In 2015, Ms Hannah Chapman responded to a invitation advertised on the Museum of Contemporary Art’s website calling for senior Visual Arts students to contribute to critical art resources for the Sydney Biennale 2016.

Early in Term 1, Year 11 HSC students Jack De Lacy, Tom Davids, Edwin Hooper, Sebastien Mills, Rohan Gupta, Fin Thompson and Ms Chapman travelled by ferry to Cockatoo Island to see artist Justene William’s stage installation and documentation of Russian artist Kazimir Malevich’s anti-opera Victory Over the Sun.

After meeting the artist, doing research on the original opera staged in 1913 in Saint Petersburg and analysing William’s practice, the boys decided on some questions to ask the artist in order to further their investigation.

On Monday 16 May, the boys returned to the MCA to take part in a live streamed Q&A session with Justene Williams. As a salute to the Russian artist, the boys choose to wear black t-shirts in recognition of one of Malevich’s most iconic works, ‘Black Square’ (1915) – a non-object painting.

The live broadcast was streamed onto the MCA Youtube channel and went from 1:00 – 2:00 PM. The six Year 11  students were the only interviewees for the event and throughout the course of the session they developed a deeper understanding of contemporary artistic practice and gained critical skills in researching performed and exhibited artworks.

The participating Sydney Biennale artist Justene Williams reflected at the conclusion of the interview that the boys’ poignant questions enabled her to reflect on the intentions of her own work and reconsider her own practice in a refreshingly critical way.

You can watch the recording of the live steam here:

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WONTOK. While it may at first appear to be an acronym, is indeed the Pidgin word for ‘One Talk’, and can also refer to a kind of family gathering. On Friday 29 May, twelve Year 11 student representatives joined some of our fellow Uniting Church in Australia schools – Knox Grammar, Pymble Ladies College and Ravenswood School for Girls – as well as students from some Anglican schools to discuss issues of global significance at the annual ‘One World WONTOK – Poverty and Development Youth Conference’. The focus of the conference, which was held at Ravenswood School, centered around gender equality, climate change, and poverty.

Throughout the day we participated in a variety of activities, which were engaging and helped us look at some of the global topics in a different way. For example, we read scripts in which some of us assumed the position of a disadvantaged African woman. Speaking in first person helped build a sense of empathy within each of us, enabling us to capture the essence of gender inequality. Another activity involved one group throwing balls and the other trying to catch them with our arms crossed. This simulated the experiences of climate change refugees who suffer the consequences of another countries’ carbon emissions and are struggling to cope with climate change.

One other activity was a game of Top Trumps in which each card was a different country with statistics, varying from population density to births per thousand women aged 15-19. This game made us aware of the disparities between some countries. Australia has a population density of three people per square kilometre, while Bangladesh has twelve hundred people per square kilometre. Some African countries also have birth rates (per thousand women aged 15-19) in the hundreds. Many of these statistics were alarming to us.

The conference was a far cry from a day of monotonous lectures, but instead included hands-on activities which were engaging, eye-opening and challenging! Indeed, we covered a lot of information about the most pressing issues in the world.  It does not do the conference justice to simply talk about what we did, but rather to cover what we learned from it. On the issue of poverty, we were shown eye-opening information about the errors in our thinking. The most common misconception citizens from developed countries have about poverty is the sense that it can be solved by shipping canned food overseas, or by dropping spare change in the nearest collection box. Throwing money at a problem is simply ineffective. Sending food to the hungry or adopting a malnourished child doesn’t eliminate the source of poverty but is merely putting a bandage on the raging rapids of the symptoms of poverty. It is much better to ‘kickstart’ small sources of income in an impoverished town so that the populace is able to sustainably find their own way out of poverty. Rather than a town having a dependence on the aid of others, it can start sustaining itself. This is just one example of the countless nuances involved in effective foreign aid.

Additionally, we learned not to be deceived by statistics. Countries like Iraq may have a Parliament made up of 25% women, but this cannot mask the terrible injustices associated with gender inequality more generally in the country. On the other hand, Tonga has no women in its Parliament, but this statistic only takes into account the King as the monarch, as there are women represented in the legislative assembly, and as a general rule, women are treated with respect in Tonga. This demonstrates that statistics don’t necessarily give us an exact picture of what are the main issues of concern within various countries.

Finally, climate change. It is an issue that Australians hate to talk about, but that is all the more reason to talk about it. We all know what it does and what we’re doing to cause it. And yet, because we do not see the immediate effects of it, we continue to pollute the environment for our children to take care of. After all, rising sea levels barely affect Australia. But what we don’t see are climate refugees. Small, close-knit communities in the Polynesian islands, who are the least responsible for climate change and pollution, are forced to flee their homes because of these rising sea levels. We were enlightened by Reverend James from Fiji, who shared with us how cyclone Winston, the most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, devastated his country. Climate change has caused millions of Pacific Islanders to leave their homes because they’re being flooded. Ultimately, why should Fijian children pay for the environmental crimes we commit?

The WONTOK conference was truly an eye-opening experience that enriched not only our understanding of global issues, but has challenged us to engage in working towards a solution. It has forced each of us to consider the global impact of our actions, alerting us to the universality of inequality that permeates within every society, including our own. It has made us realise that we are global citizens in every way, forcing us to question how we can possibly experience a better future without change, where each of us are responsible for working together to create this change.

Fin Casey (11/KL) and Richard Zhang (11/LE) 

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IN MEMORIAM

Louis David Doulougeris 

22.10.2000 – 25.07.2016

The Doulougeris family invite 
family, friends, colleagues, teachers and 
students to a Memorial Service for Louis 
to be held at Newington College, 200 Stanmore Road, Stanmore
in the College Chapel on 
TUESDAY 2 August 2016 at 4:30 PM.

 Young people will benefit from
the presence of a parent or supportive adult.
In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to Bear Cottage.

