The school was placed into the limited statutory management of lawyer Nicola Hornsey earlier this year after the school's board of trustees sought Ministry of Education support to govern the school.

In May, principal Tara Quinney told Stuff she had a dysfunctional relationship with board chairwoman Ruth Mitchell and would not be able to work with her in the future.

Attempts to contact her at that time by the Otago Daily Times were unsuccessful.

Mrs Quinney told Stuff in May she was worried about the board and its conduct after it attempted to organise a meeting with four senior staff management and not involve Mrs Quinney.

The meeting never happened and Mrs Quinney said the board was new and needed training to understand their role.

Mrs Quinney said she would not resign and the school was in good heart. It was a co-education school with about 450 pupils.

Ms Hornsey said some progress had been made. Continue reading

Owens has refereed many big rugby matches over the years, including the Rugby World Cup final in 2015 between the All Blacks and Wallabies.

The last time Owens refereed a match was in June when England played Argentina and the 46-year-old said it was good to blow away some of those cob webs.

"I was glad it was 30-minutes each way, wouldn't want to be doing 80 before Saturday but it was very good," he said.

"I enjoy refereeing any level so when you get a chance to give back it is always fun."

"In saying that these boys expect me to referee this match as good as I will on Saturday, if not better, so you have to come in and referee the game for them."

After the match Owens said "They were all very good (players)."

"I'm quite surprised all the parents on the touchline were quite quiet as well."

The match was not without controversy however, with Owens calling two attempted St Peter's tries held up.

However, despite the home side going down 24-19, players from both teams mobbed Owens after the match to have a chat and grab a photo with the man who will hold the whistle on Saturday night.

Source

• Stuff
• The New Zealand Herald
• TVNZ
• Image: Stuff

Now, some Peter's College students make film to honour friend.

Three of his closest friends, James Sutherland-Cameron, Oliver van Lent and Ned Drumm, have spent a month putting together the video, titled Robbie.

"How do we handle grief? What happens following the death of a dear friend? We hope you enjoy and find this film beneficial," they say.

Watch video

Scenes of the January crash set the scene, followed by video snippets and photos of the teen boys and interviews about their grief.

Sutherland-Cameron, an aspiring film-maker, said the film tackles the issue of road safety through the lens of their experience.

"There has been a lot of death on the road lately," he said. "Boys my age are still zooming down the road. You could be sitting in a car and someone zooms past you and it makes you think."

"But some people still aren't thinking."

"You aren't just in charge of your own life but the others around you," he said. "You are in charge of the car in front of you and the pedestrian in front of you, you know?

There were two other people in the car; a 20-year-old driver and a 19-year-old passenger.

"I guess I just feel what I feel for them, they loved Robbie as much as we did," Sutherland-Cameron said.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: Screenshot YouTube

St Peter's is located in the Epsom electorate.

Over the past three weeks there have been campaigns, and a leaders' debate.

In the mock vote National won the poll with 29.6 percent of the vote, followed by Labour with 18.2 percent.

National's Paul Goldsmith won, followed by Labour's Michael Wood.

More than 60 percent of students out of a roll of 1200 took part in the voting.

Year 9 students were the biggest voters, with 88 percent turnout.

The vote was organised using the Electoral Commission's Kids Voting Programme that provided voting materials to encourage them to practise voting using real parties, real candidates and real issues.

Source

• TV3News
• Screenshot TV3 News

St Peter's lost 22-24 to a last minute drop goal from Grammar, after battling back from an 11 point deficit with just 14 minutes remaining.

The Moascar Cup is the equivalent of the Ranfurly Shield for school first XV rugby in New Zealand.

The match, which was also a semi-final contest in the Auckland 1A competition, was shown live on Sky Sports' Rugby Channel on August 16.

A victory would have been the icing on the cake for St Peter's, which celebrated its 75th jubilee the previous weekend.

St Peter's beat Auckland Grammar 15-10 earlier in the season.

Another Catholic school, Sacred Heart College, lost to St Kentigern College 14-24 in the other Auckland semi-final.

Continue reading

Bellett was the sole white kid in the Samoan culture group.

He said he had trouble persuading some people he was serious when he decided to join his Samoan friends in the group this year. The festival performance required about seven weeks of practice, 18 hours a week, but Bellett persisted.

"I've got a lot of Samoan friends. It's one of those things where you get a chance to do it at school but, once you leave, you'll never be able to do it again."

St Peter's were underdogs. But they proved the doubters wrong at last week's big event, taking out the top award at the Samoan Stage.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: New Zealand Herald

Fouhy comes with an impressive background in Catholic education since 1971, teaching at St John's College Hamilton, Hato Petera Auckland, St Paul's College Ponsonby, St Bernard's Lower Hutt (as Deputy Principal) and St Peter's College Auckland as Principal since 1989, the first lay Principal of that college.

He has taken a keen interest in fostering music and sport at the college, with one third of thestudents playing musical instruments, and has been supportive with his presence at all sporting codes.

The college engages in group programmes with disadvantaged youth in and around Auckland, and makes a trip to India every second year.

