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Dear Parents and Caregivers
Kia ora koutou.
There has been a big focus evident in these first couple of weeks of the new school year on the importance of community and belonging. I am aware that especially within schools, a sense of belonging can significantly impact collective performance and individual well-being.
This important approach is outlined in a book by Owen Eastwood, Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness, in which Owen combines ancient wisdom with modern performance coaching techniques to help teams achieve their best. Owen Eastwood is a New Zealand-born sports performance coach who has worked with high-profile teams and organisations around the world, including the England football team, South African cricket team, and the Royal Ballet. I am delighted to see many of his approaches are already put into practice at St Andrew’s. An example of this is how we are deliberate about creating an environment where people are valued and supported.
The events happening this week highlight our community approach in action. Last Friday, our staff family BBQ was a wonderful event and included games and a bouncy castle for the children. Over the weekend, our Boarders Weekend programme was full of fun and colourful House activities and engaging team games, including tabloid sports, ‘Capture the Flag’, and ‘The Amazing Race’. I was impressed by how effectively the students led the various activities over the weekend.
This week there has been the evening for Preparatory School parents to meet their child’s teacher, and another for Year 11 parents to hear about the NCEA qualification. Such parents’ evenings are often supported by the College’s PTA (Parents’ Association), which aims to welcome parents, foster connections, and journey together through these school years.
This week I attended my first Old Collegians Association monthly meeting, a group with a strong sense of belonging to St Andrew’s and that is totally committed to supporting the College. This was also evident with my first meeting this afternoon with the St Andrew’s College Foundation Board of Trustees, who are responsible for the fund which assists with providing scholarships and financial backup to the College. The connections these two groups have with St Andrew’s are clearly strong and exemplify the strong sense of identity and belonging across our wider community.
We all have a primal need to belong and be accepted, and for any community or group, our true competitive advantage is our strength of togetherness. We all have the desire to make a positive difference and be part of something bigger than ourselves. In South Africa they describe this with the word Ubuntu, which expresses the worth of our lives being based on our impact on others.
This week concluded with an outstanding Academic Assembly, where we collectively gathered to celebrate learning and achievement. Once again, our academic outcomes are impressive, and it is right that we recognise these personal achievements and acknowledge our wider community support that helps enable these individual successes. A total of 30 students from Years 11, 12, and 13 (2024) achieved 62 NZQA Scholarships, including eight at the Outstanding level. We had six students who achieved four or more Scholarships, and Aaron Moore (OC 2024) was one of 55 students nationally to receive a NZQA Outstanding Scholar Award.
Rector’s Assembly Address >
Academic Captains Morning Comment >
Academic Awards Assembly Awards >
Academic Assembly Flickr >
What a wonderful thing it is to be part of St Andrew’s College, a strong supportive community that seeks to make a real and positive difference for others.
Ngā mihi mahana
Mark Wilson
Rector
The boarding houses were full last weekend for the annual Boarding Sports House Weekend – the only weekend of the year that boarders are expected to ‘stay in.’ The programme was entirely student run by our Year 13 House Leaders and wider Year 13 kaiāwhina (helpers), marking the start of the House competition for the coveted Dianne Needham Trophy. The boarders competed in a variety of activities, including ‘Capture the Flag,’ House entrances, tabloid sports, Pot Games, ‘The Amazing Race’ and multi sports. The weekend concluded with the year's first Boarders’ Chapel service, where students proudly displayed their House colours. The spirited singing during the service emerged as one of the weekend's highlights. Special mention must be made to the leaders in boarding, as this year’s focus is on using the boarding experience to develop leadership. This year's Sports House Leaders were outstanding in their planning, organisation, and energy, making the weekend a success. They held House meetings to generate spirit and learn chants, and took turns running events that fostered inclusivity, connections, and friendly competition.
FLICKR >Mia Montgomery and Coco Schwass (both Year 13) attended the SPACPAC Pasifika Leadership Retreat at the Multicultural Centre on Tuesday. This was the first of seven official SPACPAC, Pasifika community events held across the year, and it focused on developing the leadership skills of Pasifika students in Waitaha. Mia and Coco, two of this year’s four Polyfest Leaders (co-leading with Hannah Papali'i Taimalelagi Malietoa (Year 12) and George Wesley (Year 13)) participated in a range of workshop activities and lecture sessions presented by SPACPAC staff. These ranged from group activities with Pasifika students from all across the Canterbury region that mainly focused on the power of your own actions, and what it means to be a Pasifika leader. During this event, Year 10 Dean and Pasifika Co-ordinator, James Jenkinson, also attended a series Canterbury staff professional development korero and SPACPAC event feedback sessions – all aimed at growing, supporting, and celebrating Pasifika culture across Canterbury and at St Andrew’s College.
