From the Director of Junior School, Anthony Banboukjian
Prayer of the Week
As this is our last week of term, and as we look back on our class work, our sport, our play and events in the life of our school community, let us give thanks to God.
God who teaches us, we praise you for what we have learned so far this year.
God who challenges us, we praise you for moments of surprise and difficulty.
God who loves us, we praise you for our friends and families who support and understand us.
God who guides us, we praise you for our school, Waverley College Junior School, which encourages us to lead Christian lives and to be the best we can be.
Bless our journey as we prepare for the holidays.
Amen
Blessed Edmund Rice: Pray for Us
St Mary of the Cross: Pray for Us
Live Jesus in our Hearts: Forever
End of term
It is hard to believe that we have come to the end of another term. The boys were challenged today to ensure that they are working to the best of their ability for the reminder of the year – all eight weeks (I know that sounds crazy).
I hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe holiday. School starts back on Monday October 9 which will be Week B and the boys will be required to come to school in full summer school uniform.
Please note that Saturday summer sports starts in the first week of term 4. All families should have received a Skoolbag App notification from Mr Ryan outlining the training days, times and draws for all teams. If boys have training on Monday they will need to make sure they have the right gear.
Walkathon
What an amazing event. The fantastic participation from all our students and the tremendous help from our wonderful parent group meant that the walkathon went extremely well. Thank you to all the parents that volunteered to assist throughout the day. Your help was very much appreciated.
The charities that we are supporting this year will all benefit from the almost $50 000 promised by the boys
- Edmund Rice Camps NSW
- Sydney Children’s Hospital
- Savio Education Centre
- Prostate Cancer Foundation
- Cure for Life Foundation
- Redkite
- Local Families
Special thanks to Mr Anthony Gill for his outstanding organisation of the day. It was very much appreciated.
Message from Mr Gill
We would like to extend our deepest thanks to all the parents and grandparents who gave up their time on last Friday to attend and help out at this year’s Junior School Walkathon. There were more than 130 parent helpers for this fantastic community day. A special mention of thanks needs to be sent to former Waverley College parent, Niccla Kurz and Mondo Kitchen (https://www.mondokitchen.com.au) for their continued support of this event. They have generously donated delicious cakes for many years which have been enjoyed by the parent volunteers for morning tea.
Congratulations must also go to the boys who walked a combined 5,195 km around Centennial Park. 16 boys walked 29km in the 3 hours, that’s 7 laps around Centennial Park, an awesome effort. The boys have pledged a total of just over $50,000 so far. Tristan Lee of 5 White will smash the school fundraising record with a promise of more than $6,500 and Tashi Harrison of 5 Blue has also put in an amazing effort by collecting more than 150 different sponsors.
Well done to all the boys for their efforts in this year’s walkathon. It was a great day! Now it is time to collect all the sponsorship.
Junior School Basketball A
The Junior School A-Grade Basketball Squad took part in The Scots College Hoops Tournament last Saturday at both the Lions Den and Fairfax Courts at Scots, Bellevue Hill.
This is the fourth year we have attended this tournament since its inception in 2014. Eight schools battled it out in two pools before all are placed in a final to decide placing and conclude the morning. All up the A-Grade boys made a good account of themselves over four 26-minute games for 104 minutes of basketball in the morning. Not bad for ten boys who turned up with very tired legs from yesterday’s Walkathon.
Overall we came fifth with two wins against: Cranbrook 20-13 and Grammar St Ives 16-12. The two losses were to the powerful SCEGGS Redlands 19-40 with their five CIS reps and to St Aloysius 15-23 after leading 15-11 with 6-minutes to go before we self-destructed. This was the second best result we have had at this tournament in the four years we have attended. Well done boys.
Overall we acquitted ourselves well and were quite competitive. The boys enjoyed the morning and it gives us a good start to the second half of our season in term four. We appreciate all your efforts to give up your Saturday to represent your school. Thanks for the parent support on the day. It is always great to have you at our games.
Basketball A
Congratulations
Well done to the following boys for their performances in the 2017 International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) Mathematics competition:
Year 5 – Credit Awards
- Bailey Barker
- Freddy Maree
- Campbell Porteus
- Aston Owens
Year 5 – Merit Awards
- Lucas Atherton
Year 6 – Credit Awards
- Jack Crotty
- Hugh McDonald
- Finn Stranix
- Oliver Schai
- Aidan Mahoney
- Thomas Holroyde
- Edison Beswick
- Jake Perks
- William Perkins
- Ethan Fernandez
Year 6 – Merit Awards
- Conor Black
- Hugo Morgan
Congratulations to Matthew Wong and Joel Hammerschmidt for their Distinction Awards which places them in the top 6-7% of the country – well done.
