A Message from the Head of Lindfield

Technology is a Great Servant but a Terrible Master

During semester break, I attended the International Boys School conference hosted on the Gold Coast. Professor Tim Brailsford who is the current head of Bond University gave a key note speech about Education Success Factors and the Paradox of a Big World Data.

Brailsford talked about the different levels of uptake of technology, especially computer gaming between boy and girls (boys are more voracious gamers) and attributed its impact as one of the reasons for the disparity of university performance between male and female students – females far outperform their male counterparts. This point made me think about the issues of screen time, educational and social development and our boys at Lindfield.

Jean Twenge in her book, iGen (Atria, 2017): Why today’s super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy – and completely unprepared for adulthood states that the changing profile of young people, which has been trending since 2011 derives from the overuse of technology. Her book surmises that too much screen time makes people more vulnerable, less optimistic, less confident, and less happy.

Researcher Larry Rosen published findings from recent studies into the focus and attention levels of young people and it conveyed some interesting data. As you read through the snapshots below, consider each of them against your own relationship with your smartphone. It was quite revealing.

–    University students unlock their phones at least every 15 minutes, look at them for about five minutes each time, and spend a total of 4½ hours a day on their devices.

–    Online conversations are an important source of interaction for teens, accounting for much, if not most, of their social lives.

–    When teens have their phones taken away, they become highly anxious.

–    Phone-related anxiety is closely linked to poor academic performance and sleep deprivation.

–    About 80% of teens say they rarely if ever sleep well, usually because they have a smartphone at their bedside and check it before going to sleep and during the night.

–    The average adolescent finds it difficult to study for 15 minutes at a time.

–    80%of high-school teachers and 63% of primary school teachers say technology is making students less able to sustain attention.

–    Office workers are interrupted (or interrupt themselves) every 3-5 minutes, take as much as 20 minutes to get back to work, and feel stressed by having to work faster to make up for the lost time.

Couple this with the finding from the first large population-based study from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to find links between mental health and the amount of time spent gaming and surfing the net.

–          A boy playing an average of two hours per day per week is 2.6-times more likely to have conduct and emotional problems

–          A boy watching an average of two hours per day per week (or 14 hours each week) is 1.7-times more likely to have hyperactivity/inattention problems.

Rosen has these suggestions for messages that educators and parents should be giving kids:

•        Your brain needs an occasional “reset.” Elementary-age children should spend no more than a half hour at a time on a device, followed by a break at least that long. Preteens and adolescents should spend no more than 90 minutes at a time with technology, followed by at least 10-15 minutes on an activity that calms their brain – going outside, exercising, listening to music, meditating, taking a shower, having an in-person conversation with a friend, playing a musical instrument, practicing a foreign language.
•        Sleep is vital. Ten hours is the recommended amount for school students, and kids should know that melatonin is naturally secreted in the hours before bedtime to produce sleepiness – unless they’re peering at a blue-light device.
•        Tech-free zones and times. These might include the dinner table, restaurant meals, the car and the bedroom.
•        Set limits on the amount of screen time allowed. The Australian Guidelines for kids recommends 5-17 year old less than two hours of screen time a day, across all forms.

What are the classroom implications for Newington? Technology in the form of iPads are predominantly used in two ways, as a transformative learning tool and as an engaging reinforcer of teacher-led instruction. iPads enable us to transform your son’s learning, utilising education apps such as Explain Everything, Poplet, imovie and Garage Band. Your son can share, create, conceptualise and express his thinking in ways that are difficult with a pencil and paper. The other use is as an interactive and engaging reinforcer of teacher-led instruction. Reinforcing the foundations in literacy and numeracy, learning which engages and personalises your son’s learning with programs such as Reading Eggs, Spelling City, IXL Maths and Khan Academy.

What about technology use and limits at home? The recommendations are quite clear but it is very hard to make your kids happy in the short term and keep their long-term well-being in mind. Those two goals conflict. Should you just stop access to screens at home? “No,” Twenge says. “The sweet spot for mental health and happiness is having screen time but not using it to excess.”

Screen time for education, finding information, problem solving and creativity is one thing but using it to play Fortnite, look up random YouTube clips, or become enmeshed in social media such as Instagram and Snapchat is altogether a less positive use of technology.

As a parent, in relation to non-educational screen time for our boys, which in my household is most of the time, we need to think about screen time in the same way we think of junk food, it is a sometimes food, which we enjoy but we set limits to how often we indulge.

