FROM THE ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE JUNIOR SCHOOL, GREG HARRIS
Prayer of the Week
FEAST of CORPUS CHRISTI Taken from excerpt from Patricia Thomas
Sunday 3rd June was the Feast of Corpus Christi. On this day we celebrate the tradition and belief in the body and blood of Jesus Christ and his Real Presence in the Eucharist.
This celebration of the Eucharist is incomplete when there is hunger in the world. The Eucharist is incomplete so long as people in the world go hungry, live without adequate shelter, are neglected and forgotten. If what we do in our churches when we celebrate Eucharist on Sundays is to have any real meaning, it has to translate into what we do during the rest of the week.
Good God, of plenty,
Give us the willingness
to make present in our world,
the love of Christ.
We offer to you a solemn pledge
Of undivided love
Christ’s disciples forever,
Chosen, blessed, broken and given to the world.
May we as the body of Christ,
welcome all, share God,
give nourishment according to need.
All good gifts are made holy by the Spirit
in SHARING what we have.
In Christ Jesus we are enough,
always have enough,
and should endeavor to give enough.
Through God there is always plenty.
Amen
St Mary of the Cross: Pray for Us
Blessed Edmund Rice: Pray for Us
Live Jesus in our Hearts: Forever
‘Give them something to eat yourselves’? Luke 9:11-17
The disciples come to Jesus with the request to dismiss the people so they themselves could go and find food. Jesus challenged them with his reply:
Give them something to eat yourselves?
Jesus tells the apostles ‘You do it.’
Christ Jesus also tells us the same today, ‘You do it!’ More than enough food is grown to feed everyone on this planet.
Why do we not give them something to eat ourselves? More than 60,000 people will die of hunger on this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Two-thirds of them will be children.
Why do we not give them something to eat ourselves? Nearly one in five people worldwide is chronically malnourished—too hungry to lead a productive, active life.
Why do we not give them something to eat ourselves? One-third of the world’s children are significantly underweight for their age.
Why do we not give them something to eat ourselves? The amount of money the world spends on weapons in one minute could feed 2,000 malnourished children for a year.
Reconciliation prayer – Prayers at the Reconciliation Church La Perouse last Sunday 3rd June
I always love a good story from staff or students that has something to share about our wonderful community here at Waverley. This story and prayer ties in well with the celebration of Reconciliation Week that happened last week and was acted upon with the Book Swap for Indigenous Literacy held last Friday in the Junior School – more on that later.
There are not many who don’t know our beautiful Irish school secretary, receptionist, problem-solver and wise sage, in Audrey Coupe. Audrey has a direct family link to the Indigenous Community at La Perouse through her son-in-law, David. Audrey often attends mass at the Reconciliation Church at La Perouse, where one of her grandchildren is currently going through the Confirmation Program.
The Reconciliation Church and office are situated at Phillip Bay (near La Perouse), at 11 Yarra Road. They do not have a permanent priest attached to this church, however they have a visiting priest each month. The Church is part of the Parish of St. Andrew’s at Malabar and has been refurbished in the spirit of Aboriginal culture and art.
Audrey shared with me this beautiful Reconciliation Prayer that was recited by all at the church last Sunday to mark Reconciliation Week. I cannot think of a better time to share this with you:
Holy Father, God of Love
You are the Creator of this land and of all good things.
We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history
and the suffering of our peoples,
and we ask your forgiveness.
We thank you for the survival of indigenous cultures.
Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus
to reconcile the world to you.
We pray for your strength and grace to forgive,
accept and love one another,
as you love us and forgive and accept us
in the sacrifice of your Son.
Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history
so that we may build a better future for our nation.
Teach us to respect all cultures.
Teach us to care for our land and waters.
Help us to share justly the resources of this land.
Help us to bring about spiritual and social change
to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities,
especially the disadvantaged.
Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.
May your power and love be the foundations
on which we build our families, our communities and our nation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prepared by Wontulp-Bi-Buya – Indigenous Theology Working Group, 13th March 1997, Brisbane
The Great Book Swap – A Great Success – Indigenous Literacy Fundraiser
There was great excitement on the playground last Friday as Mrs Tunks and the High School Library Staff, along with the support from the Lacey boys from the Junior School and Year 7 SRC, went about running the Great Book Swap and Cake Stall for Indigenous Literacy. The weather was terrible and it was a bit manic but we raised $576, which was a lot better than expected for our first attempt at this event. The wild winds whipping across the playground did not dampen anyone’s spirits to walk off with a handful of books or a mouthful of cake and many had both.
