Dear Parents and Whānau

I hope that somewhere in amongst the messiness of this time, you are finding the special moments and you are able to make the most of them. The promise of spring seems to be upon us now and it is good to be able to make the most of daytime walks and good sunlight.

On behalf of our college community, thank you to all of you who are essential workers and are continuing to work in public settings during this time. I know that many of our senior students have been continuing to work in their part time jobs over the lockdown and this will have presented challenges for them too. Some of our staff are back at school rostered on to look after our small bubble of students with us every day. I appreciate their willingness to do this while we are still in Alert Level 3.

We are optimistically planning for a return to school at some stage next week and, should this be the case, I will let you know more after the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday afternoon.

Many of our students will be experiencing different emotions about returning. We suggest you keep talking with them positively and optimistically about this. If you have any concerns at all about your child’s wellbeing, please contact the tutor teacher in the first place. There will be opportunities to ‘catch up’ on work students feel they may have missed, but in the meantime please keep encouraging them to engage with their learning every day, and to communicate with their teachers if it isn’t working well.

Thank you to our head students who have led the creation of the student online assemblies in the last couple of weeks. I hear we can expect another one tomorrow!

We are currently adjusting school calendars to accommodate the shift in NCEA exam dates announced last week. Keep an eye on the school calendar as this happens, because there has had to be quite a bit of movement in some cases. Obviously, larger events can only be confirmed once we know we will be in Alert Level 1. Senior student assessment week will now run from Thursday 23rd September through to Wednesday 29th September. These exams are very important for preparation for external assessments as well as for the purpose of derived grades should these be needed. It is not too early for our seniors to begin preparing for these.

Enjoy what could be a final very quiet and relaxed weekend in level 3. I will leave you with a prayer worth reflecting on.

Loving Creator,

We asked for strength, and you gave us difficulties to make us strong.

We asked for wisdom, and you gave us problems to solve.

We asked for prosperity, and you gave us purpose and brains to use.

We asked for courage, and you gave us fears to overcome.

We asked for patience, and you gave us situations where we were forced to wait.

We asked for love, and you gave us troubled people to help.

We asked for justice, and you called us to be just and lead with integrity.

Lord, we have received nothing that we asked for or wanted.

And yet, we receive everything that we needed.

For this we give thanks.

- By Colleen Hanycz, PhD incoming President at Xavier University