A Message from Mr Holden

As we approach the last 3 weeks of this term it is pleasing to see the strong learning focus being demonstrated in all classrooms. Whilst the recent spell of unsettled weather has frustratingly disrupted some of our summer sports fixtures and training sessions, it has not diminished the students’ enthusiasm and excellent focus for their academic work.

The expectation and intention for the final part of the term is for all to finish well. With that in mind we will keep a sharp focus on all the small things that, in my view, make such a difference to the overall tone of the school. I look forward to boys continuing their high standards in wearing the correct uniform, displaying excellent manners and showing respectful and kind behaviour.

At next week’s P & F General Meeting we are pleased to have the opportunity to highlight our approach to supporting students’ well-being. Mr Campbell Jensen-Robilliard, our School Counsellor, will present the ‘Second Step’ program that we are rolling out in our classrooms to assist students’ emotional and personal growth. In addition, Mr Trent Driver, Deputy Head of Stanmore (Academic) from the senior school campus will give a short debrief about the 2016 HSC and IB results. I do hope to see you at the meeting on 23rd March at 6.30pm in Wyvern Hall.

Mr Ian Holden
Head of Wyvern House

Achievement awards and House Points

 The following achievement awards were awarded at Assembly:

House Points

Artists of the Week

K – 2 Artists of the Week

Jamie Burgess 2M – Week 5

Jamie arranged a wooden mannequin into different poses and carefully sketched each pose using charcoal. He smudged the charcoal to give his figure some form. Congratulations to Jamie on his excellent observation and carefully drawn proportions.

Ren Clarke KS – Week 6

Ren explored the primary colours and the artwork of Mondrian. He collaged shapes and thought carefully about his composition. Ren printed horizontal and  vertical lines on his artwork and finished it off with a fabulously collaged border. Well done, Ren.

Mrs Heather Brodie
K-2 Visual Arts Teacher

3-6 Artists of the Week

This term, Year 3 are studying amphibians. The frogs have been a big hit this time, as the boys drew a red eyed tree frog from a website called ‘Art for kids’. This year, the new medium was a paper called ‘Mineral paper’ which has no grain. This meant the watercolour pens were able to push the pigment around more easily. The boys were also interested in getting different types of pattern to create a ‘Zentangle’ pattern landscape.

Congratulations to Gil Grace and Abbas Beydoun for some wonderful artworks.

Ms Meredith Buining
3-6 Visual Arts Teacher

Book Drive

A big thank you to all the Wyvern families who have thus far donated so many beautiful picture books for the Chisapani Primary School in Nepal. Our book drive will run until the end of Week 8 (Friday March 24th) so there is still time to make a donation if you wish. Class SRC Reps are helping to coordinate the Book Drive in their classrooms by reminding their classmates to bring their donations to school.

 How can you help?

• Donate a ‘new or near new’ Picture Book with simple text.
• To help prolong the life of the book, please cover it with clear contact paper.
• Send your donation to school by the end of Week 8, Friday March 24th. SRC Reps will then bring class donations to the Wyvern Library. All donations will be packed and shipped to the students of Chisapani School with grateful appreciation.

With thanks for your assistance with this endeavour.

Mrs Barnes
Librarian – Wyvern House

Clubs & Extra Curricular Activities at Wyvern – Term 1

Dear Parents,

Please find attached Club and Extra Curricular Activities at Wyvern – Term 1 below. Once you click on the link below select the activity you are interested in and it will take you to the relevant Space Page on SPACES.

Term 1 Clubs and Extra-Curricular Activities at Wyvern

Please refer to SPACES for more information regarding the Clubs and Activities.

Kind regards

Wyvern Office

Donut Day Flyer

Faith Matters

The Way Forward: Working Together

In the movie Rocky, boxer Rocky Balboa describes his relationship with his girlfriend Adrienne: ‘I’ve got gaps. She’s got gaps. But together we’ve got no gaps.’ It doesn’t matter how gifted you are – you’ve got gaps. What’s the best way to handle your weaknesses? By working with others who have strengths in those areas.

So why don’t we work together more? Because of the ‘Diotrephes spirit’: ‘But Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us … Not only does he refuse to welcome the travelling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church’ (3 John 1: 9-10).

What did Diotrephes want? Control! He wasn’t service-driven, he was ego-driven. He was afraid to have anyone challenge him.