A special recognition to Hugo Heron for his High Distinction Award which places him in the top 1% of the country – a terrific result Hugo.
Best wishes
Congratulations and farewell to the graduating Year 12 Class of 2017. The Junior School wishes them all the best for the upcoming exams.
CIS Athletics
Well done to all the boys who competed at the CIS Athletics Carnival last week. Special congratulations to Jesse Garratt on his selection in the CIS Athletics team after winning the 200m event to compete in the PSSA Carnival on 18 and 19 October 2017.
CIS Athletics
Cadets
One of the experiences many of the Junior boys look forward to in the Senior School is participating in cadets. Last Sunday I had the pleasure of being a guest at both the Parade and the Valedictory Dinner. It was amazing to see so many former Junior School students ‘so grown up’ – and all now fine young men.
Illness and absence
Can I please remind parents that if your son is sick it best that he is kept at home to avoid infecting other students. It also avoids Mrs Coupe having to call you during the day to come and pick him up from school.
Technology
The upcoming holidays is an ideal opportunity to give your sons time away from their laptops, phones and game consoles. The Australian outdoors at this time of year is great for all kids to get out and enjoy.
The following insight from Martine Oglethorpe I believe offers some helpful advice.
These little devices that connect us, entertain us, provide us with information, show us where to go, keep us organised and allow us to indulge in retail therapy from almost anywhere, have become an integral part of our daily lives. Most of us won’t leave home for long periods of time without being tethered to a digital device.
But when it comes to our children and their screen-time habits, we are often lamenting the role the devices play. How much is too much for our children, and how do we keep it under control? We need to look at how each individual child is coping with their screen time. Are they still doing the things they always enjoyed before they had access to a screen? Are they able to put the screen away without a fight? What sorts of things are they doing on the screen? Is it a positive experience? Are they learning something? Are they interacting with it or merely consuming media?
Look at how you are role modelling screen-time behaviours We know our children learn much more from watching what we do, as opposed to listening to what we say. So how is your technology use affecting you? Are you ignoring others because you are scrolling? Are you falling asleep with a phone or tablet landing on your forehead? Are you able to give yourself over to certain tasks and focus without being distracted by beeps and notifications? Are you giving yourself some time without a device to enjoy family, friends and activities that keep you healthy and balanced?
Have rules that are ‘no brainers’ for your family When it comes to technology, the rules often change as our children develop and mature. But we can also make some universal rules for the whole family based on our individual family values and what is important to us. It may be that there are no phones in the bedroom at night. It may be that there is no technology after a certain time of the day. It should certainly be that devices never ever come to the table at dinner time. Aiming for at least a few meals where the family is eating together is crucial. Your children need this time to talk, connect with family and have a break from being ‘switched on’ to a device. They need to get into the habit of not eating and scrolling. So make your rules early and stick to them.
Build a culture of balanced play in your home. There is no doubt that we as parents need to work harder today to nurture all the many elements of a child’s development. When a small device appears to provide them with so much it is little wonder our children have trouble putting them down and going outside to play. Unlike a book or a game there is often no end to what happens with a device. There is always something more to see or do, another level to reach, another city to build or another army to destroy. So we need to get better at providing lots of other ways for our children to be entertained, informed and connected to others. This may mean we have to physically go outside and play with them rather than simply tell them to go out. It may mean we have to insist on visits to places where devices don’t come out. Children still want to run and jump and play – they just need to be reminded and encouraged to do so even more today. By building other ways to learn, play and interact into our children’ lives from an early age, we are helping these things become part of their daily lives – habits that in turn become behaviours.
So while we often feel like the devices are taking over, all of these strategies rely on us – the parents. We need to be the ones to get in early and help show them the way. We need to take a look at what we are modelling to them in terms of our own device use and our own lifestyle. We need to be helping them form the right behaviours. There are many wonderful benefits that come with these devices, so ensuring we are using them in positive ways, and are in control, will go a long way to ensuring we are all reaping those benefits.