As parents, you also need to be very aware of how often you disappear into your own phone and the electronic world. None of us like it when our very observant and astute boys call us out for inconsistency or double standards.

“‘Taking Longer to Grow Up’” by Jean Twenge in The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 10, 2017 (Vol. LXIV, #11, p. A7)

“The Distracted Student Mind: Enhancing Its Focus and Attention” by Larry Rosen in Phi Delta Kappan, October 2017 (Vol. 99, #2, p. 8-14)

https://austparents.edu.au/parentech_resources/screentime

https://www.academicpedsjnl.net/article/S1876-2859(16)30555-1/pdf

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phys-act-guidelines#apa512

https://drkristygoodwin.com/updated-screen-time-guidelines-what-parents-really-need-to-know-2/

https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent/kids-online-infographic

Ben Barrington-Higgs

Faith Matters

One of the first things I noticed when I walked into the Newington Chapel at Stanmore for the first time was the names around the walls. Anyone who’s been to the Chapel would have seen the 52 names on panels wrapping around the walls. These are names of theologians, philosophers, thinkers, scientists and artists. From the first moment, it struck me as a really interesting concept to have etched onto the walls of the spiritual building of the school.

As I settled into the school and got to know the history better I learnt that these names are a reference to our school motto In Fide Scientiam translated as To Faith Add Knowledge. The presence of these names in our Chapel is a physical embodiment of this phrase in our Chapel. Within the place of faith we are surrounded by these great bringers of knowledge, however, the more I reflect on these names I see it more than just a symbolic idea. What does it really mean to have people like Shakespeare, Galileo, Mozart, Bonhoeffer or Muhammad memorialised in our sacred space?

I think this is a very powerful embodiment of this very idea of to faith add knowledge and by having these names in our Chapel we are living it out. All of these names and the respective bodies of work that they represent have left an indelible mark on their societies and our world today. Our challenge as people of today is to continue to be inspired by them and their work and seek to explore what impact they might have on us today.

These names also speak to the attitude in which we should approach matters of faith and spirituality. Faith, I believe, should never be set in isolation to the world around us but rather should be deeply imbedded within it. Faith should seek to work with discoveries of science or expression of art rather than be held in opposition to it. When we live out this idea of to faith add knowledge we should be seeking to bring all these great expressions of knowledge into our understanding and expression of faith.

I continue to be inspired by the cloud of witnesses that we have in our Newington Chapel and the powerful impact that it is to have these great men and women memorialised in this space. Their names should serve to inspire all of us as we explore matters of faith and inspire us as we seek to express what it means to live out to faith add knowledge.

Pastor Richard La’Brooy

Pastoral Care

Social and Emotional Learning

Social and Emotional Learning can help students develop the understanding, strategies and skills that support a positive sense of self, promote respectful relationships and build capacity to recognise and manage their own emotions and make responsible decisions.

Most schools have been teaching social-emotional learning (SEL) for years but now the term is working its way into the public consciousness – and even business leaders are acknowledging the importance of SEL in the workplace, however, there are some broad (and in some cases erroneous) definitions out there. To learn more about SEL, what it looks like in the classroom, and how it’s relevant to business, please read on.

What SEL Is

• Recognising emotions in oneself and others
• Managing strong emotions
• Having empathy for others
• Controlling impulses
• Communicating clearly and assertively
• Maintaining cooperative relationships
• Making responsible decisions
• Solving problems effectively

What SEL Isn’t

• Kids sitting around in circles singing songs
• Parenting your kids for you
• Suggesting you’re not doing a good enough job as a parent
• Suggesting that today’s generation of kids is somehow broken
• Psychotherapy
• Taught at the expense of core academic subjects such as maths, science or literacy

How SEL Is Taught in Classrooms

Children learn SEL in a variety of ways, including the behaviour they see modeled by the adults in their lives. But SEL can also be taught explicitly in the classroom, in much the same way maths or reading is taught:

• The teacher explains a concept with words, pictures, video, and/or audio
• Students practice the concept with skill practice, group discussion, individual writing, or partner work
• The teacher continues reinforcing the concept throughout the week
• The teacher sends information home for students to work on with parents
• The teacher checks for understanding
• The teacher re-teaches where necessary

The development of social skills and a positive mindset are essential for all young people. To support this process each year we run the PALS program which forms part of our Pastoral Care Policy (incorporating Anti-Bullying) together with our use of the Second Step program across all year levels. There is a large amount of research available to support this program which can be found at http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step/research.

