I have really enjoyed starting in my new role as acting Head of Glowrey House and seeing many boys show fine character traits such as initiative, leadership and determination. The two major House events this term were Edmund Rice Day and the House Cross-Country. It was fantastic to see the initiative shown by Glowrey Tutor Groups to set up fun and engaging activities to celebrate Edmund Rice Day and to raise funds for various charities. Our victory in the Cross-Country was very pleasing, the boys showed great House spirit and effort throughout the event.

Below are some perspectives from some Glowrey students.

• Bryan Johnson, Acting Head of Glowrey

Edmund Rice Day

8 Glowrey West

Prior to the day, we planned our stalls and allocated rolls to the Tutor members. We did this by splitting into groups, organising roles and what we needed to bring and discussing the times we run the stall. Our stalls were a basketball game and a ping pong cup game. The basketball game’s main idea was to shoot the ball, into the bins, in order to win a prize. Our second game’s focus was bouncing the ping pong ball into the cups opposite you, to beat your mate.

On the day, we were able to include all age groups and share the prizes with people, even if they hadn’t won anything. We learnt from this experience, through organisation and inclusivity. The day wasn’t just about giving out prizes to your mates, we included everyone willing to participate and organised the stall amongst each other, to have a fair share in what we do. Although we may have had challenges staying organised, we were resilient and spoke to our peers to fix the problems. As well as stalls, we had groups talking about Edmund Rice and his acts of service for others.

• Ethan Hickman and Ben Brady.

9 Glowrey West

We decided to run some games, our two games were ring-toss and guess the number of lollies in a jar. During Tutor, we were each assigned to a 30-minute schedule and we all showed up either trying to advertise our guessing game or helping out on ring toss. We had multiple winners on ring toss winning a small chocolate and also winners on each jar which had over 200 lollies contributed by our Tutor members.

• Ben Molinari

9 Glowrey East

Our Tutor Group put together a fun and educational Pictionary whiteboard game. A member of our Tutor group (Thomas Dreverman) also put together an additional game. This game was about guessing how many skittles are in a jar and the winner got to keep the jar of skittles. The funds that we raised were donated to a wheelchair company that made wheelchairs for less fortunate children that are suffering from cerebral palsy and other conditions. This was a fun day as all of the school got to participate in games such as throwing water balloons at Mr Dempsey and Mr Johnson, and also an inflatable wrestling mat.

Cross Country

We won the cross country! Glowrey put in a great effort as a house and achieved valuable points towards the Tuatha Shield as we are now in the lead. With an awesome group of Year Seven boys coming through to help out the older boys, things are looking great for Glowrey for this year and beyond!

• Adam Varone, Blake Gardner and Thomas Leeson

During the Term One holidays, we were delighted to welcome two gorgeous new additions to the Edmund House family. Hudson George Stanton and Theodore ‘Teddy’ Bowyer, arrived to change forever, and in the best possible way, the lives of our Year 7 Tutor teachers, Mr Stanton and Mr Bowyer. We look forward to seeing these precious little bundles very soon and give thanks for their safe arrival.

The feast day celebrating Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice was held on Wednesday 5th May. As a House, in fact, the House with the honour of being named after our founder and inspiration, we rolled up our sleeves and really got stuck into raising as much money as we could for the Edmund Rice charities who are the beneficiaries of this event. You can see from the photos that a lot of fun was had, a lot of sugar was consumed and a lot of boys leapt to take advantage of leadership opportunities by running their stalls and taking responsibility for their events.

The Year 7s were really excited with the stalls allocated to them. Mr Stanton’s 7 Edmund East ran the lolly bags. The boys donated bags of lollies and spent Monday and Tuesday of their Tutor period in Week 3 preparing over two hundred lolly bags. These sold for $2 each on the day and were all sold out in less than 30 minutes. Mr Bowyer’s class ran the cupcake stall. This was a little more labour intensive on the home front (thank you) and we were so proud to see so many plastic containers filled with cupcakes of every hue and flavour. Mr Bowyer spent Tuesday afternoon cooking up a storm with the boarding students, so it was a real team effort. The cupcakes also sold out quickly and were much appreciated by those lucky enough to nab one.

The Year 8s ran milkshake stalls and this was a non-stop 90-minute shaking/mixing fest that tested the stamina. Mr Spiteri’s boys ran their stall on Redmond Common and Ms Outtrim’s boys occupied the position outside the Year 7 locker area. Due to generous donations of topping, milk and ice cream by our Year 8 families, both stalls contributed hard-earned funds to worthy charities.