The trouble is, people who are afraid to trust others end up not being trusted. There’s a level of success that they never get beyond, because they can’t work with anybody. And when they stumble, they have no one to help them up. They stay weak in certain areas; they can’t reach for the strength in others because they believe others ‘are only out for what they can get’. A school community is an ideal place for us to work together, for the benefit and strengthening of us all.

Reverend Peter Morphew
Chaplain

ICAS – International Competitions and Assessments for Schools

Dear Parents,

Each year we offer our students in Years 3 to Year 6 the chance to participate in The University of New South Wales International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS). The International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) is an independent, quality skills-based assessment program that provides insights into your child’s performance across English, Mathematics, Science, Digital Technologies, Spelling and Writing beyond the normal curriculum.

Please click here for information regarding the 2017 International Competition and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) and for online payment information.

Below are the dates of the ICAS Competitions:

• Digital Technologies – 23rd May
• Science – 30^th May
• Writing – 13th June
• Spelling – 14th June
• English – 1st August
• Mathematics – 15th August

Please note, the ICAS tests are not necessarily suitable for all students; please feel free to contact your son’s class teacher or me should you have any further questions in relation to the ICAS tests.

Kind regards

Mr Richard Baker
Deputy Head 4-6

News and Events

Dear Parents,

Just a reminder that we are holding our first Parent Information Night for the year on Thursday 23 March, from 6.30pm at Wyvern Hall. Our guest speakers include Trent Driver, Deputy Head of Stanmore Academic who will take us through the HSC & IB Result Review and Campbell Jensen-Robilliard, School Counsellor who will present on the topic of Social & Emotional Learning Approaches.

If you would like to be involved in organising Mother’s Day gifts this year, please email Monica Baird (Wyvern P&F Events) – monica@justinbaird.com.  This would include sourcing gifts, creation of the brochure and distribution of the gifts to the boys.

The annual Women of Wyvern dinner will be held tomorrow night. We look forward to seeing you at this fantastic event.

Finally, thank you to those who have volunteered to undertake the role of Class Parents and to everyone who volunteers their time to contribute to our school community.

Lillian Fadel
President, On behalf of Wyvern P&F
lillian_touma@hotmail.com

TERM TWO DATES
Wednesday 26 April to Friday 23 June

Next Two Weeks

Oshclub – Wyvern’s Before and After School Care Provider

Wyvern’s Before and After School Care Program is run by OSHClub. Enrolment for all students is recommended and allows parents to easily manage their before and after school care needs via an online account. Visit www.oshclub.com.au to use the free enrolment service.

For all late bookings, please contact the Coordinator on 0428 131 700. OSHClub’s head office number is (03) 8564 9000 Click here for the OSHClub Information Flyer.

Newsletter, Click here

Kind regards

OSHClub Team

Past Editions of the Newingtonian now on Spaces

Students, parents and staff now have access to all editions of The Newingtonian via the Archives Space on Spaces.

The Newingtonian started as a school magazine, published four times a year, in 1884. From 1919, it was published three times year, and was then reduced to two issues per year with the Second World War. It became the College’s annual in 1973.

Making The Newingtonian accessible on Spaces has involved the digitisation of some 300 editions, up to 2001. From 2002 the editions are available as ‘born-digital’ files. The digitisation process included Optical Character Recognition (OCR): the Archives Space has instructions for text searching individual or multiple editions.

Included with the 1901 editions is the one and only issue of The Orphan, a student magazine similar to The Newingtonian published ‘under the Direction of the Prefects of Newington College’ in October that year. The reasons for its publication, as an apparent rival to The Newingtonian, are unclear.

If you’re not a member of the Archives Space, open All Spaces, find ‘Archives’ and click the Join button.

David Roberts
College Archivist

Sausage Sizzle Day

Sport

Sports Draw, Click here

Sports Newsletter, Click here

Sports Results and Match Reports, Click here

Sporting Venue Addresses, Click here

2017 Sports Handbook, Click here

Term Dates 2017

TERM ONE

Monday 30 January to Friday 7 April
Classes commence Years 1-6 – Monday 30 January
Classes commence Kindergarten – Tuesday 31 January
Classes conclude –  Friday 7 April
10 Week Term followed by a 2 week break

TERM TWO

Wednesday 26 April to Friday 23 June
Classes commence – Wednesday 26 April
SPD Day – No Students – Friday 9 June
Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday – Monday 12 June
Classes conclude – Friday 23 June
9 week Term followed by a 3 week break

TERM THREE

Monday 17 July to Friday 22 September
Classes commence – Monday 17 July
SPD Day – No Students – Monday 14 August
Classes conclude – Friday 22 September
10 week Term followed by a 2 week break

TERM FOUR

Monday 9 October to Thursday 7 December
Classes commence – Monday 9 October 
Prize Giving – Years 3-6  – Thursday 7 December

The Benefit of Passion Projects and our Journey into Genius Hour

Have you heard of Genius Hour? Maybe you’ve heard about 20% time?

