At the beginning of the school year I indicated to the community in various forums that we would be reviewing performing arts at Nudgee College during 2019. As this review took shape during Semester 1 the scope of the review was more narrowly defined. In effect, the purpose of the review was to evaluate the effectiveness of the current leadership and organisational structures in performing arts in both the academic and co-curricular spheres.

During Term 2 the external review of performing arts (academic and co-curricular) was led by Ms Alison Terrey and Mr Mark Sullivan. Alison is a former Principal of Mt St Michael’s College and has completed previous projects for the College. Mark is a music consultant who was previously the Head of Instrumental Music at Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

The final report of the review was completed earlier this term and has now been tabled with the College Leadership Team and the College Board. The panel interviewed key staff, parents and students in the course of the review. They also considered various pieces of school data, external research, as well as attending classrooms, rehearsals and the College Musical.

The final report contains numerous commendations of what has been achieved in performing arts as well as recommendations for restructuring the College’s model of leadership. These recommendations have been fully considered and a road map for the future of performing arts at the College has been formulated. This road map envisages further strategic changes to the organisation of performing arts in the future. 

As a first step on this roadmap of reform, the College is advertising for a Director of Performing Arts. This will be a Senior Leadership Team (SLT) position and will be the equivalent of the Director of Activities position, currently held by Mr Anthony Connellan. Anthony’s role will change and will be largely focused on sport, but will also include activities such as the Cattle Club. This new role will reflect the priority that performing arts will hold at the College and the new Director will have significant responsibility across areas such as Music, Debating, Chess and Drama. 

During this process there have been discussions with performing arts staff. It is opportune to acknowledge the good work of Mr Brett Foster, Ms Alison Kilgour and numerous other teachers and Music Tutors who continue to work hard with our students in creative pursuits. 

I am hopeful that the change outlined here, as well as others in the future, will fulfil the ultimate intent of the review, which is to ensure that we have a leadership structure that supports our students to develop their talents to the fullest and realise their creative potential. This is a strategic priority for the College since we nurture the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of all students through a diverse range of opportunities, including performing arts. I am confident that these changes will further enliven this creative aspect of life school.
In keeping with this creative and cultural theme I highlight for you the fast-approaching highlight of the Nudgee College calendar – the annual Dimensions Arts Festival from 6 to 8 September. Dimensions is a celebration of the creative and performing arts at the College, with the Opening Night Gala on Friday 6 September. This is always a sell-out event and I invite you to experience this wonderful evening of art, music, fine food, wine and entertainment, including guest speaker Mr Adam Frew of Yarrie Yarns. Tickets are $65 per person and on sale here. The festival will also be open on Saturday for the home game against Brisbane Boys’ College, as well as on Sunday for a new picnic-style event Dimensions on the Green.

Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal

A growing body of research confirms the benefits of building a sense of community in school. The research demonstrates students in schools with a strong sense of community are more likely to be academically motivated, will be socially involved in peace and justice events, and will, as a result, develop social and emotional intelligence and avoid a number of problem behaviours. These benefits are often long lasting. 

The positive effects of community-building programs in schools persist through all year levels. The benefits of building a sense of community in a school on students are reflected in academic performance, with students in schools with this sense of community outperforming school students from similar schools on academic outcomes, teacher ratings of behaviour (better academic engagement, respectful behaviour and social skills), and self-reported misbehaviour.

The research goes on to highlight that unfortunately, schools with a strong sense of community are fairly rare. In fact, most schools that survey students' perceptions of community wind up with mediocre mean scores. Many schools apparently appear to be ill-equipped to provide community for the students who may need it most.

This is a long lead in to allow me to say a big thank you to the Ladies’ Auxiliary and the work they do behind the scenes to make events like the recent Nudgee Long Lunch take place. This has become a showcase event for the College. But in addition to this event, a lot of the work the Ladies’ Auxiliary do in and around the Tuckshop during the week and during home games contributes to making Nudgee College such a great school with a strong community. The Long Lunch was a Ladies’ Auxiliary initiative and a gamble four years ago. Anyone who attended would agree that it has become an incredible and highly anticipated annual event. A special thank you to Ms Alysia Bridger, who remains the driving force and coordinator of this event. She represents the selfless attitude displayed by many in our community and it is greatly appreciated.

I know we have our countless support groups who work with their respective activities. We have the incredible Arts Committee who are gearing up for the annual Dimensions Art Festival in a couple of weeks, and embarrassingly I know I will have left out some team of parents or Old Boys who also contribute to making sure, unlike most schools (as the research would suggest), we do not have a problem with developing a strong sense of community. In fact, as someone who has worked in more than six schools across the country and overseas, and as someone who has visited a lot of schools in previous roles, I am still in awe, after 10 years, of the spirit within this community. It sets us apart. It provides a great foundation for our boys to be successful.