The Year 9s had to come up with their own activities, and this was not as easy as it sounds. Mrs Manning’s 9 Edmund East ran a guess the number of lollies in the jar competition, a bucket and bean-bag toss, a Mario Cart gaming room, ping pong cups and a bottle toss challenge. Mr Laurino’s 9 Edmund West ran a ‘throw a water bomb at a teacher’ stall. Special thanks to our Head of Middle School, Mr Dempsey, who showed great spirit and expertly dodged water bombs for 45 minutes to the delight of the crowd. A huge shout out to Edmund House legend, Oliver Lim who was the brains behind the water bomb stall. Who thought something so simple could raise hundreds of dollars? That’s the genius of an event like this. People are presented with a challenge and rise to meet it, just as Blessed Edmund did all those years ago.

• Mrs Maree Brennan, Head of Edmund House

The mid-point of Term Two sees Treacy House currently in second place for the Tuatha Cup. At every opportunity, the boys are looking to get involved and do their best to repeat the great winning form of 2020. It must be said that the challengers have stepped up this year and while there are many more events to come, we will need to have all boys at their best across all disciplines to retain the title.

Edmund Rice Day

A changed format for Edmund Rice Day saw the day start with boys attending various presentations from organisations invested in doing exactly what Edmund had intended, providing for the marginalised. It was heartening to see Aquinas old boys at the forefront of these groups driving the message home of Service through action.

Soon the boys, in rotating shifts and under the guidance of their Tutors, were running stalls in an effort to accrue ‘Eddy Rice dollars’ that would ultimately fund some of the worthy causes they had previously been introduced to. All of our Treacy stalls were very popular. From the Year 7 teams, ‘punters’ could take on Mr Hitie’s deceptively difficult, Dart Throw-Water Balloon challenge or Mr Powell’s Paper Plane construction where the task called for flight distance or time. Our Year 8 stalls were based on the whole-body physical skills of Putt-Putt Golfing with Mr Bolitho or Footy Goal Kicking with Ms Smith. Our Year 9 activities were more psychological challenges, Ms Leopardi’s seemingly reality-defying ‘Coin bouncing onto chocolate treats’ was raking in proceeds and Ms Reilly’s Playing Card memory game had no shortage of customers testing their mental recall and depth of pockets.

Several boys were identified on the day for their outstanding commitment to organising and running the stalls alongside the Tutors they include;

• Year 9’s, Lucas Andrews, Oscar Bailey, Zennath Malay, Mitchell Hallatt, Jasper Giles, Charlie Backhouse, Max Backhouse, Charlie McKinlay, Dominic Osman
• Year 8’s, Reeve Suckling, Christian Pecotic, Flinn Tyrrell, Will McKinnon, Harrison Heal, Dioun Bisenio, Isaac Ruane, Liam Blackadder, Nash Barnett, Ruari Ledden.
• Year 7’s, Alfie Heron, Milan Damjanovic, Blake Topham, Domenic Lomen, Aaron James, Rockford Delahunt

Cross Country

While the Edmund Rice Fairground diet of many participants in the hours preceding the run was somewhat compromised, the weather and track conditions were absolutely perfect. Within an hour over 1,000 students had navigated the course, crossing the pristine Memorial Oval, the wood-chipped undulations of The Point and ultimately negotiated the finishing chutes in front of Gibney Boarding House.

Treacy had five boys finish in the top 10 across the Year 8 and Year 9 Groups, while the Year 7’s, despite great efforts, were pipped to the podium this year. Some brilliant individual results were achieved by the following boys;

• Caleb Di Toro – 1st place Year 9
• Nishok Nimalan - 4th place Year 9
• Barton Mincham – 5th place Year 9
• Oliver Perkis – 1st place Year 8
• Xavier Bianchini – 2nd place Year 8

When all the scores were tallied, Treacy came a solid third place behind winners Glowrey, second place-getters Edmund and just ahead of Bryan House.

Treacy House Mass

On the 6th of May Treacy House hosted the weekly Thursday morning Mass. Despite a tiring Edmund Rice Day only hours before, numbers attending the Service were impressive, showing a great commitment to Faith development and all House occasions.

