Message from
the Principal

Dr Andrew Parry

Welcome to Term 4

It has been marvellous to welcome back students and staff to face to face teaching on campus following the disruptions and challenges once again presented to us by the pandemic. Feedback from students and staff indicates that remote learning the second time around was easier to adapt to but all are delighted to be back engaging with friends and colleagues and enjoying the vital human interaction that schools afford.

I feel for our Year 12 students who have had such a challenging final two years of their secondary schooling and who have been unable to experience so many of those special opportunities that a School such as Kinross Wolaroi has to offer. Also adding to their challenge during the year was the uncertainty of how and when the Higher School Certificate would be examined. The positive and resilient manner in which so many of our Year 12 students have managed all this uncertainty has been a wonderful credit to them and no doubt will be an experience that will equip them well in responding to challenges in the future.

Our Year 12 this Term are busily preparing for their exams and have been provided a comprehensive study program of academic support. The offering has been designed following considerable consultation with Year 12 students. It provides a tailored, 1:1 approach affording support to each student according to their needs with content that is focussed and student centered. The Derek Pigot Auditorium has been transformed into an HSC Study Centre that provides areas for quiet independent revision, collaborative work, supervised examination practice and refreshments and common room. Students are able to meet with Mentors, Teachers and Support Staff to obtain the assistance and guidance they require.

I am most grateful to our Heads of Department and HSC teachers who have designed a variety of ways to support our individual students. Study and revision recommendations have been tailored by teachers according to individual needs.

Senior School Student Leaders 2021 – 2022

On Wednesday morning 13 October we had the special opportunity to officially induct our Student Leaders in a small ceremony that was streamed to the School and our community. Each leader pledged their commitment to serve the school and to uphold the values of Kinross Wolaroi School and the Uniting Church. It was marvellous to be able to personally present our student leaders with their Badges of Office and to wish them all the best as they embark on this very special opportunity to serve the students of the School and in doing so making KWS a better place.

Our Head Boy, Mac Webster and Head Girl, Ellen Arundell delivered outstanding addresses of encouragement and appreciation of the very special opportunity that all our student leaders have before them. Our Captains powerfully revealed what excellent hands we are in, and I greatly look forward to working with the leadership team over the next 12 months. It is very clear our community will be very well served indeed.

Our new Leadership Team have a wonderful opportunity before them, an opportunity to make our School a better place, to build upon the special time-honoured traditions of KWS and to demonstrate their initiative and vision by starting new practices and establishing new traditions.

The challenges of leading in the current climate will require them to innovate and refine how student leadership might look in our unusual circumstances. However, these challenges do not change the fundamentals of leadership. Regardless of our environment or context, our leaders must act with integrity, be compassionate, demonstrate courage and an enthusiasm to serve the School and student body.

Students of the School will view them as role models and we learn our behaviours through the observation of others. What our Student Leaders do and say will establish the accepted culture for the students of Kinross Wolaroi.

Each of our leaders will need to make decisions about their approach to leadership. Will they have the courage to do what is right and not what is necessarily popular? Will they have the courage to call out negative behaviours and be an upstander?

As the great US Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King attested:

“The ultimate measure of a leader is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.”

Leadership is easy when everyone agrees with you and the decision you make is popular. The true test of leadership emerges when navigating the right path is not painless.

We will be fabulously served by our Student Leaders for 2021-2022 and I am most excited to see their impact upon the life of the School.

We all wish them every success.

Senior School Leaders 2021 - 2022

Head Prefects: Mac Webster and Ellen Arundell

Deputy Head Prefects: Charles Williams and Annabel Pengilly

Senior Boarder Prefects: Bryce Commins and Audrey Gill

Prefects: Sally Carter, Bryce Commins, Audrey Gill, Harry Gutterson, Luke Hunter, Ella Kirby, Chanel Knight, Tom Negus, Georgia Robson, Gian Wynn.

Mentor House Captains

Blackman House: Hannah Richardson and William Denman

Brown House: Isabelle Medway and Xanthe St Clair

Dean House: Molly Smith and James Glasson

Douglas House: Cailin McKay and Dylan Tucker

Gordon House: Josie Clarke and Saxon Buckley

McLachlan House: Sophia Nelson and Benjamin Jones

Richards House: Josephine Taylor and Charlie Willis

Williams House: James Ferguson and Lucy Gilbert

Boarding Captains

Loader House: Annabelle Woods

Miller House: Josie Clarke