Week 6, Winter Term 2021
Dear Boarding Families
It is hard to contain my excitement today because tonight is the first night that our Middle School boarders get to spend in their newly refurbished boarding house! It is a very special day and the boys and staff are really looking forward to it. As I write this, the boys are at school, having left boarding in the morning and as soon as they left the facilities team have been rushing through and moving furniture around to get it read for them to move in at 3:15pm! Tonight, they will be watching Friday night football in their brand new theatre room! I think it will be a really positive few weeks for them to end the term in their new place before school holidays. On the last day of term, we are hosting an afternoon tea for parents to come and visit the boarding house as they come to pick their sons up for the end of term, we hope to see you there.
Another reason that today is a special day is that we have named our Boarding Captain for 2022, Kalib Dempster Park. Kalib has been a boarder since Year 7 and will be a fantastic role model for the boys. Kalib hails from Grass Valley in the Wheatbelt region. We will be announcing our Vice Captains of Boarding early next week. The Year 11 cohort is a really strong group and they will be a fantastic support for Kalib. I will work with Kalib to get a message out to our boarding community soon. Congratulations also to his very proud parents Grant and Amy!
The third reason that today is a very special day is that we have a very chirpy and excited Headmaster! Dr O’Connell, after years of trying, has been awarded the winner of our world famous Boarding Photography Competition! I don’t know how he did it, but he was able to pip our extremely talented House Parent Mrs Hannington who has seemed to have a stronghold on the competition and also our very talented Mrs Grosse from Boarding Administration who has been second for many years. Alec has come through with the goods and one of his 1500 entries was actually able to secure first place! Well done, Headmaster. Well done to all the winners, Dani McCreery, Jake Mackintosh and Ben Riggs and thankyou to everyone for their entries.
Last week our boarders represented themselves and their day Houses remarkably well at the Middle School and Senior School Athletics carnival. It was lovely to see the boarding parents and grandparents who were able to make it to Perth to watch the boys compete. I was timekeeping at the finish line with Mr Mellor and we were able to celebrate all the boarders as they crossed the line. I love that all of our boarders are spread across all of the houses as it provides them with such a good opportunity to compete. Congratulations to David House and Keys House for their victories and congratulations to the Pipe Band for a wonderful performance on the Friday afternoon. We don’t have as many boarders in the pipe band as we would like at the moment, so please encourage your young boys to give it a go, it is such a special part of the School.
Speaking of the Pipe Band, it was lovely for them to have been asked to perform at the recent Dowerin Field Days. They did a fantastic job again and were very popular, they always represent the School so well. The Pipe Band have now performed at Mingenew Expo as Dowerin Field days and will be performing at the Katanning Agricultural Show later on in the year. We will also have our concert band performing at the Kojonup show. If you would like our bands to perform at your local show, please get in touch, they love to perform and regional tours are an excellent experience for them.
Finally, some Health Centre news. We are very pleased to announce that we have hired a new member of our Health Centre Team to help transport boys to appointments when families and guardians are unavailable. Mrs Richmond will be able to give further details, but we are very happy that Mrs Wendy Garreffa has accepted the position and she will be available a couple of days a week for appointments. I know that this will be a welcome relief for parents and Health Centre Staff and I am thrilled that we have been able to come to this arrangement. With regards to Covid vaccinations, please note that appointments need to be made individually and it would be great to arrange them during the school holidays and inform our Health Centre.
I wish all families a wonderful fortnight ahead
Kind regards
Jordan
Middle School Residence Refurbishment
Holiday Travel Arrangements for end of Winter Term and start of Spring Term
Please be aware that next term the Middle School and Senior School start back on different days.
Middle School Boarding will open Monday 11th October from 3:30pm for school to start on Tuesday 12th October
Senior School Boarding will open Tuesday 12th October from 3:30pm for school to start on Wednesday 13th October
There will be a Boarding student Leadership day on Tuesday for those boys that have been notified.
The Outsiders
The Yr 9 and Yr 10 production ‘The Outsiders’ has 3 of our boarders acting in it. Loch Elliott, Rohan Bignell and Lachlan Gooding. If you have a chance to see it, you won’t be disappointed.
Boarders Ball photo link
Inter School Athletics Carnivals
Middle School
Well done to David House for winning the Inter House Athletics. Jayden Clarke, Cambell Johnson, Taka Simon and John McGinniss feature in the photos below.
You can find more photo’s at the following link Middle School Inter House Athletics photos
Senior School
Congratulations to Keys house for winning the Inter House Athletics. A great result at the tug of war between Ross House seniors and Senior School Staff. Note that Andy Mellor, Jordan Owenell and Tom Orford gave their all with a win to the staff.
More photos of the senior athletics carnival are at: Senior School Inter House Athletics photos
Dowerin Field Days
International Dinner
Andy Mellor, Pam Seaby, Marika Ball and I thought it would be wonderful to get the international boys together and go out for dinner.
Many of the boys have not seen their parents for over a year and a half, and we thought it would be a good idea to get them to have a break and bond as a group. All but one boy are Chinese, and Shunta is Japanese.
Andy, Marika, Pam and I also went along to be educated in the flavours of Chinese food. I was the only brave staff member to try chicken feet. Apparently they are a delicacy….
I was the only “Gweilo” (Westerner) who had to use fork and spoon rather than chopsticks.
Richard
2021 Boarding Photography Competition
Congratulations to the following competition winners.
Senior Category:
1st: Jake MacIntosh
2nd: Kye McCreery
3rd: James Holtham
Junior Category:
1st: Ben Riggs
2nd: Noah McCreery
3rd: Henry Dyke
Family Category:
1st: Dani McCreery
2nd: Penny Gooding
3rd: Tony Faneco
Staff Category:
1st: Dr Alec O’Connell
2nd: Adam Harvey
3rd: Jan Usher
Meet the Mentor