In this issue

Alumni Profile – Alexandra Gummer
Sports Aerobics Nationals
SEISA Winter Finals
Inaugural Philosothon

Grammarian Issue 13, 7 September 2018

From the Chaplain

FAITH AND ACTION

James, the brother of Jesus, asked the question “My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you do not do anything to show that you really do have faith?” (James 2:14). In a culture which often demands that faith is a private matter, it can make people uncomfortable when we cite our faith publically as the reason for a particular opinion or action. This is particularly true for those in positions of leadership. Newly appointed Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has been scrutinised for his public declarations of faith in light of his position on issues such as Australia’s policies on refugees and asylum seekers. Some have criticised him for letting his faith influence his political views, others have criticised him for political decisions that do not align with his professed faith and still others have criticised the critics for attacking his faith in the first place! Australians are still trying to figure out the role of faith in public discourse in light of changing patterns of belief, loss of trust in institutional religion and the new court of public opinion that is social media. Part of the problem may be a misunderstanding of the term ‘secular’. While the term can have different meanings, when we talk about Australia as a secular nation what we mean is that no religion should have a privileged voice in public discourse. “Secularism in Australia means no state church. It means giving people a choice between belief and unbelief. It means religious leaders may lobby for their point of view but so too may leaders of atheist, humanist and rationalist organisations.” (“Is Australia a secular country? It depends what you mean”, Renae Barker).

In preparing our young people to work and lead in a secular Australian society, it is important that they learn to respect everyone’s right to voice their opinion, to hear and critique the views of others carefully and to present their own views in a thoughtful and respectful manner. These skills are modelled at home through family conversations and discussions as well as through exposure to different ideas at school. Part of this is understanding how a person’s faith might lead them to act in a particular way or hold a certain view on an issue. Recently our Year 7 students have been researching people of faith who have acted in some notable way to address an issue of injustice. Examples include William Wilberforce, Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa and Desmond Tutu. Our Year 11 students have just completed a unit looking at the issue of asylum seekers with a focus on the ethics of Australia’s policies. As part of this unit, students complete a ‘Social Action Project’ which aims to raise social awareness of an aspect of the issue. These projects have resulted in a flurry of art installations, posters, fliers, songs, videos, guest speakers and (approved) graffiti around the school grounds. It is extremely encouraging to see our students engaging in such a creative and positive manner with what is a difficult and often controversial issue. One Year 11 student has written an article specifically for the Grammarian which you will find below.

Reverend Daniel Lowe
Senior Chaplain

Refugee Legal

Asylum seekers are one of the biggest issues in Australian politics: as many have pointed out, it is strange when you do not see the issue dominating our Houses of Parliament. And from one end of the spectrum, there is a group that does not get as much attention as it deserves to – and they need your help.
Refugee Legal is an organisation which defends the laws and rights surrounding asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. It is based in Melbourne and in 2017, assisted more than 14,000 clients from one hundred and fourteen countries across the world. They provide legal advice across the community, including supervising lawyers who defend asylum seekers and their impact has been major.
One case example happened in 2009, when an Afghan family applied for visas to come to Australia and Refugee Legal helped them through the process, from being an asylum seeker, to becoming a refugee.
On the website: http://refugeelegal.org.au you can see more information about the work of this organisation in the Australian community and even donate to their cause. This organisation does amazing work for awareness of what asylum seekers go through and they deserve much more attention.

Aditya Kerhalkar
Year 11 Student

Grammarian Issue 13, 7 September 2018

Alumni Profile

Alexandra Gummer,
Class of 2010

Class of 2010 Alumna, Alexandra Gummer, started at St Paul’s for her final years of schooling in Year 11. She still fondly remembers the athletics carnivals and competing against other schools in softball and football (soccer). Alexandra now balances her careers between being a chemical engineer/biochemist for CSL Behring and being a professional football (soccer) player for Melbourne Victory.