28 July 2016

With great sadness, I need to inform you that Louis Doulougeris, (Year 10) died last night. Louis is the son of Fotis and Nicola Doulougeris, brother of Alex (Year 11) and twin brother to Ella (Year 10). Fotis has been our much-loved Head Groundsman at the College for over 15 years and Nicola has been on our support staff for five years. This will have a profound impact upon our close community.

Louis joined Newington in Year 7 in 2013.

At this time of writing, I do not have the full details of the cause of death.

We informed all boys today. We held a separate Chapel for the boys of Kelynack House, a Year 10 assembly for Louis’ peers and the boys of other years attended a full school assembly. Pastoral support is being offered to boys greatly affected by this tragic news. Our two Psychologists (Counsellors) and two Chaplains are available for the boys. The Chapel and Grove Room are being used as a base. We will bring extra specialists as required. Our Pastoral team of Heads of House, Mentors and Senior Staff are supporting our community.

We will do whatever we can to support the Doulougeris family in their time of intense grief.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Fotis, Nicola, Alex and Ella, their extended family, friends of the family and the community at St Scholastica’s College.

Yours sincerely,

Dr David Mulford
Headmaster

The post Bereavement Communication appeared first on Newington College.

The staff and students of Newington College adopted Royal protocol last Monday when the College played host to His Majesty King Tupou VI of Tonga. The College welcomed the King to the Stanmore campus where he officially opened two of the College’s newest learning facilities – a new Drama centre and a new Year 7 learning centre named ‘The Tupou College Centre’.

The Drama centre consists of a new theatre with raked seating for 200, industry standard sound, lighting and technical equipment, extensive back stage accommodation and a refurbished former Chapel for drama teaching. The second building, ‘The Tupou College Centre’, consists of eight classrooms with interconnection to allow for configuration as large studios as well as various specialist teaching areas and a tiered lecture space. It was named as such in recognition of the long and close historical links between Newington College and the Kingdom of Tonga.

Tupou College, a boys’ secondary boarding school in Toloa on the island of Tongatapu, Tonga, is the brother school of Newington College. Both educational institutions were established by James Egan Moulton, a nineteenth century Wesleyan Methodist minister who, after helping to establish Newington in 1863, sailed to Tonga two years later in order to set up a similar College on the Island. Tupou College remains the oldest secondary school in the Pacific Islands and celebrated its Sesquicentenary this year.  

Newington College boys have been visiting their Tongan brothers since 1972 and in recent years, these trips have involved community support, volunteer work and outreach projects through the College’s Service Learning Program. This has allowed students to contribute to the Tupou College community and experience Tongan culture firsthand. Equally, Newington boasts a rich history of educating Tongan students and in 2009 the College set up a Tongan Bursary scheme which aims to support Tongan students in obtaining qualifications at high school level and beyond. Most notably, the College has a proud history of educating several members of the Tongan Royal family, including the father of His Majesty King Tupou VI, His late Majesty King Tupou IV.

Newington was both thrilled and hugely honoured that His Majesty King Tupou VI agreed to conduct the opening ceremony and the College extends its sincere thanks to His Majesty, as well as Her Majesty Queen Nanasipau’u of Tonga and the Tongan High Commissioner in Canberra, Princess Angelika Latufuipeka.

The opening ceremony proved to be another milestone in the long and interrelated history of Newington College, Tupou College and the Kingdom of Tonga.

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The second Service Learning expedition to visit Aboriginal Communities in the desert country of Central Australia was held during the June school holidays. It was led by Science Teacher, Mr Michael Moonen and myself and included seven nights of camping under clear, starry skies and learning about the Aboriginal communities in this area. 

The the tour began with two nights at a remote property, owned by one of our tour guides, John Liddle, who is a traditional Aboriginal landowner. Here the boys were able to learn about traditional bush tucker, desert survival, navigation and animal tracking, from both John and his older brother “JS”. The boys were shown how to find and gather their own bush tucker and offered the chance to ‘chow down’ on a few raw witchetty grubs. John is currently in the process of building and our boys were able to lend come muscle to help dig up trenches for water pipes, lay down concrete and construct some fencing for what will become a commercial native bush tomato garden. Our boys completed a remarkable amount of work in those two days and took great pride in their accomplishments. John was humbled and greatly appreciative of their selfless efforts.

In our travels we were also fortunate enough to visit Uluru, Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), Kings Canyon and the ancient Fink River. These normally dry, dusty places were unusually green this year, after what was a particularly wet summer. Few tourists and young locals have ever seen this breathtaking part of the world looking so alive. The photos taken were full of colour and show amazing contrasts with the rich red earth.

Most nights we shared our meals with invited local guests, who taught us about Aboriginal culture and history. One of these guests included a famous local artist and Aboriginal Elder from Mutitjulu near Uluru. He shared his knowledge of Aboriginal art, history and Dreamtime stories, told spellbindingly around a roaring campfire in traditional native language with the aid of a skilled translator. A rare privilege and experience for white Australians.

Central Australia is mad AFL territory and we used sport as a ‘bridge’ to interact with the local Aboriginal youths. Our boys ‘mixed it’ with a group of about a dozen young local boys and men from the community on the brown and dusty main field of Hermannsburg in an entertaining match that even attracted a few appreciative spectators, together with a few stray dogs who patrolled the boundaries on the field of play.

The feedback from the boys about this immersion experience has been excitingly positive. They all not only had a great time spent with their mates, but met some remarkable, inspirational characters and learnt a great deal about Aboriginal culture, history and the current challenges faced by our Indigenous people. It was a real eye-opener and a powerful learning experience that will be offered again to Year 11 boys in 2017 and we hope, for years to come.

Mr Mick Madden
Head of Service Learning

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Our brother school, Tupou College in Tonga celebrated their 150th Anniversary last month, and we, like all good brothers were there to celebrate with them.

Our student touring party included 93 boys from all walks of College life. We had members of the College Choir, Stage Band, Under 15s Rugby players and Service Learning boys.

The boys were accompanied by the Headmaster Dr David Mulford and a big group of staff across various departments including Music, Economics, Sport, ICT and Boarding. A parallel touring party led by the Director of Community and Development, Mr Rod Bosman (ON 1978) also came along for the festivities.

