Dear Parents and Carers,
Enrolment applications for Years 5 and 7, 2025 will close in two weeks.
If you have a sibling enrolment you wish to enrol in 2025 and haven’t yet submitted an application, please ensure that you do so by the closing date on Friday, 31 March.
If your son is currently enrolled in the Junior School, you do NOT need to re-enrol for the Senior School.
If you have any questions regarding sibling enrolment please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Congratulations to Lachlan Miranda (Year 11) who has been accepted into the 2023 NSW Youth Parliament Program as a representative of the electorate of Coogee.
Lachlan undertook a rigorous application process to be accepted into this highly-sought, illustrious program. In Lachlan’s application, he was asked to outline his leadership credentials as well as his leadership passions. He wrote about his aspirations to become a psychologist post-school and his focus on mental health. Lachlan has been assigned to the Mental Health Committee and will meet his committee members on zoom, in a few weeks time.
Lachlan will spend time in the two upcoming holiday breaks attending two camps based in Sydney. Firstly, a Training Camp at Sydney Olympic Park where Lachlan will meet face-to-face with his committee and engage in forums and workshops looking at advocacy, leadership and mental health. This will be followed by a Residential Camp week where he will spend time at Government House and at NSW Parliament House. Here he will debate in front of sitting NSW members of Parliament, engage with community and political leaders, and develop connections with his peers from across the state.
Lachlan Miranda at the inaugural 2022 Civics & Student Citizenship Student Convention, NSW Parliament
This adds to Lachlan’s ever expanding ‘parliamentary portfolio’! Last year he was selected to participate in the inaugural Civics and Citizenship Program at NSW Parliament. Lachlan – one of only 30 students chosen from across NSW – engaged with his peers around Australia, discussing the democratic system of government and the role of citizens in upholding a strong and resilient democracy.
Lachlan is very excited about his latest parliamentary opportunity and looks forward to sharing his experiences and learnings with the College community. We wish him every success in this program and thank Mr Sposari for his ongoing support and guidance of Lachlan.
Waverley has taken a small step towards a more sustainable future, with the installation of two new solar benches for students on the Senior campus. Each of the benches is equipped with solar panels that provide renewable energy for students to use while they study and socialise outdoors.
New solar benches in the Senior School
The units have built-in batteries allowing for the storage of power that can be used for events held at the College in the evening or when there is poor sunlight. A monitoring system allows us to see how much power we are generating, allowing students to visualise the benefits of solar. The benches were supplied by Furnicharge who specialise in these types of Australian-manufactured equipment.
These solar benches represent a part of the College’s sustainability efforts, as it encourages the use of renewable energy and reduces the carbon footprint of the campus. The benches are designed to withstand the elements, ensuring that it will last for many years.
In addition to providing a sustainable energy source, the solar bench is also equipped with USB charging ports, making it easy for students to charge their devices while ‘on the go’, along with four wireless charging points, and ideally located in an area where students gather before boarding buses home.
The benches are designed with comfortable seating and a sleek, modern aesthetic, turning what was a dead area of the campus into a spot for students to gather, and for teachers to use for outdoor learning opportunities.
This initiative is the first step to a wider program of sustainable projects which is being launched in conjunction with the student Ecology Group, and if successful, could see more of these installations across the campuses at the Senior and Junior Schools.
The education community has recently been abuzz with the rise of ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can generate responses to questions in real time with a simple prompt.
The question is, how will we respond?
Tools like ChatGPT are not going away, in fact, they are only going to improve and become more sophisticated over time. Whether we like it or not, this particular form of AI is now a permanent fixture of our society.
Stopping students using the tool is a short-term knee jerk reaction to dealing with AI. We cannot be the gatekeepers of this knowledge. We need to be smarter. We need to figure out a way to adjust to these tools, and not just ban them. Remember when calculators, computers, smart phones and watches, spell and grammar checkers, and Google arrived and panic ensued. “Each of these technologies infringed on the educational status quo, yet teachers managed to make it work.” (Education HQ, 2023). Educators used these innovations to supplement and enhance human capabilities not replace them.
We can not ‘un-invent’ technology, so we are determined to teach AI well. We should not be afraid of AI. Generally speaking, it has been modelled that people tend to respond to the introduction of new technologies according to their age bracket.
