Greetings from St Bede’s College.

We come to the end of our first week, and just about every boy has had an initial period in each of their subjects.

During the holidays, one of St Bede's icons, Fr. Kevin Manning, passed away. Aged 92, he officiated at Benediction weekly up until the end of November last year, and his passing after a quick but debilitating cancer to his brain was very sad for many in our community. As he died in the Christmas period, many who would have liked to come to celebrate his life at his funeral, were unable to. One of the customs in the Catholic Church is the practice of a Month's Mind Mass; i.e. a mass in memory of the person who has died, This will be at 6.00pm next Tuesday 4 February, in the College Chapel. Bishop Paul will say the mass. Anyone from our community is most welcome to attend.

The new Year 9s seem to have been inducted into the community well. Guided by our staff, the Year 12 and 13 Peer Leaders who have done an outstanding job with them.

I have included a snapshot below of the NCEA provisional results as at the beginning of January. We will update you further when more information comes to hand.

The results were not as quite as good as last year, but we recognise that the Year 11 and Year 13 cohorts ability levels were not as high as previous years. You will note though, that our Level 2 results are very good and in general, apart from UE, we compare favourably with the rest of the country.

One of the rituals early in the year is the presentation to the Year 13s of their ties. We do this in a ceremony where the ties are blessed by Fr. Allan, and this year, three recent old boys, Jonty Challies-Gibb, Robert Methven and Norbert Muller spoke to the boys about not only making the best of the opportunities of their final year, but also looking to the future for when they leave the College.

School days are important, but a message that came through was that school is also preparation for the rest of their lives. Year 13 is a time when boys should be looking at what they may do when they leave. They were told to use their own networks, or the College would also put them in contact with old boys who were in a field the Year 13 student may be interested in, so they can help in making that decision.

Until next time,

J.G. Boyle