Know that each of you, as you do even small things around the College or contribute to making events like the Long Lunch and Dimensions take place, are playing a vital role in establishing and perpetuating the Nudgee College community – or as we like to call it, Nudgee Spirit.

Mr David Johnston
Deputy Principal

This is NAIDOC Week at Nudgee College. National Aboriginal Day (eventually National Aboriginal and Islander Day) started in the 1920s and 1930s as a day to count and remember what the First Australians had lost, in terms of their culture, traditions and lives since the coming of Europeans to this continent we now call Australia.

In the middle of last century the Organising Committee made the choice not to mourn loss, but to celebrate the resilience and persistence of surviving cultures; their diverse languages, rich and ancient history, their traditions and law and the right of First Australians to an active role in Australian life and government.

There is much to remember and celebrate, but often the slow progress toward justice and accountability is frustrating or overwhelming. But I am confident that change will come, because I see the momentum for change in our community – in our Nudgee College students who are First Australians and in those who learn next to them in classrooms and stand shoulder to shoulder with them on the pitch.

In the words of British historian Arnold J. Toynbee: “The things that make good headlines are on the surface of the stream of life, and they distract us from the slower, impalpable, imponderable movements that work below the surface and penetrate to the depths. But it is really these deeper, slower movements that make history, and it is they that stand out huge in retrospect, when the sensational passing events have dwindled, in perspective, to their true proportions.”

Recently, I was privileged to hear a speech by Australian Catholic University Academic and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman Dr Doseena Fergie. She used an image of two rivers meeting to describe her vision of reconciliation. She said, where the Murray and Darling rivers meet to become one, there is a distinct coming together of two waters of different colours. Two rivers coming together, with different points of origin, their courses with remembered twists and turns charting a map of their journey, but merging to make one future path which can only move forward, running deep and slow into a shared future and common destiny. I was captivated by that image – so prayerful and honest.  

NAIDOC Prayer by Bianca Manning (Aboriginal Christian Leader and Gomeroi Woman)

Loving God, we thank you and praise you for who you are, for your unending love for us and your creation of these lands on which we now live. We thank you for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Australians, who you placed as stewards and custodians of these lands and waters.

Father God, we come before you this NAIDOC Week to celebrate the successes, achievements, and resilience of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters. We recognise those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders who are using their talents to enrich our communities and inspire us all in many ways. We honour First Nations peoples who have fought every day for the past 230 years for rights, culture and land. They reveal the true meaning of strength and survival.

Lord, will you increase our capacity this NAIDOC Week to humble ourselves and listen afresh to truly hear the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We pray that Australian churches, communities, and governments at all levels would provide platforms for First Nations voices to be heard and taken seriously. We pray that internationally recognised Treaties will be established and the ongoing sovereignty of First Nations peoples will be recognised.

We acknowledge and lament the injustices of the past and present, and ask for your mercy and healing. May the truth of history, of these lands now called Australia, be told in its entirety, and truth telling become a priority for our government and all citizens. We pray that you would open hearts and ears ready to embrace Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters and empower all peoples to take action against injustice. 
Lord Jesus, through the cross we are reconciled to you and are your family under Christ. You call us to love one another just as you have loved us. So we pray that this NAIDOC Week, love will increase and the call for Voice, Treaty, and Truth will be heard.
We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Live Jesus in our Hearts!  Forever.

Mr Stephen Meara
Dean of Identity

Next week the following boys will be presented with Outstanding Learning Habits Awards. Congratulations gentlemen!

Mr Jason Sepetauc
Dean of Learning and Teaching

Semi Formal

At this time of year, there is a real feeling of Year 11s transitioning into next year’s Senior class. One event that celebrates this ‘coming of age’ is the annual Year 11 Semi Formal. Last Thursday night the Year 11s celebrated a magnificent Semi Formal at Eagle Farm Racecourse. A highlight of the night was how well the Nudgee College men looked after their partners. Everyone looked great – all grown up! The College was very proud of how the boys conducted themselves.

Thank you to Ms Larissa Patti and Mr Raoul Carmody for their organisation and facilitation of this event. Thanks also to the College Leadership Team, House Deans, Senior Leadership Team members, teachers and Boarding staff for their presence.

