Comments from the Principal

Kia ora, Bula Vinaka, Sawadee ka
I hope everyone enjoyed the wonderful weather over Queen’s Birthday weekend even if it was a little brisk!  And thank you for your tolerance with the snow day called on Wednesday and the union meeting on Tuesday. Please be assured that we will be working hard to catch up on any lost learning time.
We often talk about using our God given talents and gifts at school and at this stage of the year there are plenty of opportunities to do this. I encourage you to pop along to the Fire Station Gallery on Hokonui Drive to see the St Peter’s College Senior Art Exhibition which opens this Friday evening at 5pm. There will be musical entertainment, refreshments and senior students will talk about the art they are exhibiting. The exhibition will be on for a fortnight and this is a wonderful way of students engaging the community in their learning. Thank you to Mr Tafa and Mr Munn for organising this opportunity.  Another opportunity to celebrate the arts at St Peter’s is the student Film Festival that will screen later in June – more information will be out soon. This Saturday is ‘Club Day’ for our rugby club and we will have our three teams playing at school from 12noon. This is a chance to thank our sponsors for their ongoing commitment and to come together to share in sport and community. Also remember that any time between 8:45am and 3pm you are likely to find a St Peter’s netball team playing at the MLT stadium on Saturdays. Pop along and give our teams plenty of support – they appreciate it.
Well done to all the students who shared their talent during the NZ Gold Guitar Awards last weekend. We look forward to hearing more of you during the Eisteddfod. Please mark on your calendars the Eisteddfod Concert which will be held on Thursday, 5th July. During the week prior, we will be celebrating Mass together as a school community for the Feast of St Peter, which will be followed by two days of Eisteddfod performances at school. As always, there is an invitation to anyone in our wider school community to attend these events.
Let us remind our children that they have been blessed with talents and gifts and the opportunities abound for them to use and practice these. It is also a time to be thankful that we all have different strengths and we need to celebrate this diversity within our college.
“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God” – Leo Buscaglia
We farewelled our Executive Officer, Talia Andrews last Friday. Talia is moving on to train in social work and we wish her all the best for her change in career and we will miss her wonderful efficiency and great sense of fun.  We also farewelled Ms Kate Pavitt last Friday as she left on maternity leave and we were thrilled to hear the special news of Lucia’s arrival on Tuesday. We congratulate Simon and Kate on the birth of their wee girl.
We were pleased to welcome Mrs Paula Robertson into St Peter’s this week as our new Executive Officer. Paula brings both school administration and financial experience into this role and she is looking forward to getting to know our school community. Welcome, Paula.
Read further on in the newsletter about one of our ex-students who has definitely used her gifts and talents – what a wonderful accomplishment. Thank you to Chris and Suzanne Boyle who shared this update with us.
 
Have a wonderful weekend.

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