Sport Report

Athletics

The College would like to wish the boys competing at the 2014 Australian All Schools Athletics Championships in Adelaide the very best. Pitting athletes against each other in the race for coveted national titles, the three-day event is the culmination of a big year of school-based Athletics, with the best of the best set to take to the track and field.

The 2014 Newington House Athletics day was a great event where all boys got the opportunity to participate in a number of track and field events within their House. In the afternoon session, Moulton House asserted its superiority on the track, with the relay teams particularly impressive. At the end of the day Moulton retained the title that they won in 2013.

Basketball

Newington Basketball teams have made the trip to Canberra to compete in the National Schools Championships, the 1sts, 2nds, U15s and U16s will be representing the College at the week long tournament. It is a fantastic opportunity for the boys to play against some of the strongest Basketball school in the country. All the very best to the boys and the coaching staff.

Cricket

Newington and Trinity Grammar played their annual T20 fixture in the last week of November. Competing for the Johnnie Taylor Cup, Trinity went in as favourites after their victory in 2013. Newington secured victory off the final ball of its allocated overs making 6/100 wickets. Earlier in the day Trinity scored 7/99. Newington bowled and fielded with purpose, whilst the batting never really got any momentum due to some tight bowling by Trinity and the batsmen developed enough partnerships to secure victory. A very good team performance by the boys.

Water Polo

The end of November and the last week of summer sport competition during 2014 saw Newington compete in the Thomas Whalan Cup, a one day GPS round robin. Due to the great results on the day from the 16As, 2nds and 1sts,  the trophy will stay at Stanmore for another year.

During the Summer break, the Newington 1sts Water Polo Team will be taking part in the Trans Tasman Schoolboys Water Polo Tournament. The 2014 competition will be hosted by Rangitoto College which is New Zealand’s largest secondary school situated on the North Shore of Auckland’s picturesque harbour.

Newington has a long and successful involvement in the “Trans Tasman” and after placing second in Canberra in 2013, the boys will be looking to continue to be among the top teams.

Henry Larking (8/FL) sets sail to state victory

Henry Larkings (8/FL) sailing a Sabot has won the NSW Sabot Sailing Championships which was held over two weekends on Sydney Harbour and Lake Macquarie. Henry came into the second round at Lake Macquarie in third position but after scoring three great results in the very windy conditions took out the NSW Championships. He will now go on to compete at the National Championships in Townsville, Queensland in January.

Other Newington students that competed where Andrew Harrison (8/MA) and Thomas Larkings (7/FL), both placing in the top 12 and gaining selection for the NSW Sabot Sailing team to compete at the Australian Championships.

Year 7 Production

Recently, two large audiences of family and friends, as well as Wyvern’s Years 5 and 6 students were treated to a performance of two of Shakespeare’s finest works, in morsel-sized, respectfully-reduced, artfully abridged pieces. The 2014 Year 7 Production was a combination of Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth – the plays lasted 20 minutes each and had the audiences laughing and crying at the best bits of the bard’s humour and tragedy, with a couple of litres of fake blood thrown in.

Each one of the very talented actors who auditioned got to perform on the night, with some very flexible players performing multiple roles in both plays. Everyone who was involved should be heartily congratulated for learning their lines, rehearsing and performing in a very short time period.

Look out for more from the most significant playwright of the English language in our 2015 season!

Mr Ben Williams
Drama Teacher

Our First Preparatory School

In 1919, Sir Samuel McCaughey, pastoralist and philanthropist, died, leaving £10,000 to Newington College. He left identical amounts to four other Sydney schools and, being a staunch Presbyterian, left £20,000 to Scots College.

After much debate, the College Council determined to use these funds to build a Preparatory School building. The College had an identifiable Preparatory School, organisationally separate from the ‘main school’, by 1903. But the Prep was housed in a small, undistinguished building on the College’s southern boundary.

The new Preparatory School, completed in 1921 in the same location, was a two-storey brick classroom block, ‘each storey containing two commodious well-appointed class-rooms, and a small study’, as The Newingtonian reported. Its appearance inspired a contributor to the magazine to describe it in the style of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan:

‘…And there were wide verandahs high and spacious,

And looked out many a window high above the field,

And here were class rooms furnished well and gracious,

Enfolding views which nothing there could shield.’

Until recently we had no photograph of this building, only glimpses of it in the background of larger views of the College. Recently, Bob Fairley (ON 1954) made his father’s photographs available to us for copying, including this one. Bob’s father, Robert ‘Bugs’ Fairley was Newington’s Senior Prefect in 1921 and may have taken the photograph that year, explaining the building’s ‘brand new’ look.

