Alumni
Welcome to the Alumni Community section of Rose & Waratah. We hope you enjoy the articles and welcome your feedback. If you know someone who would enjoy Rose & Waratah but isn’t receiving it, please share this link so they can update their details.
Your Alumni Community Reps
Congratulations and thank you to our new Friends’ Alumni Community Representatives for volunteering their time and talents to help create meaningful connections amongst our community and with the School. Please get in touch with your Reps if you have an idea or suggestion about how we can strengthen our community, particularly at this time.
Friends’ Alumni Community Representatives
Lucy Loney (Ogilvie) (1988) (Acting Convener)
Interstate:
Jade Galbally (1995), Melbourne
Roly Hill (1959), Western Australia
Andrew Kibbey (1995), Melbourne
International:
Roger Stillwell (1956), British Columbia, Canada
Friends’ Community COVID-19 Update
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is causing tremendous upheaval throughout our world. At this time of uncertainty, please reach out to those in your network, especially any community members who may be vulnerable or far from home. If there is a way that the School can help connect people, please email us at stayconnected@friends.tas.edu.au and let us know where in the world you are, and how you are getting on.
Read Principal Nelson File's full letter to our global community.
From humble beginnings to a Premiership Win! How Girls soccer started at Friends’
- By Esther Fox (1997)
As a child, from the age of about seven I wanted to play soccer, just like my older brother, Ben. He and I used to kick the soccer ball around the garden carefully avoiding the flowers, and I would go along to watch his training after school, often playing with another girl on the sidelines.
My mother, Flora Fox helped me to ask the school principal if I could join the all-boys soccer team, but unfortunately in 1987 girls were not allowed to play soccer at my local public school. Instead I was encouraged to play hockey which was acceptable for both girls and boys to play at the time. I stuck with hockey for a year or two, but my heart was not in it. I just wanted to play soccer. As a Quaker I was brought up with a keen sense for social justice and equality. In my mind, I felt discriminated against, even at the age of seven or eight and I never forgot that feeling. I wanted to get even, I wanted to feel like I was an equal to those boys who clearly were having fun on the field without me!
When I started at The Friends’ School for High School I was excited to explore the opportunities offered. I made lots of wonderful new friends (many who are still my friends today 28 years later) and enjoyed the academic challenges. I think it was in grade 8 that I re-awakened my dream of playing soccer. I had heard that there was a girls soccer roster being set up among some of the surrounding schools which already had three or four teams signed on. I saw my chance. I found out that what I needed to do was convince the sports teacher to register a Girls Soccer Team, find a coach and get a team of 11 players together. I do remember a sports teacher at the time tried to convince me that if I had the talent and enthusiasm for sport then I should stick with the sports on offer for girls. But I knew in my heart that it was soccer or nothing. Of course most girls had never played team soccer before in the early 1990s, so convincing them that they were actually capable might have been difficult. I grabbed a clipboard and put my name at the top, then aimed to register as many of my female friends as I could to get a team of 11 girls together. Actually it turned out that there were many keen young women like myself who wanted to play soccer and we got a team together with not too much cajoling. Some had already played field hockey and netball and had sports experience. Others not so much, but I was accepting all volunteers! My brother Ben Fox and his friend Liam Monaco both agreed to coach the team and they were and continue to be great supporters of equal opportunity. Finally, we had a team! I continued to play soccer for The Friends’ School for the remainder of High School and Clemes. Then I continued playing for University Club for four years.
When I was a senior at Friends’ I decided to try coaching a girls high school soccer team to encourage girls in the sport. My classmate Joe Boyer agreed to co-coach the team by refereeing at the weekend games (which clashed with mine). This team went on to win the Premiership that year. In a relatively short timeframe women’s sport has come a long way to allow opportunities for participation in many sports that were previously barred for girls and women. Now girls playing soccer is not such a big deal. In fact my 11 year old daughter Stella plays in a soccer team and I am now a proud soccer mum.
Thank you Esther for sharing this inspiring story!
Alison Foley (class of 1995)
After Graduating from UTAS with BA/BCom, Alison Foley’s career has taken her across oceans in the Super Yacht Industry to regional airport operations management and to being an executive assistant for a food rescue organisation.
She is now the Founding Director of Ten Little Pieces, an empowerment movement for ordinary folks to make a big difference to the places they love by collecting ten little pieces of rubbish anytime anywhere, especially with children involved.
