Comments from Principal

Greetings
One of the benefits of your child attending a smaller school like St Peter’s, in comparison with large urban schools, are the opportunities they get to ‘try out’ leadership opportunities and develop skills along the way. Leadership of and with peers, is a great learning platform for developing interpersonal skills, confidence, public speaking, resilience, time management and collaboration. These are often the skills that our graduates are admired for, and the skills that will take them a long way in their future workplaces. Many of our young people have taken the opportunities presented this year already.
I was pleased to be able to attend the swearing in of the new Gore and Districts Youth Council where nine representatives are St Peter’s students. These students volunteered to serve on this committee which make decisions for the youth of Gore, and they liaise closely with the Gore District Council. Congratulations to Flynn Chamberlain, Luca Patching, Jay Wadsworth, Myah Kortbaoui, Abby Gutschlag, Bree Dinan, Laura Heads, Brayden Scott and Emily Chamberlain. I know you will learn plenty from this experience.
A group of Year 12 and 13 students had an opportunity this week to attend the Caritas Leadership Day in Dunedin along with members of the other Dunedin Diocese Secondary Schools. You can read about their experience further in this newsletter.
Badges were presented to the new Student Council members who were voted in by their form classes.  This group will be ably led by Sian Hutchins (Year 13) who has been a student council member herself for a number of years. This year we have a student from every form class to better represent their peers and to allow more students to experience this opportunity. We will bring two Year 7s on to the council once they have settled into school properly and got to know one another better. Congratulations to Ben King, Fraser Wilson, Seba Metzler, Abby Hailes, Morgan Lawton, Nairn McBeath, Saskia Smith, Frances Bote, Emily Chamberlain, Lewis Boult-O’Neill, Bridget Edwards, Kirsty McInnes, and Grace Turipa who were voted in by their peers.
Next week, application forms for the position of Junior House Leader will be available. Two Year 10s from each House will work alongside the senior house leaders to organise house activities and encourage house spirit within the junior classes. Please encourage your son or daughter to put themselves forward for this role.
 
Work Day
Next Wednesday is our annual work day. All students have personalised forms that need to be returned to school as soon as possible after work day.  It is easy for students to simply donate some of their own money or parents to do similar for them, while having a ‘day off’. However, this does not encourage a good work ethic nor a compassionate understanding of working for those who benefit from this day. Let’s make a big effort this year to all pull our weight. While work day is happening, the whole staff are having a professional learning day where we have workshops on some of our key foci for the year – blended e-learning, restorative practice and collaborative pedagogy.
 
Whanau Evening for Year 7-10 Parents (6:30pm – 8:30pm)
On Monday, 12th March, we would like to see all parents of our year 7-10 students at school to hear John Parsons (cybersafety expert) speak about the safe use of the internet and social media. There will be some very important hints and messages for parents of teenagers who are living in an ever-increasing digital world. We aim to begin from 6:30pm with a meet and greet, followed by John’s presentation. After this, there will be a half-hour session with your child’s form teacher and learning tutor talking about the year ahead and meeting the people who will be important in your child’s life this year.

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