Planning for this particular tour started in 2013 when we celebrated our own Sesquicentenary Anniversary. Tupou College attended our celebrations with a huge touring party of boys and staff who performed at our Sesquicentenary Founders Concert, and this was our opportunity to do the same for them.

From the minute our touring party stepped off the plane in Tonga at 2:00 AM on Tuesday 21 June, they were on the move.

The touring party’s first event after a little sleep was the feast of the 93rd Free Wesleyan Church Conference which was held at Maamaloa Chapel, Nuku’alofa. At the event, the Princess of Tonga, Princess Salote Mafile’o Pilolevu Tuita together with the crown Prince, Prince Tupouto’a ‘Ulukalala were present.

That night Dr Mulford and Principal, Tupou College, Rev Alifeleti Atiola co-presented a vision for Tupou College as “brothers” of Newington College and we were given the opportunity to hear our music boys share the stage with the Tupou College boys for the first time in Tonga.

The following day we were invited to Tupou College’s 150^th Anniversary Chapel Service which included an address from His Majesty King Tupou VI and many other luminaries from Tongan society. 

Day four was all about learning about the history of Tupou College and the touring party spent that day amongst prestigious company. We sat alongside the Tongan Royal Family, three thousand Old Boys, and visitors from other countries to admire the newly renovated facilities at the College. On this day, we saw the official opening of their Sesquicentenary Building which featured a newly completed Newington College e-learning Centre. This was a proud moment for all of us in Black and White. Boys and staff had worked late the previous night to ensure that the Centre was ready and functional- it was both a relief and joy to be at it’s official opening.

There were many speeches delivered on the day, including one by His Majesty, King Tupou VI. We also had the rare privilege of seeing Her Majesty, the Queen dance. A Memorandum of Understanding was co-signed by the Chairman of the Newington College Council, Mr Tony McDonald (ON 1976), and Tupou College’s Chairman, Dr Mulford and his counterpart Rev ‘Alifeleti ‘Atiola. We also witnessed draw-dropping Choir and Brass Band performances from the Tupou College boys. The official ceremony concluded with yet another Tongan Feast  witnessed by the Royal Family. The feast was filled with music and dancing. The festivities were occasionally interrupted by a plane dropping cash on the crowd which excited all of the kids. Our gifts to Tupou College this year were sent via three 20 ft shipping containers that were full of donations from our wider Newington community and included the much appreciated resources to set up the e-learning centre under the stellar leadership, productive hands and caring guidance of the Director of ICT, Mr Myles Carrick and Mr Reza Jalili-Baleh. Our donations included 30 brand new desktop computers, networking switches and enough cabling to be utilised throughout Tupou College’s property, wi-fi access across the campus, sourcing of software licencing agreements to enable Tupou boys access to the same e-learning products, a guarantee of IT support via our own help desk, data projectors and a vision and mission to continue the hard work of Founding Principal Rev Dr James Egan Moulton by supporting and nurturing a long-lasting working friendship between Newington College and Tupou College.

At night after all the festivities, we headed to Vakaloa Beach resort for a reunion with the Tongan Old Boys and their families. We have been hosting these reunions for the last four years and they are always such a success with the local community and our touring party. We were treated to more Tongan performances and our Stage Band as well as a few other boys provided entertainment to our 200 guests. Many speakers took to the stage to share a couple of words including Old Newingtonian Mr Steve Finau (ON 1966). He spoke about the importance of the Tongan Bursary program.

Day four was our first chance to take a breather in the morning. In the afternoon, we played two Rugby fixtures (U15s and U14s) at the national stadium where Newington was victorious in both games 24–12 and 28–7.

Great sportsmanship and camaraderie was on show and our parents seemed to enjoy the live stream through our Tongan connections that Mr Jalili-Baleh faciliated.

That night, we attended the Royal Sesquicentennial Music Festival with the Royal family. We performed, among other pieces,  Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus. The culmination of the night was a joint performance of Zadok the Priest and the Hallelujah Chorus by Handel. 

Jack Ryan and James Smith summed up Saturday as good as anyone:

“After a whirlwind week of chapel services, feasts, rugby, rehearsals and concerts, today marked the first day with no formal commitments. With nothing on the agenda, Mr Quince took a moment at breakfast to reflect on our time so far in Tonga. Mr Scott began by applauding our joint performance with the Tupou boys while Mr Egerton spoke about how proud he was of the rugby boys in what was a very physical battle.

An Aussie getaway isn’t complete without a barbecue at the beach, and so after our late breakfast we headed off to the coast not too far from our dorms. The barbecues we used were fundraised by the Lindfield community and will be generously donated to Tupou College. At the beach, the boys were able to kick back and relax after a few days of hard work. We couldn’t venture too far into the water due to the coral near the shoreline, but everyone was able to dunk their feet in.

That night we decided that we would make it our mission on Monday to renovate Tupou College’s Primary School, no easy challenge, but a worthy one”.

Sunday in Tonga is all about reflection and family time. Our touring party embraced both of these opportunities and Rev Geordie Barham delivered the first sermon from the Moulton Chapel’s freshly renovated altar. 

Our final full day at Tupou College was a fabulous one. After breakfast we started work at 7:30 AM in the Primary School. We spent the next 11 hours scraping walls, building bookshelves, sanding back blackboards, painting walls, floors, doors, window frames and ceilings of the four classrooms. All of boys and staff got involved, including Tony and Caroline McDonald and Old Boy Tua’melie Laimani (ON 2014). Throughout the day, Mr Godfrey and Mr Egerton ran Rugby clinics with the Tupou College players while Mr Mee, Mr Mann and Mr Scott ran music clinics.

Our final day was simply a great finish to a tour that left us with memories that will last a lifetime.

2016 is the 7th annual Tonga Tour, Newington boys and staff have been on and this would not have been possible without our tour sponsors, Gulliver’s Sport Travel, whom also continue to sponsor our shipping container on an annual basis.