Alison had the idea when she was at the beach with her three young sons and they wanted ice cream - she said they could have one if they picked up ‘ten little pieces of rubbish’ first. From these humble beginnings, Ten Little Pieces is now a Not for Profit, a community ally of Clean Up Australia, a 5 Gyres Ambassador and a member of the United Nations Environment Program – Global Partnership on Marine Litter.
Ten Little Pieces has just been awarded the 2020 Sunshine Coast Australia Day Award for Environment & Sustainability for engaging youth in environmental stewardship, community collaboration and marine debris source reduction initiatives.
As part of her postgraduate studies with the University of Netherlands in Marine Litter, Ali developed a cigarette butt reduction initiative on the Sunshine Coast and over the course of her trial demonstrated a 70% reduction in this form of litter on beaches that are known nesting sites of endangered loggerhead turtles. The technology is now being replicated by councils across the country.
She’s also been selected from over 10,000 applicants as one of 300 women from all around the globe to crew eXXpedition Round the World, a two year ocean sailing mission to research, raise awareness of and advocate solutions to the devastating environmental and health impacts of plastics and toxics in our oceans. She’ll be joining in May for leg 11 to sail from Tonga to Fiji, contributing to world-leading scientific investigations.
She intends to incorporate her eXXpedition experience into the Ten Little Pieces K-12 education program and corporate consulting services.
You can follow updates on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tenlittlepieces/ and Instagram http://www.instagram.com/tenlittlepieces.com and via the Ten Little Pieces website: www.tenlittlepieces.com
Thank you Mary Woolnough for sharing this story with us.
50+ Alumni Luncheon
Over 130 guests attended the 50+ Lunch this year, made even more special in hindsight with the advent of social distancing restrictions now in place. Some guests shared some anecdotes and reflections about their time at Friends’. If you have a story you would like to share about your time at Friends’ please send us an email. It is a special way to remember classmates, teachers and staff who made an impact on you, or just share a funny story!
Postponed Alumni Events
Whilst some events have been postponed, at this stage we will proceed with reunions scheduled from September, if safe to do so. More information about postponed alumni events here.
Class of 1970, 50 year out reunion, 7 November 2020
If you have a reunion this or next year you are keen to promote send us the details and we will share it with the community. It has never been more important to stay connected.
Alumni Community Reps - Inaugural Meeting
The newly named Friends’ Alumni Community (FAC) has replaced the Old Scholars' Association (OSA) and has been broadened to encompass alumni and their families, former staff and volunteers, and friends of the School - wherever they are in the world. Membership is automatic - there is no application form or membership fee. The inaugural FAC Representatives meeting was held on Monday 17 February.
Visit our website to see the Terms of Reference and a summary of discussion points from the inaugural meeting.
Clemes Academic Awards
We congratulate all 2019 alumni who received an award at this year’s Clemes Academic Awards presented at The Farrall Centre. We were delighted to welcome special guest Bob Annells (1965), grandson of Charles Annells after whom an award is named.
Charles Annells was associated with The Friends’ School for almost 50 years including, critically, taking on the role of Headmaster from 1916 to 1923. The Charles Annells Award, in his honour, is presented to the most outstanding student in English and at least one Humanities or Language subject. Bob is pictured here with the 2020 recipient, Lottie Frohmader. Congratulations to Lottie and her family for receiving this prestigious award.
To read the Full Clemes Academic Awards List please visit our website.
2020 Old Scholars’ Memorial Grant
The Old Scholars’ Memorial Grant has been supporting the old scholar community since World War 1 and at this time of global crisis it continues to support the old scholar community. The grant is administered by an independent Board of Trustees that each year looks for a student with old scholar connections who is academically sound, an active participant in the life of the School and strong in service. This year the Trustees are delighted to announce that Emily Lewis is the 2020 recipient. We congratulate Emily on her thoughtful application and wish her well during her time at Clemes.
You can read more about the Old Scholars’ Memorial Grant, including the application process, at Scholarships and Bursaries.
