The Ministry of Education placed the Gore Catholic school under statutory management at the end of last month.

Principal Tara Quinney (pictured) says she has no confidence in the school's board chair, Ruth Mitchell, to lead.

She says she has a dysfunctional relationship with Mitchell and won't be able to work with her in the future.

Community concerned

Quinney says she is speaking out about the issues surrounding the Ministry's intervention because of community concerns about the school's health.

She wants to allay these.

She says she's finding it "heartbreaking" when people approach her with their concerns for the school's future. They paid for and built the school back in 1969, she says.

"I know we are a strong Catholic school which has an amazing history and support behind it. I don't like people feeling unsettled about the future of our school when it is actually very safe and strong."

These included claims that Mitchell and three other board members were perhaps there for "the circles they themselves socialise in", rather than being there for the whole school.

Quinney's concerns

The principal's and board chair's difficulties began before Christmas.

They concerned four board members, including Mitchell, asking to meet with four senior staff without Quinney's presence. The meeting was about a parent survey the board had undertaken.

Although Quinney was absent at the time, she stopped the meeting as it was outside the board's governance duties, she said.

She explained the board conducted the survey to determine what the community thought about certain things at the school. It focused on a lot of the negatives and not the positives, Quinney said.

She didn't think sharing the survey summary would be appropriate then. It was the middle of term four at a very stressful time of the school year, she said.

The staff had had three years of Covid behind them, were exhausted and trying to make it through to the end of the year.

Nonetheless, she was open to finding out about the survey.

She recommended, "even though it was outside the bounds of governance," she and the senior leadership team meet with the board early in the 2023 school year.

"That was not an option that was taken up," she said.

An untrained Board

Quinney said the board comprises mostly new members and thinks the issues stem mainly from their not being trained in board matters.

She said Mitchell had repeatedly refused to get free training for board members.

Training is an "absolute must" regardless of people's experience and backgrounds, Quinney said.

The Ministry said training is not compulsory.

Quinney said she wants a board committed to the school's character.

Limited statutory manager

Board chair Ruth Mitchell is not responding to questions regarding Quinney's specific worries.

Instead, the school's limited statutory manager has acknowledged Quinney had some concerns about the school's governance.

The board is confident Nicola Hornsey's appointment as a limited statutory manager can address these.

Source

• Stuff

Pip Brown (aka Ladyhawke of My Delirium fame) says she felt ‘constant fear' as a teenager because she was a lesbian at a Catholic school.

"Growing up in the Catholic school system, as I reached my teens I started to feel immense shame and denial about my sexuality.

"I suffered the constant fear of being judged and alienated by my friends and family. These feelings took a long time to shake off and work through."

It took her a long time to shake the guilt.

A kindred spirit in the form of Nott, has helped her do this, she says - just as she helped Nott shake off her guilty feelings.

Instead of carrying their guilty burden, the stars have channeled their experiences in controversial new music video called Guilty Love. In this, two girls fall in love at their Catholic school.

Ladyhawke, who is now 41-years old, says she and Nott decided to share their experiences on the emotional comeback tune to "hopefully help anyone going through the same thing, to know they're not alone."

The lyrics include the line: "Who am I to blame for the shame but the skies above."

Nott, 26, adds: ‘We talked about growing up religiously and how we carried a lot of shame around the idea of what a woman (or person) should be.

"The love that once caused so much guilt ended up being the most healing and spiritual."

Source

• Metro UK
• Image: RNZ

The board of Gisborne Holdings Ltd, which operates as Gisborne District Council's commercial arm, have signed off a subdivision for the disused site. Read more

This represents a less than 0.1% decline in the total share of students in New Zealand.

This is the first year that non-European/Pakeha students represent over half of students in Catholic schools.

The European/Pakeha student population in Catholic schools is 49.9%, with the next largest group being Pasifika students (15.7%) and Asian and Maori following closely (15.3% and 14.5% respectively).