Reference: [< 15], [15 – 35], [35 >] (Mr Long Education, 2023)
With the right approach, ChatGPT can be an effective teaching tool. We can help our students think about leveraging AI, and consider its applications, its shortfalls and its benefits.
As Roose points out in his 2023 New York Times article, our young people will graduate into a world full of generative AI programs. “They’ll need to know their way around these tools — their strengths and weaknesses, their hallmarks and blind spots — in order to work alongside them. To be good citizens, they’ll need hands-on experience to understand this type of AI works, what types of bias it contains, and how it can be misused and weaponized.”
ChatGPT does not need to be viewed as a threat to student learning, especially if teachers pair it with substantive, in-class discussions and creative tasks. Our role as educators is to ensure our students are critical thinkers. We need to emphasise that AI does not replace thinking, rather, enables higher-level thinking to occur. It enables thinking to be faster and better informed.
Some examples, and not limited to, of how we are using ChatGPT as a teaching tool include:
Having students generate an AI response and then compare it to an exemplary script or with the marking criteria to evaluate its level. At best an AI response is usually a C grade. The responses are not higher order; they do not include in text referencing; the sentences are simple; the vocabulary is not particularly sophisticated and the paragraph style is simplistic, repetitive and formulaic.
Some teachers are asking students to try to ‘trip up’ ChatGPT. It has flaws and limitations. Sometimes it is factually incorrect, has bias and it currently only has information up until 2021. Such flaws and limitations can stimulate a critical thinking exercise where students can fact check, refine, edit and validate with human judgement.
We are also designing assessment questions that require students to draw on a personal reflection in their response. Something that can not come through an AI-generated answer. Additionally, we are incorporating Writer’s Toolbox (WT) with task submissions which require specific sentence structures and paragraphing techniques unique to the WT program.
Currently, plagiarism software companies such as Turnitin are working on how their programs can detect AI writing to uphold academic integrity. While they have not committed to a release date, they are confident that they have the technology to address emerging forms of misconduct using ChatGPT. In the meantime, we will be addressing the ethics of best practice with ChatGPT. We will be very clear with our expectations around its use, and teach our students to use it wisely and ethically. We will educate them about the consequences of misusing Chat GPT, consequences of plagiarism and the importance of ethical decision making.
The adjustment to this AI innovation may not necessarily be easy. Sudden technological shifts, particularly one of this magnitude, rarely are. But who better placed to guide students into this dynamic new world than their teachers.
Thank you to parents, carers, staff and students who participated in Monday’s Wellbeing Mentor meetings. Academic research supports the notion that educational partnership has a positive impact on students’ cognitive, social, emotional and physical development. Our Wellbeing Program was extensively reviewed seven years ago by Emeritus Professor Donna Cross, who provided the College with a strategic report regarding our pastoral and wellbeing programs, structures and curriculum.
Professor Cross has just been appointed by the NSW Government as the first chief behaviour advisor to work across Public, Catholic and Independent school sectors in a bid to improve student behaviour and educational outcomes for all students.
Waverley is a member of the Positive Educations Schools Association (PESA) and Association of Independent Schools of NSW (AIS), and we are currently working with their Deep Learning program initiative which incorporates the learning competencies (6Cs – Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Citizenship and Character) into our teaching, learning and wellbeing programs to underpin all of our curriculum. Deep Learning integrates academic skills with personal and social capabilities, and gives priorities to those capabilities and dispositions that support whole-school learning and living.
In the early centuries, Christian fasting rules were strict during Lent, as they still are in Eastern churches. One meal a day was allowed in the evening, and meat, fish, eggs, and butter were forbidden. The Eastern church also restricts the use of wine, oil, and dairy products. In the West, these fasting rules have gradually been relaxed. The strict law of fasting among Roman Catholics was dispensed with during World War II, and only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are now kept as Lenten fast days.
In addition, Catholics and other Christians often choose to give up specific pleasures, such as sweets, alcohol, or social media during Lent, as a way to foster simplicity and self-control; many use their cravings or desires for these items as a reminder to pray and to refocus on spiritual matters.
As a school, we focus on penitential practice and almsgiving during Lent, where we encourage students to support other members of the wider community and build bridges within their families and friends. There are several wonderful examples within this newsletter of where families and students can offer support. Please take the time to read these articles about:
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting with Mayor Paula Masselos and we discussed how our students and community could interact further within their local community. The following opportunities currently exist.
