Around Campus Archives - Page 9 of 16

On Wednesday, 10 August, we hosted our inaugural speed mentoring session in the Senior Library, where current students had the opportunity to engage in dynamic discussions about careers, skills and studies with Waverley College alumni.

The aim was to create a space where students could ask questions and gain insights into various industries in a short time. At the start of the 1.5-hour session, Chris Peralta (WCOB 1993), encouraged mentors and mentees alike to consider what their superpower is, and how this can be nurtured to ensure they strive to become the best version of themselves.

Our mentors, ranging from the graduating classes of 1976 to 2019, each had unique skills and experience that, by all accounts, has inspired the mentees and even provided clear directions for future pathways. We are incredibly grateful to our 15 Old Boy mentors for generously sharing their time and expertise.

This week with our Year 12s on Trials, it was a delight to see our Year 11 students stepping in to organise some inter-house activities. A Senior and Junior Basketball competition was held over the past week with some outstanding skills and sportsmanship shown throughout the games.

Congratulations to Lacey House who won the Junior division and to Brennan House who were victorious in the Senior division. There were many close competitions between the Houses throughout the knock out competition and the support from other members of the Houses was terrific.

Thank you to all those Heads of House and Year 11 students who worked to make our competition so enjoyable. Well done!

Waverley College 2021 Year Books are hot off the press and ready for collection.

Our annual, glossy, hard-copy Year Books record, highlight and commemorate our College, and are a beloved tradition at Waverley.

A wonderful memento of your son’s year at the College, we encourage all families to obtain one copy of this special keepsake, so that together they may reminisce over what happened in this incredible year, and recall forgotten moments through inspiring images and reports.

Should you wish to obtain a copy of the 2021 Year Book, please collect your free, 267-page edition from the Senior School Reception on Birrell Street.

Last Friday evening, Waverley hosted the second round of the CAS Debating competition against Barker College. All senior teams were given the choice of three potential motions to debate on the concepts of justice, law, and politics. In negotiation with the opposition, the Firsts team affirmed the motion:

That Indigenous groups in parliamentary democracies should form independent political parties instead of encouraging their members to vote for, and run, on behalf of, existing parties.

Mack Flitcroft opened the debate, providing a compelling overview of the affirmative case and the team’s proposed model. Second to speak was Christian Kitas who made clear, precise rebuttals of the opposition’s argument whilst continuing to develop Waverley’s case. Daniel McSweeny rounded out the team with a highly effective closing argument that articulated the primary issues of the debate, and why the affirmative model was the most plausible.

After deliberation, the three adjudicators awarded the debate to Waverley. Both teams were complimented on their manner and delivery, as well as the sophistication of the debate overall.

This win marks the first time in 20 years that Waverley defeated Barker in a Firsts debate. The whole team should feel ecstatic at this significant achievement and I thank them for all their diligence in training and competing.

Furthermore, it was fantastic that several other senior students came out to support the First team as they debated in the PAC theatre — a somewhat daunting venue that was made more comfortable by their enthusiastic support. I would like to thank Conor, Carter, Owen, Charlie, Alejandro, and Lachlan for their attendance and celebration for the team on their win.

The next round is an economic topic to be held at Waverley College against Trinity Grammar. Parents, carers and students are very welcome to support our debaters.

Did you read the ‘Poem Forest’ article in last week’s edition of Nurrunga?

Our Students of the World Ecology Group have planted nine trees just creating and submitting their nature poems to the ‘Poem Forest’ environmental initiative.

Get involved by submitting entries before Friday, 23 September. A tree is planted for EVERY poem submitted!

Read the Nature Poems by the Ecology Group

Nature is wonderful
Nature is green
Nature is everywhere and makes the world clean
Nature is biophysical
Nature is diverse
Nature is geological and its beauty unrehearsed.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I am writing this poem to plant a tree,
And I hope you will too!

Towering high above us
Roots take up water
Evergreens stay green all year
Every day they keep us alive

I love the Black cockatoo
And survive is what they must do
They don’t want to die
They just want to fly
This justice we must pursue

Calyptorhynchus funereus – yellow-tailed black cockatoo. Image: courtesy Australian Botanic Garden.

