Talofa lava tagata uma.

As we are nearing the end of Samoan language week, it is appropriate to extend my greetings to you in Samoan. We have made a busy and successful start to Term 2. My focus for this newsletter is to bring a number key matters in to focus for our College community.

Collaboration between teachers and families is fundamental to achieving the best possible learning outcomes for all our students. We appreciate your support in encouraging students to wear their uniform with pride, follow school policies and model behaviour in line with our Touchstones. A perfect example of this was Service Day which saw groups representing the College out in our community, sharing their love and care with others through faith and action. When our students are present in the lives of others like this, we truly celebrate our Special Character.

Pentecost Sunday (June 9^th): “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit!”

Sunday June 9^th is Pentecost. Essentially the celebration of the birthday of the Catholic Church.

The gift of Pentecost – the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual gifts and blessings of God – are made possible through the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The word Pentecost is Greek and it means “50th day.” Fifty days after Easter Sunday, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and their followers, and the beginning of their earthly ministry.

After his death and resurrection Jesus promised to give his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. He said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit! (John 20:22) Jesus knew that his disciples would need the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission entrusted to them.

After the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples did not stay in the room basking in God’s glory but burst out to tell the world. This was the beginning of the Church as we know it.

Pope Francis’s offers this relative to mission: The older theologians used to say that the soul is a kind of sailboat, the Holy Spirit is the wind which fills its sails and drives it forward, and the gusts of wind are the gifts of the Spirit. Lacking his impulse and his grace, we do not go forward. The Holy Spirit draws us into the mystery of the living God; he impels us to open the doors and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy of faith, the encounter with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission. Pope Francis challenges us to ask ourselves: do we tend to stay closed in on ourselves, on our group, or do we let the Holy Spirit open us to mission? As members of this faith community we are called to this mission.

Catholic Schools’ Day

Catholic Schools’ Day is fast approaching, which gives us the opportunity to celebrate and be proud of who we are to our communities. We are celebrating Catholic Schools’ Day on June 12^th with St. Mary’s School and St. Thomas More School. This year’s theme is “Extending Christ’s Call to love, to be, to do”. We are very much looking forward to hosting our two Catholic primary schools so we can celebrate as a faith community alongside our Parish Priests and Bishop Steve. A Mihi Whakatau will be held in the College gymnasium at 9:40am followed by the Mass of the Spirit where we will also celebrate our 17 students who through our Sacramental Programme will receive the blessed sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion. Parents and whānau are warmly invited to attend.

Parish School Mass

Thanks to those families who supported our Parish School Mass at St Thomas More this past weekend. It is a wonderful opportunity to come together and celebrate the Mass, which is at the centre of our faith. It is here where we pray as a community and experience Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist.
We are expecting a large turnout to the Mass on 23^rd June at St Mary Immaculate Church from our families who live on this side of town. These Masses are an opportunity for us all to be authentic to the core of what we are about as a College. It continues to be my expectation that all of our students (in full school uniform), with their families, attend one of these Masses. This is a commitment you all made through enrolment and is an important part of supporting the Special Character of the College.

Fiddler on the Roof

I offer my unconditional thanks and praise to the staff, students, whānau and sponsors who contributed and supported our wonderful College production – Fiddler on the Roof. The commitment required to deliver a show on this scale is significant and takes a toll on all involved. I thank everyone for this commitment which provided our students with a wonderful platform to shine and receive consistently glowing reviews in the process. Read more about Fiddler in the newsletter.