Would you like to learn more about the Waverley College SchoolTV initiative?
Click here to view further information
Because parenting doesn’t come with instructions, SchoolTV is a wellbeing resource implemented at our school to help support you in the challenges of modern-day parenting. Parenting is a learning journey and it’s easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed when faced with raising happy, well and resilient young people today.
Every family has experienced some sort of difficulty or adversity in recent times, some more than others. As mental health concerns continue to rise, there have been some alarming statistics reported in relation to the mental health and wellbeing of young people. Unfortunately, the blueprint for parenting is often based on our own experiences, but this is no longer fit for purpose in raising children as citizens of tomorrow. Parents and caregivers play a vital role in providing the guidance needed to support children and adolescents as they reframe their worries and focus more on the things they can control in their life.
In this Special Report, we are seeking parent participation through a short survey. The survey is designed to provide a barometer to help gauge the state of student wellbeing within our community. We encourage you to take a few moments to complete the survey as this will help our school know the nature and extent of your concerns and determine how best we can support families in the months ahead. Responses remain anonymous and will only be reported on an aggregated basis. You are asked to base your responses on observations made in the last 12 months.
By working together we can continue to build relationships, foster connections, enable understanding and break down barriers as we navigate a pathway towards better mental health and wellbeing for all students. Please reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback. If this raises any concerns for you or your child, please reach out to the school or seek professional medical advice.
Click here to view the Special Report
SchoolTV is conducting a national study to measure their impact on youth mental health. The goal is to better understand how they can support communities and empower confident parenting.
They have partnered with Deakin University to conduct this study. By positioning themselves with the findings of the Deakin University study, SchoolTV can demonstrate to government bodies that their platform is effective in improving the wellbeing of young people, and that they have a strong track record of success. This, in turn, can help SchoolTV secure funding to expand its reach to more communities in need, and to continue to provide vital support and resources to schools and their families.
How you can help
SchoolTV understands that parents and caregivers have the greatest influence on a young person’s life, and they invite anyone who is willing to help to participate in the survey. If you have a friend, acquaintance, or family member whom you think may also be willing to help, please feel free to share the link.
All responses are anonymous, and all data is managed by Deakin University.
Please click the button below to complete the survey
Ms Gabby Smith
Deputy Principal – Students
gsmith@waverley.nsw.edu.au
In last week’s edition of Nurrunga, Mr Leddie wrote about the findings of the Deakin University, QUT, and the University of Canberra reading survey titled ‘Teen Reading in the Digital Era’ conducted at Waverley College last year. All evidence pointed to the fact that our students are not engaging in reading as much as we would like. However, the students indicated that they would like to be reading more in 10 years’ time.
The question Mr Roberts and I have asked is ‘Why wait?’
Since Week 1, we have welcomed all Year 7 and Year 8 students and their English teachers to the library, providing them with the opportunity to browse the shelves, select a book and read. We have also read short stories and extracts from novels and autobiographies aloud to the students.
According to reading expert and academic Meghan Cox Gourdon, reading aloud has many benefits:
“Students who engage in ‘Reading aloud’ are used to listening, so it’s easy for them to do it. They’ve heard lots of language, so their comprehension will be comparatively strong. And they learn from experience that paying attention brings rewards. By contrast, technology distracts us and pulls us in different directions. Technology is training us to dart and react like hummingbirds, scrolling, liking, posting.”
I have personally enjoyed reading chapter 1 of Roald Dahl’s Matilda. If you haven’t already, read it quickly before it’s too late.
Reading Matilda by Roald Dahl
Over the course of these lessons, Mr Roberts and I have made some interesting observations, which may be of interest to parents, carers and teachers.
We have emphasised that the purpose of our reading lessons is to encourage the students to read for pleasure. We are not testing the students’ reading level or asking them to ‘study’ the book. We have discussed the many benefits of reading for pleasure and set reading goals. We have found careful selection of age-appropriate texts is leading to student buy in and heightened interest. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching the students on their personal reading journey. And we have learned that, hypothetically, students don’t have any problems with eating raw eggs.
