On Sunday, 4 March, boys started to trickle into Newington for Clean Up Australia Day. By the time everyone had arrived, a record-breaking 230 boys of every house had shown up to take part. They were split into groups of 4 or 5, each led by a senior student. Every house was assigned their part of a total area that ranged from Trafalgar Street down to Addison Road. At 9am, armed with gloves and rubbish bags, the groups set out and started their task of cleaning up Stanmore.

The day was organised by the sustainability committee and made possible by Mrs Carruthers and Mr Wilkins, who worked tirelessly in the days leading up to and on the day of the clean-up. By all accounts, it was a great day to work together and engage with members of your house across year groups and do some service for the Stanmore community.

After two hours of work, the boys started to return and it became clear the clean-up effort was a great success. Groups came back with loaded rubbish bags, discarded chairs, old car parts and a large number of shopping trolleys. By the end of the morning, the boys had collected enough rubbish to fill three trucks. This year was the biggest yet and hopefully the event will continue to grow in future years.

 Alistair Shaw (10/LE)