Principal

One of the features of 2021 for the Nudgee College community has been the various ways in which we have recognised and celebrated our 130th year anniversary. From large community celebrations such as the event in April to small lapel pins on boy’s jackets we have sought to give meaning to this significant year in the College’s history.

As part of the renovation project of the Treacy Heritage Precinct, which was completed earlier this year, the Old Boy’s mall outside of the Chapel was refurbished. Unfortunately, due to COVID related complications the final piece of the design was not completed in time for the blessing and re-dedication that took place in April.

This final piece was the installation of a Celtic Cross, which we now refer to as the Great Cross. It stands 5m in height, weighs 5 tonnes and is made of magnificent dark granite. It was quietly erected several weeks ago. The Great Cross was created for us by Mr Peter Wrafter, who is a Nudgee College old boy and skilled stonemason. We are grateful for his labour, care and craftsmanship.

On Sunday evening, prior to the Boarder’s Mass, Fr John Gillen blessed and dedicated our Great Cross in the presence of our boarding students, as well as members of the Christian Brothers, the CLT and the Advisory Council. It was an atmospheric occasion with the combination of the dark of night, an intimate crowd, swirling wind and the incense smoke creating a special feeling. Thanks to Mr Stephen Meara for creating the engaging liturgy that incorporated the blessing and dedication.

We have erected the Great Cross as an enduring public monument to mark our 130th anniversary. In doing so we are recognising the Irish Catholic heritage of the College as well as the successive generations of the community who have built the school since 1891. On the plaque at the foot of the Great Cross it states that:

‘We acknowledge all those who have built this community of faith and learning over those 130 years: Members of the congregation of Christian Brothers, the Catholic community of Queensland and Australia and beyond, families and friends of the College, members of the College staff, and the young men of Nudgee. Signum Fidei.’

In addition to the words, the Great Cross itself carries meaning. It is true that a great deal of conjecture is connected to the origins, symbolism and meaning of the shape and elements of a Celtic Cross. A simple explanation is that the ring symbolises the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit bound together in the mystery of the cross from which God, in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, redeems the world and unites us with him in the Spirit. In the Irish Christian tradition Great Crosses, many metres high with ornate patterning, punctuate the landscape and mark holy places of pilgrimage. For our community, the Nudgee College Great Cross has at its centre the College crest with our motto A Sign of Faith. We pray that it will mark this holy place and be a place of pilgrimage for the generations of the College community who are to come in the future.

In the refurbishment work of Old Boys Mall, we have had to make a significant alteration to accommodate the Great Cross. This alteration has meant that we have repositioned the Lourdes grotto which has been part of the Mall for many decades. The Lourdes grotto that previously stood in the corner of Old Boy’s Mall has been transplanted and re-created adjacent to the Rose Garden, behind the Mary Help of Christians Chapel and alongside Sandgate Road. The Lourdes statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Bernadette Soubirous now feature in the beautiful garden setting that compliments the other religious statues in the Rose garden precinct.

While the photos associated with this article may give you some sense of these important icons, I would encourage you to pay a visit and to see them for yourself. In doing so, I hope that you might take a few minutes to pause and reflect on the 130-year legacy of Nudgee College.

It is a legacy that we are called to steward in 2021. It is also a legacy that you are invited to contribute to and to strengthen using your God-given talents. It is a legacy that we, in due course, pass on to those who will follow us as parents, as students and as staff. It is a legacy that is both Nudgee Spirit and Signum Fidei (A Sign of Faith).

Mr Peter Fullagar

Principal

Deputy Principal

As the end of the term approaches, this will be my last article. In addition, it has been a big term, an unusual term, a testing term for so many reasons. From time to time, you need some inspiration to make the day a good day. I came across a quote from Pope Francis, he said, “Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is … Life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of YOU.”

Another article I read provided some tips to help us make each day a good day:

Smile
Say thank you
Help carry something
Send an email which will make people smile
Give someone a flower
Cook a nice meal
Buy a coffee for someone
Praise someone publicly
Spend time with someone you don’t know
Be happy yourself

Mother Teresa of Calcutta provided four other great pearls of wisdom:

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

“Never be overwhelmed by the magnitude of circumstances, just take it one at a time.”