Over the years the teachers at Lindfield have collaboratively developed the PALS program and recently adopted the Second Step program to bring together current research on the importance of well-being, social skill development and resilience, and our observations of the needs of our boys.

Mr Pascal Czerwenka – Deputy Head of Campus

Reference

https://www.edutopia.org/keys-social-emotional-learning-video

PYP

Agency

Over the past couple years the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) have undertaken a review of the Primary Years Programme (PYP). Snippets of information have been slowly released in relation to proposed changes, we will know the final requirements when the Enhanced PYP is launched world wide in October this year.

One area that has featured in all of the releases is agency. In terms of the PYP, agency is:

“the power to take meaningful and intentional action, and acknowledges the rights and responsibilities of the individual, supporting voice, choice and ownership for everyone in the learning community.”  (IBO Transition Guide for the Primary Years Programme, June 2018)

Cutting through the jargon, what agency refers to in our context, is learning through activities and tasks that are meaningful and relevant to learners. This can be achieved through learning being driven by the interests and questions from the students. Put simply, agency gives students voice and often choice in how they learn. It provides them with a stake in choosing opportunities provided for them within the parameters of the curriculum and units of inquiry. Teachers may give students a choice between issues to inquire into or how to present a task that shows their knowledge and understanding about their inquiry. The ability of students to make informed decisions triggers a greater investment in interest, engagement and motivation. This does not mean that teaching is removed. We continue to be mandated as to what students need to know within Science, History and Geography curriculums. These requirements are our starting points for teaching and learning in the classrooms.

Agency empowers students to influence their own path of learning. By encouraging students to take initiative, you enhance their ability to take control, increase motivation, and ensure students respond to their activities.

In our classrooms NCL students are guided by the teachers influencing the students towards the best possible decisions for their learning. It’s like an elite athlete or an actor who has a representative that guides them to make the best career decisions. The teacher takes on a similar role to the representative by looking out for their students, helping them to make the best possible decisions for their learning and to be successful at it. They are personalising their learning. Students feel that their voice and self-direction are increased, even if they don’t get their way all the time.

Agency keeps students engaged since they are part of the lesson plan for direction in the first place. They are also responsible for demonstrating the knowledge and understanding they have learned within the curriculums by the tasks and activities they undertake. If students know what their goal is and trust their teacher is going to allow them to move through their chosen path to that goal while providing expert feedback, students are more invested in their own growth of knowledge and understanding.

As the teaching staff at NCL begin to unpack the enhancements of the PYP over the next few months and decide on how they can be developed in our classrooms, we are encouraged that we are developing the  practice of agency in our classrooms with our students.

Sue Gough – PYP Co-ordinator

Kindergarten – Gingerbread Men and other Food

Kindergarten have been inquiring into the central idea, ‘Food products go through a process of change before they are consumed’. To start the unit the boys were given a provocation in which they had to categorise and group a range of food products. A healthy discussion ensued as each group explained their grouping and related thinking. This also led to some wonderful questions being posed for our class ‘Wonder Wall’.

A range of picture books were used to explore this unit, with a favourite being, ‘The Gingerbread Man’. Before reading the text, the boys arrived in the morning to find a mysterious clue that had been left by The Gingerbread Man.

Tee-hee, Tee-hee

I ran away fast!

Bet you can’t catch me!

If you find me, I’ll give you a treat!

Go to the place where you run

and jump with your feet!

The boys had a great time following clues all around the school. The hunt ended back in the Kindy room, where the boys found a note saying, “You found me!” along with a batch of yummy Gingerbread Men to eat! We then discussed where ginger comes from and thought about other types of food that grow in the ground. We went for a walk to our school vegetable garden to check on the potatoes that we had planted earlier in the year. We are hoping to harvest these to make some hot chips!   

To incorporate the Science skill of observation, we thought about what would have happened if the Gingerbread Man had swum across the river instead of jumping on the fox’s back. We then used a real Gingerbread Man and put him in some water to test our theories. We observed him over a 10-minute and 30-minute time frame and recorded our observations.

Following this activity, the boys participated in a Design Thinking challenge, in which they were required to build a raft to help the Gingerbread Man cross the river and avoid the fox! Their raft was to be made using pipe cleaners and straws and needed to hold a Lego person for 10 seconds without sinking. Lots of fun was had!

