Rathkeale College - News Items
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. To our young men, staff and Board of Trustees represented here today by Mr Brett Dymond welcome to the Opening Assembly of the 2012 school year.
We have received apologies from Mr Andy Pottinger, board chairman, Mr Peter Christie, CEO of the Trinity Schools and from a number of families whose sons are involved in various sporting competitions around the country.
I extend a particularly warm welcome to the boys and their families who are joining us for the first time. I hope that you are excited, maybe a little anxious, but confident enough to feel that you will be able to make a great start to your secondary schooling. I hope your association with Rathkeale College will meet or exceed your expectations.
I trust you have all enjoyed the holiday season and been able to spend happy and enjoyable times with family and friends. Sadly though, for some families this has not been the case. As a school community we have not had the opportunity reflect on the deaths of those who died in the Carterton ballooning tragedy. I expect some here today will be connected with their families. We are also mindful of the Chanel College staff, who, also through an accident, have also lost a valued colleague and friend.
Can I please ask you to stand for a few moments in silence in respect for those who have died after which Mr Clark will come forward to lead us in prayer. Please stand.
Staff We are pleased to have had the opportunity to attract three new teachers to the school and confirm the placement of three others who have been in fixed term positions. These appointments have lowered the average of our teaching staff by a considerable margin which I am sure is something that that the boys look forward to even if it highlights to some of the more “experienced” among us that the years are moving by.
I am sure you will agree that Mr Robert Thomas is convincing evidence that we are seeking young blood as it were.Fresh out of Victoria University, after earlier spending a year working in industrial chemistry laboratories in Western Australia and Queensland, Robert joins the science department.However, there is more to him than perhaps might meet the eye.He is bi-lingual, having attended both high school and the University of Heidelberg in Germany.He has also travelled and spent time in several other places around the world.I am sure he will have some interesting stories to tell.
Less than 24 hours ago Mr Matt Hudson was still performing on stage in Christchurch in Roger Hall’s latest play, A Shortcut To Happiness.In a commentary on the play about the lives, loves and misadventures of the members of a folk-dancing class, one of the reviews that I read in researching Matt, describes a truly brilliant piece of production inventiveness, namely the appearance of a rather gormless community hall cleaner (Matt Hudson) whose brooms, buckets, cloths, mops and vacuum cleaner become props and partners in brief and endlessly inventive folk dances, each of which grows quickly from ungainly parody to graceful and balletic animation.The Board of Trustees may well be looking forward to Matt’s involvement in future school productions as it seems he can produce very dramatic effect on the smell of an oily rag. Needless to say, he will be joining Mrs Simpson in the Drama Department and teaching English.Matt is a Cantabrian and comes to us from Canterbury University.He has also been a first class cricketer and earlier played against Rathkeale College during his own school days.And just to round things off he has completed the Coast to Coast – that little jog across the width of the South Island - a man for all seasons you might say.
Mr Shane Mann is now very relieved that he does not have to spend three hours a day travelling in order to teach Physics and Mathematics.After seven years at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt, Shane will join us, much to the disappointment of his last school, and bring with him considerable knowledge and interest in information systems technology.That is more relevant than one might think for reasons I will allude to shortly.So, to our three new staff, we especially welcome you and wish you all the best.
Still quite new to our staff Mrs Lisa Walker and Mr Jade Hamblyn will be teaching more time than they have in the past and are now officially first year teachers.Both are in the Social Science Department while Jade will also continue with his Music teaching and Itinerant Music Tuition and Lisa will teach Te Reo Maori and assist with developing this area of our school curriculum.A final appointment was our omnipresent relief teacher, Mr Joe Nawalaniec.We are hoping his last expedition into central South East Asia has steadied him sufficiently to sustain a part-time role teaching Junior Mathematics and assisting students with learning needs.
In the sports department we welcome Mr Steve Coleman who has had previous association with Rathkeale through the former Cricket Academy.He will work with Mr de Groot until the end of March and work fulltime in the role from Term II.
Finally, we welcome our two new tutors.Robert, (Bob) Beddingham is our exchange tutor from Wynberg High School in South Africa and Guy Wood from England.Both men have quickly immersed themselves in local activities.
The Trinity Schools’ staff Service on Friday was the last time Bishop Tom, the Archbishop of Wellington, will join us on that occasion.He spoke of the All Blacks feat in 2011 and reminded us that although Richie McCaw was an impressive captain, he led well prepared and cohesive team that worked well together to win the Rugby World Cup.Bishop Tom suggested that the teams in our schools need to work together to in order to give our young people a chance to achieve the best that is possible.At Rathkeale, I think we have a very good team.And part of being effective is to always be mindful of our game and how we approach it.We must constantly challenge both ourselves and the young men who we teach and we must expect the best.
At the end of February, we will be visited by the ERO team.They will make their own estimation of how they think we are performing and how well we are catering for the learning needs of our students.They will seek an answer to their overarching question - How effectively does Rathkeale College’s curriculum promote student learning – engagement, progress and achievement?Their job is not particularly easy and I think time constraints certainly restrict their ability to gain a full measure of how well we provide for student needs.However, we anticipate their visit will reveal that parents can be assured that we are providing sound educational opportunities for your sons and that that they are achieving well.I also hope that beyond the strict framework of their review they can see what is happening in a wider sense, gain an idea of the positive relationships that exist in the student body and learn of the approaches we are taking outside the classroom to provide real opportunities for personal and inter-personal growth.I look forward to an affirmation that our staff work well as a team to provide for your sons.
