From the Director of Waterford, Gabrielle Smith

From the Director of Waterford, Gabrielle Smith

Welcome back to Term 3, I hope you all had an enjoyable break with your boys. 

As you were aware, throughout the last week of Term 2 I attended the 2019 International Boys School Coalition Conference at Selwyn House School, Montréal, Canada. It was here that I was given the opportunity to work alongside educators from across the world to share ideas and explore the best practices for educating our boys.

An exceptional session I attended was themed ‘growing good men through literature and storytelling’. In this session we looked at the importance of selecting books to read in school and at home where strong males are represented. We also focused on the value of having rich discussions around the boys’ learnings on masculinity from what they have read. This provides an opportunity to shift the discussion to what great men do, rather than warning younger boys what not to do. We will continue to immerse the boys in quality literature at school so they are explicitly exposed to strong male role models.

I would also like to take this opportunity to ask the Waverley community to keep in their thoughts and prayers Mr Greg Harris. As many of you are aware, Mr Harris was treated for multiple myeloma with an autologous stem cell transplant last year. Unfortunately, his disease has relapsed and he will need to recommence chemotherapy. Mr Harris will still be actively teaching while he moves through his treatment.

Book Week 2019

From the Literacy and Innovation Teacher, Mrs Natasha Zivanovic

Book Week 2019 preparations are in full swing!

Our guest Author A.L Tait will be visiting the boys on Tuesday 20th August. Allison Tait is the author of bestselling children’s adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles and a new adventure series called The Ateban Cipher. She is a multi-genre writer and speaker with more than 20 years’ experience in magazines, newspapers and online publishing. 

The Book Week Parade will be held on Friday 23rd August at 1.30pm on the Junior School playground. Parents are warmly welcome to join in on the fun!

WriteOn Competition

Throughout Term 2 the boys were given the opportunity to enter a piece of writing that met the 2019 WriteOn competition criteria to myself, Ms Gaby Bransby (Assistant Director of Curriculum) and Mrs Natasha Zivanovic (Literacy and Innovation teacher). The piece of writing had to be 500 words or less and needed to be linked to a picture of hats.

I was pleased to see many of the boys took up this opportunity. We were able to select one piece to submit from Stage 3 to the competition. Congratulations to Jethro Jenson (5 Green) whose piece of writing was chosen as Waterford’s top piece. I have included the introduction to Jethro’s story. He captures the audience’s attention, evokes emotion and leaves the reader wanting to know more.

‘The sun shone over the clear lake, warming the freckled toes of Adeline Horace. Adeline sat on the green grass lost in her thoughts. She reached for the bloom of daffodils and placed one gently in her braided ginger hair. As she caressed the canopy of leaves cascading from the old willow tree, her petticoat gently grazed the lake, causing a series of ripples to form over the water. She pulled herself to the nearest branch until she finally reached the top. There, she moved the leaves aside just enough so that her deep green eyes could absorb the sun’s rays. From here Adeline could see everything. And that’s when she heard it. The sound of twigs snapping beneath her feet.’

Congratulations to Jethro!

To learn more about the annual WriteOn Competition follow this link: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/about/events/writeon-competition

IPSHA Debating News 

Round 4 was held on Friday 21 June at Waverley. The topic for the debate was ‘Should violent video games be banned?’

Both Waverley teams put forward strong cases and focused on their matter, manner and method to win over Coogee Preparatory School. 

Congratulations on another great win this term!

Sport News

From the Assistant Director of Co-curricular, Mr Matt Ryan 

Athletics Carnival

On the last Wednesday of Term 2 both the Junior School and Senior School competed in the House Athletics Carnival at ES Marks Athletics Field. We were lucky to get the carnival up and running with some bad weather around in the lead up to the day. The Junior School students had plenty of opportunities to show their skills both on the track and in the field. At the conclusion of the carnival Lacey house came out on top and were declared House Champions. A Junior School Athletics team will be announced in the next week based on the results from this carnival.

Holiday Sporting Achievements

There were various achievements over the school holidays where our boys represented us at many different events. A special mention to Angus Sundquist who captained the winning Sydney Bears team in the National Ice Hockey Competition that was held in Newcastle. 

Also to Sam and Alfie Frain who competed in the State Golf Championships. Sam placing 5th and Alfie placing 3rd.

Waverley Vs Canberra Grammar 

On the final Saturday of the holidays the Prep Rugby team were involved in an invitational game of rugby against a touring Canberra Grammar School. The game was played on Queens Park 1 on a warm Saturday afternoon. The game started as a tight battle with some very tough rugby being played. Waverley then started to get on top and finished the half strongly, at halftime the score was 38 – 0. The second half was a great battle with Canberra coming back and making it a competitive game with one try each being scored in the half. The final score was 45 – 7 resulting in a Waverley victory. Thanks to all the boys and teachers who gave up their Saturday to help create an exciting event for both teams.