We are grateful to our family at Tupou College for their selfless hospitality and feel privileged to be invited to be a part of their celebrations and more importantly their community.” 

Full credit goes to our touring staff for their tireless efforts in the lead up and throughout the tour to ensure our boys made the most of their opportunities and experiences whilst in Tonga.

Our students should also be proud of themselves as they not only adjusted remarkably well to differing cultural expectations, but they were great ambassadors, representing Newington College in the Kingdom of Tonga, adding to the fine tapestry of our history.

Mr Cameron Quince
Head of Fletcher House

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The stars were out on Wednesday 20 July as a packed audience of Newington boys, staff, members of the public and students from neighbouring schools filled out Old Boys Lecture Theatre for the Centre for Ethics public lecture on Religion and Ethics. This time featuring an interfaith panel made up of Buddhist Nun, the venerable Robina Courtin, Muslim academic, Dr Susan Carland of Monash University, Dr Bill Leadbetter of St Georges Cathedral in Perth, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, Father Aloysius Mowe and Rabbi Jacqui Ninio of Emmanuel Synagogue in Sydney. There was no doubt that this brains trust would bring a wealth of challening ideas and lively debate.

The night started with the question: Should religion stay out of politics?

Dr Bill Leadbetter of St Georges Cathedral in Perth, and Labor candidate in the most recent Federal election said, “Once we take religion out of politics it’s no longer a democracy.” Father Mowe agreed claiming that while religion is not the only guide to ethics these days, it remains a fundamental part of the life of a big portion of the world population and therefore holds value. Does being atheist not influence the way a person thinks argued Rabbi Jacqui Ninio.

The idea that people who do not belong to a religion are more neutral or would have a more objective standpoint to bring to politics is simply not true said Dr Carland, herself a Muslim academic who herself grew up Christian in Suburban Melbourne.

The question about same sex marriage and sexuality was next on the list as an audience member asked the panel whether religions needed to review and update the way they approached same sex relations.

Father Mowe led the discussion, explaining that the question is not so much about sexual orientation or modern day sexuality but how we understand human nature. 

“In the Catholic tradition, human nature is something that remains to be discovered because it’s so complex. God does not create rubbish. If you are, as Lady Gaga says, ‘born this way’, then that raises fundamental questions for us as thinking Christians about sexuality.”

For the Venerable Robina Courtin’s, it’s a ‘none-of-your-business’ type of question she said, and again Dr Leadbetter reframed the question saying that the issue is not to do with who gets to marry, but what marriage even means in a secular society.

“If the challenge is ‘Who gets married’ then the answer should be unequivocally…’those who love each other and want to commit to that institution’,” said Dr Leadbetter.

In light of the recent election, a question regarding Pauline Hanson was raised, specifically, how do we engage with people who has extremist views? And this lead on to a conversation on democracy and freedom of speech.

“In order to have a democratic society, we have to accept that there are people who have views that are obnoxious,” said Dr Leadbetter.

“Once we draw conditions on what people can say, then we engage in the business of corrupting our own community.”

With time fast running out, the lecture concluded on a positive note about what religion and god means to each of the individuals and their religious groups.

“Religion – that which binds us – is intuitive. We want to be bound to our community and history and the world that we live in,” said Father Mowe. At this point Rabbi Ninio quoted British sociologist and well-known Atheist Alain de Botton saying that while religious people may argue there is a God-shaped hole needing to be fulfilled, de Botton would argue, it is the human condition to yearn for fulfilment and meaning in life. 

This lecture was chaired by ABC veteran broadcaster Mr John Cleary and aired on Sunday Nights on Sunday 24 July. To hear the full lecture,  click here to listen.

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On Thursday, 28 July 2016, family and friends came together to celebrate the perseverance, creativity and originality of the boys and staff who belong to Newington Music. Themed around the year, 2016, ‘Suite 16′ invited the audience to take a seat and immerse themselves in a program that ranged from Johann Sebastian Bach to George Harrison. With boys from all years including Wyvern House and Lindfield Preparatory, the pieces were inspired by the number 16 in some way, whether it be a piece from the 16th Century or a play on the word ‘Suite’ in Hot Chocolate by Andy Beck and When you were Sweet Sixteen by The Fureys.

Head of Music, Mr Mark Scott spoke towards the end of the concert paying homage to the graduating Class of 2016 and the journey they have ahead of them. Reflecting back to the time he was in Year 12, Mr Scott spoke about how music like Keats poetry has the ability to transcend us beyond the everyday to gain perspective and allow us to enjoy the range of emotions and experiences that life throws at us.

“When I was thinking about what to say tonight, to you about our Year 12 boys as they start the process of leaving, I thought of what Keats talks about when things are dark … and for me … it helps if I remember, that there’s also great beauty in the world … and a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Music can also show its full powers when it is given an opportunity to make someone smile, be moved on a spiritual level, remember or be amazed, he continued.

“May your future lives continue to be filled with music. Its beauty will comfort you when times are dark; its energy will rejuvenate you; its communicative power will help you connect to people who don’t speak your language; its quirkiness will help you have the best fun and its passion and emotion might even help you find love”.

We thank and congratulate each and every boy who performed at Founders Concert this year with a special thank you to our Year 12 boys. It is at times when we are feeling ordinary that the study of music enables us to look beyond and seek solace and peace.

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Often we consider the success of a fundraising event by the amount of money raised and the number of attendees who participated. While these are all important measures, are there any lessons that can be learnt from coordinating fundraising events?

One week after the Manton House Dodgeball Competition to raise funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation, Black and White spoke to Jovan Tomasevic and Harrison Ayres about both the setbacks and rewards of organising a College-wide fundraising event such as this year’s Dodgeball competition.

Can you tell me what were some of the challenges of this year’s competition?

Jovan: Some of the challenges included organising the teams and dealing with people not turning up or not having the right number of glasses each day.

Harrison: We had more than enough challenges and they ranged from things outside of our control to simple issues which we should’ve been on top of such as leaving class those few extra minutes earlier on the first day to prepare (believe it or not, we didn’t jump at the chance to leave class).

