From Catherine M O’Sullivan, Head of Conlon House
Term 1 has been a busy, productive and rewarding term for Conlon House. As a community we welcomed nineteen Year 5 students and their families to the College and twenty-six Year 7 boys began their high school journey. We enjoyed success in Inter-House competitions, had some outstanding co-curricula results and many boys enthusiastically supported the World’s Greatest Shave and the National Day of Action against Bullying. We congratulated past Conlon students at the High Achievers assembly and had an overwhelming number of boys receive Gold Awards and Head of College Awards.
I would like to formally thank our wonderful Wellbeing mentors for their work with the boys in Term 1, they continue to provide your son/s with a warm, caring and sometimes humorous start to their day: Ms Jennifer Hoare & Mr Anthony Gill (Junior School) Mr Phil Davis (CO 1), Mr Nick Brophy (CO 2), Mr Paul Cornish (CO 3), Mrs Karen Jones (CO 4), Mrs Mary Ryan (CO 5), Ms Kaitlyn Downey (CO 6) Mrs Sherri Falkinder (CO 7), Mr David Reidy (CO 8), Mr Bruce Dominish (CO 9), Mr Richard Bryant (CO 10) and Mrs Susanne Pinter (CO 11)
Our Prefect leaders for 2018 are Ryan Connolly, Luca Martin, Jonathon Schacht, Anthony Roydhouse, George Pantazis and Samuel King. They have been wonderful role models through their enthusiastic, motivating and community building leadership.
Year 7’s first day at the College was shared with their Yr 12 ‘big brothers’ who enjoyed taking them under their wing for the day – sharing their knowledge and ‘insider tips’, playing games, learning to read timetables, effectively use their diaries etc. The Year 12 boys are to be commended on the way they embraced this responsibility, and they will continue to have this close relationship with their ‘little brothers’ during the year.
Later in the term, the Year 10 students were paired up with Conlon Year 5 students to participate in the first session of the Yr5/Yr10 ‘big brother/little brother’ program. Our Yr 10 and Year 5 boys spent time together sharing stories.This is the beginning of a three year journey designed to assist with the Year 5’s transition into High School.
The Year 7 camp in week 2 was a great opportunity for the boys to form friendships and to begin their high school journey together with their Conlon peers. The boys had an opportunity to throw themselves into a range of activities – such as raft building, bushwalking, hiking, team building and initiative games. They faced many challenges, but, were always encouraging and supportive of each other. These friendships will serve them well throughout their time at the College, and indeed as the old boys of the future.
On Friday, 9th March together with Fr. Bernie Thomas ofm we celebrated our Conlon House Mass. Our Yr 12 Spirituality prefect, Jonathan Schacht gave a very insightful interpretation of the gospel reading and linking his words to our theme ‘Speak through Action, concluded his reflection with ‘Actions really do speak louder than words. Take that extra step and challenge the possibilities of your own limitations and be the change that you want to see, just as Jesus did’.
This term we experienced some success in Inter-House competitions. Our Year 7 boys displayed great skill and team work by winning the Dodgeball competition. Tom Fellstead and Flynn Wild from Year 10 showed exceptional determination and concentration by making it all the way to the ‘nail biting’ final of the FIFA World Cup competition and just missing out on the win in the last few seconds of the game.They, however, showed terrific sportsmanship in defeat. Although finishing 4th in the Inter house swimming competition, the Conlon boys, lead by our Year 12 leaders demonstrated their tremendous spirit, team work and courage by their participation and their support and encouragement of every swimmer. We cannot wait to sing our new Conlon chants, written by our Year 12 boys at the Athletics carnival.
Congratulations to the 55 Conlon boys who have received Gold Awards this term. Congratulations to the following boys who received a Head of College Award for the accumulation of 3 Gold awards; Lang Curran, Van Larkin, Saem Goffe, Campbell Groves, Lachlan Manastrovski, Edoardo De Vecchi, Hayden wild, Harry Lee, Finn Nebauer, Cooper O’Donnell, Flynn Schulz and John Walsh.
Congratulations to the following boys on their Co-curricula achievements; Erwan Le Pechoux, Jonathon Schacht (Swimming Captains), Peter Cassimatis, Campbell Groves, Cooper Gee, Zoltahn Szabo, Judah Miller (swimming) Anthony Roydhouse, Joshua Magdas, Joshua Cornelius, Fynn Weston (Water Polo), Angelo Di Bartolo, Peter Cassimatis (basketball), Zachary Straker, Luca Latinovic (Cycling) Sam Johnson (Touch Football), Ryan Connolly, Oliver Ruse, Hunter Eldridge (Cricket).
Congratulations to our Conlon SRC representatives ; Matthew Frost, Hunter Eldridge (Junior School), Samuel King, George Pantazis, Ash Backlund, Lachlan Manastiruvski, Oliver Ruse, Vassillos Pairidis, Ryan Smith, Max Johnston, Josh Conacher-Smith, Patrick Hoggett, Cooper O’Donnell, James Hoggett, Christian Kitas, Tom Highes and Evander Hudson.
Thank you to all members of the Conlon House Community for ensuring our young men have had the best possible start to 2018. I look forward to an equally rewarding Term 2. I sincerely welcome all new and returning parents to the Conlon community and wish you all a safe and restful break over the holidays.
