At this week’s combined Preparatory Schools’ Swimming Carnival over 450 students from Wyvern House and Lindfield Preparatory Schools competed in a full day of events. On the day it was very pleasing to note the:

• high level of participation by every student
• strong sense of sportsmanship engendered by our excellent House and Vice House Captains
• wonderful parental support
• exemplary conduct by Wyvern students
• outstanding staff team effort

I also noted the high quality of events with many close finishes. The results from the carnival are used to select a combined Newington representative swimming team. Students selected will participate in a number of events against other Independent schools over the next few weeks as well as in Term 4.

The Summer Sport’s season has started with a great deal of purpose and enthusiasm and I am pleased to report that very few training sessions or fixtures have been too adversely affected by the indifferent weather, thanks to the good organisation of our Sports Administrator, Mr Joel Wilson.

In the early stages of the season, there are inevitably some disappointed students about their initial placement into a team. I do admire those boys who rather than complain, roll their sleeves up, work hard and try to prove that the initial selection was wrong. I suspect a boy learns far more about his own character in these situations. I also thank parents for your positive messages of support for your sons as well as for maintaining a balanced perspective on primary school sporting matters.

Of course, we are striving to make further improvements to our sport provision at Wyvern and in this regard we do welcome parent feedback. As such do feel free to contact our various Directors for each sport should you have any questions or comments about technical aims and objectives of their particular programs (names and contact details set out below).

Basketball
Mr Rex Nottage – rnottage@newington.nsw.edu.au

Cricket
Mr Matthew Nicolson – mnicholson@newington.nsw.edu.au

Football
Mr Brian Dene – bdene@newington.nsw.edu.au

Rugby
Mr Tim Rapp – trapp@newington.nsw.edu.au

Tennis 
Mr John Spencer – jspencer@newington.nsw.edu.au

As part of our student leadership structure all Year 6 students took part in a recent ‘Leadership’ training day at the senior school campus. Following this, many Year 6 students applied to become Year 6 Monitors for various areas; for example, Art, ICT, Library, Chapel, K-2 playground etc. I have been most impressed by the thoughtful applications, as well as, the students’ desire to give back to the school community in their final primary year.

Mr Ian Holden
Head of Wyvern House