Jovan: We overcame these challenges by spending more time as a group by readjusting the schedules and materials that we needed for each day. This all payed off massively in the final.

What was most rewarding about the experience?

Harrison: Personally, the two most rewarding things include all the experience I got helping run the event and the satisfaction of such a smooth final day.

Jovan: The most rewarding aspect of running this competition was seeing the competition run so well on the final day. It showed me how our perseverance had payed off and that we had successfully raised both awareness and funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation.

What advice you would give to others running a similar competition like this one?

Jovan: The main advice that I would give to others running similar competitions  would be to make sure that they have multiple backup plans, and to prepare for failures, because nothing will ever always go to plan.

Harrison:  To any one looking to take up a big project or run an event, advertising is key. We didn’t do this too well and if it wasn’t for a few consecutive assemblies and year meetings, we definitely wouldn’t have had the turn out we did.

A shout out to Harrison, Jovan and the Manton team for all their effort and endurance in making this year’s competition happen. It seems that despite hardship, the boys went on to draw in a large enough crowd to raise $800 and teach us all a lesson about effort and organisation. In the end, the boys remained victorious in the final game against teachers in winning the Silver Wench two years in a row.

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It is said that finding information online is ‘similar to taking a sip from a fire hydrant.’ This is a core concept for staff at Newington Library, in particular, inquiry and research skill development and was the guiding principle behind Newington Library’s first ‘Teachmeet’ led by Teaching and Learning Librarian Mrs Lily Young.

Teachmeets have become increasingly popular among teachers from all disciplines and levels as they allow for networking and sharing resources and expertise on a particular theme or topic. The theme for this particular event was ‘Information Literacy’, with a focus on how teachers use library services to help students identify, locate, evaluate and effectively use information. This was a very successful event, not only for professional development purposes, but for showcasing the work of libraries and their dedicated staff.

Attendees ranged from Teacher Librarians, Classroom Teachers, eLearning Leaders as well as research and library graduates from nearby Independent, Department and Catholic schools as well as Tertiary University libraries such as Fisher Library at the University of Sydney.

Our guest speakers highlighted that growing information overload meant that there was a greater need in coming up with effective strategies to help students how to critically think about where their information is coming from and how it can be used. Presenters offered insights into effective strategies for students in finding and using information to solve problems and make decisions, asking meaningful questions, reflecting on their inquiry process, and the analysis and synthesis of selected information (just to name a few!)

This Teachmeet emphasised information literacy as a lifelong skill, and in particular, the integral role that teachers and libraries play in developing this skill. Attendees agreed that this was a fantastic event that resulted in stimulating discussion and refreshing ways in leading pedagogical change to identify the role that information literacy development plays in a student’s life.

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Congratulations to Visual Arts student Jack De Lacy whose essay was accepted and published in the 20th Biennale of Sydney Student Newspaper. His essay that explores the question ‘Discuss the role and significance of restaging and reinterpreting historic works for a contemporary context’ was described as ‘interesting, insightful and engaging’ by the Melissa Ratliff, Curator and Manager of the Public Programs and Education division of the Biennale of Sydney.

Jack’s essay draws on three artists at the Biennale this year – Justene Williams, Ming Wong and Shahryar Nashat. In his essay he provides a comparative study of how these artists have added value in meaning by harking back to works by other artist at a different moment in time. Jack says ‘By restaging an artwork, artists create new meaning and build off the work of others. In doing so, a progression or adaption of understanding and ideas is shown’.

‘Under the 20th Biennale theme, The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed, historic works highlight our societal movement into the future, offering an understanding of the present, past and our identity that is moulding, and becoming, the future’.

To read Jack’s full essay, click here

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On Thursday July 21, the Languages Department hosted the annual Languages Poetry Competition. This Competition invites boys from Year 7–11 who study one of the eight languages the chance to recite a set poem in their language of study. 

The competitors are judged based on their pronunciation, fluency, engagement with the audience and ability to tell a story.

In my address to the audience on the night, I posed a question.

“Why are we here?”

Some may say out of tradition. The Languages Poetry Competition has run for over 20 years now, but why do our boys continue to learn other languages when English is universally spoken around the world, and for those who find themselves overseas and unable to speak a foreign language, there is the internet and a multitude of language apps that can do the translating and talking for us.

So why?

My answer is at once complex, and yet really very simple.

Besides being an outstanding brain exercise, as science would attest, or a great addition to a CV, knowing another language or learning its poetry offers us so much more on a very profound level.

What is revealed to us when we look at the range of topics covered in the poems … is this.

We all laugh at the ridiculous vision of an 18-metre long ant pulling a cart full of penguins and ducks.

We can all feel the delight of seeing a beautiful butterfly.

We recognise the gentle nobility in a farmer working his field or the rush of playing a good game of cards.

There is the exquisite joy of knowing love and the despair at losing that love.

The beauty of nature painted through words knows no cultural bounds.

And the fact that people have been writing about love and war for millennia shows us the same thing – we are, in essence, all one. Poetry, language, regardless of what that language is, are part of our shared humanity.

In a world where, moment by moment, we are confronted with violence, hate, xenophobia and increasing isolationism on the screens that are our constant companions, it becomes even more imperative that we share with the younger generation that is before us the vision of unity and strength through diversity via the medium of language. This is our passion and it drives us forward each day.

In short, the ability to speak another language, to find that place between cultures where you feel genuinely connected to yourself and the world around you, remains something magical.

Congratulations to all the boys who performed on the night, and a special pat on the back to those who went home with accolades.

Languages Poetry Winners 2016

Chinese

• Zach Zoud
  
• Oscar Bell
  
• Liam Pidcock
• Thomas Papasavvas
  

French

• Henry Armstrong-Bailey
  
• Louis Miletto
  
• Harrison Rowland
  
• Angus Mackie-Williams
  
• Jack Crawford
  

Latin

• Tom Alscher
  
• Max Tobin
• Jonathan Lee
  
• Linus Griziotis
  
• Fin Casey
  

German

• Michael Chi
  

Italian

• Marco Loprevite
  
• Benjamin Serone
  

Japanese

• Winston Lin
  

Modern Greek

• Christos Mavropoulos
  

Spanish

• Jonathan Eassy
  

Cheryl Priest
Head of Languages (Acting)

The post Language Poetry Competition appeared first on Newington College.

