Dear Parents

Over the school holidays, one of our Year 12 2020 students, Alex Richter, sustained a serious spinal cord injury whilst mountain biking.  Alex is in good spirits and is continuing to receive care in hospital.

As a school community, we are rallying together to support Alex and his family at this time. Alex has a brother, Josh, in Year 9 and a sister at Ravenswood. The family faces many challenges including modifications to their home and on-going medical and treatment costs.

In order to support Alex and his family, the Class of 2020 is organising an initial fundraising event for our students called ‘Ride for Richter’ on Friday 29 November from 3.30pm to 6.30pm. 

This fun event will include exercise bikes to ride for sponsorship, a sausage sizzle, baked goods and many more carnival activities. Please look out in the newsletters for more information in the next week.

If you wish, you can also contribute via the  Knox payment portal select ‘Other School Activities’ > ‘Support the Richters’.

Thank you for your support of this event and Alex and his family.

Scott James, Headmaster

What a privilege it was to attend the Lions Club Youth of the Year in support of James Gray and Adam Soonius this week. The boys and students from other schools delivered impromptu and prepared speeches that were both informative and inspiring. Mental health, climate change, ageism and isolation due to social media were presented as some of society’s most pressing problems. If these young people are representative of our youth, then we are in a good place to see constructive change and positive steps towards addressing these issues. Both boys were very impressive and a huge congratulations must go to Adam Soonius who took out the Youth of the Year Award and will now progress to the next stage of the program.

Often there are boys who show great character in helping others in our community and this week, I would like to commend Olly Ritchie for giving up his own time to help and support some of the younger students with their academic work. The positive impact the older boys can have with the younger students is not to be underestimated and is often remembered well past the time the boys exit these walls.

This week in Year Meeting we discussed the 'Belief Tree', which illustrates how our core beliefs (the roots) influence what we value (the trunk), which in turn directs our decisions (the branches) and results in our actions and behaviours (the fruit). We discussed a range of core beliefs such as: that success only comes from wealth, academic ability is fixed, I am entitled, fear of failure and the need to be in control. These core beliefs can result in behaviours such as overlooking the needs of others, work avoidance, blaming others, arrogance, a lack of resilience, stress and frustration. Many of these core beliefs can be challenged and changed so that behaviours like developing positive relationships, compassion, persistence, a sense of purpose, gratitude and less stress become the fruit of our lives. Mr Stedman and I will continue to explore the 'belief tree' to help the boys examine the core beliefs which drive their behaviours. 

Christmas is fast approaching and as you may have seen on Knox’s social media, Omar, the red-nosed reindeer and Santa danced their reindeer into the Great Hall to the delight of the younger boys and girls. I don’t think there has ever been a group of reindeer so well choreographed. It is always good to get the boys out of their comfort zone!

We hope you can enjoy the Christmas markets today. Have a great weekend.

Beth Goddard

Robin Cherry 9119 0884

After four weeks of exams, the HSC finished on Monday with Physics and Design and Technology.  As a School we are very proud of the Class of 2019 and we wish them all the very best for their results which are released on 17 December.  Some boys from the Class of 2020 also sat HSC exams in Mathematics, Physics and Studies of Religion and we also wish these boys well too.

The HSC journey is a long one, but as many from the Class of 2019 have commented as they finished their exams, it goes quickly.  With assessments having started this week and many more to come over the remaining weeks of this term, the HSC is now a reality for the Class of 2020. Despite the pressures that come with HSC assessments we keep reminding the boys of some basics:

•  Each assessment for each subject contributes just ‘one small drop in the ATAR pool’.  A good result in an assessment doesn’t guarantee a good ATAR nor does a lower than expected result mean an ATAR goal can’t be achieved.
•  Studying for assessments shouldn’t  be done in isolation. Collaboration can make preparation for a task far more effective. The WSA provides the ideal environment for effective collaboration.
• Utilise the Old Boy coaches by approaching them in the WSA or booking a session time through Mrs Billington.

• The ATAR is derived from 10 units.  Consistency of work in all subjects is essential. Over the coming weeks some subjects will become a higher priority than others, but subjects where there is no assessment this term shouldn’t be neglected.  We keep encouraging the boys to consider where each subject is positioned in the Quadrant Model, as reported in earlier newsletters.  Currently some subjects are in, or moving towards the Quadrant of Necessity (high importance, high urgency) while others are in the Quadrant of Quality (high importance, low urgency).

• Stay committed to all sports and co-curricular activities.  Utilise non-academic pursuits to complement school work.  

• Enjoy Year 12.  It is a great year and provides many opportunities not afforded to the younger boys, such as the Year 12 BBQ each Wednesday.

