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Career Pathways Department This week we feature Emma Greenfield, who is working at S’cape Hair and Beauty, as part of the Gateway programme. Emma is helping out the hairdressing team. We also have Blake Nicholson working with Ben at GWD Gore. On Wednesday, the Defence Forces came to speak to 33 students about careers in the Defence Forces. From the Navy, PO Katrina Mohi, and from the Airforce, Sgt Josey Drum, entertained the students with snippets of life in the Defence Forces and shared with them career paths within the forces.
Camps and Subject Trips St Peter's College really values the many opportunities we are able to offer our students in attending camps and subject trips. Ministry of Education guidelines clearly indicate that we can only request donations to cover these costs. For us to continue to offer these awesome opportunities, we are reliant on parents and caregivers paying the camp and subject trip donations. Camps and subject trips often include accommodation, food, and travel costs and if these cannot be covered through the donations, we may no longer be able to offer these opportunities in the future. St Peter's College would never prevent a student attending a camp or subject trip due to financial need and we have mechanisms in place to help these families with the donations. We recognise that donations are not compulsory payments but are necessary for us to offer these experiences. If our parent community decide that these donations will not be paid, we would need to reconsider the offering of camps and subject trips in the future. We have committed to all of the camps and subject trips we have on offer for 2021.
SCHOOL BALL FORMS AND PAYMENTS
IF YOU HAVE NOT HANDED IN YOUR BALL FORM PLEASE DO SO ASAP TO MRS ROBERTSON OR MRS HORNE IN THE EXEC OFFICE. All tickets will be charged to school accounts – these must be paid prior to the ball by Wednesday, 24th March. Non-payment of tickets means non-attendance. Please ensure you use the following details when making payments: St Peter’s College BOT 12-3434-0012635-00 Reference: Student Name - Ball Please direct any queries to: execofficer@stpetersgore.school.nz Paula Robertson Executive Officer Kia ora e te whanau,
This week at assembly we had a focus on one of our school values- Community! Our community includes the students, our staff, not just the teachers, but everyone who works here, to help the school run smoothly, our parents, aunties, uncles and cousins and anyone who came to this school before us make up our St Peter’s College community. We are a diverse group, but we all want the same thing- a top education, whether that be in the sports, academic or cultural fields for all of our students. We are extremely lucky and privileged to have families and parents in our community who support us. When schools, family and communities work together to support the students learning, young people tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more. Families have a major influence on their children’s achievement in school and through life. If it were not for our family’s support, we would not be able to run our school production, our ball, our athletics days or go on camps. St Peter’s College is one big family, and families as we know have their ups and downs, you may have a grumpy uncle you don’t particularly like or an annoying younger cousin who seems to get better birthday presents, but we still all love our family members, and know that we can go to any of them when we need. School is just like that, students may not always like every teacher they have but they know they are always there to help them, our teachers want our students to achieve and want the best for them always. Parents and caregivers often ask what they can do to support their child’s education and we know from research that this is a crucial area we as a school need to focus on in supporting families to engage with their child’s learning at home. The following actions that make the biggest difference are straight forward and can be applied by all parents regardless of education or income levels, and do not take much time: - Hold high but reasonable expectations for your children - Provide a home that encourages and supports education and a healthy lifestyle - Role model an interest in books and reading - Encourage healthy eating and sleeping patterns Young people discover by example how to learn and succeed. The attitudes and behaviours of parents demonstrate to children how to organise themselves, solve problems, persist to achieve outcomes, remain motivated and have confidence in their abilities. A core focus for us here at St Peter’s College is the wellbeing of all of our staff and students, and we will be sharing with you over future newsletters ways in which you can support your children in regard to bullying and harassment, particularly through digital media. St Patrick’s day was celebrated in style this week with a get together of staff from St Peter’s and St Mary’s, with their children playing “Leprechaun games” in the school hall, led by some of our student leaders. Thank you to all who helped to make this an awesome Catholic community event. