Tēnā koutou kātoa ngā whānau o te kura

We continue to navigate challenging times in our school community. As I have already conveyed to you, I consider us fortunate to have been able to maintain face-to-face learning across the College as Omicron continues to spread in the community. I believe all other local secondary schools and colleges in the city have not been so fortunate. As expected, we are being impacted by an increasing number of students and staff who are being required to isolate. We will keep monitoring our attendance levels carefully as this predicted surge continues. Please remember that in-school learning is our primary method of delivery at present. Our teaching staff are doing their best to provide learning materials on Google Classroom for those who are isolating at home in addition to their normal teaching loads. The duality of this provision is an immense commitment and I am so grateful for their continued commitment to support all of our students’ learning at this time. Students who are well but isolating at home as a household contact are expected to maintain their learning momentum. If our students disengage during this time, they will fall behind.  While I have urged our teachers to exercise empathy and compassion for students who are required to isolate at this time, we expect students to actively engage in their learning from home if they are well. As a faith community, I ask you to pray for those members of our community who have contracted COVID-19 that they have a speedy recovery. It has been heartening to hear that the symptoms associated with this virus have been relatively mild for many.

We also need to pray for the people of Ukraine. We pray for the imminent restoration of peace, dialogue and human fraternity. Let us offer this prayer for the people of Ukraine:

Loving God,

We pray for the people of Ukraine, for all those suffering or afraid, that you will be close to them and protect them.

We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons.

We pray for world leaders, for compassion, strength and wisdom to guide their choices.

We pray for the world that in this moment of crisis, we may reach out in solidarity to our brothers and sisters in need.

May we walk in your ways so that peace and justice become a reality for the people of Ukraine and all the world.

Amen.

The Aquinas College Graduate Profile

Throughout 2021, we listened to our students, staff and community members’ feedback on our Graduate Profile and have subsequently made refinements. While the strategic and aspirational intent of the Graduate Profile remains, we’ve made our outcome statements and student progressions more succinct. 

Our Graduate Profile communicates the aspirations for our graduates and expresses the value of personal excellence in a holistic Catholic College. As is displayed in the imagery, our Touchstones are at the centre. They are the values of our College that we seek to instill across our community. Belong, Believe, Become is the mechanism to enable us to understand our Touchstones better and journey closer to Jesus. Ultimately, encouraging a conversion of heart through a sense of community, seeking to understand more deeply and exploring our faith in action. 

At Aquinas College, our students have the opportunity to Belong in a faith community, Believe with Reason and Become Disciples of Christ. This allows each student to forge their own path and realise their true potential by developing their unique gifts and talents. The Graduate Profile is reflected in our learning programmes and across broader experiences of our College, reinforcing the importance of nurturing the whole person. We accompany our students towards these aspirational goals and ensure they have the attributes required to succeed in their chosen future pathway. We are invested in their futures and growing servant leaders who positively influence others.

We are excited about our Graduate Profile and invite you to take time to look it and go deeper by reading the supporting documentation, which unpacks the intent of each aspirational outcome. We all have a role to play to support our young people on their journey to Belong in a faith community, Believe with Reason and Become Disciples of Christ. 

The season of Lent is upon us

The College celebrated Ash Wednesday with a Liturgy led by senior students in each Mentor class. Ash Wednesday signals the start of Lent. Lent is one of the five seasons of the Catholic liturgical calendar, along with Advent, Christmas, Easter, and Ordinary Time. 

Lent is a season of simple living. As the entire Church prepares for the great celebration of Christ’s Paschal Mystery in the Easter Triduum, Catholics make special efforts to pray, do penance, and do good works. During the six-week season of Lent, we are encouraged by the Church to engage in three spiritual practices – prayer, fasting, and doing good works. There is no better time to reconnect with or deepen one’s faith than Lent. We can draw closer to God during this time as we prepare for the joyous celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter.

Pope Francis based his message for Lent 2022 on a passage from St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, “Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest if we do not give up. So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all” (6:9-10). Beginning with the image of sowing and reaping, the Holy Father points out that “Lent invites us to conversion, to a change in mindset, so that life’s truth and beauty may be found not so much in possessing as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sowing and sharing goodness.”

God, he explains, is the first to sow, sowing “abundant seeds of goodness in our human family.” During the period of Lent, “we are called to respond to God’s gift” by listening to His Word so that it might “bear fruit in our lives.” In this way, we become “God’s co-workers,” which is a grace of sharing in God’s own “bountiful goodness.”

The Holy Father connected St. Paul’s words to the Galatians to the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and doing good works. “The soil is prepared by fasting, watered by prayer, and enriched by doing good works.” He invites us, once again, not to grow tired of doing good and calls us to “believe firmly that ‘if we do not give up, we shall reap our harvest in due time,’ and that, with the gift of perseverance, we shall obtain what was promised, for our salvation and the salvation of others.”

Pope Francis says that each year during Lent, “we are reminded that ‘goodness, together with love, justice, and solidarity, are not achieved once and for all; they have to be realised each day.’”

Throughout Lent, as a College, we pray the Angelus every day at 12:00pm. The Angelus reminds us of the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary with great (if somewhat startling) news! As we read in Chapter One of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:26-38), God wished Mary, truly a model of humility, to be the mother of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus loved us enough to die for us so that we might live with Him eternally. When we pray the Angelus with humility and love, we emulate Mary’s faith in His goodness.

NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship Achievement 2021

As detailed in this newsletter, our students’ results in NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship in 2021 were once again outstanding, especially when we consider the challenges that last year presented for our students! Congratulations to our students and teachers. These results do not come without hard work and perseverance and deserve to be celebrated! Your role as parents in our College community is essential in providing support to our teachers and, obviously, our students in achieving these incredible outcomes. 

Term 1 Reporting and Parent-Teacher Conferences

Term 1 progress reports will be emailed out in Week 8. From Term 2, you will receive progress reports twice each term. We will be holding our Term 1 Parent-Teacher Conferences on Tuesday, 12th April. These meetings will run from 1:00pm-7:00pm. Bookings are essential and will be made through SchoolBridge. You will receive more information about this when Term 1 Interim Reports are delivered in Week 8. This is an important opportunity to connect with your child(ren)’s teachers to develop strategies that will enable us to work together to ensure your child(ren) reach their full potential this year. As it’s highly likely there will still be public health measures in place, we are planning to host these meetings electronically. 

Please note that classes will cease at 12:00pm on this day. Aquinas buses will run at the earlier time of 12:15pm. Bus 10 (Te Puke) and Bus 6 (Te Puna/Omokoroa/Katikati/Waihi) are shared with Bethlehem College and, as such, will need to run as per the normal time.  Students who travel on Bus 1 will need to catch the bus on Pyes Pa Road, and there will be a cost of $1.60 per person. Parents can make alternative arrangements for students if they wish.  If your child(ren) require supervision from 12:00pm – 3:15pm on this day, please indicate this by email to Moira Ramsbottom – mramsbottom@aquinas.school.nz. Requests MUST be made by Friday 8th April to enable appropriate supervision arrangements to be made.

Thank you for your continued, generous support of our College as we continue to move through these fluid times. I encourage you to read all about what has been a busy and exciting start to the year in this newsletter. I extend best wishes to all our students, staff and the wider College community for a positive and prosperous 2022.

Matt Dalton

PRINCIPAL