The winter Readers’ Cup was held last term and boys in Year 7 and 8 were invited to particpate. Forty five boys created teams and then competed against each other to see which team would be crowned victors.

Despite the age advantage of the Year 8 boys, it was in fact three Year 7 teams who made it through the heats and into the final. In “Team FAB” we had Finn Waugh (Gladesville), Aaron Murrant (Rozelle) and Ben Wilson (East Ryde). In “Team RED” we had Nicholas Rupolo (Concord), Luke Hkeik (Balmain East), and Jackson McNulty (Balmain East). While in “Team FMN” there was Noah Kelly (Allambie Heights), Tom McGregor (Manly Vale) and Fred Maher (Cherrybrook).

The boys had to read four novels and then compete in activities and trivia based on the novels. Therfore they needed to ensure that they had very good knowledge of each of the books.

Congratulations to “Team FMN” who were the winners of the winter cup. As noted by Mrs Linda Roden, one of our teacher librarians, “these boys did an exceptional job in reading and understanding the texts”. They now each walk away with a prize and their name forever enggraved onto the cup!

There is a summer cup as well and entries for this will be sort soon!

Photo 1: Bennet Rogers (Hunters Hill), James Der (Hunters Hill) and Codey Meads-Barlow (Chatswood) during the heats of the Readers Cup.

Photo 2: Our winter winners, Noah Kelly, Tom McGregor and Fred Maher.

A big congratulations to Nicholas Rupolo (Concord) who won the Term 3 draw after participating in the Dog-Eared Blog by writing a book review for a book that he enjoyed. Every boy has the opportunity to not only read others’ book reviews but also write their own be published on the blog.

Nicholas reviewed the book “Agent 21” by Chris Ryan. In his review, he wrote:

“When Zak Darke’s parents die in an unexplained mass murder, he is left alone in the world. That is until he is sought out by a mysterious man leading to Zak becoming Agent 21. What happened to the 20 agents before him he’ll never know? What he does know is that his life is about to change forever. Chris Ryan gives the reader an amazing suspenseful feeling. If you like being on the edge of your seat then you should read  Agent 21“

Nicholas’ prize was a a pair of “Skull Candy” headphones something that he will certainly be able to make good use of.

You can read other book reviews written by boys across all year groups by visiting the Dog-Eared Blog at http://blogs.joeys.org/blrclibrary/

Photo: Nicholas Rupolo (Concord) enjoys his new Skull Candy headphones.

Last week was National Science Week and the College Science Department combined with the Resources Centre to provide a Science extravaganza! The Science theme was very obvious the moment one walked into the Resources Centre with decorations including space models, skeletons, thermometers and lots more!

There were certainly some smart tactics being used to get the boys into the spirit of things as a large sign read “Cooking is Chemistry”. What better way to bring in the crowds than to offer freshly cooked food! As you can see from the photo, the expert cooking skills of Mrs Roslyn Gibson and Ms Judy Gillespie clearly very popular.

It wasn’t just the food that had the boys interested and one of the activities was a competition for the boys to create a NASA Mission Patches. Many Year 7 boys took part in this competition that was judged by Ms Aitken and the Resources Centre staff. Congratulations to Ben Wilson (East Ryde) who won this competition. Ms Gillespie described Ben’s patch as “having an inventive design and use of colour as well as exhibiting the inspirational spirit of space exploration”. Special congratulations also goes to Milan Nitopi (Rydalmere) and Josh Misener (Hunters Hill) who came runners up.

Below is Ben’s winning badge and he has gone to the trouble of explaining the meaning behind his design.

Recently, the library held a competition at lunch in which competitors had to design a badge about a NASA space mission.  The mission was called Zephyr.  My shield design was meant to represent “Unity” because Zephyr was a united effort to explore the furthest depths of our solar system. 

My design was in the shape of a shield.  The shield itself was gold in order to stand out against the background of a white spacesuit.  It also showed the planet Pluto which was where the mission was headed.  The planet was decorated with vines curling around it, a NASA symbol and a rocket. 

The top of this shield had ornate gold antennae with a text box titled Zephyr.  Around this ornate text box were three tri-coloured tongues of flame (orange, blue and green).  On either side of these flames were two Olympics-styled torches to represent bravery in exploration.

Well done again to Ben and all those who took part – they certainly put a lot of thought and effort into the competition. Once again, a huge thanks to the staff from the Resources Centre and the Science Department for their enthusiasm which has clearly been infectious to the boys!

Photo 1:  Boys crowd around to make sure that they don’t miss any of the “chemistry in action”!

Photo 2:  Ben Wilson’s winning badge design.

The last few years has seen our Resources Centre become an incredible “hub” of learning at the College. Not only are the staff in the Resources Centre able to contribute significantly to the curriculum based learning of the boys, but are also able to extend the boys’ experiences further than any other school.

Wednesday morning was a wonderful example of this as we welcomed Richard Glover to the College for our termly “Books and Blokes” breakfast. The attendance (approximately 150) at this event in itself is an indication of the value that the boys, as well as the fathers, see in spending time with prominent men who create superb works of literature. It is truly one of the special opportunities that our boys have and in visiting the Resources Centre towards the end of the morning, it was obvious how much the boys of all year groups got out of listening to a man who has had great success in both the written and spoken word.

There is an element of boys that appears to remain constant … their love of food …  as one boy told me this morning that he had been to “Blokes and Brunch”!

The “Books and Blokes” sessions are an amazing opportunity for the boys to not only listen to renowned personalities but to also spend some quality time with their fathers or other important men in their lives.

Justin Brown was one of the lucky Year 7 boys to go to the session with Richard and recounts the experience below:

After a long, slow car trip my dad and I finally arrived at Joeys and made our way to the Resources Centre. After enjoying lots of free Croissants and some orange juice, everyone made their way upstairs, ready for what was going to be a very interesting talk by Richard Glover.

After being introduced, Richard talked about the library and the books contained therein as a way to escape. He also told a very personal story which we all felt privileged to hear from him personally … When he was about fourteen, Richard’s mother ran off with his English teacher, leaving his father gutted. His dad got extremely depressed and moved back to England, leaving Richard alone in his Melbourne home to fend for himself.  After a few weeks, Richard’s dad organized one of his friends to look after him, but without his mum and dad he became very sad and lonely.

While Richard was going through a very tough time he found the local library, immersing himself in many great books such as “The Far Away Tree” series and “The Biggles” series, which became his refuge from his isolated childhood. He said “Every book is a trap door, introducing you to a new world and new characters”.  He said that when you walk into a library there are thousands of people all wanting to talk to you and be your friends.

Richard told us that his most vivid memories were not from first hand experiences, but from reading books set in locations he had never been to. He said a great example of this was Shakespeare. William Shakespeare had written many books set in France, yet people say that he had never been to France, so someone else must have given Shakespeare his experiences. Richard  said that the visual experience that can be created by reading a book would have been more than enough for Shakespeare to write his own account.

Richard encouraged us all to discover and immerse ourselves in books early in life and not be like his own son, who did not discover all the joys of reading until he was twenty years old.

What an insightful recount from Justin! A big thank you to the Resources Centre for providing the boys with yet another amazing opportunity experience the joys of literature.

Photo 1:  Nicholas Jansen (Roseville) and his father Michael chat with Richard Glover.

Photo 2: Richard Glover addresses the large group of boys, fathers and friends of the College.

Photo 3: Finbar Watson (North Bondi) and Alec Mackinnon (North Bondi) line up to meet Richard Glover and have him sign one of his books.