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1
Regulus
Leadership and Governance
From
Rector
the
At the beginning of the year
St Andrew’s set a College-wide
theme for the ‘Year of Innovation
& Collaboration’.
We committed to supporting and encouraging
teachers to try different things, reach out to
other networks and seek alliances which would
widen students’ boundaries and imagination.
There have been many examples of this in
action throughout the year - perhaps no more
so that the recent Middle School Production
Suspect
.
With a script written from scratch by a group of
senior students and a score and orchestration
written by Year 13 student Isaac Shatford,
this production shows what can happen when
remarkable talent is linked with teamwork,
teacher belief and a willingness to take risks.
Both Ginnie Thorner (Director) and Duncan
Ferguson (Musical Director) of
Suspect
are
extraordinary teachers who gave a group of
StAC students this wonderful opportunity. The
result was certainly a musical production of
outstanding quality. A proud group of Year 9 and
Year 10 students, combined with an incredibly
talented student orchestra, delighted audiences
over five performances. Bravo!
Teachers at St Andrew’s have also been
extending their horizons by taking the
opportunity to connect nationally and
internationally with other educators to pool
ideas and share cutting-edge practice.
Mrs Jacqueline Yoder (English) and Mr Ben
Hilliam (Mathematics) have recently been
selected as Microsoft Expert Educators - two
of the nine teachers chosen from New Zealand
were from St Andrew’s College. After being
flown to an international conference in Sydney,
they will spend the next year sharing their ideas
and innovation in using technology to enhance
classroom learning.
Several other teachers have presented at
conferences. Through his e-learning blogs,
Sam McNeill (Director of ICT) is sharing
e-learning stories and putting St Andrew’s
College at the forefront of innovative teaching
and learning practice.
The web, internet, Google, tweeting and
blogging will continue to change the way we
communicate and learn. We can now connect
with others and have access to information and
knowledge that was previously inconceivable.
It is an exciting time to be in education and our
teachers at St Andrew’s College are making
sure that we are poised to take advantage
from this rapidly changing technology to
better prepare our students for their world
of tomorrow.
At this time of the year, we farewell 186
Year 13 students who have now completed
their schooling and are ready to take on the
next phase of their life of learning. We also
farewell three of our Secondary School teachers
who have clocked up 88 years of teaching at
St Andrew’s College between them.
Alvin Andrew, Andrew Tweedie and Mike Smith
are retiring at the end of this year. The changes
they have witnessed in education are quite
incredible - but what both the students and
teachers agree on is that success comes not
only from knowledge, intelligence and memory,
but equally from hard work and perseverance.
It comes from being true to your values and
principles and from feeling that you have made
a difference.
In today’s complex world there are many
minefields of technology to be negotiated.
There seem to be endless possibilities and
distractions. Hopefully the lessons learned
at StAC not only in the classroom but on the
sports field, the cultural productions, the
Outdoor Education camps, the leadership
opportunities, the friendships made, the ups
and downs of growing through the teenage
years and the relationships developed with
good, wise mentors and teachers will have
prepared our leavers for a life of personal
success and fulfilment.
Of course the experiences our young people
enjoy at school are made possible through
the collective efforts of many people, past and
present. As we gather momentum for our major
capital development campaign,
Step Into Our
Future
, I am mindful of the past parents, staff
and students who have built the platform and
provided many of the College facilities we enjoy
today. We have begun work on our long awaited
new Gymnasium and are poised to begin
work on our new Chapel in 2015. Once again,
through a shared vision and collective effort,
St Andrew’s people past and present are joining
together to turn our dreams into a reality for
the future.
Christine Leighton
Rector