Tena koutou katoa

At senior prize giving each year I am always impressed at the extent of the success that individual students at Verdon College achieve.   The level of success and the number of students receiving awards seems to grow each year.    We pride ourselves on our holistic educational and prize-giving was a great example of how students of the College are achieving in all areas of their lives.  The students acknowledged at prize-giving are a reflection of the hard work and success of all students at the College.  While we are unable to give every student an award I would like to acknowledge the work of all our senior students and the successes that they have achieved this year.   I would also like to acknowledge the support that all senior students have given to each other throughout the year towards achieving a shared success. This support is a true reflection of our values and Catholic Character.

The College has a very focused and busy feel this week with NCEA and year 9 and 10 examinations underway.  It is extremely pleasing to see the focus of students towards these examination particularly in years 9 and 10 as they undertake assessment which will assist them in their preparation and ability to be successful in NCEA in the future.  As a College community we have had a singular focus on developing a culture of academic success over the last few years and it is very pleasing to see students pushing themselves to succeed to their full potential.  Analysis of students’ progress for the year to date, towards achievement of NCEA, indicates that as a school we are on track to achieve not only extremely positive pass rates, in excess of last year’s success, but also that senior students are on track to achieve the highest level of  Excellence and Merit endorsements across all 3 levels of the senior school in recent years. 

The need of students in the classroom is changing and the College has focused on developing our systems to enable use of 21st century technologies to support our students learning.  Over the next few months we will be focusing on the development of computer pods and video conferencing facilities in the classrooms of Dominic block along with the introduction of access to tablet technology in many if not all of the classrooms of the Dominic Block.   It is exciting to see how far we have progressed in the development of the College over the last few years.  It was wonderful to be able to use the redeveloped stage in the Hall for senior prize giving along with the new projector and screen which has been purchased with the support of the PTA.  I thank the PTA for their contribution to this project and their work towards the recent truffle fundraiser. 

God Bless

Jarlath Kelly