Message from 

the Principal

Welcome back

It has been a wonderfully positive start to the new Academic year with students and staff refreshed and invigorated following their summer break and excited by the opportunities and challenges 2022 has to offer.

We welcome many new students across all levels of the School and a number of new staff to our community. Once again for the third successive year we have a record enrolment in the Senior School and I very much look forward to seeing a number of initiatives that have been on hold over the past two years became a reality.

I am delighted by the new uniform and the encouraging reception it has received in so many quarters. It looks terrific and the students have a great deal to feel very proud about. 

A wonderful strength of Kinross Wolaroi School is the personal relationships that we share between members of our community. Be it staff with their colleagues; students with their peers; or the positive relationships between students and staff.  At the start of a new year I believe it is important we remind ourselves of this. It is my hope that our School will always be characterised by positive relationships and support.

At our first Assembly I encouraged our students to take productive and creative risks, to try new things, undeterred by worries about what happens if things don’t go quite as planned.

At the start of a new year, it is worth remembering that each of us plays a role in nurturing such a culture; and the role you play can be either positive or negative.  Make sure you are a force for good. Praise those around you who have achieved things – don’t ever seek to denigrate effort. If someone else experiences a mishap or set back, be the person who picks them up, and offers support. 

We all experience tough times along our journey. 

Be the person who says the encouraging thing.

Gratitude

Meanwhile, in terms of your own behaviour and choices, seize your opportunities, keep sight of your dreams, and take responsibility for your actions. 

A new year is a great time to get into good habits. Within the classroom, develop discipline and a determined work ethic; in your own lives and in your Houses, take care of yourselves, and – equally importantly – take care of each other. 

Embrace challenge, learn to live with rejection and setbacks. Be the person who seeks, every day, to lift the spirits of those with whom you come into contact. Make that decisive difference. Maintain your optimism and your faith, both in yourselves and in others; these qualities will enrich the work that you do and the people you become. 

I’ve said this before:  resist the danger of entitlement – it can only lead to emptiness and underachievement. 

Instead, develop the qualities of gratitude, curiosity, generosity of spirit and forgiveness which are at the root of personal and social success, and which oil the wheels of community life.

We all have a great deal to be grateful for. There is a good deal of academic research indicating the benefits of cultivating gratitude in terms of enhancing our wellbeing. 

We can express gratitude by thanking those people for who we are grateful or by acknowledging those things in our day or life that are positive. Some people keep a diary to do this. Interestingly, research findings indicate that those who actively seek opportunities to display gratitude will experience: increased happiness and positive mood, more satisfaction with life, become less materialistic, less likely to experience burnout, develop better physical health, better sleep, less fatigue and greater mental and physical resilience. 

So, at the start of this new year, in this amazing place in which to live, learn and work, let us all be grateful – I know I am – to be here at Kinross Wolaroi. 

Be grateful, be courageous, be curious; engage with as many of the almost limitless opportunities that 2022 will bring, both here in your rich lives at School and in our community which lies beyond our gates.

Have a great New Year and a fabulous Term.

Congratulations

KWS Alumni success

Charlotte Haling, Class of 2019 was recently awarded the Hon. Justice Geoffrey Bellew Prize for First Place in Criminal Law at the University of Notre Dame. Charlotte is also making a tremendous contribution to College life at St Andrew’s College, Sydney University where she is the Rosebowl Representative on the 2022 House Committee. 

Year 9 student to play in Carnegie Hall

Anabelle van Wyk has been invited to perform in Carnegie Hall, New York in July after winning the Intermediate Category (13-15 years) of the ‘Golden Classical Music Awards’. The purpose of this competition is to discover artists of outstanding personality and launch them on the international stage.

Anabelle joined musicians from 33 countries to enter the Awards and in July 2022 will travel to New York City to play at New York City’s famous Carnegie Hall, considered the most prestigious concert stage in the United States.

Swimming success 

Last week, the Kinross Wolaroi Swim Team competed at the NSW State Championships with 15 athletes attending the event over five days. The team did extremely well under the guidance of Head Coach, Kim Taylor who has dedicated his time to training the team in preparation for 2022 swim events.    

Kinross Wolaroi School placed 23rd on the point score, among 189 clubs who participated in the events.  A huge congratulations to Bianca Fuller and Kyla Brown who won gold medals in the 400m Individual Medley and the 50m Breaststroke respectively. Each athlete achieved numerous PB’s and impressive results over various events in the Championships.

The 14-year Girls Relay team (Emily Clunas, Ava Ward, Eddie Waterman, Chloe Mc Gilvray) swam a personal best and the 16-year and under Girls Relay team (Eddie Waterman, Bianca Fuller, Kyla Brown, Ellie Mc Miles) finished 6th in the Medley Relay. Our Junior Girls Relay team (Ava Ward, Chloe McGilvray, Emily Clunas, Edwina Waterman) had a personal best time and Tommaso Cornelius-Feltus swam the final 400m Individual Medley, finishing in 9th with a personal best time.