One of Alexandra’s proudest moments at St Paul’s was achieving an ATAR of 98.25 and obtaining a 50 in Psychology, and she remembers her favourite teachers Mr Curtis and Mrs Thearle as teachers who made learning fun.

Since graduating from St Paul’s Alexandra studied at Monash University and has completed a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (Hons) and a Bachelor of Science (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology). During this time she balanced her studies whilst playing for Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory in the W-League.

Alexandra also completed a six month exchange in Leeds in the United Kingdom where she was able to play for the Doncaster Rovers Belles in the WSL1 and play against the Chelsea Ladies in the FA Cup.

When we asked her about her current occupations she said “I have two occupations that I absolutely love! Football – competing against the best players in Australia and even the world, and just being in a competitive team environment. I live and breathe football. At CSL Behring my company makes life saving medicines for patients with rare and serious conditions. Being involved in ensuring that our product makes it to the patients safely is something that is incredible”.

“I have always been passionate about playing football, so to be able to say it is a job is a dream come true. I have also always been interested in biology and I enjoy solving problems so chemical engineering was a natural choice for me.” Her father, also an engineer and footballer, was a great influence on Alexandra in these careers choices, along with her mother who helped her get to each and every training session.

Balancing and managing two careers does come with its challenges. Alexandra said “Both take a lot of dedication and attention to detail, so it can sometimes be stressful to manage both my own expectations and those of my coach and supervisor”.

Outside of her busy career, Alexandra is currently learning German. She also enjoys giving back to the community by coaching a junior girls side and volunteering at a Special Development School.

When we asked her about her time at St Paul’s Alexandra said “I enjoyed the competitive academic side, it pushed me to far exceed my goals with my VCE, in addition to the support I received to complete my SACs when it clashed with my sporting commitments”. She also remembers the support she received when she travelled through Japan and China for the Australian U19 Schoolgirls Tour with an Australian representative side in soccer.

Alexandra returned to St Paul’s in August 2018 to inspire students enrolled in the Elite Sports Performers (ESP) Program and provided valuable advice on how she is balancing her sporting career with her Chemical Engineering career and how the students can balance their own sporting commitments with school.

Grammarian Issue 13, 7 September 2018

Traralgon Junior School

From the Head of Traralgon Junior School,
Mr Andy McNabb.

Dear Parents,

If people are a little tired at the end of Week 8, it is because the last fortnight has brought the following:
• Not one, or two but THREE Father’s Night events in the ELC
• The small matter of the Junior School Concert!
• Grandparents Day on the same day as the concert, along with three hundred and fifty scones baked by Sue Magee, Vanessa Spooner and a team of Year 6 students
• The FOSP Father’s Day stall for the students to buy gifts
• A visit to Coal Creek by Year 2
• An Eisteddfod performance by our Year 3 Strings players
• An Eisteddfod performance by our Year 5 Band players
• A Panasonic battery building session in Japanese for Year 5
• Taiko drumming for Years 3 and 6
• Boho Day over at the Secondary School for students to visit

Wow – that really is something else. So many thanks are due to so many people that it is difficult to know where to start but I would like to do so with our FOSP Father’s Day stall. It really is a delight to see the parents busily wrapping, taking change and interacting with every student in the school last Friday and this year, even our Pre-Kinder students got to visit the stall. Thank you to all who helped out and not only on the day but with all the preparation before-hand. It is something we have done for so many years that we can forget how much work goes in but it brings a tremendous amount of joy. Hopefully our dads also had a good Sunday last week, where they were particularly well looked after and appreciated.

Then we come to the concert. On the night we were able to say a special thank you to Mrs Ridger and Mrs Kuyken for their specific input, as well as John Morrisey who did such a great job again with the sound and spent so many hours of his own time at school last week. Then there were all the ‘behind the scenes’ activities from the teachers and classroom assistants, whether it was baking scones, making scenery, rehearsing for hours or designing and making costumes, it was a huge effort. I even got roped into painting some of the jockey hats for Year 4 and a jolly fine job I did too!

