World’s Greatest Shave
On a lighter note, earlier this week I joined with a group of boys from the Senior School and had my head shaved to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation. Together, we have so far raised an incredible $26,000! Congratulations to the boys from our Social Justice Club who have led this initiative. It’s not too late to contribute if you’d like to make a donation. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far to this important cause.

Each year Knox supports an event called Celebration Sing Out, a concert in the Sydney Town Hall that raises enough money to provide an additional Music Therapist to the hospital.

On Monday 2 March, as they have now done for a number of years, Male Voice Power performed at the launch of this year’s Sing Out bringing laughter and joy to those able to get to the foyer of the hospital. The boys then joined with members of the CSME (Collegiate of Specialist Music Educators) and student representatives of a number of the primary choirs from last year’s performance to present a cheque for the funds raised last year!

The singing was excellent, as always, from this fine group of boys who love to share their talents with each other, and with their community.


Amazing Sounds from our Year 7 Wind Band – Rehearsal Day 8 March 2020

Ladies and Gentlemen watch this space and prepare yourselves for the next wave of talented musicians here at Knox!

Following our magnificent Rehearsal Day on Sunday 8th March (9.30am-5.15pm) the Knox Grammar School Year 7 Wind Band is guaranteed to stop you in your tracks, as these 78 Year 7 Boys are seriously GOOD…..

Essentially our Year 7 Wind Band Rehearsal Day was a ‘mini’ Music Camp, whereby members of the newly formed Year 7 Wind Band were able to participate and enjoy a most comprehensive musical experience, covering a wealth of material within a consolidated period of time having commenced their time together only 6 weeks ago.

Concluding this magnificent occasion with a 45minute concert/open rehearsal, in which this band showcased six of their seven Major works, the afternoon was certainly a highlight for our talented young musicians, parents, families and friends. 

These included:
• Darklands March – Randall D. Standridge
• Moscow 1941 – Brian Balmages
• Cha ’La – Randall D. Standridge
• A Prehistoric Suite – Paul Jennings
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens – John Williams, Arr. Michael Sweeney
• Bugs – David Shaffer

In addition to the thousands of notes that were presented, our talented boys were able to interact with their newly formed fellow band members, in a musically rewarding and fun social environment.

Throughout the day the Year 7 Wind Band boys participated in full-band and specialised sectional rehearsals with Australia’s leading tutors. 

Special thanks to Mr. Andrew James Watkins (Flute), Ms. Di Gardner & Mr. Jarred Mattes(Clarinet), Mr. Tony Grimm (Bassoon), Mr. Simon Watts (Saxophone), Mr. James Power & Mr. Lachie Day (Trumpet), Mr. Geoff Power (Trombone/ KGS Brass Coordinator), Ms. Alison Pratt, Mr. Dave Goodman & Mr. David Kimpton (Percussion) and Mr. James Brice (Musical Director & Lower Brass) for their expertise in bringing the best out on our boys.  Absolutely brilliant work!

Special thanks also for the tremendous support from our Knox OKGA KAPA Casual Staff of Mr. Tom Cartwright, Mr. Ben Close, Mr. Sammy Ko, Mr. Matthew Kokolich, Mr. Nathan Lui, Mr. Nicholas Rahme & Mr. Liam Sherman for their invaluable assistance, outstanding mentoring and professionalism.

It was no easy task to single out highlight performances this year, with such consistent and competent performances across all three heats.  Despite the challenge, our panel of experienced judges were able to decide on four top bands to progress through to the BOBs Finals, held in week 2 of Term 2.

The 2020 BOBs Finalists are:

Scapegoat – Asha Nayer, Finn Carolan, Oli Gordon, Zac Zibaee, Bill Parker, Nick Grattan – yr 11

Floating Boats - Ethan Wood, Glenn Hui, Doug Harrison, Will Harpur -yr12

Contagious - Josh Darley, Alex Benson, James Phipson, Seb Cook, Flynn MacGregor, Will Cusack -yr10

The Unknown - Lucas Joergensen, Ethan Bawtree, Hendrix George, Harry Liubinskas -yr8

Congratulations to all participating bands and students and good luck to the four bands who will be progressing through the finals!

