​After much anticipation and excitement, our Year 13 Geography trip was finally here. We arrived in Queenstown and began our tourism experiences at Skyline Queenstown, where we met Collette and discussed all things tourism. We asked some excellent questions and it was very interesting! After taste testing the dessert cabinet at Skyline’s award winning café, we began our Luge Racing. We whizzed around the luge tracks, leaving everyone else in our speed dust.
We boarded the gondolas once again and enjoyed the scenic views Queenstown has to offer on our way back down. Our schedule was tight over these two days, so once back on the ground we sped to Fear Factory and began our experience at New Zealand’s scariest Haunted House. Overall, that experience was one I wouldn’t do again but it was nice to hear Griffin’s girly little screams. We stopped for some kai at half time and ventured into town to find ourselves a feed. After lunch, we met Alex from the Council and discussed the accelerating rate at which Queenstown is growing at, an interesting topic in many ways;
An enthusiastic Mr Terry then insisted we should walk up Queenstown Hill and experience Queenstown’s serene views once again. This passed the time and when we got back down it was time for FergBurger!!!! It lives up to its name in many ways; you get a nice yummy burger and you also get to spot celebrities! We saw Grace Palmer from Shortland Street there, but were too nervous to say hi. Mrs T ordered the Cajun chicken burger with beautiful spices and thought it was very yummy.
After this we went to Pak n save to get some brekkie, made some tik toks in the frozen vegetable isle and travelled to Arrowtown to the campground, where we were staying. It’s a really clean campground; we didn’t even have to wear jandals in the shower!
The next morning, we visited the Arrowtown Museum where we met Kelly Roos and she gave us all the answers for the exam! We then raced to the airport to meet Chris, where he told us everything he knew about the airport and how it was run. After this we drove to QRC where we were given a tour of their facilities and all the information about your first year there as a student. We then visited a Mexican restaurant, got some nachos and some burritos and departed Queenstown.
Overall, the Geography class thoroughly enjoyed this trip! It was well run, with a good balance of fun and learning. Everybody we spoke to helped to further our understanding of the exam slightly more and we all feel prepared for it. We would like to thank Mr Terry and Mrs Thompson for organising the trip and taking us.

​Love, the Year 13 Geo Class.

This week is the end of Gateway placements.  Students have had an exciting year learning new skills in their chosen career path.  Three of our hospitality students chose to make cakes as a thank you to their employers. They baked them at the Hostel Kitchen and then went to Jude Taylor’s commercial kitchen to learn decorating techniques, and iced their cakes using their new skills.
 
Scholarships
As Year 12 and 13 students start their planning for next year, those going onto further study should be applying for scholarships.  All scholarships are posted on the Facebook page, and usually have links where to get the applications forms. The Careers Room has hard copies available.  Students should note the closing dates as some scholarships close during the holidays.

Joy Delahunt
Gateway Co-ordinator/Careers Administrator

​The Uniform Shop will be open during the school holidays on Tuesday, 1st October between 11am and  1:30pm. Please note all students need to be in their summer uniforms Term 4. 
 

Well done to Brooke McMillan and Holly McGowan (Year 8) who as part of their Project Based Learning have organised a fundraiser for Hospice.  It is fantastic to see these young people taking initiative with all the different projects happening at school. 
 

The Year 10 Commerce class held their Market Day last Friday lunchtime to complete their unit about Enterprise. The Market Day was a great success and the students learned much about themselves and their groups. The teams had to make decisions quickly on the day, be well prepared before hand and learn to find solutions as problems arose.
The skills the students demonstrated were creativity, negotiating, organisation, customer service, working under pressure,  to name a few. Well done to all the groups involved.
Annie Chamberlain - Teacher of Commerce
 

The Year 13 Agri Business class visited the HW Richardson group in Invercargill recently. The class meet with Colm Hamrogue, the group General Manager of transport; Jolene Ferguson, Executive Assistant Transport and Matt, a young driver for TSL. These people provided a big incite to the employment issue of a lack of truck drivers nationally and the consequences on businesses, workers and the New Zealand economy.
I would like to thank the Richardson Group for giving up their time to talk to the students.
Annie Chamberlain

New Principal Tara Quinney
Tara Quinney is a visionary, transformational leader with fifteen years’ experience supervising staff, allocating resources, transforming school cultures and implementing effective programmes. Tara comes to us from Wellington where she is Deputy Principal at Chanel College in Masterton, a Catholic Co-Educational Year 7-13 Secondary School.
Tara has a passion for curriculum development, professional development, Catholic character and student and staff well-being. Her personal qualities include strong organizational and administrative skills, an interest in all curriculum areas and a commitment to remaining up-to-date with new developments in many aspects of education. Tara recently completed a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management. These qualities permit Tara to bring a positive learning energy with resourcefulness and zeal to the Principal role at St Peter’s College. Leading and being part of successful teams is a strategic strength of Tara’s and she looks forward to the challenges involved in working in a new but familiar environment.
 
