Every year, the College welcomes the grandparents of our Year 7 and 8 students to the College, to join their grandchildren for a morning at school. Grandparents’ Day gives the students the opportunity to show their loved ones around the College and give them insight into their teaching and learning programmes that are so very different from when they attended school!

With last year’s scheduled Grandparents’ Day cancelled due to Covid, we were all looking forward to the opportunity to welcome our special guests. This year, the event was split into two days, one for the Year 7 students and another for the Year 8s.

Grandparents from as far north as Kerikeri to all the way down south from Queenstown, made their way to the special event. On arrival, they were offered refreshments in the Goodfellow Centre, featuring a fresh batch of hot cross buns especially made for the occasion by Year 11 and 12 Culinary Academy students.

Director of Campus Life and Special Character, Mr Duncan McQueen welcomed our guests while the students waited excitedly to greet and escort their visitors to the Chapel for a service.

College Principal, Mr Russell Brooke formally opened the service with words of welcome and thanked our visitors for their vital role Grandparents play a very special part in the lives of our students, offering not only love, support and moral guidance but, in many cases, also offering the financial resource to ensure their grandchildren have the very best education available to them. 

Our students attend a Chapel service every week with chaplain, Rev David Smith. Well-attuned to keeping teenagers engaged, Rev Smith often shares his important messages in unusual ways. On this occasion, he started by inviting volunteers onto the stage to ‘blindly’ put their hands into a sack and touch what he described as ‘the most dangerous thing in the world’. By the looks on the volunteers' faces, the ‘thing’ in the sack was not very pleasant!

The looks of shock and laughter filled the Chapel when Rev Smith revealed it was a giant cow’s tongue! Rev Smith explained to his audience that the tongue can be the best and worst thing. ‘It can do a huge amount of good and on the other hand, can also cause a lot of damage if it is not controlled.’ He left everyone with four important things to consider if they are about to say or type something to someone else. He said ‘before you speak or type, ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.’

Following the service, the students took their grandparents on a tour of the campus before escorting them to their classrooms. Each class devised their own programme for the morning, but the use of technology, in particular smart boards, notebooks and video were prominent.

After enjoying some classroom time, the visits concluded with an invitation to join their grandchildren for lunch at the Saints Café. The mornings were really enjoyable and we were so pleased to be able to welcome our special visitors back to campus once again. We thank all the grandparents who were able to make it! We look forward to seeing you next time!

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