Many thanks to Mr Andrew McLachlan, Ms Clare Yuan, Mr Tom Waterhouse, Rev Tim Robinson and Mr James Brice for offering their time and expertise to be on our panel of adjudicators.  Thanks to Chuck Ardron for helping us to work around the wet weather and a big thanks to our resident sound guru Bob Wheatley, who always gives our students the chance to sound the best that they can.

On Friday Night, our boys participated in Round 3 of the ISDA and Round 4 of the FED debating competitions. Our ISDA boys were up against Barker College on home grounds, whilst our FED boys travelled to Moore Park to face-off against Sydney Girls High School. Facing notoriously difficult teams, our boys came out the other end with experiences gained and some good results. In ISDA, all teams were unfortunately defeated by Barker College despite the home court advantage. Our boys maintained excellent manners and debated incredibly well with some difficult motions throughout the evening. In FED, congrats to our Senior A, Year 9, 7A and 7B teams on their wins.

This Friday, we are travelling to Brigidine College for ISDA and to Redlands for FED.

Mock trial training has also kicked off and is being held on Tuesday afternoons (3:30pm-5:30pm) for all age groups to practice and learn the skills of mock trial! If you are interested, please email me to be added to the Mock Trial mailing list for details.

As always, please keep an eye on the Knox Debating Board and your emails for updates across our Oratory Programs as they come through! If you are not currently enrolled in any of our programs, but you are interested, please feel free to email Miss Mercier.

World's Greatest Shave
Our annual participation in the World's Greatest Shave was a spectacular event. The Knox Grammar School Team included our Headmaster, Mr Scott James and PDHPE Teacher Mr Joshua has made a fantastic $27,362 at the time of writing with more donations expected in by Friday.  Congratulations to all of our many participants. Thirty-seven boys signed up!

It’s not too late to donate and support the Knox team!

The Kuringgai Chase Special Olympics Fun Run and Barry Easy Walk is on next Sunday!
This annual event will be held on Sunday 15 March morning at 9am, Claude Cameron Grove, Wahroonga. Fun activities and sausage sizzle available on the day. A shuttle is available from Turramurra. More information here.

Each year Knox boys buddy with the special Olympians as they complete either the 5km walk or the 10km run. All welcome to participate. It’s a fun day and our support of this event is important. Register or donate here.
 
The Knox Annual Easter Egg and Pots of Noodles Drive
For the past 12 years the Knox community has been supporting Wesley Mission each Easter with gifts of Easter Eggs and Pots of Noodles for Sydney’s homeless. This small gesture for those who are struggling and isolated brings a lot of joy and appreciation that the Knox community reach out to help those in need.
Please bring your donations along to the SAOs or to Room 15 (Mrs Helen Clarke in The Social Justice Office).  

$5 Donation Flash Sale - Uniform Shop
The next flash sale will be the week commencing Monday 16 March for one week only. This will include most second-hand uniform items that have been donated by parents or have been in second-hand for over two years.

If you have any items of uniform you would like to donate please ensure they are clean and in good condition. Please drop items off to the Uniform Shop at 10 Borambil Street from Thursday 12 March. Due to hygiene reasons we cannot accept socks, bags or hats.

All proceeds of items sold will be donated to the Rural Relief Program. This program offers financial assistance to families that live in rural communities that have been impacted by drought and bush fires.

Bushfire and Drought Relief
We are supporting those impacted by fire and our drought impacted regional neighbours via the Facebook page ‘Mobilising for Mogo’ initiative. See the list of specific items to donate here and please drop these donations to Room 15. 

Breaking a World Record and helping community projects.
The Rotary Club of Wahroonga is attempting to set a World Record of connected socks on 25 October this year at St Ives Showground. Start collecting your odd socks - remember, socks need to be accompanied by the donations otherwise they can’t be included!

School Shoes for the Philippines
Please send donations to Room 15 - shoes will be sent soon!

The Knox Social Justice Club - all invited to participate
There are opportunities for service at community events both within the School and in the wider community and immersions to overseas and regional areas. Everyone across Years 7-12 is invited to participate and bring a friend. 

Parents for Justice (Just Parents)
If you would like to join up and offer support, please contact Mrs Clarke.

Congratulations to our swimmers who last week swam up a storm at SOPAC, at the IPSHA Championships. Mrs Dewar has written a full report, but one fun fact that demonstrates just the strength of our performance is this - every 11s and Opens race that we swam in throughout the entire day was won by a Knox boy. Amazing!

