Kia Ora and welcome to the 2024 School Year.
It has been an exciting and busy start to our school year. A very warm welcome back to all our school whānau and those students who are new to our school.
In late January, the Prefect Leaders were accompanied by the Senior Leadership Team and other members of our staff on our annual Pilgrimage to the Hokianga, which has a special connection to our school. Our travel took us firstly to the Bay of Islands to enable students to enjoy a Waka Ama experience, a team-building activity that saw our school leaders paddle from Waitangi to Haruru Falls with the assistance of guides. We visited Pompallier House in Russell where the first bibles were printed in Aotearoa. Bishop Pompallier spent a lot of time in Russell which was where large vessels would arrive from and leave for overseas destinations.
Our stay was at the Tamatea Marae, Motiti. St Mary’s Church is in close proximity to Bishop Pompallier’s resting place, under the altar in St Mary’s Church, Motiti. During our stay we visited St Mary’s, prayed, and honoured Bishop Pomallier. We are grateful to Sr Magdalen who made this possible for our group of staff and students.
Since this time, we have celebrated several key events – a staff retreat, and a whole school pōwhiri to welcome new staff and students led by the Kapa Haka students. At our opening mass, celebrated by Fr Sherwin and assisted by Fr Larry, Head Prefects, Avram Taguinod and Jemma McGreggor were blessed as they begin their new roles. We also gave thanks to Mrs Gina Benade who retired from SMCPS at the end of last week. Mrs Benade was the Foundation Principal and we wished her well and good health in her retirement.
Welcome New Staff
| Greg Hawes | Property Maintenance |
| Maria Corboy | Medical Officer |
| Lorraine O’Carroll | Head of Faculty (Mathematics and Statistics) |
| Yasmine Fernandes | Years 7 & 8 |
| Monique Fautuaali’i | Religious Education |
| Melissa Renner | Visual Art & Art Design |
| Lorraine Dawes | Part time Librarian |
| Philippa Mulqueen | Religious Education & Social Science |
| Francesca Bakk-Higgins | Visual Art & Art Design |
| Bronwyn Dee | Mathematics and Statistics |
Academic Performance
Sancta Maria College once again celebrates outstanding results.
2023 OVERALL ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE RESULTS
| YEAR 11 | YEAR 12 | YEAR 13 | YEAR 13 | |
| NCEA L1 | NCEA L2 | NCEA L3 | UE | |
|
Sancta Maria College |
97.8% | 97.1% | 92.8% | 82.7% |
| National | 60.0% | 72.2% | 66.2% | 47.2% |
2023 LITERACY & NUMERACY RESULTS
| YEAR 11 | YEAR 12 | YEAR 13 | |
| NCEA L1 | NCEA L2 | NCEA L3 | |
|
LITERACY |
|||
| Sancta Maria College | 98.5% | 99.3% | 99.3% |
| National | 82.4% | 90.7% | 93.5% |
|
NUMERACY |
|||
| Sancta Maria College | 98.5% | 99.3% | 98.6% |
| National | 81.5% | 89.7% | 93.0% |
Navigation Time
Most will be aware that we have reorganised what was called ‘Homeroom Time’ to now being called ‘Navigation Time’. This comes in response to curriculum changes that have been unfolding over the past three years. These curriculum changes are mainly centred around the national NCEA qualification change package and the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum – Te Mataiaho. These changes have also been the focus of several of our national Teacher Only Days also over the past few years.
‘Navigation Time’ builds on supporting students throughout their academic journey, our charism and faith journey, goal setting, tracking of academic performance and life skills curriculum programme. It enables a significant leader called a ‘Kaihautū’ to support students from each house. There are ‘Kauhautū’ for each of our houses – Akaroa, Hokianga, Kororāreka and Waitematā. Every house has a ‘Kaihautū’ leading a junior (Years 7-10) and senior group (Years 11-13).
For more detail on who the leaders are and a list of all our staff, please click the following link Staff List | Sancta Maria College
Louise Moore,
Tumuaki/Principal.