Literacy development linked to the unit was supported through setting up a ‘small world’ sensory tray. Small world play involves creating a scene, along with figurines/puppets from the story, for the boys to play with and practise retelling the story. It is a fabulous activity for language building. The boys are imagining, and while doing so are talking out loud and using key vocabulary linked to the text.

To gain a further understanding of how products change the boys experienced a variety of hands on activities such as damper and butter making. The boys learnt to create flow charts to show the process products go through. They were also exposed to procedure writing through practical activities such as making fairy bread and lemonade.

A class shop was set up to support this unit of inquiry, as well as literacy and mathematics learning experiences. As the boys engaged with the shop there was so much learning taking place; rich oral language development, social skills, imagination and creativity, writing practice as we made shopping lists and menus, maths skills and understanding money, and exploring the world around us through familiar roles (shopkeeper, cashier, chef, waiter, customer). The list could go on!

It has been exciting to see the boys start to think about food products, where they come from and the process of change.

Belinda Smallhorn – Kindergarten Teacher

Year 4

In Year 4, the boys have been exploring decimals and how we show them in different ways as well as recognise their use in own lives. We became aware that decimals work closely with fractions and percentages, so we knew they had value and could be measured.

With the help of our unifix cubes, the boys worked in pairs to create a place value chart of their own and visually represent different sized decimals on that chart. They were asked to explain what they had done and why. It gave the boys the autonomy to collaborate and edit their work independently. The more opportunities such as this can happen, the greater the feeling of being involved and not just standing by.

The most pleasing aspect of the learning was the variety of ways in which the boys represented their chosen decimals. They know that creativity can be an important aspect when showing their learning with others. The key was to make each presentation clear and easy enough for anyone to learn who perhaps had no prior knowledge of decimals.

Finally, the boys used the Seesaw App to record and display their learning for themselves and their parents to view. Seesaw is a great way to share learning with parents and friends and to celebrate the hard work the boys put in. Once again, clarity of presentation was important as well as accurate detail in what they had learned.

Using Seesaw, the parents can give feedback to their boys in quick time. You’ll often see further questions being offered or praise for their sons’ effort and determination attached to the presentation. What a great way to keep in touch with what is going on in the classroom!

Mr Edwards – Year 4 Class Teacher

The International Boys School Conference 2018

This year, being my fifth at the college, I decided to undertake a professional development opportunity in the July holidays and visited the Southport School on the Gold Coast for the International Boys Schools Conference, with several colleagues from all three Newington campuses.

Across four days, we spent time catching up with old colleagues at different schools, networking with fellow professionals, learning from a wide range of workshops and listening to some powerful keynote speakers share their experiences of teaching.

From a personal perspective, teaching and working with the older primary boys in Stage 3, one of my main interests lies in personal wellbeing and some of the challenges that face the boys of today. In the twenty years since I myself left primary school in the UK, the teaching landscape has shifted massively, with the weight of the expectations heavy on many students’ shoulders.

Greg Mitchell’s workshop, addressing the ‘traditional’ academic underperformance of boys in comparison to girls, felt particularly relevant in the context of the need to improve boys’ social and emotional wellbeing at school, in order to motivate them to strive towards their goals. He certainly had some interesting and creative ideas that I will be trialling in class this semester.

Witnessing Li Cunxin’s closing keynote speech was fantastic, for those unfamiliar he is the author of Mao’s Last Dancer, and he recounted his tale of being plucked from obscurity as a peasant child growing up in rural, Communist China during the 1960’s, to international stardom as a famed ballet dancer. He asserted that without the intervention and inspiration of a particular childhood teacher (with whom is still in contact with today), he would have given up on his dreams and faded back into obscurity, he was given the motivation and courage to succeed.

Courage was never more evident than in the opening keynote of the conference, and for me, the most relevant, poignant and insightful address of the four days. It was delivered by Catherine McGregor AM, who for those unfamiliar, had a distinguished military career and was at one point, the most senior transgender member of Australia’s armed forces. Her story of trial and tribulations was an inspiration, and her strong message of courage, respect and acceptance should not be taken for granted. I am thankful that we live in an increasingly tolerant society, which is mirrored at our school. It is our responsibility as parents and educators to prepare the boys for an ever changing world, and preparation starts from a young age.