Alongside Fr Rodriguez and Br Robert Stewart, the following students were responsible for the smooth running of the Service;

• Introduction – Noah Linaker
• Altar Servers – Michael Scott, Alex Rijks, Dylan Thong
• First reading – Nishok Nimalan
• Responsorial Psalm – Riley Nel
• Prayers of Faithful – Cooper Hopkins, Sebastian Robinson-Cook, Ben Rae, Luke Herbert, Harry Fry
• Eucharistic Ministers – Senior Boys group, lead by Isaac Klomp
• Singing – Old Treacy boy Liam Cunning
• Organ – Rory Watson

• Craig Herbert, Head of Treacy

Beginning of Term

The first two weeks of term proved to be rather uneventful for Cullity house as two-thirds of the House (Year 11 and 12), embarked on their exam and work experience periods. Although on-campus life was eerily quiet in the Cullity locker area, several students were studying tirelessly at home to achieve good marks in their exams. General pathway students, however, returned to campus during Week 2 to prepare for their upcoming Externally Set Tasks, which took place over the course of Weeks 3 and 4.

Edmund Rice day

Wednesday of Week 3 saw the return of Edmund Rice day. After not having an Edmund Rice Day last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, many students were very excited to see it return. We were privileged to spend the first two periods of the day listening to guest speakers and charities explain their areas of work. Organisations such as CARITAS Australia and Wheelchairs for kids showed us a glimpse of all the amazing work they are doing overseas in countries with people not as fortunate as us. We also participated in a special Edmund Rice Day Mass during the first two periods of the day. Edmund Rice Day is all about raising money for charity. This year every Tutor Group throughout Middle and Senior School was tasked with creating and running their own stall to raise money for charity. My Tutor Group, Year Twelve Cullity east, ran an inflatable gladiator battle challenge. Other stalls run by Cullity Tutor Groups, included a lunch bar selling bacon and egg rolls and a dunk tank. Each and every Tutor Group was assigned a fifteen-minute shift alongside other members of their Tutor Group to run the stall. It was so good to walk around and see all of the Cullity boys so invested and passionate about their stalls. It was even better to see Cullity Year 12 Tutor teachers, Mrs Hughes and Mrs Fewings, willing to let students dump buckets of water on them even after the dunking machine was out of order. It is moments like these that always make Edmund Rice Day a highlight for all students, along with raising money for charity.

Cross Country

The House Cross Country is often a strength for Cullity with many of the top runners being in our House. The race took place after the Edmund Rice Day activities, so having a house event was the perfect way to top off a great day. This year’s Cross Country was conducted in a new format in order to have both the Middle School and Senior School Cross Country at the same time. The races were formatted so that the Year 7 cohort ran at the same time as the Year 10 cohort, and the Year 8s ran at the same time as the Year 11s, while the Year 9s ran at the same time as the Year 12 cohort. I personally liked this format as it allowed us to run alongside the Middle School, which we haven’t been able to do before. As it was the Year 12 cohorts last Cross Country, I called in all of the Year 12 Cullity boys for a pre-race pep talk, with Angus Hardey doing the honours of giving the speech. It was awesome to see all of the Year 12 really embrace their last Cross Country race with their peers and give it their absolute all. Special mention to Cullity runners, Tom Millard for winning the Year 10 race and also to Ethan Wyatt-Smith For winning the Year 12 race. Through the efforts of all the runners, we were able to achieve a third-place result, earning us some handy House points. I would like to thank all the boys for their efforts across the whole day during both the Cross Country and the Edmund Rice Day activities.

New Year 10 Council Members

Year 10 students aiming to become Senior School leaders chose their preferred council to be a part of early in the term. I was thrilled to officially welcome the Year 10s into the council for the first time as official Cullity council members. We look forward to what they can bring to the table.

• Cameron Goeree, Cullity Captain

The first half of Term 2 has been a significantly active time for the young men in Chaney House. As Head of House, it has been pleasing to see the energy and enthusiasm of all members of our House Community as they strive to develop their gifts and talents to be the best that they can be for others - be that in their academic studies, on the stage in pursuing arts and cultural activities, on the sporting field or being a man for others through service.

Year 11 and 12 Academic Exams

The commencement of the term coincided with our Year 11 and 12 students commencing their Semester 1 Examinations. It was great to see the diligent approach of many of our Chaney Students to preparing throughout their holidays, balancing the rigours of study with recreational pursuits. I encourage all students to reflect on their results and to discuss the “information gaps” with their subject teachers to ensure that they have that foundation of knowledge for future concepts to be built upon. It would also be beneficial for students to engage in conversation with their Tutors or make a time to meet with me to review their current study plan and how they can continue to develop the necessary skills to reach their full academic potential.

