The School Captain, Nicholas Reynold, in one of his addresses to the Senior School, shared the following message:

“I just wanted to share with you all today three words that have stood out to me for some time ... those three words being Mateship, Service, Culture.

The three words that we have kept in mind from the start of the year, in which their true meaning is embodied by the men that walk around the campus today in thistled ties.

Helping those in need, giving back to the community, supporting one another through challenges and triumphs and uniting through a common passion. That’s what those three words are all about.”

I am honoured to say, we are proud of the boys many achievements over the years, their countless accomplishments in their studies, co-curricular and sporting activities. I truly hope that each Year 12 student recognises the fact they have served the School well. 2020 is a year that required them to be open-minded, compassionate, thoughtful, but also strong, courageous, and resilient. They were able to successfully navigate through their senior years in the most of difficult of circumstances and their achievements are a testament to their abilities.

Our very best wishes go with Year 12 as they make their final preparations for the HSC and then as they take on life beyond school in pursuit of their dreams. The Class of 2020 have been tested and they did not falter … they kept going. Because of this, I know that you are ready for the world and what lies ahead.

I appreciate and acknowledge all Year 12 parents for their support of the School. Certainly, nobody could have envisioned this for the Class of 2020 when the school year began. But what I can say is that COVID-19 cannot silence the creativity of your sons or lessen their achievements.

As parents, your contribution to the triumphs of the year group cannot be underestimated. You have nurtured your sons, given them a moral code and the strength to reframe setbacks and move forward. For this, I thank you.

On behalf of the School, we wish the graduating Class of 2020 the best of luck in their days ahead. We here at Knox have faith in their ability to do well. I hope they will periodically take stock of all the great things they have in their lives and enjoy the journey ahead ... life is much better if you appreciate what you have.

Boys, your role modelling, your exhibiting of the School Values and your strong, compassionate personality, collectively, stand you in good shape for the times ahead.

God bless you all.

Virile Agitur.

Our course will run on either a Tuesday or Wednesday or both mornings, starting at 7.30am, once minimum numbers are confirmed.

The Introductory seven week course includes a tub of theraputty, that is designed to improve hand muscle strength and fine motor skills. A minimum of seven students, and a maximum of ten, ensures individual attention. The course costs $300 for seven sessions of 45 minutes.

We will also run a five week refresher course for students who have participated in a seven week course previously. This course will cost $200.

Availability of places is dependent upon a first come first served basis. All students who miss out on a place in Term 4 will be placed on the waiting list for Term 1, 2021.

Should you be interested in pursuing this option for your son, please contact Rebecca Papageorgiou in the Learning Enhancement Department ASAP.

Has your son outgrown his Football or Rugby boots?
We are supporting a community in the outback who have no access to any sporting equipment. They are particularly keen to receive Football or Rugby boots as most cannot play as they have no boots. Donations may be dropped to the SAOs or to Mrs Clarke’s Office. Any clean Football socks would also be appreciated.

Last call - seeking food hampers or gift cards for groceries
Thank you to those families who have donated goods such as longlife milk, cereals, coffee/tea, pancake mixes, dried or tinned fruit, tinned meat, spreads, laundry detergent, cordial toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and Vegemite. This is our final call for donations to support the three families in the broader Ku-ring-gai community. A reminder of no nut items please. Donations may be left with the SAOs or Mrs Clarke.

The Knox Social Justice Club
The Club meets each Friday at lunchtime in the WSA Auditorium. Updates are available in the e-Club platform. Please email Mrs Clarke for more information on how to join or volunteer.

We collect a gold coin donation at each meeting to support projects for Youth of the Streets.

I mentioned in last week’s Knoxonian, that we are planning a technology session for parents, to answer your questions and to help you to both navigate the world your boys are accessing when you are not with them, and to monitor that usage over time. After many discussions, we have settled on a format that we think will be most helpful and easy to access. We will send a form for you to add any questions that you would like answered. We will then record a webinar, answering as many of these as we can. We will then provide you with a link to view this at your leisure, rather than at a time designated by us. We understand that parents are busy, and that evenings can be challenging.

We will also create a number of brief tutorial type videos, so that you can walk through the steps involved in setting up some of the safeguarding tools that are available. We will add all of these to a site, where you will be able to access them when you need them. Of course, as new tools are created to solve new problems, we will continue to update this site with new tutorials. So, please look out for the form to send us your questions, later this week.