I feel privileged to work for an institution that places a strong emphasis on the social and emotional wellbeing of its students. With around two hundred boys at the Lindfield campus, we as teachers are in a unique position in which we can really get to know the boys. Indeed, I helped teach some of the current Year 6 boys when I first started and they were in Year 2, and it has been a rewarding experience watching them grow and develop as the last few years have gone by. The boys have learnt to become resilient, independent, respectful, committed to one another and to the wider community. As a White Ribbon school, we encourage and expect a strong culture of respect in all of our boys, starting at a young age. I am grateful that I work for a school that instills such strong values in its boys, building the ‘men of substance’ of tomorrow that we can be proud of. As John F Kennedy once said, ‘To whom much is given, much is also expected’.

The conference was a great opportunity to enrich my own learning as a teacher, consider best practice and gain new ideas to use in future. I am grateful to work for a school that looks to upskill its staff in order to enrich the lives of its students.

Sam Watson – Year 5 Teacher

Sport – Swimming

Swimming – What is your first thought when you hear the word swimming? Is it flashbacks to hours spent staring a straight black line? Is it an anxious response with unhappy memories of being out of your depth? Is it a celebration of a race won or the wonder of “What if” of a win that was so close and yet so far?

My very earliest memory is being at a swimming lesson and taken to the deep end. I remember being under the water and can picture the instructor’s legs just in front of me but I feel stuck under the water and I don’t know how to get back to the top. It was literally “sink or swim”. It is this memory that I am determined to avoid for young Lindfield swimmers!

From the first week of Term 4 all boys K-6 will be swimming in PE Lessons. For the K-2 boys this will look like stroke development and technical improvement in the lead up to the JP Swimming Carnival. For the primary boys there will be a greater focus on water safety and lifesaving skills, as well as the biathlon and some very popular waterpolo games. The time that the boys spend in the water is school is great, but is this enough?

There are so many long-term health benefits to swimming including cardiovascular endurance, muscle development, low-impact exercise and weight control; as well as the positive impacts of all exercise on mental health. None of this is new information though, so why the focus on swimming? Once the boys have mastered the basic strokes, do they need to participate in a structured swimming program?

YES! I would love to see every boy at Lindfield in a structured swimming program outside of school for 3 main reasons.

1 – Aquatic Confidence and Safety – The boys at Lindfield are privileged to be growing up in regions where many people have a backyard pool and the beach is accessible relatively easily. For many of our boys the beach and aquatic environments will increasingly be part of their social lives and confidence in a range of aquatic environments is crucial. Unfortunately we know that young boys and adolescents do not always make wise decisions, including around the water, and so it is crucial that boys are armed with the skills to protect themselves and to assist their mates if the situation ever arose.

2 – Aquatic Fitness – Swimming fitness is a unique type of fitness where the cardiovascular system is worked and strengthened, but also almost every major muscle is also used and strengthened by swimming regularly. Not all of our boys are going to be competitive swimmers and that is far from my aim, but all boys can be fitter and stronger by regularly pushing themselves in a structured swimming environment.

3 – Discipline and Commitment – For many of our boys, they will go through phases where swimming lessons or swimming squads feel like hard work. They may be frustrated waiting to move up to the next level of class, they may be sick of looking at the black line or they may not like getting in and out of the pool, particularly in the colder weather! Pushing through these times is the perfect exercise to teach lessons in discipline and commitment that are transferrable to all areas of life. By the end of primary school boys should be getting themselves ready for swimming and accept responsibility for not only attending the class or squad, but giving their best each time they hit the water.

Mr Ryan Moar (Director of Aquatics) and Ms Josephine Brown (Director of Learn to Swim) from Stanmore will be having an increased involvement at Lindfield from the September holiday break. There will be an intensive swimming program throughout the holidays and then swimming lessons and squads available from Term 4. This ensures that boys at Wyvern and Lindfield will be following the same programs and will feed into Stanmore swimming seamlessly in Year 7.

I look forward to seeing all of the boys ready to swim in Term 4.

Eliza Monaghan – Sports Co-ordinator

LE (Maths/Literacy)

Raising Your Child in a Digital World

I recently attended a talk by Dr Kristy Goodwin where she discussed the digital world our children are living in. Dr Goodwin spoke about the ‘techno-tantrum’ when our otherwise well-adjusted child (not necessarily a toddler) bursts into tears when we ask for our smartphone to be handed over or the TV to be switched off. She explains why your child experiences a complete meltdown when they’re asked to switch off a screen and what is going on inside their brains as they are using screens.