Before I write anymore – here is the view of the concert from our School Leaders, Alanna and Nicholas:

The View from the Classroom
On 30 August the Junior School Concert took place in the gymnasium. Every class did a performance and took on a different fairytale which went into a magical machine. The audience for the morning performance seemed to laugh a bit more but that was made up of our grandparents and special friends. They had a great time at morning tea, eating scones and drinking tea before they went into watch their children and grandchildren have lots of fun performing.

All the students really appreciated the work and time that has gone into making the concert the best that it can be. If anyone would like to purchase a DVD of the concert, they can collect forms from the office.

There were no staff meetings last week and instead of curriculum and pastoral matters, staff could be seen scurrying around the school, painting, sewing, sticking and dashing off to the shops for last minute purchases. That reminds me, about this time next year, I need to buy shares in Spotlight and similar stores.

Due to our recent morning performances for the grandparents, we were able to accommodate a combined audience of about eight hundred and fifty. That is so much better than the early days when we really struggled to fit people into the hall for one big performance in the evening. We also love having our grandparents and special friends with us for the day and it is lovely to see the car park bulging and people wandering around, not quite sure of where they are going but all in a good humour. It reminds me of Christmas Day towards the end of ‘A Christmas Carol’!

There was also our Father’s Day hamper on offer, with goodies totalling over $400. Every dollar raised in the raffle will go directly back into the school community and enables FOSP to help with all sorts of extras, some little and some involving major expenditure. Our FOSP group had financed virtually all the purchasing of the lights we had on the stage, which we normally have to hire in from Melbourne for the concert and other events. This is just another step forward to make our school a better place and will eventually mean that we actually save money.

Then there were the performers. Please come into the office if you can and see the small selection of pictures we have from over eight hundred taken by Mrs O’Malley and our Marketing department. They looked and sounded great and for the first time this year, they were joined on stage by the teaching staff who read the script for many of the year groups. Some of the audience even got the most high-brow of the humour which included quotes from sources as diverse as ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and ‘Monty Python’ (Mrs Ridger has been dying to somehow work that into the script for a number of years!) I got the children to give themselves three cheers at assembly on Monday and they certainly deserved all the applause they got. They were fantastic – and very tired by the end!

So thank you to you all, students, staff and families. It has been an incredibly busy but worthwhile two weeks and has been lovely to experience the family feel of our school community. I even lived to tell the tale of my wife arriving back alone from the UK to find the car left at the airport had a flat battery. Do not tell her I told you but she had left the internal lights on (not great for the car after two weeks!)

Now if you will excuse me, I am off to buy a Father’s Day card. My parents feel quite special about having cards for both the UK and Aussie Mother’s and Father’s Day celebrations. And I am sure no one will tell them I’m a bit late!

Andy McNabb
Head of Traralgon Junior School

WHAT’S ON IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL

SEPTEMBER
12 September Year 5 Band Concert, Gymnasium, 2:40 pm
13 September Year 3 String Concert, Gymnasium, 2:40 pm
14 September Year 6 Pie and Footy Day (casual clothes day, your favourite footy colours)
18 September Year 6 Purple Day (gold coin donation, casual clothes/anything purple)
19 September Years 3 and 4 Camp Rumbug
Prep to Year 2 Swimming Carnival
21 September End of Term 3, 2:30 pm