The building was intended as only a temporary home for the Preparatory School, until a larger building planned for Stanmore Road was built. This did not eventuate, but in 1938 the Prep moved to Wyvern House, now the Le Couteur Centre.

The 1921 Preparatory School building is still with us. It was incorporated into the War Memorial Classroom Block when the latter was built in 1953 and thus is now part of the War Memorial Centre. Few traces of the old building, however, are visible today.

Mr David Roberts
College Archivist

Concertmaster Matt Bruce (ON 1987) visits Newington

On Friday 28 November, we were fortunate to have the Concertmaster of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Matt Bruce (ON 1987) visit the school and share his expertise with the College’s Symphony Orchestra. The Brandenburg Orchestra has a reputation as the finest period instrument ensemble in Australia. It specialises in Music of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Students were guided through Joseph Haydn’s Symphony 101 in D by Mr Bruce during their regular Symphony Orchestra morning rehearsal. The musicality he was able to bring out in a short time was outstanding. Many of these boys will have changed their outlook to classical music from this experience.

The boys left buzzing at the end of the hour and we hope to have Mr Bruce work with our ensembles again in the near future.

Mr Trevor Mee
Music Teacher

Kelynack and Johnstone House Christmas Service Learning Project

On Thursday 27 November,  a group of 20 students from Johnstone and Kelynack Houses traveled by bus to the Big W Distribution Centre in Hoxton Park, south-west of Sydney. The boys spent the morning packing candle bags for sale at the Carols in the Domain event in support of the Salvation Army and our House Charity, Oasis Youth Support Network.

The morning involved the co-ordinated efforts of students with two roles. The first job involved moving around a circuit, filling re-usable shopping bags with over 30 individual items such as packets of chips, boxes of tea and tins of mints, donated by companies to the cause.

The second group was in charge of continually stocking the circuit with goods from stacks of boxes in the centre, ensuring that each object remained in stock for the first group to add to the bags. With co-ordinated team effort, the boys made up 1,872 bags in the three hours they were packing. A new single session record topped the past best of 1,584. By selling the bags for $15 dollars each – well under the retail price of the contents – the boys raised $28,000, a big achievement for a short period of time.

Though this experience, the boys learned what it means to give time to a charitable cause and see the impact first hand rather than just donating money at a school event. We also have a new respect for work conducted at a big distribution centre and the amount of stock which moves through it every day.

Fletcher Howell (10/JN)
Year 10 Student

Christmas Quiz

While plugging in the Christmas tree lights Handy hubby doesn’t notice that the flex has frayed and gets an electric shock. He is unable to let go of the plug. Do you:

a) Try to pull his hand away.

b) Turn off the electricity at the mains and call an ambulance.

c) Tell him that you knew those lights he bought at the pub were dodgy.

While playing Wii Grandma Rosie clocks herself on the forehead while attempting to hit a virtual tennis ball. Do you:

a) Joke that’s it’s just a wee bump.

b) Get some ice, paracetamol and monitor for signs of drowsiness.

c) Take a selfie with her.

Brother-in-law Bruce insists on lifting out the turkey ‘his way’ and burns his hands on the baking tray. Do you:

a) Apply butter to the burnt area.

b) Run his hands under cool running water for 15 minutes and then cover with a sterile or clean dressing. He may need to go to hospital.

c) Draw straws for who has to feed him Christmas lunch.

Aunt Bertha suddenly isn’t talking. Her mouth is drooping and she slumps in her chair. Do you:

a) Presume she has had too much egg nog.

b) Remember FAST to check for a stroke, Face –able to smile? Arms – can they raise both arms? Speech – is their speech slurred? Time (act quickly). Call an ambulance!

c) Enjoy the peace and quiet.

Grandpa Jerome while carving the ham cuts his finger. Do you:

a) Apply a tourniquet.

b) Apply direct pressure to the wound for 15 mins and then cover with a clean dressing.

c) Wish you had got his eyes checked before Christmas.

Mother-in-law Edith develops a red itchy rash after eating some prawn in the salad. Do you:

a) Tell her she is starting to colour match her Christmas dress.

b) Give her an anti histamine quickly and watch her closely for swelling or breathing problems.

c) Start to worry she may have to stay overnight!

While watching your favourite rerun of the seasonal tearjerker, Cousin Philomena complains of a heavy pain in her chest. Do you:

a) Pray it’s indigestion as you love this part of the movie.

b) Keep her calm and remember DRSABCD: Danger, Response, Send for help 000, Airway, Breathing, Compression, Defibrillator.

c) Wonder if your husband has somehow organised this so he didn’t have to watch the rest of the movie!