The Bloomfield family, William Bloomfield (1982)
The family of Dr (dec) and Mrs Bloomfield had a close association with The Friends' School for 25 years. At one stage all six of their children attended together. The principles and ethos of the School have had a life-long beneficial effect on all. Christopher (1969) went on to be a land surveyor, married and had five children doesn’t make sense??. Susan (1971) worked in social administration, and sadly passed away suddenly in 2010 leaving three children. Richard (1972) retired from the army after 20 years of service and now lives in Queensland. He has two children. Anthony (1973) studied agriculture at Glenormiston College and is now retired in Queensland and is the father of two sons. Adam (1978) also recently retired and is travelling Australia and has two children. William (1982) trained as a jockey and chef, still lives in Tasmania and is married with three adult children. After 30 years travelling the world and living in Darwin (Jenny), at age 92 has returned to Tasmania and is now living at Aveo Waters in Claremont, six children, 17 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren later!!
We thank William Bloomfield for sharing his family story with us.
How the Old Scholars’ Association became the Friends’ Alumni Community
By Mary Woolnough (1969)
The newly formed ‘Friends’ Alumni Community’ (FAC) held its first Representatives Meeting on Monday 17 February, 2020. As you may have read this group has replaced the former Old Scholars’ Association (OSA). It took over 12 months of reflection and consideration to make this change and we thought all our alumni would be interested to see how this decision came about.
Following the Old Scholars’ Association Annual General Meeting held in April 2018 the Association was struggling to find its relevance and place in the School community.
It is important to remember that over many years the School was changing and developing. Indeed the opening of the Development Office and appointment of the first Development Officer in the early 1990s was probably the beginning of those changes. The School started a database of alumni and subscriptions were no longer required.
Today the Community Engagement Office manages a database of nearly 14,000 alumni. They also send out by mail two editions of Focus per year, an annual magazine The Torch, and a quarterly electronic newsletter Rose and Waratah. They provide a first point of contact for alumni and provide information via social media platforms. They also organise all reunions and events.
It is interesting to note that all these publications are provided to alumni on the mailing list for free. So it was not surprising that the Association was considering its future.
In April 2019 a special committee meeting was held to attempt to articulate the role of the OSA. Subsequent to this meeting a proposal was prepared and sent via email to all OSA committee members. On Monday 5 August an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Association was called and the proposal was presented to the meeting. A decision to dissolve the Association and accept the new proposal was moved and then carried unanimously by all the committee members.
The following day the proposal was sent to Principal Nelson File and presented at the following Board meeting on 27 August. Since that time Terms of Reference have been prepared and the first representatives appointed. The composition of the group seeks to incorporate interstate and international representation and cohort representation of approximately 5 yearly.
It is important to note that minutes of all meetings will be taken and a summary published through School communication channels as well as provided to the Principal’s Committee.
For more information visit the Friends’ Alumni Community Representatives page on our website.
Thank you Mary for sharing this story.
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor,
Congratulations on the production of a fine magazine [The Torch, Edition 1]. It follows nicely from the student produced newspaper. I enjoy reading both. I left school in 1958 and have been living in Sydney most of the time.
My query is the translation of the school motto, “Nemo Sibi Nascitur”. All through my time at school (Bill Oats era) the translation was always, “No man is born unto themselves”.
The article by the Presiding Member , Mr. Julian Robertson has a different translation. Which is correct?
Yours sincerely,
Vaughn Chapman (1958)
***
Dear Vaughn
Thank you for your thoughtful query! An Archives search and consultation with alumni from different eras confirms that a few interpretations have been used over time, including:
No man is born unto themselves
No man is an island (from the Donne poem)
And currently…
No-one is born for self alone
When the school crest was first introduced, the 1927 Echoes offered this translation:
Underneath our coat of arms we have a motto, a battle-cry, "Nemo sibi nascitur." The Latin form is in keeping with our heraldic device, but a free translation would be "service." A fine rallying cry for us all.
Stephanie Farrall (1959), daughter of Bill Oats and former Co-Principal of The Friends’ School from 1988 to 2000, offered this reflection:
"My main response to the discussion about the translation of “nemo sibi nascitur” is that I have never felt that there is one single “official” credal-like translation.
My father was our Latin teacher for the four of us doing Matric. Latin in 1959, and we heard the Latin translation as something like ”No one is born for self alone”. And at Friends’ in those days we also heard other helpful ways of understanding the motto, with Donne’s “No man is an island” being one of these helpful references. Another was : “We are members one of another”.
I do not think we need to pin our motto to one single translation. Early Friends moved away from creeds and credal statements and sought varying ways to express something important. In the same way that Quakers have not turned to creeds and credal statements, I am happy to let these various translations and interpretations be offered."
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