Comments from the Principal

Greetings
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Today you will notice in ‘The Ensign’ the first of a number of articles about the history of St Peter’s College over the last 50 years. Of course, although we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our college in January, the planning and contribution by so many of our Catholic community began well before 1969. The foresight and vision by a small number of people in those early days needs to be admired. It was no small undertaking for a local community to build a school, literally, from the ground up. The traditions that began back in the early days continue now and, although national educational policy and rules and regulations have altered the way education is ‘done’ here, our purpose remains the same – to offer a high quality Catholic education with the Gospel values at the heart of everything we do, to the young people of Southland.
It was certainly obvious on Tuesday night when we held our Open Night for prospective families, that our Southland community still respects the purpose and mission of St Peter’s College. We had a record number of families through the door on Tuesday and they enjoyed the company of our student volunteers throughout the evening. It was wonderful to put the call out to our students and have about 80 from years 7 – 13 wanting to be part of this evening and being proud to share their school with the wider community. Thank you all for your contribution – I really appreciate it.

Next weekend is a special one for us. We are fortunate to be hosting the 75th Bishops’ Shield. The Bishops’ Shield is a public speaking competition between the four schools in the Dunedin Diocese – St Kevin’s, Kavanagh, Verdon and St Peter’s. Of course, 75 years ago the schools that were competing in this competition were different to those in it today – and St Peter’s hadn’t yet made an appearance! We have a copy of the very first programme for this competition and we will put this in the newsletter next week so you can see how some things change and some stay the same. I encourage you to come along to the Catholic Church in Ardwick Street any time from Friday night through to Sunday afternoon (10th - 12th August). This will be our venue for the weekend and I assure you the quality of the performances will be well worth the visit. We will include the schedule of events in the newsletter and on our website next week. Everyone is welcome to attend and we would love some hometown support for the St Peter’s team.
Good luck to the sports teams who are moving into semis and finals over the next couple of weeks. Play hard and give it your all.

Ngā mihi 

Kate Nicholson
Principal