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Christine O'Neill
 
Photo by Elmarie Els

A warm welcome to 2017

Christine O'Neill —

Nau mai haere mai, talofa lava, malo e le lei 

 Dear parents and caregivers 

Happy New Year and welcome back to the 2017 school year which should be an exciting one! We hope you have had a chance to relax, unwind and enjoy the summer weather and family time. We look forward to seeing all our boys back ready to learn and enjoy school. No doubt the really hot weather and blustery north westerlies will start now we are all back at work and we will long for the beaches!

A special welcome to all our new students and parents who are beginning their relationship with St Thomas' and becoming part of the school family. We are delighted you have chosen this place for your son and look forward to meeting you at the start of year events.

This year we welcome the following staff

  • Ms Claire Burrough who returns from maternity leave to her permanent part time counselling role. Congratulations to Claire who has completed her Masters degree while away having a baby.
  • Mr Daniel Seelen who returns to us after five years away, as a full time permanent visual arts teacher.
  • Mr Peleti Peleti who joins us as a full time permanent Science teacher, with a chemistry specialty.
  • Mr Johnny Le'o who joins us as physical conditioning tutor, coach and Pasifika mentor.
  • Mrs Chris Cranefield, Mrs Jane Ballinger and Mr Sam Corry who will all be working part time hours as Learning Support tutors.

We look forward to these staff members joining our team.

The year will be promising and challenging. The site fencing is up for the new MLE Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) build, which is ready to begin construction, and the grounds around the new gym are looking great (thanks to our property staff who have been watering and preparing during January). 

The STEM learning block is due for completion in June which will be exciting. We open the new Waterford High Performance Sports Centre this week and it is a wonderful asset for your sons and for our community to enjoy. We acknowledge the outstanding work our Development Manager, Mr Mark Vincent has done in bringing this project to fruition and the innovative procurement model and relationship we have developed with IKON architects and Apollo construction. 

On the learning front, the year is going to be a very exciting one. Thirty three of our staff have signed up to complete the Mindlab Unitech Postgraduate Diploma in Digital and Collaborative Learning. Added to the five staff who have already completed this, this will mean 98% of our staff are post graduate qualified in this area and will be taking our school on a wave of curriculum transformation. At 32 weeks of duration, 4 hours lecture time per week and assessment completion at post graduate level, this is a very significant commitment by our staff of their own time. Few schools in New Zealand would be as well placed across the entire staff to transform education for the future. I am very grateful to our teachers for their effort and time. 

The question around the purpose of education has never been more important than currently as we watch the rise of a new world order after the USA elections and the Brexit decision in the UK. Never has it been more important than for the primary purpose of our education as a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition to be focused around educating our boys to be spiritual, ethical, hopeful, compassionate, conscientised and engaged. Education which focuses on content knowledge only is defunct if our planet is degraded, democratic institutions eroded and humanity torn by conflict, poverty, racism, hate, misogyny, discrimination and religious bigotry. 

Martin Luther King Jr said:

'The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.' 

 In a simpler form our school mission statement:

"An educated mind and an educated heart." 

 Warm regards

Christine O'Neill