Amber and yellow arose from the sky,
As brown branches stood high.
And so the day began.
As abiotic and biotic factors brushed by,
Tiny little humans cut into my thigh.
I lost branches and I lost some more.
Why, I did not look like that before!
As amber and yellow set in the sky,
I continued to process that tomorrow I may die.

The environment is like a bee
Loving the plants, trees and flowers
Making it suffer is not meant to bee
We all have the powers
To plant the new tree

The majestic humpback whale,
so graceful day to day.
We must help, we must not fail
so I have something to say.
Trust me okay this is not a tale.
They need us now we must change.
Let’s plant our trees let’s make a trail,
together we make a forest range.
Please send a poem through the mail,
sorry for this big rant,
but we must save the humpback whale!
But these trees we plant,
is the first step of the way
to make sure our humpback whales are okay.

Oh Great tree,
You do wonders for me,
Shame you will be cut down,
With humanity turning around.
Oh wonderful ocean,
For years you’ve stood,
Shame you’ve rosen,

Old Boy, Mark Higgins, spoke to a group of aspiring student leaders in the College Senior Library during Week 2. His brief was to outline what leadership is, its power, and how we are all called to leadership.

Mark spoke as part of a longstanding program at Waverley, where leaders in their respective fields come in to talk to future student leaders. The power of linking to the broader world and connecting to our community to expose our student audiences to real-world practitioners, is of immense value.

Mark, currently a barrister, outlined his work and general life experiences throughout his impactful career, and how his actions are guided by core values originating from his time as a Waverley College student. He outlined how he has applied leadership to those he interacts with through work, and also in social activities and social justice programs outside of work.

Mark challenged students to treat all people with dignity. How can we maintain the sense of an individual’s worth? How can we facilitate bringing out the best in people and assisting people to excel?

Mark outlined one example about his experiences when working with Legal Aid in Western Sydney. Here, he worked with people who have committed serious crimes. He said that his stance of treating people with dignity is the ultimate act of leadership, and he challenged current students to consider this when they act.

He carefully outlined how leadership can be found in all areas of life. His experiences in parachuting, surfing and rugby all involved concepts of leadership and exemplified how we can all be leaders.

Mark’s explanation of the Waverley Crest and how its key aspects including: the gold star and the five gold bars representing Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Religious Virtue: faith, hope, charity, have been a great source of guidance. He said that these values are powerful and great to nurture.

This is first in a series of talks for Mark. We’re very grateful that he will continue to work with selected young men of Waverley, connecting their class studies to the wider world of life outside of school.

Would You Like to Make a Presentation to Waverley Students?

If you would like to contribute in a similar way, via presenting to students with your insights from industry and the world of work, please be in contact with Ms Venettia Miller in Archives, Alumni and Development.

On Wednesday, a small group of students from Years 5 to 8 attended the ‘Thriving Minds’ Conference at Ascham school in Edgecliff. Ms Julie Arliss, a highly accomplished teacher and author, provided a day of multidisciplinary, university-style lectures and debates, designed to stimulate independent and creative thinking, connect different areas of study, upgrade students’ critical abilities, and encourage a philosophical perspective.

The day began with ‘Justice Truth and Beauty’, which explored the difficulties of achieving agreement about justice, as well as the point of punishment and what it is supposed to achieve.

This was followed by a guided community of inquiry. Students were placed in mixed school groups to discuss, ‘Celery Munchers vs Steak Stokers: Is Diet a free choice?’

After lunch, an introduction to ‘Quantum Mechanics’ was presented. Starting with the atom, this session took students into the quantum world.

Finally, ‘This house believes that freewill is an illusion’ was presented and students experienced a live debate and were encouraged to contribute and vote.

For our students, the conference was challenging, yet engaging and exciting. The students said that they particularly enjoyed learning about quantum mechanics, including wave/particle duality and the double slit experiment, and the history of justice and the philosophy behind crime and punishment.

Ms Julie Arliss described the participants as, “mature, intelligent and a great credit to your schools.”

