Faith Matters

Taking Care of Unfinished Business

A young Korean once approached the counter at Trans World Airlines and explained that nine years earlier, when he was 17, he’d travelled on a child’s ticket. Now he wanted to pay the difference. The agent was dumbfounded by his honesty! Billy Kim was 17 when the Korean War broke out. His dad died and his school was bombed, so he joined the American troops, shining boots and washing dishes. When he got an opportunity to go to America, he was thrilled. Landing in San Francisco he thought he’d arrived in heaven! But he had to get from there to his sponsor in Virginia, and he had no money. Afraid he’d get lost, some friends bought him a child’s ticket and pinned a note on his uniform; it read, “To Whom It May Concern, send this boy to Route 1, Box 75, Danville, Virginia.” But the story doesn’t end there. Billy later became an influential leader. Not bad for a boy who shined shoes!

God’s choice of leaders has less to do with connections and charisma than with character and humility. Restitution is important in God’s economy, after all He sent Jesus to set things right between us and Himself. Do you have any unfinished business that needs attention?

Rev Peter Morphew

Kindergarten – UOI – Our Responsibility to Care for Animals

Kindergarten have been inquiring into the central idea, ‘Humans have a responsibility to care for the animals they share the world with through an understanding of their needs’. To gain a further understanding of how to care for farm animals we visited Calmsley Hill City Farm. The boys experienced handling some baby animals and milking a cow. They also enjoyed going on a tractor ride, watching sheep dogs round up sheep and seeing a sheep being shorn.

To further explore the concept of responsibility, Kindergarten was fortunate to have some baby chickens in the classroom for two weeks. The boys were able to see the baby chicks hatching from their eggs and they were then given the responsibility of caring for them on a daily basis. They loved observing the chicks and recording their daily observations.

The boys also learnt about caring for our native animals. We were fortunate to have a visit from a WIRES volunteer, who showed the boys some practical ways that they can care for their local wildlife. I have noticed some positive action following this visit, with the boys now very aware of the impact of their plastic rubbish on animals. 

In class the boys have worked hard to write informative texts about a range of animals, some of which are endangered. They have learnt about extracting ‘key words’ from texts to then use as the basis of sentence writing. They have also brainstormed practical ways in which they can personally help to care for animals.

Belinda Smallhorn – Kindergarten Teacher

Stage 2 Inquiry

Stage 2 have been inquiring into a unit from the Transdisciplinary Theme: Where we are in Place and Time. Our Central Idea for the Unit is: Throughout history, people of diverse backgrounds play a role in continually shaping the local community. We have been looking at this idea through the concepts of Reflection, Connection and Change.

The boys began the unit with a provocation in the Bush Classroom. There were exciting reports that someone’s belongings (artifacts) had been scattered amongst trees and under rocks, in the bush. As a class we went quickly to investigate the situation. The boys carefully collected the artifacts, along with photographs of the scene and participated in an observation task to try and uncover who they might belong to.

This led the boys into our first Line of Inquiry about ‘How historians unlock the past’. They learnt about the skills that a historian uses and created thought provoking questions to interview our guest speaker, Mr Campbell Jenson. He has a degree in Ancient History and in his previous occupation travelled as a historian to explore Rome.

After learning these skills, the boys were given the opportunity to apply them in order to discover information (both past and present) about the Newington College Community. The boys were thoroughly engaged in this learning process and even found out that Newington College only had only 16 boys in the school when it first opened. They have thrived on the opportunity to create their own questions to deepen their inquiries.

In our second Line of Inquiry we are looking at the history of local communities. The boys are reflecting on the different communities that they are apart of. They have learnt how to create open and challenging questions to assist them in finding out about how their communities have changed over time. The boys are currently very busy interviewing community members, researching, visiting local communities and collecting information to answer their own personal inquiries. We are looking forward to seeing the changes and “action” that eventuate from this learning experience.

Miss Angela Tonkin – Year 3 Teacher

Experience Year 7 Day at Stanmore

Last week, the boys in Year 6 visited our Stanmore Campus, together with the boys from Wyvern House, for their second Experience Stanmore Day (with the first being in Year 5).  The purpose of these days is to support our boys in their transition to Year 7 at Stanmore or elsewhere by exposing them to the senior school structure and some of the lessons that they will undertake and be able to choose from in the coming weeks.

