Year 7 – 10 Maths classes celebrated π Day in their lessons on Thursday. Teachers offered a range of activities for students to engage in. Making bar graphs to represent the digits of π (Pi-scape), looking at Pi songs, measuring and investigating the relationships between the circumference and diameter of circular objects, were some on offer. Pi cupcakes and pies were in some classes as well. The number π is such an important number in Mathematics, from its actual full value to the significance of its contribution to the subject.
Carolyn Hunter – HELA Mathematics

On Friday 8th March four of our junior students participated in the annual "Lit. Quiz." They were Luke Gemmill, Grace Millikin (Year 7) and Aidan Sheddan, Luca Metzler (Year 8).
Twenty-four teams took part from all over Southland with teams from Stewart Island to Queenstown.  
Teams of four had to answer approximately ten questions, relating to books, in a variety of different categories.
The St Peter’s College  team won the last round on "teachers" and were tie-breakers on two other rounds.  While Blue Mountian College were the overall winners on 77 points, the St Peter's team did our school proud and finished 7th equal on 62 points.
The winning team received $1000 and will travel to Wellington for the final.  The winning team of that round will then fly to Singapore.
The Quiz Master suggested that students, who are keen on literature, should read widely aiming to read one book a week i.e. 52 books a year.
Having never been before I was astounded at the students' knowledge and memory recall.  
I was also impressed with the beautiful manners of the students that I took.
V Tamblyn
Teacher Aide

This week further programmes at Hokonui Tertiary High School began and new Gateway students settled into their first day’s placement. A second forklift course ran on Thursday giving students a valuable skill for their CV’s.
Jacob Wright (pictured below) is beginning to build his grass kart at Hokonui Tertiary High School Automotive programme.  Racing these students’ built karts will take place in October at the end of the course.
Pictured below is Jessica Shaw, Kate Lawton, Victoria Green and Ella McVicar as they begin their Salon skills programme at Hokonui Tertiary High School, with learning and practicing manicures.
Joy Delahunt - Gateway/Careers Administrator
 

Lisa Sanson
It's great to be back at my old school - this time on the other side of the classroom. As a past pupil and with children of my own heading this way in a couple of years Teaching and Learning at St Peter's is something I am very passionate about. I'm always proud of the graduates we produce year after year (and not at all biased about the Class of 2001). After 8 years working part time across different schools I am loving being in one place with my own class again.
 
Linda Dalzell
It is such a pleasure to have joined St Peter’s College as a part time staff member.  I have many years of teaching experience mainly in English and Social Science, along with a variety of other roles. I love working in the English Department and appreciate the warm welcome I have been given by students and staff alike.

I have enjoyed wandering the C floor corridor and classrooms of late. There is a special learning hum happening, classroom walls are loaded with student work, our new Year 7’s are a pretty special group and our Year 8s are certainly stepping up to the plate with leadership and learning. Last week I published our NCEA statistics in the newsletter and this week I ask you to think about how important the years prior to these are. The grounding, the habits, and the specialist curriculum teaching that students can access from year 7 is a special feature of St Peter’s. As parents, please remember how important these years are. As the winter terms approach, keep the conversations happening at home about balance. Many of our local teenagers have wonderful opportunities to take part in part time jobs, sports, music and dance among other things. They grow up learning how to juggle many different aspects of their lives and this is great learning for them in terms of time management. However, please continue the conversations with them about balance and remind them that, as young people, one of their main ‘jobs’ is working hard at their education which is the foundation for the rest of their lives.
 
I draw your attention to the information about the current proposal for Tomorrow’s Schools Reform. There are potentially big implications for parent choice and for integrated schools. I encourage you to have your say and make a submission by March 31st using the following link - https://consultation.education.govt.nz/tsr/survey2019/. During next week, we will upload some information along with recent editorials and commentary from Paul Ferris and Br Sir Pat Lynch from the Catholic Education Office to help you to formulate your opinion on this. You will find these on the news center of our website.

