Principals Comments 28.10.22

Kia ora e te whanau

This is definitely the business end of the year, and our focus is now on all our senior students taking the initiative to work hard over the following weeks and make their hard work count for their external examinations. Eisteddfod is over for another year and while we were thankful to be able to run this event and show case the many amazing talented students we have, cramming it into term four has meant our senior students have to buckle down even more to prepare themselves for the NZQA examinations. NCEA external examinations begin early November, and we are preparing our students to face these with confidence.

Unfortunately, Covid cases have begun to creep back up in the school with a small number of staff who haven’t had Covid before, now catching it. A small number of student cases are also on the rise. Please, if you have sick children with any flu or cold symptoms, please keep them home so we can keep school open.

We have some exciting new developments in the pipeline here at St Peter’s College in preparation for next year. Most of our landline phones have been removed from the school and all staff now have the capability to make calls through the Microsoft Teams app on their laptops and cellphones. We apologise for some hiccups in installation which have meant not all calls into the main office and through to Rosmini House have been able to get through, but we should have all of this ironed out by next week. We are also in the design stages of a new school website that will have updated photos, resources, policies, and links to online portals, and we hope to launch this early next year. For the beginning of next year, we will be moving to a new student management system called Kamar. This will give us the capability to more easily input all student assessment data in the one place so that academic reports can easily be downloaded and sent to parents and caregivers alongside our fortnightly ATL reports. This has been an area in the school that has been inadequate, and we are pleased to be able to streamline this process for 2023 onwards.

I would like to congratulate Abby Gutschlag and MacLean Sharp who were the St Peter’s College Youth Mark recipients for 2022. Both students clearly epitomise what it means to be a well-rounded student in all areas of school, sporting and cultural life. You can read their citations further down in this newsletter and if you are passing through Invercargill, you can stop off at the Ascot Park Hotel to see the framed photographs of all the students in the main foyer up until the 4th of November. Well done Abby and MacLean.

A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers on the PTFA (Parents Teachers and Friends Association) for giving up so much of their time and energies over the past few weeks to number thousands of golf balls. We hope to see you all at St Peter’s College from 6pm on Friday the 4th of November to come see the “Hole in one, Helicopter drop!” You can still buy tickets by contacting Justine Abernethy on 027 459 5977.

Right through life we are often reminded to prioritise what we set out to do and there is a time for everything we undertake. These are definitely times for us to encourage our young people to prioritise what is really important to them, as this is the main reason as to why they attend school. Their priorities now are aimed at academic achievement, and this is the time for them to cut away from distractions and focus on the goal at hand. Their academic achievement will be the corner stone of where their future careers are going to take them, and it is our duty this term to remind them of their priorities. They have participated in a range of sport, cultural and musical activities during the year, but the time has arrived where their priority is now on study and academic success.

Let us all take time to prioritise what is important in our lives and how we can make a difference by prioritising what we are doing. Proverbs 24:27 says “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.” Prioritising and preparing everyday ensures we are building a strong foundation upon which everything will rest. The time we take now when our young men and women are getting themselves ready for their future will be rewarded with the fruits that they will produce in their future life. Let’s prioritise and be present for them in every way we can so that they are assured of the belief we have in their ability to succeed and build their future. Parents and caregivers, I applaud the encouragement you provide our students to prioritise and for your presence in their lives.


Charity Fulfils the Law


Tara Quinney,
Principal