• Seek help and advice where needed.

We wish all boys the very best in their upcoming assessments.

On Wednesday during Year Meeting, two items were delivered by the Academic Portfolio Team. Following on from the previous meeting where we looked at the role of feedback and feedforward in achieving academic success, Daniel Lum spoke to the boys about the points below and how they can leverage off positive working relationships with their teachers. He highlighted that feedback moves both ways and when done well is a very powerful tool. He also encouraged the boys from all backgrounds, where providing and receiving feedback can be very different, to recognise that respectful and constructive feedback is welcomed by their teachers.

• Teachers are here to help you, but it is a two-way street
• Don’t be afraid to talk to your teacher if the current method of learning isn’t working for you

In the second item, the boys were introduced to a collaborative resource originally developed by the 2019 APT team on the KnoxNet. Folders for each subject have been set up where boys can upload and download resources that can support them in their learning. The resources would include exemplar responses written by their peers that model specific techniques identified by their teachers. There is still some work to do in this space but we are sure it will be an effective initiative that will benefit all boys throughout their HSC year.

Andrew Weeding and Greg Nunan

The mentor program focus for this fortnight has been on understanding the nature of the thoughts that cause extreme stress, some common unhelpful thinking ‘habits’, and also the idea of challenging our unhelpful stress-related thoughts.

Today’s update is focused on challenging unhelpful thoughts. Remember that UNHELPFUL thoughts are those thoughts that are not realistic, make us feel worse than we need to, and stop us from doing the things that we need to do. Conversely, HELPFUL thoughts are those that are realistic (they are based on facts and evidence), they help us to feel better, and they help us to do the things that we need to do.

This is the case even when we are dealing with something that is incredibly difficult – e.g. a major set-back or loss, such as the break up of a romantic relationship- there are helpful and unhelpful ways to think about the break up. Extreme, unhelpful thoughts such as “I will never find another relationship’ or ‘I am unlovable’ will naturally leave a boy feeling worse and unlikely to cope in a healthy way. More helpful thoughts, such as ‘this is incredibly sad  but it was just not meant to be’ or ‘this has shown me I can meet someone and have a relationship’ are likely to cause less intense distress and allow the boy to cope in a healthy way.

Often it is very hard to us to simply change our Unhelpful thoughts to more Helpful thoughts. We often find it easier to believe our Unhelpful thoughts. This is why it is important to question our unhelpful thoughts, to reduce our belief in them, and also allow us to evaluate the reality or the truth of the situation, and to then generate more helpful ways of thinking.

The Thought Challenging process that was outlined in class was as follows:

Thought Challenging Process – six steps:

1.      Identify the event and feeling

2.      Identify the thought causing stress

What exactly do I think will happen?

3.      Look for evidence for the thought

What facts do I have that indicate that this thought is true?

4.      Look for evidence against the thought

What facts do I have that indicate that this thought is not true?

What alternatives are there? What else might happen?

What happens to other people?

5.      Identify the true consequences

If this did happen, would I be able to cope?

6.      Identify a realistic thought based on the evidence

Students were encouraged to try out this Thought Challenging process with unhelpful thought examples – either their own or sample thoughts. Note that there are many variations of the Thought Challenging techniques. The key idea is that once an unhelpful thought is identified, it is questioned, even with simple questions such as “Is this thought helping me?” or “What would I tell a friend that had this thought?”, and the answers to these questions are then used to generate more helpful thoughts and appraisals.

Please continue to talk with your son about the Mentor program content, and if you would like further detail, or have questions or comments please email. 

Melinda Price
Senior School Clinical Psychologist – Year 12

We would like to invite students who have competed at the State/National level to apply to join the PEAK program for the 2020 intake.

PEAK is in its second year of operation and is designed to support high performing student-athletes to achieve excellence in sport, whilst achieving their best in the academic environment.

The PEAK program is a holistic wellbeing program, which includes:

• One on one mentoring with Knox high performance coaches, including the development of an Individual Performance Plan (IPP)
• Keynote speakers focusing on the Total Fitness pillars, including: 

Academic Fitness – covering themes such as time management, goal-setting and habits for academic success

Physical Fitness – covering effective nutritional practices for athletes, sleep for recovery and effective rehab/prehab

Spiritual Fitness (Personal Development) – covering communication, mental preparation and leadership

Social/Emotional Fitness – covering resilience, performing under pressure and respect and responsibility

• Small group workshops to further enhance each student-athlete’s skills and learning capabilities

Click here for the prospectus for more information, including eligibility criteria.       

To apply, please complete application form here

Applications will close on Thursday 5 December (last day of Term 4), with successful applicants to be notified before School resumes in 2020.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact PEAK 

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