Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome back to Term two, I hope everyone in the College community had a restful, reflective and special Easter. Term two has started with some significant events in the College calendar with the Anzac Day service, not only does the service highlight Australian history and the sacrifice Waverlians have made to their nation, it is also a celebration of the values behind actions and standards of behaviour, and as such, the ANZAC story is a good illustration of some of our College values such as compassion and love for others, service and sacrifice. Thank you to our Cadet Unit for their support of the College Anzac service and also both Waverley and Sydney’s services and march during the holidays.
May Procession
The College’s 108th May Procession, unfortunately, was only celebrated by a few in the College Chapel due to the weather. I would like to thank Father Francisco from Paddington and our guest speaker Jennie Hickey, Executive Officer Jesuit Education Australia for their presence and words on the day. Thank you also to the many people that prepared food for the Parent Association afternoon tea. Read more about the May Procession here.
Old Boys AGM
One of the special characteristics of the College is the relationships and care of each other amongst Old Boys and their ongoing relationship and support of the College. The AGM was held after the May Procession and it is my pleasure to announce the following office bearers.
Executive for 2019/20;
President: Salvatore Riolo
Vice President: Col Blake
Treasurer: Peter Foley
Secretary: Chris O’Sullivan
Assistant Secretary: Peter Hannigan (new position)
Council Members
Warren Boyd
Michael Dignam
Sam Hardjono
John Hilton
Richard Jackson
John Karas
Brandon Perry
Guys and Dolls
I remember seeing High School musical in my first year at the College and being very impressed with the performance of both the St Clare’s and Waverley students. Last night, I attended the Guys and Dolls musical production at NIDA and I was blown away at the incredible standard of both the girls and boys in their performance, music, singing and production. All involved, staff and students from both schools should be very proud of the work they have put in over six months, the sacrifices they made and the very high quality of work produced. I know both Ms Antoinette McGahan and I were very proud principals of our respective schools. Well done!
Congratulations to the following Waverley Students:
Cast
Year 7 – Liam Gabriel, Ewan McDonald, Thomas Park, Cillian Treanor,
Year 8 – Pierre Bourel, Mitchell Cahill, Evander Hudson, Tom Hughes, Alistair Isaac,Hugh McDonald, Liam Russell
Year 9 – Hugo Defina-Sperando, Zachary Straker
Year 10 – Remy Crompton-Lamb, Massimo Di Napoli, Saem Goffe, Perri Quirk, Toby Rabinowitz, Aidan Rogers,
Year 11 – Riley Klotz, Jack Lynch, Peter Tsakonas, Jed Turnbull,
Year 12 – Andrew Badger, Roman Koteczky
Production Crew
Year 11 – Riley-James Buenaventura, Riley-James Cebokli, Patrick Chan, Ben Dunning, Mitchell Eyles, Brock Preston, Oscar Rowson, William Spittall, Jacob Smith, Edward Williamson, Zachariah Murphy
Year 12 – Nicholas Buckingham, Finn Cviker, Harry Heinemann, Jordan Hulme
Oliver Pether, Dylan Smith, Finbar Warren, William Woodward
Naplan
Next week our boys in Year 5, 7 and 9 will be sitting the Naplan tests which examine fundamental skills of writing, reading, grammar, spelling and numeracy. These skills are essential for your done to progress through school and life. The tests are aligned to the Australian Curriculum for English and Mathematics, so what your son learns in the classroom is what they’re tested on in NAPLAN. Other than being comfortable with the format of NAPLAN, there’s no special preparation, or NAPLAN books, that are necessary.
NAPLAN results help identify areas of achievement and areas where your child may need more support. Teachers use their students’ NAPLAN results as just one piece of the assessment puzzle – they’re not the ‘be-all-and-end-all’ – and they don’t replace regular school tests or assessments. If you would like more information, please visit the NAP website.
Mother’s Day
One day out of the year, we have this beautiful opportunity to give back to the people who have given so much: our mothers.
This morning, we held a Mother’s Day Mass and Morning Tea to say thank you to all of the mothers for their love, dedication and devotion to their sons and families. A highlight from the day was seeing all of the hand-written cards that boys gave to their mothers expressing their gratitude, respect and love for everything they do.
Thank you to all of the mothers, extended families and son’s who made today such a beautiful celebration.
STEM and Sanix
Congratulations to the staff and students who attended the USA NASA STEM tour and the Sanix World Rugby Tournament in Japan over the Easter break. I have had a number of emails from both USA and Japan from locals that interacted with our students and all were full of praise for their manners, engagement and the respect shown.
Campus Update
Conlon “Greening”
Over the Term 1-2 break, we installed 9 new Alexander palms between the rear of the Centenary Quad and the Conlon Building this is part of our ongoing commitment to the greening of the Campus.
Kenny Quad works
During the Summer new synthetic turf was laid in this space to provide a more student-friendly surface and to help soften what was a very hard area, the turf has also benefited the acoustics in this space and helped dampen the sound. We will continue this term to soften the space by introducing new fern gardens on the western side remove the old tired seating which was an underused space. New umbrellas will provide more shade and fixed seating will be installed to provide students with more options for eating lunch.
Performing Arts Centre (PAC) works
The PAC, in its 16th year, will require some restoration works in term 2 and to facilitate this the building will be closed for 4 weeks commencing the 6th May. The works will focus on repairing water damage to the lower floors. Classes will be relocated within the High School and music tutoring will continue in various locations across the East/West and Main Buildings.
Lower Rec – Tennis Courts
Term 2 will also see work commence on creating 2 new Tennis Courts on the Lower Rec area and replacing the fencing around the current courts. This extension will mean Waverley can meet the requirements of the CAS in having 5 courts available onsite. These courts will be open for students to use at lunchtime and breaks. In addition to the Tennis Courts we will also be creating 18 new car park spaces around the PAC which will help to alleviate the need for staff to park in side streets around the school.
Staffing
On behalf of the College I would like to welcome the following new staff:
- Alexsandra McCredie joins our Junior School Campus as a Psychologist. Alexsandra joins us from Headspace, Bondi Junction.
- Natasha Zivanovic joins our Junior School Campus as a Primary Literacy and Innovation Teacher. Natasha joins us from Loreto Kirribilli.
- Natalie Oates joins our Visual Arts Team as the Head of Arts Department. Natalie joins us from Pittwater High School.
- Elaine Breen joins our Mathematics Team. Elaine joins us from St Angela’s, Ursuline Convent, Ballytruckle, Waterford, Ireland.
