Paul Ferris new NZCEO head

by NZ CATHOLIC staff
The new head of the Catholic Education Office will be Paul Ferris, QSM.
The New Zealand Catholic Education Office announced on January 21 that Mr Ferris had been appointed to replace Sir Brother Patrick Lynch, whose retirement was announced almost a year ago.

Mr Ferris was to start in his new role on February 1.
Mr Ferris was a principal for 36 years in state and state-integrated schools.
More recently he has been a contractor to the Ministry of Education as a commissioner and limited statutory manager in a number of schools in the Southern Region.
While principal of Kavanagh College, Dunedin, he received a number of awards for his leadership in the school and across the education sector. He received a Laureate Award from the New Zealand Catholic Education Office (NZCEO) , a Leadership in Education Award from SPANZ (Secondary Principals Association of New Zealand), and is a life member of SPANZ.
Mr Ferris was an executive member of SPANZ for several years before becoming its president in 2004.
In Dunedin he was the founding president of the Secondary Principals’ Partnership, which was established to find successful pathways for students at risk of losing their place in school, and he was the founding principal of DunedinNet, a video conferencing collaboration for Dunedin secondary schools.
In the 2012 New Year Honours list he was awarded a QSM for his work in education. In 2014 he was made a Paul Harris Fellow by the Dunedin Rotary Club, for his services to Dunedin education as a non-member of Rotary.
Mr Ferris has acknowledged that following Br Sir Pat Lynch’s 22 years of outstanding leadership will be a challenge.
NZCEO acts as the national office of APIS (the Association of Proprietors of State-Integrated Schools) and individual state-integrated schools, and will continue its support and leadership of all state-integrated schools.