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Year 7 & 8 - Middle School

Entering Year 7 will be the most significant transition your son has made since he was 5 years old. The Middle School is designed to ensure that transition is positive and effectual.

From the first day, students are grounded in traditional values and exposed to transformational experiences. Faith, Respect, Excellence, Service, Heart and Presence and make up the values of a St Peter’s Man.

Experiences are wide-ranging and boys are expected to engage in all Academic, Special Character, Sporting, Musical and Cultural opportunities.

Our Middle School goal is for all students to feel confident and ‘inculturated’ within the school with a clear sense of expectation and understanding towards becoming an St Peter’s man.

Introduction to Middle School

At the beginning of the school year, a key focus is on helping the students to adjust to their new environment. All values and expectations are made clear during the first 100 days in order to assist the students in their early development as a St Peter’s Man. Community building events during this 100 day induction period are critical steps towards a successful transition for your son.

With emphasis placed on entering St Peter’s College in Year 7, a relatively unique situation develops within the College as a whole. Year 7 and Year 13 students can be seen sitting together talking, walking around the school or even competing in the same activity. A situation of ‘big brother/little brother’ can develop giving the younger students the added security of a senior watchful eye.

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Catholic Character

At the heart of St Peter’s is our Special Character.

It is lived out through the Catholic tradition and its intent is to build resilient young men of substance and integrity. In practice the Special Character is manifested through compulsory service hours, Theology and Philosophy lessons, liturgical celebrations and daily prayer and reflection. Essentially Special Character is about how we do all things.

Our boys are encouraged to become: ‘Men for Others’

Practising the College motto: ‘To Love and to Serve’

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Pastoral Care

Pastoral Care involves creating the right culture and environment so that the personal, academic, physical, spiritual and emotional needs of every student are met.

Pastoral Care is part of the unique Special Character of St Peter’s College, to which all staff contribute. Ultimately, Pastoral Care is about ensuring the well-being of the boys. At St Peter’s there is zero tolerance to bullying. Students are able to come through the school gates each day feeling safe in all areas of the College. Students are taught anti-bullying strategies and how to develop positive inter-personal relationships.

The Middle School’s structure contributes to fostering an environment of Pastoral Care. With 70% of subjects taught by their House Class teacher a positive teacher/student relationship is soon established. A pastoral system designed especially for the Middle School ensures boys are assessed weekly on College expectations and values.

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Academic

There is a highly structured academic programme in the Middle School. All subjects adhere to the New Zealand Curriculum with our core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science using the Junior Cambridge programme of study as a core syllabus. This programme ensures all students receive the necessary preparation before the vigour of secondary studies begin. Other subjects include Theology and Philosophy, History, Geography, Music, Technology, Physical Education, Health, Art, Maori, Chinese and Spanish.

Our academic expectations and results are high, ensuring Middle School achievement consistently remains above the National Standard. The assessments we use are comprehensive with the key focus around mid-year and end-of-year examinations. We believe this provides a structure of learning that suits boys.

Our timetable follows a five day programme with seven to eight periods per day. 70% of subjects are taught by the House Class teacher with specialist secondary teachers taking subjects such as Science, Music, Technology, Physical Education, Art and Languages. This integration with the Senior School in Year 7 and 8 contributes to the effective transitioning into the Senior School which begins in Year 9.

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Sports

There is a proud sporting tradition at St Peter’s College. At Years 7 and 8 all the major sports are available including; Rugby, Football, Cricket, Cycling, Basketball, Hockey, Tennis, Water Polo and Touch Rugby. All Middle School students are expected to represent the College in a weekend or after-school sports team.

The Middle School also achieves at a high level both in the Central Zone for the Auckland Intermediate Schools Sports Association and nationally at the AIMS Games. Furthermore we participate in regular Inter-School summer and winter competitions involving traditional rivals Kings Prep, Sacred Heart, Dilworth and St Kentigern. Every Wednesday afternoon all Middle School classes are involved in inter-house sports ensuring a broad range of experiences for all.

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Music and Cultural Activities

At St Peter’s, Music sits alongside Sport as an essential discipline in building the St Peter’s Man.

Music is a high performing feature of St Peter’s. It is compulsory for all Year 7 and 8s to learn an instrument and small group musical tuition is provided once a week during class time.The objective is for every Middle School class to have their own Symphony Orchestra.

Music groups to join include the Junior Orchestra, Junior Strings and Junior Band. The Choirs are also very much part of the school scene involving all age levels.

Cultural activities like Music are vast and high achieving. They include the Maori Cultural Group, Samoan Cultural Group, Maori & Polynesian Festival, Tongan Cultural Group, weekly lessons in both Te Reo Maori and Mandarin.

The annual Eisteddfod is a Middle School event where classes and individuals compete in Performing Arts such as Singing, Music and Poetry.

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BOYD

Tablet for Y7 & 8 students:

For all Year 7 & 8 boys you are required to have your own Tablet AND Keyboard for 2026. No other devices are acceptable (e.g. Laptops, Chromebooks, Smart Phones or Notebooks). The Tablet can be of any brand or model (not a mini or compact size), have Wi-Fi capability and have an OS (Apple, Windows or Android) capable of installing the latest version of the MS 365 Apps (Ms Teams, OneNote, Word, PowerPoint etc)


Laptop for Y9 – Y13 students:

All year 9 – 13 students are required to have their own *laptop.

St Peter’s College is a Microsoft 365 based school, we recommend a Windows 11 or Mac OS laptop, capable of running the latest Microsoft 365 Apps (MS Teams, OneNote, Word, Outlook, etc). The laptop should be lightweight, have a battery life of six hours or longer, enough RAM (min 8GB) and Solid-State Storage (SSD – min 256 GB) for applications to run smoothly.  Chromebooks are not accepted as experience shows users often have connection issues and limitations running/installing some Apps

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*From 2027, 2026 is a transitional year

Students are responsible for the welfare of their device, eg charging, battery etc. The school does not provide IT support for any hardware or software issues.

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