Tēnā koutou katoua ngā whānau,
I am extremely grateful to our community of staff, students, parents and whanau for your understanding and patience throughout the past week as we navigated the uncertainty posed by the extreme weather conditions and civil emergency. I pray that life for all families is returning to normal as the weather calms and the land dries. For many of you the heavy rains and resulting damage to roads, property and possessions will have greatly impacted your daily life and routines. We are happy to give support as required. Please do contact us should you require support or you wish to advise us on how we may support your child at school during this time. We appreciate the understanding and courtesy shown by our Year 12 and 13 learners as they received the disappointing news on Saturday morning that the Garin Ball was postponed. We look forward to the new date, 5 November 2022 to gather and celebrate this wonderful event.
With no storm damage to Garin buildings and property, the availability of all teaching staff and bus services operating, we were able to open our doors on Monday to all learners. While there were many students unable to attend due to road conditions or selecting to work online from home, we are certainly pleased that our learning programmes have continued uninterrupted this week.
‘Anything but a backpack’ mufti day this week saw students arriving at school in mufti without their usual backpacks carrying an incredible array of innovative ways to carry their books and possessions; chilli bins, pet cages, boxes, guitar cases and much more. In raising money to support aid for the Ukraine and the Nelson Tasman Mayoral relief fund, the idea of anything but a backpack exemplified the situation faced in many disasters where survivors are often left carrying the barest of essentials in whatever they can. Thank you to our Christian Service Leaders Misha Warboys and Annalise Edwards for their leadership in raising awareness of hardship in times of crisis.
I congratulate our year 13 students Jesse Sherlock and Nathan King on their success in being selected to attend the NZ National Theatrefest in Wellington,16 – 18 September. This is an outstanding achievement as their recent performance of their play ‘Out of the Flying Pan’ was one of eight plays selected nationally for Theatrefest. We wish Nathan and Jesse every success.
Thank you for your continued support in encouraging mask wearing for students and staff in all indoor settings and we will continue to encourage this on site. Students may bring masks from home and if necessary we have a limited supply of masks available from our school office and within many classrooms. Please note that the MOE requires that all ākonga (students) aged 12 and over must wear face masks on school transport.
New entrant enrolments for 2023 remain open for students with a signed preference certificate from their Parish Priest; if you are yet to present your child’s enrolment form to our school office, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Your support and timeliness with this is greatly appreciated and we undertake transition for new learners, planning and resourcing for the 2023 school year. Please note the 2023 non preference enrolment ballot for 14 places takes place on Thursday, 1 September.
Nominations for the Student Trustee for the Garin Board remain open until 5 September with the election being held on 21 September. Any student enrolled full-time in year 9 and above, and under the age of 20, is eligible to stand for election. Students are encouraged to reflect on how they may contribute to the College as a Trustee and hand in their nomination.
God bless,
Ngā manaakitanga,
John Maguire
Take a moment
“Go into the world today and Love the people you meet.
Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.”
Saint Mother Teresa