Principal's Message

Thanks to all staff, students, school band, and PFA members for their input to our Open Day last Sunday. There was a very good turnout. Our students spoke superbly and the overall community engagement was excellent. 

I often get enrolment interest from people new to, or who are coming to, Dunedin that were given a high recommendation about Kavanagh from someone in the community. That's great as word of mouth is often the most effective form of marketing. Please let those that may not have a Catholic connection know they should also apply as sometimes people feel they have no chance but would love their child to be part of this special learning community.

This weekend is the 75th Bishop's Shield competition hosted by St Peter's, Gore. Good luck to our team as they pit themselves against our sister Catholic schools in drama, debating, oratory and religious questions. Last year we were joint winners with St Kevin's so it would be awesome to go one better in this 75th commemorative tournament.

The observant would have noticed some new signage about the school which looks very smart and again just helps lift our presence and profile. The Board is making an ongoing commitment to display our crest and core values in and about the school. It's a fairly pricey exercise but well worth it (check out the pics below).

Last Monday I attended a special Principal's summit to discuss the future of NCEA. We were addressed by education minister Chris Hipkins who assured us that this was a genuine consultation process and no pre-determined positions had been taken by the government. The main themes to emerge were around maintaining or increasing the flexibility of NCEA, simplifying it, reducing the amount of assessment but still maintaining a rigorous and credible qualification. Not an easy task. To be sure changes are on the way and not everyone will be pleased but that is the nature of these things. Hopefully, it will have enough coherence and gravitas to make it accessible and useful to all. A lot is riding on it not least of all our young people's futures.