 
 
 

Kia Ora and warm greetings to you all

Well the last week of term has seen no let up in terms of busyness for students and staff. We started this week with some speeches at assembly for the position of Student Representative on the Board of Trustees. Our two very capable candidates, Molly Hailes and Frances Bote, made compelling listening regarding how they would represent the student body if elected.  Elections took place yesterday, and it is my pleasure to announce France Bote as the new Student Representative to the Board of Trustees.

Tuesday was the full dress rehearsal at SBS St James Theatre for our wonderful cast members of ‘High School Musical’. Mr Munn and his cast of talented students preformed on Thursday night to good crowds and will be on stage again tonight. We thank all those involved over the weeks,  for the energy and enthusiasm to bring such a fantastic show together in such a short space of time. With both Mr Munn and Mrs Borgman moving on at the end of this year, we really have some big shoes to fill in the future. Thank you.
​
Wednesday was Sports and Cultural photos and it is always nice to see our groups together in one place looking wonderful. It does make you consider the time and effort that goes in by parents and staff to make it all happen and our students are so very fortunate to have the kind of support they have, so on their behalf, thank you so very much.

And of course, the big news of the week was the announcement of the selection of our new Principal, Mrs Tara Quinney, who will begin at St Peter’s in January 2020. Tara is a born and bred Southlander,  who is very community minded. She is a warm and friendly person who is very much looking forward to starting at St Peter’s College and meeting the new people in the Parish and the wider community. We are certainly very excited to have her on board and we wish her all the very best as she joins our dynamic and committed team her at school. 

Have a restful and relaxing holiday - be kind to yourself and others.

Nga Mihi Nui

Darren
Acting Principal
 

​Dear Parents and Caregivers
Every second year the PFTA organise a raffle to sell to raise funds for the School.  This is one of our major fundraisers.  This years proceeds from the raffle will go towards our long-term goal of the refurbishment of the Susan Horrell Tennis Courts, along with the purchases of items and other resources for our students as required by the various school departments. 
We are grateful for the generosity of all of our sponsors and encourage you to support their businesses when you can.  Without them we would not have such a fantastic raffle to offer. 
We would appreciate it if every family could contribute to this fundraiser by selling one raffle card, returning the card and the money in a enclosed bag no later than 21 October.  It is important that all cards are accounted for so please ensure the cards come back to school even if you are unable to sell the full card.  There is a letter enclosed with the raffle card that will give you move information regarding incentives etc. 
On behalf of the PFTA we would like to thank you for helping us out in this Fundraiser.
 
 
 
 

​Project Based Learning (PBL) is a wonderful new addition to the Year 8-10 programme at SPC this year.  Project Based Learning involves a dynamic classroom approach and encourages students to develop a deeper knowledge and understanding for learning through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems. However, this exciting new learning is not all about students having the most amazing product, presentation or exhibition at the the end. It is all about the learning process and the new skills students learn along the way such as how to be reflective learners, think critically, problem solve, plan, communicate and feel okay with making mistakes and that we can learn from these mistakes.
Some of the biggest highlights for me so far are:
· seeing the engagement students have for their project, 
· seeing students negotiate and make comprises within their groups, 
· that just like the students in my class, I am learning too. 
· We are all ako on this PBL journey and that is pretty exciting.
Kate Sinclair
 
Bridgette Shaw and Donna Buren’s Project - Year 10
Donna and I first started to collaborate because of our Pacific Island heritage.  Donna is from Kiribati and found it hard easing into the community because of the language barrier, as did my grandmother who is from Papua New Guinea. After much thought we came up with the idea of a translation book for Island languages, so it’s very personal to us.  At first, we had a large variety of languages but after a chat with the teacher we narrowed it down to five. We specifically decided on these languages because of their relationship with the surrounding community.  We also observed the Cultural Festival and made a list of all the cultures there. Our language list consists of Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.  Our goal is to translate basic phrases and sayings from those languages to English to enable an easier adjustment for people from those cultures. Something that I’ve learnt is the diversity of all the languages – they’re so very different from English.  For example in Kiribati there is one word for “my name is” and in English that’s three words and I found that interesting. I’m hoping to learn more about the cultures of the language and what slang people don’t understand. We are the next Generation and we are ready.
 
Nicholas Roy, Albert Dennison and Josh Davers  -Year 10
This term Albert Dennison, Josh Davers and I have been working on doing up an old single axel trailer at Albert’s house for project-based learning. We found the trailer abandoned so we decided to use it for our project.  When this trailer is completed it will be used to tow the St Peter’s Rugby Club scoreboard (a project that another group is doing) around the fields. We are only two weeks into the practical side of this project as we had to do plenty of planning and organising to actually begin. So far, we have learnt to be realistic with what is achievable, as well as learning practical skills with tools. We really enjoy project-based learning as we can get out and learn in a different more hands on way and it’s also rewarding to see our project coming along nicely.