A big welcome to our new students from the Northern Territory!
FROM THE HEAD OF COLLEGE, GRAHAM LEDDIE
Semester One Academic Assembly Address
Today at College Assembly the prayer acknowledged NAIDOC week and we celebrated the academic achievement of students in Years 10,11 and 12. I believe that Einstein was correct when he said, “intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” He was challenging all of us, students, parents, support staff and teachers at the College to keep learning no matter what stage of life we are at; to keep developing and challenging ourselves to be better, to learn from the past, to understand different perspectives, different cultures and different methodologies. Education is not just about the individual, it is about our wider community progressing and society developing as a whole.
Kofi Annan the seventh Secretary General of the United Nations said, “… education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rests the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable development.”
Since 2005, the Australian Government has developed a bipartisan strategy known as ‘Closing the Gap’ that aims to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with respect to life expectancy, child mortality, educational achievement and employment opportunities. The Closing the Gap strategy has resulted in some improvements, but national statistics indicate that there is still a long way to go.
As a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition, we have four touchstones that are at the crux of what we do and how we should do it:
- Liberating education
- Justice and solidarity
- Inclusive community
- Gospel spirituality
All four touchstones have key elements that traverse what the Closing the Gap strategy is trying to achieve.
The College has recently partnered with the John Moriarty Foundation to assist Indigenous students from the remote Northern Territory, near the gulf country, to have access here at Waverley College to wider educational opportunities.
Who is John Moriarty?
John Moriarty was born in Borroloola, Northern Territory to a tribal Aboriginal woman and an Irishman from County Kerry. As such he was classified as ‘half-caste’. The government policy at that time was generally to remove ‘half-caste’ children from ‘full-blood’ mothers. John was removed from his mother at four years of age, making him part of the Stolen Generation. He was placed in a home for Aboriginal children at Mulgoa in the west of Sydney, and a few years later was moved to Adelaide.
Education played an important part in John’s life and he went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts and was later a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship.
John Moriarty AM
John served in various departments of Aboriginal affairs, both state and federal and on the Board of Indigenous Business Australia. He also holds a Advance Australia Award and is a member of the Order of Australia. John was the first Indigenous Australian to play for the Socceroos. John is also a well known designer and artist and was commissioned by Qantas to paint two of its Boeing 747s.
The Balanrinji designed Qantas jet.
After a long and successful career, John had a desire to put something back into his community of Borroloola and set up a foundation to support young boys and girls who showed some football talent and to support them to obtain a more comprehensive education than they would receive in remote Australia. Clearly he is a talented and passionate man.
We have three students who have started with us recently who are recipients of John Moriarty Scholarships, a foundation that is also supported by the Socceroos. This LINK explains the program further and features ex-Socceroo and ex-Waverley parent Craig Foster.
Getting used to life as Waverley students.
It is my very great pleasure to welcome Darius Kidd, Tremaine Jupiter and Jeremy Herbert to Waverley College.
Our Year 12 students chose the theme of ‘Strength through diversity’ this year, and there is no doubt that these young men will have a great chance to take advantage of the learning opportunities offered by the Waverley College community, our other indigenous students and our students from different backgrounds to their own. We all have a great opportunity to learn from them; to understand their stories and gain a greater insight about where they have come from and what they and their communities can teach us. To come from remote Australia into Sydney is a different world for these young men, please extend the Waverley hand of friendship to our new community members and support them wherever you can.
Both John Moriarty and our new students are from the Borroloola area.
To our Year 12 students, I wish you strength and calmness as you approach your trial HSC examinations. You have led the school very well this year, worked hard individually and collectively and I wish you well on behalf of the rest of the College.
And I leave you with the words of Kofi Annan – “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
I congratulate our academic award winners for Semester One and encourage them to keep up the high standards. Congratulations, too, to their families for the great support they provide to these students at home. The award winners from today’s assembly are listed at the bottom of this page.
Staff Update
This term, we farewell Mr Nick Kozma who has resigned from the College. Nick has worked at Waverley for four and a half years and we thank Nick for his service to the College. We wish Nick all the best with his future endeavours.
