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Dear Parents and Caregivers
Kia ora koutou katoa.
This morning began with a delightful presentation in the Stewart Junior School, with the first ever Year 3 StAC WoW presentation – the recycled world of wearable art. The learning focused on sustainable fashion, and reduction of waste. Congratulations to the Year 3 tamariki for their amazing creations showcased by runway models and thank you to Year 3 teachers for their mahi in inspiring and supporting everyone.
Equally impressive were the performances by three Secondary School choirs, Stacchorus, Staccorro, and Vox16 in the Big Sing Competition today, in the Ōtautahi Town Hall. All three choirs performed a bracket of three songs with excellent harmony, stage presence, and discipline. The choirs will perform one song each at the gala event this evening along with all the other schools involved in this national competition.
Earlier this week in the annual Years 9 and 10 speech competition, Junior Festival of the Spoken Word, all Year 9 and 10 ākonga listened to the six finalists in the Centennial Chapel. Congratulations to Hanxi (Cicy) Chen, Emma Geddes, and Katrina Wallis (Year 9), Olivia Ratcliffe, Isla Kempthorne, and Ania Kuziel (Year 10).
The winners were named as:
Cicy and Isla will present their speeches at the finals of the Senior Festival of the Spoken Word competition next week.
This weekend is the Rockquest Regional Finals with three St Andrew’s College bands competing, plus the Basketball Fundraiser social event Hoop it Up. Good luck to all students involved and thank you to members of our community supporting these and other events over the weekend.
I will also take this opportunity to promote the Coaches on the Couch event, a rugby/cricket fundraiser on Friday 23 June at 6.30pm. At this event, four current St Andrew’s parents will share their time, stories and thoughts from incredible sporting experiences. Come along to hear Andy Ellis, Stephen Fleming, Marianne Delaney-Hoshek and Shane Bond at Coaches on the Couch.
Click here for details and to purchase tickets >
Ngā mihi mahana
Christine Leighton
Rector
I wanted to inform you that this month is Pride Month and next week is National Schools’ Pride Week (12–16 June). On Monday 12 June, we encourage Secondary and Preparatory School students and staff to wear bright coloured socks or tights to show solidarity with our Rainbow communities.
On Thursday 15 June, the Secondary School has a non-uniformed theme-day. We encourage students and staff to wear bright-coloured attire that reflects their support for inclusivity and diversity.
Any donations will go to support Qtopia, an organisation based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Qtopia works towards creating a kinder world for LGBTQIA+ young people and their communities, and donations made during Pride Week will contribute directly to their efforts.
Thank you for your support in promoting a welcoming and accepting school environment for all.
‘Supporting Adolescents to Embrace a Positive Body Image’ – In 2018, a study conducted on New Zealand adolescents revealed that body image ranked among their biggest concerns. It is widely acknowledged that the combination of heightened social media usage and the developmental phase characterised by social comparison contributes to increased pressure on our youth.
This blog post features a discussion by Head of Well-being, Kerry Larby, on the research findings and offers insights for parents and teachers about how they can support adolescents in cultivating a positive body image, enabling them to feel comfortable and confident in themselves.
On Tuesday the Preparatory School held the Prefects’ Investiture for the second wave of prefects in the Centennial Chapel. It was a special occasion for these children and their families. Mrs Jillian Fenton gave a message themed around the holy spirit being God’s helper in our lives. The symbol of the burning bush is on the St Andrew’s College crest. In their leadership roles, the newly inducted prefects will also have a role to play in helping others. It was wonderful to have the whole Preparatory School present for this special occasion.
Chamber groups 9 Valves 3 Bells (Naomi Dana (Year 13), William Ruge (Year 12) and Yuxin (Alice) Chen (Year 9)) and Trio de l’Aube (Miu Kim, Jasmine Hooker (both Year 11) and Sea-am Thompson (Year 12)), both performed at The Great Hall in The Arts Centre on Tuesday in the Rising Stars Chamber Music Lunchtime Concert. The audience received their performances with warm applause, as they continue to refine their interpretations ahead of next week’s NZCT Chamber Music Contest.
A depleted Year 13 team competed valiantly, yet the 17-deep Old Collegian team took the win 85–72 to remain undefeated in the series, led by the 'import' duo of Maddie Morrow (OC 2022) and Charlotte Whittaker (OC 2018).
On Wednesday the annual Japanese NCEA Day for Years 11–13 students was held at the University of Canterbury. This year saw the largest number ever of students attending, with 530 students from 17 Christchurch schools. The Head of Arts, in his opening remarks, encouraged the students to keep their language learning going as it would be a “gold mine” on their CV and differentiated them from others.