Edmund Rice Day

2021 saw a change in the format of Edmund Rice Day to have a greater focus on serving the community, with all Tutors required to participate in the provision of a stall. Chaney House embraced this new direction and lead by example; Year 10s having a “Basketball Long Distance Throw” and the popular “Lolly Pong”; Year 11 manning the barbecues in the food stalls and Year 12s running “soccer darts” and “soccer points” competitions. It was great to see a large number of boys involved and willing to take their turn at running their Tutor stall to raise funds for various Edmund Rice charities.

Cross Country Champions 2021

Edmund Rice Day also saw the Cross Country take place in the final two periods of the school day. Chaney House, led by our Council Captain, Matthew Cain, came out in force with the best participation rates across Year 10 and 11 in numbers, and all three years demonstrating a positive attitude in running to one’s best ability. This collective effort resulted in the Tim Walsh Shield for Cross Country being returned to Chaney, where it has now been for three of the past four years. A well done to all boys for their efforts on the day.

Year 10 Students Join the Council

The Chaney Council has continued to take an active leadership role in the direction and decision making for Chaney House throughout the beginning of Term 2. Recently we have been joined by Year 10 students Thomas Eade, David Scott, Zachary Pentony, Conor Nolan and Matthew Beckett-Cooper will be providing valuable input and developing their leadership skills as we continue to look to the future growth of the House community.

Upcoming House Events

Looking ahead towards the end of Term 2, there are many events scheduled for students to get involved in representing their House. The Senior School Debating, Chess and Arts and Culture events will provide a diverse range of activities where students can use their natural talents and abilities to earn points towards the TUATHA Shield. I ask that all members of the Chaney community take the time to consider how they can contribute in a positive way, remembering that as they use their gifts and talents to the best of their ability that they are upholding the House Motto “Integritas Primi” - always have Integrity First in all that they think, say and do.

• Simon Montgomery, Head of Chaney House

The beginning of Term 2 was an incredibly eventful one for all students due to the snap lockdown during the ANZAC Day weekend, which pushed back the Year 11 and 12 exams by one day. Shortly after the exams, Edmund Rice Day and the cross country took place, where Prendiville House ran many stalls to help raise money, such as the Red Cross soup van. As a house, we achieved an incredible result of second place. Hopefully, we can achieve another excellent performance in the upcoming athletics carnival with the new year tens in Prendiville proving their participation, hard work and ability.

The Year 10s have also officially been welcomed into the Prendiville House Council where we have many exciting things planned. We plan to have the occasional tutor period as a vertical tutor period, which will consist of years tens to twelve all spending time together during the half an hour before break A. This initiative will be kickstarted this term and aims to boost comradery and collaboration between students of different year levels. Prendiville is really excited for the vertical house tutor system as well as the year 10’s new ideas at council meetings. The Prendiville council is now also one of the biggest councils, with over 20 members.

• William Spence

This year for Prendiville so far has been a great one for both us as students and the College as a whole. One day which stands out is Edmund Rice Day which we had on the Wednesday of Week 3. It started with a Senior School mass followed by some guest speakers from some charities we support. The first speaker was from Wheelchairs for Kids where Brother Ollie Picket explained where the money which we donate goes and how much of an effect it has on the lives of others. The second speaker was from Caritas where they explained their role in making others’ lives better. After this, the school commenced the Edmund Rice Day student-run stalls - selling food and running games such as the dunk tank, inflatable sumo wrestling and much more. All the profits made on the day were donated to charities.

Later in the day, we had Cross Country which we as student thoroughly enjoyed. We raced strong on the day however, unfortunately, we were just shy of first place. Although we didn’t win the event, we had a great participation rate and many of our students excelled in their performance with some making some of the top 5 places for years 10’s, 11’s and 12’s. This is a major improvement from last year where we came fourth overall and this has instilled great hope that we as a house can win the Tuatha this year.

• Charlie Stewart

From the Head of Prendiville House

My Brother’s Advice To Young Gamers

I called my younger brother for advice last week.