Congratulations to Max Mitchell and John Park, who have just been selected into the IPSHA Football Team to compete at the CIS Championships next term. An outstanding achievement – well done Max and John!

Dates for the diary
• Thursday 12 March - Assembly 1D
• Wednesday 18 March - Year 1 Celebration of Learning
• Thursday 19 March - Assembly 1E
• Friday 20 March - Year 6 Bake Sale
• Thursday 26 March - Assembly 1S
• Wednesday 1 April - Year 1 Excursion -Global Change Makers
• Thursday 2 April - Assembly: Kindergarten combined
• Friday 3 April - Year 2 Narrabeen excursion
• Week 11 - Years 1/Yr 2 Swimming

They taught us about smoke alarms and why it is important to have them in our home. The firefighters were really impressed that we knew the emergency number to call should we need an emergency service. Whilst one group listened to the firefighters talk, the second group visited the fire truck. We got to see lots of the useful tools and big, heavy equipment that fire fighters use when putting out fires and rescuing people.

Some interesting questions we asked were:

• If there are two oxygen masks on the truck but there are 4 firefighters, what do you do?
• If there are 3 fires but only 1 truck, what fire do you go to first?
• What do you do if you’re in the house with a baby sitter, and mummy and daddy aren’t there?
• How much does the fire truck weigh?
• Why are their fire suits yellow?

Unfortunately, the firefighters received an emergency call so had to leave us quickly with their lights flashing and sirens blazing! 

When playing in the puddles, the boys were full of happiness. They were so proud of their creation and then came back into the classroom and started independently designing their own celebrations. 

One of the key areas of focus the Year 3 teachers are hoping to instil in the boys this year is ensuring that they are organised and independent. To that effect, one simple way that teachers will help students to become more responsible in these areas is the afternoon pick-up process. So far this term, the teachers have been walking the boys down to the Undercover Area at the end of the day and physically dismissing them. However, next week the staff would like to begin dismissing students from their own classroom. Boys will then walk downstairs and either meet their parent/guardian who is collecting them, catch public transport, attend after school care, sporting or co-curricular activities, or make their own way home.

It has been fantastic to see many boys already make this transition so smoothly at the end of the day and we ask for your assistance with this by ensuring that your son knows exactly how he is getting home each afternoon and where else he needs to go if necessary, particularly during wet weather. Students will never be left unsupervised at the end of the day as there are clear processes in place to ensure all boys make their way home safely, but we do feel it is important that students are given the opportunity to work on their independence and responsibility in this particular area.

Dates for the diary:

•        Thursday 19 March – Years 3-6 House Cross Country Carnival

Doing daVinci Day
Year 5 will have an opportunity to participate in da Vinci day in the Knox Prep Auditorium. Doing da Vinci day is a day where boys enter as a team and complete challenging tasks in a variety of areas. This year, the School has made the decision to open it to those boys interested in participating rather than making it a compulsory event. 5P and 5F students will be entered automatically as well as all other Year 5 students who would like to participate. Regular classes will operate as usual for those that do not wish to attend. Each boy will complete an activity from one or more of the following tasks and then their score will collectively make up the team score at the end of the day:

• Art and Poetry - the team will develop a poem plus a complementary work of art
• Cartography - creating visual maps
• Code Breaking - in the spirit of World War II, students will aim to decipher several codes
• Creative Producers - team will have 15min to develop a 30 second presentation
• Engineering Challenge - a building task designed to test creativity and ingenuity
• English – spelling, word origins, definitions, textual analysis and writing tasks
• General Knowledge - Light and colour, the arts, entertainment, sport and Australiana
• Mathematics and Chess - emphasis on problem solving, number patterns and chess moves
• Ideation - Generating, developing, and communicating new ideas in response to a problem or challenge
• Science - students will be provided with higher level scientific concepts and be tested on their ability to apply them.

The 'General Knowledge' section will be completed as a team together towards the end of the day.

From this day, a team of eight will be selected to compete in the State da Vinci decathlon. This team will probably be a group mixed from the successful individuals throughout the day in each category. In the past, this team have come from a number of classes. Some students may be selected if they scored highly across a number of sections.

Please email me by 8am Friday 13 March if your son wishes to be included. We will make up the teams closer to the day. 

