The New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC) welcomed the Church’s new Te Rōpū Māori to their November meeting. The new group’s purpose is to work with the NZCBC on agenda items of importance to Katorika (Catholic) Māori. “The aim is that they provide a well-grounded voice for Katorika Māori and work in partnership with the Read more
Students are missing out and their learning is suffering in New Zealand schools; Covid and its after-effects are taking their toll. Students are leaving school without qualifications, says Kevin Shore, Catholic Education Office CEO. Catholic school principals tell him of former pupils working instead of coming to school. They’re helping with stressed family finances. Others Read more
Ever since 2017 the Labour-led Coalition Government abandoned National Standards, school leaders have been left to make best practice decisions for their schools. “We’ve had to make decisions about how to lead curriculum delivery, assessment, pedagogy and professional development,” says Kevin Shore, CEO of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office. “I remember this time well Read more
Students at Catholic schools across New Zealand are being offered protection from a cancer-causing sexually transmitted infection, says Kevin Shore from the Catholic Education Office. Clarifying a report on 1News, Shore told CathNews that Catholic schools are not part of the 44 Christian religious-affiliated schools that are denying access to the Gardasil vaccine. The vaccine Read more
11 Catholic schools have joined the Community Schools Alliance, a campaign launched to oppose changes to the ways schools in New Zealand are governed, managed and administered. The Community Schools Alliance is made up of 43 of the country’s 2431 state and integrated schools. And the former CEO of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office Brother Sir Read more
The number of Catholic school students in New Zealand continues to hold steady. There are about 160 additional students comparing 2017 to 2018. 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/Pākeha students represent over half of students in Catholic schools. Read more
Australia’s Federal Labor party has pledged to restore $250m of funding to the country’s Catholic schools. Bill Shorten, who is the party’s federal parliamentary leader, has promised the Catholic Bishops’ Conference chairman, Bishop Denis Hart, to “arbitrarily” give Catholic schools the $250m in the first two years of government. Shorten also pledged billions more to Read more
Former Catholic education officials in Melbourne have rejected Cardinal George Pell’s statement that he was not made fully aware of an abusive priest. Four officials testified earlier this week at Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. When Cardinal Pell came to Melbourne as an auxiliary bishop in 1987, Fr Peter Searson Read more