It would be wonderful if our students could also ensure that they complete at least 10 minutes of reading at home on a daily basis. Cox Gurdon sees reading as, “an antidote to a world of fractured attention spans, one in which students are being increasingly deprived of what is an ancient and proven human connection”. If this is possible in just 10 minutes daily, students and teachers will soon begin to notice improvements.
For more information please send your sons to myself or Mr Roberts.
Click here to view information about the 2023 Premier's Reading Challenge
Well done to the majority of Year 7 students who have remembered to complete and bring their NAPLAN writing booklets to their library lessons. I encourage all students to ensure that they return their work on Tuesday, 7 March at the latest, as NAPLAN is fast approaching.
Students in Year 7 and Year 9 will continue their NAPLAN preparations over the next few weeks, in time for their writing exam on 15 March.
Waverley Council has launched an exciting new project and installed five temporary parklets along the walk from Bondi Junction to Bondi Beach.
These parklets are like mini parks and are free spaces to sit and relax. They’ll be in place for a six-month trial period.
Council would like to know what you think of them and how they could be improved.
Would you and your family like to give your feedback? If so, you have until Sunday, 30 April 2023 to do this.
During Lent, we are asked to focus more intently on almsgiving, which means donating money or goods to the poor and performing other acts of charity.
St Canice’s is a Jesuit parish in Elizabeth Bay, just behind Kings Cross, and their outreach centre works to provide weekly health, legal and employment clinics, daily showers with access to toiletries and personal care items and brand new clothing, along with daily meals and a coffee shop to those experiencing homelessness and social exclusion.
These services are entirely funded by donations from generous parishioners, local residents, businesses, schools and the Waverley College community.
They are currently seeking donations of tea bags, instant coffee and bags of sugar to help stock their coffee shop, which runs alongside their daily meal service. The coffee shop runs seven days per week, and serves around 200 cups of tea and coffee each day to both the homeless and disadvantaged.
It is their hope that the Waverley community can help ensure this coffee shop can continue to provide its guests with a place to gather, pray and chat, with a cup of coffee and a cake in hand.
Canice’s Kitchen is a gathering place for street people, which operates on the values of inclusivity, kindness and understanding, and welcomes everyone through its doors. More than just cooking, they are about conversation. Bringing the community together to create a hub of inclusion, support and safety.
If you are able and willing to, these donations would be greatly appreciated. Nothing fancy, just tea bags, instant coffee and bags of sugar (not individual sachets).
All donations can either be dropped to the Junior or Senior School Reception. We will be making regular deliveries to St Canice throughout Semester 1.
Once again, your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated, particularly in this season of Lent.
Waverley College confirms that Wednesday, 8 March will be our Aungier House Mass (as listed in the College calendar). The Mass will commence at 6pm in the Chapel (Senior Campus). This is a compulsory event for all students of Aungier House.
Our Prefects have been working hard to make this a memorable event, and something that is fully tailored to who we are as a House. The night is driven by the students, with all hymns, prayers and readings chosen by the students themselves. We will also include special recognition of our current Year 12 students.
We invite and strongly encourage all families to come along for the Mass. This will be followed by a short supper at the conclusion of the Mass. All families are asked to bring a plate of food to share. This can be placed in the College Senior Library prior to the Mass.
The night is expected to conclude at approximately 8pm. This will be a wonderful opportunity for families to meet our Aungier Mentors and also to connect with each other as part of the Aungier House community.
In the lead up to the event, we would also love to have some parent/carer volunteers to help us with the organisation of decorations (for the Mass and supper), general set up before the Mass, and clean up at the conclusion of supper.
If you would be willing and able to help, could you please email me: jmccoy@waverley.nsw.edu.au
I look forward to seeing you there!
Aungier House Mass 2022
With no screening programs available and no means of prevention through lifestyle changes, blood cancer is Australia’s hidden cancer crisis. Every day, 53 Aussies are diagnosed with blood cancer, and 16 will lose their life.
It requires teamwork to stop blood cancer from wrecking lives. That’s why we’ve decided to team up to take part in the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave together.
We’ll be raising crucial funds that will give people facing blood cancer all the support and information they need, while driving breakthrough research projects discovering better ways to diagnose and treat blood cancer.
You have the power to help us make an extraordinary difference. Big or small, every donation counts. Will you help by sponsoring us?
