"Applications to replace Brother Patrick will now be sought by the Board of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office," said Ricketts.

Lynch has been in this CEO role since 1994.

Prior to that he was the principal of De La Salle College, Mangere, Auckland for 16 years, during the last three of which he was the President of the Secondary Principals' Association of New Zealand (SPANZ).

He was awarded a New Zealand 1990 Commemorative Medal and in 1991 he was awarded a QSO.

Most recently, in the 2015 New Year's Honours, he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of Merit, for Services to Education over a 50 year period.

Ricketts said, "Brother Patrick has had an illustrious career in New Zealand education, not only in the integrated schools sector but also within the wider educational environment, both nationally and internationally."

"This continuing wide ranging achievement has now been officially recognised with his most recent honour."

Lynch expressed his gratitude for having been able to serve the integrated schools sector of New Zealand for the last 21 years

He said he "leaves the role with a great deal of admiration for those in the sector who have enabled Catholic and other integrated schools to become confident in themselves and well thought of by the wider New Zealand community."

he praised the 15 Ministers of Education he has worked with and the successive Governments, all of whom have actively supported integrated schools.

"There is no doubt," he said, "that the mosaic of diversity now apparent within the New Zealand education system is one of the country's great strengths. Nobody has a monopoly over enlightenment and by working together great strength follows."

Lynch said he was grateful to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference who persuaded him to take on the role of CEO.

He acknowledged the many people whom he has worked with in the Education sector, staff and colleagues, religious groups, the wider avenues of Government and the public sector, along with business and the NGO sectors.

The Catholic education system in New Zealand consists of 332 integrated schools containing 86,000 students.

Source

• Supplied: New Zealand Catholic Education Office
• Rosmini College

Exorcisms in New Zealand are rare, but they do happen - and Catholic Education Office chief executive Pat Lynch said canon law made it obligatory for a bishop to have someone able to perform an exorcism.

"These things, they are not in the realm of fantasy," he said.

He remembered a house, near where he lived in Auckland in the 1970s, where "some sort of black magic was taking place".

"People were getting in touch with the Underworld".

The story was that a one-metre hole would open up in the side of a wall, leaving scorch marks around it.

While parts of the story may have been embellished, a priest with exorcism credentials was brought in to perform the ritual as described in the canon for exorcising spirits.

The ritual apparently worked, he said.

"I have no reason to disbelieve it".

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: i152.photobucket.com

He was responding to concern that pupils from an Upper Hutt Catholic primary school went to a prayer group that included a convicted paedophile

St Joseph's Primary School in Upper Hutt says the nearby parish knew about the man's convictions but never warned the school.

St Joseph's parish says it did not warn the school as there were no rules requiring it to do so.

The Catholic Education Office says that while that's true, it would have been prudent to keep the man well away from children.

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The Board of Trustees issued a statement to the college community which said: "The Pompallier Catholic College Board of Trustees advises the school community that Nigel Studdart will not be returning to the College as a teacher. We wish him well for the future."

The chief executive of the New Zealand Catholic Education Board, Pat Lynch, said he would not make comment about this particular case.

"More broadly, Catholic preaching on same sex marriage is part of the church's moral preaching so if you take up employment in a Catholic School you're obliged to support the religious and moral preachings because that's what the school stands for, whether you believe in it or not."

Sometimes employees had to agree to disagree if they wanted to keep their job, he said.

The teachers' union, the PPTA, also said it was not its policy to comment on individual cases.

"It's complicated when teachers take up jobs at schools with special character because it does involve a certain amount of commitment to the principles of that special character - provided they do not breach human rights or provisions under the employment relations act - and there can be tension in the way that operates," PPTA president Robin Duff said.

Blair Scotland, a senior associate of law firm Chen Palmer specialising in employment matters, said an employer would have trouble justifying drastic action like dismissing someone when it was about a fundamental human right.

"How the employer justifies its actions is going to be key. It's going to be very difficult for an employer to say 'this employee's belief ... I don't agree with and therefore I'm going to impose my views and I'm going to sack this person because of the particular views'," he said.

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: Twitter

Catholic schools of all kinds dominate the top places in the latest Metro analysis of Auckland schools: boys' schools, girls' schools and co-ed schools; high decile and low decile schools. Wilson says these results are a stark contrast to a generation ago when Catholic schools were often at the bottom of performance standards.