CLASS AWARDS

Prep V
Ryder for always being a kind and thoughtful friend.
Avaya for using a fantastic singing voice during the concert.
Prep V for helping Miss Bell learn to be a teacher and trying their best in the concert.
Prep S
Akira for always being kind and honest.
Max for putting in so much effort during concert week and being a wonderful Frog Prince!
Year 1F
Jayden for showing a great improvement with his letter formation!
Ashlyn for being a great problem solver when working out fact families in Maths!
Year 2S
Avalon for an engaging Dreamtime story about how the red belly black snake got its red belly.
Year 2C
Bryce for his terrific effort when writing a story during our ‘Cold Write’.
Year 3BH
Ryota for the enthusiasm and energy he brings into the Year 2 classroom.
Kasey for her enthusiasm and concentration towards We-do Lego.
Year 3BD
Chloe for a marvellous monster story with interesting openers and descriptive phrases.
Mahlee for working hard to achieve her Maths goals. Fantastic effort Mahlee!
Year 4O
Tilly for all her help on Grandparents Day. Thank you Tilly!
Year 4/5W
Jayla for showing great persistence whilst working with fractions last week. Fantastic.
Christian for achieving one hundred per cent for set five, Revision Maths online.
Asmi for achieving one hundred per cent for set five, Revision Maths online.
Harry for his ‘Growth Mindset’ towards improving your results on revision tasks on Maths online.
Charlotte for showing continual improvement with Maths online Revision exercises.
All of 4/5W for all of your hard work during concert rehearsals and Grandparents Day.
Year 5H
Hannah for her honesty, integrity and courage!
Year 6R
Alanna for working hard in science class to find out how we use tidal and wave power for generating electricity. Well done!
Jean for working hard in science class to find out how we use tidal and wave power for generating electricity. Well done!
Peter for performing so convincingly during the school concert.
Year 6H
Fiona Ridger Outstanding Classroom Award! – The William Shakespeare Award. For writing all the words for all the kids in all the acts in all the concert!
Marcus for learning another person’s entire script for the concert. Well done!

Grammarian Issue 13, 7 September 2018

Traralgon Secondary School

From the Head of Traralgon Secondary School,
Mr Stephen Klemke.

Soccer Intermediate SEISA Final
Sometimes you can be winners regardless of the score. Such was the case in the intermediate soccer final played against Beaconshill Berwick. Berwick had finished top of the table with a goal difference in excess of thirty after only five games and were expected to win easily.

We entered the game with a defensive mind set. We were always going to be on the wrong end of a high scoring shoot out. A scramble in the box saw Berwick put in an early first goal, however, at half time we felt unlucky to be down one nil. We had several half chances and had more than our fair share of possession in what was a high standard game.

With ten minutes to go the score had not changed and we threw Jesse Buhagiar forward. The impact was immediate and with five minutes to go a superb left foot strike from Cory Johnson saw us level the score at one all. Alas, Berwick answered with two quick goals to put the result beyond doubt. On the score board we had lost 3 to 1. In spirit, effort and teamwork, we felt the winners.

We were pleased that our Principal Cameron Herbert had been able to attend and watch the game. As he presented the banner to Berwick and congratulated them he spoke of how impressed he had been with the effort and performance of St Paul’s. He was pleased that we had challenged them so gallantly and made them earn the win. As he spoke I watched one of their players nod their head in acknowledgement, as if to say “these guys from Traralgon can really play”.

I could not agree more.

House Music
Congratulations to Franklin (Whole Group Winner) and Patterson (Small Group Winner). The event was a wonderful occasion and the enthusiasm of our students was plain to see. Thank you to Nathan Byrne for organising the event, Sandra Timmer-Arends who was a wonderful compere, Melissa Clarke and Andy McNabb for judging, Andie Browne who wrote and inspired the staff item and to all of our house teachers who supported our students in preparing their item. Ask your child about ‘We Will Teach You’ performed to the music of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ and performed by our staff.

Chisholm belts out a tune.

Vicspell Success
On Thursday 23 August, two students from each of Year 5, 6, 7 and 8 competed at the Zone Finals for the Vicspell tournament. In this spelling competition, students were asked to spell words aloud in order to determine a winner. Our representatives were Olivia Comben and Omkar Joshi in Year 5; Lucia Zhang and Nicholas Fenech in Year 6; Sophie Bray and Olivia O’Brien in Year 7 and Charlotte Dorl and Emerson Arthur in Year 8.