He has a deep respect for the education vision of the Christian Brothers - to be liberating, to support justice based on Gospel values and available to all - and sees his role as Principal as that of 'chief catechist', supporting the special Catholic character in the Edmund Rice tradition. St Peter's is a college built on the strong foundation of education, faith, sport, music and service, working with families to make strong men of faith.

Kieran is a dedicated family man, married to Dianna with five daughters. When his wife and daughters were studying for their theology degrees, Kieran also took several of the papers and engaged with them in the lectures, dialogue and discussion. He is described as a reflective man, a man of faith, a man of hope.

Framed on the wall outside his office are the words of Teilhard de Chardin SJ, "Once we have done all we can ... we must wait on the slow workings of God." Certainly Kieran Fouhy has given his all to Catholic education, and as Monsignor Paul Farmer said, he is a most worthy recipient of this papal honour.

Source

• St Peter's College
• Supplied: Lyndsay Freer
• Image: Supplied

He has a personally signed copy of 'A Long Walk to Freedom'.

His wife bought it for him as a Father's Day gift when she was working as a school nurse at St Mary's Diocesan School for Girls in Pretoria.

"Mandela's granddaughter was at the school and she saw it sitting on my wife's desk and asked why it was there."

"She took it home and he signed it for me."

On the day of Mandela's famous inauguration in 1994, between 100 and 150 of Olivier's students were used as ushers for the celebration.

This was done in recognition of the Catholic school's decision to open their doors to all races after the Soweto uprising in 1976.

"After we opened doors in 76, we were directly targeted by the state," Olivier said.

"None of the state schools would play sport against my college and the government was actively working to shut down Catholic schools in the 80s and early 90s, until the whole mood changed with Mandela."

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Hindustan Times

Their support has added weight to a Palmerston North mother's campaign to stop retailers in the Manawatu from selling legal highs.

Esther McLean has proposed that the city's mayor, Jono Naylor, visits every legal-high retailer in town to encourage them to stop selling the products.

The 11 school principals have signed a letter to the Palmerston North City Council in support of her proposal.

"We are also prepared to be part of a campaign that proposes a boycott against any dairy or store that sells them," the letter says.

Freyberg High principal Peter Brooks spearheaded the move and said the boycott would soon be actively encouraged by all 11 schools.

"The next step is for us to be given the names of the dairies in our areas that sell legal highs. If we get that then we can use our communities and our parents to target [those retailers] by going to other shops," Brooks said.

Last week Police in Hamilton called on the public to boycott Hamilton dairies selling controversial legal highs.

But one dairy owner is still stocking synthetic cannabis products, claiming they are his "bread and butter" and the Government is to blame for not banning them sooner.

Police have launched Operation Dairy in the city's east, hitting the streets to lecture dairies who refused to stop selling legal highs.

Shopowners agreeing not to stock the products were given a large yellow and red poster to display in shop front windows.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Static.stuff.co.nz

The "cage", as the ground across the road from the school is known, has undergone a major transformation and will be used by the school's top rugby and soccer teams.

While the development cost remains "price sensitive," a "significant" sum has been poured into the facility.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Architectus.co

The retreat provides an opportunity for student leaders who are seeking a transformative experience that links faith and life in a way that is relevant to young people.

Over the 4 days that they are together the students will engage in a variety of activities designed to challenge and motivate them in their roles with a renewed sense of purpose.

This year the retreat begins on 17-20 April, held at Te Unga Waka Marae, a Marae founded by Dame Whina Cooper.

There are 22 students representing Marist, St Dominic's, St Peter's, St Paul's, Liston, Pompallier and Campion Colleges. Although Campion is not within the Auckland Diocese, the Logos Project never deny young people the access to their programmes.

This year theme is "Our own backyard"; it explores the concept of Turangawaewae. Literally turanga (standing place), waewae (feet) is translated as "a place to stand".

Turangawaewae are places we feel especially empowered and connected. They are our foundation, our place in the world and our home. Throughout the retreat the students will go on a journey to discover the Turangawaewae of their own lives as well as both the Christian story and the New Zealand Catholic story.

This process allows them to recognise the gift of our faith tradition that connects us all as one people. The students will also have the privilege to hear the story of 2 Josephite Sisters who lived and worked alongside Dame Whina Cooper in Panguru.

The Logos team are deeply excited about delivering this retreat and say it is definitely one of highlights of the year for them. They say young people are looking ever more for a sense of meaning, healing and belief in something bigger. This retreat is sure to nourish and incite this hunger.

The Logos Project is a Marist Youth Development organisation that has been operating for over 10 years in Auckland. They offer a range of programmes and services in 3 key areas: School, Church and Community. Each year they work with over 10,000 young people.

Source

• The Logos Project
• Image: The Logos Project

This was just one of the many tributes made to Sir Paul Reeves at his funeral in Auckland yesterday which was attended by more than a thousand mourners, included The Archbishop of York, The Governor General, and the Prime attended the the former Governor General

Students from Hato Petera College and Te Aute College formed a guard of honour and performed a haka as Sir Paul was taken from the Church and the end of the service

On the way to the Cathedral the cortege had driven through the Domain where 380 St Peter's College students formed a guard of honour and performed a haka. Sir Paul's grandson attended the school.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Stuff.co.nz