a good win vs St Bedes 2nds and then backed it up on Thursday to beat Mid-Canterbury Combined 1st XV in Methven.