Student & Parent Matters

• ​From the Head of Student Services:

             -    House Vice Captains

             -    House Cup

             -    Running for Rowie - this Sunday 17th September

             -   The Liam Knight 'White Knight Foundation Walk' - Sunday 24th September

• Winter Sports Photo Orders
• Kokoda Track Expedition 2018
• 'Clean Slate Without Prejudice' - Holiday Boxing Opportunity
• School Water Bottles
• Term 4 Parent/Son Bootcamp at SPX Sarto Gym ​
• General Notices

From the Head of Student Services

House Vice Captains

Congratulations to the following students who have been appointed House Vice-Captains for Semester 2, 2017. They were congratulated and recognised by the College at Sports Assembly last Friday morning when they were presented to Mr Couani and the College by outgoing House Captains: Joshua Thrum (Barron); Daniel Greenland (Purton); Sam John (Rice) and Brodie Jones (Treacy).

Selected by their peers to lead and give representative voice to the students in their House and Year group, they will work with their House Captains, the Wellbeing Prefects, Pastoral Care and Mindmatters staff to develop the quality of learning and experience of students as they transition through the College.  

Their duties and responsibilities to fulfil this Semester include:

• Supporting the Year 11 Prefects in the Physical Activity for Wellbeing Initiative by organising their Year’s participation, team's equipment and supervision of the Gym, SPV and Beauchamp Oval when rostered on by The Student Leadership Team.
• Assisting the Prefects and MindmattersTeams hosting our Year 7, 2018 Orientation Day on Tuesday 7th November 2017.
• Representing the College at the Willoughby Council Remembrance Day Ceremony on Friday 10th or Saturday 11th November (TBC).
• Leading the Leadership Forum with Mindmatters Teams in Week 7 or Week 8 (TBC - proposed for Wednesday 29th November).
• Year 9 Hosting the Brigidine School at our Ceroc Dance Day on 20th November 2017 (TBC).
• Other duties as required through Wellbeing Week and other Term 4 student centred activities.

House Cup - Congratulations to BARRON HOUSE

With their tenure of leadership coming to close as they approach their HSC Examinations, our Year 12 House Captains and their Year 11 counterparts who begin their leadership of the College, found it timely last Friday to present the 2017 House Cup.

The House Cup was inaugurated in 2010 by Mr Jim Olson, and is awarded to the House which accrues the most participation points, in areas which contribute positively to the life and wellbeing of the College.

As recently as last week, points were added for College Captain, Vice Captain, Prefect and Junior Student attendance at the Old Boys Annual Mass (congratulations Oliver Franklin of Year 10 who attended with his Grandfather Mr Edward Brett (Class of ’54)), as well as ISA Athletics representatives, not limited to our high flying performers such as Daniel Hall (discus +), Tom Hunt (400-800), James Hunt (hurdles +) and Dom Panozzo (800+) among so many others.

Testament to the charismatic leadership of House Captain Joshua Thrum, for the second year in a row Barron are the House Cup Champions for 2017, closely followed by Treacy, Purton and Rice.

Taking nothing away from Josh Thrum, Tom Courtney and their team, it may be timely for an audit of team numbers and perhaps the addition of a fifth House in 2018 to complement the number of Home Rooms in each cohort. Stay tuned and get involved in Running for Rowie and the White Knight Foundation Walk over the coming weeks. College Vice Captains Nikita Papastamatis and Jack Moran are on the upbeat count!

House Cup Presented to Joshua Thrum and Tom Courtney, Barron House captains 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Running for Rowie

Thank you to those Years 9 and 10 MindMatters students who have stepped up to conduct the BBQ and Children’s Games at the Willoughby Community Annual Running for Rowie event this Sunday. We thank Ms Foord and Ms Kugananthan for their coordination of this student initiative in which historically we have partnered with the Monte girls to ensure a good time is had by all. Any further expressions of interest should be directed to Ms Foord by Thursday afternoon.

White Knight Foundation Walk Against Youth Violence

The annual Liam Knight walk takes place on 24th September, the first Sunday of the holidays, along the scenic Spit to Manly walk.  See Mr Blake, Ms Foord or Mr Brannan to register your interest and support and to get details of arrangements and possible transport options.  It was a great day and a great event last year and promises to be so again.