On behalf of the College I would like to welcome the following staff members:
- Mr Thomas Smith replacing Mr Scott Bailey – Mathematics Department;
- Ms Annabel Kilpatrick replacing Mr Nicholas Kozma – Art Department;
- Mr Mark Neale who will work part-time with Mr David Reidy – TAS Department
We welcome back Ms Gaby Bransby from maternity leave and wish her a smooth transition back into the College. Whilst Gaby has been away on leave, Ms Jennifer Hoare has been acting Junior School Curriculum Co-ordinator and we thank Ms Hoare for doing an outstanding job.
Mr Chris Blenkinsopp is still in hospital, probably for another 6 weeks. We continue to keep Chris and his family in our thoughts and prayers and wish him a speedy recovery.
Many Waverley families and ex-students will remember Mrs Pam Shiels with fondness. Pam retired in 2012 after 36 years of service in administrative roles at Waverley College and 58 years of service to Catholic education. Pam died on 8 July 2017, aged 84 years. Her funeral service was attended by several members of our College staff during the holiday break. On behalf of the entire Waverley College community I extend our sincere condolences to Pam’s family and friends.
Student Congratulations and Best Wishes
Lewis Thompson performed very well at the recent Oceania Athletics Championships representing Australia in Fiji – Gold Medal in the U18 Mens 1.5kg Discus and 7th in the U18 Mens Shot Put, competing for the Australian Schools Athletics Team. Lewis is still recovering from recent knee surgery which makes these fine results even more impressive.
Zavian Taylor-Simi has been selected for the Junior Bunnies Development squad to train in Jindabyne.
Ben Donaldson, Luca Moretti, Finn Wright have been selected in the Australian Schoolboys Rugby Union Team, whilst Marco Bell was selected in the Australian Barbarians Team.
Cameron Walker performed very well at the recent National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) held at the University of Singapore.
Noah Havard, Ben Walker, Zac Harvard and Jack Macgregor all performed well in recent open water ski paddling events held in Sydney that attracted top international paddlers.
We wish Nikita Strbac and Charlie Negus all the best with their preparations for Australian Junior Water polo team as they prepare for the Junior World Championships to be held in Belgrade in August.
We wish Daniel Gandy all the best as he has been selected by International Cycling to compete in Melbourne next week.
Ned Wieland is currently in Dover (UK) on his amazing challenge to become the youngest Australian male to swim the English Channel.
His father, Mark, sent us the following update:
“There’s been little to report, at this stage, due to the weather but on the upside, the fundraising for RUOK? is now over the $25k mark. That’s incredible – a huge thanks to all those that have contributed to this very worthy charity.
As far as Channel swimming goes, we were hoping Ned would have swum earlier this week, but the swell and winds picked up and closed off the opportunity. After a rather long wait, it looks like Ned’s off early next week, (fingers crossed) when the winds are due to abate.
So, in the meantime, Ned’s not only been swimming at many locations, but has visited sites in London, plus local features such as Canterbury Cathedral, the Battle of Britain museum, the white cliffs and the Castle in Dover itself. So his English history is coming along well during this waiting period.
If anyone would like to keep posted on updates and also a live feed, once he gets underway, this can be done via Ned’s FACEBOOK page or Instagram @channelswim2017.”
All the best to the Matthew Coorey Concert Band who are competing in the NSW Band Festival this weekend.
Good luck to all our Lawn Bowlers, Debaters, Cross Country Runners and our Judo, Tennis, AFL, Rugby, Football, Volleyball, and Table Tennis players as they approach the last three weeks of winter competition.
