From the Principal

Condolences

Our thoughts and prayers and Mr Michael Manton, St Charles Principal, whose mother passed away on Thursday, 8 June and then his father passed away one week later on 15 June. Both lost their battle with cancer. 

Hospitality Dinner 

On Monday night I had the pleasure of attending Pinocchio’s Restaurant at South Juniors where our Year 12 Hospitality class took over the running of the restaurant for the evening. 65 parents, friends and staff were treated to a delightful three-course meal that was beautifully prepared and presented. The students took charge of all aspects of the restaurant, from planning the menu to managing the kitchen and providing excellent customer service.

The Year 12 Hospitality students can be proud of their achievements, as their hard work and dedication was on display for all to see. Thank you to Pinocchio’s management and Waverley Hospitality staff members Ms Beverley McCarthy and Mr Mark Neale, for organising this exciting opportunity. 

2023 Waverley College Music Festival in our Brother RJ Wallace Performing Arts Centre

Last night I attended the Waverley College Music Festival. It was a packed house! I was impressed by the obvious hard work and dedicated hours that our students, internal staff and peripatetic tutors have devoted to these flourishing music groups. The breadth of these across the Junior and Senior School is truly inspiring.

Our Masters of Ceremony, Alistair Isaac and Paul Muir (Music Captains), expertly compèred the evening. The diverse repertoire from our vocal, brass, strings, elective music and ensemble performances showcased the abundant talent of our musicians and choristers across musical genres – from film scores, pop, rock, classical, jazz, traditional, country – there really was something for everyone. 

Our newest music groups clearly enjoyed the opportunity to perform and our numerous Rock Bands demonstrated remarkable progress since their inception.

Our 10-student strong Waverley College and St Clare’s College Chamber Choir delivered a particularly accomplished performance of ‘When She Loved Me’ by Randy Newman, conducted by Ms Jaz Dolso and accompanied by Ms Jazz de Witte. We’re very proud of our longstanding coeducational musical collaborations with St Clare’s.

We also farewelled our stalwart Year 12 musicians, some of whom have contributed and performed with our College music groups since Year 5.

The detailed Music Festival program (which provided attendees with the names of compositions, composers and arrangers, plus the names of each student), the hot food and refreshments, the sound and lighting, the PAC foyer entertainment, and the generous raffle prizes, all contributed to a very entertaining evening. I commend the professionalism and camaraderie of everyone who demonstrated their support of our music community last night.

A great deal of time and energy goes into organising an event of this size and quality. Deep acknowledgement must go to Mr Chris Balkizas (Head of Music), Ms Keiran Kossenberg (Performing Arts Centre Coordinator), Mr Bishoy Wassef (Senior Audio Visual Technician) and the entire Music Department for their unstinting efforts, talent and care.

I also acknowledge Father Bernie and The Music Supporters’ Group who generously financed the new Choral Risers that were used on the stage last night. It was impressive to be able to see all the choristers’ faces and they certainly enhanced the sound quality of each performance.

I sincerely thank Ms Ann Freeman (Principal of St Clare’s College), the Music Supporters’ Group, Greg and Naomi Isaac, Karen Birrell, all Music Supporter members, photographer Liam Davis, our energetic Maintenance department, Ms Catherine Sharp and our cleaning staff.

Staff Achievements 

Congratulations to Ms Mary Ryan who has recently had an article published in the quarterly English Teachers’ Association Journal, METAphor, Issue 2, 2023, pp18-22. The article, ‘A Reading and Writing Workshop with Claire Keegan’, included Mary’s reflections on Keegan’s writing after she attended her workshop in Dublin in 2022.

Click here to view the article authored by Ms Mary Ryan

Congratulations to Ms Natalie Oates who presented at the Deep Learning Lab last week in front of a room full of colleagues from schools across Sydney, whilst she was on maternity leave. Natalie provided two one-hour coaching sessions about the impact of intentional learning design choices and shared her resources. A terrific ambassador for the College.

Holiday Co-curricular 

Wishing good luck to our 120 Cadets who are attending our Promotions Courses Camp next week at Winbourne Conference Centre in Mulgoa. We look forward to welcoming back our new leadership candidates:

• 45 cadets on JLC to become Corporals
• 45 cadets on SLC to become Sergeants/Warrant Officers
• 30 cadets on CUO to become Cadet Under Officers.

Thank you to our Cadet staff for their dedication in developing some of our new young leaders on the Promotions Courses Camp over the school holidays. 

Good luck to our 1st XI Football squad who are playing against Scots College, our 1st XV, 2nd XV Rugby are playing St John’s College, Hastings, New Zealand over the break, and AFL and Basketball on their respective training camps.

Immersions

We wish our students and staff travelling to Timor-Leste a safe and amazing experience on their immersion. They will be working with the Rialco and Dili communities. We also wish our students and staff travelling to Cape York on their Indigenous immersion a safe and amazing experience working with communities on Country at Loggy Crossing.

Year 12

Please keep our Year 12s in your thoughts and prayers at this busy and crucial time of the year, as they continue their preparation for their upcoming trial and then HSC examinations. Thank you to our staff who continue to offer extra tutorials throughout this Term, and through this upcoming holiday period.

Year 11 and 12 HSC ATAR boys have been given study programs by Ms Knowles, where they should be allocating significant time for revision and preparation for what lies ahead. 

Please ensure your son maintains good exercise, relaxation time, reduced screen time, good sleep patterns and a healthy diet during this time. Please do not allow your son to change his normal sleep patterns drastically and sleep in. A consistent approach to his day over the next few months is what is required.

Waverley College Communications Survey – 2023

Please take a few minutes to consider how you would like the College to communicate with you. This survey should only take a few minutes of your time to complete and the results will help guide and refine the way that we communicate with you.

Click here to view and complete the Waverley College communications survey

Thank you for all of the effort and care from staff, students, parents, carers and Old Boys in making Term 2 a great success.

Wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday!