Access Arts

Access Arts provides opportunities for students in Years 7 – 12 to work in the Art studios after school and provides additional workshops for students to get involved in the Arts.

A number of programs are available under Access Arts. These include:

• Painting workshops - Thursdays (series of 6 weeks)

• Life drawing, which runs on Tuesday and Friday afternoons in Terms 2 and 3 for a series of 6 weeks

• Art Studio sessions and Film Television and Video editing - Workshops are organised on a sign-up basis as required

Access Arts also hosts master classes with visiting artists in a diverse range of media.

da Vinci Decathlon

The da Vinci Decathlon began in 2005 and is designed to celebrate the academic gifts of Australian youth by providing a stimulating and challenging competition run in the spirit of an Olympic Decathlon.

St Peters has been a competitive participant of da Vinci Decathlon for approximately a decade. This academic competition takes place over three days and requires a team of eight students competing in ten separate academic disciplines: engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, philosophy, creative producers, cartography and general knowledge. Students gain entry to da Vinci Decathlon teams via an application process.

Approximately 60 teams from across Queensland compete at the state event each year. St Peters generally has six teams; one each from Years 5-10.

Read more about the da Vinci Decathlon here.

Debating

St Peters offers Debating as an extra-curricular activity. Debating skills raise children’s confidence and self-esteem, as well as improving higher-order and critical thinking skills. The College competes in a Queensland wide debating competition run by the Queensland Debating Union.

QDU debating is open to students in Years 7–12. The QDU Secondary Schools Competition (Year 8 – 12) consists of four preliminary rounds held throughout Terms 1 and 2, followed by a final series held in Term 3. St Peters competes against other Independent schools as well as Catholic and State High Schools.

The Year 7 Round Robin competition is run by the QDU in terms 2 and 3. This is a four round competition, finishing with a short-preparation debate. St Peters is usually the host of the Year 7 competition.

Future Problem Solving

Future Problem Solving (FPS) is a competitive academic program for students from all over the world.

The competition began in 1974 and was devised by E. Paul Torranc, a pioneer in creativity. FPS provides direct instruction that introduces students to the creative problem solving process and provide practice through the application of problem solving in a variety of futuristic contexts.

Students who take part in the competitive program, from Year 5, complete practice booklets set in a futuristic time on a variety of topics.

The qualification booklet determines which teams will compete at the National competition. Further success at the national level can mean students qualify for the International competition, usually held in the United States of America in June of the following year. Students gain entry to Future Problem Solving teams via an application process.

St Peters has had several decades of involvement in Future Problem Solving at National and International competitions.

Visit Future Problem Solving Australia for more information.

Service Learning

The Service Learning at St Peters is integrated into the life and work of the whole College. Students learn by engaging with others on how they can make a real difference.

Service Learning involves formal curriculum based activities in Year 9 Christian Studies in which academic goals are accomplished through community service, through various projects including visiting aged care centres, collecting toiletries and knitting beanies for the Homeless.

There is also a multitude of extra-curricular opportunities through the Social Justice, Multicultural and Environment groups for students from Years 7–12 to apply their gifts and resources in support of others.

Theatresports

Theatresports is improvised theatrical entertainment played as a spectator sport. Teams of players invent scenes from suggestions they are given within set structures and rules of individual ‘games’.

Everything in Theatresports is spontaneous and made up on the spot; the narrative, dialogue, action, music, mime and song. Teams are judged on their ability to follow the rules of each game, deliver a cohesive story line and entertain the audience.

Theatresports increases students’ confidence, listening skills and teamwork, as well as exercising creative thinking and problem solving abilities in a hilarious, fun and supportive environment. It also provides valuable opportunities for students to implement, practice and extend the lessons in narrative, play-building and characterisation taught in the drama classroom within a real-world context.

Theatresports at St Peters runs throughout the entire year.

The Boardroom

The Boardroom is a St Peters Business and Entrepreneurial Club that meets once a week to engage young minds in the world of Business.

Students in Years 10–12 collaborate and share ideas ranging from product innovation; marketing techniques; e-commerce; business plans and many more. Guest speakers and workshops are provided to expand their knowledge and time is also spent preparing for competitions like the QUT 'BlueShift Business Case' competition, the CPA 'Plan Your Own Enterprise' competition and the 'Generation Innovate' competition, run by Study Queensland. 

VAPAr

Visual Arts and Performing Arts review (VAPAr) is a culmination of student fashion, design, art, film, media, music, performances and drama.

VAPAr has been going for over 15 years and is one of the flagship events for the Arts. VAPAr is about the visual arts and the performing arts all coming together. It also brings the curriculum elements students experience in their individual course into a public forum. In many cases this provides cross arts for students to reflect on multiple relationships between art and life, art and the public sphere.