News & Events

Dear Friends of St Paul’s

Week one has come and gone already, and it was a wonderful start to the year for St Paul’s College. Over the past two years we have put much time and effort into re-designing and improving the beginning of year structures and activities to make the transition for all our new students a smooth one. Week one is known as our “Wellbeing Week” and the students of different year levels start the year at differing intervals to give the youngest and the newest time and space to get to know all the environment and all the school routines before the whole population returns.

This Wellbeing Week also has, as its priority, the establishing and building of positive relationships across all levels within the school. These relationships are so crucial to any individual’s success and are THE most important aspect to our lives with a family-oriented community. Our Pastoral Care structures and activities permeate throughout this week (and throughout the year) and by the looks on the faces of the boys leaving at the end of week one, everyone enjoyed themselves.

Special thanks must go to Mr Nicolas Callary (Head of Student Development) and his Wellbeing Council Team together with our APRIM, Ms Angela Collins for their preparation of the myriad of activities and liturgies held throughout the week.

Opening Assembly

On Thursday we held our opening assembly, and this has a dual focus. Firstly, we welcome all the new students, through a guard of honour created by our Yr 12 cohort and then introduce our Yr 12 students, presenting them with their special leadership tie, acknowledging their seniority and importance within the school. Secondly, we have an academic focus where we congratulated the high performers in the Class of 2020 and the Term 4 2020 Honours students across Yrs 5 - 11. It is extremely pleasing to witness the growing number of students across the College who are being presented with these awards and our thanks must go to all our staff for their diligent efforts in supporting the students and the families with their academic pursuits.

The Dux of 2020 Caleb Lotstra addressed the school and was inspirational in his encouragement of all the students to work hard in class but also to continually challenge themselves to be the very best person they can be and that they would hope to be.

Community Involvement            

As we often refer to, St Paul’s is more than a community, it is very much one big family. In all families, individuals are different in all aspects of their lives, from gender to abilities, interests etc. In other words, very diverse in themselves as a group. This is obviously more magnified in a family of 800!! Having said that, there are a few very easy ingredients to a successful journey within this family. One, very simply, is to be involved. This involvement is not only a sign of commitment to the College and its values, but a willingness to be an active part of our three-way partnership - students / families / staff, which provides the very best opportunity for success.

We encourage all members of the family to be committed to this involvement. Students in their academic, social and co-curricula pursuits and family – especially parents and caregivers, by attending information evenings, teacher interviews or offering your services to any of the activities that interest you or you have strengths in. Like all our staff, families too, must model to each other the behaviours, character strengths and values we undoubtedly know will contribute to their success and the success of St Paul’s as a whole.

God Bless

Paul Belton