Introducing some very important people in the school...

Tēnā koutou

In my previous newsletter comment, I referred to the Pastoral Care Team at Villa Maria College. Allow me to introduce all the wonderful people who, along with the subject teachers and support staff, form the core team providing support, guidance, many gentle nudges, pearls of wisdom and listening ears to your young people.

We have six Heads of House overseeing roughly 140 students each from Years 7-13: Brodie House-Simone Greenwood, Claver House-Jo Rasmussen, Ennis House-Sarah Perkins, Grace House-Justyna Granicka, McAuley House-Raijieli Wilson and Mercy House-Kate Lundy. Our Counselling Team is headed up by Karise Zaalberg, with Sue Molloy who has past primary school experience and Jinali Maddumarachchi who is a Child and Family Psychologist. All our counsellors are part-time but collectively make up the equivalent of 1.6 of a full-time position and cover all five days of the week. Anna Avery is our Learning Support Co-Ordinator and SENCO. As a group, we meet weekly to discuss all things pastoral, share ideas and possible solutions. 

Once a month, a newly formed pastoral team meets. This is our Waiora (Wellbeing) Lead Team and the point of difference between waiora and wellbeing is that waiora places a collective focus on the individual and whānau. Justine Chinnery our Careers Advisor, Belinda Morrison our STAR and Gateway Co-ordinator, Viv Wotton and Cynthia Parker, our Student Support Administrators join the Pastoral Care Team and together we investigate wider solutions, often co-ordinating and involving outside agency support. Our principal, Deborah Brosnahan joins us to gain an overview of the students requiring intensive intervention. 

At the monthly Waiora meetings, we primarily focus on our Level 1 students. These are our young people who are on a Fragility Scale-a new initiative that enables communciation from the Pastoral Care Team to go to teaching staff that respects student confidentiality. We pass on a level of concern that alerts the recipient of a need to be watchful, caring and sensitive to the student in front of them without disclosing the specifics. ‘We cannot help what we do not know.’ Level 1 students are our greatest concern through to Level 3 students of whom we are aware; they are going through some challenges and we just want to keep a watching brief.

Every day, I feel blessed to be working with such experienced and caring colleagues who really do have the best interests of your children at the heart of all they do.

Te aroha noa me te rangimarie

Megan Cassidy

Deputy Principal Pastoral Care