From the Principal  

A busy but engaged week at Calrossy

Our weeks at Calrossy are busy and last week there was lots happening. Many events supplement and enrich what happens in the classroom on a normal school day. A few highlights over the last week include:

Junior School Grandparents Day

It was a great joy to welcome Grandparents to our Junior School last Thursday to celebrate and affirm these important and special members of our school community. It was wonderful to observe the pride of both grandparents and their grandchildren on the day. Attendance was huge and I was delighted to meet many grandparents who travelled to Tamworth to be part of the event.

The concert was superb with the mix of music, poetry, song and movement providing a wonderful tribute to grandparents and the role they play in developing holistic young people. The energy of the students was strongly visible and it was clear that they loved performing before and hosting their grandparents. 

Days like this are important as apart from parents, grandparents can be the most significant adults in a child’s life. They have known them all their lives and are a vital part of their story, sharing a special bond. They share wisdom, life experience and knowledge and help join the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation. For children a sense of family roots and history is vital. Research shows that children and teens benefit from grandparents and it was a great day.

Congratulations to our Music Department, class teachers and those who catered, presenting a wonderful concert and then opening the classrooms for our grandparents to visit and share.

Secondary Shakespeare Day

Last Friday, Secondary students enjoyed a Festival of Shakespeare, overseen by our English Department. It was a house-based competition featuring a day of performance on the Brisbane Street Campus. It also featured a staff-student debate and some performances from the gothic text, Dracula. Year 7 classes presented an Act from a play and house groups in Years 8 – 10 competed for the Shakespeare Day House Cup.

Not everyone shares of a love of Shakespeare, arguably considered the greatest of wordsmiths, but our event was a good way for the students to get inside his mind. There is no doubting his incredible influence on the development of the English language. Our concept of story and the power of narrative owes a lot to ‘the Bard’. He has also fired up imaginations, moved people and stirred the emotions of generations.

It is little wonder that despite revision and reshaping of school curriculum over the ages, the power of Shakespeare in his tragedies, comedies and brilliantly structured sonnets remain a constant. Whilst Elizabethan language can be off-puttingfor teenagers, the power of the themes, a connection to the desires of people and the sharp commentary on the foibles and frailty of humankind is significant.

Not too many realise the contribution William made to our common vernacular. Many may speak of their ‘Romeo’ or‘Juliet’, have thoughts in politics of “A plague on both their houses” (R & J), make ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ wonder, “To be or not to be, that is the question?” (Hamlet.)

Less would know the everyday expressions coined by Shakespeare including:

All that glitters is not gold 

Eaten out of house and home

It gives me cold comfort

Dead as a doornail

Neither rhyme nor reason 

Foregone conclusion 

Love is blind

Tower of strength 

What’s done is done 

The world is my oyster

Shakespeare coined many insults like 'It is certain that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice' and ‘This kiss is as comfortless as frozen water to a starved snake’ and was clever with words, though these did not feature on the day. 

It is my hope that our day of Shakespeare, in addition to being good fun, might fire the emotion and stir a love of languagein our students that will inspire them to use words with power and purpose. Whilst Shakespeare is not everyone’s “be­-all and end­-all” (Macbeth), and “all that glitters is not gold” (The Merchant of Venice), “though this be madness, there is method in it” (Hamlet).

Our students rehearsed hard and performed their scenes with confidence, poise and skill. eCalrossy students also presented short excerpts. Certain acts were appropriated to modern times in a skillful manner. The creative and performing arts remain important to us, as does our House rivalry with the competition acting as a secondary-wide celebration of this.

The final highlight was the debate between three students and three staff members on the topic that “Learning in the School of Life is more Important that Learning at School”. Mrs Draper, Mr McDonald and Mr Frazer were unable to destroy the arguments of Dom Fawcett, Archie Barnett or Alistair Scott, but entertained us all nevertheless. Congratulations to Nicholls House who were the overall winners of the Secondary Shakespeare competition.

My special thanks to Mrs Heywood, Mrs Deacon and the teachers of the English Department who freely provided time and coaching to our House groups to a wonderful day for our Secondary community.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet (R & J Act II, Sc. ii)

David Smith

Principal