Tena Koutou Katoa

 Welcome back to another term at the College.  Students have made a very good start to the term and as always there is a positive excited buzz to begin the term.

 In our first Assembly we handed the College chaplaincy over from Martin Flannery to Fr Vaughan Hook.  We thank Father Martin for his outstanding contribution to the College and support of our students over the last seven years and look forward to seeing him around the place in other capacities in the future.

 It was my pleasure to attend the Dominican Education Conference over the holiday period it was really refreshing to get together with educators from across New Zealand and Australia to discuss our Dominican character.  Verdon College was asked to present at the conference as there has been a lot of interest expressed in the work that the College has achieved in finding a place for Maori students within the College and the way in which the College has responded to the needs of all students. It was an honour to be able to represent the work of the students and staff as well as the Verdon community at this event.

 I was also fortunate enough as part of the Executive of the National Catholic Principals Association to present Sir Brother Pat Lynch with a gift of pounamu from the association at our recent conference.  Sir Brother Pat lynch has been the CEO of Catholic Education New Zealand for a number of years and  we can be very proud to think that Verdon College has played a part in the farewell and honouring  of this pillar of Catholic  Education as he retires from this role and moves on to the next stage of his journey.

 We have completed our Open Day which was a very positive experience. Enrolments are now being received.  We have full rolls at most levels of the College.  We have limited space at year 9 for 2015 which are filling fast and some limited space at year 12..

 We are expecting again full enrolment so would ask that you encourage all those families seeking enrolment at Verdon in year 7 for 2016 to get their enrolments in as soon as possible.

God Bless

Jarlath Kelly