St Margaret’s College: Faith in the Schoolyard

Peg Riley

12 Apr 2010

This year St Margaret’s College celebrates 100 years of educating, forming and raising up dynamic young women. The schools strong Anglican heritage means it holds an important part of life in our diocese, evidenced by the vibrant ministry of our college chaplain there, Peg Riley. Anglican Life sent Megan Blakie back to school to explore faith in the schoolyard.

The school buzzer rings, indicating the end of a teaching period and the start of another. It interrupts Reverend Peg Riley mid-sentence. “I’d never before had bells like this,” she laughs, alluding to the more familiar association between parish worship and church bells.

Keeping to a school timetable isn’t the only way in which Peg’s working day at St Margaret’s College differs from that of your average parish priest. Her ‘congregation’ is made up of 750 girls aged between 5 and 18, more than twenty percent of whom live away from home and board at the school. Their teachers and, to some extent, the girls’ parents are also under her pastoral care. “Every year a fifth of my congregation changes, the seniors leave and the new students come in,” she says of her role as school chaplain.

The turnover means she has a limited time to connect with, and make a positive impact, on the girls as they develop both intellectually and spiritually. And make an impact she does. “She’s the nicest person in the world,” says one year 8 pupil. “She’s fun while teaching us heaps,” says another. Someone describes her as “awesome”. A chorus of loud yeses ring out when the class is asked if they like their chaplain and religious education teacher. It’s a hearty endorsement that Peg is very proud of, and one that hides the sometimes difficult transitions she has made over the years in her personal and working life.

She spent an emotionally draining five years as a hospital chaplain ­­­– taking up to 80 funerals a year and dealing with “families in tatters” – before joining Mike Greenslade as co-chaplain at St Margaret’s in 1999. Three years ago she took on the chaplaincy fulltime. “I didn’t own being a chaplain very well in those early days,” she admits.

Now 12 years into her association with the school, happily remarried, and more comfortable in her own skin, Peg appears to have found her niche. “The more I am being the role of chaplain, the more I don’t have to think about it. The more I own it, the more I feel God is with me in this moment and I am led,” she says. It boils down to being true to herself and authentic in her relationships, says the 49-year-old.

Nowhere is that more obvious than when she walks through the school grounds. A self-labelled extrovert, Peg laughs and chats with the girls, thanking them for some contribution they’ve made to school life or acknowledging an activity in which they have performed well. “It isn’t just in the classroom that they are getting their religious education; they are getting the education as I’m walking down the school. The girls call me Peg; every other teacher has a title except me, as it’s a different relationship,” she says.

Far from being a ‘soft touch’, Peg brings to her role her training and experience as a primary school teacher. She knows when to set limits on student behaviour and to reinforce those boundaries. “I’m definitely a teaching authority in the classroom: I’m strict; I’m strong; and I demand, expect and give respect. But I am about friend; I’m not about marking or about punishment.”

Whether in the classroom, the corridor or the chapel, Peg utilises what she calls “the teachable moment” to convey Christian values. That means responding to what is happening around her and, until this year, making the best of whatever space or room was available for teaching. She is, however, thrilled to have been allocated a dedicated classroom for religious studies. “Up until this year I had been teaching in up to eight different places, including a science lab! For 2 years I tried using the chapel as my teaching space, which was wonderful in many, many, many ways - it gave the kids a real ease about being there - but it was also really hard to heat and there weren’t desks,” she says. “The difference about having a classroom is I now have the prompts,” she adds, referring to the posters on the walls and other material on the shelves.

Another development this year is the inclusion of the chaplain position into the school’s leadership team. Peg says that, although her views were often taken account of, being part of the leadership team will allow her to give input on a broader range of matters. Teamwork also features prominently in religious education classes and chapel services - both of which have been part of the St Margaret’s landscape since it was established a hundred years ago. Peg teaches religious education at all levels of the school, but at more senior levels the components of the religious education curriculum are taught by a range of staff. The curriculum used by the school is based on the national one prepared by the Anglican Schools Office.

Representatives from different age groups take turns to lead or assist with the Tuesday chapel services, when the whole school meets for “a greeting, a message, a prayer and a song”. Senior students are also appointed to the role of sacristans, and help Peg in planning the weekly worship and other services. While the school’s links with the Anglican tradition are still strong – not least that Peg is accountable to Bishop Victoria as well the school’s executive principal, Gillian Simpson – the school’s founder, Bishop Julius, might not recognise some of the more modern approaches to religious instruction. “We know that spiritual development doesn’t really happen very much at this age. What we’re giving the students is the basis of understanding and something to reflect on later when the need arises. Unless they have a major trauma event, the spiritual dimension of life doesn’t much come into it for most of the kids,” says Peg.

Peg acknowledges that pupils come from a range of faith – and non-faith – backgrounds. During the devotion time at the beginning of her classes, the girls are able to refer to God in ways they are used to and feel comfortable with. Debates with senior students are also something Peg doesn’t shy away from. “It’s much more important to be listening and keeping in relationship than deciding to create a division,” she says.

However, she is also upfront about her faith and wants pupils to participate fully in the religious dimension of the school community. If pupils – and their parents – feel uncomfortable with that, she encourages them to view the school’s religious activities as opportunities to better understand Christianity. “I encourage them to see the services and classes as a learning opportunity - this is what Christians believe - participating in the same way that, if I went to an Aboriginal community, I’d want to eat the food that they eat or be part of their Dreamtime talking,” she says. “We are an Anglican community and … it is something that’s very strong with us. The less apologetic you are, the more the kids feel safe - not only participating in it but confronting it. Which is fine,” she adds.

While not every Anglican may endorse Peg’s points of view, her role at the school can be seen to complement the school’s wider mission of ‘educating young women to live and lead’. The New Zealand they live in as adults will certainly be a more culturally and religiously diverse place than the one their mothers and grandmothers grew up in. “What amazing understanding and tolerance we’re building among the kids,” says Peg, proudly.

After a dozen years at St Margaret’s, the role of chaplain has become synonymous with the incumbent. Out of Peg’s earshot, a staff member sums up the chaplaincy like this: “It is almost the heart of the school in a way; the chaplain’s so important to us. She’s always there for you. I know that if anyone has a problem - in my office anyway - straight to Peg they go. They always have a shoulder to cry on, a hug, and a step in the right direction. She builds her relationships with lots of hugs and smiles and her enthusiasm.”

WORDS: Megan Blakie

PHOTO: Dave Wethey