Headmaster's Column
Leadership
It used to be that leadership equated with years of accomplishment, education, experience, and age. Thankfully, true leadership knows no age. Leaders are people of any age who just ‘stand up’. They grab your attention, take the initiative, are compelling, and set an example.
Unfortunately, today the world is showing signs of hunger for authentic leadership. There is a cynicism with many in authority and a growing anger at the lack of moral fortitude to be found among some leaders. Fortunately, I am filled with optimism as I witness, almost daily, the empathy and resilience of our young men and boys at Knox. Their courage gives me confidence that young people can manifest the best in humanity, and that is a light that will shine for generations to come.
Deputy Headmaster of Student and Teacher Excellence K-12
da Vinci Decathlon 2021
The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge students from Years 5-11 across 10 disciplines: engineering, mathematics, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and legacy.
Next week the NSW State competition will be held virtually and the boys below have been chosen to represent Knox in their year level. An average of 1,800 students will be competing each day.
We wish them all the best on the competition day. These students will continue on to represent Knox in the National da Vinci Decathlon to held in June 2021 during the school holidays.
Team Leaders
We are the team of 2025 and together we can achieve great things. This week in our Academy Assembly, the theme was ‘Teamwork’. There was a large focus on mateship and embracing the Knox values. Every one of our team members has the right to the same level of support and respect from every other member of the Knox Team. We encourage the boys on a regular basis to stand up for what they believe in and to speak up when they feel something isn’t right. There has been a lot of commentary around the term ‘snitching’, in our assembly the School Captain spoke about showing integrity and the value of coming forward if themselves or a mate are making decisions that endanger themselves or others. We understand that teenagers make mistakes but it is important they learn from their mistakes and continue to forge ahead in a positive direction.
Student Administration Officer
I was excited to be invited to attend and watch one of the Year 8 TAS classes this week. The class were racing their dragsters, which they had designed and built and there was great anticipation amongst the students to see who would be victorious. What an exciting experience for me, and one which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.
The Year 7 and Year 8 students combined this week for an Academy Assembly, where a number of boys received Learner Protocol awards. Congratulations to all of them. Please see the photo galleries below for pictures from both events.
A reminder that on Wednesdays for sport, boys are to change into their PE uniform at lunch time. Boys are not allowed to wear their Rugby/Football jerseys etc to their Period 6 lessons.
Although a few weeks away still, please set a reminder to put the date of our Year 8 Parent Morning Tea in your diaries for Thursday 27 May.
Director of Studies Junior Academy
Learner Protocols
During Mentor time this fortnight, students are undertaking a review of their Term 1 reports and setting goals relating to improving their approach to learning. Our Learner Protocols - mindset, behaviour, perseverance and social skills - are reported by four colours; blue for exceptional and consistent, green for being at the expected standard, yellow for working towards standard and red for well below standard. Boys have been encouraged to set goals to lift red and yellow to green, and green to blue. I encourage you to engage in a conversation with your son about his goals and strategies for improvement for this term.
Janelle Charlton
Sports News
Head of Knox Sports and Aquatic Academy
I hope everyone enjoy a great start to the winter 2021 season playing for Knox. It was a wonderful weekend with so many highlights. The joy on the boys' faces, the spirit, mateship, helping one another in tough times and supporting each other were just a few of the many experiences our boys enjoyed last Saturday.
Last week, one of Australia’s most successful Wallaby captains, John Eales, spoke to our winter sports captains, PEAK students and Firsts teams about the importance of leading with integrity. He shared six pieces of advice for any emerging leader and I would like to share these with everyone.
1. Leadership is all about taking the complex and making it simple and then taking the simple and making it compelling!
• Your job as a leader is to take people on a journey with you – through what you say and what you do.
• You need to take what you are trying to achieve and make it simple for those around you to understand and follow.
• You need to make it compelling enough for those around you to want to get involved.
Upcoming Assessments
There is a Geography Assessment (hand in task) due Friday Week 3. There are no assessments in Week 4.
Year 8 Assessment Grid Term 2
Upcoming Events
ANZAC Ceremony
Sunday 2 May
da Vinci Decathlon
Tuesday 4 May, 8am - 3.15pm
Year 8 Parent Morning Tea
Thursday 27 May
Kuringai Special Olympics Fun Run
Sunday 30 May
Text for the Week
See how much our father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!
