Walkathon

Last week all of our boys (and a host of parents) braved threatening skies to take part in this year’s Walkathon. Similarly to last year, the boys had a fantastic time as they meandered through Swain Gardens, around the block and back into the school gates. A particular highlight of the event was our Kindergarten boys walking with their buddies unperturbed by the rain. The success of the event was due in no small part to the hard work of a host of parents under the leadership of Melissa Hunter and the Social and Fundraising Committee of the Lindfield P&F. We really appreciate the work that went into organising the fundraising and the logistics of the day!

Not only was the day successful from a walking perspective; once again we have been blown away by the generosity of our community. We have managed to raise $5539.00 towards future P&F initiatives in the school.

Thanks again for your support!

[Show as slideshow]

Certificates

A Message from Mr Wyatt

Inquiry

Over the last term I have had a number of parents comment on the nature of learning at Lindfield as a result of the implementation of the PYP. It has been encouraging to share with parents the journey we have travelled as a school as we evaluate and develop our teaching and learning practice.

The PYP is a fantastic learning framework but at its core it is simply a collection of best practice from across the world based on educational research. Whilst I am very proud of the learning that is currently taking place at Lindfield, it is important to acknowledge that nothing we are doing is completely revolutionary…it is simply in line with what many leading schools are attempting to do.

The boys’ learning continues to focus on a balance between ‘the basics’ and making meaningful connections across the curriculum. We use a variety of teaching methods ranging from direct teaching  to a guided inquiry approach. Our choice of method is based on the lesson outcomes and the boys’ learning needs.

Our ultimate goals is twofold; we want to develop knowledgeable young men who have a deep understanding of the world around them; and perhaps more importantly we want to create young men who understand themselves as learners. These two goals will equip our boys for Secondary School and more significantly, for life outside of school.

We look forward to continuing to develop our teaching and learning approach over the coming years as we too continue to learn.

Coffee and Chat with Mr Wyatt

On Tuesday morning I was joined by a few parents for an informal catch up to discuss a wide range of school matters. It was a great chance to gain some parental feedback and to informally answer questions. These sessions will occur twice a term to provide an additional avenue for developing partnership between home and school. I look forward to being joined by others in the future.

Enrolments – Year 5 and Kindergarten

Due to the addition of an extra Stage 3 Class in 2014 we are in the fortunate position to have vacancies for next year. We are currently enrolling boys for Year 5 2014 as we seek to gain the necessary numbers to make the additional class a straight Year 5. Limited vacancies also exist in Kindergarten for next year. If you know families who might be interested, please encourage them to call the School Office on 9416 4280.

Earn and Learn Points

As you are aware we have been taking part in the Woolworths Earn and Learn scheme this year. This year we have been collecting the tokens for the ‘Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children Garfield Barwick School’ at North Parramatta.

As the program has just ended, please send any remaining tokens to the School Office asap so that we can get them ready to send on.

Dates to Note

Friday 21 June  SRC Mufti Day,  Chapel in Don Brown Hall at 8.30am all welcome
Last Day of Term 2

Term 3 – Week 1
Monday 15 July Term commences at 8.30am 
Wednesday 17 July Founders Concert 7.00pm at Town Hall
Friday 19 July  Chapel in Don Brown Hall at 8.30am all welcome
Saturday 20 July  Winter Sport Round 7 

Week 2
Tuesday 23 July  Open Morning 9.00am,  School Assembly in Don Brown Hall at 2.30pm all welcome

Annual Sports Seminar

On Wednesday 5 June Newington College hosted the 3rd Annual Sports Seminar with a keynote address from World Anti-Doping Association President John Fahey.

Newington College’s Strength and Conditioning Manager Nathan Parnham opened the seminar speaking about the College’s philosophy on boys using gym equipment. He explained how the College teaches fundamental movement skills before developing sport specific programs to suit the needs and capacity of each boy. Mr Parnham also talked about the changing culture within gyms and the need for new coaching styles as well as how to better increase the opportunity for all students to utilize the facility in a safe environment.

Nutritionist Susie Burrell was second to address the audience raising some common concerns about the importance of quality nutritional intake. She also began a discussion around supplements and whether they are appropriate for teenagers. Ms Burrell suggested that when using supplements, timing and quality was the key to success.