Finally Old Uncle Ted steps awkwardly on the skateboard and rolls his ankle badly. Do you:

a) Distract him by mentioning Whitlam – that usually gets him talking.

b) Get him to Rest, Ice, Compress with a bandage and Elevate his leg.

c) Do b) plus as its Christmas give him a chocolate, a cuppa, a cuddle, an extra cushion and the all-important Remote so he can watch reruns of Dad’s Army!

Here’s hoping you answered (b) to the above questions and hopefully only one (c)!

Have a wonderful safe and happy Christmas!

Sister Margaret Bates
School Nurse

Theatre Club 2015

Fancy a night out on the town?

Want to see more theatre but just don’t get around to organising it?

Want to spend a night seeing some of Australia’s biggest named actors tread the boards?

Next year, the Drama Department will be running the inaugural Theatre Club. Tickets have been secured to four big productions next year at Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir. A group of tickets will be available to the College community (boys, parents and staff) to spend a night together at the theatre. Please join the Drama SPACES page for information!

Ms Tamara Smith
Head of Drama

Effort – it’s all you need

Over the past two years, Newington has made effort levels a priority amongst the student body. Timely intervention when boys record poor effort and low engagement is essential in maximising student performance. After each semester’s reports, students are followed up with the hope that this will help improve efforts.

Trying hard at anything can be a challenge. It can be uncomfortable, it requires courage, and it requires honesty. Effort levels that are sustained are a greater ingredient than intellect in student achievement, which is why it has become such a priority in recent years. Research amongst school age students indicates that sheer hard work and enjoyment in school life are the keys to success when completing final assessments and preparing fro examinations.

Effort levels at Newington are tracked in school semester reports and graphed in student profiles so that students can usually see if their overall effort levels have climbed or fallen. This graph, when explained to students, provides good feedback on their engagement in the classroom.

Our Year 9 boys have been looking at mental fitness through Positive Psychology and have observed the value of Grit– the ability to repeat efforts in order to attain a long term goal. [1] An acceptance that learning is hard at times, yet exhilarating and gratifying but also daunting, exhausting and sometimes discouraging is an important factor of Grit. In addition. the ability to show Grit comes from learning to continue efforts in spite of the challenges  which can lead to progress and growth. In short, Grit is the key to success in many areas of school life.

Having said this, we accept that we live in confusing times and students often receive mixed messages. Living in  a culture of convenience, where reality TV shows and celebrities who have gained fame through almost no effort at all distort our ideas of merit through perseverance. In some shows on TV, elimination of others is an aim thereby promoting back-biting, scheming and shortcuts as a way of getting to the top. However, reality TV is not real life and what most people achieve in the real world is through genuine effort.

The student leadership team have adopted ‘effort’ as a priority for 2015. Their slogan to ‘Strive and Thrive in one five’ is based around effort. To strive, to try, to aim and go for it is a commendable ethos to encourage through their teams, through their Houses and to every student in the College.

The end of year reports give an outline of achievements for the year, and they also give an account of effort each boy has shown. In fact the report is as much about effort as it is about intellect – it is about Grit, persistent effort. Teacher comments offer recommendations about ways to improve effort.

This year we will have an increased number of Character and Citizenship awards at Prize Giving. These awards are about effort because good character in action is all about effort. It is about resilience, Grit and engagement. These are five qualities that Newington takes seriously because we are in the business of creating ‘men of substance’ who are ‘too good not to be better’. In a nutshell – effort is everything.

Mr Bob Meakin
Acting Head of Stanmore / Head of Students 

1. Duckworth, A.L., (2004) https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/home

Life is So Precious

As we approach Christmas, what does one write about in the shadow of the young cricketer Phillip Hughes’ tragic accident, and the very recent loss of young lives at two Sydney schools? Recently, we have been confronted with two obvious truths; life is indeed both fragile and finite. One considers how many millions of times bouncers have been bowled over the years and how small the chance of such a thing happening actually is, and then this happens to one of Australia’s greatest rising cricketing talents. Phillip Hughes was a young man who to most would appear to be just about “bulletproof” – but that’s just the thing isn’t it – we never know when these things are going to happen, and we are reminded of how fragile we are as human beings, even as strong, fit young men.

Such sudden loss, and the gut-wrenching grief that follows, also remind us of how precious and wonderful life is, and often we only appreciate it when a life is lost and a personality is gone.

As we approach another Christmas my prayer and hope for us is that we will see afresh the reality of what happened at the first Christmas. When all the fuss and flare and flashing lights are stripped away, you have a very earthy, real event that breaks into the cold, hard reality of life and death.

