Dear Parents and Guardians,

The College had two terrific results at the Impro Australia Theatresports School’s Challenge at Enmore Theatre last Sunday. Congratulations to our Intermediate Theatresports boys, who tied for first place with PLC, and our Senior Theatresports boys, who won their competition. Newington College is the only school to have had Intermediate and Senior teams in every state grand final for the past five years.  At assembly, Head of Drama Ms Tamara Smith asked us to imagine two circles that overlap by the smallest margin.  The circle on the left is joy and the circle on the right is fear – and in that small overlapping area you have IMPROV!

At assembly, we also recognised 17 boys who were awarded House Honour Colours.  The award recognises a boy’s citizenship, co-curricular contribution and service to the community. The prestigious nature of the award is best captured in the second word of the title: ‘honour’. The boys who receive these awards have bought honour to themselves, their Houses and the College. More importantly, they have acted ‘honourably’ – that is knowing, and doing, what is morally right. This takes courage, resilience and speaks to being men of substance. 

Students are eligible for House Honour Colours from Term 4 of Year 11. Congratulations to Liam McCausland, William Mellor, Justin Raja, Alessandro Roncolato, Liam Singleton, Daniel Baykitch, Jaison Burgess, Andrew Harrison, Richmond Sear, Joel Gardner, Nazim Rahman, Tayne Andrew, Darcy McDonald, Richard Ge, Angus Mackie-Williams, Liam Taylor and Tom Whitnall.

Deputy Senior Prefect and Chair of the Student Representative Council (SRC) Alexander Humphreys acknowledged the College is in the grip of World Cup fever – then introduced our first ever Inter-House World Cup Tournament. The tournament was born after our new Year 8 SRC representatives, Alex Papadopoulos (LE) and Kalani Pilcher (MA), asked if we could do something to celebrate the World Cup. The tournament draw was held in front of staff and boys at assembly to ensure, in Alexander’s words, that “no acts of corruption influence this draw and that everything is above board”. The games will be played at lunch time with the Grand Final scheduled for next Thursday.  Be sure to ask your boys about the “interesting” rules and how their house is performing in the Cup.

There is one week left of Term 2, and I ask boys to maintain the high standards of behaviour and grooming they have set so far this year. These are important matters that set the tone for our College both within our gates and in the wider community. We must never become lax, and always conduct ourselves in a way that upholds our fine reputation.

Enjoy the last week of Term.