“There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those who look for the little things in life that make a difference.”

“We ourselves may feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”

So as we come to the end of this term, after another tough 10 weeks of school amidst this global pandemic, I simply want to say thank you to all our boys. For remaining focused, for being trusting of their teachers, for being supportive of one other, for making the most of every day and each opportunity and to continue to shine and make each day a better day.

To all the staff, well done on your commitment to set the example, every simple action that has made a difference was noticed. You had your colleagues’ backs and you continued to smile and make each day worthwhile.

Nudgee College is a unique place where every person matters and where we see many happy faces but most importantly, I come to school each day because this community makes me happy.

When it comes, have a safe and happy Term 3 holiday - I pray lockdown free!

Mr David Johnston

Deputy Principal

Learning and Teaching

Visual Art

The last couple of weeks have been very productive in the Art Department. With units drawing to a conclusion, students have had the opportunity to showcase their work in a small exhibition throughout the Cleary building. On display is a selection of artworks from Years 5 to 9. It has been wonderful to see and hear the boys' reactions as they spot their work on display. Parents and the wider Nudgee College community are welcome to wander through and see the displays.

Year 12 students have completed their final internal assessment, which has resulted in some fantastic pieces. A highlight this week was Jack Fuller’s mural installation outside of the Cleary building. Jack created this street art piece expressing a message about his time at Nudgee College and encouraging the audience to challenge their views on the true nature of the Nudgee spirit as they view the work. This installation will be up until the end of the term.

All Senior Art students will have the opportunity to showcase their year 12 artworks with a special evening coming up in Term 4,‘NC Creatives@ Twilight. This evening will celebrate our Drama, Music, Media Arts, Visual Art and Technologies and will commence Saturday 16 October in Tierney Auditorium. Further information and a registration form will be sent out in Week 10. We would love to welcome you all to this event.

Ms Katherine Ellis

Visual Art Coordinator

NAIDOC Week - Guest Speaker

On Friday 20 August, the Year 8 cohort had the privilege to be introduced to Madonna Thomson, from Nyanda Cultural Tours. Madonna was visiting us as part of Nudgee College’s NAIDOC Week activities and to help us with our current Year 8 Humanities task. As part of the unit on Landforms and Landscapes we are working to gain a better knowledge of the many cultural values and meanings attached to landforms. From this presentation we were able to learn a little more about the connection made by First Nations People to the land. Topics such as the use of the natural environment, the tools and Dreamtime stories were covered. The other significant part of the presentation which was directly connected to our task was the ideas associated with managing the land, particularly in the prevention of bushfires.

On behalf of the Year 8 cohort at Nudgee College, we would like to thank Madonna Thomson for coming out to us and presenting us with this amazing opportunity.

Sejin Lee and Andrew La Monaca

Year 8 Students

Pathways Update = QTAC Update

Thank you to those who attended the QTAC and Scholarship Information evening on 30 August. There were a total of 16 different exhibitors ranging from the major QLD universities to rural, digital businesses to the defence and police force, in attendance. If you were unable to attend, but would like to view the information sessions from the evening, please see this link.

Early Offers to QLD Universities - Action Required

Please note that If students would like to be considered for an early offer to universities such as Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Griffith University, applications need to be submitted by 15 October, 2021. There are various conditions attached to early offers and they vary according to each institution. The Australian Catholic University (ACU) uses year 11 results to provide the offer and can be issued as early as September. This requires a direct application to be made via their website.

The process for other universities is that the student registers for an ATAR and creates a QTAC account. Preferences are listed according to the requirements of the particular institution (for example, the QUT offer is contingent on the course being listed in the top 3 preferences). The institution will then contact the student for more information which must be provided by the communicated closing date, to receive an offer. The offer may then be issued. Please note that the offer can be conditionally accepted and adjustments can be made to the student’s QTAC preferences to ensure other preferred courses are considered in the first official offer round. If the student does not receive an offer in those preferred courses, they can then accept their early offer outright.

Information on QUT, Griffith and ACU requirements are below. Please note, UQ does not provide early offers.

