From the Head of Brennan House, James Horrocks
Term one has been a fast paced and exciting start to the year for Brennan House at Waverley College and there has been a wealth of events and activities happening in which the boys of Brennan have showcased their wide-ranging talents.
To start the year we welcomed our new Year 7 cohort and began working in new Wellbeing Groups. These Year 7 boys have quickly become part of the Brennan Community and were assisted in this transition period by their Year 12 ‘Big Brothers’. Not long after arriving at the College, Year 7 went on their first camp as a year group to the Broken Bay Sport and Recreation Camp where they were able to get involved in a number of activities, ranging from raft building, to abseiling, to initiative games. It was fantastic to see the boys throw themselves into each and every activity and start to form strong bonds of friendship so early in their High School life.
Year 7 Broken Bay Camp
Back at school, our incredible Wellbeing Mentors have been working with their mentor groups as we have begun to implement our new wellbeing model. This has involved mentors discussing a wide range of topics with the boys such as positive relationships, bullying and compassion. It has been encouraging to see these groups engaged in animated discussions and activities revolving around these important topics and life skills.
In Week 3 we had our House Swimming Carnival, where Brennan represented themselves with pride, getting involved in as many of the races as possible and leading from the front with war cries and support for all competitors. These efforts were rewarded with a very pleasing third place result. Hopefully, with the same application at the athletics carnival, we can look to improve even more on this result. In other house competitions this term, our Year 7 boys finished second in the lunchtime dodgeball competition and were only narrowly defeated in a hard fought final.
2017 House Swimming Carnival
Fundraising has been another major focus for Brennan House this year with boys raising funds for a number of charities including our school wide Lenten appeal and the World’s Greatest Shave. Our SRC ran a number of highly successful bake sales over the course of a week and raised over $400 for our Lenten Appeal Charity, The Ruben Centre in Nairobi. Meanwhile, Finn Wright from Year 12 set the bar incredibly high in raising over $1,600 individually to shave his head in support of the World’s Greatest Shave for Leukaemia. Congratulations Finn, you should be very proud of this achievement! Other Social Justice initiatives that we have involved ourselves in this term have included the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence and Harmony Day. It is good to see boys taking notice of important social issues and being keen to get involved in any way they can.
On Monday of Week 8 we had our first chance to gather as an entire House community at the Brennan House breakfast. This was a nice, informal way for all families within the Brennan Community to come together and enjoy the excellent food created by Ms Boyce and the Food Technology/Hospitality boys from Brennan House. The food received rave reviews from everyone who attended!
Year 7 camp at Broken Bay
In co-curricular events we have been represented with pride by a number of students including Daniel Andrews being invited to a leadership day at parliament house and Mac Jenkins captaining his NSW U15s Cricket team. Additionally, Hal Cumpston made it to the State Finals of the Triple M Class Clown, Schools Stand Up Comedy Competition. Charlie Negus was also awarded a Blue Bar, the highest and rarest honour in all of CIS sport, for his incredible contribution to Water Polo and representing Australia in the Open Men’s Water Polo team against a World team at Bondi Icebergs in March.
Throughout the term it has been a hugely positive experience to be able to meet as a whole house from Year 5 to Year 12 to celebrate achievements and talk about our various wellbeing themes and topics. I would like to thank the Junior School Brennan members, along with Ms Stephens and Ms Crewdson for being such wonderful hosts throughout the term.
House Swimming Carnival … Brennan in action
Our newly elected SRC have been working hard in their new positions this term to spearhead new initiatives with the guidance of Ms Cullen, our Social Justice Coordinator, and have been demonstrating some fantastic leadership qualities to the rest of the house.
Finally, huge thanks goes to all of our Brennan House Wellbeing Mentors and our Prefect team of Angus Mullins, Liam Rayner, Mark Brown and Jonathan Wu for their efforts and leadership throughout the term. They have all been working incredibly hard to help make the transition to our new wellbeing structure as positive and successful as it has been. I thank you and look forward to everything that the rest of the year has to bring.
Wishing you a safe and restful Easter with family and loved ones.