Our students did extremely well, with five students winning or being crowned runner-up in the Zone Final and therefore moving on to the state final. Olivia Comben was up first, battling it out for third position in the Year 5 round, but ended up being taken down by the words ‘ventriloquist’ and ‘hepatitis.’ Lucia Zhang also held her own in the Year 6 round, but eventually fell down at the word ‘deficiency.’ Next up it was the Year 7s with Olivia O’Brien competing in several rounds to eventually take out second place. An excellent effort Olivia. Finally, it was time for the Year 8s to compete – a stellar performance with Charlotte Dorl being named the Vicspell State Final winner and Emerson Arthur coming a close second. Well done to all the competitors.

Winner Year 8 Charlotte Dorl [left], Runner-up Year 8 Emerson Arthur [2nd from left] and Year 7 Runner-up Olivia O’Brien [second from right].

Vikings Hut
I met Jonah Peck arriving at school with this wonderful model. Jonah is studying Vikings in humanities. As part of his assignment he chose to study Viking villages and had constructed this replica of a Viking hut. So impressed was I that I thought it Grammarian worthy.

Jonah’s Viking Hut.

Stephen Klemke
Head of Traralgon Secondary School

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR PARENTS

Term’s notice for any student exit
As per the Business Notice/Enrolment Form it is a requirement at St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School that a term’s notice in advance is given before any student withdraws.
Can you please forward a letter in writing to our Principal, Mr Cameron Herbert if withdrawing your child from St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact our Head of Admissions, Mrs Amanda Bibby for more information on email admissions@stpaulsags.vic.edu.au or telephone 5623 5833.

WHAT’S ON IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL

SEPTEMBER
9 September to 13 September ESP AIS Tour
11 September Parent Student Teacher Interviews (PSTIs), 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm
13 September SEISA Dance
14 September Footy Colours Day
17 to 21 September Year 9 Urban Camp
21 September St James Community Lunch Excursion
End of Term 3, 2:30 pm finish

SPORT NEWS

Short Course Championships
Just to add to my previous report last week, we also had Abby Warner who is part of the ESP Program compete in three events where she placed first in the 100m Butterfly, third in the 100m Freestyle and fourth in the 100m IM.

Tiana Bordonaro and William Pendergast also competed with William qualifying to swim at the State Age SC Championships at MSAC.

State Age Short Course Championships
Once again, our swimmers had another success meet on the weekend in Melbourne. Some achieved personal bests and others winning medals. It is great to see all their hard work and early morning training sessions are starting to pay off.

Abby Warner had a busy meet where she raced seven events and two relays. Her biggest achievement was placing fifth in the state for the 100m Butterfly event. Along with Molly Cargill and Caydence Bezzina they placed third in the freestyle relay and fifth in the medley.

Tom Dowler’s highlight over the weekend was achieving top twenty in all three races and swimming personal bests in all events as well.

Aidan Bell’s highlight was to get a two seconds PB in the 100m IM.

Zoe Dowler’s highlight was getting personal bests in six out of her seven events she swam in over the weekend. She also placed sixth in the 13yr 200m breaststroke and swam a two second personal best.

Molly Cargill swam twelve individual swims and two relays. Through those swims she achieved ten individual medals (five gold, one silver and four bronze) and in one of her relays she got bronze. Molly also broke three Gippsland records in the 50m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle and 400m Medley.

Jordyn Cargill had many highlights. He received four gold, six silver and three bronze medals. Along the way he broke two records. A two second record in the 200m Butterfly and a four second record for his own event the 400m Freestyle.

William Pendergast swam personal bests in both his individual events as well as competing in two relays (with Jordyn Cargill). His highlight was swimming under twenty-eight seconds in the 50m Freestyle (27.83).

Caydence Bezzina’s highlights were achieving personal bests in some of her events and getting third in her relay.