This Thursday we are incredibly lucky to have a guest speaker in to talk to the boys about some of the bushfires that were rampant throughout NSW over the Christmas Break. This links in beautifully with our study of natural disasters and will give the boys some insights about the ways in which the bushfires were fought and some of the technology used to track how bushfires start and how they spread. We are looking forward to this fantastic opportunity.

Next Wednesday, Year 6 will be having a special open classrooms afternoon to showcase some of the work the boys have done in their Tinkering Towards Tomorrow domain. This will begin at 2pm in Ewan House and will continue through until 5pm. We would love to have as many parents along as possible to attend and look forward to showcasing some of the amazing work these boys have completed so far this year. A letter will go out to parents this week containing the pertinent information for this event.  

PREP GALLERY CHOIR

One of the pillars of the School’s Choirs, and a core aspect of our School’s worship life, the Gallery Choir has been supporting the Knox Chapel for over 35 years, all the while singing beautiful music from the English Cathedral tradition. The Choir provides music for all major services at Knox, including Easter and Christmas Services, Yr 12 Presentation Day, the ANZAC Service, and the Passing Out service for departing Cadets among others.

Much of our treble line is made up of the best singers from Years 5 and 6 at Knox Prep and Wahroonga Prep. Prep Gallery Choir singers also sing in their campus’s senior vocal ensemble.

There is a sectional rehearsal for prep students each Tuesday afternoon from 3:30pm to 4:15pm at St John’s Wahroonga. Boys from Knox Prep walk from school with staff, but are released directly from the rehearsal to parents, or as arranged. In addition, there is the option of joining the full choir each week on Friday mornings in the Senior School Chapel, 7:15am to 8am. Entry into the choir is by invitation after a trial rehearsal.

To express interest in joining the group, or for further information please contact Mr. Warren Fisher. 

Accelerated Reading Lists
Accelerated Reading Lists for books in our 3-6 Library Collection and eBooks are available on our Library Page. Quizzes will be completed during school time.

2020 Premier’s Reading Challenge
Knox Grammar Preparatory School will take part in the 2020 Premier’s Reading Challenge. Please refer to the email that was sent during the week for further information with rules and logging on procedures. All students in K-6 will be given their username and password during their Literacy Centre or Library lesson. Students who have completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge in previous years at another school will have their reading records merged, to ensure their PRC history remains intact. Please email this information to  Mrs Jo Wheatley

Scholastic Book Club
Scholastic Book Club order will close Sunday 15 March. No cash or order forms are to be returned to school. Please order online using the LOOP payment system. If you require assistance, please contact the staff in the 3-6 Library.

One moment really hit home on Saturday at the Barker Tennis courts where we were hosted by good friends Barker College. Some nice words were said by the Barker Coaching staff at the post-event function and recognised the efforts of our First team throughout the season – but more importantly spoke of how pleasing it was to see both teams mixing, having a laugh together and enjoying sport for what it is. At the end of the day we play hard, win, lose or draw – we shake hands and most importantly we make some great friends along the way.

This week we focus on our Swim and Dive team as they compete in the big CAS Championship event of the year. The boys could not be better prepared and will be aiming for their fourth consecutive title. Cate Campbell came along and spoke to the boys this week and the boys are in a great frame of mind going into their biggest event in 12 months. Strong teams from Trinity, Barker and fellow CAS schools will test our boys and promises to be a great contest. GOOD LUCK BOYS.

Congratulations
Last week Charlie Anderson took 6 wickets for 34 runs the CAS U15s Cricket team as they went on to defeat a strong GPS squad. Great work Charlie.

CAS Basketball selections. A great season has resulted in a number of boys gaining CAS rep selection.
Firsts – Josh Pain, Mitch Smith, Adam Thoma and Mikey Yoong.
Seconds – Will Rapley and Keanu Goehring

In Sailing, last weekend was the final round of the 29er NSW State Championships. Following in the footsteps of Tom Clout (OKGA 2004) who was state, national and world champion in 29ers and Byron White (OKGA 2008) who achieved the same results, Knox has 2 more of its sailors heading down the same path.

Jack Hildebrand finished 1st outright, winning the entire event and Ellis Merrett finished 4th outright and state champion for under 16s.

An awesome effort from a very challenging boat.

Swimming
2020 NSW Jnr Metropolitan Championships
A total of 23 Knox boys from Y5 to Y8 qualified to swim in the NSW metropolitan championships. With 3 weeks until NSW State championship, this was a final rehearsal.

