It is great to have all the boys back and to begin the new year.

On Wednesday, our Year 12 & 13 students, along with the new students and their families, participated in a welcoming Powhiri. Then the Peer Support Orientation Programme for the Year 9’s began.

Earlier in the week 95% of our Year 10 – 13 boys and their parents participated in a most productive Conference Day where subjects and goals for the year were discussed.

We have also had a couple of significant ceremonies this week. At the assembly yesterday, the Prefects were presented their badges after they were blessed by Fr. Allan, and today we staged the Year 13 Tie Ceremony. 

There was a special a special moment when one of the Prefects, Mac Meredith, presented his father, Apete Meredith, with an Old Boy’s Tie. Apete was a student at St Bede’s College during the 1970's, and in 1978 was a College Prefect as well. It was a touching moment because Meredith Senior was not informed by Meredith Junior on why he had to come to the ceremony!

Today we blessed and opened the new Grimes building. We haven’t as yet received the license to operate so the ceremony was low-key, but importantly the Provincial of the Society of Mary, Fr. David Kennerley, was the chief celebrant.

The old Grimes was a traditional building, a part of our history.  When it was torn down in 2013 we lost our junior boarding dorms, classrooms, toilets and the tuck shop. However, there is always a silver lining. Now we have a modern building in our traditional and evolving College. A building that will be the home of Art and Food Technology – a first for St Bede’s College.

We also welcomed a number of new staff to the College:

• Mrs Vanessa Payne - English
  
• Matua Wiremu - Te Reo Māori
  
• Mr Reed Wilson - PE
  
• Mr Kurt Paterson - PE
  
• Mr Jules Schwalger-Smith - PE
  
• Mr James Burnside - Science
  
• Mr Eion (Owen) Shiel - Science
  
• Mr Kerry Sullivan - Social Sciences
  
• Miss Margaret Whelan - SENCO
  
• Ms Brenda Bickerstaff - Technology
  
• Mr Anthony Crowther - Technology
  
• Miss Sam Wedge - Bursar / Accounts
  

As the year begins, I would like to share part of my message that I delivered to the boys yesterday at the first assembly for the 2019 school year…

2019 - a few initial thoughts...

A theme coming through in many of the introductory messages of the year by the senior students and staff, is about acknowledging the fact that we are a College with a rich history which we respect, but we are not going to be stuck in the past. Therefore, we are open to change; we are open to trying new things and new ways of practice. As a result, the College will continue to evolve and develop.

2019 is not only a new year for each and everyone of you – staff and students, but also the College as a whole.

What remains unchanging is why the College exists……a Catholic College forming good men in a Catholic, Marist environment.

On the chapel wall there is a saying from the great Saint Augustine…..

”God loves each of us as if there were only one of us”.

Think about that and also think about what this means. We are all unique in God’s eyes and you all have unique gifts that are God-given. Make 2019 one where if you have found them, then develop them. If you haven’t, treat the year as a quest to find what you truly love and what you might be good at. Trust that if you keep searching, you will find what is unique to you, if not while you are at St Bede’s College, but later when you leave.

Let me give you a couple of things to think about as you begin the year, that you can add to the conversations you had at Conference Day:

• The way you learn. Explore what type of learner you are. Are you more a collaborator, or one who learns by sitting round in a group and learning together. Or perhaps you are someone who learns better by yourself or by doing?
  
• Is it the year to try another sport that you think you might enjoy or you think you might be good at? Or is this the year that in the sport you really love, you test the boundaries further in the manner you train? Don’t just wait for the team practice but go away and practice the skills by yourself or get fitter so you can play well for longer periods.
  
• Is this the year to take up a musical instrument that in the past you have just wondered about, or had a crack at performing for the first time in a variety concert. 

I believe the teenage years are a series of surprises and adventures where you can find that uniqueness that I talked about before. The ‘ah-ha’ moments, those moments of self-discovery and proving to yourself that you can do some of the stuff that you had merely wondered about in the past but hadn’t quite converted that into action. This is what I think Augustine also meant. God loves us because of our uniqueness. Loves us as we are. In return we love him by finding or opening up the gifts we all have.

So, as we begin the year, think about how each of us do something that will make 2019 better than last year for yourself and the College. If it was a good year….ask yourself why?

If it wasn’t as good as you hoped, ask yourself why?

Once you have a ponder about that, make a promise to do one thing every day that you think will make this year a better one for you. Once you make the promise, set out every day to keep it.

As a College we are very happy with the manner in which the Year 12's and 13's performed in NCEA. You and your teachers should be justifiably proud of your results and I was mightily impressed with the level of participation in the Conference Day as you mapped out your goals for the year.

Until next time,

Justin Boyle