Comments from the Principal...

​Greetings and welcome back to term 2.  I do hope that families managed to rest and relax, forget about routines for a while and treasure each other’s company during the school holidays.
There were some busy students and staff during the holidays. We welcomed back the Ratcliffe Tour Group on Monday after their time visiting Rome, Northern Italy, Ireland and England to discover the heritage of St Peter’s College’s Founding Orders (the Mercy and Rosminian Orders); and for many of these students they were also discovering their own heritage with visits to the countries of their ancestors. They will prepare a report for the next newsletter.
Alida Chay spent part of her holiday visiting Tamworth as this year’s recipient of the Gore Sister City Anzac Exchange where she attended the Anzac ceremony and was a guest speaker at events on the day. Thank you for representing us in this way, Alida. Meanwhile at home in Gore, Head students Fraser Ditchfield and Dakoda Conroy were flagbearers in the dawn parade.  The following students  also represented the 28SQN Gore, Rocco Saunders, Jack Butler and Ashlea Friend (Cenotaph Party), Aydan Harris (Flight Commander), Daniel Fowler and George Hickey (Cadets). We welcomed returned servicemen Aaron Horrell and Eddie Bassett into our Anzac Assembly on Wednesday. As always, this was a very reflective ceremony led by our Leaders of Special Character, Luke Roughan and Marion Frei. Thank you Aaron for continuing to support our college in this way.
Brendan Terry and I were very pleased to have a good number of students volunteer to attend Bishop Michael Dooley’s ordination in Dunedin during their holidays. This was a rare and auspicious occasion for the Diocese and we were pleased to have good numbers attend to represent St Peter’s College. Thank you to Kate Lawton and Jacob Dickie who were chosen to take part in the ceremony which was held in the Dunedin Town Hall. We hope to see Bishop Michael (the 7th Bishop of the Dunedin Diocese) in Gore before long.
Please check out our new app. Along with the new website and the college Facebook page, we are trying to ensure simple and effective communication for our community. If you have any feedback on the success or otherwise of these methods of communication, please let us know. Thank you to those who took part in the parent voice survey last year which helped us review our communication systems.
We all had a bit of fun yesterday at lunchtime creating a 97.2 on our courts for a competition being run by The Edge radio station. Please help us win a photo booth for next year’s college ball, by text voting. (Instructions are inside this newsletter). Thank you Hannah Gutschlag and Year 13 helpers for organising this and to Shay Moseby who brought his drone along for the photography.
 
We should be as the compass that goes round its circle without stirring from its center - our center is God, from whom all our actions should spring as from their source.  Words from Catherine McAuley.

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