3St Bernard’s College 2012

Principal’s Report

Kite ingoa o te Matua, o te Tamaiti, o te Wairua Tapu. Amene

Nau mai, haere mai, mihi mai. O te whanau o te kura tuarua o Hato Perenara, tena koutou.

Nau mai, mihi mai distin-guished guests, trustees, students, staff, parents and friends - greetings and wel-come to you all.

A special talofa lava to Old Boy Poni Smith, who was our Head Boy in 2001. Malo ele lei, Malo ni, Ni sa bula, Kia orana, Fakaloha lahi atu, Kumusta, Namaste, Benvenuti, Merhba, Tena koutou katoa.

Please accept my apologies for being absent from the end of year Academic Awards cer-

emony. This was a great celebra-tion of student academic achieve-ment to acknowledge the students who invested that extra time and effort to gain awards. I have had to be away from school, especially at the end of term, due to health issues. I wish to thank everyone for your prayers and concern. With God’s help and your support I will soon be fully recovered.

Nothing happens in isolation. We all played a part in assisting these students gain the academic success they deserve. But they had to do the hard yards. Well done! For those students who will not receive an award today - it does not mean that you have not worked. You now realise that the extra attention to detail and the extra checking and revising are what brings you up onto this stage to receive a certificate, a cup or trophy. It may not sound that difficult, but that extra little bit is what makes the difference.

This year’s Special Character theme, taken from the Marist Pillars, was “Love of Work”. I am sure that the recipients of today’s awards embody

the spirit of this theme. Academic success requires a love of work; a commitment to high standards; a willingness to go the extra mile; a desire to listen, learn and take heed of the advice of teachers and parents. While we could not award everyone, it would be good if all here would take on board the ‘no pain, no gain’ maxim. And the sooner we all get used to this idea, the better equipped we would be to reach the high academic targets that we will be setting for 2013.

You would by now have got used to me not mentioning the success stories of our academic events, the sporting teams and cultural groups in my Academic Awards speeches. I do not want to disregard them but I do this because we do not have the time to mention everything; I am sure that you would have read about our successes in our 8 newsletters anyway. If you have not, the newsletters are still available on our website as well.

How does one perceive success? Whether you would be happy or unhappy with the results depends on how you interpret your efforts and their results. Many of our academic students have gained distinctions in ICAS competitions and many teams have made it into the finals of their sport codes. The question here is “are we happy to settle for second best?” I leave that question with you.

I know where I would have wanted our boys to finish and one would need to ask: “what else did these boys need to do to get a high distinction or win

“Everything is possible!” My wero is to challenge your attitudes & aspirations to success

“Success demands

hard yards - we should

never settle for second”

4 St Bernard’s College 2012

Principal’s Report

their championship?” If we are good enough to reach a final, then surely we are good enough to take the trophy and the accolades that go with it. Bernard’s men “Look to the Stars” and if we truly aim high

then we should not settle for being second.

On a mufti day, one of our students arrived in school with a T-shirt slogan which proclaimed: “Nothing is Impossible”. This challenges our attitude, demanding our sense of commitment and perseverance to believe and be confident in our ability to rise to the occasion. However, in my view, a more challenging slogan would have been: “Everything is possible”. This raises the bar to another level, where the only aspiration is to succeed. We will achieve whatever we decide to attempt, and that is my wero to the College community for 2013.

As usual, everything is easier said than done, especially if there are distractors, detrac-tors and pessimists who have a contrary or non-committal view. Some would argue that what we are trying to achieve is impossible, too much to ask for, unrealistic. However, if I am setting the pace, if I am raising the bar, if I am pointing the direction, then I have responsibilities that I have to fulfil to lay out the ground for everyone to contribute their share to make it all happen in 2013.

There are many factors that will influence the academic outcomes of our boys at all levels, but several keep staring us in the face and we have to do something to address them. It is my responsibility to impact student achievement and therefore, I must exercise some positive influence on the work of teachers, as well as on the status of key characteristics of the school culture that have a direct influence on the boys’ learn-ing. My issue is that I can influence the boys’ academic learning mainly, and almost only, through the teachers. I know that the most im-mediate influences on pupil learning are the teaching and learning practices of teachers. These practices, in turn are influenced by the values, knowledge, skills, experience and attitudes that teachers bring to the table. Similarly, other factors influence learning including student engagement, the set-up of classrooms, school ethos and culture, the parents and yes… the funding from the Ministry of Education.

