Senior School News

Young Judges Workshop

 On Saturday 19th October, nine members of the St Greg’s Show Team met at Camden Showground for a day of junior judging workshops.

The day was organised by the Camden Show Society and the boys were amongst forty students from eight local schools who gathered to learn from industry experts and experienced young judges to improve their junior judging skills.

The boys learned how to judge meat sheep, dairy heifers, angora goats, mohair and poultry. They put their skills into action in the afternoon, working in teams to judge a class of each animal or product they had learned about during the day. This included delivering their reasons to the whole group using the microphone, which our boys did with confidence.

While some of the boys had judged dairy cattle and meat sheep before, the opportunity to learn about poultry and goat judging was something new, and we look forward to seeing the boys apply their new skills in future competitions.

English News!

Each year the English Department receives many entries for The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition.  The theme for 2019 was ‘Is There Anybody There?’ based on a poem by Walter de la Mare titled ‘The Listeners’.  Students are able to follow this theme or write on a topic of their own choice.  There were some excellent entries from each year group and whilst they didn’t make it into the official publication, our students still enjoyed the experience of expressing themselves through poetry.

Michelle Arentz, Assistant English Coordinator

A Journey

We’re starting a journey, a journey that’s new,

We’re going through times we’ve never been through,

We are here right now, but where will we go?

It’s all in this journey that we’ll soon come to know.

We’ll succeed and fail, but we must never stop,

As we go through the journey, we’ll work hard nonstop,

We’ll travel through mountains, rivers and streams,

All just to accomplish our number one dreams.

Throughout our journey we’ll learn who we are,

We’ll go around the world to places afar,

We’ll shape our identity and become the best that we can,

But we can never go back to where it all began.

In our journey our decisions are vital,

We must choose the right path, right shoes, right title.

We can never go back and change what we’ve done,

I can’t, you can’t, nor can anyone.

In our journey we must shoot for the sun,

And even if we miss, we know we’ve had fun.

This journey goes quickly so you must use it wisely,

Take all opportunities and finish them nicely.

Soon enough our time will come to an end,

And we won’t have advice that we can lend.

We’ll hop in our coffin and say our goodbyes,

Now we’ll look into the world through someone else's eyes.

Jet Glavan, Year 7

The Fight For Life

Floating, helpless, no direction.

In this boat we lay, ravaged by this monster.

The beautiful terror of our land,

Not a creature, not a plant,

Alive but not living, the sea acts to its own command.

A solemn last visit to the gravestones of those once loved,

Misery held deep within the heart,

Lives left behind for the better,

Prepared for the journey ahead,

Optimistic for these new untold possibilities.

Off the coastline, we set out,

Saying goodbye to the place we called home,

Wishing to find a life for each other,

Outside the confinements of our small town,

Barren, no hope for a prosperous future.

What was to unfold, was never foretold,

Clear seas, sailing as calm as a silent meadow,

The eyes of the monster, flashing down to the water,

Its body looming unseen, ambushing while we were unprepared,

The storm the creator of our peril, a battle we could not control.

Legions sent charging towards our single small dinghy,

A colossal, infinite army sending waves forward and forward,

What were we to do, three boys and a minuscule boat?

Our warfare fishing lines and a motor,

Skyward and over each giant wave, escaping their crashing attacks.

We only expected the worst, our time had come,

The sea god sent forth his largest demonic wave,

Sending down its wrath, flipping us into the enemy territory,

I clung to the side, was this plight too strong to survive?

Scanning the surroundings like a hawk, an ominous thought clouded my head,

A friend but no brother emerged from the hell-like sea,

The monster pleased went to sleep,

Now sat in the demolished boat, my friend clinging to life,

I wept and wept my brother's body swept away out to sea,

I cannot behold what just unrolled, I howl “Is anybody there”?

Elliot Power, Year 8

An Unanswerable Problem

Houston, is anybody there?

Houston, we have a problem

Oxygen levels have run out and we don’t have much time

It’s become hard to think and breathe

Houston, is anybody there? We have a problem

The transmitter replies with a faint buzz

Floating, just floating is all that is left

That’s all we can do until our impending doom

Houston, Houston, Please, come in

Is there anyone there?

Please, someone please be there

Houston

Somebody

Help.

Ben Colbourne, Year 9

Just a Heresy

There he lay,

Recumbent on the salt baked earth.

A distant memory,

Fading away like eroding rocks

The guns boomed and rattled

And then it was done

The tanks rolled and rumbled

24hr Challenge Fight Against Cancer Walk

On Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th Oct my family, fellow staff members and students joined together to complete the 24hr Challenge Fight Against Cancer Walk at Campbelltown Stadium.

We started at 10am and completing the walk Sunday morning at 10am. We walked around and around the track in weather conditions that was ideal for kites only!!!!

Between all our committed team members we covered close to 100km’s and raised $4500.

I cannot thank everyone enough for their support, encouragement and time they gave to us to achieve this challenge.

A special shout out to Ed Stefanski who was our champion walker for the whole 24hrs. You rock !!!!

We are blessed to work in such a giving community

Love Bec and my family xxx

Literacy Course

Six St Gregory’s College Staff, K-12, completed the last weekend of a 33-hour intense literacy course this weekend. The College hosted teachers from other schools around Sydney. Lin Meeks and Sally Robinson-Kooi delivered the most current evidence-based research and professional development on Spelling, Reading, Writing and Grammar. This certificate course provided staff with the skills and knowledge necessary to provide instruction that meets specific needs for all students.

Congratulations to the staff who gave up their personal time for this important focus on Literacy in our College.

Diana Ivancic