NCEA Change Package

The Government has recently announced the NCEA change package. The significant decisions announced that will impact NCEA going forward are:

• Fees will no longer be charged for students to enter NCEA or NZQA Scholarship. (More below).
• At all three levels of NCEA students only require 60 credits and students can no longer carry credits over from lower levels. 
• It is intended for each subject to offer 50% Internal and 50% External credits and will not be able to offer more than 20 credits with the focus of Achievement Standards being on a broader range of knowledge rather than specific topics.
• Level One will remain optional to schools.
• Students will not be allowed to resubmit internal assessments unless they failed.
• There will be new externally marked 20 credit Literacy and Numeracy Achievement Standards.  Students can attempt this when they are ‘ready’, as young as Year 7. These 20 credits do not contribute to the 60 credits mentioned above.
• A stronger focus on Te Reo Māori with assessments being written and assessed in Te Reo for those it would benefit.  
• More equity across credits and subjects. Currently, the range is from 2-8 credits per Achievement Standard but under the changes they will range from 4-6 credits only.
• The design of assessments will change to support Special Assessment Conditions students.

I had the opportunity to represent Aquinas College at the Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand Conference this week. Opinion about these proposed changes amongst Principals are varying and this largely depends on the micro view leaders have about the implications for their learners in their schools or our own individual values we hold about education. I believe we have a responsibility as leaders of this sector to take a wider view of whether these changes will work toward addressing the equity issue in our country. I worry from what has been announced so far that we are at risk of losing flexibility in our assessment framework and that these changes will not support our aspirations to deliver more equitable outcomes for all learners. The Ministry of Education has advised they plan a series of engagements over the next few months throughout the regions. I will be engaging in this space to seek clarification in the areas that are left somewhat vague currently.

NZQA Fees Refund

The Minister of Education has announced that families of secondary students will no longer have to pay fees to enter NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship. While unanticipated, we welcome this announcement as this change removes financial barriers and ensure all the credits received towards NCEA will be visible in a student’s Record of Achievement. For all payments already made to the College this year towards NZQA fees, we will be transferring this back into credit on your child(ren)’s account. This credit will go towards any outstanding fees or be applied as a credit if there is nothing outstanding. If you however prefer a refund of this amount, a request can be made to Mrs Walton in the office – (mwalton@aquinas.school.nz).

Teacher Industrial Action

Following on from my email earlier this week, I wanted to offer some perspective on the ongoing PPTA negotiations with the Government. As Principal, I am not covered by the Secondary Teacher’s Collective Agreement, so can comment objectively on this situation. I have to say from the outset that I support what the teachers’ union (PPTA) is trying to achieve through their negotiations with the Government. To have experienced what was the largest scale teaching industrial action in New Zealand’s history on Wednesday demonstrates that our country’s educators are united and resolute in their commitment to achieving improved pay, time and support for learning needs. One of the major issues facing our profession is the significantly declining numbers of young people entering the profession (from 1200 to 700 a year). I listened to the Minister of Education speak at conference this week and he detailed that currently 20% of those entering teacher training decide to leave the profession before even entering a classroom. Couple this with the fact that the PPTA has reported “nearly half of all new teachers leave the profession within five years”, we have a recipe for disaster.

Teaching has become an increasingly complex and time consuming profession. I can assure you that teaching is not the 9am-3pm profession which benefits from 12 weeks holiday per year as it has sometimes been positioned as. Our teachers today are tasked with preparing and delivering lessons that are differentiated to meet the needs of diverse learners within authentic and responsive contexts for learning. They are tasked with remaining current in terms of educational research to ensure they provide the best possible outcomes for all of their learners. Teachers today also face increasingly complex social, behavioural and learning needs from the young people in our country.

We have wonderful teachers here at Aquinas College who work extremely hard within the classroom and for many, contribute a significant amount of goodwill outside the classroom to deliver the best opportunities to our students.  They are hard-working professionals, conscientious and focused on growing your children into good young men and women committed to the service of others, and ensuring they are equipped with the competencies to contribute and achieve in society along with the academic qualifications to access the workforce, a career, or tertiary education. They need our support at this time.

Community Consultation

In the coming weeks we will be seeking student and whanau feedback in a range of areas. We will be sending links to surveys via email. While I appreciate these surveys can take time to complete, it is important for you to have the opportunity to be consulted in these areas to enable us to make informed, measured decisions which serve our community best.

Ia soifua ma ia manuia. tōfā soifūa

Fa’a-soifua ia

Matt Dalton

Principal