St Bede’s is a school that has been built on rich traditions, faith and servant leadership. One such tradition is that of the Leavers’ Tie Ceremony.

A ceremony that sees each leaver get his Leavers’ Tie, a tie that he can wear in future years with the same pride that he wore his school tie.

In 2017, one of these leavers was Tom Koppen. Tom was a proud St Bede’s Year 13, who had hoped to become a Prefect in his final year. Although Tom didn’t get the role of prefect, he did get a role of Peer Leader, a role that would see him be responsible for a group of new Year 9 students and in his own words, would see him mature.

In 2017, young Seamus Lohrey was about to start his journey at St Bede’s. Seamus was coming from a small school in North Canterbury and knew that he would now be a little fish in a big pond, with only a couple of his friends with him. On his first day, Seamus was greeted by Tom, who was his Peer Leader, a role that Tom took to heart and took seriously, role that Seamus would aspire to.

Seamus was at the top of Tom’s list and once Tom started talking to him, Seamus started to ask lots of questions. It helped that Tom was also from North Canterbury and for Seamus during his Year 9 year, if Tom was catching the bus home, it would be the best part of his day, because he would get to sit next to this awesome Year 13 student who would talk to him.

While Tom also had the others in his Peer group to look after, he watched Seamus grow throughout the year and on Tom’s last day of school, when he received his Leavers’ tie, he turned to Seamus and promised that when Seamus left school, then Tom would sponsor his tie.

Throughout Seamus’ time at St Bede’s, Tom has kept an eye on how he is doing, even learning to have respect for the game of football, even though while at school, he was in the 1st XV!

Last year, Seamus was also made a Peer Leader and kept on the tradition he learnt from Tom to look after his Year 9s, to keep a close eye on them, talk to them, answer any questions and follow them through the next year. This year is Seamus’ last year at St Bede’s, a year that has seen him gain the role of Deputy Head Prefect a role he is proud to hold and a role where he has used what he learnt from Tom about leadership.

While Seamus has been completing his high school years, Tom has been studying to become a Commercial Pilot and while he has successfully completed this, with a Commercial Pilot’s Licence with a night rating and multi engine instrumenting COVID has unfortunately held his career back. If you know of any work that could see Tom gain more flying experience, please contact him at tc.koppen@gmail.com

To keep his word, Tom came back to school this year to sponsor the Leavers’ Tie for Seamus, a tie that Seamus will be proud to wear and a tradition that we hope Seamus will also carry on with one of the Year 9s he was responsible for last year.

If you would like to be part of the tradition and sponsor one of our Year 13 boys this year with their Leaver’s tie, please contact us at oldboys@stbedes.school.nz or go directly to our website