Molly Cargill.

Jordyn Cargill.

Zoe Dowler and Abby Warner.

SEISA intermediate Boys Soccer Final
Last Thursday super coach Stephen Klemke travelled to Beaconhills Berwick with the boys for the grand final. Throughout the five rounds, the boys won three games and lost two. When they played Berwick in round two, they lost 6 to 3. The boys knew it was going to be a tough game playing them for the second time. Scores were locked at 1-1 with five minutes to go and unfortunately Berwick were able to score the next two goals in quick succession. For us to make finals is an effort in itself and I know that Stephen was very proud of the boys. I would personally like to congratulate all the boys and thank Stephen for giving up his time to coach such a wonderful team.

Sandra Timmer-Arends
Head of Sport – Traralgon Campus
Health and Physical Education

Grammarian Issue 13, 7 September 2018

Warragul Junior School

From the Head of Warragul Junior School,
Mr Rowan van Raay.

It is hard to believe we are heading into the final weeks of Term 3. This week we welcomed Karen back from long service leave. I take this opportunity to thank Cathy Wood for filling in and ensuring our office continued to run smoothly. Thanks Cathy! We also welcome Ms Emma Hall back from family leave next week to join our Kookaburra Pre-Kinder team. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Naomi Staben for supporting our Kookaburra Pre-Kinder program in the interim.

We entered two teams into the Tournament of Minds Competition this year with both our STEM and Language and Literature teams winning their division and moving through to the State Final. A wonderful achievement by both teams and my thanks to the staff who supported the students in the lead up to the competition and also on the day. We wish our teams all the best on Sunday.

My thanks to everyone who attended parent/teacher interviews last week. Communication is always important between school and home and these interviews serve as a wonderful opportunity to discuss the progress your child is making at this stage of the year.

Thanks to Mrs Leighton and the parents who assisted with the organising and running of the Father’s Day Stall last week. I am sure there are lots of happy dads and carers out there who received some lovely gifts and cards from their children. I hope our Pre-Kinder and Pre-Prep dads enjoyed spending some time with their children at school this week and I thank our ELC staff for the activities they provided.

Well done to our Years 5/6 Hoop Time basketball teams who competed on Wednesday. Well done to the boys team that made it through to the next round. We also wish our athletics team well as they compete at the Divisional Athletics Carnival next Wednesday. The carnival was cut short due to the weather last term, so let’s hope they are treated to some nicer conditions this time.

Could I once again ask parents to take care when driving through our school grounds as the weather warms up and we have more families walking to school. I did notice some cars travelling way too fast last Friday morning whilst on crossing duty so please, please, please do the right thing and remember that the speed limit is 10 km/h. I understand that people are busy and usually in a rush, however, this is for the safety and care of all of our school community.

Our Years 3 to 6 Musical is less than a week away and hopefully families have booked their tickets. Could I please ask any families who are yet to book their tickets to do so ASAP via the Junior School Office. A reminder that both shows will be held in our Junior School Gymnasium again this year and like the Performing Arts Concert, no allocated seating or tickets will be sent home prior to the night.

A reminder to parents that school finishes at 2:20 pm on the last day of Term 3, Friday 21 September. This is also Footy Colours Day (pie and a drink lunch can be ordered) and students can wear their favourite footy team colours (does not have to be AFL) to school for a gold coin donation. This term the SRC have decided to support Cambodia Kids Foundation, Aussie Farmers Foundation and a local junior sporting club in need for a facility upgrade. Some of our SRC and Year 6 Leaders will run some activities at lunchtime and will also be running an AFL colouring competition, so students may like to bring an extra few dollars to enter the colouring completion.

Term 4 commences for all students on Monday 8 October. Students should be locating their hats ready for day one next term. While hats are compulsory throughout Terms 1 and 4, students are welcome to wear their hat at any stage when they are outside throughout the year.

Rowan van Raay
Head of Warragul Junior School