Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.

Haere mai, welcome to Carmel. This salutation greeted all the newly enrolled students and whanau as we held our Orientation Day this week.

The main focus for the day is for our new 2020 students to meet their Tuakana student leaders who will support these students in their first Term at Carmel; their House Dean; their Atawhai teacher and, mostly importantly, the other students who they will be learning with for the next seven years.

While the students get to spend time with other students, their parents and whanau get an overview of ‘how we do things at Carmel’. They too get an opportunity to meet with other parents and form their own informal networks.

After the formal part of the Orientation Day was over, I met with two families for Welcome meetings. Both families had been able to attend our Orientation Day programme and, although they didn’t know each other before that morning and neither came from our Catholic feeder schools, the students had met each other during the fun activities and had become friends already. It was very reassuring to both these new students that they now have someone they will know when they arrived next February. That’s a success.

‘A good beginning is of great importance’ by Catherine McAuley