But Waikato University Education professor Martin Thrupp said it was misleading to assume Catholic schools are better.

He says statistically modeling is a very sophisticated task, something that even academics have struggled with and the way Metro does it is "so crude and they're wrong to do it."

"Just because the school is top of the pops in the league tables doesn't necessarily mean it will be right for your child. They might not fit the culture of the school," he said.

"I wouldn't pay it too much attention myself, there's other more rounded forms of information like ERO reports."

The CEO of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office thinks that the Christian faith accounts for the academic success of Catholic schools.

Brother Patrick Lynch says that fundamentally a Catholic school "emphasises spirituality, faith, values, attitude, that builds a culture with the families to provide the youngsters a reason for living.

"Once you get those parameters in place it's easier to concentrate on high expectations - when you've got good leadership in schools you've got a better chance of actually delivering a better set of outcomes."

McAuley High School, a decile one school for girls in Otahuhu, has topped the tables this year. The magazine warns that this is not the same as saying it had the highest proportion of success in exams; it was the school most likely to improve its students' performance in exams

The highest proportion of success in exams according to Metro, belongs to three schools: St Cuthbert's College in NCEA exams, ACG Senior College in the Cambridge exams, and ACG Parnell College in University Entrance.

There are ten deciles and around 10% of schools are in each decile. Decile one schools have the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds whereas decile ten schools have the highest proportion of students from high socio-economic backgrounds.

The CEO of the The New Zealand Catholic Education Office, Br Pat Lynch, says they are dismayed that some teachers of the national curriculum sex education have taken an extreme approach in their classrooms. "The curriculum itself does not support such an approach, and requires teachers and schools to take account of the wishes of parents and the developmental stages of the individual students in the class," he said.

"Students are entitled to feel safe in classrooms, and the alleged incidents are likely to have made at least some of the students in the classes feel distinctly uncomfortable and embarrassed which is not a healthy learning environment."

Br Pat said sexuality education, which is obviously very necessary, must always be approached with sensitivity, prudence and discretion on the part of teachers, with personal agendas kept out of the equation.

Catholic schools are provided with support materials to enable staff to teach sexuality according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Understanding Sexuality is the professional development programme for teachers of Sexuality in Catholic schools. It is mandated by the National Centre for Religious Studies. In Catholic schools it is recommended that the sexuality programme be taught by Religious Education teachers, and if appropriate, in combination with Physical Education teachers.

Source

• New Zealand Catholic Education Office
• Image: Taranaki Daily News

The rising amount of money for integrated schools has been driven by an increase in pupils going to the schools.

• Under the National Government, six private schools had become integrated, and two new Catholic integrated schools had opened.
• Four applications for integration had been considered this year, with integration to become effective for Ashburton Christian School from July.
• Wanganui Collegiate School was given the go-ahead this week by Education Minister Anne Tolley to begin integration negotiations, after it first applied in 2009.

Association of Proprietors of Integrated Schools chief executive Pat Lynch said more parents were sending their children to integrated schools, attracted by the schools' special characters. Integrated schools were getting no more money per pupil than state schools, Brother Pat said.

But Post Primary Teachers' Association president Robin Duff said the figures showed wealthy integrated schools were using the extra taxpayer money to have low pupil-to-teacher ratios.

"Advertising brochures for integrated schools talk about low teacher-to-student ratios, which is being propped up by the state."

Meanwhile, many state schools were struggling to make ends meet. The move towards integrated schools meant they were getting less government funding and staffing, Mr Duff said.

Source
stuff.co.nz

Br Patrick Lynch, the CEO of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office thinks that "bullying behaviours in schools are always unacceptable given the law and more importantly the emphasis modern society gives to the human rights of individuals.

He believes, however that in schools where there is a strong culture of respect for others and respect for differences, along with high expectations for positive behaviour put before students, bullying is less of an issue"

"Unfortunately, students see too much violence in the media, which does affect their perception of what is acceptable and what is not." said Brother Pat " Nevertheless, trustees, principals and teachers all have a duty of care responsibility when students are at school."

He agrees that "there needs to be robust policies and practices in place to ensure students are safe, within the bounds of reasonableness."

Source
The New Zealand Herald

Photo
Dato