2nd February 2024
Dear Parents
I wish all families a warm welcome to the new school year.
We have had a very smooth and successful start to the College year and are thankful that we have had no interruptions to our learning programmes.
The young men of the College have arrived in good spirits and have immediately got into the routines of their school life. I thank our parents for having their sons well prepared for the start of the year. On Wednesday morning we welcomed all new students and staff with an impressive Powhiri including our College haka performed by the whole College for the new members of our community.
This coming Monday 5 February we will welcome our parents by meeting with them in the first of our Academic Counselling sessions for the year. Our young men will sit down with their Home Room teacher and parents to set their learning goals for the term and plan how they,
their family and the College will help to achieve their goals. We look forward to 100 % family attendance at this important meeting. All parents will have received their allocated appointment time, if you haven’t please contact your son’s Home Room teacher immediately.
The Government has indicated that they will be making some immediate changes to education as they promised before the election.
Our Year 7 & 8 students will be required to complete an hour’s work every day in Reading, Writing and Maths. This is nothing new to the programme that our young men have previously done and every boy’s timetable includes this daily requirement.
Another change is the ban on cell phones in school. I know that many parents will be pleased with this change and we will be asking your thoughts on this issue through a survey in the next few weeks.
The media have been constantly giving us information that only 46 % of school students in New Zealand are regularly attending school, in their statistics, regularly means over 80 % of the time. As a College we have a much higher goal and expect every student’s attendance at De La Salle to be 100%.
Our own College data shows us that the students who are most successful in the College have an Attendance rate of over 95 %. Parents, we ask that you ensure that your son is at school every day, on-time, dressed in his correct uniform, with all the learning equipment needed to raise his achievement.
Summer sports has commenced and teams are preparing for their first competitions next week. We encourage our young men to play a sport in summer and winter for their College before a club.
The College driveway comes to a standstill with traffic at the end of the day and this poses a concern for the safety of our young men leaving the College.
Parents please arrange to meet your son outside the College grounds if you are picking him up. There is plenty of parking in the side streets and you won’t get stuck in a traffic jam in the College driveway.
I wish you all a restful weekend.
God bless
M.Hogarty
Principal