In terms of how we tackle device use within the home, this may sound terribly old fashioned, but there’s nothing quite so powerful as prolonged conversation around the dinner table, whether that be in your own home or when out to dinner at a restaurant; board games and jigsaw puzzles; bush walks and bike rides. It’s easy to overlook the amount of sedentary screen time, and social media use, that our children are engaging in when we are busy and trying to manage the load that comes along with modern parenting. We acknowledge that it is much harder to take a firm stance, and say no - ‘But Mum, everyone else is allowed to have (x),’ still works a treat and it is a very hard road back from saying yes to it! It might be a hard road, but it is, indeed, a most worthwhile one.

At the 2020 Kindergarten Orientation, we challenged the Kindy parents to band together and say no collectively, to sedentary screen time ... I wonder if it is time to extend that challenge beyond the Kindy parent cohort? We are very much looking forward to working alongside you on this very challenging aspect of parenting in an incredibly rapidly changing technology environment, beginning with the webinar towards the end of term!

A child with the belief, “I am excellent at maths’, may also avoid a challenging maths task, for fear that they will look unintelligent and disprove their belief about themselves. They may worry that they always need to “look smart” and therefore avoid any tasks that threatens this view they have of themselves.

On the other hand, a child who believes they can get batter at maths if they practise and employ better strategies, will continue to work hard and try different approaches until they get better or solve the problem.

Research into growth mindset certainly shows that it has a positive impact on learning in the classroom and can help improve self-esteem and resilience in children. Working hard at something and improving your skills or mastering a task, helps children feel capable and competent. A growth mindset also encourages children to embrace failure and mistakes as opportunities to learn.

Our parenting tip is to behave the way you want your child to behave. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Persist even when tasks are challenging. Try new things. Embrace challenges and struggles as opportunities for learning and growth.

Kindergarten brings so many exciting 'first' experiences for the boys. Next week we have Swimming Week. Whilst some boys may be a little apprehensive about swimming, it is important to remind them that they will be safe. Like any skill, the boys’ abilities will vary greatly, which is expected and normal.

The swim teachers will swim with each boy in the little pool beforehand so he can be placed into the correct group. Each day we will walk to the Senior School for our lessons - another 'first' for the boys.

They will certainly need a holiday by the end of the week!

The boys are continuing to explore where our foods come from within our Sustainable Solutions unit of inquiry. We have been exploring different types of farms and the work they do to provide us with food and products. This has resulted in some great discussions in class and the boys have come up with some deep wonderings as a result.

We are looking forward to our swimming program next week. Just a reminder to keep practising getting dressed independently, especially tying shoelaces. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we would like you to purchase the School poncho from the Knox Uniform Shop for your boys to wear. This will enable each boy to dry himself and change with privacy.

A reminder that the K-2 boys will be attending the Aquatics program next week at the Senior School.

The boys are to wear their PE uniform with their swimmers underneath to school each day. A towel, goggles, wet weather gear and change of underwear should be packed in their excursion bag.

If you are ordering recess or lunch, please note the vegetarian option, hot specials or salads will not be available due to the swimming schedule.

Within each of the Year 3 classrooms, students have been working on their current Knoxigations unit of inquiry based on the Big Idea, ‘Rivers Sustain Life’. As part of this, students conducted a case study on the Murray Darling Basin, exploring the many ways in which humans utilise the river and what measures have been put in place to try and improve its long-term sustainability. The boys are now in the process of examining other river systems from around the world and considering how they also sustain life for the different people and animals that rely on them for survival. It certainly has been a fascinating unit for students and it has been most pleasing to witness the quality of discussion that has taken place as a result of their newfound knowledge and understanding!

Dates for the diary:
• Thursday 24 September – House Cross Country Carnival
• Friday 25 September – Term 3 concludes

If you have any queries with upcoming events, please do not hesitate to contact your son’s classroom teacher or me.

Knox portal
Please remember that information regarding the boys’ learning is always available to parents through the Year 4 page of the Knox portal. This includes an overview of work taking place across all lessons, including specialist lessons. You will also find information about upcoming assessments and tools to assist.

The Homework page includes copies of our homework sheets so that if your son is absent on a Friday, he may still begin tasks over the weekend.

Accelerated Reader (AR)
I have exciting news in regards to AR and accessing books in our 3-6 Library.

The librarians have been recently uploading AR information for each title on our Infiniti database. What does this mean for our boys? No more AR Library Booklists!

