Principal's Message

For us, as a Catholic school we primarily serve the Catholic community of Dunedin and surrounds and therefore our students have external influences growing up as a member of a faith community. However, as a college that has a diverse student body with different experiences and backgrounds, our students are also influenced by a much broader community. If we then also consider the online community that now exists, influences that appeared ‘simple’ have become so much more complex and we are actually a microcosm of the wider world in which we live.

As members of our college, students are expected to uphold our values of respect, service, justice and truth, but we cannot ignore the fact that the values they experience and are exposed to outside of 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, often do not align with our college values. At junior assembly yesterday, I showed the video clip of the NRL drama that unfolded in Las Vegas last weekend where there was sadly another exampe of adults acting badly and using a racial slur “as a bit of banter...just for fun and games” on the field. This wasn’t ‘just fun and games’ for the victim and, quite rightfully, this is now in the hands of the judiciary. Unfortunately, this is just one example of the intolerance our young people are exposed to - in the community within outside peer groups, during wider community discourse, in unconscious bias and judgment, on social media and, unfortunately, sometimes at home. With all these wider influences, it is therefore not surprising that this same intolerance creeps into school, and with it, racial slurs and unkindness. This is unacceptable. We are a Catholic community that follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. Intolerance is not new, and Jesus Christ himself experienced this on a personal and community level. The gospels are full of examples of intolerance – Jews versus Gentiles, the place of women, the unclean, the Samaritans versus the Levites and so on. If we are to find the solution to racial and other intolerances in society, surely it is through our Christian beliefs? This is the community we want to be a microcosm of – not the intolerant, unkind, judging, and biased communities our children often learn from outside of school. I intend to work with a group of our young people to develop some student led education and influence to make sure that we can stand strong in our values as a Catholic community. We also rely on our parents and whānau, as members of our college community to be celebrating diversity, and supporting our values and ethos at home when some of these issues, opinions and beliefs arise. We need to continue working together to support our young people as they develop their own views and understanding of how the world works.

Following is a prayer that was read at our assembly yesterday –

Lord, Jesus Christ, who reached acrooss the ethnic boundaries between Samaritan, Roman and Jew, who offered fresh sight to the blind and freedom to captives, help us break down the barriers in our community, enable us to see the reality of racism and bigotry, and free us to challenge and uproot it from ourselves, our society and our world. Amen.

There is a big number of events happening over the weekend – Otago Volleyball Champs, Otago Regionals Debating Competition, The Otago Secondary Schools’ Athletics, students supporting the St Dominic’s Reunion, and students and staff supporting the Commonwealth Service at the Anglican Cathedral ... and I am sure there are more that I haven’t made a note of! Thank you to those students who continue to make themselves available to represent our college impeccably at these weekend events, and we wish all those competing all the very best. I am also sure that there wil be many of our year 7 students catching up on sleep after their Year 7 Camp at the Puketeraki Marae in beautiful Karitane!

Ka kite, have a wonderful weekend.