St Peter's School, Cambridge


St Peter's School is a private, co-educational, Anglican secondary school for Years 7–13 located in Cambridge, New Zealand. The School is located on of ground, surround by school-owned farmland alongside the Waikato River. The schools motto 'Structa Saxo' is Latin and translates to "Built on a Rock".
The school's history extends back to 1936, when it was founded by Arthur Broadhurst and James Morris Beaufort.. It was designed by American architect Roy Alston Lippincott, who designed the main building to resemble a large English country home. St Peter's became a co-educational school in 1987.
The school has extensive facilities made for Boarding and Day Students, as well as on-campus accommodation for teachers, tutors and workers. The construction of the Robb Sports Centre in 2005 is an example of this. The building includes two indoor basketball or badminton courts, netball courts, tiered seating for up to 200 people, a weights room, an aerobics studio, two squash courts and an artificial climbing wall.
In 2009 construction of a new English block was completed, along with a new library and computer rooms. A new Junior School area was completed in 2014. Also in 2014 Owl Farm was launched, a demonstration farm that is a joint venture between St Peter's School, Cambridge and Lincoln University. Students use the farm regularly for a wide variety of applications including animal feeding, breeding and health, pasture composition, growth rates and dry matter percentage, weed identification, and more.
Also in 2014, the Business and Entrepreneurial Centre was opened. It is an initiative that helps students understand the importance of business, and to develop enterprising attributes and skills. For those students who have a keen interest in business, the BEC provides an environment where they can get practical support to get their ideas off the ground.
The Avantidrome, Home of Cycling, was built on the school's grounds in 2014. It was officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The board of the school approved the International Baccalaureate programme to be taught alongside the current NCEA curriculum at Year 12 and 13, effective 2009. It is the only school in the Waikato to offer the IB Diploma.
In 2018 it reached a record roll of over 1130 students.
Junior Sports Academies were introduced in 2017 as curriculum-based options in Years 7 - 10. School teams for these sports are offered at all age groups as co-curricular opportunities for all students, regardless of whether they choose to enrol in a curriculum academy or not. St Peter's has other sports academies including Equestrian, Rowing, Swimming, Golf, Rugby, and Cycling.
In 2018 the school implemented the Well-being Curriculum and Pastoral Care structure. The Well-being Curriculum is at the leading edge of educational circles and provides benefits to all students and staff. The school has plans to open a purpose-built Well-being Centre in 2019-2020. As part of this, learning groups were introduced. They are single gender in Year 9 and 10 and mixed gender in Years 11, 12 and 13.
The Musical Theatre Academy was also launched in 2018. It provides student with intensive vocational training outside of academic class time. The programme is influenced by research that was conducted on top performing arts schools around the world. New Zealand musical theatre director is the Academy Advisor.

Notable alumni