Around the Grounds

House Debating

Huntingtower's 2022 House Debating Competition took place this week and concluded after yesterday's debates and speeches.

Well done to all competitors for displaying such a high standard of debating. The House Debating Competition is divided into Middle School & Senior School sections, with points being tallied from all of the following events:

• 3v3 debates

• Impromptu Speeches

• British Parliamentary Debates

• Prepared Persuasive Speeches

• After Dinner Speeches

A huge congratulations to every student who spoke and competed for their house... the overall winner will be announced in the following weeks!

House Chess

CONGRATUALTIONS MATHER!

After another successful House Chess Tournament, which was held this week on Wednesday (Senior School) and Thursday (Middle School), Mather have been announced the victors. This is the fourth consecutive year Mather have won House Chess!

Overall results:

Mr Rodney Jones

Head of Rayner

R U OK Day 

On Thursday 8 September our Wellbeing team organised activities to acknowledge 𝗥 𝗨 𝗢𝗞? 𝗗𝗮𝘆, and encouraged students and staff to check in with each other.

R U OK day is a National Day of Action to remind all of us that every day is a day to ask "Are you OK?" and start a meaningful conversation with those around us.

Remember you don't have to be an expert to ask "Are you OK?"...

 1. ASK

 2. LISTEN

 3. ENCOURAGE ACTION

 4. CHECK IN

A conversation can change a life.

Mrs Jaynie Gorander

Student Counsellor

Religious Buffet

On Monday 29 August the Year 8 PBL team held the annual Religious Buffet at Huntingtower. The students were absolutely buzzing afterwards and swapped stories about which guests they had at their table. Thank you to Mrs Claudia Ohlert and the staff who helped prepare food and support the event.

House Cross Country

CONGRATULATIONS RAYNER & WARRELL!

It was a draw...

3rd place: Mather

4th place: Bruce

Well done to everyone who made the House Cross Country Carnival in Jells Park a success. Thanks to Mrs Baynham and the entire sports department and all staff for their efforts making this event possible. 

EISM Cross Country

Our amazing EISM Cross Country team headed down to Ruffey Lake Park for the EISM Carnival on August 30. 

The weather was perfect and despite the muddy conditions our runners put forth their best efforts and Huntingtower brought home 3 medals!

Congratulations to Amelia L (3rd), Helena S (3rd) and Kalan L (1st):

Thank you to Mrs Baynham and the Cross Country coaches and sport staff who helped this year. We are so proud of all the students who competed.

Bruce Bash Fundraiser

2 weeks ago the Huntingtower community spread joy and color thanks to the Bruce House Fundraiser! Well done to Mrs Benavides and the Bruce leaders for organizing such an exiting colour battle, with money being raised to support The Smith Family Charity. 

They raised over $2000, so we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone.

Ballroom Dancing

This year a group of our senior students have been mastering their ballroom dancing skills on Wednesday afternoons. The students are taking this opportunity very seriously and are about to undertake an official Bronze Medal level assessment in Term 4. We wish them all the best, it has been awesome to see the group mastering a new skill!

Year 11 Food Studies

The Year 11 Food Studies class produced Ploughman’s lunch platters as their final assessment for the term. They were given a design brief and had to produce a visually attractive lunch board suitable for service at a local café. The students were required to make at least one element on the board from scratch – we had chutneys, bread, corned beef and more! 

Ms Ruby Anstee

Teacher

An encouraging story:

God is in control.

Romans 8:28 (New Living Translation) states “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” 

An example of this in action happened during the Year 8 Excursion to Lake Lysterfield. I was expecting mud on the walk and wore my less comfortable but more waterproof shoes. I was at the rear of the fast-moving student group consisting of half of the Year 8 group and stopped to take off my hoodie and put on my sunglasses. Now the students were nearly out of sight, and I was keen to catch up. In front of me was a group of aged walkers. My introverted side wanted to quickly walk around them but as I attempted to do so, I was spoken to by one of the ladies who commented on our students. We started conversing and she wanted to know more about Huntingtower and my job. I started to enjoy talking with her whilst trying to keep an eye on the students powering ahead. 

After about 10 minutes of conversation, I saw what I thought were my group heading back at me and thought they had taken a wrong turn. So waited for them to all pass me and started to follow at the rear of the group until I realised that it was the other half of Year 8 who were walking in the reverse direction around the lake. Now I felt really pressured. My group were out of sight, and I had to overtake the aged walker group again. This time I was determined to walk at my fastest pace right past them and catch up to my group. As I tried to do so, I was interrupted again by another aged walker that I had not talked to. He said, “Are you a teacher?” and when I acknowledged he told me that their group had found a mobile phone. It was an expensive model, and the home screen was locked but I saw a cartoon picture and confidently proclaimed that it looked like a student phone. The man handed me the phone and I declared I would find the owner whilst feeling a bit like I had just stolen someone’s phone.

Now I was in a hurry again, but my body was tired. I couldn’t even see the students. I pushed myself to my limits up and down the hills and eventually spotted 3 students ahead, but they were also behind the main group and kept running to catch up, negating the gains I made on them as after they stopped taking photographs of the scenery. 

Things kept getting worse. My heel insert was slipping further and further down my shoe towards the ball of my foot, making it uncomfortable to walk. My hands were swelling, and I thought I must have been bitten by an insect and was having an allergic reaction. With no bite marks or other supporting signs, I identified my circulation must be restricted by the weight of my backpack. I considered stopping to deal with both issues but then the students would be out of sight again, so I persisted with the unpleasant heel insert and gave my shoulders alternate rests from the backpack, which seemed to improve my blood flow and allow movement to return to my fingers. 

Feeling foolish for not wearing my more comfortable walking shoes, I staggered into the picnic area with aching feet and holding the lost phone in my hand, wondering how I could find the owner when the students were spread out at different tables. From about 30 metres away a student was looking in my direction and yelled out “Is that my phone?”. Having no idea whose phone it was and analysing whether they could recognise it was their phone and not my own from such a distance, I asked him to prove it was his by unlocking the home screen which he promptly did. 

His group praised me for finding the phone and told him how lucky he was to get it back. I rejected the praise and told them that the aged walkers found the phone and should be thanked. Later in the day it hit me that luck was not involved. God had magnificently directed the entire show to enable me to play a small part in solving the problem and learn to look beyond my physical challenges. At each stage in the walk, all I could see was a problem getting worse and worse without realising the solution was getting closer and closer and God’s timing was perfect!

Mr Michael Mazzaferri

Teacher