The Loving Creator saying to creation, to us: “here is my reaching out to you in all the mess and joy and anguish and pain and hope of your world”. The gifts of the Wise Men from the East, brought to the Christ-child were no accident – these were gifts of great worth but they were also gifts symbolic of burial (anointing oils for a dead body). They are pointing ahead to the climax of this Christ-child’s life – and that was to be a crucifixion and a resurrection.

This is our Loving God saying to us “this is not all there is” – this mortal life is just the beginning, just the foretaste of what is to come. At Christmas we are reminded that beyond the blood and gore of life there is hope and an eternal reality that goes beyond the realms of mortality itself. When everything goes wrong, and even when tragedy strikes, and life comes to an end – this is not the end of it all – God’s eternal plan is there for each one of us. As Christians we don’t believe in a dead Saviour but a risen Messiah.

May you all have a truly blessed Christmas season (see you at Carols this Saturday, 6 December 2014).

Rev David Williams
College Chaplain

Impact at F1 in Schools World Championships

For the first time ever, an F1 in Schools team from Newington won a place to compete in the World Finals. After months of preparation and endless deliberation over the design of their car, the six boys who make up Team Quantum were accompanied by two teachers to further their campaign in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Team Quantum was one of the few teams representing Australia in the 10th Annual event after winning first place in the Development category at the National F1 in Schools Finals. In order to compete against the pros, Quantum paired up with a Scottish team made up of four girls earlier in the year to form team   ‘Impact’.

With 37  teams from 24 countries vying for the Bernie Ecclestone Trophy and a scholarship to the University College of London, it was a tough competition. Impact finished 18th overall and despite the somewhat disappointing result, the team were not unhappy with the outcome. The experience itself was absolutely incredible.

While in the UAE, the boys also toured some landmarks including the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the city of Dubai, and the 2014 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. F1 in Schools has always been a great experience for everyone involved, but this year in particular taught the boys skills that were beyond what could ever have been covered in normal classes at school.

Sebastian Hodge (9/ME)
Impact Team Member

Uniform Shop Holiday Trading Hours

While the school year winds down for 2014, Midford, the school uniform shop organisers have been busy preparing for new uniform requests for Term 1 2015.

Whether you are looking to visit the Uniform shop in December or in January, please take note of the following dates.

Last Trading Day 2014:
Tuesday 9 December 2014

Holiday Trading:
9:00 AM – 4: 00 PM
Wednesday 7 January 2015 – Wednesday 28 January 2015

Term 1 2015:

Monday – Friday
8:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Normal weekday trading resumes Thursday, 29 January 2015.

Saturday
8:00 AM – 12 NOON

Normal Saturday trading resumes Saturday, 31 January 2015.

From everyone at Midford, we wish you a happy and restful holiday break!

Newington Staff Take on the X-Training Challenge

At 6:00 AM Tuesday, 14 October, 14 Newington staff members committed to a six week X-training Challenge. The Challenge involved two morning sessions a week and an additional third session which members were free to complete on their own accord.

With the range of fitness abilities varying from non-regular exercisers to the more than dominant usual contenders from the Music Department, one thing was for certain, it was going to be tough!

Initial testing showed some impressive results and areas for improvement across the board. Participants were placed in two teams based on their testing results and the sessions that followed includes a range of team challenges and individual battles.

Fast forward to Thursday 20 November when testing was replicated and  it was already evident that each individual was up for the challenge of bettering their initial results. Results were outstanding with some participants improving certain fitness measures by a whopping 40 per cent!

Special mention to all those involved and no doubt certain staff members are going to be eagerly awaiting the return of X-training in Term 1 2015.

 Mr Nathan Parnham
Strength and Conditioning Manager 

Oasis Sleep Rough 2014

Oasis Sleep Rough is an increasingly popular event in the school calendar. This year, Sleep Rough was attended by 173 students with large numbers of boys from Kelynack and Johnstone Houses. The boys sacrificed their Saturday to come in to the College to participate in an empathy exercise to better relate to those who are homeless or living on the street by staying overnight without the creature comforts of a warm bed at home.

Major Keith Hampton from the Oasis Surry Hills refuge addressed the students during the event and shared with the boys some stories and insight into the work Oasis Youth Support Network do. Then, Jack Hewitt (11/KL) and Fergus McKenna (11/JN) presented him with a cheque for $40,000 – the grand sum of monies raised over the past 12 months.

Throughout the duration of the night, the House leaders engaged the students in a number of games in an effort to tire them out which seemed to work as by 2:30 AM most were asleep. A big thank you to Bea Standen and her team at Alliance Catering who generously donated all the food that was consumed at supper and breakfast. Thank you also to Mr Mountain, Mr Egerton, Mr Chadwick and Ms Blomfield-Brown who also gave up their beds for the night.

Mr Alex Pyne
Head of Kelynack