Academic Results will always be one measure of how well a school is performing. We are pleased with the overall results attained in 2011. In most schools, NCEA results are the most obvious indicator of academic achievement. At all levels most students have done well to gain the qualification and our 2011 school wide results are an improvement on 2010.
The table doesn’t represent the size of our cohorts, but it shows that shows that across the three levels, 91% of students gained their NCEA with 44% receiving an Excellence or a Merit endorsement. The Level 1 results contribute significantly to this commendable outcome. Today, I would like to name those who gained Excellence.
- Level 1: Joe Hammond, Michael Hammond, Josh McKay, Hugh Morrison-Thomas, Yoshi Nishimura, Patrick O’Boyle, Sean Pearless, Michael Pearson, Matthew Perry, Mark Sprowson, Patrick Tatham, Ryan Tonkin, Jack Walsh
- Level 2: Andrew Sampson
- Level 3: Thomas Becker, Jonty Blundell, Hamish Hirschberg, Dominic O’Connor and James Winstanley
Looking at the recent trends, we can also see that despite the dip in 2010, we have maintained or improved on our previous highest levels of achievement at all levels of NCEA and University Entrance in the last five years. I particularly commend this year’s Year 13 boys who in 2011 improved significantly their Level 2 achievement compared to their Level 1 performance in 2010.
We will continue to emphasise the importance of achieving to one’s potential and have determined further measures this year to deal with those inclined to be more apathetic. I cannot accept that at Rathkeale College, students should be able to slip through the cracks. If students fail to reach their potential, then in a sense we have all failed and this is not a good feeling. I accept the responsibility we have as a school to work together as a staff, work with the boys and with parents. We must set high standards and to expect our boys to do the same. And following on from comments I made at last year’s Rathkeale prizegiving, we all need to understand why high standards are important. I have come to appreciate that a very good answer to this question is - Meeting high expectations is important to set yourselves apart from the majority of those who do not. The best way to do this is to work hard and accept the help that is on offer.
Other Student Achievements Away from school we know many of you have worked hard. A number of boys are not with us today as they are competing at the Manawatu Swimming Championships and others are competing in polo- crosse and karting. We also know other boys have been competing in a range of activities over the summer and we will be pleased to ear of their results. Please let us know.
For me, a personal highlight was watching our young athletics team perform at the National Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships in Wellington late last year. Some most of them it was their first year in the senior ranks and competing against athletes two years older was a challenge. It is therefore impressive that our very young “Senior” 4 x 400m relay team, Tom Quinn, Druvh Ramam, Ed Hewitt and Michael Hammond, beat the likes of Nelson College, Wellington College and Christchurch Boys’ High School.
We also congratulate Corey Olsen, Liam Burling and Zac Caldwell, Harry Clinton-Baker who, along with a number of recent Old Boys, have played cricket at age group and senior representative level.
Property Developments The summer period has been typically busy for our own property staff as they have worked hard to keep the grass down and prepare the facilities for the Oceania Archery Championships, Central Districts cricket, weddings and other happenings. Resurfacing areas of the central school and around Rugby House has made a huge difference to the look and feel of the place and we look forward to its completion. Earthquake strengthening work and some refurbishment in Repton House has made that building 100% earthquake code compliant and the exterior painting of both Repton and Rugby has enhanced their appearance significantly. Our own staff have undertaken work in School House so the Music Department can manage more efficiently and we expect more to be done during the year.
Looking ahead, we have been advised by the Ministry that we will be eligible for an entire school network upgrade. This government subsidised project will allow us to have installed the latest information technology installed to compliment the delivery of ultra-fast fibre broadband to the school by July.
Prefects At this assembly we present our prefects with their badges. Those chosen for 2012 know that they will be the benchmark for the standards we are trying to achieve and I have every confidence that individually and as a team they will lead the school well. At a camp, run in conjunction with the St Matthews girls ten days ago, our student leaders have committed themselves to designated responsibilities and roles and our staff are committed to supporting them.
I will ask Harry Clinton-Baker, our 2012 Head Boy to come forward in a moment to receive his Head Boys’ badge and to introduce the prefect team and present them with their badges. Harry is a capable academic having received his NCEA Level 2 with Merit in 2011. He is a talented and capable sportsman. He captains the 1st Cricket XI and plays 1st XI Hockey. He is also the Head of Repton Boarding House. There is no doubt Harry will have a very demanding year, but I have every confidence he will lead the student body in well 2012.
I invite following to come forward to receive their prefects’ badges.
- Harry Clinton-Baker Head Boy
- Jonathan Pledger Deputy Head Boy
- Fraser Dymond Head of Service
- Jack Redley Head of Chapel
- Andrew Sampson Head of Academic
- Matt Sims Head of Pastoral
- Sam Smith Head of Culture
- Lou Vollebregt Head of Sport
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Finally, So, with the best weather of our summer yet to come, I would like to think all is in place for a solid start to the year and that there is much to look forward to.
Thank you
Willy Kersten
Principal