Greetings from St Bede’s.

While there have been a spate of funerals in the last couple of weeks there has been some good news to celebrate as well, and we thought that may be a good reason to assemble together as a school for the first time in three months!!

The reason for the assembly was to acknowledge the success of Mac Williams and Jack Coakley who won the national title for the Junior Young Farmer of the Year last week, the second time St Bede's has won this prestigious award in three years. In 2018 Angus Grant and Nick O’Connor won the same award so St Bede's is the first school to win this award twice since the competition began some twenty years ago. Congratulations to their coach and mentor Mr McPhail who has prepared a number of St Bede's teams over the last five years.

Congratulations also to a recent old boy, Māui Brennan, who is heading to Bocconi University in Milan next year to complete his Masters in Economics, after he was awarded the William Georgetti Scholarship.

Māui is one of three University of Canterbury graduates to receive the scholarship from Universities New Zealand, and one of seven recipients nationwide. The scholarship aims to encourage postgraduate study and research in a field that is important to the social, cultural or economic development of New Zealand.

During the week year 13s were involved in the My future Self programme. The keynote speaker was old boy, Sergeant Major Wells, who left St Bede’s College in 1989 to take up a school exchange in America, where he won a scholarship to go to University. After earning his Bachelor of Science Degree, he followed his passion and trained in the Marine Corps, where he has been deployed in active duty in many of the world’s most recent conflicts. The Meritorious Service Medals, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation and Achievement Medals are only some of the commendations he has received throughout his successful career.

I have included the link below if you are interested in hearing what Sergeant Major Wells said to the students...

Sergeant Major Carey Wells - Careers Talk

During the programme, the boys were also given guidance in CV writing and coached for job interviews and in the afternoon over twenty people from a variety of jobs and professions made themselves available to speak with students about their chosen career path. The boys were given the opportunity to “speed date” a number of these professionals to gain some insights into future careers that may be of interest to them. 

Until next week,

J. G. Boyle