At the biennial STEM festival Newington boys from Years 6–11 were treated to Nitrogen gelato, a trip to outer space, a nail-bitingly exciting science cook-off, and back-to-back presentations by some of Australia’s top science, technology, engineering and maths minds as part of the 2016 STEM Festival.

Months in the making and headed by Mr David McNaughton from the Design and Technology department, this year’s STEM Festival saw the collaboration of three different departments to curate a program that included activities that ranged from the hands-on to the inspired and whimsical.

Andrew Wang (11/FL) and Ricky Zheng (9/MO) said a talk on coding taught them that computers were in fact very “dumb” and that coding is the art of learning how to effectively give computers instructions so it could do what you tell them to do, which is not always what you want them to do.

UNSW Biochemist Merlin Crossley was another intriguing speaker who talked to Year 11 IB Biology about the very particular headache that faces researchers like him. Specialising in sickle cell anemia, Mr Crossley found out he was looking at the wrong protein after having completed twenty years of research. “In order to take the steps to finding a cure for a disease such as sickle cell anemia, you can’t just find new techniques to have a stronger ladder. You have to invent the spaceship,” he said. 

Wyvern Year 6 Team Leader Ms Sara Ratner found the ‘Matheletics’ hosted by the funny presenters at Inquisitive Minds particularly impressive. “I have not seen them so engaged in challenging Maths problem solving for such a sustained period of time ever and they relished in the chance to work collaboratively – it was fantastic!” she said about her Year 6 class.

But the infectious nature of last week’s STEM program was not just felt by our boys as they moved from room to room. A Newington parent of Year 7 and Year 9 boys wrote to Mr McNaughton saying, “Each day my boys have come home from school full of excitement and information about what they have experienced in their STEM activities during the day. I think that the timing in the school year really works, as it has taken some of the pressure away from the upcoming exams and reminded them that learning can be fun!”

A big congratulations to Mr McNaughton and the Science, Design and Technology and Maths departments on hosting such a successful event!

The stars were out on Wednesday 20 July as a packed audience of Newington boys, staff, members of the public and students from neighbouring schools filled out Old Boys Lecture Theatre for the Centre for Ethics public lecture on Religion and Ethics. This time featuring an interfaith panel made up of Buddhist Nun, the venerable Robina Courtin, Muslim academic, Dr Susan Carland of Monash University, Dr Bill Leadbetter of St Georges Cathedral in Perth, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, Father Aloysius Mowe and Rabbi Jacqui Ninio of Emmanuel Synagogue in Sydney. There was no doubt that this brains trust would bring a wealth of challening ideas and lively debate.

The night started with the question: Should religion stay out of politics?

Dr Bill Leadbetter of St Georges Cathedral in Perth, and Labor candidate in the most recent Federal election said, “Once we take religion out of politics it’s no longer a democracy.” Father Mowe agreed claiming that while religion is not the only guide to ethics these days, it remains a fundamental part of the life of a big portion of the world population and therefore holds value. Does being atheist not influence the way a person thinks argued Rabbi Jacqui Ninio.

The idea that people who do not belong to a religion are more neutral or would have a more objective standpoint to bring to politics is simply not true said Dr Carland, herself a Muslim academic who herself grew up Christian in Suburban Melbourne.

The question about same sex marriage and sexuality was next on the list as an audience member asked the panel whether religions needed to review and update the way they approached same sex relations.

Father Mowe led the discussion, explaining that the question is not so much about sexual orientation or modern day sexuality but how we understand human nature. 

“In the Catholic tradition, human nature is something that remains to be discovered because it’s so complex. God does not create rubbish. If you are, as Lady Gaga says, ‘born this way’, then that raises fundamental questions for us as thinking Christians about sexuality.”

For the Venerable Robina Courtin’s, it’s a ‘none-of-your-business’ type of question she said, and again Dr Leadbetter reframed the question saying that the issue is not to do with who gets to marry, but what marriage even means in a secular society.

“If the challenge is ‘Who gets married’ then the answer should be unequivocally…’those who love each other and want to commit to that institution’,” said Dr Leadbetter.

In light of the recent election, a question regarding Pauline Hanson was raised, specifically, how do we engage with people who has extremist views? And this lead on to a conversation on democracy and freedom of speech.

“In order to have a democratic society, we have to accept that there are people who have views that are obnoxious,” said Dr Leadbetter.

“Once we draw conditions on what people can say, then we engage in the business of corrupting our own community.”

With time fast running out, the lecture concluded on a positive note about what religion and god means to each of the individuals and their religious groups.

“Religion – that which binds us – is intuitive. We want to be bound to our community and history and the world that we live in,” said Father Mowe. At this point Rabbi Ninio quoted British sociologist and well-known Atheist Alain de Botton saying that while religious people may argue there is a God-shaped hole needing to be fulfilled, de Botton would argue, it is the human condition to yearn for fulfilment and meaning in life. 

This lecture was chaired by ABC veteran broadcaster Mr John Cleary and aired on Sunday Nights on Sunday 24 July. Click here to hear the full lecture.

On Thursday, 28 July 2016, family and friends came together to celebrate the perseverance, creativity and originality of the boys and staff who belong to Newington Music. Themed around the year, 2016, ‘Suite 16′ invited the audience to take a seat and immerse themselves in a program that ranged from Johann Sebastian Bach to George Harrison. With boys from all years including Wyvern House and Lindfield Preparatory, the pieces were inspired by the number 16 in some way, whether it be a piece from the 16th Century or a play on the word ‘Suite’ in Hot Chocolate by Andy Beck and When you were Sweet Sixteen by The Fureys.

