81st Bishop’s Shield - Competition and Connection
By Tor Devereux | Posted: Wednesday August 13, 2025
Last weekend Trinity Catholic College participated in the 81st Bishop’s Shield in Oamaru and came home with the Marist Centennial Plate as the runners-up in this long-running annual public speaking and drama competition.
The Bishop’s Shield brings together the four Catholic high schools in the Dunedin Diocese (Verdon College, St Peter’s College, St Kevin’s College, and Trinity Catholic College) and students from the schools compete against one another in prepared speech, impromptu speech, junior and senior te reo speech, junior and senior debating, junior and senior drama, and junior and senior scripture.
A huge congratulations to all the Trinity students who participated in the Bishop’s Shield competition this year - they gave it their all and were wonderful and respectful representatives of our school.
Everybody’s performances contributed to the overall outcome (2nd place) and a special “well done” to the following for their placings/awards:
Ariel Holloway - 1st in Senior Scripture (Passage for Study & Questions)
Camila Barns - 1st in Junior Te Reo Speech
Rishi Shantapriyan - 2nd in Impromptu Speech
Joseph Kelly, Akein Wickramagedara & Ché McGivern - 2nd in Senior Debate
Matilda Andersen, Anamika Jones, Nuala Kelly, Meadow Stewart, Grzegorz Twardowski - 2nd in Senior Drama
Ellen Forbes, Laura McCartney, Bella McLennan, Katie Soper, Mackenzie Thompson - 2nd in Junior Drama
Leo Branford - 2nd in Junior Scripture
Anamika Jones - Boyce Family Cup (Most Promising Senior Dramatic Performance)
Laura McCartney - Terry Angus Cup (Most Promising Junior Dramatic Performance)
The general theme for this year’s Bishop’s Shield was “Pilgrims of Hope” and it was inspiring to listen to the students from all the schools across the different events expressing interesting, well-considered, and thoughtful ideas, as well as great insight, about this concept.
As always, the weekend also included plenty of time for social interaction and it was lovely to see the students from across the four schools reconnecting with people they had met in previous years at the Bishop’s Shield and making new friends too.
Thank you to the staff who accompanied the students to Oamaru and those who spent hours before the competition coaching them in the different disciplines.
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