Return of Mr Peter Todd

This newsletter is an opportunity for me to thank all members of the College Leadership Team, Senior Leadership Team, House Deans and fellow Student Formation staff for their support during my time as Acting Dean of Students these past six weeks. Peter will return to Nudgee College on Monday and I am confident after this well-deserved Long Service Leave break he will re-join the team revitalised and ready to reconnect with students, staff and parents for the final weeks of Term 3 that remain and a busy Term 4. Welcome back Toddy!

Student Bag Tags

As you are aware we rolled out bag tags to all students in the first few weeks of Term 1 this year.

These seem to be successful, in most cases, in helping boys identify their bags, and in the event they are taken or removed, have assisted staff in identifying the owner of a bag when received in the Br Vic Larkin Student Centre.

We recognise there are a number of students who carry multiple bags to school, so would like to give you the opportunity to purchase additional tags to the ones already supplied.

These tags would be at a cost of $6 each and would be laser cut during the September holiday break.

If you would like to purchase some additional tags, place your order through the College Payment Gateway. Cut off for orders is strictly Friday 13 September 2019.

Mr Sean Toovey
Dean of Students (Acting)

Basketball

Saturday was another tough outing for the 1st V. With a promising start the boys were up 14 points at one stage in the first quarter. In what seems to be a common trend, the boys were a bit flat during the second quarter, allowing Toowoomba Grammar School (TGS) to reclaim the lead by half-time. The injury bug bit once again as Khobie Dehaan suffered a shoulder injury that hampered much needed production. In the end the boys could not come up with answers for the attacking TGS offence, which resulted in a convincing win for the opposition. Thasindu Chandrasekara was able to catch fire in spurts, whilst Zachary Bosuen and Mason Davis continued their consistent play. The highlight of the afternoon was seeing young fella Josh Clark end the game with two monster blocks and score his first points as a 1st V player. 

As a whole Nudgee College performed well across the day, winning 11 of 19 games. The feedback from parents and coaches in regard to the team and skill development of the boys has been pleasing to hear. In particular the 9F and 9D teams are to be commended for their entertaining display of Nudgee College Basketball.
The 8As continue to create havoc for the opposition with another big win lead by Mladen Markovic and Joaquin Tulloch.
Round 6 is a bye round. It is believed the break comes at a good point of the season, which should see our boys return refreshed and eager. 

Mr CJ Massingale
Basketball Director

Chess

On Friday, the Chess team made the long journey out to TGS. Our Senior players had a very good night with both the 1st IV and Senior teams winning 2.5-1.5. In the 1st IV, Henry Kennedy and Thasindu Chandrasekara won their games, with James Hong drawing on Board 1. In the Senior team, Jacob Martin and Branden Hargreaves won, while Nathan Levu got a draw after a long and technical game that went down to the wire.

Unfortunately, due to illness, we were only able to field three Open teams rather than our usual five. The Open Bs drew 2-2 thanks to wins from Alex Huang and Joseph Wesche. Congratulations to Alex on his first GPS win and for defeating a higher-rated opponent. The Open C team lost 1-3 but did have two draws from Yago Ortega-Quintana and Baxter Giorgas. With the bye round this week, we will be running our school championship on Sunday. Any interested Nudgee College students are welcome to attend and details can be found on our Team App.

Mr Martin Harmon
Chess Director

Rugby

We had a really special day on Saturday at Nudgee College, celebrating and acknowledging the great work our mums do in our lives. A big thanks to the Rugby Support Group for helping out with this day with free coffees and bubbles for all the mums! On the field there was a lot to celebrate as we won 19 out of 22 games against TGS; and were undefeated in our eight supplementary games. Thanks to the mighty 7ths who were the only team on the road and were a little stitched up, having to play a strong The Southport School (TSS) 5ths side. Although the result would appear like a heavy defeat, the TSS Head of Sport went out of his way to email me to say how gutsy our boys were on their own a long way from home.

Nudgee College Team of the Week Round 5

1. Will Jones (1st XV)
2. Dominic Weber (12A)
3. Akot Akot (15E)
4. Henry Kettle (3rd XV)
5. Will Devlin (11White)
6. Sam Roche (3rd XV)
7. Jack McKeown (14D)
8. Billy Campbell (11A)
9. Inigo Lawrence (15A)
10. Kynan Enver (16D)
11. Will Mackinney (16B)
12. Charlie Stack (15B)
13. Lochie Walker (6th XV)
14. Campbell McBride (11A)
15. Riley Hatton-Whimp (12E)

Round 6 is our bye round, where we host Downlands College. The highlight of this weekend is many of our lower teams get the chance to play on Ross and Wilkes ovals due to the reduced number of games. Our 2nd XV will take on an undefeated Downlands 1st XV on Ross Oval at 2.15pm in what is sure to be a cracking game!