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me…… From a prayer of St Patrick Year 12 Biology Trip After a rather rainy and chilly start to the Year 12 Biology trip to Grant’s Bush on Monday, the weather improved enough to enjoy lunch at the top. The pupils spent time measuring the environmental factors affecting plant life in the native bush. Thanks to Jo Carter for accompanying the group and providing hot raro. Louise Grogan, Biology Teacher  Year 13 Geography Field Trip On a sunny 26th February, the Year 13 Geography class set off on a field trip to the Mataura River. For our internal we researched the water quality at three different locations to identify which spot had the best place to swim. We used the equipment provided by Environment Southland and measured the velocity, clarity, PH, temperature and macroinvertebrates in the river. Our first site was Parawa, up near Athol, but first we made a short detour to the coffee bomb at Garston! We then visited the Riversdale bridge, and lastly Monaghan’s beach near Gore before heading home. We found that all three of these sites had very similar water quality and was much better than we expected. We are now working on analysing our data and we predict the best spot for swimming is Riversdale because of the high water clarity, even temperature, gentle velocity, and range of macroinvertebrates indicating a healthy water quality. Thank you to Mr Terry and Mrs Perkins for accompanying us. Rose Perkins, Year 13 Geography class
Career Pathways Department Gateway students are now out on their work placements. We will start to feature them over the coming weeks. Matthew de Jong, who is studying New Zealand Certificate in Outdoor Leadership Level 4, is on Gateway placement at Camp Columbia. Nicki-Jane Smith is currently undertaking her Gateway placement at Love Hair, with the plan to move into hairdressing when she leaves school. University Scholarships for Year 13 Students MoneyHub, a consumer finance website, has published a guide to hundreds of scholarships for any student planning to start university in 2022. The comprehensive list includes scholarships offered by every university as well as those specifically available to local students. A list of privately-funded, Maori, Pacific and International university scholarships completes the list. Applications close throughout the year, with tens of millions of dollars available. MoneyHub has also published a list of tips for scholarship success. For more details and to find suitable scholarships, visit the MoneyHub Scholarship page
Kia ora e te whanau
In a previous school I have worked in, the school motto was “Truth is Light.” I always loved this motto, and it was something the students really lived. When we broke a school rule, lied about completing a task or chose to hurt another person, we could be reminded of this motto and be challenged to bring our truths to the light. This is a truism that can be lived by all Catholics, whether we are on the receiving or giving ends. To be true to ourselves it starts with honesty about who we really are. We have to rationalise less, lay down our defences and confess to ourselves what our real motives are. We need to let go of the strong, dark need to share our side of the story and convince others our motives are more important or are the right ones. All of us have a light side and a shadow side to our personalities and it is human nature to lean towards the shadow side, to darkness and negativity. To come to the light, we need to admit some of the ugliest things about ourselves first and that is not easy to do. We can sometimes be ashamed of our choices, knowing we can be petty and self-serving. Our school value of compassion encompasses all that we do here at St Peter’s College, but we can all get caught up in the busyness of sports practices, assignments due, work commitments and deadlines, and this can minimise our capacity to show compassion towards each other. When our compassion is undersized, we may be unwilling to love our enemies or forgive those who injure us. We prefer the darkness to the light. In darkness, we can pretend we are better people. We can feel better about ourselves without having to change. But once we come into the light, things have to change. We must change. The good news is, Jesus makes such change possible, even desirable. We become who we have longed to be. And God so loved the world, just for this. What truths are hardest to admit about ourselves? What kind of people do we long to be? This week Bishop Michael celebrated our Commissioning Mass with the staff from St Peter’s College and St Mary’s school in our chapel and his sermon resonated with me strongly. For us to be people of the light we must go out of comfort zones and the darkness to partake in acts of goodness. We need to build on the good that has come to us. If someone was merciful to us, we will show mercy to others. If someone was generous, we will give generously. If someone listened to us, we can be present to those in need. In term 4 of last year, the Education Review Office (ERO) began piloting its new operating model with 75 schools. The new model is intended to shift the focus of ERO’s interaction with schools from event-based external reviews to becoming an evaluation partner that supports each school’s own process of continuous improvement. One important focus of the new approach is strengthening schools’ own engagement with and accountability to whānau. Myself and Board of Trustees chair, Mr Karl Metzler, have already had our first meeting with our new ERO partner, Mrs Christine Gold and we look forward to continuing to build on this mutually beneficial relationship. Truth is Light! Tara Quinney Principal |
