Tena Koutou katoa

We have had a very productive and successful couple of weeks  at the College with students continuing to have a very positive focus in their work. This positive focus has been recognised in our fortnightly reports this week with almost 50% more students achieving recognition for their work in class than this time last year.  This is a very positive indicator for the excellent academic culture within the College and I congratulate all students on an extremely good start to the year with respect to their academic focus.  The success of our students from an academic perspective has also reflected  in the latest release of statistics from NZQA on schools' performance throughout New Zealand. These statistics show that at Level 1 our students performed 18 % better than the national average, 9.7% better than the national average at Level 2 and 11.8% better than the national average at Level 3.  These are extremely positive results and indicate just how good our students' achievement is from a national perspective. As a College community we can also be very proud that this achievement represents the achievement of all of our students at Verdon College and not just those students allowed to attempt NCEA at these levels,  as is the case in some schools.

It is very encouraging to see the variety of activities that our students are engaging in outside of the classroom.  Our students have been to Auckland for a Marist leadership course another group of students have attended a Caritas Leadership Day in Dunedin.  Our students have had some notable success in Cricket year 7/8, adventure racing and in pipe band competitions. I congratulate all of those students, not only on their success but in the way they have challenged themselves to develop holistically, and in the way they have contributed to others and the College through their efforts.

I would ask that you continue to keep in your prayers those of our community that are dealing with the significant illness of family members. We continue to ask for God's grace upon them at this time.

God Bless

Jarlath Kelly