​Here are a few statements I read in a C floor classroom on one of my wanders recently – the topic was ‘What does Special Character mean at SPC?’
“You feel included, everyone is looking after everyone”
“It feels like one big family now that we have settled in”
“Our motto means that love and compassion are most important”
“The staff have a great sense of humour” – this is good to hear!!
“You feel like you are part of something bigger than just you or your class” …
 
…and we certainly are. Wonderful thoughts to end the week.
 
Regards,

​Kate Nicholson

Last year Tayla McGuigan (Year 12) and her family kindly donated a trophy for the Senior section of the Wearable Arts category of our Eisteddfod Competition. The winners of this section in 2018 were Chloe and Courtney Bond.

Pictured from right: Chloe Bond, Tayla McGuigan and Courtney Bond

On Wednesday the ever popular Otago University Liaison officer Greg Heller spoke to interested Year 13’s about studying at Otago next year. Around 25 students listened to Greg explain study options, scholarships and he also passed on information about the Halls of Residence at Otago.
It is never too early to start considering scholarship applications and Greg explained the process and encouraged everyone to look at the types of scholarships available.
Last week we had our first Gateway student start their placement.
Chloe Bond joined the Thomas Green team to learn practical aspects of hospitality, which complements her theory work from Service IQ that she is starting in class. Thanks to local employers for allowing our students to experience real work situations.  Over the next three weeks the rest of the Gateway students will move into their Thursday placements and start their learning journey in their chosen career.
Joy Delahunt - Gateway/Careers Administrator

Your child has been given their Shoot Key slips at School so you can order their class and/or individual photos.  If you would like free delivery, you will need to order these before 31 March, 2019.


​If you do not want your child/ren photographed at school, to use in the Newsletter, Facebook or Website, please contact the Main School Office on 208 9060. If we do not hear from you it will be deemed we have permission.
 

Every year the PTFA provides people to help with low key security at the Ball.  We require people for the following time slots:
6pm – 7:30pm helping in the carpark outside the Gore T&C as people arrive, 7:20pm  – 9:30pm, and 9:15 -11pm during the event.  Please contact Miranda on 027 4 974 593, or email misa@xtra.co.nz if you can help.
 

​Kia ora tatou
I was fortunate to accompany the Kapahaka students to the Eastern Southland Cultural Festival on Thursday at Mataura Primary School. Once again the students showed their commitment and talent during a number of items performing haka and waiata. They even taught the large crowd present a waiata with actions.  Well done to all of you - it was a pleasure to watch you perform.
On Monday, we will celebrate academic excellence during our Academic Blues ceremony at noon. Our NCEA Excellence endorsements were particularly pleasing last year and there will be a large number of students crossing the stage on Monday to receive their ‘Blue’. Having such a big number of excellence endorsements shows real quality and depth of teaching and learning that is happening in the senior school, and of course this follows on from the foundations that are built in the junior school. Thank you to the students, staff and parents who have contributed to these outstanding results. Again this year our Level 1 and 2 results were higher than both national results and also higher than comparable schools throughout New Zealand (decile 8-10 schools). Our boys’ results continue to stand out, being significantly higher than the decile 8-10 schools nationally. A summary of our results are shown here:

The Year 13 Special Character Leaders coordinated our liturgy for Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, at assembly on Wednesday. Students were reminded of the meaning of Lent and the 40 days of reflection, repentance, fasting and almsgiving that are all a priority for Christians during this time leading to the Resurrection at Easter. Therefore it is appropriate that we have our annual Work Day during Lent. Please remember that this is happening this coming Wednesday, 13th March, and all students are asked to find work for the day. A significant proportion of the money raised is then given to agencies and charities to help those who need our assistance. We have been talking at school about love in action being the real meaning of our motto ‘Charity Fulfils the Law’. Committing to help our local and global community is one way we can ‘do’ love in action. Please encourage and support your child to be part of this mission on Wednesday.