St Gregory's College Newsletter

Senior School News

Year 12 Graduation Mass and Dinner - Friday 20 November

Invitations have been emailed to all Year 12 parents and students for the Year 12 Graduation Mass and Dinner! Year 12 parents and carers can purchase tickets via this link TICKETS

 

Tickets are $75 per adult and $85 for Year 12 students. Due to restrictions, there is a maximum of 3 tickets per family (including the Year 12 student) and a limited number of tickets. 

 

If you have any questions regarding the Graduation Dinner, please contact Melissa Watts on events@stgregs.nsw.edu.au

Year 7 Immunisation Program Update

As you are aware due to COVID-19, the 2020 Year 7 school program school clinics were suspended at the beginning of 2020 and then resumed after June.

 

The required interval between HPV- Gardasil dose 1 and dose 2 is 6 months. Therefore all Year 7 students who were given HPV – Gardasil dose 1 this year will be offered HPV – Gardasil – dose 2 early in 2021. Details will be communicated in early 2021 when NSW Health confirm the dates.

 

Year 7, 2020 Catch ups – 6 November 2020

NSW Health will return to the College on Friday 6 November for Year 7 students who missed out on the HPV-Gardasil dose 1. There are also some Year 10 students that missed the follow-up vaccination this year and this will also be an opportunity for those students to receive the vaccination at the College. If students miss out again on the 6 November, there is no need for parents to take their children to the GP as all outstanding 2020 Year 7  vaccinations will be caught up through the College immunisation program in 2021. 

If you have questions about the NSW Health Immunisation programme please contact NSW Health, your GP or the College.

 

Thanks for your ongoing support.

 

Mr Barry Graham

Director of Administration

 

 

St Gregory’s College Book Week has been a resounding success! Centred around the CBCA nominated theme, “Curious Creatures, Wild Minds”, festivities were enjoyed across the whole College. The Marian Centre played host to the Senior School programme, which was transformed into a visual delight by the wonderfully creative, Terezija Quinn.

 

The Senior School set out to develop a new tradition in 2020 in hosting Book Week celebrations. The initiative was proposed as a means of offering students an opportunity to engage in a literacy focused event with the hope of improving the academic prowess of boys and to involve them in meaningful and purposeful activities to enhance their literacy skills. A further aim was to establish a K-12 initiative to unite the whole College community in a fun and energised activity.

 

The Book Week team was formed back in August and set to work designing a programme and generating ideas. It was quickly decided that the K-12 initiative would be the key focus and would be the platform from which the celebrations would be launched. With the theme allowing for huge scope, the team settled on “The Highway Rat” by Julia Donaldson as the chosen text and began to consider how more than 1000 students could collaborate in a genuine manner in the Covid era. Thanks to the wonderful Marian Centre team (Greg Bond and Terezija Quinn) and the fabulous work of the Information and Innovation Coordinator, Mr Don Perna, a method was decided upon and executed with incredible success. Lines were allocated to each class (Junior School) or Homeroom (Senior School) and the delivery was recorded, digitally meshed and edited to present the reading of one book by every voice in the College. It was a resounding hit with all!

 

Launch Day was an uplifting and strengthening community day. As a newly formed group, our elected Student Leaders for 2021 took on their first role, dressing up and visiting all students in Homerooms to spread cheer and to support Homeroom mentors with the tailor-made Book Week programme. They carried out their duties with professionalism and enthusiasm and it was a great start to their period of leadership as role models of the College.

 

In the week prior to the launch, a Spelling Bee knockout competition was designed and delivered during BRAG sessions. Most students got to take part in at least one test and successful candidates were then put forward to the finals. The Marian Centre played host to the exciting end to the competition with students demonstrating exceptional knowledge and sportsmanship. The Senior School community gathered to cheer on the young men, and it was exciting to see how many students in the audience were quietly having a go at the spellings themselves. The words selected for the finals are included below so that the wider community can see just how challenging they were! We are absolutely thrilled to announce the winners from each year group.

 

Year 7: Jason Lee

Year 8: Sam Labbozzetta

Year 9: Isaac Puse

Year 10: Michael Elasi

Overall Spelling Bee Champion for 2020: Jason Lee

 

A particular highlight of the week was the visit from Old Boy and famous author, Tony Park. Having access to someone with credentials such as Tony’s was incredibly fortunate, and many students and staff were able to benefit from Tony’s literary and life wisdom. Literature Circle students and Advanced English classes were especially lucky as they were able to experience small group sessions with Tony designed to allow for Q and A sessions as well as writing workshop activities. Tony was generous and accommodating and as a Senior School community, access to someone so talented was a gift to us all.