Sam Stapley (OC 2010) was the keynote speaker, and spoke about his pathway and career using his Japanese studies. He encouraged the students to keep their Japanese language studies going and pair it with another subject area as this will open many doors in the future.
The focus of the day was helping the students practise and improve their understanding of the language and help them prepare for their NCEA assessments. The students from the three year groups were divided into groups and attended three lessons targeting specific aspects and skills of the language taught by teachers from the attending schools.
The day finished with the filming of a mass J-pop dance with all students, teachers and UC helpers dancing together, ending off with a drum exhibition from Takumi a local Japanese drum group.
On Thursday, 115 Year 12 students attended the Discovery Day event at the University of Canterbury. Prior to the event students were given the opportunity to select five mini lectures on topics of their interest. On the day, students sat in lecture theatres with up to 400 other Christchurch students to experience what it was like to be a university student. Feedback from students was very positive with many saying they enjoyed the lectures and now had a better understanding of what it would be like to go to university.
Last Friday, Daisy Thake (Year 10) completed a ‘Walk with a purpose’ from her home in Redcliffs to school to raise funds and make a significant and lifesaving difference to the lives of others who are less fortunate. The Foundation of Peace Children’s Foundation in Uganda is currently raising funds towards the construction of a new family-based home for eight orphaned and abandoned children who have been rescued into their care. Daisy has raised $2035 to date, which will be put towards the furnishings of the home, which will be called 'Canterbury House'.
Daisy set off from home (Redcliffs) at 4.30am and walked 13km, arriving at the St Andrew’s College campus around 8.00am, to start the school day. The significance of Daisy’s walk is that many children in Uganda walk very long distances to and from school each day, often without food. Daisy is passionate about making a difference and encourages anyone who wants to know more or who is keen to make a difference to check out the Foundation of Peace website by clicking here.
This term, as part of Aotearoa Studies, Years 3–4 students have been studying native animals in our rohe (area) and have learned about the many species of wētā that live in New Zealand.
After watching a video about wētā, Mrs Leota asked Head Groundsperson, Mike Seaward, from the Maintenance Department if he could build a wētā motel to see if we can find wētā in the school grounds. This week we took the motel to a secret location and attached it high in a tree hoping to encourage wētā to build their home inside. The information we read told us we would have to wait for at least three months before checking if wētā have moved in.
Some children are interested in building a wētā motel to see if wētā live in their home gardens. Parents can help their children construct a motel with some help from the Department of Conservation’s website here.
Mr Seaward enjoyed reading the letters about wētā and meeting the students, and the students were very grateful for his help and support with their learning.
Last Friday night in the Junior Department there were some show-stopping dance moves, ‘Under the Sea’ inspired outfits and lots of fun during the Year 2+3 Disco. This event was organised by the Connections Committee in the Prefects team and supported by the Head of the Junior Department, Heather Orman. The students enjoyed the special night out immensely and the atmosphere was amazing. Thank you so much to the Junior department staff who helped supervise the disco and the parents for their support. The disco was a brilliant success with all the profits being donated to KidsCan to help children in our local community.
This year during Tūhura Time in Term 1 the Year 3 students have been working on their Wearable Art costumes. The whole Junior Department came together to bring in clean rubbish and recyclables from home; the Discovery room was full to bursting with everything that was contributed.
The students started by planning their costumes on paper and itemising the different things they might need. Each group had one Tūhura Time session in which to create their design, so had to work fast! We decided not to paint the costumes, to highlight the rubbish that they were made with. The students had to work as a team to decide which were the best items to use, how to put them together and who was going to wear the costume.
This culminated in a Wearable Arts Show performed to the Junior Department, family and notable dignitaries. The students had lots of fun making costumes while building skills such as creativity, confidence, teamwork, problem solving, focus, perseverance and many more.
NETBALL
Only one game this week was played, against Villa Maria A. They gained an early lead of five goals in the first quarter. By the end of the third quarter, they had made the gap seven goals, but in the fourth quarter the St Andrew’s team pulled together to reduce the gap back to one goal. However, it was not to be, and the final score was 35–31 to Villa Maria. Holly Maraki (Year 12) defended every ball and didn’t give up until the final whistle.
FOOTBALL
The Girls 1st XI played against St Margaret’s College, starting the first half with lots of possession. However, it was not until the 20th minute of the first half when the team found the back of the net. After that, the team found great combinations in the final third to score 16 times over the 60 minutes, for a final score of 16–0. All goals came from six different players, and it was great to watch many players playing in different positions. The team remains first in the competition and is looking forward to next week already.
