Kia ora koutou katoa

It has been a very exciting couple of weeks at the College with end of year celebrations along with our New Entrants Day.  We had a wonderful celebration of the success of our seniors it is wonderful to see the spirit and comradery that the years 13’s have developed with each other during their time at the College. Year on year it is very special to see the connections that our leavers have with each other.

 It has also been wonderful to welcome our new year 7 students for their New Entrants Day. There was a great feel to the day and it was wonderful to see all those students from different contributing schools come together as Verdon students, many finding new friends and sharing their excitement about coming to Verdon College next year.

 Our senior examinations are well underway and it has been great to see the focus of the senior students towards achieving success.  This year we have focused on students striving to achieve subject endorsements in examinations and it is clear that many students are focused on achieving this goal. Next week year 9 and 10 are undertaking examinations these are an important part of the schools programmes for preparing students for NCEA and assisting them to develop the skills that they will require to undertake examination in the senior school.  

 Our year 8 students are enjoying camps at Deep Cove and I have received some enthusiastic reports about adventures at these camps  both in relation to students and the parent helpers. I look forward to sharing the experience of the year 10 camp that is currently at Borland Lodge upon their return.

 Our College roll is looking extremely healthy and likely to be very close to our maximum roll of 700 for 2016.  We are actively managing our roll at a number of levels, however, due to the level of inquiry, we have had to create a waiting list for preference students at three levels at the College for 2016  - Year 8, Year 10, and Year 11.  

 Our priorities for enrolment at these year levels is now limited to family members of students at Verdon College or family members at contributing Catholic Primaries. We still have limited space for enrolment at other year levels of the College.  It is important that if you know of family members or friends wishing to attend Verdon College in 2016 that they contact the school to ensure that we can plan for their enrolment for next year. 

 Finally, we ask that you keep in your prayers all those within our community that are struggling with serious illness at this time.  We ask for God's blessing on them and their families.

God Bless 

Jarlath Kelly