20% is a concept developed from Google where employees are allowed to spend 20% of their working week on passion projects. This is free time for them to allow for the workers’ creative and inquisitive nature to take over and explore new ideas and answer some big questions. The only catch is that at the end of a cycle they must present their findings to their peer group. Accountability is still key. Through 20% time Gmail was created at Google. Something that we all would have thought to be a strategic development from this company.

Branching off this is the educational spin of 20% time. Please welcome the concept Genius Hour. It is 60 minutes of the students week that is dedicated to exploring an open ended question that they are interested in. This question must be one that cannot be solved with a quick Google search and must have research and evidence to confirm their findings. There is no making up an answer here. 

Genius Hour has been trailed at Wyvern over a five-week cycle and we have discovered some really interesting things. We have discovered how trends in the world affect the purchasing of luxury cars. We’ve discovered what would happen if we cut down all the trees in the world. We’ve even been able to analyse comic books from their earliest creation to present day and rank them accordingly in categories. All these topics were created by the students.

Here are some images from the presentations in 6H and 6L.

It was extremely powerful to see how absorbed our students were and what they achieve and this got me thinking. How could I help my child at home (when she is old enough) to explore the world through a Genius Hour lense. I’m sharing this question with you because I’d love for our boys at Wyvern to spend their time at home not playing games online, rather exploring the world with their Genius Hour glasses on. eLearning food for thought indeed.

Mr Tony Cross
eLearning – Wyvern House and Lindfield Preparatory School

Tuckshop Menu & Roster

Please click here for the Spotless Food Safety Information for Volunteers Guidelines

Tuckshop Menu and Roster Term 1 Weeks 8 and 9, Click here

Everyday Menu and Price List, Click here 

Online Ordering Instructions, Click here

Online Ordering FAQs, Click here

Kind regards

Wyvern Office

Uniform Shop

UNIFORM SHOP TRADING HOURS

Wyvern Uniform Roster Term 1 Weeks 8 and 9, Click here

Wyvern Uniform Shop Order Form, Click here

Wyvern Uniform Shop Winter Price List 2016, Click here

Wyvern Uniform Shop Summer Price List 2016/2017, Click here

Kind regards

Nicole Williams
Uniform Shop Convenor

Years 3-6 Summer Sport Photos

Dear Parents,

A reminder that the Years 3-6 Summer Sport Photos will be taken on Monday 20th March. Please note that there will be no sport training on Monday. Students will be photographed during sport practise time.

Students should come to school in their summer school uniform and then get changed into their sport uniform for photos.

Note: it is not possible to give precise timings of photos for each team.

Kind regards

Wyvern Office

Year 3 Zoo Excursion

Last week, on Friday 10^th March, Year 3 went to Taronga Zoo as part of our Science unit. The zoo experience never fails to disappoint. We had such a fantastic outing, sighting many animals, partaking in a wonderful lesson with a Taronga Zoo keeper and applying much of our Science knowledge.

This term we have been exploring life-cycles of living things, including our very own meal worms in class. It was great to have Jessie, a Taronga Zoo keeper, run through different life-cycles with us to expand our knowledge. It was quite the hands-on experience. When we weren’t at our Taronga lesson, 3M and 3B thoroughly enjoyed watching the Seal Show, while 3S were swooped upon by a range of birds at the bird show.

It was fantastic to be able to wander through the zoo with our class mates and parent helpers and see animals that are certainly not native to Australia, as well as those animals that are.

Many thanks to the wonderful helpers that assisted us on the excursion! We couldn’t have done it without you.

Mr Hugh Scott
Year 3 Team Leader

Year 5 Camp Out

Year 5 recently completed a camp-out at Newington College. In collaboration with the boys from the Newington Challenge Program, boys were involved in team building exercises, drama activities, sports and games. Boys enjoyed a rain-free, and mostly sleep-free, night camping on the hallowed turf of Buchanan Oval. Thank you to all teachers who made this camp a success, and the Newington Challenge boys and staff for their expertise and time.

Mr Justin Brayley
Year 5 Team Leader