Top five fundraisers will have their heads shaved at the College Assembly on 16 March.
Click here to view the Lacey House World's Greatest Shave Donation Page
World’s Greatest Shave 2022
We celebrated Ash Wednesday with a student-led liturgy this week.
As we receive our ashes, we will hear the minister say one of two short prayers: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” These prayers call us to take on a humble disposition.
Jesus also calls on Christians not to wear a gloomy face while they are fasting. This admonition reminds us that Lent is meant to be a season of joy, as it is a preparation for the biggest feast in the Christian calendar. So, while we can struggle with cravings for chocolate or something else we have given up, we need to keep our eyes on the prize which is the celebration of the joy of Easter.
The baptismal element of Lent can help us appreciate the significance of water. Water is essential for both our physical and spiritual life. When Christians recall their baptism it is a time when they can become more aware of the gifts they have received from God. This process of reflection can give us joy.
In recent times, water has been a pestilence of almost biblical proportions across the state of NSW. The almost unprecedented flood activity that has occurred over the last two years, has tested our community resolve in surviving flooding events and also in the rebuilding process that has followed. These events have dramatically tested communities across the state, but it has also been an opportunity for a generous community spirit to emerge.
Aside from the destructive power of water, our experience of living in a drought and fire-prone land also helps us appreciate the importance of water to sustain and protect life. A significant theme running through the Sunday Gospel readings this Lent is the power of living water. Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well and his healing of the blind man at the Pool of Siloam, reminds us of the way that water can cleanse, renew and heal our body and souls. Let us quench our thirst for God this Lent by praying for the living water of Jesus to touch our hearts and souls for the benefit of ourselves and our Catholic communities.
The Mark Hughes Foundation funds vital research and support to brain cancer patients and it is very close to the heart of one of our parents, Anne Calendar, whose late husband Matt Callander succumbed to this insidious disease, just over five years ago.
Anne is embarking on another challenge this year pre the annual NRL Beanie Round, and is hoping for our support to raise awareness and much-needed funds. Anne is joining 21 amazing and dynamic women in the Inaugural Mark Hughes Foundation Women’s Trek to the Mt Maria Summit, Tasmania.
Please sponsor Anne by clicking the button below. Any amount big or small will help her reach her goal and raise funds for brain cancer research.
Mark Hughes Foundation 2023 Ladies' Trek
As many parents/carers may know, in 2022 our College participated in a significant research project affiliated with Deakin University, QUT, and the University of Canberra titled ‘Teen Reading in the Digital Era.’ Research was conducted with secondary students in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, giving a broad overview of the reading habits of teenagers across Australia.
Preliminary results from Waverley are very interesting. Of the Term 4 survey results from 235 Waverley students across Years 7-11, we have gained a ‘snapshot’ of teen reading which you can view in the following graphs. Students were asked questions about their reading habits and their responses to questions 4.2; 12.1; 14.3: 13.2 and 10.4 are provided below.
Identified in the survey as well, were the popular reading genres identified by Waverley College students.
In order of most popular to least popular:
At this stage, the evidence indicates that as educators and parents/carers, we need to be doing much more to get our boys at Waverley reading for pleasure. Graph 4.2 indicates that 38% of our boys do not read books in their own free time.
What you might find surprising is Graph 14.3, which indicates that families are key to boys’ reading choices and that in this space, your influential role as a parent/carer should not be underestimated.
Encouragingly, Graph 10.4 indicates that more than half of our students envisage that they’ll read more in their post-school years.
Significantly, the 3,000 survey results across participating Australian states illustrate similar trends. There is a decline in reading as students grow older and as boys grow older:
The results for boys indicate that:
As parents/carers, we should be encouraging our children to read each day, even if it is for only 15 minutes. Consistent reading will have a significant impact on their general communication and comprehension skills, as well as the literacy skills they will front the HSC with. If you want to have a significant impact on your son’s education, please get him reading consistently.
Ms Mary Ryan and Mr Bill Roberts have started a new reading program to encourage and support our Year 7 and 8 students with their reading. If your son is struggling to decide what to read, encourage him to see the Library teams on both campuses.
We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation who are the traditional Custodians of the land on which Waverley College is located. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We are committed to honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual connections to the land, waters, seas and sky and their rich contribution to society.
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