Dear Parents and Guardians,

Our ninth biennial LitFest ended last Friday.  It was – again – a fantastic event with wonderful speakers who had the boys spellbound with their sessions, which traversed everything from street poetry to fantasy fiction. My thanks to the Newington College P&F whose support makes LitFest possible. Congratulations particularly to our Year 11 boys who by the end of last week had raised a total of $2243 for the literacy charity Room to Read. 

Our Year 7 and Year 9 boys sat their NAPLAN exams this week. We also held Year 8 parent/teacher interviews, and all boys had photographs taken with their Mentor and Mentor group. We expect to hear even more music around the campus from this week as auditions begin for our annual RockFest concert. 

On Tuesday, Ellis Khu (8/JN) competed in the NSW Diving All Schools Championships and won in his age group.  He will now represent NSW in the Diving School Sport Australia Championships in late July.  Congratulations Ellis – a brilliant effort and just reward for your many hours of dedicated training!

This week is National Boarding Week.  Our Senior Boarding Prefect Angus Webster (12/MO) described his experience of boarding at Newington at assembly on Wednesday. Angus told the boys boarding had helped him to improve his academics and achieve his co-curricular goals as well as teaching him important life lessons: independence, organisation, leadership, mateship and gratitude.

We also heard from our special guest Major Stephen Briggs from the Salvation Army.  Major Briggs and his colleagues were here to launch the 2019 Red Shield Appeal with our head of Service Learning Mr Mick Madden.  The boys have stepped up with a tremendous response to the appeal this year: more than 300 Year 10, 11 and 12 boys have volunteered to participate in this year’s door knock on Sunday 26 May.  Now we need your help.  We need 90 parent and staff drivers to transport our willing volunteers on the day.  This is a great opportunity for our College community to come together as a team with boys, parents and staff working to assist the Salvos – one of Australia’s most well recognised and respected charitable organisations.  To find out how to help click here.

During Mentor period our Year 8 boys have been learning the difference between being a ‘bystander’ or an ‘upstander’; the challenge to ‘stand up, don’t stand by’.  ‘Upstander’ behaviour was exemplified by two of our boys this week. Tom Graham (11/MO) and Alexander Short (11/MA) stood up to defend a group of Year 7 boys who found themselves in a difficult situation on the train journey home, ensuring they were safe.  Well done Tom and Alex. You are model citizens, a credit to your family, your friends and your school. You are truly ‘men of substance’.

I look forward to seeing you all at sport fixtures this weekend.