It’s actually the same reason that we, as adults, find ourselves constantly tethered to our laptop, or distracted by our smartphone at our children’s sporting matches and swimming lessons.

The use of screens and gadgets causes neurobiological changes in the human brain. It happens in our more mature, well-developed adult brains and it also happens in our children’s developing brains.

Why do our children become infatuated and obsessed with screens?

Dopamine release

Whenever we do anything pleasurable with technology (whether it’s watching funny cat videos on YouTube or looking at lovely pictures on Instagram) our brain releases the feel-good neurotransmitter Dopamine. Our brains naturally want more and more of this feel-good state, so crave more use of technology.

The same applies to our kids when they’re using technology, except many young children are still developing their impulse control skills and self-regulation skills, so their response to being asked to switch off a device is often amplified. In essence, our kids are reluctant to turn off technology because it will mean terminating their supply of Dopamine. Their response is often more pronounced if they’re playing apps or video games where there’s lots of external rewards and praise.

Brains are novelty seekers

The brain craves novelty and technology offers constant novelty. The digital world offers continual sensory seduction. For example, when using tablet devices children can play an app and then touch the home button and instantly launch into another app. They can be watching YouTube clips and find a menu of other videos that entice them on the right-hand side of the screens. Their desire for novelty is easily and constantly met in an online world.

The prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for managing our impulses and some of our other higher-order thinking skills, has a novelty bias. This means that it’s easy for our focus and attention to be hijacked by something new or different that we see on a screen. The prefrontal cortex is one of the main parts of the brain that’s required to manage our attention, but it’s being constantly bombarded by a sensory smorgasbord offered by the digital world.

Again, children’s prefrontal cortex is still developing (and actually isn’t fully developed until their twenties), so they may not have the skills to deal with the constant desire for novelty.

As parents, we need to ensure that we have firm parameters around their screen time and minimise our use of screens as a ‘digital pacifier’. Otherwise, we’re potentially setting our children up for unhealthy screen habits.

Goodwin, K. (2016). Raising Your Child in a Digital World. Finch Publishing.

Aleca Bradshaw – Learning Enhancement

Mandarin August Update

Along with mandarins still being in season, there are many other exciting learning experiences in Mandarin classes around Lindfield campus.

“I will ask for a Diabolo for my birthday”, Sam Schultz commented as he tried to play a Diabolo during the 5W Mandarin lesson. (Belated Happy Birthday, Sam.)

Every year during the summer holiday in northern atmosphere, the Taipei Youth Folk Sports Group visits different countries around the world. Their last Australia visit to Sydney was in 2008. It was our pleasure to have them visiting our campus.  

The performance was outstanding! The highly trained and talented boys and girls from the Taipei Youth Folk Sports Group treated the staff and the boys to the most sensational and exciting cultural experience. The dance about the spirit of sport to never give up trying, the traditional dance about the dragon boat festival, the demonstration of shuttlecocks and skipping ropes was a visual extravaganza. Due to the ground restriction, they could only show us just a tiny bit of the performance of the shuttlecocks and skipping ropes. But even then, we were all so overwhelmed at the of things they could do with the rope and the shuttlecocks. At the end of the performance, some lucky students in the audience received a shuttlecock as a gift from the Taipei Youth Folk Sports Group.

But wait, there’s more! The music changed, the boys and the girls from the Taipei Youth Folk Sports Group came back to the centre of the stage with their Diabolos in their hands, the “Wow” and clapping sound rarely stopped! We saw them play Diabolos with different formations; we saw them throw the Diabolos to each other, then two, then three Diabolos were played by a couple of single players; we saw them throw Diabolos up high in the air to the other side only to be caught by the players some distance away. 

The performance was just amazing! It was so amazing that the boys could not stop talking about the performance for days! As a teacher at a PYP school, I am proud of our students who are able to apply concepts in PYP from this experiences. For example, boys make connections about different sports – On a typical Saturday Sports day, I overheard a group of Year 6 boys who were able to make the connection of the skills required to play Shuttlecock with their soccer playing. The boys apply their learning and higher order thinking skills in their daily life – Year 2 boys, like Liam, talked about the representation of blue flags from an artistic angle and Lorcan reflected the experiences on the day. From Kindergarten to Year 6, boys there were boys talking about the function: How does a diabolo work? In Kindy and Year 1, we talked about the attitudes they observed from the performances.