I am committed to take into account the things that go on in the classroom so that our teachers can actually do the best job, given that if they do the best job it is our students who gain the most. There is a limit to how much work teachers can do, especially outside the classroom before this affects their stress levels, morale and commitment, which then impacts on their lesson preparation and delivery of lessons. The class size and the way we assign students to classrooms (e.g. mixed ablity or streamed) have to be taken into account. Although teachers say it is easier to teach streamed

classes, the fact is that most students learn better in a mixed ability grouping where teachers use differentiated teaching techniques. These are changes under consid-eration for next year.

If there is something that we need to work solidly on in 2013, it is the school culture and alongside this, a sense of professional community. We have in this college a great body of teachers who do marvellous things for our boys. This good practice needs to be first made explicit and then shared around more readily. We need to create the time for the sharing to take place. We seem to be able to suspend our teaching to send students on a 1001 school trips, which could be seen by those organising them as the best thing for the boys. However, we need to prioritise the number of extra or co-curricular activities that boys take part in and make sure that the boys are actually in classrooms learning. If we are going to prioritise then surely the top priority is to provide teachers time to share their classroom teaching successes.

If we are going to have better teaching and learning, then we also have to focus on student behaviour in the classroom. We have started to talk about this at school and a group of teachers will be working with Senior Leadership to work out a programme on how to engage all teachers from the start of next year with this initiative. Do not think that our classrooms are out of control – far from it. However, it is a fact that better teaching and learning happens when the teacher is in charge; there is a positive and supportive disciplinary

“Love of Work

means making

high expectations a reality”

5St Bernard’s College 2012

Principal’s Report

climate and teachers collaborate and support each other when facing difficult students or, mostly in our case, boys who are not engaged or are passive learners.

Our expectations for school culture have to improve: the continual focus on higher expectations for student achievement must be overt and evident across every subject, every student, every teacher, every class – this is a not discussion point but a necessity.

As you can see the pressure is coming on next year and we will be seeking the commitment of parents as well. Parents influence the learning of their sons and this will require from them a strong positive relationship with the teach-ers, supported by effective home-school partnerships. It is good to see so many parents attending the parent-teacher student progress interviews. We have several home-school partnerships going, but we want to see more parents attending. This builds a sense of community. When your son sees you engaging with his school and teachers, the affective bonds between students and teachers are strengthened and this engages and motivates your son to learn. When the parents and the teachers work together the student knows that they are giving him every opportunity to succeed as part of a unified community with one sense of purpose – the highest academic achievement.

In conclusion, you realise that the road ahead is going to make demands on everyone: principal, teach-ers, students and parents. There are many factors

that influence teaching and learning but “Everything is possible!” and our commit-ment to contribute our very best will make high expecta-tions and high achievement a reality.

I wish to thank all those who made 2012 such a successful year, making us the first choice for the Catholic education of boys in the Hutt. Our roll is full for next year with a waiting list of over 60 preference and non-preference students. The Minister of Education is considering the request for our roll increase to 660 given the high demand for student places. There is a renewed confidence in our ability to provide the best education and with our continued efforts we will continue to improve on that. To the many groups that support us financially or through their partnerships I encourage you to broaden your people base and your ability to contribute more to the education of your sons. Our school liturgies could not happen without the priest celebrants, who sustain our spiritual growth. I thank them for their availability. The Board of Trustees is made up of a group of volunteer parents who provide govern-ance and guidance, always wanting better outcomes for our boys. I am humbled by the support I receive. With the board elections coming up next year, I encourage parents to step up and be prepared to serve.

The Senior Leadership Team has worked solidly together, similarly looking for different ways of improving student outcomes. With me being indisposed, it is this team that had to step up and share many of the tasks that would have been mine to complete. It is they who kept the College going, with the full support of the teaching and non-teaching staff. It is a distinct feature of our College that when someone is down, others step up and many staff rose to the occasion to help out and for all this I am most grateful. It is “The Way of Mary” - our 2013 Special Character Marist theme – do not wait to be asked to help; get in there and do it discretely and humbly.

We appreciate all the successes from the past year and take forward what we have learnt and improve on them. The future beckons and the exciting part is that we have the power to shape

it the way we want. We are determined together for everyone to achieve more, making 2013 the year where everything becomes possible and unrealistic expectations actually turn out to be achievable.

LET US MAKE IT HAPPEN TOGETHER!

E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi.

Kia noho te Ariki kia koutou St Bernard, pray for us. St Marcellin Champagnat, pray for us.

Mary, Star of the Sea, pray for us.

A blessed Christmas and prosperous New Year to all.

Peter Fava Principal

“We need to raise the bar and improve the school’s culture of success”