Mrs Tunks asked me to pass on her thanks to everyone who contributed on Friday as mentioned and also including:
· Junior Staff
· All the boys and families who supplied books, cakes and slices.
· Mr Proudfoot, Bill Roberts and Yr7 SRC
The Great Book Swap was a fantastic way to celebrate reading in our local community and raise much-needed funds for remote Indigenous communities. The idea was to swap a favourite book in exchange for another, for a gold coin donation. Last year, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation raised over $190,000 from the Great Book Swap and this year their goal is to raise $300,000 to gift 30,000 new books to remote communities who have few to none.
We will certainly give this another run next year.
Semster One Interim and Mid-Year Reports
Apologies for the time it has taken, but technical difficulties with the Term One Interim Report have taken a lot of time to rectify. We are nearly there and hope to have these reissued to you through the Parent Portal very shortly.
In the meantime, I ask that you understand we are moving into a very busy time for staff with late nights and busy weekends trying to finalise the Semester One Mid-Year Reports. This is a very busy time for staff as they try to ensure boys have lessons prepared; work corrected; sports teams coached and reports marks checked and verified and comments written. I ask you to be patient with your demands of staff at this time.
Mrs Rollins on Channel 7
Mrs Rollins was invited to be interviewed for Channel 7’s show ‘House of Wellness’ last Friday. I’ll let this email excerpt explain the rest:
Ch.7’s House of Wellness program is seeking a music education specialist to appear in a short TV segment on “Music for the Mind”. We would like to highlight the benefits of music education for all areas of life, as very concisely outlined on the Music Australia Website .
Yet again Mrs Rollins’ reputation in the Music Education sphere has seen a group reach out for her expert opinions on this area. Congratulations Michelle for these great acknowledgments of the work you do for us and beyond.
Mr Ghattas is back in the building
We welcome back Mr Ghattas who is back from his combined Long Service Leave and Paternity Leave after his wife, Kristy, gave birth to their son, Zane. It is great to have him back and the first thing he did on his return was to send this word of thanks out for the job done by Mr Gill. He gave permission for it to be shared in this week’s Nurrunga:
I would like to thank Anthony for the wonderful job that he did in my absence. From all accounts, everything that he took on (and there was quite a lot of it) was done with the utmost professionalism and attention to detail.
I threw him right into the mix with May Procession (both practices and the actual event – and from what I hear, he did a lot of organising including of the Senior Students). This was then topped off with the Mother’s Day Mass a few days later and I know from speaking with a couple of parents that they were very impressed with how the day was run – thank you.
Added to this was the Confirmation practices, evenings and lessons that Anthony attended to help ensure the Waverley students were being looked after in the process.
I know that he has made it a smooth transition for me to come back into and I cant thank him enough for everything that he did.
Regards, Steve
Initiatives in Curriculum at Waterford – Ms Bransby and Ms Stephens
Waterford is currently engaging in a very exciting initiative where the boys are part of an Independent Inquiry Unit called ‘i-Time.’ This involves the boys following their interests and passions as part of an educational experience. The boys solve problems and develop 21st Century Skills whilst enjoying learning, encouraging curiosity, awe and wonder. Our common goal is to equip our students with the skills they will need for in the future for jobs. This initiative was started when Gabrielle Bransby and Charlotte Stephens attended a conference in 2017 called ‘A More Beautiful Question’. From this, ‘I-Time’ was developed based on the research presented and the amazing initiatives other school were involved in.
We thank these ladies for their enthusiasm and commitment to change in the Junior School and the great initiatives they are presenting to staff to challenge our boys and enhance the learning environment along with professionally developing staff with new and exciting practices and ideas.
Staff Movement this week
It is a busy year in the Junior School with staff taking advantage of well-deserved leave to pursue outside passions and family circumstances. We have just had Mr Ghattas return and starting on Thursday this week we have Mr Robinson heading to Brazil for family reasons. Mr Robinson will be away for the three weeks to the holidays and the 6 White class will be taught by Mr Jack McCarthy who has just successfully completed the 5-Week block on 5 Blue. We are lucky to have such loyal and reliable casuals to allow a smooth transition for classes where absence occurs.
We wish Mr Robinson and his family a safe and enjoyable trip and hope he returns to us safely after the June holidays.