Head of Music, Mr Mark Scott spoke towards the end of the concert paying homage to the graduating Class of 2016 and the journey they have ahead of them. Reflecting back to the time he was in Year 12, Mr Scott spoke about how music like Keats poetry has the ability to transcend us beyond the everyday to gain perspective and allow us to enjoy the range of emotions and experiences that life throws at us.

“When I was thinking about what to say tonight, to you about our Year 12 boys as they start the process of leaving, I thought of what Keats talks about when things are dark … and for me … it helps if I remember, that there’s also great beauty in the world … and a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Music can also show its full powers when it is given an opportunity to make someone smile, be moved on a spiritual level, remember or be amazed, he continued.

“May your future lives continue to be filled with music. Its beauty will comfort you when times are dark; its energy will rejuvenate you; its communicative power will help you connect to people who don’t speak your language; its quirkiness will help you have the best fun and its passion and emotion might even help you find love”.

We thank and congratulate each and every boy who performed at Founders Concert this year with a special thank you to our Year 12 boys. It is at times when we are feeling ordinary that the study of music enables us to look beyond and seek solace and peace.

Often we consider the success of a fundraising event by the amount of money raised and the number of attendees who participated. While these are all important measures, are there any lessons that can be learnt from coordinating fundraising events?

One week after the Manton House Dodgeball Competition to raise funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation, Black and White spoke to Jovan Tomasevic and Harrison Ayres about both the setbacks and rewards of organising a College-wide fundraising event such as this year’s Dodgeball competition.

Can you tell me what were some of the challenges of this year’s competition?

Jovan: Some of the challenges included organising the teams and dealing with people not turning up or not having the right number of glasses each day.

Harrison: We had more than enough challenges and they ranged from things outside of our control to simple issues which we should’ve been on top of such as leaving class those few extra minutes earlier on the first day to prepare (believe it or not, we didn’t jump at the chance to leave class).

Jovan: We overcame these challenges by spending more time as a group by readjusting the schedules and materials that we needed for each day. This all payed off massively in the final.

What was most rewarding about the experience?

Harrison: Personally, the two most rewarding things include all the experience I got helping run the event and the satisfaction of such a smooth final day.

Jovan: The most rewarding aspect of running this competition was seeing the competition run so well on the final day. It showed me how our perseverance had payed off and that we had successfully raised both awareness and funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation.

What advice you would give to others running a similar competition like this one?

Jovan: The main advice that I would give to others running similar competitions  would be to make sure that they have multiple backup plans, and to prepare for failures, because nothing will ever always go to plan.

Harrison:  To any one looking to take up a big project or run an event, advertising is key. We didn’t do this too well and if it wasn’t for a few consecutive assemblies and year meetings, we definitely wouldn’t have had the turn out we did.

A shout out to Harrison, Jovan and the Manton team for all their effort and endurance in making this year’s competition happen. It seems that despite hardship, the boys went on to draw in a large enough crowd to raise $800 and teach us all a lesson about effort and organisation. In the end, the boys remained victorious in the final game against teachers in winning the Silver Wench two years in a row.

It is said that finding information online is ‘similar to taking a sip from a fire hydrant.’ This is a core concept for staff at Newington Library, in particular, inquiry and research skill development and was the guiding principle behind Newington Library’s first ‘Teachmeet’ led by Teaching and Learning Librarian Mrs Lily Young.

Teachmeets have become increasingly popular among teachers from all disciplines and levels as they allow for networking and sharing resources and expertise on a particular theme or topic. The theme for this particular event was ‘Information Literacy’, with a focus on how teachers use library services to help students identify, locate, evaluate and effectively use information. This was a very successful event, not only for professional development purposes, but for showcasing the work of libraries and their dedicated staff.

Attendees ranged from Teacher Librarians, Classroom Teachers, eLearning Leaders as well as research and library graduates from nearby Independent, Department and Catholic schools as well as Tertiary University libraries such as Fisher Library at the University of Sydney.

Our guest speakers highlighted that growing information overload meant that there was a greater need in coming up with effective strategies to help students how to critically think about where their information is coming from and how it can be used. Presenters offered insights into effective strategies for students in finding and using information to solve problems and make decisions, asking meaningful questions, reflecting on their inquiry process, and the analysis and synthesis of selected information (just to name a few!)

This Teachmeet emphasised information literacy as a lifelong skill, and in particular, the integral role that teachers and libraries play in developing this skill. Attendees agreed that this was a fantastic event that resulted in stimulating discussion and refreshing ways in leading pedagogical change to identify the role that information literacy development plays in a student’s life.

Congratulations to Visual Arts student Jack De Lacy whose essay was accepted and published in the 20th Biennale of Sydney Student Newspaper. His essay that explores the question ‘Discuss the role and significance of restaging and reinterpreting historic works for a contemporary context’ was described as ‘interesting, insightful and engaging’ by the Melissa Ratliff, Curator and Manager of the Public Programs and Education division of the Biennale of Sydney.

Jack’s essay draws on three artists at the Biennale this year – Justene Williams, Ming Wong and Shahryar Nashat. In his essay he provides a comparative study of how these artists have added value in meaning by harking back to works by other artist at a different moment in time. Jack says ‘By restaging an artwork, artists create new meaning and build off the work of others. In doing so, a progression or adaption of understanding and ideas is shown’.

‘Under the 20th Biennale theme, The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed, historic works highlight our societal movement into the future, offering an understanding of the present, past and our identity that is moulding, and becoming, the future’.
To read Jack’s full essay, click here

On Thursday July 21, the Languages Department hosted the annual Languages Poetry Competition. This Competition invites boys from Year 7–11 who study one of the eight languages the chance to recite a set poem in their language of study. 

The competitors are judged based on their pronunciation, fluency, engagement with the audience and ability to tell a story.

In my address to the audience on the night, I posed a question.

“Why are we here?”

Some may say out of tradition. The Languages Poetry Competition has run for over 20 years now, but why do our boys continue to learn other languages when English is universally spoken around the world, and for those who find themselves overseas and unable to speak a foreign language, there is the internet and a multitude of language apps that can do the translating and talking for us.

