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Dear Parents and Guardians,
LitFest 2019 – 26 letters, infinite possibilities has been our focus this week. We’re proud to say it’s the ninth time we’ve held this biennial event. Mr Michael Parker addressed boys, staff and guests at the LitFest launch on Wednesday, sharing his love of books and reading and his all time favourite novels: The Outsiders by SE Hinton and 1984 by George Orwell, and his favourite author, Salman Rushdie. Mr Parker is a published author and talked to the boys about the experience of writing one of his novels Doppelganger, published in 2006.
Our special guest speaker Tristan Bancks, an accomplished children’s and young adult author had the audience in stitches with a childhood story that became the basis of his children’s series My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up. In his departing message, he told the boys: ‘If any member of staff at this school asks you to go to detention, you should just go because trying to avoid it may result in you losing a body part’. Please ask your boys to share this hilarious story with you.
In conjunction with LitFest the Newington community is raising funds for Room to Read a charitable organization that gives the gift of education and literacy to children in third world countries. Sadly, it is estimated that nearly 800 million people are illiterate and two thirds of these are women and girls. I applaud our Year 11 boys, led by Nicolas Yule, Sam Lydon and Christos Fotopoulos, who raised $800 at a barbecue today. It was such a success a second barbecue is planned for tomorrow. This is a wonderful initiative: just $365 can educate a girl in one of the world’s poorest countries for one year, helping her to gain the vital skills she needs to make critical decisions when she leaves school.
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed their energy, time and skills towards the success of LitFest. There is more to come, and I am looking forward to the ‘Vivid’-style light exhibition and Centre for Ethics talk on Ethics, Democracy and Journalism tonight.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Newington mum’s a very happy Mother’s Day this Sunday.
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