The course Cert II in Hospitality (Kitchen Operations), requires students to complete 12 Service Periods during Years 11 and 12. These enable students to demonstrate and/or work towards their competencies in areas such as safe work practices, working hygienically, working effectively together, as well as practical skills such as correct knife handling, and cooking food using various methods of cookery, such as deep frying, boiling and baking.

The students in Year 11 and 12 Hospitality completed their service period on Thursday, 23 June, which leads to achieving some competencies within the course. As part of the service period, they made nutritious sandwiches and mouthwatering sweet treats for all staff.

The students worked hard to produce over 130 sandwiches that catered for a variety of dietary requirements, and a staggering 300 chocolate chip cookies and 50 brownies that seemed to disappear quite quickly! The sandwiches were a huge success amongst staff and the quality rivalled some of the popular local cafés and eateries.

We are very proud of all the students who participated in the service day, and extend a big thank you to all students and their teachers Mr Mark Neale, Ms Bev McCarthy and Ms Anne O’Loughlin, for all of their hard work.

In Week 8, Chris Kallo, Prefect and a member of the Students of the World Ecology Group spoke at the Years 7-12 student-led assembly. Chris spoke about the importance of World Oceans Day which was celebrated on Wednesday, 8 June. As we are a coastal community, this is of particular relevance.

I think you would all agree that we are very lucky to have the ocean on our doorstep. Now, imagine a world where the ocean is off limits to us, because of our constant pollution. Imagine a world without the diversity of animal life we enjoy today. Well, this world could be our reality if things continue the way they are.

As Waverley is situated at the top of a hill overlooking the coast, any rubbish lying around, especially soft plastics, only has one direction to go, and that is down the hill, giving our rubbish a one-way express ticket to the ocean. Lately, our own school environment has become far too polluted. Too often, I see litter on the floor around the campus, especially around the locker areas.

Our team of cleaners do a wonderful job. However, their job isn’t to pick up our rubbish. It is to keep us safe by cleaning surfaces and emptying the bins. Unfortunately, this extra work is taking their time away from keeping us safe, and keeping our school as pristine as possible. It really shouldn’t be too much to ask to put our rubbish in the bin and in the right bin. Each piece of rubbish put into the right bin is doing its part to save our environment.

The Ecology team along with help of Ms Sutcliffe and Mr Winch, our Head of Maintenance, have organised a trial of organic food waste bins, which will be here by next week, so we will finally have somewhere to recycle our food waste. They will be situated in the TAS department for Hospitality, the Canteen, and the main Staff Room, so that our teachers and support staff can participate too.

However, the main bin we students need to know about, is the one that will be in the Kenny Quad. This is one of the ways our College is trying to reduce our environmental footprint in order to save our environment. If these trials are successful, then expect many more food waste bins to be littered, (no pun intended), around our most common eating areas.

Please be mindful of which bin you are putting your rubbish in. As a reminder to us all:

I challenge you to do the right thing. Our College Prefects will be around our campus encouraging us all to do the right thing, and protect our environment, but particularly our oceans.

As we celebrate World Oceans Day 2022, I leave you with this inspirational video to show you, first hand, what we are capable of as a species.

The Year 12 Studies of Religion cohort engaged in consecutive excursions on Thursday, 16 June and Friday, 17 June, to appreciate and experience the practice of Temple Puja, an aspect of the HSC Buddhism course.

The breakfast stop, at McDonald’s Heathcote, en route, set the tone for a highly interactive day. Temple puja is a set of devotions to the Buddha, the role model of the path to Nirvana and escape from suffering. Students observed Buddhist adherents engaging in puja but also experienced and practised their own development of mindfulness.

They were actively engaged in the main courtyard during the tai chi session. Meditation, with the nuns, was another attempt to be still and cultivate the mind. The removal of shoes, bowing and silence are components of this ancient practice.

The sharing of a vegetarian meal for lunch further enhanced their understanding of this faith tradition. Overall, it was an opportunity to escape from the mundane world to the spiritual one for a few hours, and gain appreciation and understanding along the way.

On Monday, 20 June, students from the Year 10 Spanish elective class and Year 11 Spanish Beginners/Continuers courses participated in a cooking class delivered by their teacher, Ms Quintana, in Spanish.