Alanna Metlikovec from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority provided an insiders’  look into the drug-testing process. Ms Metlikovec presented some interesting facts about the drugs and supplements market including the reality that there are more than 6,000 supplements that are on the market which the ASADA doesn’t support.

The keynote speaker for the evening was President of the World Anti-Doping Association John Fahey. He spoke about why people take drugs and some of the consequences of usage, as well as some of the current challenges that the WADA is facing.

To view John’s presentation please see SPACES.

Special thanks for the success of the night go to Mr Simon Poidevin for organising Mr Fahey’s attendance, Newington College Sportsmaster James Godfrey for encouraging the event, Athlete’s Foot for their generous donations, and Ms. Veronique Lorquet who worked so tirelessly on the evening to ensure it ran smoothly.

A Mid-Winter Entertainment

On the evening of Wednesday 13 June 1866, the boys of Newington College, ‘…assisted by several Gentlemen’, presented a Mid-Winter Entertainment. One of the treasures of the College Archives is a printed program for the event. It is our earliest documentary evidence of the performing arts at the College, although the program describes the event as ‘their usual Mid-Winter Entertainment’, indicating that it had been done before.

The program comprised a series of recitations and dialogues, several songs and duets, and two ‘drawing room scenes’. All eleven recitations and three dialogues were performed by the boys. They included well-known pieces, such as ‘the Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna’ by Charles Wolfe, recited by William Neill, and ‘Hamlet and the Ghost’ by William Shakespeare, performed by William Andrews and Brier Mills, along with pieces apparently composed for the occasion.

Mr McManis, the Music Master appointed the previous year, performed two solo songs and joined with a student, Alfred Golledge, for Hérold’s ‘Overture to Zampa’ and with Miss Fletcher, the President’s daughter, for ‘The Cure Quadrille’. Joseph Coates, teacher of History and Classics and better known outside the classroom as a first grade cricketer, sang ‘Thou art so near, and yet so far’. There was more music, but the program provides no further details.

The stars of the ‘drawing room scenes’ were Joseph James Fletcher, the President’s son and William Henry Higman, one of the original students from July 1863. Fletcher played Mr Harold Hairy, ‘a hirsute gentleman out of employment’, opposite Higman’s Mr Shav’em-close, ‘Hon. Sec. to Anti-Beard and Moustache Association’, in the untitled first piece. In the second piece, ‘Married by Mistake’, Fletcher was Captain Heavyside, while Higman played both Mrs Smith (opposite Mr Coates’ Mr Smith) and Mrs Annabella Potts.

We are indebted to Mrs Elizabeth Tomlinson for donating the program to the College in 2011.

David Roberts
College Archivist

Queen’s Birthday Honour List 2013

Newington College congratulates prominent Old Boy Dr Elwyn Elms (ON ’60) who was recently honoured with an OAM for service to the Law in NSW and for services to the community. The Newington College community also congratulates Ronald Haddrick MBE who was awarded an AM for significant service to the performing arts as an actor and narrator. Ron is the father of Greg Haddrick (ON ’78) who was Senior Prefect and is the writer and producer of the original “Underbelly” TV series, and Grandfather to Jack Haddrick (12/MA).

New Women Call for Stallholders

This year New Women (Newington students’ mothers’ group raising funds to benefit students) will manage the popular Market Place at Back to Newington Day on Saturday 7 September.

New Women are inviting stallholders to join them at Back to Newington Day, the largest community day in Newington College’s calendar. With compulsory attendance for all current secondary students, a huge crowd is expected made up of students, parents, Old Boys and MOONS (Mothers Of Old Newingtonians), college staff and community members.

A successful market needs a variety of market stalls and so New Women are seeking stallholders selling a range of goods. If this sounds like you, or someone you know, please contact Caroline McDonald to register your interest or find out more.

The Market Place opens at 9am and wraps at 4.30pm. Early bird registration fee for one stall is $195, available until 30 August. After 1 September 2013, cost of stall registration will be $210. Each space is approximately 1.5m square.

New Women are also asking each stallholder to donate one item/s to a minimum value of $50 for inclusion in the Back to Newington Day silent auction.

Please help us get the word out to stallholders, or book now to secure your space! For more information, please click here.

Time to get some Inspiration from Black & White Cookbook

As the Rugby test season gets into full swing, the opportunities to have some friends over to watch the game presents itself. Rather than just send out for a pizza, why not open up the Black & White Cookbook for some ‘dude food’ to share.

