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Dear Parents and Caregivers
Kia ora koutou.
Last night, I enjoyed my first Board of Governors meeting. The Board members are such a positive and impressive team, who are so committed to St Andrew’s College and its future success. This first meeting was largely focused on beginning our planning towards creating a new Strategic Plan for setting out vision and imagining our future for 2026 and the next few decades. This strategic process will include us engaging with our College staff, students, and community, to ensure everyone together can help ‘colour in’ (i.e. contribute to) this picture of our future.
Back on Monday evening, I had the privilege of meeting with our Old Collegians at our Marlborough Regional Gathering in Blenheim. It was delightful to hear directly from our past pupils about their fond school memories and strong sense of belonging to St Andrew’s.
This Blenheim trip was also part of our annual Boarding Roadshows, which continue for the next few weeks in various locations around the South Island. My wife Judi and I ran a boys’ boarding house some years ago, at St Peter’s School in Cambridge. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I highly value what boarding provides for a school and young people – a more diverse student intake and a strengthening of school spirit. As well as the benefits for young people to access quality schooling, grow their independence, social skills, and self-management, boarding also opens up wider co-curricular opportunities.
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of visiting our Outdoor Education facility at Castle Hill and saw our Year 9 students in action in the great outdoors. The start-of-year Year 9 camps are a wonderful orientation experience, especially with about half of the cohort being new to St Andrew’s. The Castle Hill Outdoor Education Centre Operations Manager, Jo Parsons, and her team of instructors, are certainly doing a wonderful job providing our young people with great outdoor educational opportunities.
Team sports are often used as metaphors for life because they mirror many of the challenges and experiences we face in our daily lives and provide the opportunities for personal character development. This was evident last weekend through our cricket games. Firstly, our Year 9 White team fought back to win a thrilling 10-run win over Christ’s College. Assistant Coach of our Boys’ 1st XI, Peter Darling, was on hand to remind our new Year 9 boys of our values and to be gracious and humble in their victory as they went forward to shake hands after this thrilling game. At the same time on the neighbouring home field, Angus Schmack (Year 10) showed outstanding skills and character, scoring 110 not out to set up a hard-fought 25-run win for our Year 10 Colts team against North West Colts. I then received a communication from the CJCA Board meeting from last week, at which they formally received a positive report from the opposing team complimenting our Year 7 premier team for their outstanding playing conduct. Meanwhile our Boys’ 1st XI had a disappointing loss to Timaru Boys’ High School, but I was impressed with our coaches’ positive mindsets around the learning our boys will have from this. As I was always told in sports, “you either win or you learn.”
Congratulations to all our tennis players for their outstanding performances in the Canterbury Secondary Schools Tennis Championships – where our players showed their character strengths including perseverance, focus, resilience, and physical fitness.
I am so impressed with the lived-out examples of how well our St Andrew’s young people not only play the game, but how well they conduct themselves and are developing into such outstanding people of character. There is so much to admire and appreciate in what happens at St Andrew’s College in the development of our young people.
Ngā mihi mahana
Mark Wilson
Rector
In this blog post, Head of Well-being, Kerry Larby reflects on the invaluable wisdom shared by Dr Tony Fernando during his recent presentation to staff, student leaders, and whānau. Drawing inspiration from Buddhist philosophy, Dr Fernando offered practical strategies for maintaining calm in our fast-paced world. His message emphasised the importance of releasing rigid expectations and embracing compassion, presence, and acceptance in our daily lives.
Read Well-being Blog Post >The Leadership Hub Conference, run by our charity partner So They Can, was held in the Centennial Chapel on Monday, with 14 Christ’s College students and 13 St Andrew’s College students from across various leadership teams in attendance. The conference gave some great insights into how perspective influences our decisions and how we see others. Students learned about what So They Can does and the life-changing opportunities it provides for girls in East Africa. As well as informing the students, they were coached as to how to deliver a message for impact and influence. The afternoon session focussed on strategy for raising money through the So They Can fundraising challenge, One Human Race. It costs $600 to educate one girl for a year in East Africa, and the students have set the target of raising funds to support 33 girls, which equates to $20,000, or $300 per tutor group.
