Welcome to the 2020 School Year
A very warm welcome to the 2020 school year to each and every one of you, whether you are a long time College family, or new to our community. For those that are new to St Peters I hope that you settle in well, and feel part of our community very quickly.
It is wonderful to have students back on campus this week. Schools are very different places when our students are present. Our students bring a life, energy and sense of hope and optimism to St Peters, and so it was terrific to witness the smiles on their faces and the excitement in their voices as a new school year begins.
Life at St Peters never really stops, with our students afforded a number of amazing opportunities during the break. Prior to Christmas, 30 of our cricketers had the opportunity to tour New Zealand and hone their skills in preparation for the coming AIC season. Approximately 40 of this year’s Year 12 students spent two weeks in Cambodia working with a local village as part of our annual Service Learning trip there. In what was the experience of a lifetime, over 30 of our Junior High students attended a NASA Space Camp in the United States. Post Christmas, the Chorale toured the UK and Europe, singing to appreciative audiences in some of the great cathedrals of the world, including St Paul's, London. We also had a handful of students spend their Christmas holidays attending school in Germany as part of our languages program. St Peters really is a world of opportunities. Thank you to all staff involved for providing our young people with these important beyond the classroom learning experiences.
The physical enhancement of the campus continued over the Christmas break with resurfacing of the Harts Road Courts, and upgrading the bathrooms for both our male and female boarders. Excitingly, as part of implementing our new Master Plan, two of the Science Labs were transformed into contemporary learning spaces for scientific inquiry. These repurposed spaces will undoubtably enhance our Science and STEM programs.
Also, as part of implementing our Master Plan, enabling work began on our next major capital development – the Learning and Innovation Centre. The enabling work involves relocation of the Senior School Reception from Luther House to ground floor of Theile House. This work has begun and will be complete by the end of Term 1. Information Services will also move to the middle floor of Theile. Also being relocated as part of the enabling work is the relocation of Careers to the top floor of Theile. This should be completed in the coming days. The Year 11 Locker Room will also be located to adjacent the Chandler Arts Building this term, and the Print Room has been relocated to the middle floor of the P&F Centre. The other significant part of the enabling works for the Learning and Innovation Centre Project has been the demolition of B Block. Like all major capital projects, the construction of the Learning and Innovation Centre (which will begin once enabling works are complete), will undoubtedly cause some inconvenience to both traffic and pedestrian flow, however the ‘short term pain’ will be worth it as the final product is a state of the art learning space that will result in impactful learning for all our students.
It is important that our students make a positive start to the year and lay strong foundations for the year ahead in order to set themselves up for success. Establishing good habits around homework and study, demonstrating a positive attitude towards classwork, being organised, managing time effectively, setting goals and challenging oneself are important elements of laying the foundations for success. Part of laying the foundations is the expectation that our students hold high expectations of themselves and pursue their personal best in all that they do. Holding high expectations of ourselves is reflected in the ‘big things’, but perhaps more so in the ‘little things’ – like uniform, punctuality, good manners, attention to detail. I encourage all our students to get the ‘little things’ right, and this will help to set them up for success in the ‘big things’.
2020 is our 75th anniversary year – let’s get the ‘little things’ right together.