So why?

My answer is at once complex, and yet really very simple.

Besides being an outstanding brain exercise, as science would attest, or a great addition to a CV, knowing another language or learning its poetry offers us so much more on a very profound level.

What is revealed to us when we look at the range of topics covered in the poems … is this.

We all laugh at the ridiculous vision of an 18-metre long ant pulling a cart full of penguins and ducks.

We can all feel the delight of seeing a beautiful butterfly.

We recognise the gentle nobility in a farmer working his field or the rush of playing a good game of cards.

There is the exquisite joy of knowing love and the despair at losing that love.

The beauty of nature painted through words knows no cultural bounds.

And the fact that people have been writing about love and war for millennia shows us the same thing – we are, in essence, all one. Poetry, language, regardless of what that language is, are part of our shared humanity.

In a world where, moment by moment, we are confronted with violence, hate, xenophobia and increasing isolationism on the screens that are our constant companions, it becomes even more imperative that we share with the younger generation that is before us the vision of unity and strength through diversity via the medium of language. This is our passion and it drives us forward each day.

In short, the ability to speak another language, to find that place between cultures where you feel genuinely connected to yourself and the world around you, remains something magical.

Congratulations to all the boys who performed on the night, and a special pat on the back to those who went home with accolades.

Languages Poetry Winners 2016

Chinese

• Zach Zoud
  
• Oscar Bell
  
• Liam Pidcock
• Thomas Papasavvas
  

French

• Henry Armstrong-Bailey
  
• Louis Miletto
  
• Harrison Rowland
  
• Angus Mackie-Williams
  
• Jack Crawford
  

Latin

• Tom Alscher
  
• Max Tobin
• Jonathan Lee
  
• Linus Griziotis
  
• Fin Casey
  

German

• Michael Chi
  

Italian

• Marco Loprevite
  
• Benjamin Serone
  

Japanese

• Winston Lin
  

Modern Greek

• Christos Mavropoulos
  

Spanish

• Jonathan Eassy
  

Cheryl Priest
Head of Languages (Acting)

WONTOK. While it may at first appear to be an acronym, is indeed the Pidgin word for ‘One Talk’, and can also refer to a kind of family gathering. On Friday 29 May, twelve Year 11 student representatives joined some of our fellow Uniting Church in Australia schools – Knox Grammar, Pymble Ladies College and Ravenswood School for Girls – as well as students from some Anglican schools to discuss issues of global significance at the annual ‘One World WONTOK – Poverty and Development Youth Conference’. The focus of the conference, which was held at Ravenswood School, centered around gender equality, climate change, and poverty.

Throughout the day we participated in a variety of activities, which were engaging and helped us look at some of the global topics in a different way. For example, we read scripts in which some of us assumed the position of a disadvantaged African woman. Speaking in first person helped build a sense of empathy within each of us, enabling us to capture the essence of gender inequality. Another activity involved one group throwing balls and the other trying to catch them with our arms crossed. This simulated the experiences of climate change refugees who suffer the consequences of another countries’ carbon emissions and are struggling to cope with climate change.

One other activity was a game of Top Trumps in which each card was a different country with statistics, varying from population density to births per thousand women aged 15-19. This game made us aware of the disparities between some countries. Australia has a population density of three people per square kilometre, while Bangladesh has twelve hundred people per square kilometre. Some African countries also have birth rates (per thousand women aged 15-19) in the hundreds. Many of these statistics were alarming to us.

The conference was a far cry from a day of monotonous lectures, but instead included hands-on activities which were engaging, eye-opening and challenging! Indeed, we covered a lot of information about the most pressing issues in the world.  It does not do the conference justice to simply talk about what we did, but rather to cover what we learned from it. On the issue of poverty, we were shown eye-opening information about the errors in our thinking. The most common misconception citizens from developed countries have about poverty is the sense that it can be solved by shipping canned food overseas, or by dropping spare change in the nearest collection box. Throwing money at a problem is simply ineffective. Sending food to the hungry or adopting a malnourished child doesn’t eliminate the source of poverty but is merely putting a bandage on the raging rapids of the symptoms of poverty. It is much better to ‘kickstart’ small sources of income in an impoverished town so that the populace is able to sustainably find their own way out of poverty. Rather than a town having a dependence on the aid of others, it can start sustaining itself. This is just one example of the countless nuances involved in effective foreign aid.

Additionally, we learned not to be deceived by statistics. Countries like Iraq may have a Parliament made up of 25% women, but this cannot mask the terrible injustices associated with gender inequality more generally in the country. On the other hand, Tonga has no women in its Parliament, but this statistic only takes into account the King as the monarch, as there are women represented in the legislative assembly, and as a general rule, women are treated with respect in Tonga. This demonstrates that statistics don’t necessarily give us an exact picture of what are the main issues of concern within various countries.

Finally, climate change. It is an issue that Australians hate to talk about, but that is all the more reason to talk about it. We all know what it does and what we’re doing to cause it. And yet, because we do not see the immediate effects of it, we continue to pollute the environment for our children to take care of. After all, rising sea levels barely affect Australia. But what we don’t see are climate refugees. Small, close-knit communities in the Polynesian islands, who are the least responsible for climate change and pollution, are forced to flee their homes because of these rising sea levels. We were enlightened by Reverend James from Fiji, who shared with us how cyclone Winston, the most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, devastated his country. Climate change has caused millions of Pacific Islanders to leave their homes because they’re being flooded. Ultimately, why should Fijian children pay for the environmental crimes we commit?

The WONTOK conference was truly an eye-opening experience that enriched not only our understanding of global issues, but has challenged us to engage in working towards a solution. It has forced each of us to consider the global impact of our actions, alerting us to the universality of inequality that permeates within every society, including our own. It has made us realise that we are global citizens in every way, forcing us to question how we can possibly experience a better future without change, where each of us are responsible for working together to create this change.

Fin Casey (11/KL) and Richard Zhang (11/LE)