Here are some suggestions:

Mini Sausage Rolls (page 94) Always popular and plenty of opportunity to experiment with new flavours. Try using tomato chutney instead of tomato sauce!!

Texas Level 4 Alarm Chili (page 260) The amount of chili in this dish maybe daunting for some, but it can always be toned down. Delicious when served with Southern American Cornbread (page 157), Grand Final Guacamole (page 74) and sour cream.

Chicken Souvlaki (page 231) Very quick and easy to prepare

Malaysian BBQ Spare Ribs (page 243)

Lamb Kofta (page 80) Make meatballs with the mixture and serve with Tsatziki (page 102) yum!

Layered Avocado and Sour Cream Dip (page 76)

Homemade Burgers (page 82) Take simple mince and turn it into a fun and flavoursome meal. Lay all the salad, extras and condiments out on the table and let the hordes build their own burger.

Marinated Chicken Wings (page 46), Sticky Chicken Drumsticks (page 47)

Spiced Chicken Drumsticks (page 69) Boys seem to love anything with a stick or something that can be eaten with the fingers; these three suggestions fit the bill.

Enjoy the holidays – Go the Wallabies!!

Support Education through the AIS USA Foundation

The Australian Independent Schools (AIS) USA Foundation was established in 2006 by Newington College, and has grown to include 29 Australian Independent Schools. The Foundation continues to be strongly connected to Newington College as the College assists in the administration of the Foundation and four of the ten current Board members are Old Newingtonians.

The AIS USA Foundation offers alumni, parents and friends, a tax deductible way to financially support educational facilities of affiliated schools in Australia. For those who have a US tax obligation, the Foundation provides a way to make gifts that qualify as a deduction on their US tax return. 100% of the gift donation goes to the school of the donors choice. Approximately $100,000 is gifted to Newington College annually through the AIS USA Foundation.

For those US Old Newingtonians and current parents who lodge American tax returns considering a gift to the AIS USA Foundation, please visit the website www.aisusafoundation.com for more information and ways to support the College.

Headmaster’s Print Offer

To mark the College’s Sesquicentenary, Australian artist Rodney Pople has painted a group portrait of the first seven headmasters at Newington College. 150 signed limited edition prints of this portrait are now available for you to keep.

To find out more and put in your order, click here.

SRC Fundraiser Friday 21 June 2013

On Friday 21^st June, the SRC will be conducting a fundraising day to raise money for Yalari. This organisation offers Indigenous children from regional, rural and remote communities and towns across Australia the opportunity for a first-class secondary education through full boarding scholarships at some of the highest achieving boarding schools in Australia.

The boys at Newington are very fortunate to attend such a wonderful school and the SRC felt that it would be fantastic if we could help other children to have the same schooling opportunity.

It will be a mufti day with the theme being 150 (in the spirit of our Sesquicentenary celebrations). Boys are free to interpret this theme in a variety of ways e.g. 150 on sunglasses, hats, and clothing. There will be a prize for the most original 150 inspired mufti outfit. We will be collecting a gold coin donation from each boy.

Belinda Smallhorn
Kindergarten Teacher

Prep Shop

The Prep Shop is always looking for new volunteers on Mondays from 3.00 – 3.45pm and Wednesdays from 8.00 – 8.45am.

Please let Maria Dickinson maria.dickinson@bigpond.com know if you are able to help.

Music Notes

Founders Concert Rehearsal and Performance

There is a Founders Concert Rehearsal on the first day back of next term. Only School Choir boys are taking part. Boys will be leaving at the start of recess and returning at 3.30pm. Founders Concert is on Wednesday 17 July at the Sydney Town Hall beginning at 7pm. There is a rehearsal during the day.
A permission note with all the relevant information was sent home on 17 June. Please return the note before the end of this term.

Lindfield School Concert

On Thursday 8 August, Lindfield campus will be holding a concert in Centennary Hall at Stanmore. It will start at 6pm and will conclude by 7.30pm. All boys will be involved. Please make a note of this in your diary.

Rehearsals during the first week.

School choir – there will be no rehearsal in week 1. The new time for choir will be 7.45am – 8.30am on Monday mornings beginning week 2.
String Ensemble – there will be a rehearsal Week 1 on Tuesday at 7.45am
School Band – there will be no rehearsal week 1.

