From the Head of Conlon House, Catherine O’Sullivan
Term 2, 2018 has been a successful one for the young men of Conlon. They continue to live our motto, ‘Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam’ – I’ll either find a way or make one. Despite being a short and very busy term, the boys have embraced all that the College has to offer; be it in their academic pursuits, in their support of a wide range of social justice initiatives and in their whole hearted participation in Inter-house and co-curricular activities. I have no doubt that they will continue to have a very positive and productive year.
Congratulations to George Pantazis (Conlon 7) and Samuel King (Conlon 4) who are both very worthy recipients of their appointments as Mid-Year Prefects. Both boys are showing great leadership, particularly with their charismatic and enthusiastic vocal skills in leading the House chants at the Inter-house competitions and the House Athletics carnival. They join our hard working Prefects and SRC team.
Our Conlon breakfast was held on Friday, 25th May. This was a great House community event and a wonderful opportunity to come together, meet old and new friends and importantly christen the new College BBQ’s. Our wonderful Conlon mentors ( Jennifer Hoare, Anthony Gill, Phil Davis, Nick Brophy, Paul Cornish, Karen Jones, Mary Ryan, Prue Fitzsimmons, Kaitlyn Downey, Sherrie Falkinder, David Reidy, Bruce Dominish, Richard Bryant, Suzanne Pinter and Chris Blienkinsopp) along with our SRC boys and Sandy Templeton-Martin (mum to Tom, Mackenzie and Luca) helped prepare a delicious breakfast. Thank-you to all the Conlon parents and grandparents who were able to make this such a special event.
As mentioned, Term 2 is not only a short term but an extremely busy one. Winter co-curricula activities began in earnest and the boys were kept busy completing their Semester 1 academic studies. Year 10 students completed their Career Profile testing and interviews and together with their results from their exams and class assessments, they will now be making important decisions about their pathway and subject choices for their Senior years.
Early in the term, the Year 12 boys completed their Half-Yearly Examinations and are now busy preparing for their HSC Trial examinations which they will complete early in Term 3. We wish Year 12 all the best with their preparations during the holidays.
I would like to congratulate the following boys who received a Head of College Award this term. This award is the culmination of a boy receiving at least 3 Gold awards:
Year 7
Lang Curran (2), Van Larkin, Campbell Groves, Harry Lee, John Walsh (2), Kai Jones, Gabriel Johnson
Year 8
Christian Kitas (2), Finn Nebauer (2), Dylan McCullouch, Marley Bridge
Year 9
Cooper O’Donnell, Saem Goffe, Hayden Wild (2), Dennis Baphis, Baxter Flynn
Year 11
Lachlan Manastirovski, Edoardo De Vecchi
Year 12
Flynn Schulz
Cooper and Flynn receiving their Gold Awards
Congratulations to Hayden Wild who also received a Science Recognition award and to the many, many Conlon boys who have received Gold Awards during the term.
Away from the classroom our Year 6 boys travelled to Canberra. Here they visited Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial, AIS, Questacon and much more. By all accounts, the trip was a great success and the boys had a wonderful time away with their friends and teachers.
Conlon boys have once again shown their full support of the many co-curricula opportunities offered here at the College. I would like to commend the following boys;
Drama production – Andrew Badger, Dylan McCulloch, for their inspiring & insighful performance in the play; Stories in the Dark and Ryan Bakels for his technical support.
European Music Tour – Zacharey Straker, Eliot Vincent-Hull, Saem Goffe, Jared Garwood, Hugh Marshall, Finbar Moss and Jack Priddis
Red Earth immersion to Cape York – Cooper O’Donnell, Patrick Hoggett, James Hoggett, Jesse Sonego and Joshua Cornelius
Timor-Leste Immersion – Hugh Marshall and Cooper Flynn
Conlon Mentor Group 4
Co-curricular Achievements
CAS AFL – Ash Backlund and Max D’Agostino
CAS Rugby – Luca Martin (Opens 2nds) Miles Amasotero and Emmanuel Di Bartolo (U16’s)
Baxter Flynn is traveling to Serbia to attend a Water Polo camp and Daniel Gandy is travelling to Adelaide to attend a high performance cycling camp.
Conlon had great success this term in the Inter-House competitions. As part of Men’s Health week there were a number of lunch time competitions; our junior 3×3 basketball team of Van Larkin, Jack Ringrose, Jack Sherston and Alexander Constantine won their final and our senior 3 x 3 basketball team of Peter Cassimatis, Ash Backlund and Keilan Grace narrowly lost their final, but finished a gallant second. We cannot forget Huntter Keyes-Ahern who successfully won the title of Waverley’s strongest man.
In our own Inter-mentor group Trivia Pursuit challenge, Mr Reidy’s mentor group were victorious.
In the last week of term the Year 7 boys had the opportunity to attend their first senior school dance, along with the young ladies from St Clare’s, St Catherine’s and Brigidine. The boys were all looking extremely smart and displayed surprisingly great skill on the dance floor and I think all round had a wonderful time.
Conlon BreakfastThe whole House is looking forward to the House Athletics carnival held on the last day of term. We still remember how close we came to winning the carnival last year. The Prefects and Year 12 boys are ready and eager to lead the Conlon boys to a win this year.
I wish all Conlon families a safe and happy holiday break and I very much look forward to the second half of 2018.
