Dear parents and guardians,

This week we presented Chess Colours to four boys and awarded the ONU Character and Service Prize for Chess to Joshua Cosgrove (12/JN).  Chess Captain Liam Giang (12/JN) spoke to the boys about the Newington Chess Club and while he had plenty of fun with his speech, he was justifiably proud of its growth and performance.  Liam talked about how Chess has thrived in the face of COVID-19 thanks to the creation of online tournaments that have meant (and please pardon the puns) they were most definitely not checkmated by the lockdown.  Our Senior, Intermediate and Junior A teams all finished undefeated.  Liam suggested all boys should check out the chess club, as it would be a rook-y mistake to do otherwise.

We also presented Debating Colours to 11 boys, and our 10B Debating Team presented the Rostrum Trophy to the Headmaster.  Benjamin Diskin (12/MO) was awarded the Richard Thompson Memorial Prize for Best Debater and Tom Graham (12/MO) was awarded the ONU Character and Service Prize for Debating.

Debating Captain Grayson Richardson (12/KL) was awarded Oratory Colours and spoke to the boys about his passion for debating. Grayson explained that Debating often required as much time, effort, commitment and, occasionally, sweat as any other sport, with debaters straining themselves over cases, suffering near career-ending injuries, and even bleeding for the Debating program. His summation? Debating is one of the most physically demanding and athletically challenging competitions in the entire school. Grayson suggested that anyone with an argumentative bone in their body give it a go next season … if only because it is an opportunity to argue just for the sake of it.

Mr Parker presented his first batch of ‘Headmaster’s List for Academic Effort’ certificates to 25 Year 8 and 25 Year 9 boys. It was great to congratulate them for the hard work they have done over the past two terms.  Headmaster sent a communication about his initiative yesterday with a photograph of the boys with their certificates.

Tomorrow we will write to our Year 12 families to outline the activities planned for the last week of term.  This will help our Year 12 families to be part of Valedictory Day 2020.