To make the experience as authentic as possible the boys started the day with a train ride from Lindfield Station to Stanmore with a quick walk across the platform at Central. The boys were amazed at how easy and quick it was to get to Stanmore from Lindfield.

Throughout the day the boys learnt about the importance of having and demonstrating a growth mindset in all that they do in order to be successful lifelong learners and men who provide a positive contribution to our society. They were able to demonstrate their growth mindset as they participated in English Literature, Drama, Commerce, Design and Technology, Physical Education and Science lessons with the Stanmore teaching staff. Some of the boys were also given the opportunity to experience a full senior school assembly with some interesting insights from Dr Mulford. The day was truly authentic ending with an Emergency Evacuation (as a result of some food technology creations that fortunately weren’t ours!) in the rain!

The boys were excellent participants throughout the day and demonstrated enthusiasm for the activities and respect for others. They were truly great role models for our campus.

Pascal Czerwenka – Year 6 Teacher

National Simultaneous Storytime

Students from Kindergarten to Year Six celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime 2015 on Wednesday 27 May 2015 at 11:00am.

Our campus was one of 3,261 locations across Australia who shared a reading of this years’ selected book, The Brothers Quibble by Australian author/illustrator, Aaron Blabey.

Kindergarten shared this book, as well as some of their other favourites, with “the big boys” at the Rae Centre at the Stanmore Campus. A quick trip on the school bus and they were soon awe-struck by the size – of the school and of the boys!

Here at Lindfield, Year One to Year Six shared the same book at the same time, which this year was presented by a reading choir where vocal and facial expression are the only tools used. Sixteen boys represented each of our classes and volunteered their own time to assist with this performance.

We were also able to view a short film by the author that showed our students a little about the author including his massive vinyl record collection, which provoked curiosity and discussion about this recording equipment from a bygone era as well as how he tackles his writing and illustrating.

We will be very fortunate to be able to hear more from Aaron Blabey in August when he visits our school in celebration of Book Week.

Sue Gough – Teacher Librarian

Musical Notes

Lindfield Concert

177 boys performed on stage at least twice on Tuesday 2 June. Some boys performed in up to 7 items. All of the boys worked extremely hard in preparing for the concert – songs were learnt by heart and instruments were played regularly at home. It was also lots of fun putting the whole school item together. Having a mixed ensemble, making it more like an orchestra, was a new experience for many of the boys. 

Music Weekend

On the weekend of 23 and 24 May, boys who play or sing in a school ensemble attended a music weekend. It was a combined school activity with boys from Wyvern House. On the Saturday afternoon, all those who sing in the school choir came and sang in the school chapel, learning the songs that they will be singing at Founders Concert. The combined choirs of Wyvern and Lindfield will be performing at Founders Concert in Week 2 of Term 3. 

The Sunday was for instrumentalists – string ensemble and band boys came for the day. There were tutorials with specialist teachers on the various instruments and big ensemble rehearsals. Lots of music was covered and learnt during the 5 hours of playing. Everyone improved.

Vanessa South – Music Mistress

Learning about Chinese Characters

This semester we had fun with learning about Chinese characters.  In Junior Primary we saw lots of pictures of the sun, moon, mountain and fire.  We wondered what the Chinese characters that symbolised these would look like.  In pairs, we tried to put the paper cuttings of the different strokes given to us, to form a character which we think represents the sun, moon, mountain and fire.  Then we drew a picture next to it to show how the character and picture relate.  Finally, the characters and their stroke order were revealed to us, and we practiced writing them.

In Primary we learnt the story behind 8 fundamental characters in Chinese that are also used as building blocks to form other Chinese characters or phrases.  We learnt the characters for fire,wood, sun, moon, person, mouth, door and mountain.  As you can see, the character for mouth looks like a mouth opening up wide.   

The character for person looks like a person walking.

The character for fire looks like a person calling out for help with waving arms.

A volcano is represented by the characters for fire and mountain together.

After learning the story behind each of these 8 characters, we learnt the how to write the strokes step by step.

In Years 5 and 6, we moved on from writing characters and we started to learn how to use our iPads to write Chinese characters, using the pinyin (spelling the sound of the Chinese characters) input method.  We created a short story on what our name is, which country we come from, and what our hobbies and interests are.

