A warm welcome and key things to be aware of.

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Ngā mihi mahana ki te tau hou 2024! Welcome to you all to our first pānui or newsletter for the year. It is great to be underway for the start of an exciting new year. 

Our Mihi Whakatau began our year with all our new ākonga and their whānau welcomed into our community. 

Yesterday, our kapa haka rōpū, with some staff, attended St Andrew’s College for their Mihi Whakatau where we officially handed over Matua Wiremu Pickering to their care. We will miss him, but wish him well in his new role.

We have some new staff for this year. We are delighted to welcome Rosa Elliott who will be our new Music teacher, Rosa will join us from 12 February.

In the English faculty we welcome Haley Vuleta to the staff, Haley joins us from Craighead Diocesan School in Timaru, and is covering Rebecca Narbey’s maternity leave.

The Mathematics faculty welcomes Kevin Mulcahy. Kevin is an experienced teacher of Mathematics who has taught most recently at John Paul II in Greymouth, but has decided it is time to return to Christchurch.

We also welcome back Whaea Anna James. Anna had a daughter attend Villa Maria from Year 7 – 13, then joined our staff for two years in a fixed term capacity, so we are delighted to welcome her permanently to our community.

We are excited to be welcoming more new international students for this year and it is exciting to be able to share our College values - our special character and to assist these students with their English and education abroad. Thank you to those of you who have opened your homes to provide a welcome to international homestay students.

You will be aware of legislation pending to bring a cellphone ban for schools. We have worked with a ban on their use around the College for several years, so we expect that we can continue business as usual. We have always allowed our students 5 minutes at the beginning of lunch for checking communications regarding transport arrangements from you. We would ask you to please refrain from interacting with your daughters through their phones during school time. This includes breaks and lunchtime. If your daughter tries to contact you, you will support her learning and her growing independence by not responding. If you do need to contact your daughter, the best way is through the office. If there is a real issue, be assured we will contact you.

We also ask you to support us in ensuring your daughter is fully prepared for the school day, with devices charged and correct school uniform. Perhaps a prompt to remove any jewellery and/or makeup before they leave the house will reduce issues for them at school. We like our interactions to be as positive as possible and focused on their learning and wellbeing.

Ngā mihi mahana,

Deborah Brosnahan

PRINCIPAL