Mr Sean Graham
Rugby Director

Theatresports

Year 10 team ‘Milk Shakespeare’ and Senior team ‘Pick em Up’ will compete in a Semi Final at St Patrick's College on Thursday 29 August at 7.00pm. Come along and support the boys in their journey to the Grand Final.

Ms Alison Kilgour
Theatresports Director

Swimming

Nudgee College Swimming had a very successful meet over the weekend, competing at the Queensland Short Course Championships. We had 65 swimmers competing across the board and we came away with 30 gold, 15 silver, 12 bronze medals and 142 top 10 finishes.

Congratulations to the following swimmers:

Gold medals:

• Luke Barbour (200m and 400m IM)
• Thomas Connellan (200m, 400m and 800m freestyle)
• Aidan Easton (200m freestyle)
• Thomas Raymond (200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle)

Silver medals:

• Dominc Osswald (200m freestyle)
• Luke Barbour (100m IM)
• Thomas Connellan (100m freestyle)

Bronze medals: 

• Aidan Easton (100m and 200m IM)
• Tyler O'Keefe (1500m freestyle)
• Harrison Turner (100m butterfly)

Ms Lauren Byrne
Activities Officer

Dimensions

The Dimensions Opening Night Gala is now only two weeks away and we look forward to sharing an evening with you filled with entertainment, food, drinks and great company as we support our talented young men in the Arts at Nudgee College. Our College Vice Captain Isaac Roati made an inspirational speech this week about the importance of experiencing the Arts at Nudgee College. We would like to share this with you now:

Term 3 brings new energy to Nudgee that isn’t experienced any other time in the year. The school is as active as it will be. Time seems to run twice as fast as it does any other time in the year. The roar from the Grandstand bounces and bounds through the school on a Saturday afternoon as Rugby dominance returns to Ross Oval. Calendars are cluttered as endless waves of due dates, meetings and assignments mark the Term 3 workload, which pales what has come before. And the three-letter acronym, QCS, gets muttered with increasing frequency and tension as those fateful September days thunder in the near distance. Among all of this bustle and noise, it's easy to overlook that in Term 3 another behemoth awakes to add to the sounds and furies that pervade this chaotic term.

It dances across an orange and yellow-lit stage in Tierney, late on a Thursday night, under warm lights and a crowd cloaked in darkness. It catches the ear as you walk down the steps adjacent to the Cleary building, en route to the Boarding Village as thunderous classics or smooth jazz floats from the Music department. Or perhaps it's a once blank canvas, now stained with the colours of the rainbow in a mystifying web of shapes and structures, conveying a deeper meaning that most of us would fall short on expressing. “It” is our Arts and Culture, and Term 3 it’s where it shines the brightest.

Term 3 is truly an exhibition of what the cultural side of our diverse College has been practising and refining throughout the first semester of the year. The Nudgee College boys involved in Theatresports have already been exercising their quick wit and natural humour, and with the heats conquered in Term 2, the finals commence with the second semester; with both theYear 9 team moving onto the Semi Finals Thursday night at Padua and Senior team moving onto their Semi Final in 10 short days.

Across the road in the upper floors of the Cleary Building, those with a more artistic flare have been exercising their creativity all year round, expressing their impressive talent through dazzling works of art that leave many in wonderment at the Dimensions Arts Festival later this term.

And in the very same building musicians of all types refine their craft for the multiplicity of opportunities they will have to display their hard work over the course of many months. From Dimensions to the Awards Ceremony, woodwind concerts to the Queensland Catholic Schools’ Music Festival at Villanova, where Rock Bank 1, Stage Band and Drum Line scored a gold, silver and bronze respectively. Term 3 is truly the apex of extra-curricular activity at Nudgee College, and you don’t need to look any further than the endeavours of our many Arts to see how true that statement is.

I’m in the habit of setting challenges at the end of my addresses. So here’s one for today: don’t take my word for everything I’ve listed today. Go see it for yourself. Peruse the annals of artwork at the upcoming Dimensions Arts festival, or drop by on the same weekend to catch a performance by one of the bands. Or perhaps stop by to lend your support to our Theatresports teams. At the beginning of the year, I spoke of the importance of opportunity, and why it’s present on the Senior symbol. So here’s one to grasp, make sure you seize it.

Raffle

Major Prize: Nudgee College tuition fees fully paid for one student for 2020 OR $10,000 in cash

Tickets on sale now. Purchase tickets here.

We’re also seeking to assist us with raffle ticket sales at home games and during the festival. Sign up here.

Nudgee College Arts Committee