Dear Parents

CATHOLIC CHARACTER

Firstly, let me congratulate James Finlay of Year 13 who took out first place, and a cheque for $200, in the 2011 Religious Writing Competition run by the Knights of the Southern Cross.  The topic was “Social Justice is at the heart of the Gospel”. Other boys who entered this competition, Foss Shanahan, Alex de Vries, Jacob Holden and Patrick Lalor all presented excellent essays; indeed Patrick was runner-up, and the other boys were highly commended.  I take these boys for Religious Education and I am always impressed with the quality of their work.

Dear Parents

I promised to comment on our ERO Report, which has now been finalised.  In short, we were happy with our last ERO report, but we were delighted with this one.  It follows the usual format and I will highlight the comments from each section.

Context

Rosmini is a state integrated Catholic school for boys from Year 7-15 (actually they mean 7-13, or in old terms Forms 1-7).  The school’s special character and values underpin programmes, systems and practices.  The school aims to develop well-rounded young men.  Student academic performance in national examinations continues to improve, and the school enjoys many successes in sporting and other co-curricular activities.

Dear Parents

ACADEMIC

This is a ten week term and then, when the seniors return from the October holidays, they have only eight days of schooling in Term Four before going on study leave, so the message is: study – revise – study, as time is very short.  I am sure that most parents are saying exactly the same things to their sons, but repetition is the mother of learning in this case.  For the senior boys, anything less than two hours study a night and they are fooling themselves.  They need a study plan, a space to work and a desire to achieve top marks.  We all need to convey to our senior students how critical a big effort in Term Three is to their success, given they have virtually no Term Four to rely on.

Dear Parents

By now most parents will have examined how their school has fared in internal and external ‘exams’ as outlined in the April 18 edition of The Herald and summarised in the North Shore Times.  Schools were compared with other schools in the same decile rating, ie Rosmini was compared with Decile 9 counterparts.  It was pleasing to note that Rosmini College compared favourably, not only with other Decile 9 schools, but also with Decile 10 schools.  In fact, in NCEA Level 1 and 2 Rosmini edged out some Decile 10 girls’ schools, which is very much against National trends.  As always, some Principals wrote into the press stating that these tables do not tell the whole story about schools, and of course they are correct, but it is still good to be on the right side of the ledger.