1 John 3:1a
Community Notices
Handwriting Course
Each term, Knox holds a Handwriting Course designed to help improve the speed, accuracy and neatness of students’ handwriting, reducing tension and fatigue when writing for long periods of time. In 2021 the classes will be held by Ms Lisa Norton, an occupational therapist, who specialises in the development of skills necessary for handwriting and the remediation of handwriting difficulties.
We have a few places remaining for our Term 2, 2021 course which will begin in Week 3. Our course will run on either a Tuesday or Wednesday or both mornings, starting at 7.30am, once minimum numbers are confirmed.
ANZAC Service and Parade
We are pleased to announce that the Knox ANZAC Service and Parade will go ahead on Sunday 2 May 2021 at 8.30am with some modifications and restrictions. All students in the Cadet Unit are expected to attend this event.
Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, we will be limiting spectators to two tickets per Year 11 and 12 Cadets, Pipes and Drums, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Gallery Choir students only. We will continue to monitor government advice and recommendations, and should more tickets become available, we will update parents. We apologise for any disappointment this may cause and thank you for your understanding.
The service and parade will be live streamed here: www.knox.nsw.edu.au/anzac.
If you have any questions, please email events@knox.nsw.edu.au.
Head of Information Services
Teachers act as role models for students in many ways and this is particularly so with regard to reading. We recently asked teachers to share details of the books they had read during the holidays so that we could let students, and parents, see that teachers value reading as a pleasurable, relaxing activity. Reading offers so many benefits which align with our Knox model of Total Fitness.
Knox app - subscribing for notifications
School app for K-12
The Knox Grammar School app allows you to stay informed about the School. It is important for you to subscribe to the notifications which are relevant to you. For more information, please see the instruction document below, which includes information on how to subscribe for notifications. If you have any questions, please email communications@knox.nsw.edu.au.
KGS School app download instructions
McKenzie Library
All students in Years 7 to 10 are welcome to join the following groups:
Book Club meets every Thursday at lunchtime in the Senior study located in the McKenzie Library.
The Library Committee meets every Friday at lunchtime in the Senior study located in the McKenzie Library.
Volunteers needed for our senior students
As we head towards the end of the year the Learning Enhancement Department is in need of parent volunteers to read and/or write for some of our senior students in the HSC Trials, the HSC and end of year exams.
As a writer, it would be your task to act as an extension of the student by writing as they dictate their response to an examined question. As a reader, it would be your task to read the examined question aloud for clarity. As a reader/writer you would be asked to perform both tasks for the one student.
Photo Galleries
Academy Assembly
Congratulations to the following students who have received an award for Excellent Effort in Upholding the Knox Learner Protocols: Ning Lu, Austin Partington, Oliver Dean, Brodie Shearer, Cameron Chu, Declan Maxwell, Balfy Andrew and William Zhang.
Congratulations to the following students who have received an award for Outstanding Effort in Upholding the Knox Learner Protocols: Joshua Lee, Kareem Barto, Tevin Fang, Nilesh Nagarajah, Ben Shannon, Henry Mahendran, Arjun Wishnu, Chester Swaffer, Ralph Tsui, Oliver Begg, Felix Palstra, Leo Xu and Kingsley Lam-Li.
Boules
After learning about this French game, Madame Beckett’s French class were able to go outside and have a go at playing boules themselves. Here they are having fun!
Dragster Racing
Engineered Systems Technology Transport issues are essential. With climate change and a reduction in the need for hydrocarbon powered transport, car designers need to explore ways of making future transport options that are more aerodynamic, lighter in weight in order to conserve power, minimise friction and explore alternate materials to produce safe and energy-efficient transporting options. This unit has given students an insight into the challenges that future car designers will face.
Students used their knowledge learned over the unit to apply engineering principles such as Weight, Force, Lift and Thrust to create the fastest dragster possible. This knowledge and skill in materials technology culminate in race day where the students are able to test their project through racing their Co2 powered Dragsters down a 20m track. The students get great pride and enjoyment overseeing their successes on the track.
Tara Hodgins
Year 8 Geography Excursion
On Friday last week, Year 8 Geography students explored four parts of the city; Pitt Street Mall, Chinatown, The Rocks and Circular Quay. Students were investigating the topic of ‘Interconnections’ and investigated tourism, globalisation, transnational corporations and cultural integration. Of course, being Year 8, the way to learning was through their stomachs, especially in Chinatown where students purchased a traditional Chinese meal and explored the origins and customs of this meal. It was a great day out for the boys and students were able to see how connected to the world they actually are!