FRIDAY BBQ BREAKY.

With the warmer mornings arriving, the boys have enjoyed a BBQ breaky out the back of the dorms the past two Fridays. Bacon and egg rolls and chocolate milk is a winner and normally well cooked which is surprising considering the vast range in chef skills among the troops. Plenty of great tunes, courtesy of Xavier Leaver and always plenty of opinions on offer as well!!

DEBATING UPDATE

Every year we always enjoy watching our Yr.10 Debaters in action, when at home, or arriving back to the dorms after debating away, with many stories of interesting topics and even more interesting adjudicators!! This year is no exception with Max Palencia-Ryan, Will Ryan, Xavier Leaver, Callum Wilson, Darcy Rogers, Luca Napoli and Ben Price representing us each week. I asked will ryan if he could provide us with a brief report on the season so far –

Year 10 GPS Debating Season – Will Ryan:
The year 10 GPS Debating season has been an enjoyable experience for all involved. Year 10 has two debating teams, the 10A’s, made up of Darcy Rogers, Xavier Leaver and Will Ryan and the 10B’s made up of Max Palencia, Ben Price, Callum Wilson and Luca Napoli. In addition, we are coached by two old boys, Angus Elliot and Matthew Toomey, and Mr Summers.

The GPS debating season commenced on Friday the 31st of July with a debate against Newington, with joeys negating the topic, That the world health organisation (WHO) should be able to issue binding resolutions to member states. At the end of the night, the year 10 A’s won and the 10B’s lost. On the following Friday, in the second round of the season, we were debating against Kings on the topic, That sporting leagues should ban players who make offensive public statements, with the joeys’ teams on the affirmative, this was our only face to face debate so far. At the end of the debates, the 10A’s lost and the 10B’s won. Facing off against Shore in the third round, now back on zoom. Joeys was negating the topic That schools should encourage and facilitate their students in social movements e.g. School strike for climate. With the 10A’s winning and the 10B’s leaving with a loss. In the most recent debate last Friday, we were against Scots on the topic, That Twitter should never censor world leaders’ Tweets. With joeys on the negative the 10A’s won and the 10B’s lost. This leaves the 10A’s on 3 of 4 wins and the 10B’s on 1 of 4 wins, with these results it is likely that the 10A’s are at the top of the table, tying with some other GPS schools.

This seasons debates have been different to others as the majority of our debates have occurred over zoom. When zoom debating, each team has a laptop along with the adjudicator who acts as the timekeeper and chairperson. Zoom debates have numerous positives and negatives, the main positives are that it allows us to speak to each other as loud as we want as we have the ability to place ourselves on mute, when in a normal debate we would have had to whisper. Along with this, we no longer have to travel to debates giving us more time to train before prep starts. Zoom debates also carry with them the negatives of being open to the possibility of connection issues, something that was prevalent in the Newington debate. In addition, we no longer have a live audience, this leaves us speaking to an empty classroom which would typically be filled by coaches, parents and the adjudicator. However, we have found zoom debating to be an overall positive experience and, in some aspects, we enjoy it more than face to face, specifically the ability to speak normally to each other, It has also had a positive effect on our results as can be seen in the 10A’s where our only loss occurred during the face to face debate with Kings.

On Friday we will be on the affirmative facing off against Sydney Boys High on the topic area of international Issues.

GOOD LUCK TO OUR FOOTBALLERS!

Good luck to all our Football players who commence their competition season this Saturday against Riverview. A special mention to Xavier Tsagaris who has earnt selection in the 1st X1 side while Eoin Shepherd, Omar Moursi, Romano Di Stefano, Jackson Gursoy and Ben Southwell have all been selected to represent the College in the 2nd X1 side. We wish them and all our Football players every success and enjoyment for this upcoming season.

YR.10 DRAMA.

The drama boys performed Shakespeare’s Villians last Friday. Well done to Atticus Heaven, Oscar Newsome, Fred Ward, Gab Lucarelli, Connor Wodrow, Angus Orton, Julian Fitzgerald and Hamish Stewart on an excellent production.

AAGPS ATHLETICS

The boys were excellent in representing the College last Sunday at the GPS Athletics Carnival. The Seniors, Intermediate and Junior teams were all outstanding, many achieving personal best results in their events. The Seniors came in fifth place, Intermediate team was third and the Juniors won the title for the first time since 1995. Please enjoy the pictures below taken by College photographer, John Flitcroft.

GOOD LUCK GPS ATHLETES!

Good luck to our boys who will be representing us in the GPS Athletics Championships on Saturday and Sunday. Normally one of the big days of the year when all GPS schools come together to compete, the boys will be competing without spectators with the Seniors events on tomorrow and the Intermediate and Juniors to be held on Sunday. We wish the following boys all the very best for their respective events over the weekend: James Frederikson, Maxim Moloney, Oliver Maroulis, Harry Darling, Luke Elias, Nick Shortis, Ethan Quintana, Julian Fitzgerald, Henry Roberts, Oliver Roberts, Angus Wallace, Nick Grosvenor and Max Jorgensen.
The boys have worked very hard during these unusual and unsure weeks and are ready to do their best. As you can see by the photos below, they are in good spirits, some more relaxed about the occasion than others!!
I would also like to acknowledge the boys whom trained right through the weeks and holiday period, but missed out on selection. Their efforts have definitely been admired and more so the character displayed when being told they would not be competing typifies the quality of young men they are. I would especially like to acknowledge Xavier Leaver, Sebastien Procter and Harrison MacDougall for their respective efforts here.