Conversations with Boys
Thanks to all the parents who made the point of letting me know how much they enjoyed this section of the newsletter last week. I thought I’d try and keep it going with something a bit lighter and little less philosophical this week.
Tuesday’s Help Session was affected by rain as many boys decided to stay in supervised classrooms and do their work as the weather kept them off the playground. Still, I had a hardy group of about 8 Year Six boys turn up to finish some English work they had to complete.
It was as interesting for me as it was for them as I began to discuss what they were there to do. All were researching and playing around with examples of words and expressions that are as hard to spell as they are to create and understand. We sat there having a wonderful chat and sharing ideas on lots of language techniques like onomatopoeia, hyperbole, personification, similes, metaphors and oxymorons. As the teacher in the room, and one that has not taught English as much these days, and especially at this level, I did have to dive for a few Google definitions to brush up my knowledge. However, it did give the boys the opportunity to do a bit of teach the teacher. There were plenty of funny terms that had us all giggling or sometimes trying to explain to each other or understand.
I shared with them an old YouTube video of a Todd Rundgren song called ‘Onomatopoeia’ and all eventually left with work done and the words of the song bouncing around in their heads. It was a great chat about words and the ways they can be used and I think we all got something out of it.
How do you think you would go at home with your knowledge of these deceitfully clever terms?
Edmund Rice Theme Day – Thanks Mr Ghattas
The boys entered into the Edmund Rice Theme Day with much enthusiasm as we spent Thursday celebrating our Founder; learning a bit about his life and sharing a movie that has a social justice theme. Mr Ghattas is back and threw himself into the organisation of the day, where the boys enjoyed wearing their mufti clothes and donating a gold coin to The Smith Family.
I hope some discussion over the value of the day can be shared over the dinner table tonight and boys can share with you some video info about Edmund Rice that they have access to on their Google Slide Weekly Notices shared with them each week.
Please remember Friday 8th June is the Founder’s Day holiday and there is NO SCHOOL and Monday is the Queen’s Birthday Holiday. School starts again on Tuesday 12th June.
Next Week (7): MEN’S HEALTH WEEK
Confirmation – Charles Borromeo Parish – Mary Immaculate Church
The final Confirmation Lesson will be held on Friday of Week 7 in the 5 Blue Classroom from 7:30am to 8:15am with Mr Ghattas. Once this is done all the boys in the local parish will be ready to make their Confirmation and become full and active members of their church. We wish all boys well in their preparation and congratulate them on taking this big step forward with their faith.
How Parents Can Support Young People’s Mental Health
This information comes from a great website I recommend to you as a parent of young people. It would be a great one to bookmark or even subscribe to their emails:
https://www.generationnext.com.au/
Parents can play a key role in helping children develop good mental health. It is important that parents support and encourage positive mental health habits in children from an early age and continue encouraging positive mental health behaviours during adolescence. These positive habits will support young people’s health and wellbeing in all life domains into the future
Build a strong foundation
Parents can help children and young people build good mental health habits by supporting them to:
- find ways to express their feelings
- develop healthy ways to relax and unwind
- understand that drinking or taking drugs doesn’t solve problems
- deal with problems as they arise rather than let things build up
- be aware of their ‘self-talk’
- set appropriate limits and understand about risks
- find accurate information that can help them make good decisions
- have realistic goals.
When parents are warm and loving, set appropriate limits and find the positives in their young person, it helps build good mental health.
CBCA Eastern Suburbs Sub-Branch – Wed 20th June
This flyer is from Mrs Tunks, who is on this committee, for the launch night for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Eastern Suburbs Sub-Branch. There will be Children’s authors speaking so it may be of interest for some parents. This night is for adults (it isn’t a Children’s event)
Prep 1st Rugby on Queens Park No.1
The Prep 1st boys were honoured by the school with a game on Queens Park No.1 last Saturday. It was a wonderful experience and one enjoyed by both boys and parents. We took on one of our great rivals, in Knox Grammar School. The boys performed admirably to claim a 24-12 victory.
The following is some of my Team App report about the game:
It was our big game on Queens Park No.1 today and I know the boys were really excited by the prospect. This is a great initiative of the Rugby Supporters Club with the support of Steve O’Donnell (Director of Co-Curricular) and John McCoy (MIC of Rugby) started just a few years ago to give the Prep 1st team a chance to play on the No.1 field. It has been well received and become an important part of our Rugby calendar.