QUT (apply by 15 Oct)

Griffith (apply by 15 Oct)

ACU (apply by 11 Oct)

Please contact me at dty@nudgee.qld.edu.au or on 07 3865 0388 with any questions

Ms Dee Lyon

Director of Pathways

Student Formation

Queensland Child Protection Week

Queensland Child Protection Week started on Sunday 5 September. This is a good time to have a chat with your children about how they can keep themselves safe. As part of this our counsellors are speaking to all of the Junior school students over the course of this week and all students will be doing an exercise during their SF period related to students having a voice within the school as to what they are happy with and what improvements they can see would benefit the school.

Child protection is everyone's business. The responsibility lies with adults in keeping children safe from harm. All members of our community need to play a part in ensuring children are nurtured and safe. Listening to children and young people is the number one action to assist with their safety and wellbeing. Children and young people are honest, and they are unlikely to lie about abuse. They are more likely to stay quiet about it than to speak up (especially if they know their abuser).

Are you regularly reminding your son about these two key protective behaviour themes? We all have the right to feel safe all the time. Nothing is so awful that we can't talk with someone about it. I believe it’s good to cover these key messages regularly every year.

If you become aware of a situation that you are concerned about and believe it may be a child protection matter, I would encourage you to discuss your concerns with one of the College’s Child Protection contacts, or the Principal:

Mr Peter Fullagar 3865 0401 or principal@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mr Peter Todd 3865 0336 or pt@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mr Sean Toovey 3865 0336 stv@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mr Matthew Ryall 3865 0338 or mryall@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mrs Tracey Muscat 3865 0546 or tmuscat@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Ms Bianca Burbury 3865 0354 or BBurbury@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mr Chris Cawley 3865 0527 or cca@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mrs Michelle Grieve 3865 0527 or mgrieve@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mrs Jenny Jordan and Mrs Glenda Elliott 3865 0501 or health@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Mrs Lauren Byrne 3865 0435 or lbyrne@nudgee.qld.edu.au
Our Student Protection processes are available online for you to access.

If you wanted to speak with someone outside of the College: https://www.nudgee.com/about/policies

Kids Helpline - 1800 55 1800

Lifeline - 13 11 14

Department of Child Safety – 07 3235 9999

Police – 07 3364 6430

Systems in place at the College for child protection:

All staff are either Registered Teachers and/or Blue Card holders
Edmund Rice Education Australia has mandatory child protection training
College Leadership Team and senior staff members have additional child protection training
All teaching and non-teaching staff undergo Nudgee College based child protection training
Students are reminded about how to stay safe in the daily student notices
An independent Child Protection Consultant, Mrs Bev Patterson, supports, monitors and audits Nudgee College’s systems, practices and processes
There are many mandatory reporting systems in place that are set out in legislation and EREA policy
Students have classroom lessons on safety during Child Protection Week
Nudgee College has numerous staff who are Child Protection contacts
Students can lodge confidential bullying reports via the College website
Most significantly, a student focused culture is the foundation of our College

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about our systems or you ever feel your son is not safe.

Mr Peter Todd

Dean of Students

Sport

Round 8 Wrap Up brought to us by Ray White Wilston

Although some well fought battles throughout the day, Nudgee Basketball was defeated across the board for round 8. The 1st V went down to one of if not the best team in the GPS competition. Mason Davis was the lone spark for our boys connecting on a number of shots beyond the arc. The boys look to end the GPS season on a high note versus IGS (round 9) before heading down to a jammed packed weekend of hoops at the Schools State Champions tournament on the Gold Coast, September 16-19th.Teams of the WeekThe 7A team recorded their first victory of the season led by Vinnie Maraveka, Matthew Fuller and Tom Kewley. Coached by Nudgee old boy Jaleel Georgetown it was very pleasing to see the boys rewarded by beating a very formidable side in TSS.Coached by another Nudgee old boy Dylan Hinchen the 7B team secured a solid 30 point win by playing great team basketball. Late addition Tallis Moloney has been a fantastic spark for the team. Coach Dylan reckons the key to their success this season has been Nudgee’s ability to play as a team which enables a well balanced attack for the duration of a full game.Please support those who support us!We thank Alistair Macmillian and his team for their support of NC Basketball. Ray White Wilston are recognised as one of the leading Real Estate businesses in the country so if you are thinking of buying or selling you know who to call.https://raywhitewilston.com.au