On Wednesday, 22 Year 11–13 students attended a half-day creative writing workshop in The Green Library and Innovation Centre, organised by Writer in Residence Kerrin P. Sharpe and Head of English Rebecca Ball. Workshop attendees read and discussed a wide range of exemplar poems and prose, and were then given inspiration, time, and support to develop their own writing projects. Following the workshop, all attendees will work with Kerrin and Rebecca to refine and edit their work and then submit it for a competition or publication opportunity. Our Year 9–10 writers will meet in Week 5 for the half-day junior creative writing workshop.
flickr >
Year 13 geography students spent the day at two Canterbury beaches (Birdlings Flat and Waimairi Beach) conducting their geographic research. The aim was for them to collect sufficient primary data to be able to complete their 5-credit NCEA research internal assessment.
This week, 36 Year 12 Travel and Tourism students had a field trip to Akaroa. They had the opportunity to enjoy one of the major activities offered in the area: a two-hour harbour cruise. In addition to the cruise, students gathered information about what Akaroa offers to tourists. This research will contribute to their first assessment, which focuses on exploring Aotearoa as a travel destination.
Last Thursday and Friday, Year 7 students were challenged by testing their skills at Adrenalin Forest Arial Park, participating in over 100 challenges across six different levels. They learnt to work co-operatively with others to assist them, and to persist when the challenges became more difficult. Students also spent time at Spencer Park playing co-operative and team-building games.
On Monday, the Year 8 classes visited Halswell Quarry to take part in a learning programme run by the Christchurch City Council, called The Rocky Road of Discovery. Students built on knowledge gained in practical Science lessons to learn about how Banks Peninsula was formed, and the geological processes that have shaped our land. They learned about the history of the quarry and also had a chance to gain insights into how early Māori communities preserved the land as a Mahinga Kai area, using resources for food, shelter, and medicine. A crowd favourite was the dry wall building task, where teams had to work together to construct walls out of quarry stone that could withstand the heavy boots of Council educators as they sought to knock them down.
flickr >Sophie Lampe (Year 11) competed in the Challenge Wānaka triathlon last Friday, winning the U16 Girls’ competition. On Thursday this week, Sophie, and Cohnor Walsh (Year 12) raced in the Canterbury Secondary Schools Triathlon at Southbridge. Sophie again won the U16 Girls’ title, and Cohnor came third in the U18 Boys’ category in a very competitive field.
Last weekend, Louis Smith (Year 10) came second in the KartSport Canterbury Club Championships.
Last weekend, the V5 VEX Robotics Kiwibots Nationals was held at Lynfield College in Auckland, with St Andrew’s College fielding three of the 11 Canterbury teams. This competition was the completion of a year's designing, building, and programming of robots playing the game High Stakes, for the opportunity to represent New Zealand at the VEX Robotics World Championships. Around 300 students competed over two days of matches. At the end of these matches three of the 11 Canterbury teams made the top 10, with “Fish” finishing in 11th overall. “Fish” and “404 Competition Not Found” made it into the top 32 teams for the playoffs. “404 Competition Not Found” fought hard only to get knocked out, and “Fish” went through to the quarter finals, but were beaten 26–24. At the end of the competition “Maverick” and “Bruh” from Hillmorton High School qualified for the World Championships.
The 1st XI had a disappointing weekend playing Timaru Boys’ High School. Unfortunately, the batting let the team down in both innings and they were unable to establish partnerships. To Timaru Boys’ credit, they bowled well and maintained pressure, giving them the win.
Other key performances:
Georgia Gregg (Year 8) danced at Rangiora Highland Dancing Competition on Saturday and won Most Points U12. Watson Winterbourn (Year 2) also had a successful weekend at the same competition, winning trophies for Most Points Male (All Ages), Runner Up Most Points (U8) and the Restricted Jig (U14).
Liam Randall (Year 13) and Luca Rose (Year 12) have been selected to represent New Zealand in the U18 Men’s B team going to the Oceania Championships in Australia in April.
Mike “Scrump” Johnston (OC 1974 and Custodian of the College) was a member of the Canterbury Over 60s cricket team which won the ninth Annual Over 60s Cricket Championship. Scrump took three wickets, leading the team to a triumphant win by seven wickets.
On Monday, an event was held in Blenheim to connect with Old Collegians from the Marlborough region. It was a delightful evening, with alumni spanning from the class of 1957 to 2021. OCA President Sam Crosbie (OC 2009) attended, as well as Rector, Mark Wilson, who enjoyed his first regional event, meeting some of our wonderful community members.
flickr >Olivia Brett (OC 2019) and her Women’s K4 Canoe Sprint team won Team of the Year at the 62nd Halberg Awards for their Gold medal performance at the Paris Olympics last year.
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.