We found that it was taking far too long for the boys to find a book on the list, check Infiniti to see if it is available, and then find it in the Library. If it was on loan, they would then have to go back to the list to find another book, and so on.

How do they find an AR book now? Using Infiniti, the boys need to type in the Accelerated Reading Level in the Search bar with 'subject' as the search option. In the example below, you can see that I have typed in 2.1. The drop down menu lists Accelerated Reader - 2.1 as an option to select.



Once you click on search, the database will list all resources within our Library that are on 2.1 for AR. The results will show if the book is available to borrow or on loan.

Last week, Mr Voysey sent home some information to parents around the appropriate use of mobile phones whilst on school grounds. If you have not had the chance yet, I encourage you to go through this information with your son. The expectation of the boys is that they place their mobile phone in the red box at the commencement of each school day. If your son needs to contact you during the school day, the school office is always available to them as a communicate point. At the end of the day, teachers will hand back the mobile phones should your son need to contact you on the way home. Whilst we understand the need for boys to have their phones on them for the trip home at the end of the day, we would also encourage you to talk to your son about safe use of their device when walking around the community. We see many boys on their phones as they cross roads or move about busy areas. We thank you in advance for your support in this matter.

On Thursday we have an exciting day at the Prep as the Year 12 students have their Back to Prep Day! This is always an exciting day for the boys as they get to see some of the Senior School students spending time at the Prep. We look forward to seeing your boys back here in 2026!

String News
The Concert Strings, Prep Orchestra, String Ensemble and Year 6 String Ensemble are all going really well! They have been rehearsing hard and sound amazing. Keep up the great work, stringers! All rehearsals for our String instruments remain the same.

Choir Update
Come sign with us!

The COVID-19 school regulations have meant the end of the choir for the moment. So in the interim, we are looking to creating a signing ensemble. Using Auslan (Australian sign language) we will be signing 'Look at the world'. This is a whole school project and hopefully, we will put together a recording for the end of the term.

All boys in Years 3-6 choirs are invited, but there is strictly no singing. Rehearsals will be from 7.30am to 8.15am on a Thursday in the Auditorium. If this is something that your son would be interested in trying, we would love to have them come along.

Individual Instrumental Lessons
All Private Instrumental Lessons will continue as per normal with social distancing and strict hygiene measures in place to ensure the safety of our boys and the tutors.

If you have any questions in regards to our Ensembles or Instrumental lessons, please do not hesitate to email Mrs Morris any time.

Congratulations to our 25 swimmers listed below who were recently selected in a CAS 'merit' team for their outstanding performances back in March. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, these boys did not get to the next level of their pathway in 2020 but we will have so many back with us this summer to show off their skills and talent again against some of the best in the state. Well done to:

Henry Anderson, Zak Barrett, Tane Bidois, Tyson Bujak-Upton, Joshua Collett, Owen Fung, Nathan Gladman, Joseph Hamson, Thomas Haslam, Josh Johnson, Joseph Kim, Tyler Krenkels, Justin Lee, William Li, Kai Lilienthal, Will McDonagh, Angus Menzies, Christopher Ng, Dustin Nguyen, Toby Peknice, Benjamin Se, Benjamin Shen, Oscar Wang, Dylan Zhang and Liam Zhuang.

Congratulations to Harry McKerihan (Y8) who, as a 13 year old, landed his third hole-in-one on Saturday in a golfing competition at Longreef Golf Course. Yes, THIRD hole-in-one and Harry is 13! By all accounts, a 180m Driver that was “never missing”. Great work, Harry.

Important notice about future sport schedules
Sports schedules will start to show boys in their 2021 cohort on the School app. Please, if in any doubt as to start times for this weekend, always check with an email to the Knox Sports and Aquatic Academy. 

For example, our cricketers currently in Year 9 2020 will be shown on draws and fixtures as the Year 10 group.

All boys are being reminded of this at training again this week so they know exactly when they are trialling this Saturday.

School holidays
The Knox Sports and Aquatic Academy have plenty planned and we are keen to keep the boys healthy and busy whilst preparing for the Term 4 summer CAS season. Basketball will be running some camps for Knox Prep and Senior School while our cricketers are playing some trial games as well as hosting a camp in the first week of the holidays. Our senior Tennis players will be training as well as Water Polo.

The final set of summer trials will take place on Saturday 17 October, then the CAS season will begin on 24 October vs Barker College. Training for all will begin on day 1 as the boys return to school - Monday 12 October. A copy of the protocols for summer sport trials may be downloaded here.