Around 800 swimmers representing 78 clubs from the Sydney Metropolitan area, were at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre to compete over the two days.
• Joseph Kim (Y6) won three Gold (12yr 50m and 100m breaststroke, 100m backstroke) and a Silver medal (50m fly)
• Lukas Dunn (Y5) won the 10yr 200m medley and won Silver in 50m fly, and two Bronze in 100m fly and 50m freestyle.
• Freddie O’Hara (Y5) won the 10yr 50m breaststroke and grabbed Silver in the 100m breaststroke.
• Benjamin Se (Y7) who won Silver in the 13yr 50m breaststroke and a Bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
• Our final medallist was Finn Morton (Y5) winning Silver in the 10yr 50m backstroke.

Congratulations to all of our qualifiers:
Senior school - Henry Anderson (Y8), Zak Barrett (Y7), Alex Dunn (Y8), Nathan Gladman (Y8), Hunter Goulston (Y7), Jerry Guo (Y8), Elijah Kendal (Y8), Rory Pattman (Y8), Benjamin Se (Y7), Daniel Seo (Y8), Charlton Song (Y8), Evan Yueh (Y8).
Prep School – Lukas Dunn (Y5), Jordan Fenech (Y6), Joseph Kim (Y6), Thomas Li (Y5), William Li (Y6), Christopher Montana (Y5), Finn Morton (Y5), Freddie O’Hara (Y5), Thomas Scodellaro (Y5), Solomon Tan (Y6), Kevin Tian (Y5).

More wonderful stories from the weekend included -

In Mountain Biking – our Knox riders cleaned up the individual championships, with Hudson Rowling (Y7) finishing 1st in Juniors, Christian Martinez (Y10), Will Baigent (Y10) and Sean Williams (Y9) finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Intermediates and Jackson Young (Y11) and Finn Kane (Y11) finishing 1st and 2nd in Seniors. Great effort boys. 

Prep Knoxonian Term 1 Wk 7

IPSHA Swim & Dive Carnival
On Wednesday 4th March our Prep swimmers and divers dominated the IPSHA Carnival at SOPAC with our 11yr & 12yr swimmers placing 1st in every event contested in these age groups. In the diving, Derek Zhu won the 11yrs springboard and Ryan Manuel 2nd in the 12yrs springboard.

Our Junior 4 x 50m freestyle relay team (Ehan Ali, Philip Kim, Darius Ng & William Scodellaro) finished 3rd and our Senior relay team (Joseph Kim, Jordan Fenech, Lukas Dunn and William Li) won by 7 seconds over their nearest rivals in a time of 2.00.80 only 2 seconds off the NSWPSSA record.

Fourteen boys have been selected to compete at the NSWCIS Championships on Thursday 26 March, many in multiple events:

Ehan Ali – Junior relay; Lukas Dunn – Senior relay, 11yrs 50m free & fly; Jordan Fenech – Senior relay; Joseph Kim – Senior relay, 12/13yrs 50m free, breast, back, fly, 8-13yrs 100m free &11-13yrs 200IM; Philip Kim – Junior relay; William Li – Senior relay, 12/13yrs 50m free, breast & back; Henry Liu – 8yrs 50m free; Christopher Montana – 11yrs 50m free, breast, back & 11-13yrs 200IM; Finn Morton – 11yrs 50m free, back & 8-13yrs 100m free; Darius Ng – Junior relay; Freddie O’Hara – 11yrs 50m free, breast & back; William Scodellaro – 9yrs 50m free & Junior relay; Derek Zhu – 11yrs springboard and Ryan Manuel 12yrs springboard.

IPSHA Football Trials
On Monday 9 March five of our Year 6 footballers (Oliver White, Jack Straw, Ryan Manuel, Max Mitchell & John Park) trialled for the IPSHA team to compete at the NSW Independent School Championships in April. Always tough with 90 of the best young footballers in IPSHA association vying for one of fourteen spots in the team.

Well done to each of our boys and congratulations to Max and John in their selection.

Winter training and trials get underway through week 7 and 8. Please ensure you are aware of trial venues and times and ensure all are committed to the next few weeks. If you have any doubt, please check the school app or email sports@knox.nsw.edu.au

Have a great week.

Go the Black & Blue!