Emily Lo – Mandarin Teacher

Mini Olympics 2015

Another year, another P & F inspired fundraising event that was sure to impress! With the brilliance of P & F leader Julianne Ashworth on the case, a well-organised and fun-filled event was always going to ensue.  The magical event aside for a moment, this was all about the cause, and this year it was an inspired choice. The Special Olympics showcases the immense talents of the intellectually disabled, and this year we had the pleasure of meeting and listening to former Olympian Mel Eustace. Her speech was heartfelt, enthusiastic and awe-inspiring, reminding us all that with hard work and determination, great rewards are possible………speaking of which, lets get into the events of the day!!

After a brief description of the many and varied sporting events a tireless and dedicated team of parents had agreed to assist with, the boys were off, and fun and games they had. Split into K-2 and 3-5 year groups and under the watchful eye of classroom teachers, specialist teachers and the Year 6 cohort, the atmosphere was positively sizzling as the first events began.

For the K-2 boys, there were three events to partake in: Sack Races, Gymnastics and a Ball Games station. The Sack Racing turned into a endurance event as each year group jumped, and clawed and crawled as powerfully and strongly as they possibly could and after 30 minutes of this resembled the colour of one of the sacks as they gleamed a happy, slightly red colour. Surely they could not possibly have any energy for the Gymnastics event!!!

Gymnastics was a sea of equipment and eager and excited boys as both the K-2 and 3-5 boys shared the space with varying degrees of difficulty. For the K-2 boys, it was another endurance event with forward rolls, handstands, cartwheels and log rolls the order of the day with some brilliant results. The Primary boys found themselves jumping, twisting, turning, lifting and tumbling their way across a great range of Gymnastic apparatus.

The junior boys then took to the JP area for some ball games with a difference. 6 stations stood before them with a mix of throwing, kicking, passing and underarming, all testing their ability to concentrate and aim for a target. The result was a brilliant display of skill and precision!

After the exploits in the Gymnastics, the primary boys moved to the Basketball court for the most anticipated event of the day…..the hole in one!! A brilliantly designed toilet (Tim and Nicholas Davies) and a bucket full of empty toilet rolls, just meant one thing……fun, fun and more fun to see who could  throw the rolls into the toilet bowl. Now seriously, what more could a boy want??? Add toilet humour here!!

The boys then moved down to the bottom field for the tug-o-war to end all tug-o-wars. And the victors…well, you will have to ask the boys because it is all hush, hush. The only thing I saw was the big smiles and the red palms. I heard something about an epic plane throwing contest as well where I think young Toby Ashworth left all behind him with a plane that would have made the Wright brothers proud.

Last, but certainly not least, was the Newington Burn where boys tested their true endurance skills with a run up the treacherous grass mountain….well, several runs up the mountain. And despite a few red faces and some sore legs, I think they all really enjoyed themselves!!

So after a morning of inspiration, perspiration and a whole lot of fun, we were left with the reason for the event itself…the fundraising. And when it was all tallied up, Newington had raised $10,062 for the Special Olympics. As well as this, we had some amazing individual fundraisers and they are listed below:

Athan Chronis: Kindergarten

Edward Xu: Year 1

Koyla Herbst: Year 2

Toby Ashworth: Year 3

Hugo Minetti and Marcus Gripton-Corbett: Year 4

Jack Middleton: Year 5E

Aditya Apana: Year 5L

Marcus Renshaw: Year 6C

Jock McCloskey: Year 6E

A great way to finish an amazing day of healthy competition and a massive thank you again to Julianne Ashworth and all the parents who assisted on the day to make it a wonderful event and I for one cannot wait to do it all again next year!

A Message from the Head of Lindfield Campus

This edition of Prep Talk is an opportunity to reflect on the term and celebrate all the boys’ work and effort in their learning.  I would like to focus this article on Grandparents day and on the incredible levels of service that are given by the parents to Newington, Lindfield. 