For more information please see the Social Justice page of this newsletter or visit the website:

 http://www.thewhiteknightfoundation.com/events

Mr S Brannan - Head of Student Services

Winter Sports Photo Orders

All photo orders must be returned to the Silver Box outside the Finance Office by Thursday 21st September at the latest. Order forms can be found at the Student Office.

Ms L Proc - General Coordinator

Kokoda Track Expedition 2018

The Kokoda Track Expedition will take place from the 29th June to 8th July 2018.  The first of our training hikes is locked in for Sunday 8th October 2017 when we will be walking from Brooklyn to Cowan.  The walk is 13.4km with one big hill.  This is an opportunity for all prospective participants to meet, prepare and to discuss all aspects of the Kokoda Track Expedition 2018.

Details are as follows:

• When:  Sunday 8th October 2017
• Meet:    Cowan train station 7.20am (Train to Brooklyn/Hawkesbury River 7.36am; arrive 7.45am)
• Finish:   Cowan train station 1.00pm
• Need:    3 litres of water (no water on route), hat, sunscreen, snacks, sense of humour

In the event of track work we can do a car shuffle to Brooklyn. In the event of track closures due to controlled burns we will decide on an alternate route. At this stage all communications will be via email.

Next Hikes:  Please note that I will confirm the following hikes as we move closer to the dates.

      2.             Sunday 5th November 2017

      3.             Sunday 4th February 2018

      4.             Sunday 4th March 2018

      5.             Sunday 1st April 2018

      6.             Sunday 6th May 2018

      7.             Sunday 3rd June 2018

If you are interested in being part of the Kokoda Track Expedition 2018 and are not already on the mailing list please contact the College Outdoor Education Coordinator or come along and join us on the hikes. All welcome to attend.

Mr P de Silva - Outdoor Education Coordinator

Clean Slate Without Prejudice 

Holiday Boxing Opportunity at PCYC Redfern

Clean Slate Without Prejudice is a Routine & Boxing program for kids in Redfern, launched by the Redfern local Koori community in partnership with the Police. Local Elders, Shane Phillips and local Men’s group chairman Mark Spinks and Mentors joined with Area commander Luke Freudenstein to create this unique program.

As a result of Year 10’s Pastoral Care Visit on 29th August by Inspector Sam Crisafulli (Redfern Police) and Eunice Grimes (Head Mentor of Tribal Warrior) we would like to extend an invitation to prospective Year 10-12 students who would like to attend the boxing sessions at 6am at PCYC Redfern on the two Friday mornings during the Term 3 holidays - 29th September and 6th October. The students will be escorted by train from Chatswood Station under the direction of Mr S Brannan (Head of Student Services) and Miss Alexandra Foord (Stage 5 Wellbeing). This cause is also strongly supported by Mr David Blake (Head of Social Justice).

Please click below for full details and registration form.

School Water Bottles

Most plastic products that we may only use for a few minutes are made of materials that are designed to last forever. With this in mind our Year 10 Student Empowerment Team set out to implement stainless steel bottles as a first step in reducing the amount of plastic waste we have in our College.

We would like to thank all the parents, friends and staff of the college that have helped support this initiative, with the purchase of 275 stainless steel bottles.

It is very important to us to support local businesses when running our initiatives. So we would like to thank Cheeki, an Australian company, dedicated to creating an alternative to disposable plastic containers. They have helped to create a unique water bottle decorated with the schools emblem and have been extremely generous in offering the products at a reduced cost to help support our initiative.

For more information on Cheeki: https://cheeki.net.au/

Year 10 Student Empowerment Team

Term 4 Parent/Son Bootcamp at SPX Sarto Gym 

Please see details in the flyer below.

General Notices

World Education Program Australia are currently looking for volunteer host families for overseas high school students arriving in Australia in early 2018. Hosting provides Australian families with an opportunity to experience a real cultural exchange from right here, at home. 

To find out more you can request a free information pack on the website, wep.org.au.

St Joseph’s College Spring Fair - Sunday 12 November is a wonderful community/family event and a great way to spend a Sunday in Spring.  There are many activities and stalls for both students and parents to enjoy. Please click on the flyer for details.