For the last month we have been having Cambridge Examinations at St Dominic’s College. Form 4 sat their IGCSE Geography; Form 5 sat the rest of their IGCSE subjects; Form 6 sat their AS subjects and Form 7 sat their A Levels. We are very blessed in that we are the only completely Cambridge School in New Zealand. Other schools may believe in Cambridge, but they are obliged to offer also the subjects for the National Certificate in Educational Achievement. We are free of all the crises of that troubled and much criticized system, and our pupils achieve qualifications that are internationally respectable and portable.
We are also blessed in that the Wanganui Hockey Association allows us (at no charge!) to sit our examinations in the Hockey Hall. It is a pleasant, cool room looking out over the Domain and Hockey Turf, and sanctified by the fact that Archbishop Lefebvre once said Mass there, conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation, and prophesied that one day the Traditional Catholics would regain the right to worship in St Anthony’s Church. That has happened!
This week we also have our internal school examinations for the junior forms and for subjects not taken at Cambridge Level, and for Catholic Doctrine. It is a good experience for the younger children to sit examinations under strict examination conditions, and it certainly trains them up for their public examinations later.
Recently our examination procedures were reviewed by Cambridge Representatives and we gained an “exemplary” status. All credit should go to S.M.Catherine who sets up and runs the examinations procedures.
The results of the internal examinations will be relayed to the parents by the children’s school reports which will be given out after the final Mass of the year on 8 December. The Cambridge papers have been sent to England for marking and results will be available on the Cambridge website about 15 January. Please God, success will attend this year’s candidates!
Hello Sisters,
Nice to see you making your collective presence felt online.
JP
How wonderful to see well ordered schoolgirls in neat uniform, modestly dressed and modestly behaved, lining up ready for class. And in the classroom, a sense of peace and calm with Sister in control and pupils working diligently.This used to be the experience of Catholic girls all over the world, but sadly no longer. Now we have to homeschool our children to protect them from the excesses of state schools and the errors in teaching of some “modernist” Catholic schools. Standards are in decline everywhere. There is hope however, as orders like that of the Sisters in Wanganui are growing and please God, with the help of our prayers, some day in the future, we will have the traditional religious back in control of our children’s education.The Sisters are a great blessing to the parish of Wanganui.