There are 66,888 students in Catholic schools in New Zealand, which represents 8.3% of the New Zealand schooling network.

Of these, 44% are Y1-6 Primary students, 39% Y9-13 Secondary students and the remainder (17%) Y7-8 Intermediate level students, who may be in primary or secondary schools.

There are 237 Catholic schools in New Zealand, with an average school size of around 280 students.

Most Catholic schools are full primary schools (Y1-8) but they are the smallest schools with an average student roll of around 175.

Most secondary schools are open to Y7-15 and have an average student roll of about 750.

Most Catholic school students are based in the Auckland region. This tracks well with the proportion of the whole school population, Catholic and non-Catholic, in each region.

The Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, West Coast and Southland regions have more than 10% of all students attending a Catholic school (the average for New Zealand being 8.3%).

Diocesan summaries provide a breakdown by Primary and Secondary student population and also show the ethnic make-up for each diocese.

The Auckland and Wellington dioceses, with their more multi-cultural urban populations, have more ethnically diverse student populations, followed by Hamilton and Palmerston North.

An update of this report will be timed to follow the Ministry of Education release of the March roll returns. A downloadable PDF version is available here.

Source

• Supplied: Paul Ferris, Chief Executive Officer. New Zealand Catholic Education Office
• nzceo.org.nz
• Image: nzceo.org.nz

The school was ordered to revise its admission forms after a parent objected the terms "mother" and "father" discriminated against separated, step or gay parents. Read more

Following an inquiry, the Catholic Church has ruled Mother Lucia guilty of historic sexual and physical abuse against a Christchurch schoolboy "on the balance of probabilities". The prioress died in 1997, aged 90. Continue reading

The campaign started after media coverage of grade 1 pupil Asha Cariss's objections over not being allowed to wear pants to school.

The school's previous uniform policy was that girls wear a tunic and tights or socks.

Simone Cariss, Asha's mother, had said the policy was impractical for a young girl who wanted to run around and play sports at lunchtime.

Ms Cariss started a petition calling for gender equality in school uniforms.

This sparked considerable media interest and the school responded.

"The principal called me [on Monday morning] and said they'd reconsidered their position and that Asha can wear pants if she likes, and they will set up a school uniform committee to work how we roll out pants being available for girls in the school," Ms Cariss said.

Ms Cariss said she was fighting for equal opportunity in schools.

"I'm prepared to fight really hard for our young girls, our most impressionable girls, that they don't have to be forced to wear dresses in this day and age. It's 2016."

Ms Cariss said some critics questioned why she did not remove her daughter from the school and send her to one with a more flexible stance.

The mother said she didn't know about the uniform policy when she enrolled her daughter.

Ms Cariss asked Asha if she would like to leave the school, but the girl said she loved the school in every other way.

"I'm just really pleased the school has come around, and my daughter is able to stay there and be much happier and not feel like she's not equal to half of her peers," Ms Cariss said.

Speaking before the school's change in uniform policy, Catholic Education Melbourne executive director Stephen Elder said decisions around uniform were dealt with at an individual school level, where school leaders take local concerns and contexts into account.

Sources

• ABC
• The Age
• Image: ABC

The principal of Our Lady of Lourdes School in Cincinnati wrote in a letter that he had "no tolerance for any real, pretend, or imitated violence".

The boy's parents said their son was just imitating a "power ranger" in the playground during a recess.

Matthew Miele, the boy's father, said the three day suspension is such a severe punishment that it is difficult to make this a proper "teachable moment" for his son.

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The policy of Delone Catholic High School in McSherrytown has angered parents and students ahead of the prom in May.

A photo of the prom dress has to be submitted before purchasing tickets.

A petition by parents was launched on Change.org against the pre-approval policy.

According to the policy, women's gowns may not be extremely short, have an extremely low cut front or back, have any excessively high cut slits, have overly revealing midriffs, or be inappropriately revealing - giving the illusion of nudity.

The school's said "fidelity to the Catholic identity of the school is the fundamental priority".

Continue reading