The boys gathered in the change rooms that the 1st XV have used for years. Here they were met with a photo of the Prep 1st squad from 2011 on the wall to remind all 1st XV boys of where they have come from. Steve O’Donnell talked to the boys briefly about the great history and pride held by every boy who has represented their school and especially those who have made it to the top team and worn the double vee. He encouraged them, whether win or loss, that they always gave their very best when representing their school, and all those others they represent and take out on the field with them who have invested time and energy into their game.
Josh Weinstein was looking more comfortable as coach and gave the boys their final instructions before they headed out to the tunnel. He was very happy with the way they had trained this week and was telling me all about the new moves he had worked in the backs. His enthusiasm for the boys; the game and his school is passionate to say the least. We are so lucky to have him take over the team. There was certainly a bit more fire in the belly of the boys when they took the field than seen last week.
From the kick-off the boys looked good and were controlling the ruck well. Good early runs from Angus Sullivan and Ed Lyons set the tone. Early scrums were a good sign that the boys were willing to compete and were switched on. Newly promoted, Judah Miller, was responding well to his first run and added some real punch to the back row. Christian Robbins was back and making a powerful impact, which we missed last week. All was looking good.
Easily our finest game of the year and a real team effort from all, including the great job done off the bench. Thanks for all those boys who stayed back a bit later to support and help out, especially Eden who came to watch with his injury. This was a style of play we hope to see more of. Well done on your first No.1 field victory. Wishing you many more.
Team App for Winter Sport
Sport at Waverley College is an exciting activity that involves every student at all different levels. We are now up to our third game of our Saturday Winter Sports Program and the excitement and energy is clearly visible.
Waverley College’s co-curricular directorate is using a free app again this winter for all football and rugby teams and their supporters. Team App is a platform that will allow our football community to improve communication by integrating everything one needs to know about football at Waverley College including:
• News
• Fixtures
• Competition Ladders
• Selection News
• Player Profiles
• Live Scores
• Photos
If you would like to access this information on your device or smart phone simply download this free App. Team App is available on both Apple and Android devices. Once you have done this search for Waverley College Football or Rugby. The College will then authenticate you giving access.
Homework Club at the Junior School
A reminder that Homework Club is held in the Junior School library each Monday-Thursday from 3.00pm-4.30pm. It is the expectation that boys using this service are working or reading.
Armidale Rugby Tour 2019 – Expressions of Interest
All Year 5 boys had a Google Doc shared with them this week to list down their interest in the 2019 Armidale Rugby Tour. We are looking for 40 players to fill the positions listed. We will choose from both current Year 5 U10 & U11 Rugby Squads for the U12 Tournament in Armidale in 2019. U10 boys will need parent permission to play in an U12 Tournament. A detailed permission note will be coming home shortly. To be up for selection you must:
- Have parent permission to be involved
- Be playing rugby for a school team in 2018 and intend playing rugby in 2019
- Be willing to play more than one position as specified on the shared document
- Be available for the first weekend of the Term 1 2019 school holidays – Friday 12th, Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th April
Selection is being carried out NOW by ALL COACHES as you play your 2018 season on both Saturday School Games and Wednesday Colour Competition. We select only 40 players so there is no guarantee that by having your name on the list you will make the squad.
We do this now as to leave the selection to 2019 would not allow interested parents to organise accommodation as this weekend is always University Graduation and Rugby Tournament in Armidale in the same weekend.
If there are any boys CURRENTLY playing rugby outside of school who would be interested we will let you have a trial at Colour Comp Rugby in Week 8 and 9. Please come prepared with boots and mouth-guards. If selected then you would be expected to play rugby in 2019. Squad announcements will not take place until the end of the 2018 season.
Waverley Sport on Facebook
Please remember the details to get pictures on the Waverley Sport Facebook Page and Waverley Sport Messenger.
You can contact Lindsay through the Facebook Page; Facebook Messenger or at his website: lindsayjordan1122@hotmail.com :This email is best to use if you have many photos to share with him – Please let him know via Messenger if you have emailed him as he only uses this address for photos. If you have just small numbers of photos then attach them directly to Messenger Service with a message.
It would help if as many parents as can LIKE the page as Lindsay wants to put a lot more focus on the Junior School teams this year. He will also add any reports we send about games.
Thought for the Week
The argument that ‘boys will be boys’ actually carries the profoundly anti-male implication that we should expect bad behaviour from boys and men. The assumption is that they are somehow not capable of acting appropriately or treating girls and women with respect – Jackson Katz
