Heads of Junior School 

Vale Alan Neville 

Last week a number of Junior and Senior School staff attended the funeral of Mrs Messer's beloved father Alan Neville who passed away after a short illness aged 95. Alan attended St Patrick's College in Launceston when it was a boys school run by the Christian Brothers. He was an active member of the St Virgil's community in areas such as sport coaching, Board and P&F. We ask that you keep Jo, Damian, Tom and Meg in your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time. 

Mid-Year Assembly 2021

On Monday June 28 at 1.30pm the Junior School will be gathering in our Junior School Hall for our annual Mid-Year Assembly. At the Mid-Year Assembly, all class and specialist teachers present certificates to students who have performed well in the classroom and specific subjects to this point in time. We are looking forward to our Kindergarten students joining us and leading us in prayer. Our Choir will also be performing ahead of their performances at The Festival of Voices. 

Our Mid- Year House Point winners will also be announced. You can catch all the action on live stream. This link will be available on the Parent and Carer’s Facebook page as well as the SVC website.

Celebration of Mass

Our Grade 6s travelled to Austins Ferry on Tuesday to celebrate Mass with Fr Suresh. They were welcomed by some senior boys, who also helped lead the readings and prayers during Mass. We appreciate Fr Suresh helping us to celebrate and learn about the Mass. 

After Mass the boys made the most of the huge oval space at the Ferry; expending a whole lot of energy playing football, running around and having fun. 

Thank you to Miss Lack and Miss Daun for organising these activities. Thank you also to our UTAS student teachers for accompanying the boys. 

International Mud Day in Kinder

Mrs Sandra Mazengarb 

This week the Kindergarten students celebrated International Mud Day with a visit to the Austins Ferry Campus.  We were also very excited to have the kindergarten students from St Mary’s join us for a play in the mud and bush.

Every week in kinder we visit a bush space for bush kinder. This is helping us to develop dispositions for learning such as persistence, tolerance, curiosity, cooperation and confidence.  During our time in the bush there are lots of opportunities to develop language and mathematical skills as well as learn about nature and sustainability.  We are building a connection and respect for our world which will be lifelong.

During bush kinder mud day, we had a fabulous time jumping and sliding in the mud.  It was cold but we were all rugged up and had our wet weather overalls and gumboots on, so we were ready to play.  There were lots of opportunities for negotiating and conversation around who wanted to be covered in mud and who were at little less enthusiastic. 

When we were not in the mud were enjoyed exploring the bush, using our imaginations and investigating.  We found a sugar ant nest and were surprised when 'Bushy' (Mark Smith an LSO at the senior school), told us they didn’t bite, and we could pick them up.  Many of the boys were keen to do this and during this investigation they learned how to recognise sugar ants and how to be careful with other creatures in the environment. 

Mark took everyone on a long bush walk to warm up and then sadly our day was over.  St Virgils is so lucky to have such a wonderful environment for our students to engage with and learn in.

Watch our Playing in the Mud Video! 

Mary Rice Day

Our Mary Rice Day is being held tomorrow, Friday June 25. A note outlining activities went out on EdSmart earlier in the week. Please be sure to read this carefully and reply to transport arrangements and volunteering to help serve the lunch if you are able. A reminder for the boys to seek sponsors for the Walkathon. St Virgil’s has had a long-standing relationship with the staff and students of the Mary Rice Centre in Nairobi, Kenya and over the years, money raised from the Walkathon and other fundraising activities has gone directly into resources, clothing, food, shelters, bathroom facilities and school rooms. 

Our support of the MRC makes a huge difference to the daily lives, health and safety of the beautiful children and staff caring for them. We look forward to the Mary Rice Day and keep our brothers and sisters of Nairobi at the forefront of our prayers and thoughts. 

A Visit from Emeritus Archbishop Adrian Doyle

We were very pleased to have a surprise visit from His Grace, Adrian Doyle early in the week. Mrs Messer and Mrs Chambers were able to sit with him over coffee and talk about his continued work, his writing, reading, catching up with friends and looking after himself by going to the gym. For those new to the College you will recognise the surname Doyle, and we can confirm that Doyle House is named after Archbishop Adrian’s father, Leo, who was the first day boy to attend St Virgil’s in its early years. 

SRC Fundraiser

The SRC has continued their hot chocolate sales this week, with all money raised going toward purchasing some new play equipment for the Hall. We will work with the boys to choose some items. Working hard to raise the money and choosing the equipment themselves will hopefully encourage the boys to look after these items.