Grandparents Day 

This day was an opportunity to thank and also celebrate the important role our grandparents and other special friends play in the lives of our boys. The day was an  unmitigated success. The grandparents experienced the best of Lindfield performing arts in an assembly and then spent the morning, happily learning together with their grandsons in the classrooms. It was a fun and somewhat revelatory experience; many grandparents were amazed at how education is evolving. The focus on problem solving, critical thinking and the connecting of learning between subjects were some of the comments at the post learning and well earned morning tea, in which over a hundred grandparents and special friends gathered and chatted happily about the experience.

It was a great morning, the boys got to spend time with some of the most special people in their lives and grandparents had the chance to go back as students in the classroom for the first time in a long while. Thanks must go to the fabulous P and F who provided the morning tea and once again supported the school so strongly.

Service in Action 

The Mini-Olympics initiative was held on Tuesday 16 June. It was a day full of fun, inspiration and service. It showcased what is possible in terms of helping others in the community. The work of the team of people who train and develop sport for the athletes of the Special Olympics is a fantastic example of service in action. The athletes and coordinators who came were an inspiration and extremely positive role models for service that benefits the community. 

It also highlighting another amazing model of service in our school this is, of course, the Lindfield parents, who give so generously and freely of their time. Parents who work in the school are important, not only in terms of the work that you achieve but as the role models for service that you are giving to the boys every time you work in the Tuckshop, help with reading in the classrooms, cook the BBQ at Koola Park and be involved in the school. 

I wrote a note to parents involved in the Mini-Olympics but feel it is worth sharing with all of you the reasons why your service is important.

At Lindfield, we are working on developing the service component of the Newington Vision. There are many reasons why service is important. Service to others is what creates happy, resilient people, who have a sense of direction and purpose in their lives (Seligman, 2002).

The other reason is that the Newington boys of today are going to be the leaders of tomorrow. If they understand the importance of service then they are going to be far stronger, empathetic leaders, who will make decisions for the betterment of everyone in society. 

Andy Hargreaves, the author of The Fourth Way, talks about the factors that are needed for effective schools. One of the most important factors is an active and positive home/school partnership. This partnership is characterized by open communication and active participation in the school by the parent community. Parent engagement through activities and school initiatives is a key measure of the health of the home/school partnership.

In supporting the school as Lindfield parents do, you are role models for all the boys. This support is service and there is no better way to promote the idea of service in our boys than by doing the kind of things parents did at the Mini-Olympics day and the myriad other ways you help the school. We really appreciate you all and your efforts for the school. 

The Mini-Olympics day was a showcase of the power of service to improve our own lives and the lives of others.  It made me question, how am I contributing and what else can I do? Mel, the inspirational athlete who spoke at the morning assembly is a person who is doing amazing service and having a great time in the process. I feel that we have many people like Mel in our own school parent community and for that we are very grateful.

Ben Barrington-Higgs

Evolution Jujutsu Term 2 News

The Silver Dragons (5-7 years) continued to progress in T2, and we have seen quite remarkable improvements in focus and self-discipline, all while still having a load of fun.  The Golden Dragons (8-10 years) are enjoying themselves building their sparring skills, refining their self-defence abilities in a realistic and safe environment.

The more fun the class, the more they want to learn, and do learn.

Gradings & Recognitions

We also want the boys to know that we notice when they are doing their best (it’s all relative 🙂 ), and most have received one of several animal patches over the past two terms, with some having the full set already.

Marcus Gripton-Corbett has been an exemplary student this term and has been graded to Orange belt 1 stripe.

It takes time to build self-defence skills and it is normal for higher-graded students to require further training to achieve the next level.  The boys who this applies to have been assessed over the past weeks for their next level, with Lachlan James achieving Gold belt 2 stripes and Will Fisher achieving the significant milestone of Green belt.  Further will follow over the next few weeks, into Term 3.

Year 5 and 6 boys may like to know that we are keen to run a class especially for them, potentially on Tuesday afternoons.  The class would be run on a similar format to that of our 12-17 year olds, which requires more maturity than the littlies because it includes training in locks and throws, and defences against common weapon attacks.

Evolution Jujutsu students learn practical techniques that are focused on realistic self-defence (rather than how to win a competition, for example).  The benefits are improved confidence, co-ordination, and according to parents of our students, a very noticeable improvement in self-discipline.

If your son would be interested in joining this class, please advise Mrs Druce or Mrs Ellam in the School Office.  (Minimum number of 6 students required to run this class.)

Bufu ikkan.