Their task was to make the popular meat pasties known as empanadas, a few side salads and a dessert pastel de manzana. They also sampled a beverage which originated in the Andean region of Peru called chicha morada made from purple corn.

Eating is one of the most significant social rituals in Hispanic culture: not only is food shared, but life is also shared with family and friends. It’s not uncommon to see a crowded table at a family celebration, hear the hearty laughter and exchange of many stories, and the acknowledgement that food always tastes better when shared in good company. This was exactly what took place amongst the students in this cooking class.

Students had the opportunity to learn about food weights and measurements, follow a recipe, and implement safe practices in the kitchen when using the various utensils and cooking equipment, not to mention building their language skills and culinary expertise. The students demonstrated outstanding team work and were very focused on ensuring they completed all tasks before the bell rang, so that they could sample the fruits of their labour.

Due to time limitations, we could not experience the Spanish custom of Sobremesa, whereby after clearing the table, everyone engages in long conversations on topics of interest. Nevertheless, the students thoroughly enjoyed the practical experience in company of their peers, and might even surprise their parents by offering to prepare a meal (in the not-too-distant future) for the family, and even clearing up at the end!

At a school as large as Waverley, it’s not easy to get to know everyone as deeply as we may like. Many of us have hidden talents, multiple occupations, previous careers, colourful experiences, and rich insights, ripe for sharing.

As we come to the end of Semester 1, our newsletter is celebrating the gifts, talents and interests of our staff, starting with the enigmatic and creative Mr Yann Vignes.

“Around six years, I think. I work with the Maintenance Team and fix problems! There’s usually a wide range of issues for teachers – I mostly work with building maintenance. I also teach Yoga at the College.”

“I teach boys in Years 7-12, weekdays and early on Saturday mornings, and also as part of Fitness Group. Yoga is a co-curricular elective. It’s great. I try to push the boys a little further in their personal practice, in an environment where nobody is judging or watching. I teach them techniques to go further with breathing, showing them how to breathe deeply and stretch. It’s a nurturing practice, where boys can calm down, breathe and focus. The boys are very receptive. They have learned Sanskrit words for the poses, and I play Indian music during the classes to remind them of yoga’s origin, transporting them to India! They are also learning to meditate.”

“French, English and some Hebrew. I lived in a kibbutz in the 1980s in Israel – my grandmother was Jewish. I learned a lot about Socialism there, in a community of people working together to have a decent life. One of the things I’ve kept from that time is the saying: “There are no problems, only solutions.” I travelled extensively from a young age and have lived in Mexico, Switzerland, Portugal, New Caledonia … so many places.”

“Tokyo. It’s the most exciting and safest city in the world. Totally free with a lot of experiences. It’s challenging at night with so many things to see and discover. It’s an amazing place for any age – a place where young and old people are always mixing. I made crêpes in Tokyo outside a restaurant in an expensive suburb. The Japanese are Francophiles. Japanese and French have a similar aesthetic – they have a similar sensitivity, detail and appreciate the arts.”

“With my process, I sit at my desk with books everywhere – paper, scissors, glue, stone paper, and I have no idea what is going to come. I go through books. Art books. Then the story comes. Every collage is unique – one piece only. Usually I create something that reflects the last few days. I create the title last, after the pieces are glued. It’s very important and fun. I must have a show this year.”

Babouchka Remembers the War by Yann Vignes

“Practising yoga, teaching yoga, being creative, my artwork, collage, seeing people and engaging people. You’ve got to live in the present – connection is everything – art, yoga. You can’t plan things, you aren’t in control. You have to accept people on a daily basis, with the same attention, care and nurturing in the moment with no reference to the past or previous days.”

Read the Nature Poems by the Ecology Group

Would You Like to Make a Presentation to Waverley Students?

Senior Campus

Junior Campus

Read the Nature Poems by the Ecology Group

Would You Like to Make a Presentation to Waverley Students?

Senior Campus

Junior Campus

A Catholic School for boys inthe tradition of Edmund Rice

A Catholic School for boys in
the tradition of Edmund Rice