And a very warm welcome and greetings to all new families and whanau who have joined our special college community. I hope that your introduction to Kavanagh College has been warm and inviting so far.

It was wonderful to see all our new students on Wednesday which began for us with a welcome, mihi whakatau, for new staff and students. Today, we all celebrated together as a community during our Opening Mass, which included the commissioning of our student leaders and prefects for the year. Congratulations to those year 13 students who have received roles this year. It is a both a privilege and a responsibility to hold a leadership role and I congratulate our year 13 students who have had their leadership skills noticed and acknowledged and I wish you all the best for the important work ahead of you.

This year we have a theme ‘Doing the little things well’. You may recognise this as a quote from St Therese of Lisieux and also from Mother Teresa who said ‘do small things with great love’. I have spoken to all students about this theme and the fact that we would like to ensure that things often considered small – uniform, attendance, homework, commitment, following expectations – are done well. We all know the saying, do the little things well and the big things will take care of themselves, and I do believe that if the learning environment has those ‘small things’ sorted then the learning can blossom. The little things can also be seen in the way we treat one another, and throughout the year we will be talking about the small acknowledgements, the quiet smile, the small gesture, the helping hand, the thank you and please, and how important these seemingly insignificant gestures are to others.

Thank you for preparing your children so well for a successful start to the year. The new uniform shop has been very busy. We are well aware of the transition period required to bring in a new uniform and we will happily have both uniforms in place during this transition. However, please ensure that your child is wearing one or the other instead of a mix of the two. Thank you also, for all the positive feedback about our new look and we agree that it certainly looks very smart.

I spoke at the welcome to our new Year Seven students about them being like pounamu to us. They are all treasured here and although small at present, they are already a very important part of our college community and we will continue to see them as a treasure as they journey through our college.

‘Doing the little things well’

‘Ahakoa he iti he pounamu’ (Although small it is highly treasured)

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