The Boys’ 1st XI knew that this game against Lincoln High School was an important game, since it was the decider between playing at the top eight of the competition or in the bottom six. The team finished the first half 0–1 down but kept fighting. The second half of the game was controlled by St Andrew’s in the 15th minute, where Callum Moores (Year 13) scored a great free kick outside the box. Lincoln got a goal disallowed in the last five minutes due to an offside, which made the final score 1–1. The team fought and showed determination until the last minute.
No hockey, rugby or basketball was played this week due to representative matches and King’s Birthday weekend.
Yesterday the Junior Festival of the Spoken Word was held in the Centennial Chapel. Our three best speakers from Years 9 and 10 presented. Our winners were Hanxi (Cicy) Chen (Year 9) and Isla Kempthorne (Year 10).
The other finalists were Emma Geddes and Katrina Wallis (both Year 9), and Olivia Ratcliffe and Ania Kuziel (both Year 10).
The two winners will go on to compete against Years 11–13 students next Wednesday night at 6.00pm for the finals.
Twelve St Andrew’s College pipers, with support from our bagpipe tutors, travelled to Dunedin over the holiday weekend to compete in the King’s Birthday Annual Solo Piping competition. There was a great deal of success over the two days of events as listed below.
Last week at the University of Canterbury (UC), two teams presented to UC lecturers their ideas around creating economic growth in Canterbury, including Jedd Bright, Annika MacDonald, Lachlan Odlin, Thomas MacLean and Finlay Fairweather-Logie (all Year 13). This was a national competition run by UC, with one of the teams finishing 4th overall. This was Lachlan, Annika and Jedd, whose idea around creating a horizontal and hydroponic farm in the Red Zone created plenty of interest.
Programming Māori and Pasifika Potential (PMP) is a business incubator established to encourage our Māori and Pasifika rangatahi to take a plunge into the world of entrepreneurship. The task of each team in this national competition is to create a digital solution to a social problem. St Andrew’s has a team of nine ākonga ranging from Years 9–13 who meet every Tuesday before school with their Mentor, Chante Botica. At this stage the students are developing a solution to the problem of time management and hauora (well-being). The second Wānanga (Hackathon) was attended by our team at Ara recently.
One of our Young Enterprise teams consisting of Alex Rippin, Craig Glass, Fergus Sidey and Elijah Hyde (all Year 13) have won $200 from Young Enterprise as a result of a very strong Seed Funding application. They will use these funds to apply for a provisional patent to protect their product which helps solve the issue of plastic waste on farms. If you are a legal specialist in the patent area and would be keen to talk with the team, please contact Steve Aldhamland on SAL@stac.school.nz.
Anthony Gower (Year 13) has been selected to represent Canterbury in Wellington in late June in the national Enterprise in Action weekend. This is where teams work with sponsor companies to solve large global business problems with the support of large corporates.
Gemma Thomas (Year 10) travelled to Mosgiel during King’s Birthday weekend, to compete in two karate competitions over two days. She is now working towards the Canterbury Westland Competition in two weeks’ time.
Chloe Wang (Year 5) and Jacob Wang (Year 6) competed at the Neptune King’s Birthday Swimming Club meet 2023 in Moana Pool, Dunedin, with the following results.
Jacob Wang:
Chloe Wang:
Congratulations to the following Preparatory School Highland Dancers who all successfully passed their New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing examinations.
Getting Started in Dance Level 1 (pictured):
Initial:
Preparatory:
Grade 1:
Grade 3:
At the Otago Centre Annual Championship Competitions for Piping and Highland and National Dancing, Iaera Abrahamson (Year 3) won the Otago Championship Irish Jig Under 8 years and Runner Up Most Points Under 8 years. Nayana Abrahamson (Year 1) was the winner of the Youngest Competitor Trophy.
Sarah McCarthy (Year 8) won most points Trophy 12 and U14 and the Seann Triubhas Trophy, receiving a special medal for the most outstanding performance in the Highland Fling.
Holly Hembry (Year 8) travelled to Wellington over King’s Birthday Weekend to compete in the New Zealand One Dance Ballroom Championships.
Holly took part in 28 events over two days and managed to come away with 28 first placings! This meant she also won the Champion of Champions trophies in two age divisions – Pre-Teen (up to 13) and Teen (up to 16).
Kalisa Zhang (Year 8), competed in the 18th Singapore Open Gymnastics Championships 2023, held at the end of May. She competed in the 11–12 years category A (highest grade), and won this category. She finished first overall, and first in ball, second in ribbon.
Robbie Stokes (OC 2013) won the 2023 Lone Star Canterbury Rally last weekend. He will now prepare for the third round that takes place as part of Rally South Canterbury on Saturday 17 June, and also doubles as the third round of the 2023 NZ Rally Championship.
