Message from the

Head of Senior School

Term 2 Week 9

No doubt you are all looking forward to the upcoming holidays and the opportunity to have your children with you 24/7! Or do I detect a note of “Not so sure…” on that one?! I do know that for all boarder parents the holidays are a wonderful opportunity to have quality family time together and for farming families, some welcome extra assistance with the many jobs that need doing. I know staff are looking forward to a break, although many will be busy with Cadets promotions camp, study camp, Musical rehearsals and sporting camps.

On Friday night I had the very special opportunity to travel to Sydney to attend the annual Yalari dinner. For those of you who are unaware of this organisation I recommend you Google it and find out about its fabulous work in supporting Indigenous students from remote areas to attend leading boarding schools. Yalari was founded in 2005 by Indigenous educationalist Waverley Stanley, his wife Llew Mullins, and a group of like-minded and generous people. Our previous Principal, Brian Kennelly, was impressed and inspired by the work of Yalari, and went to great personal efforts to meet with Waverley and to encourage Yalari to partner with KWS. Thanks to his efforts and vision, we have been a Yalari partner school for close to ten years now. This year, Yalari is providing scholarships for 187 students across Australia; 8 of them attend KWS. At the dinner on Friday, one of the Yalari alumni, Ashley Hudson, was part of the team of presenters. It was very exciting to see her there; even more exciting, however, was that Jade Jolliffe, a current Yalari KWS scholar, received the Resilience Award, one of only two awards presented at the dinner. It was a very proud moment for Jade herself, her Yalari peers and for me as she accepted her award.

Unfortunately, attending the Yalari dinner meant I could not be at the KWS Cadet dinner. Having worked in catering with Cadets for ten years, it’s nice to go to the dinner that someone else has prepared! I have heard that it was a very positive evening and I commend the Cadet staff on their hard work organising both the dinner and the entire Cadet program. Congratulations, too, to outgoing Head of Cadets, Major Lyn Vernon, who has led the Cadet Unit and helped shape it into a hugely successful group of young people who enjoy a wide range of stimulating activities.

This Thursday evening sees the Careers Forum in the DPA; please come along, and encourage your Year 10 and above children to come along to gain both valuable information and the opportunity to talk to people who are actually doing the jobs and following the career paths that they may aspire to.

On Friday the Subject Information Day will be held in the DPA. Parents of students in Years 8 and 10 will already have received details on the program for this day.

I wish you a good week and a terrific three weeks with your children.

Bev West

Head of Senior School