In Newington Lindfield, we are not just learning the language, we are striving to enrich our boys with a variety of learning experiences and elevate their views to embrace cultures from around the world.  

Eva Angel – LOTE Teacher

2018 Student Representative Council – Semester 2

Congratulations to the following boys who have been elected as the class representatives for our Student Representative Council (SRC) for Semester 2, 2018

Kindergarten – Rohan Dev, Jeremy Tu

Year 1 – Damon Chen, Christian Foster

Year 2 – Aaryn Powani, Kareem Assi

Year 3 – Lachie Mosely, Lachlan Williams

Year 4 – Ollie McNamara, Lawrence Chan

Year 5B – Oliver Senior, Connor Mosely

Year 5W – Chase Bassett, Henry Lapham

Year 6B – Will Murray, Kane Gillis

Year 6W – Ted Walker, Ethan Au-Yeung

The following boys have been voted into specific positions on the SRC –

Chairperson: Will Murray

Secretaries: Lachie Mosely, Connor Mosely

Treasurers: Ethan Au-Yeung, Kane Gillis

Publications: Ted Walker, Lachlan Williams

The boys will meet regularly during Semester 2, to make decisions about the organisations they would like to support and the events that will be held to raise awareness of others in different circumstances. The class representatives are responsible for passing on the information discussed at SRC meetings and for the organization of events.

Eva Angel, Katrina James and Eliza Monaghan

Sam Watson – random football season reflection!

Having considered myself semi-retired from playing football (being ‘over the hill’ at the grand old age of 31) I have absolutely loved coaching this winter season. It has been a few years since I have had any involvement with winter sport at Newington, and it may also have been partly down to the recent World Cup hysteria, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the ‘buzz’ of this past season from a coaching perspective, loving when Saturday comes every week.

I love football (I’m a self-confessed sports tragic) and it has been great to share some of that passion with our Newington coaches who have come over from the senior school this season to coach the boys. With them, they have brought a wealth of experience and that has been never more evident than in some of the drills and training games that they run on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, as well as their expertise on game days. Angel, Sharaf and Dani  have had extensive experience coaching in European academies, earning UEFA coaching licenses and coaching at well known Spanish clubs. Their love of the game is evident and it has been brilliant having them on board this season, along with Brian (who also coaches over at Wyvern) who’s coaching pedigree is equally as impressive.

Coaching the 12As has been a great experience from a personal perspective. As a team, we have had mixed success, and although we have had a high win ratio from our games, I think that the boys have learnt more from the games that they lost than the ones in which they won. They have consistently demonstrated the Newington sporting values, have played well as a team and have always had each others’ backs. To add to this, many of our teams have ‘borrowed’ players from each other this season, with boys frequently playing two and sometimes three games on a Saturday morning, often at a high level. The learning experience has been invaluable and has helped bring the boys closer together, through playing as part of a team.

I’m happy to have rediscovered my love of the beautiful game, I may even be tempted to lace up my boots again in the near future. This Saturday’s Back to Newington Day will be the last game of the winter season for some of the boys, and it’s great, going into that final weekend of the season, to be able to look back and reflect on such a positive season.

Sam Watson – Year 5 Teacher

Newington P&F Ball 2018

Newington P&F Ball 2018 – Tickets on sale

Come to the Newington P&F Ball 2018

Tickets are now on sale and it will be a fantastic night, a chance to gather together the Newington Community and an opportunity to thank Dr David Mulford for 10 years of service to the College. Round up your friends, old and NEW, organise a table (10) and prepare for a night to remember.

We look forward to seeing you there where…

NEW is the future!!

When: Saturday 1 September 2018

Time: 6:30pm for 7:00pm start

Where: Grand Ballroom, Hyatt Regency, 161 Sussex Street, Sydney

Tickets: $225 per person, which includes a three-course dinner, premium beverages and entertainment by Wonderbrass.

Tables of 10 available

Click here to purchase tickets – https://mayhem.eventsair.com/newington18/registration

Dress: Black tie

RSVP: 24 August

Welcome back to our fabulous MC’s to guide you through the night:

Kylie Gillies – Co Host of The Morning Show (Newtwork 7) and Craig Reucassel  – The War on Waste (ABC)

Newington P&F Ball Committee