Teams of the Week

The 7A team recorded their first victory of the season led by Vinnie Maraveka, Matthew Fuller and Tom Kewley. Coached by Nudgee old boy Jaleel Georgetown it was very pleasing to see the boys rewarded by beating a very formidable side in TSS.Coached by another Nudgee old boy Dylan Hinchen the 7B team secured a solid 30 point win by playing great team basketball. Late addition Tallis Moloney has been a fantastic spark for the team. Coach Dylan reckons the key to their success this season has been Nudgee’s ability to play as a team which enables a well balanced attack for the duration of a full game.

The 10C team continues to have a superb season adding another tick to the win column. The boys are forever in my graces after stepping up and filling in for our 10D team. The boys played with limited numbers and still came away with huge blowout wins for two consecutive games. Special thanks to Ferran Boonstoppel, Alex Ward, Charlie Blinco, Hugo Albert, Oliver Schuster, and Diesel Craven for their huge efforts on Saturday. I have personally had the opportunity to coach these boys this season and they absolutely bring a competitive fun natured vibe to every game. Well done!

Other big news in the Nudgee Basketball community

The Nudgee juniors coached by Andrew Hook and captained by Tyson Warren have claimed the 1st annual Wizards School League premiership.Facing a well coached Northside Christian College our boys were challenged with the pressures of a solid zone defence early on. Fortunately we were able to create enough offence from our stout defence to hinder NCC from consistently setting up their defence effectively. As a result we were able to break away to a comfortable lead in the second half. It was awesome to see all of the boys get some quality court time en route to a 15 point victory.NC 44 ~ NCC 29Tyson Warren finished with a solid overall game leading all scorers with 21 points.

Mr CJ Massingale

Basketball Director

Cricket

Community

Term Bus Passes for Term 4

Term Bus Passes for Term 4, 2021 will be available for purchase from the Online Payment Gateway Bus from Wednesday 8 September 2021. Please click here to purchase passes.

Please refer to the table below for prices.

Pre-paid term pass (discounted) = $250 if before midnight (Friday 1 October 2021)

Pre-paid term pass (no discount) = $260 on or before midnight (Tuesday 5 October 2021)

10 Trip Tickets (pay as you go) = Once the term is underway, $30 per 10 trip ticket

Please note: to allow for collation, printing and distribution in a timely fashion these dates are fixed. Should you miss the cut off, you will have to purchase 10 Trip Tickets for the Term, which cost $30 each and can be purchased from the Tuckshop, Locker Room or Junior School.

Returning students can obtain their passes from their Head of House in Week 1 of Term. New students to Nudgee College (no photo on system) will receive their passes late in Week 1 of school.

If your son loses his Term bus pass, this can be re-issued at a small cost through IT support.

For 2021 Bus Routes and stops, please click here please click here.

Should you have any queries regarding bus services including stop and routes, please feel free to contact transport@nudgee.qld.edu.au or on purchasing tickets finance@nudgee.qld.edu.au or 3865 0403.

Are your son’s circumstances changing in Term 4 or beyond?

The College’s financial planning for the delivery of services in 2022 is approaching completion and as such, we draw your attention to the processes relating to withdrawing a student.

As with many schools, we require a full term's notice to withdraw a student without penalty. Should the notice be given in a shorter period closer to the end of the year, unnecessary pressures are applied to the College and to the broader parent community to absorb the current and future costs of planned services.

As per the policy, notification of the withdrawal at any time during the year is required no later than the first day of his final term of study. For example, if your son was finishing at the end of Term 4, notification would need to be received by the first day of Term 4.

Please email all withdrawal notices to admissions@nudgee.qld.edu.au for the attention of the Principal.

The Locker Room

The Locker Room will be open 3 days over the school holidays: Wednesday 29, Thursday 30 September and Friday 1 October from 9am to 3pm.

Term 4 is a change of uniform to our Summer Uniform. Please try on your summer uniforms to make sure they fit for Term 4.

Thinking about a Picnic over the school holidays? We can help you.