Junior School Sport 

Symmons Plains All Schools Cross Country

On Tuesday of this week our Cross Country team braved the cold and early morning start to head to Symmons Plains to compete in the All Schools Cross Country. Firstly, congratulations to the boys for making this team. It is a wonderful achievement to be running a time that qualifies for this competition and where you are competing in a race with up to 250 other runners! All boys gave it their all on Tuesday. 

Some notable results were:

Max Thom in Grade 5 came 7th. 

Alex Mizzen in Grade 4 came 18th.

Finlay Child in Grade 4 came 21st. 

Thank you to Mrs McCullagh for her work with the team in the lead up to all the Cross Country carnivals; to Mr Beard for providing training sessions each week and accompanying the boys and to Mrs Graves for driving the boys to and from Symmons Plains and being their number one supporter on the day. 

Junior School Water Polo

The Grade 5&6 Water Polo team have had a hugely successful start to their season. Currently they sit on top of the ladder, undefeated. I am incredibly proud of this group of boys! 

Training is held each Thursday morning at the Hobart Aquatic Centre at 7.30am and we play Friday nights. What we are impressed about by this group of boys is how well they listen, engage in training and play so well as a team putting all these things into action on Friday game nights. Most of these boys had also never played water polo before this roster. 

The first three games we played were grading games and since then the competition has been split into an A and B roster. We are in the A Division and have had wins against Cambridge Primary, Mt Stuart/Lansdowne primary, Hutchins/Collegiate, The Friends School and Sacred Heart. This week we are up against Hutchins. The team consist of Grade 6 boys: Henry Mollon, Louis Sylvester, William Rodgers, Tiago Romanski, Edward Huigsloot, George Fulton, and Grade 5 boys: Archie Ferguson, Liam Quinn, Oscar Butterworth Barry, Hamish McGuire, Lachlan Mapley, Harry Barton. Our leading goal scorers are: Henry with 17, Louis with 7, Edward and Tiago with 4 each, Archie with 3, Hamish and Oscar with 1 each. Will Rodgers has been impenetrable in goals and George, Harry, Liam, Lachlan have been very solid in defence.

Thank you to Tom Messer who assists in the coaching of the boys of a Thursday morning. Unfortunately he is unable to attend games because of work commitments but the skills and formations he teaches them are evident on game night.  We have one game left for this term, with a couple more roster games and finals early next term. 

Thank you also to Miss Daun, Miss Lack and Mr Messer who have supported the boys by coming along to watch, score and help with subs, as well as parents for scoring each week.

Mrs Messer

Coach

Saturday Soccer 

Saturday Soccer

 Under 11 Blue

 SVC v Lenah Valley Strikers

 St Virgil’s Blue had an exciting matchup against the Under 11 Lenah Valley Strikers.  The boys played brilliantly in a tough physical game with some bumps and bruises along the way, they’ve been improving each week with wonderful displays of teamwork.  George James was our Captain for the game.  Well done boys, a pleasing team effort.

Player of the Week: Pier Giorgio Rigoli with a dynamic game up forward

Encouragement Award: Oscar Butterworth Barry for his first effort of the season as Goalie.

SVC v Glenorchy Knights

A really tough game for the SVC boys. They had to really had to pull together as a team. Special mention to Zarah McLeod for volunteering her time to umpire the games and especially this week in very difficult circumstances.

Player of the Week: Oscar Butterworth Barry for playing his best game of the year.

Under 9

SVC 2 lost to Princess Street 4

 A great game played in the mud over the wet weekend, with everyone giving it their all.

Player of the Week: Samuel Pelham for putting pressure on the goalie and for great chasing!

 Encouragement Award:  Lucas Duharte for trying hard in attack.

Under 12

SVC V Glenorchy White

 The Under 12 team was defeated by the Glenorchy Knights U12 white team under difficult conditions. Louis Sylvester kicked a great goal in the first half but Glenorchy were too strong in the end.  It was a tough game as the boys are regularly playing short each week but doing a great job and never giving up.  All boys this week deserve the “Player of the Week’ award!  Special mention to Atticus Johnson Harrington for helping the Under 12s out in the second half.

Upcoming Calendar Events

Monday June 28 –                Junior School End of Term Assembly (Live streamed commencing 1.30pm)

Tuesday June 29 –

Wednesday June 30             Junior School Choir participating and performing in the Festival of Voices

Thursday July 1                    Last day of Term 2 for students

Monday July 19                    Parent Teacher Interviews (Student Free Day)