 

Finally, the Book Week Treasure Hunt was an activity that is worthy of mention. This fantastic venture is familiar to many staff as it was included in past Book Week celebrations and was one that the 2020 team could not let fall away. 

The Treasure Hunt engages all staff, from teachers to the Office staff to the Maintenance Team and more. Our Parent Engagement Coordinator, Alison Buckley, managed the process by asking staff to share their favourite books with the team. She then promptly made up badges identifying this information for staff to wear. Students were then set the challenge of finding and asking 8 staff members from a cross-section of areas of the College what their favourite book was. Competing students then submitted a form revealing their findings and winners were selected from a hat draw. It was lovely to see the students engage with the wider College community and to hear them involved in conversations about literature and reading. 

 

Planning and preparations are already in motion for 2021 and we welcome any feedback from our wider community to help shape this event and establish new traditions across the College.

 

Quarter-Finals – Monday 19th October

  1. Commissioner
  2. Cacophony
  3. Irrepressible
  4. Digression
  5. Homogenous
  6. Intelligible
  7. Sacrilegious
  8. Chlorophyll
  9. Catamaran
  10. Sycophant

Semi-Finals – Tuesday 20th October

  1. Chihuahua
  2. Abalone
  3. Croissant
  4. Narcolepsy
  5. Sarcophagus
  6. Psoriasis
  7. Bazooka
  8. Liquefaction
  9. Grapheme
  10. Oscillation

Finals – Friday 23rd October

  1. Denouncement
  2. Emphatic
  3. Querulous
  4. Vicissitudes
  5. Heinousness
  6. Supercilious
  7. Anaphylaxis
  8. Connoisseur
  9. Penicillin
  10. Sinophile

Sports Uniform Trial - Feedback

Over the past four weeks (Weeks 9 & 10 - Term 3 & Weeks 1 & 2 - Term 4), we have been running a trial with our Year 9 and Year 10 students in relation to them wearing their sports uniform to and from the College on days in their timetable when they have practical classes in Personal Development, Health & Physical Education (PDHPE) and Physical Activity and Sports Studies (PASS).

 

The trial period has allowed us to evaluate and reflect on the initiative. Apart from some minor indiscretions from boys being in the wrong uniform on days when they did not have practical classes in these subjects, the trial has been a success. Lesson time has been increased by not requiring students to get changed; there is increased participation and far less boys making excuses for not having their sports uniform, and incidents in the change rooms have decreased. 

 

We have decided to extend the initiative for Year 9 and Year 10 (only) until the end of Term 4, 2020. Students in Years 9 & 10 are required to wear their sport uniform to the College on days of the timetable when they have practical classes in PDHPE and PASS indicated. Students have been provided with this information and a sticker appears in the front of the Student Diary. 

 

From the commencement of Term 1, 2021, students in Years 7 - 10 will be permitted to wear their sports uniform to and from the College on days in their timetable when they have practical PDHPE classes (Year 7 & Year 8), and when they practical classes in PDHPE and PASS (Year 9 & Year 10).

 

Students in Sport, Lifestyle & Recreation and Fitness classes in Year 11 and Year 12 will continue to bring their sports uniform to the College and change for their classes on practical days.

 

Please note that the College formal uniform (summer or winter) must be worn to the College every Friday of the year. This is a requirement for our formal assemblies, Masses, liturgies, etc. which are held on Fridays across the year.

Parents and carers may require the purchase of an additional College sports uniform and College socks for their son in Years 7 - 10 as a result of this new protocol.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss this matter.

 

Lee MacMaster - College Principal (K - 12)

 

Book Week - Visit from author, Tony Park

This week Tony Park, an old boy of the College and international author, visited the College and met with the Literature Circle boys in Years 7,8,9 and 10 and the Year 11 Advanced English students. 

 

The boys engaged very well with Tony and posed some interesting and challenging questions and he was very impressed by our students. He appreciated the opportunity to meet with Br Ernest, who was Principal when he graduated in 1981 and to see the changes at the College since he left. 

 

Thanks to the Lit Circle teachers (Rachel, Michelle Arentz, Michelle Gardiner and Natasha) and especially to Lee Ursino and Terezija for their support, presence during the day and organisation of the boys. 

 

Tony was an engaging and inspiring speaker and hopefully meeting him will encourage our boys to develop their love of reading and learning and to follow their dreams. 

 

Greg Bond - Teacher Librarian