28 October 2022
Term 4 has begun with an emotional rollercoaster for many. Our Year 4 students embarked on their three-day camp at Finniss with a healthy dose of enthusiasm and nerves. Normalising these feelings and building the capacity to overcome any anxiety is all part of the nine-year sequential Outdoor Education journey that sees students grow in confidence and develop skills, year by year, to thrive in a wilderness setting. We wish our Year 8 students well as they head to Mt Crawford over the coming fortnight.
These mixed emotions permeated the Senior School with the induction of our 2023 School Leaders and the five-chapter farewell celebrations of our Class of 2022. Congratulations to the students who were inducted into official positions. It was evident throughout the leadership application process that the School’s framework and values of truth, respect and service are being richly embraced. Everyone in our St Peter’s College community is advantaged in life and with this advantage comes the capacity to enable, or the capacity to crush. I challenge all boys, whether the recipient of a badge or tie, or not, to consider what lives will have been made better as a result of their leadership at this School. As they lead, may they look to the interests of others, act with humility, serve, particularly those in the minority, and serve selflessly.
It has been wonderful to have parents and guardians share in the culture of our School as part of intimate moments as we farewelled our Class of 2022. The five-chapter farewell commenced with very personal House Dinners where each boy was presented by their Mentor who spoke deliberately and purposefully about him as a human in this School’s community. Last week a special breakfast was held with parents and teachers, boys attended their final Chapel Service and Communion, followed by Valedictory Muster and the traditional Avenue of Honour, before concluding with a Speech Day Ceremony and Valedictory Dinner.
I thank the parents for trusting the School, for the sacrifices they have made and for their unwavering faith and belief in the capacity of our young men, that they will make it through their SPSC journey.
Thank you to the Class of 2022 for your acknowledgement of the School in your celebrations and for carrying the mantle of the School for the past 12 months. I have loved seeing your passion, I have loved seeing your pride and I am confident, that you are graduating as assured, compassionate, capable and caring young men who are ready to flourish outside the walls of St Peter’s College; just remember your best is yet to come.
I take this opportunity to thank and congratulate our outgoing School Captains Chirath Lekamge and Aidan Hughes who have undertaken their responsibilities with enormous pride and dedication. Chirath and Aidan formed a remarkable team that supported and inspired our students across the School to strive for continued improvement in all their endeavours. While paying forward the year of service to our community, our Captains have held that crucial balance of both strength and love concurrently. They have set a fine example for our 2023 School Captains Thomas Hamilton-Smith and Aidan Hua to follow.
In the SAFTA/Alliance Française Distribution des Prix prize giving ceremony held at St Peter’s College on Wednesday evening a number of students received awards; congratulations to Noah Nuthall (Reception) first place, Jonathan Jiao second place (Year 1 and 2 category), Kaeshav Rajasekaran and Jayden Chen (Year 3 and 4 category) joint first place and Andrew Lucas, Nicholas Savvouidis and Philip Makooh (Year 5/6 category) first place. In the Senior School, Dan Nguyen received the prize for the best Year 7 French student and old scholar Will Subramaniam (YNG 2021) was awarded the Alliance Française Lauréat IB French prize for the top student in South Australia in 2021.
Congratulations to William Carrigan who was named joint state champion in the Year 9 Australian History Competition and to Year 3 student Sean Zhang who was invited to perform a piano program at a Recital Australia Junior Series concert on Wednesday October 26. In sport, Johnny Turner (Year 10) recently represented South Australia in the National Squash Championships and Justin Scarpin (Year 6) competed in the State Under 12 Boys Soccer Team.
Congratulations and thank you to all students who strive to achieve our vision to be an exceptional community of learning. Exceptional because standards matter, exceptional because we should be performing better each and every day and exceptional because a diverse group of students should find their home here and flourish.
Tim Browning
Headmaster