As the St Peter’s school community prepare to celebrate 50 years this weekend, Co Principals Jenny Roberts and Michael Chalkley visited Foundation Principal, Sr Kathleen Slattery to present her with the first copy of the commemorative book which was hot off the press!

Sr Kathleen was appointed to St Peter’s in 1971 prior to the opening of the school the following year. There were 72 students at the first roll call, and she was the only teacher with support from a young girl called Christine Gardiner.

Equipment was in short supply as the new school commenced, in fact there weren’t even desks, blackboards or chalk!

“We didn’t have any money,” said Sr Kathleen, “but Monsignor Peter de Campo found some desks for us and bit by bit, they arrived.”

Initially, Sr Kathleen was told that she would be taking up a position at St Mary’s in Castlemaine and was only told of her appointment as Principal of ‘St Kilian’s Infant School’, as it was originally called, two days before commencement.

You can imagine her surprise when she turned up at St Kilian’s School in Bendigo only to be told that her school was up the hill.  “It was quite a shock,’ she said. “It was a little dust bowl and nothing else.”

From the beginning she had a dream that students would develop a sense of their own worth and to take responsibility for their lives. “That was the dream that I had for these little children.”

When Sr Kathleen returned to St Peter’s in 2017 for the opening of a new facility, she saw that her dream had been realised. “The tiny little ones were all trying to do what the big kids were doing, not having been told, do this! They just did it and they did it with sincerity and with honesty … and I thought, that’s what I dreamt!”

Current Co-Principal Jenny Roberts said that the four school values of ‘care for self, care for others, care for learning and care for the environment’ enforced the original vision that Sr Kathleen had for students of St Peter’s.

This weekend St Peter’s School will open the doors to all those who have had a connection to the school over the past 50 years. There will be displays, memorabilia, commemorative merchandise and, most importantly, it will provide a chance to connect with those to whom this school has meant so much over the past half a century.