Semester One Year 10, 11 & 12 Academic Award Winners
| Year 10 | First in Subject |
| Religious Education | Nat Yarrow |
| English | Luke Harris |
| Maths Level 3 | Gleb Samokhin |
| Maths Level 2 | Marko Dundovic, Liam Faulkner-Hogg |
| Maths Level 1 | Nathan Papageorgious |
| Maths Accelerated | Luke Harris |
| Science | Luke Harris |
| PDHPE | Lachlan Manastirovski |
| Commerce | Marco Emery, Rocco Evans |
| History | Rocco Evans, Matthew Gallagher, Brad Marzol, Connor Pilger |
| iSTEM | Rocco Evans |
| IST | Finn McCloskey |
| PASS | Harry Whitaker |
| Music | Oliver Ruse |
| Drama | Ethan Vella |
| Visual Art | Flynn Gordon |
| Visual Art (Most Improved) | Ridley Owens |
| Photography | Bradley Marzol, Benjamin Rogers |
| French | Luke Harris |
| Wood Technology | Cameron Dawson |
| Food Technology | Flynn Gordon |
| Design & Technology | Lachlan Manastirovski |
| Applied Philosophy | Edward Kranz |
| Work Education | Ryan Smith |
| Spanish | Billy DeLuca, Connor Pilger |
| Year 11 | First in Subject |
| SOR I Unit | Oliver Read |
| SOR 2 Unit | Lewis Thompson |
| Catholic Studies | Riley Singles-Fotopoulos |
| Advanced English | Allan Cannes |
| Standard English | Benjamin Heal, Jerome Mendes |
| English Studies | Christopher Salakas |
| Extension English | Allan Cannes |
| Mathematics | Roby Guo |
| General Maths | Harry Blackett |
| Ext 1 Maths | Benjamin Heal |
| Accelerated Maths | Oliver Read |
| Biology | Oliver Read |
| Chemistry | Oliver Small |
| Physics | Oliver Small |
| Senior Science | Noah Havard |
| PDHPE | Lewis Thompson, Daniel Andrews |
| SLR | Isaac Bartholomaeus |
| Music Course I | Dominic Augoustis |
| Music Course II | Damian Lin |
| Spanish | Daniel Brown |
| Ancient Hist | Patrick Kossenberg |
| Modern Hist | Harley McGuiggan |
| Geography | Oliver Read |
| Business | Perry Aziz |
| Economics | Patrick Kossenberg |
| Legal | Allan Cannes |
| Drama | Leonardo Bosi |
| Visual Art | Mark Goncalves |
| Photography | Tom Bower |
| Photography (Most Improved) | Zachary Bloch |
| Design & Technology | Benjamin Heal |
| Industrial Technology | Anthony Pomes |
| Construction | Tadgh Murphy |
| Hospitality | Jye Davidson, Nathan Higgs |
| Food Technology | Luca Galeazzi |
| Information Processes and Technologies | Damian Lin |
| Entertainment | Simon Finnegan |
| Marine Studies | Baxby Ward-Gyton |
| Year 12 | First in Subject |
| SOR I Unit | Tyler von der Heyden |
| SOR 2 Unit | Stephen Croft |
| Catholic Studies | James McPherson |
| Advanced Eng | Stephen Croft |
| Standard Eng | James Rusconi |
| English Studies | Jake Galluccio |
| Ext English 1 | Stephen Croft |
| Ext English 2 | Stephen Croft |
| Mathematics (2 Unit Candidate) | Harrison Delaney |
| Mathematics | Joe Nardo |
| General Maths 1 | Joel Ellis |
| General Maths 2 | James Campbell |
| Ext 1 Maths | Taaj Davis |
| Ext 2 Maths | Taaj Davis |
| Biology | Lachlan Stewart |
| Chemistry | Joe Nardo |
| Physics | Lachlan Stewart |
| Senior Science | Huon Beccaris |
| Marine Studies | Matan Sharon-Lemon |
| PDHPE | Ben Donaldson, Tyler von der Heyden |
| SLR | Ricardo Duilo |
| Music Course I | Marco Bell |
| Music Course II | Alexander Vardanega |
| Spanish | Daniel Priestley |
| Ancient Hist | Stephen Croft |
| Modern Hist | Ryan Crawshaw |
| Geography | Luke Ryan, Nicholas Sterianos |
| Business | James Rusconi |
| Economics | James Rusconi |
| Legal | Stephen Croft |
| Drama | Hal Cumpston |
| Visual Art | James Campbell |
| PDM | Cooper Linardos |
| Design & Technology | Kelvin Li |
| Industrial Technology | Huon Beccaris |
| Construction | Liam Rayner, Huon Beccaris |
| Hospitality | Joe Capron |
| Entertainment | James Rusconi |
| Food Technology | Justin Fung |
| Information Processes and Technologies | James Rusconi |
Congratulations to Year 12 award winners.
Congratulations to Year 11 award winners.
Congratulations to Year 10 award winners.
