Nau mai, haere mai, talofa lava, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, kia orana, warm greetings

As we near the end of the term, it is with pride that I reflect on how our students and staff have collectively progressed throughout Term 1. We explicitly focus on the rich character development of our students in relationship with our whanau and caregivers. This is often a challenge as we navigate curriculum, assessment and co-curricular commitments. It is my experience that through a connected curriculum and a rigorous assessment system that our students provided with experiences to progressively develop their character.

The key ingredient in this mixture of teenage development is relationships. We are very fortunate in recent years to have been provided a great insight into the brain development of our teenagers. We know that we need to help our students, via respectful and trusting relationships, to spend as much time as possible accessing their pre-frontal cortex, this is often not an easy place to take the teenage brain to. Our experience has taught us the more connected and the greater sense of belonging our young people have, the more time they are able to keep their brain in the right place.

We have recently been inundated with media and press releases describing the state of behaviour of our young people in New Zealand. It is worth noting that schools always have and always will be a microcosm of society. What our young people see, hear and feel will directly relate to how they turn up to school each day. The solution for me isn’t a school issue - it is a society wide issue. When we start working together, we will see fantastic results and improvements in our young people. I also believe we need to use what we know about the brain development of teenagers to make informed decisions about the best practice.

In our environment at St Thomas of Canterbury College, we explicitly focus on our mission of educated hearts and educated minds, always hearts first. It is our experience through connection, belonging and relationship that our students develop the character traits required to be successful. Does this mean we don’t have students who cross boundaries, who struggle in relationships with peers, who demonstrate unsocial behaviours - of course not! We are, after all, in the business of teenagers and developing brains. I am proud however of what walks out of our gate as Year 13 leavers. All of the restorative conferences, conversations, connections, challenges, disappointments that our young men experience in their educational journey can be overcome and resilience built through the love and care of their parents, teachers and mentors.

As a teacher, parent and principal I have found myself on both sides of the desk. It is my experience that we need to change our thinking and narrative of poor behaviours, mistakes, and challenging experiences to real opportunities that our young people can learn from. When these experiences are lived in a caring, supportive, environment with forgiveness and reconciliation at the centre of the process, we can see amazing fundamental change. It isn’t immediate and will take time, energy and, at times, heartache - but our young people are worth it. They are, after all, the future of this world.