The first two weeks of the year have been busy and vibrant as we started off the new year at St Peter’s College. If you’ve been following the St Peter’s College socials, you will know that we have the honour and privilege of being the School Captains for 2024, an opportunity that we are incredibly excited for. We began by welcoming the new Years 9 to 12 students on day zero, in which we emphasised the importance of reframing nervousness (which is very common on first days) into excitement. When you think about it, being nervous has the same effects as being excited, your heart rate increases, your palms get sweaty, and you get butterflies in your stomach. The only difference is our psychological state and the way we address these feelings. Instead of seeing this as “being nervous”, we encouraged the boys to try and see it as “excitement” which is a much more positive approach in tackling daunting tasks.
Later in the week, we were officially inducted as the School Captains for which we were both very excited! In our Induction Address, we spoke about the theme of connection and community, and the importance of friendships. This year we are putting a big focus on ensuring that everyone in our community feels connected. This includes the Junior School, Senior School, old scholars, parents and staff. We are beginning by assigning each prefect to a Year 7 or 8 mentor group to go along to a mentor session once or twice a week. This will allow them to interact with some of the younger boys and gives the boys someone to look up to and also provides a familiar face around the school grounds. We have also begun visiting the Junior School before school to play handball with some of the younger boys. Albeit, our handball skills have diminished significantly since our Junior School days and we were left bamboozled and awestruck by the Junior Schoolers impressive display of handball prowess. We will look to keep practicing and hopefully improve in the future!
We have a lot of other initiatives and ideas as we strive towards connecting our community, and we are incredibly excited for the year ahead. We will be looking to have a larger social media presence, so that the wider community can see what is going on inside these walls and fields. To follow along on this journey, follow us on the @SaintsCaptains Instagram page for plenty of updates.
James Hattingh and Ryan Fowler
School Captains