Lachlan Child - All in a Puddle
From the Head of College, Graham Leddie
As we approach the end of Term 3 with our Year 12 students counting down their last days and our Year 11 students on exam block, it is a good time to reflect on what we are trying to achieve in our Waverley graduates. Our aim is to produce young men that are both happy and healthy. Young men that have good character with resilience to respond to the obstacles life can throw at them. Of course we also want them to have good academic results that enable them to have diverse opportunities and pathways to their next step in life’s journey. Being a Catholic school we also want them to be young men of spirit with a inner desire to help others and make a difference in the community. I received an email this week from a member of the public that gives insight into what we expect from a Waverley College graduate:
Dear Mr Leddie
Hello my name is Aya, on Friday 14 September I was at Clovelly Beach and I was struggling with my pram to get up the stairs. People passed, watching me struggle and I was ignored and made fun of because of my Islamic attire, when two young gentlemen stopped and kindly offered me assistance. The young men held my pram all the way up the stairs without any complaint and kindly offered me support for the verbal abuse I was receiving. These two young men deserve to be recognised which is why I am emailing you, I hope that these young men will be the men leading Australia in the future.
Congratulations to (Y10) Blair Kallis and (Y10) Emmanuel Di Bartolo for doing the right thing, showing great care and leadership.
Head of College Awards
Congratulations to the following boys who received a Head of College Award at yesterday’s assembly. Students are awarded this in recognition of collecting three Gold Awards throughout the year.
- Year 7 – Conor Joyce
- Year 8 – Daniel Di Francesco, Conor Cahill, Dakota Fanning
- Year 9 – Massimo Di Napoli, Patrick Hoggett, Tom Cahill
- Year 12 – Perry Aziz
Woollahra Youth Photographic and Short Film Awards
Congratulations to our Visual Arts students in the recent Woollahra Youth Photographic and Short Film Awards. Waverley students faced strong competition from our neighbouring schools including Ascham, Cranbrook, Kambala, Kincoppal, Moriah, St Clare’s, Scots and Sydney Boys High.
- Jasper Wilde Yr 12 – First Prize in ‘Our History Award’ for ‘1000 words Ebb and Flow’
- Andre Carretero Yr 12 – Second Prize in Photography Senior for ‘Dreaming Chile – Grandma’s World’
- Lachlan Child Yr 12 – Highly Commended in Photography Senior for ‘All in a Puddle’
- Oscar Madden Yr 9 – Second Prize in Photography Junior for ‘Pride’
- Liam Flanagan Yr 12 – Film ‘Tipping Point’ was selected by the V-Fest Student Video Festival for screening at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington.
Andre Carretero – Dreaming Chile, Grandma’s World
Oscar Madden – Pride
Jasper Wilde – 1000 Words Ebb and Flow
Together for Humanity Youth Summit
Congratulations to the following Year 9 Students who will be representing Waverley College at the Together For Humanity Youth Summit on Wednesday, 17 October 2018: Joseph Agius, Ryan Bayas, Isaac Coombes, Finn Harley Whitney, Elija Heininger, Jack MacKenzie, Oscar Mason, Toby Rabinowitz.
Wakakirri
Congratulation to our 100 strong performers and staff from the Junior School who performed at the Wakakirri NSW Sydney Region Primary School Challenge. The boys performed very well in Division 1 and were awarded the Best Anti-Bullying Story Award. Congratulations to all involved and special thanks to Ms Michelle Rollins who coordinated her 22nd Wakakirri Waverley performance.
Track and Field Team
Good luck to our Track and Field Team who represent us in the 89th CAS Track and Field Competition this week. The team was presented on assembly yesterday and wished all the best by the College community.
In the lead up to this year’s competition, two significant College records were broken, both with great stories attached to them.
Charles McGrath (Year 12) went out to beat his coach Mr Jeremy Roff’s old 3000m record of 8:58:53 held since 2001. Charles smashed that record by over 10 seconds with a time of 8:47:30. This was achieved with the support of one of Charles’ training partners from Cranbrook, Drew Fryer, who ran as his pacer for the first 2km to give Charles the best chance of breaking our school record. The support these two students have shown each other throughout the season is a true example of good sportsmanship and is something we should be very proud of.
Dane Towns (Year 8) broke his father Michael’s school record which has stood for 34 years in the 14’s high jump with a height of 180cm. Dane has since added another centimeter to the record mark at 181cm.
I include below some impressive words from the Track and Field Convenor, Ms Kaitlyn Downey, who spoke at yesterday’s assembly:
There is one word that I wanted to talk to you about today and that word is accountability. In this day and age, people can sometimes be too quick to blame others when they don’t get selected for a team. They blame someone else’s bad pass, or that the coach doesn’t like them. People rely too heavily on past performance and just assume they will get selected into a team because they were once the best. And when they don’t, it’s the easy way out to push the blame on to someone else.
The best thing about Track and Field is that it holds you accountable. You can’t argue with time. You can’t argue with the distance. It’s objective and free from subjectivity. If you don’t turn up and step up, you will not improve. If you do not train and listen to your coaches, you will not improve. Over and over again, time, gravity, distance and weight will hold you accountable. This puts people on a level playing field. All athletes who come from a variety of sporting backgrounds – whether it be rugby, football, AFL, tennis, cricket, basketball or any other sport – Track and Field will test what you are really made of.