Last Friday, Year 7 students participated in Top Team, hosted on the Preparatory School field by Sport Canterbury. Students were split into 16 teams, with a mix of students from different classes. They were given time early in the term to create team names, plan costumes and practice team chants. Students then competed against one another to be the Top Team. Top Team is a series of interactive team-building challenges designed to promote problem-solving, communication, and teamwork while being active and having fun, and is designed with all abilities in mind. This helps takes away the ‘intimidation’ factor of physical activity and increases confidence amongst non-participating rangatahi to take part in future events. The Top Team activity is another part of the transition to Year 7 programme that aims to help students to adjust to their new year level and make connections with a wide variety of students across the year group.
During Week 2, Years 1–3 classes attended a beach education day at South Brighton Surf Club. The students enjoyed a tour of the club rooms and were shown some of the equipment that the lifeguards use, including the Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) and a variety of surf boards and rescue gear. The lifeguards reminded the students about the importance of being SunSmart and taught them how to keep safe in a rip. The students then had the opportunity to head out into the water to put their safety skills into practise.
FLICKR >This week, our Year 11 Art students had the pleasure of listening to Alex Mcleod, an Ōtautahi based Māori wood carver. Alex is the talented carver who created the St Andrew’s College pou, which resides in the Senior College and was a gift to the College from the 2023 Year 13 cohort. The students have been learning about Toi whakairo within our local cultural context, and this was a fantastic opportunity for them to get an authentic experience with the wood carving process. Alex talked about the deep symbolism connected to the pou, which stems from the whakataukī “Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōnā te ngahere. Ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga nōnā te ao," which translates as "The bird that eats the miro berry owns the forest; the bird that consumes knowledge, owns the world."
FLICKR >
This week, 95 Year 12 Biology students attended a field trip to Wainui Bay. The students sampled the rocky shore from low tide to high tide to identify the distribution pattern of different species. They also looked at the environmental factors, adaptations and interspecific relationships present on the rocky shore. The data collected is now being used to complete the 2.6 Ecology internal assessment.
FLICKR >The natural world is always of strong interest for Pre-school tamariki and this week the children were delighted to be invited to visit both the baby quails in the Agriculture Room in the Senior College, and the caterpillars in Monique O’Sullivan’s Year 3 classroom in the Junior Department. These visits and the learning gained from them inspire the children’s curiosity, deepen their thinking, and help build a sense of responsibility for the living world and knowledge about how to care for it.
Just like every year, on the Valentine’s Day, today the Senior College came alive with lots of love in the air. To celebrate this special day the Common Room was covered head to toe in pink and red banners with mysterious love messages appearing on mirrors. The prefect special Friday Quad also didn’t escape the festivities, with lollies and chocolates being given out as everyone took pictures with the cupid Smurfs. With love songs playing, and an incredibly competitive game of musical chairs, this Valentine's Day was certainly memorable.
Monday and Tuesday saw our top tennis players head to Wilding Park for the Canterbury Secondary Schools Intermediate and Senior Championships. After a successful first day, the group headed into semi-finals and finals on the Tuesday. The rain overnight meant they played indoors for the final day, which meant some games were shortened to get through all the draws.
Intermediate (Year 11)
Senior (Open – Years 12 and 13)
Senior Girls Doubles
Senior Boys Doubles
Last weekend, three teams of St Andrew’s College students participated in the Kathmandu Coast to Coast, all first-time entrants. Head Prefect, Kate Simcock’s team was in 13th place, but two flat tyres added two hours to their expected finish time.
The robotics room has been a hive of activity since the start of the year as V5 teams get ready for the upcoming national competition. There have been scrimmages held on the last two weekends and St Andrew’s College teams have made a strong showing on both occasions. On Saturday 1 February, all three teams made it to the semi-finals. Team ‘404 Competition Not Found’: Hannah Withers, George Bissland, Alex Manson, Luke Manson (all Year 12) played a clever strategic game to take the win alongside Hillmorton High School. Competition was fierce again on Sunday 9 February. In a hard-fought series of matches, St Andrew’s College team ‘Sigma Dealers’ made it to the final. All teams are making final preparations before they head to the VEX V5 Nationals in Auckland this weekend.
FLICKR >Ethan Waines (Year 9) was one of the four violin soloists in Vivaldi's Concerto for 4 Violins, performed with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra at the Mitre 10 Sparks 2025 on Saturday in Hagley Park, before an audience of 25,000 people. The performance was very well received.
