Principal, Mr Graham Leddie
Mid-Year Prefects
Congratulations to the following students on their respective appointments to the leadership position of Prefect at the College. Staff and their peers have recognised the following boys for their care and service to others: Will Cooley, Hugh McSweeny, Joshua Cornelius, Hugh Johnson, Alfie Sewell, Axel Runow, Lachlan Cunningham, Joseph Simonella and Sam Tsaousis. I wish them good luck in their roles.
The mid-year prefect appointment process reminds us that there are many reasons as to why things don’t always go the way we hoped in situations. Sometimes competition is tough and you can just miss out. Sometimes people are not quite ready. Sometimes you are not the best fit for a role at that particular time, and sometimes institutions make mistakes and get it wrong. Whatever the reason, it teaches us the value of learning, being resilient and continuing to develop and seek feedback.
COVID-19 Plan
There have only been four schools in NSW that have had a case of COVID-19 over the last eight weeks, out of 3,136 schools in NSW and 1,488 schools in Sydney. However, there will likely be others as we head further into winter.
If the worst-case scenario occurs and we are informed by NSW Health that we have a student or staff member who has contracted COVID-19, we will activate our emergency plan.
Parents and students will be informed immediately via SchoolBag, email and SMS. The College will effectively move into lockdown and we will follow the directives from NSW Health to isolate certain students. We will then move to evacuate the rest of the campus in a supervised and orderly fashion. Parents will be asked to pick up their sons as soon as possible. Contact tracing will then commence.
The school will move to online learning while the campus undergoes a deep clean. This usually takes 24-48 hours. Face-to-face classes will resume as normal once this is complete. Affected students will be quarantined as per NSW Health Guidelines. However, I pray and hope that this does not occur – and that all members of our community are monitoring their hygiene practices and interactions in order to try and reduce the risks.
Please reiterate the Waverley College Hygiene precautions document to your son, please follow this link.
The College strongly recommends that all members of the College community download the COVIDSafe App, which will assist with the tracking process. In the Senior School, we have adjusted our mobile phone policy to allow students to carry their phones on their person during the day. The other elements of the mobile phone policy still need to be adhered to.
As the Junior School operates in core classes, they are not amending their mobile phone policy, however, we still highly recommend downloading the app for tracking out of school.
Strength in Numbers
Strength in Numbers will resume as usual from 8am on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in classroom E24. These sessions have been implemented to offer additional help to students who are struggling with particular concepts, or who are keen to come in early to complete homework or embrace extension work.
The College is committed to support and enhance Numeracy across all stages, therefore we also run a Numeracy program that will be held every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon from 3:30 pm- 4:30 pm in the school library.
Calendar Adjustments
Tuesday 26 May – The early finish day for Senior Students has been cancelled.
Thursday 4 June – Year 12 Teacher Parent Student Interviews will be held via Zoom between 4pm to 7pm. Correspondance with further details has been sent to your email.
Friday 5 June – With the 110th May Procession and Founders Day celebrations, the College would usually have a day in lieu. As these had to be held online this year, Friday, 5th June will be a normal school day at the College.
Enrolment Applications
Enrolment applications for 2022 entry to Years 5 and 7 are closing on Friday, 31st July. If you know someone who is interested in sending their son to Waverley, please inform them of this date, as application assessment will begin shortly afterwards. Please follow this link to apply.
Coronavirus Episode One: Adapting to Change
COVID-19, like previous pandemics, has created significant health risks, social pressures, economic loss, general hardship and influenced how we have had to deliver education. Through the hard work and dedication of our staff, the College successfully transitioned to online learning over a few days.
Online learning has played a crucial part in ‘flattening the curve’ and saving lives, however, short-term school closures and social distancing has had a negative impact on people’s wellbeing.
With the help of staff, students and parents, we are creating a video series that documents the many and varying perspectives on life at Waverley College during COVID-19. We envisage that this series will act as a virtual time capsule.
Episode 1 takes a look at how we planned and transitioned to online learning, how staff and families responded to this change, and their reactions when they learnt that we were returning to face-to-face learning. In Episode Two, we will highlight the transition back to school and what the ‘new normal’ looks like for the Waverley College community.
I would like to share Episode One of the series with you and thank you once again for your ongoing support and resilience during these challenging times.