Boys need to be at rehearsals on time. If they walk in late, it disrupts the rehearsal as instruments need to be tuned. It is also not fair to the boys who are there on time.

Practice during the holidays

Playing an instrument is a physical activity. They require physical fitness. If instruments are not played regularly the level of fitness (for the lips in the wind instruments and the arms and finger for the string instruments) drops quite significantly. This is a three week break. I understand holidays are a time for a break but playing an instrument for 5 – 10 minutes a day to retain fitness is not a huge amount of time, especially if it is done first thing in a day. Please encourage your boys to do a little every day if at all possible.

Mrs Vanessa South
Music Teacher 

Faith Matters

Winning Gracefully

Winning gracefully can be harder than losing gracefully. When we win we’re tempted by arrogance, power, insensitivity, gloating, and wanting to relive our success long after everyone else is bored by it. Gracious winners always remember what it feels like to lose. They are caught up in something bigger than their own wins and losses.

Abraham Lincoln had the wisdom to place the good of the United States above his own ego, appointing his worst political critic, Edwin Stanton, to run the War Department. Stanton, a brilliant legal mind, could be brusque and condescending. As Frederick Douglass put it, “Politeness was not one of his weaknesses.” Lincoln, on the other hand, was keenly aware of his looks and his uneducated background. (When someone charged him with being two-faced during a campaign, he responded: “If I had two faces, do you think I’d be wearing this one?”) As outgoing attorney general of the losing party, Stanton had belittled Lincoln as ‘the original gorilla.’ How Lincoln treated Stanton is Civil War history.

Lincoln trusted in him, confided in him, leaned on him, depended on him. And Stanton responded with unfailing loyalty and affection. On the morning of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln died after having been shot the night before at Ford’s Theatre. The most famous words ever spoken after the death of a US president were spoken that morning: “Now he belongs to the ages.” The speaker was Edwin Stanton.

Robert Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son, said that after his father died he was visited in his room each morning for two weeks by Stanton who “spent the first ten minutes of his visits weeping without saying a word.”

When nothing else works, showing grace does!

Mr Peter Morphew
School Chaplain 

Martial Arts Club

Evolution Jujutsu

This term has been full speed all the way.

We have continued with our ‘Homework’, focusing on doing good deeds without having to be asked, where the boys have been encouraged to report on how they have been helpful during the week, i.e. helping parents, siblings etc by doing tasks that need to be done, such as making mum breakfast :).  These activities did not include those tasks which the boys should be doing anyway (homework etc) and it was good to see the boys having to think about how to achieve this.

We reward those who show consistency with doing their best in class and so Freddie Bourne, impeccable manners and fantastic focus, and Alex Wang, enormous improvement with his focus this term, were awarded Snake and Leopard patches respectively.

On 14 June 2013, several of the boys were awarded their next grade level:

Red Belt (L1)
Parsa Yazdani
Lachlan James
Kieran Davey-Webb

Red Belt with Stripe (L2)
James Stevens
Jamie Kerr
Marcus Burghen

Gold Belt (L5)
Alex Wang

Boys working toward higher grades have to demonstrate a deeper knowledge off techniques.  Will Fisher, for solid work toward level 5 grade, Gold Belt, was awarded Snake patch, Jack Middleton, working toward L6 Gold Belt, was awarded Tiger patch, and Tristan Henry, who has a little more work to do for his L3 Orange Belt, was also awarded Snake patch.

Grading can be a daunting process so, congratulations to all, an excellent effort overall.

We would encourage parents to read through the syllabus books with their son, since some of the boys need help with this, and it also helps the boys to know parents have an interest in what they are doing.  Parents will also find our Silver Stars programme (included in the syllabus books), encourages good behaviour and habits and is a terrific tool to use with their son.  Plus they get a silver star to put on their shirt.

A reminder that Evolution Jujutsu is open to all boys in Kindy through to Year 6.  If the Friday afternoon timeslot does not suit, Newington boys are welcome to join us in our studio at Level 1, 346 Pacific Highway, Lindfield.  Please see our website  http://www.fitevolution.com.au  for class times, including classes for teens and adults.

Marice Knapman

Camp Waratah – Holiday Rugby Camp

Please click here for further information.

Roseville Chase Rotary Fun Run – 28 July 2013

Please click here for further information.