This has been special week of celebration, graduations, farewells and final preparation for NCEA exams.

Wednesday night we celebrated our end of year prizegiving, I would like to congratulate Brad Milne for his leadership in organising a fantastic night. It is always a special night as we celebrate the success of our students and recognise the result of lots of hard work and the combined efforts of our students, teachers and parents. While there can only be a few winners, I want to congratulate all of our young men and staff on their efforts this year. All students succeed in different ways and it is always worth remembering the highs and lows that make up life, are the experiences that form our character and test our resilience.

On Wednesday we farewelled our outstanding principal Christine O’Neill. Attached is the speech I delivered, Christine has been a fantastic leader and achieved so much as Principal. I feel honoured to continue her legacy.

As was mentioned on Wednesday, I also want to congratulate the large number of staff (30+) that have completed Post Graduate qualifications in 2017, our staff have in the best possible way role modeled the qualities of life long learners that we hope to instill in our young men.

We announced our student leaders for 2018. I congratulate all of the young men that have been announced as leaders, they are a diverse, outstanding and forward thinking group of young men. I thank ALL boys who applied for leadership positions, it is a highly competitive and rigorous process which includes written applications in depth interviewing and a series of votes including staff and students, all of these elements are taken into consideration when selecting the leadership group. I wish Eddie Morgan all the best as our College Captain and have no doubt of his ability to lead his team, the Year 13 and our student community during 2018. I look forward to working closely with Eddie.

On Thursday we celebrated our final leavers mass. It is a special occasion as we come together as a community to celebrate our Special Catholic Character. Fr Anton McLean led us in mass and as always engaged our students with his relevant and connected sermon. He reminded me of a passage I read recently from Wayne Tinsey, EREA Executive Director. “Let us not measure the excellence of our school only by its buildings or by its academic results. What really matters is you, this community and your hearts: God’s grace is giving you truth and life, and you are offering this as gift to the world!” These words like Fr Anton's, are an important reminder of what defines us as a Catholic school in the spirit of Edmund Rice. I would like to thank Paul Donnelly and his team for preparing a special final mass for our Yr 13 leavers.

Earlier in the week we appointed our Director of Sport, it was a very competitive and rigorous process and it is my pleasure to announce Daniel O’Brien as our Sports leader. Daniel is a very experienced educator and Sports coach, he was educated at Christian Brothers School St Edmunds Ipswich, and with three degrees he has a deep educational pedigree. He has taught at Christian Brothers School Nudgee College in Brisbane. Daniel has more recently spent 4 years at CBHS and held a variety of pastoral roles as dean of Yr 9 and 11. As a sports leader, Daniel has coached many sports and his highlights include rugby coaching the Division 1 Christchurch Senior side, Canterbury Metro and Crusaders Academy teams. Daniel spent 2016/17 coaching the Professional Team Coca Cola in Japan in the top 14 league. Daniel outlined his vision and strategic ideas around the future direction for our sportsmen at St Thomas' during his interview. He had some very exciting initiatives. I wish Daniel all the best in his journey leading our sporting community.

It has been a very busy week but a special and rewarding time as we farewelled the 85 young men that have served our community over the last 5-7 years. It is a special blessing as an educator to witness the life journey of young men as they grow from boys into men. I wish you all the best men in your future endeavours and as was so eloquently said by Old boy and Board member Michael Bendall at the end of his speech, “St Thomas sons you shall remain.."