Tena Koutou Katoa

 A warm welcome back to all students and families for the 2016 year.  We have had an outstanding start to the year and all students have settled well into their classes. We started the year at our maximum roll welcoming 96 year 7 students and another 25 students at other levels of the College.

 Our College mass was a great occasion.  We managed to squeeze into St Theresa's with standing room only left.  Our Catholic faith is central to what we do at the College and I was very pleased see the biggest ever Verdon College mass and the positive contribution of the students to the celebration.  Once again our students had outstanding success in NCEA last year.  92% achievement of NCEA Level 1, 94% achievement of NCEA Level 2 and 70% achievement of NCEA level 3.  These results were very positive and with more students than ever achieving Excellence and Merit endorsement at all three levels of NCEA.

 The house picnics held after the mass were a huge success with all students enjoying a fun day out.  Thank you to the house leaders and the staff for their contribution in making this a great day.

 This very positive start to 2016 has set us up for all the wonderful successes that 2016 will bring.

 We pray for members of our community dealing with illness and loss of loved ones at this time.

God Bless

Jarlath Kelly