The 1st XI cricket team played against St Thomas of Canterbury College away over the past two weekends. St Andrew’s batted first and made a very disappointing 127 with Connor Sharp (Year 13) making 59. St Thomas batted well and made 227/7 giving them a lead of 100, which made it difficult to set up a game. The boys decided to dig in and pretty much batted all day being 196/9 at the end of play, which resulted in a drawn match.
The Colts Year 10 team had a very good win over Christchurch Boys’ High School.
Other key performances:
On Monday, the Preparatory School Swimming Prelims were held at Jellie Park, and the Year 4 students also raced in their Championship Swimming Sports events.
Top three Year 4 Swimming Sports Age Group Champions:
Georgia Gregg (Year 8) danced in Timaru in the weekend and won the South Canterbury Championship U12 Irish Jig. Georgia, with partner Violet Winterbourn (Year 5) also won the Double Sword U14.
Spencer Hair and Otis Wheeler (both Year 12) have been selected for the Canterbury U17 Men’s cricket team.
Fynn Harris (Year 13) was selected for the Canterbury U18 touch team that came third at Nationals last weekend. Otis Wheeler (Year 12) was selected in the Canterbury Men’s U16 team that came second in the same competition.
Eleven Old Collegians are competing in first class provincial cricket this summer:
Preparatory School Teacher, Annabel Morris, finished 22nd in the Open Women’s two-day event in a time of 16 hours 22 mins. Even more impressive is before October Annabel had never kayaked, or road biked before.
Secondary School Science Teacher, Anna Hood also competed as part of a two-person team in the Open two-day event, to finish fifth. Anna was completing the race for her third time.
Good luck to all students who are representing the College over the weekend in sports and cultural activities including:
The Sustainability Council and Community Service teams are working together to raise funds for the New Zealand Cancer Society. Due to our unique experience and space in the College plant nursery, students are aiming to plant daffodils to be sold on Daffodil Day on Friday 29 August. To do this, they need to raise funds for the bulbs to be purchased. A ribbon fundraiser is being held on Thursday 20 February at a cost of $2.00 each, with a goal to raise $2,000.
A donation can also be made to the College’s BNZ account: 02-0800-0911792-00. Please include for reference: DAFFODIL BULBS with your surname and initials.
Meet our teachers who make the difference at our upcoming Open Days. Please help spread the word for interested families to register online.
Secondary School Open Day: Wednesday 5 March, 9.00am–12.00pm
Last Tour Commences: 10.30am
Rector's Address: 11.00am
Boarding House Open Day (register separately): 12.00pm
Preparatory School and Pre-school Open Day: Thursday 6 March, 11.00am–12.30pm
Principal of Preparatory School Address: 11.45am
The College’s annual Boarding Roadshows in February and March provide families living outside of Christchurch a chance to learn more about the St Andrew’s College boarding offering. The Roadshows will see interested families meeting current boarding students, as well as boarding staff, in a relaxed and informal get together over drinks and nibbles. If you or someone you know is interested, please see details below, as well as the link to find more information and to register.
Date: Tuesday 25 February
Time: 6.00pm–7.00pm
Location: Centennial Chapel
The first of this year's free well-being information sessions, called StACTalks, will focus on Nutrition and fuelling growing students to flourish. Join us to learn more about the science and importance of nutrition for teenage development and performance across all areas of school life, general health, and well-being.
Presenter Conrad Goodhew is an expert in his field, with a broad nutrition knowledge with links between high performance sport and general nutrition. He has his own private practice and has worked within the community, as well as with professional teams such as the Black Ferns and the Crusaders rugby team. He has also supported athletes in the Coast to Coast, Auckland, Queenstown, Hawke's Bay marathons, and Motatapu events.
This StACTalk is deSigned for both students and parents who are interested in understanding the science of nutrition and its link to performance, well-being, and general function both mentally and physically. The session will run for 45 minutes, with 15 minutes for Q&A with Conrad at the end.
REGISTER FOR STACTALKS: NUTRITION >
2025 photographs:
Parents/caregivers will receive an email later this term when photos are available, and access codes for new students will then be visible on the photo ordering information page on StACNet.
All 2024 photographs are available to purchase online:
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
For any illness, students should stay home if unwell. Any student should also feel free to wear a mask if they wish to do so while at school.
For any absence, whether ill-health (including COVID-19) or otherwise, the College’s preferred platform for reporting this is via our online form which can be found at the button below:
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).
The Community Business Directory is on our website 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.
