From the Director of Boarding

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The last few weeks of term have been hectic as always as we enter the halfway point of Term 2. This week our Year 7 to 10 students are undertaking Semester 1 examinations. A stressful time in any school term, your sons are being well supported by their co-ordinators and our team of tutors as they prepare for these examinations daily.

Family Weekend

What a wonderful experience it was last weekend as we welcomed our Boarding Families to the College. It was encouraging to see so many families engaging in the student-parent-teacher interview process and then enjoying a cold but exciting day of schoolboy rugby on Saturday. The highlight for many was the Family mass on Saturday night with the parents getting to see and hear the talent the boys possess when it comes to singing. A fun night was then had with the parents enjoying some light refreshments in the hall with the Parents Cocktail Function. Thanks to all for a great weekend.

The photo will be shared with you all next week via a shared folder.

Year 10 Activity Evening

On Saturday 8 May the College hosted its first Year 10 Activity evening, a wonderful initiative by our Parent and Community Engagement Officer, Mrs Alison Buckley. A fun night was had by all with 150 people in attendance. The families played table tennis and competed in an art competition, followed by dinner. Thanks to the numerous boarding families that were in attendance on the evening.

Boardingware

Please continue to use our leave system for all required leave for your sons. Please note that the Notes section of leave is expected to include information on the leave. Leave will be asked to be resubmitted if the notes section is left empty. This is to cover us from a legal standpoint, so we have as much information about the leave as possible. Thanks for your understanding. If you still do not have access to Boardingware please ensure you contact me directly.

Careers Expo

Congratulations to Mr Ivancic on his recent Careers Expo held at the College. It was a wonderful opportunity for our young men to explore their post-school options and the Boarding Students enjoyed this opportunity immensely. It was fantastic to see so many family members come to the College to assist their son in this process.

NRL Schoolboy Cup Competition

On Thursday 13 May, the first round of the NRL Schoolboy Cup Competition was played at the College against Hunter Sports High. With the entire College watching the atmosphere was amazing and the boys came away with a strong 28 to 8 victory. 

Congratulations to Mr Bullock for coaching the team and to the 10 boarders who were part of the squad – Sam Corkhill (Boorowa), Charlie Guymer (Temora), Thomas Fletcher (Coonamble), Cody Parry (Tamworth), Cooper Cross (Boorowa), James Sykes (Canberra), Jack Rule (Port Hacking), Thomas Carroll (Springvale), Sipiliano Vaohea (Groote Eylandt), and Joshua Sykes (Binalong). Well done boys!

Rugby Reps

The ISA representative rugby trials were recently held at St Pius College Chatswood on a wet and windy day. Thank you to Mr Cave, Mr Malaesilia, and Mr Halaifonua for escorting the boys to this day.

As our Rugby Union program continues to grow, it was wonderful to see the largest number of St Gregory’s College students selected in these sides to compete at the NSW Schoolboys Championships. A total of 16 players across the Under 16 and Open age groups made these representative sides.

Congratulations to the significant number of boarding students who were selected in these squads including Angus Liddle (Tahmoor), Oliver Barrett (Narrabeen), Jake Wright (Beaumont Hills), Harrison Quinn (Dubbo), Tyrel Kelly (Ballina), Ben Whyte (Bowral), Jared McKinnon (Temora), Will Stimson (Temora) and James Sykes (Canberra).

This success is a wonderful reward for the hard work Mr Halaifonua and Mr Malaesilia are doing with our Rugby Union Program. Congratulations to all three staff who attended on the day who were also selected as coaches and managers for these represented teams.

Rugby BBQ - Home Games

As we enter the Rugby season, could I please ask you all to consider helping at the Saturday BBQ for our home games? 

The Braithwaite family does a wonderful job managing this for us but does require help in doing so. Assisting to serve or cook the BBQ for an hour before or after your son's game can make a huge difference to the workload placed on the Braithwaite family. 

If you can assist could you please contact Tracy directly at tracybraithwaite@hotmail.com. 

We have three home games remaining for the season as follows:    

• Saturday 5 June v St Stanislaus College, Bathurst
• Saturday 24 July v St Pius College, Chatswood
• Saturday 31 July v Oakhill College

Kind regards,

Mr Luke Morrissey

Director of Boarding