It is event season at St Peter's. House Dinners, Awards Ceremonies, and Prizegiving. Behind all of these events – and behind the scenes – are outstanding staff members like Sarah Robb, our Events Specialist, and other team members in respective departments.

 In rugby terms, they are the Sam Canes of St Peter's, those that do the vital yet unseen work, the work around the fringes, out of the spotlight, but critical to smooth-running and all pieces coming together just at the right time. (Fingers crossed for the All Blacks on Sunday). I would like to pay tribute to all members of our Operations team, who perform these critical roles certainly not just to ensure the wheels turn, but who, in concert with teaching and learning staff, help to activate the campus and spark the daily routine for our students in the most inspirational ways.

Fittingly, members of the St Peter's Parents Association (SPPA) treated all staff to a special morning tea this week, as a token of thanks on behalf of the St Peter’s parent community. On behalf of the staff, I would like to thank the SPPA Committee and, through them, all parents for this gesture. I mentioned in my address at last week's Arts Awards Ceremony, that parent support is a vital ingredient in a young person's success, but so is the quality and nature of the partnership between home and school – the team around the child. For fee-paying schools, it can be easy to slip into a consumerist mindset, but education as a whole is not at all a product to consume, but what some theorists refer to as a ‘complex adaptive system’ – complex in the sense that education is a human and relational endeavour. At St Peter’s, I see this alight and flourishing every day.

It was a pleasure to share the stage last week with so many outstanding individuals, ensembles and teams, as part of the 2023 Arts and Sports Awards ceremonies. As someone that aims to attend every event and fixture, even I was stunned by the array and depth of talent that was showcased across both evenings. And there are so many other students – great in so many other ways – at our school. The Arts Awards were as much a celebration of courage as they were of creativity. Nothing gives me greater joy in my work – and indeed hope for the future of society – than seeing young people expressing themselves confidently, safely and uninhibited. Such is the temptation for young people today to feel some compulsion to fit in rather than to belong, or to recede into themselves to avoid derision, only those most courageous, are prepared to present their most authentic selves in a public setting. I am conscious that those students being recognised for their talents last week – in Arts and Sport – are also some of our most courageous.

At the Sports evening, I shared, somewhat paradoxically, that I am open-minded about the idea of awards. As a school, we care about the learning, the experience we offer, the journey, more than we care about the final results or the destination. We aim to win when we play sport, of course, but because the pursuit of victory is where the value is; winning is not what drives our purpose as a school nor what drives participation or performance. When I ask our students, it is the camaraderie, the connection, the feeling of being part of something greater than themselves, or even the distraction from other aspects of life, that draws them in.

We should also keep awards in perspective because of their subjectivity. The decisions can never be as definitive as we would like; they are human decisions. In a similar way, we are nearing the end of the process to select student leaders for 2024. Selection in any form – awards, fixtures, leadership – never fails to be fraught with difficulty and, invariably, some disappointment. What makes selecting leaders so difficult for us at St Peter’s is the depth and quality of our candidature. We received 100 applications for 32 formal positions, all linked to the new strategic focus on the St Peter’s seven-year student journey. Importantly, we will be seeking new ways in 2024 to capture this level of aspiration in our students, to ensure that we can maximise the leadership capabilities of a greater number of our outstanding young leaders and to ensure our students feel as valued as they should as the role models that they are.

Finally, I hope to see you all at the various events over the next couple of weeks. We have our first rowing regatta of the season at Lake Karapiro, the Junior Production of Newsies, our Senior Prizegiving ceremonies and, most poignantly, the Graduates’ Dinner, where I look forward to the opportunity to recognise and farewell our longest serving students and families.

Marcus Blackburn

Head of School