Greetings from St Bede’s

We had a good beginning to the term. Over 80% of the senior students accompanied parents to conferences with the staff, which was an excellent opportunity to look back on two terms and re-set goals for the last half of the year. Seniors now, have only eleven more weeks of class time, so the level of urgency will increase for both students and staff.

Earlier in the week our oldest Old Boy, Patrick Joseph Harnett aged 98, passed. I had the pleasure of meeting him on a couple of occasions in the last few years, and enjoyed listening to his stories about his time at St Bede's in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He was a proud Bedean. The news of his passing was given to me just prior to the first assembly of the term. It was a good opportunity to tell our boys a bit about him and of his pride in the College, and for me to remind our boys about our wider old boy community and how they are still connected to the College. I reminded the boys that they represent and are the 'shop window' for old boys and the wider community.

In that context, I reiterated the message about our uniform standards following the email I wrote to parents last week. The boys have been given a week to tidy up their hair, shoes and uniform. As I said last week, if some boys and their families need financial assistance to purchase uniform items, please let us know. We also have a large stock of donated items that will be available.

Enrolments close today for our 2022 Year 9 intake. Once again we have a good many families who have applied to come to St Bede's but a limited number of spaces available. 

Until next week,

J. G. Boyle