Cameron Paul (OC 2022) has been named as Vice-Captain in the New Zealand Under 19 squad for the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup East Asia Pacific Qualifier later this month.
U20s and first team player Hugo Debenham (OC 2022) has signed for USA-based Tyler Junior College in the Southwest conference. Hugo joined Christchurch United when he was nine years old and since then he has moved up the ranks and now into college football in the USA.
Kiara Bercelli (OC 2022) has been selected for the Oceania Football Confederation U19 Women's Championship, set to take place later this month in Fiji. They been drawn in Group B at the tournament alongside hosts Fiji and Papua New Guinea. The team kicks off against Fiji on Thursday 22 June, followed by Papua New Guinea on Sunday 25 June.
Tom Rae (OC 2022) is one of three New Zealanders to have been honoured for his work in the 2023 Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition. Judges have showcased 25 of the best entries from more than 3000 submissions from around the world. Tom's incredible image, Celestial Radiance, was taken at Lake Tekapo.
Will Stodart (OC 2021) has been named in the New Zealand Under 20 team taking on the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in South Africa later this month.
A number of St Andrew’s College akōnga, Old Collegians, whānau, and kaiako competed in the Basketball New Zealand U19 National competition. Of particular note, the following players collected medals at the conclusion of this event:
Good luck to all students who are representing the College over the weekend in sports and cultural activities including:
Please continue to report to the College any COVID-19 related student absence using the same process as for non-COVID-19 related absences.
Parent Guidelines >
Ākonga Absence and Ill-health
A polite reminder that any ākonga who are unwell should not attend school. For any absence, whether ill-health or otherwise, the College’s preferred platform for reporting this is via our online form below.
Recording a Student Absence >
If you are not able to report your child's absence using the online form, please report their absence via the relevant email address below. If you cannot get through to us via the form or email, please call our attendance line on +64 3 940 2031 (term time only).
Experience the thrilling sounds of StAC Attack 2023! A St Andrew’s College Pipe Band event at the prestigious Christchurch Town Hall – James Hay Theatre, this highly anticipated showcase guarantees an unforgettable evening of traditional Scottish entertainment and an opportunity to see our A Band in action before they travel to Scotland to compete at the World Pipe Band Championships in August. Immerse yourself in the rich harmonics of the bagpipes, the infectious beat of the drums, and the flair of the Highland dancers as they take the stage. With talented St Andrew's College students from Years 4–13 showcasing their skills, StAC Attack promises to be an action-packed performance.
With special guests New Zealand Champion Pipe Band – Canterbury Caledonian Society.
When: Sunday 30 July, 5.00pm–7.00pm
Where: In the Christchurch Town Hall – James Hay Theatre
Tickets: Adults $49 | Children $29
Join us for a fun and entertaining evening with coaching legends Andy Ellis, Stephen Fleming, Marianne Delaney-Hoshek and Shane Bond, who will provide insight into their experiences and what it takes to be a high-performing athlete, both on and off the field. This event will end with a Q+A session open to all guests who attend. Raffles and auctions will be held throughout the evening. The proceeds from this fundraiser will support St Andrew’s College rugby and cricket.
Date: Friday 23 June, 6.30pm
Venue: St Andrew’s College Gym 1
Tickets: $75.00 (drink and refreshments included)
During this technology-focused presentation, St Andrew’s College staff and members of the College wider community will discuss the topic of technology and adolescent well-being. They will present their ideas about the positive and negative impacts of technology use and will reflect on the approach St Andrew’s has adopted in response to research about technology, pornography, teaching and learning and social media.
The evening will conclude with a panel discussion where parents will have the opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback, and consider strategies they can adopt at home to promote positive technological use and prioritise well-being.
Date: Tuesday 20 June
Time: 6.30pm–8.00pm
Location: Centennial Chapel
We invite you to follow the official St Andrew’s College social media accounts through the links below:
Instagram: @standrewscollegenz
Facebook: St Andrew's College
By following our accounts, you will have access to photos and the occasional video showcasing the events, latest news and activities taking place around the College involving our students and staff.
The online sales for the following 2023 photographs are now available:
Details of how to order the photographs can be found on our website using the button below and you will need to log into StACNet using your St Andrew's College login.
If you have any questions relating to this service, please email photography@stac.school.nz.
ORDER PHOTOGRAPHS ONLINE >
The Community Business Directory is on our website under Alumni & Community and represents over 100 parent businesses. Please take a look at how many businesses you can support locally.
The St Andrew's College Community Business Directory >
If you would still like to register your business, complete the following form.
Community Business Directory Registration >
For a full list of upcoming school events, please refer to the fixtures page on StACNet.