Matt’s teenage years coincided with the first-ever online games. By seventeen, haymo, as he was known by cyber competitors and admirers, had become one of Australia’s top Quake Live players (a first-person arena shooter). haymo had a few steady friends from school, was a shift manager at Dominoes, and was an all-around nice kid. Most of his spare time was spent in his favourite corner of the house with a bowl of salt and vinegar chips, speaking intensely into a headset, mastering games so frenetic that they’d make me dizzy if I tried to follow. There were long stretches of time each afternoon and evening when you’d know better than to interrupt haymo.

My parents had three boys. Generally, Matt is a very easy-going person, so Mum surprised me recently when she said that her most difficult challenge as a parent was trying to manage Matt’s gaming. Online gaming gave Matt a daily purpose that, in its attractiveness, eclipsed the concept of having goals in his academics or anything else.

Though he hasn’t ‘hung the mouse up’ completely, Matt doesn’t game so much anymore. Occasionally, he gets paid to commentate Quake Live finals. I had been wanting to speak with a few students about their gaming habits, so I called Matt:

“If you could give prime-time haymo advice now”, I asked, “what would it be?”

Here is what he said:

1. You are playing more than you need to. It is natural to want to improve at things. Online gaming is no exception. You won’t improve after the first hour of play. If anything, you’ll start playing worse and get angry, tilt, and you’ll probably rage-quit. If you want to improve, keep it fresh and don’t play for as long.
2. Find other ways to have fun as well. Like anything fun and exciting, when you play games you get a serotonin hit. That surge serotonin wears off after a while if you’re playing too often and too much and you start to feel yuck. Once you notice this feeling, just stop. You can get the same pleasure from sport, art, music, literature, theatre, the great outdoors. Find other things to do. Mix it up. Keep it fresh.
3. Your online friends will come and go. I don’t catch up with my online friends from back in the day, but I do still hang with two of my good mates from school. I’ve been much happier since I went to university and made a solid group of friends there. Spend more time with people in the flesh; they are the ones who will really get to know you.

Anyhow, that’s my brother’s advice to young gamers. Get better by playing less. Find other fun or you’ll get sick of gaming. Make friends in the real world—they’ll be there for longer.

Prendiville Pomegranates

This edition’s Prendiville Pomegranate is Rourke Palmer. I’ll explain why Pomegranate in the edition, but the premise is to highlight a Prendivillian’s achievements outside of school. U18 hockey nationals in Launceston, Tasmania went really well for Rourke. WA went unbeaten all the way through the tournament but unfortunately lost the grand final against NSW who they beat in a pool game 5-3, 3 days before the Grand Final. The tournament was a lot of fun and he really enjoyed his time over there.

Rourke’s most memorable game was Coming back from 2-1 down in the semi-final against Queensland to win 5-2.

• Alex Hayman, Head of Prendiville House

Basketball

The inter-house basketball that was organised by the Prendiville council during Term 1 provided an opportunity for each house’s best basketball players to compete against each other. This competition was a chance for Senior School students to build house spirit and develop comradery among peers. The competition was also a chance for fellow peers to cheer for their house and this, in turn, developed an exciting atmosphere within the Br Paull.

• Domenic Evangelista

The competition occurred over a two-week period, with games being played during recess and lunch. From each year group, a team of five of the most talented players from each house provided a competitive atmosphere. Chaney house won the competition overall with a dominant display particularly in year eleven and twelve. All those who participated and watched helped create a fantastic environment and Jack Cleaver’s buzzer-beater was a fitting culmination of the competition.

• Lukas Mollica

The four of us, alongside help from Milhan and some other council members, undertook this project. We all worked on separate areas during the planning stage, we had to organize the teams and umpires, arrange the venue with Mr Nottle, promote the competition and importantly get a playlist together to raise the atmosphere during the games.

• Brandon Noble

It was a great experience for all four of us and tested our teamwork skills as a part of the Prendiville council since we had to all had come together and worked on each of our allocated tasks on our own to ultimately have an inter-house basketball competition for everyone to enjoy. With the help of Milhan, Mr Nottle, and the umpires involved, the event ran smoothly and the satisfaction of organizing a successful competition as our first group project as a council was amazing.

• Neerat Syamal

The basketball tournament, notably the first of its kind was an extremely fun and exciting student-led initiative. It provided great entertainment for all students during the 10 break times it was run across. Innovative council projects such as this have been a backbone throughout this Tuatha Cup season, it was a pleasure to guide all the four boys involved, and help them successfully complete their senior school leadership projects in such an impressive fashion.

• Milhan