As Term 1 comes to a close, the talk around school has been about how quickly 11 weeks have just flown by. This past month on its own has been hugely busy.

Bishop Lyons, Variety Concert, and Tournament Week are just a few events where the talents and skills of St Bede’s boys have shone through.

It was a successful year for our Bishop Lyons team, finishing up second overall in the competition going up against all the Catholic schools in the Christchurch Diocese. Shout out to Luke Coyle Year 9 in his first year of Bishop Lyons who won 1st equal in the junior prepared speech comp. Support from a lot of other St Bede’s boys was evident over at Marian College, who hosted an amazing weekend in their new home - thank you, Marian.

The first Variety Concert of the year was hugely successful and showcased the incredible talents of music and drama students. Many families, friends, day boys, and boarders came out to support. Mrs King even noted it was the biggest audience she had ever seen for a Term 1 concert.

Tournament week was an extremely successful one for the college this year. Some notable successes were in Futsal, Softball, Rowing, Water Polo, Golf, Athletics, Mountain Biking, and Touch, all of who competed in either South Island or national championships. Good luck to the Senior A Waterpolo team, captained by Logan Rochford, as they head to Wellington for nationals this weekend. With tournament week signaling the end of our summer sports, we look forward to getting into the winter sports next term.

This week some House Captains have decided to get ahead of the Feast Day Year 9 Haka Competition and started teaching the college hHaka to their respective house groups. I’ve already been told by both haka tutors and Year 9s that excitement and eagerness to represent their House is through the roof.

We had our first Pockets Assembly on Tuesday, where the whole school and invited families came together to celebrate senior boys who achieved outstanding academic attainments from the previous NCEA year.

The first Sacramental programme starts tonight with a parent information evening. This programme will run on Thursday lunchtimes during Term 2 and culminate with the Confirmation Mass with Bishop Michael on 27 June. Any boys that are wanting to receive their Sacraments are still welcome to join.

As I said at the start, Term 1 has flown by and been jam-packed with events both in and out of school, with boys representing all areas of the college with pride while also having the college motto at heart “Fide et Opere”.

Enjoy a well-deserved and relaxing break.