PRINCIPAL'S ADDRESS - PRIZEGIVING 2011

(The photo at the top of the page is of Mrs O'Brien and Mr Henley the Principal of Cathedral College and his presentation to St Thomas' for hosting their school after the Feb 22nd earthquake)

 

Nga mihi nui  ki a koutou katoa

Talofa lava, i matua, malo le soifua.  Afio mai.

I give great greetings to one and all on this important occasion.

2011 has been a year of shock, grief, disruption, stress and loss - but it has also been a year of challenge, change, creativity and celebration. Ordinary people have responded with courage and resilience to extraordinary times.

Last year when the September earthquake hit while I was in London with an ill daughter, I had numerous conversations with our Deputy Principal, Steve Hart, over the organisation of the school in the aftermath of that event. Neither of us had any conception at the time that a further devastating earthquake would destroy many parts of our city in February and rob many of loved ones, nor that a family in our school would lose their precious father to that earthquake.  Nor did we have any idea that Steve would be facing his own battle with a rare form of appendix cancer as the year progressed. Such is the unpredictability and uncertainty of life.

In the aftermath of February we saw significant media coverage around recovery in infrastructure, commerce, housing, civic organisation and some articles detailing the ten thousand students left without schooling in Christchurch.  The coverage around schools was superficial to say the least and barely reflective of the enormous task required in returning those young people to education within two to three weeks.

On paper the site sharing solution might seem a fairly simple if novel solution. The reality was very different requiring a high degree of creativity, flexibility, generosity, hard work, communication, sophisticated innovation and courage from all in the education sector in Christchurch. I would like to acknowledge the integrity and support of our Board of Trustees under the leadership of Margaret Mary De Goldi in assuming its role in the disaster by inviting Catholic Cathedral College to  our site, the courage of our staff in responding to this challenge and the generosity of our young men and families in making our refugees welcome.  I cannot think of a better way to have celebrated our jubilee year than by becoming a place of refuge and hope for a brother Catholic school in need.

I can say that as a Senior Leadership Team we saw the hours of work that staff put in - working without breaks with a condensed and intensive approach to the curriculum and then providing tutorials and extended extra curricular activities in the afternoon - and also supporting the Catholic Cathedral College staff, traumatised from their CBD experience of the earthquake and without teaching resources, technology and a home.  Our support staff put in endless hours around property, caretaking,  IT, administration, library and finance.  We know first hand how all our staff care about our boys and about their achievement in this most difficult environment. So I acknowledge them now and pay tribute to their effort as a team in ensuring St Thomas of Canterbury College has survived and flourished beyond that fateful day in February.

I also wish to acknowledge the senior leadership team of Steve Hart, Brendan Biggs, Paul Donnelly and Hamish McCombie who assumed  tremendous workload and stress during this time. The bringing of another school onto our site was a challenging exercise logistically, completed in an incredibly short time frame, on top of the requirements of reconstituting our own organisation.  In the last two terms Marty Taylor has joined the senior leadership team as we support Steve through his journey and I am very grateful for Marty's professionalism, leadership and compassion in carrying out this role.

I feel fortunate to work with such a fine leadership team and staff and with such fine young men and families.

I have no doubt St Thomas' will have an enduring and special bond with Catholic Cathedral College beyond this time and that is something we will treasure.

But out of this disaster also has come creativity and opportunity. Thrown out of our comfort zone and the normality of all we thought of as the usual, we have been given the opportunity to think laterally and to begin to do things in new ways. Human beings are incredibly adaptive and resilient creatures. We were forced to explore different hours of operation, different ways of collaborating, different ways of delivering the curriculum, different ways of celebrating school events and about how education might look different in a new Christchurch.  

The situation of the east schools and red zone impact has opened a debate in the education sector around a renewal plan for education in this city. The word renewal has been used deliberately, rather than the word recovery. The intention is to grab this opportunity and lead New Zealand in developing a radical rethink around how schooling might look for our young people in Christchurch and technology is a key factor in this revisioning.

It is my hope that the Catholic schooling network might actually work as a network and lead the way - however, the new ideas will require schools and people to work collaboratively rather than competitively, to give up perceived notions of establishment power and social and economic advantage, to work as an educational and civic community and to give away entrenched assumptions about what learning is and what schools look like.  That is a revolutionary challenge for all, and I would say particularly in Christchurch.

Our role as an Edmund Rice school is still at heart of this equation - that is if we are sincere in seeing our role as producing young men with educated hearts and educated minds.  The four touchstones of Edmund Rice Education are a liberating education, an inclusive community, Gospel spirituality and justice and solidarity.  We have a choice as educators in our current context in Christchurch to let the "seaside suburbs" decline in their own misery as the dislocation unfolds or we can envisage and create a new civic and educational community.

I refer to a very apt quotation I used at our jubilee dinner from Brother Richard Walsh, previous principal of the College and current Provincial Leader in Africa. He speaks of the role of the brothers in enacting the Edmund Rice charism   "to be effective agents in the liberation of oppressed and marginalised people from poverty, injustice, ignorance and the effects of sickness especially Aids.

He goes on to say

"But to focus exclusively on what we do, is to miss that vital element, namely that we Brothers are men who have chosen a radical way of life due to Jesus' vision of a world where God can be experienced by everyone, in and through the people and events of everyday life. This is true liberation. It is what Jesus was about and it is why the religious and political establishment who wanted to control people, and their access to God, killed him.

"It is what we are about today and it is every bit as dangerous as it was for Jesus, because the establishment has never gone away."

Establishment forces have always played a disproportionate role in Christchurch in terms of what schools are perceived as "good schools" and  status in league tables, which are less about how effective a school may be and more about who is screened out. In other words, the poor, the disadvantaged, Maori, Pasifika, immigrants, refugees, those with special needs are not represented in this sector of education. I would suggest the same issues need healthy debate within our own Catholic system and there needs to be strong challenge around these issues within the Catholic review process.

My hope is that entrenched establishment power, status and perception in Christchurch does not preclude the emergence of an exciting and new educational horizon for our young people and that we as a learning community can put our stake in the ground in being willing to explore and be excited about a different society here in this city.

It is an exciting time celebrating a 50^th jubilee and a time of reflection. When the Brothers first turned the soil at St Thomas' in 1961 they had a dream and vision for the future. I think they would be proud of the way the school has developed and of the young men leaving us tonight.  It has been a definitive year for all of us and for our city. I hope the wonderful young men we have here on the stage use this defining year to go on and live defining lives of courage and compassion - and that no matter how far and wide they travel Christchurch remains a home with a beating heart.

Perhaps we can hope that the rays of light which shine out from the broken core of our city at night will be true rays of hope for our future.

Fa'afetai lava. 'ia manuia le afiafi. Soifua.

Kia kaha, kia maia, kia manawanui

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa

Christine O'Brien