Last week, the School community enjoyed an extraordinary musical collaboration with Somerville House in their presentation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In a four-performance season, the students from both schools combined to provide a very high-standard interpretation of the Roald Dahl classic, which will be familiar to all ages. Such was the sustained excellence of the performance, the students received high praise and hearty congratulations from all in attendance.
The acting, singing, ensemble work, staging, lighting and sound were all outstanding. The cast and crew were accompanied by a wonderful 16-piece student orchestra that was flawless in its role, safely ensconced in the pit at the front of Morris Hall.
I congratulate all the students—cast, ensemble, orchestra and production team—for a superb performance and for the commitment they demonstrated to this enterprise for many months. I sincerely thank the staff: Director Scott Andrews, Producers Sarah Washington and Issy Mowen, Orchestra Director Mrs Rosemary Oxenford and Set Designer Brian Bowen. A large number of fellow staff members played key roles to ensure the success of the show.
Again, I thank everyone involved, and I know that each person well knows that they have been involved in a very special creative event.
Last week, as part of Churchie’s boarding on the road programme, the School visited Rockhampton to attend Beef Week and meet with many current, past and prospective families and Old Boys. Beef Week is a week-long exhibition and celebration of Australia’s beef industry and the largest agricultural exhibition in the southern hemisphere. It was a great pleasure to host a combined Churchie and St Margaret’s families event to celebrate our partnerships in this key region of Australia.
We thank all families, staff and Old Boys who visited and supported us throughout the week.
This term we have visited boarding families in Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Townsville and Rockhampton. We remain proud of our enduring partnerships with families in rural and regional Australia.
Goodwin Housemaster Nick Power and Headmaster Dr Alan Campbell
With good wishes
Dr Alan Campbell Headmaster
Churchie Parents Advisory Association
Churchie supporter apparel
As you are aware, CPAA conducted a survey on Churchie supporter apparel and is pleased to announce that the Churchie supporter puffer vests will be available to pre-order from today. The link will be open for one week only and closing on Friday 24 May to ensure delivery in early September 2024. Whilst we know this misses a lot of our cooler outdoor Term 3 cocurricular, it will be a valuable addition to all of our Churchie supporter wardrobes for many years to come. Churchie supporter puffer vests will come in both men’s and women’s cuts and sizes.
Special introductory offer of $115. Make sure you don’t delay as another order will not be placed until February 2025. The Churchie Shop has some women’s sample sizes to try on.
Fabric technology Technology – Dry-Flex fabric TM – 100% polyester with polyester fill
Enquiries
If you have any questions relating to the puffer vest or Churchie Supporter apparel, please direct these to Mel Loring, mel_loring@yahoo.com.
Sizing
Prep School
Prep value of the week: patience
Patience is having quiet hope and trusting that things will turn out right. You wait without complaining. You are tolerant and accepting of difficulties and mistakes. You picture the end in the beginning and persevere to meet your goals. Patience is a commitment to the future.
Attribute of the week: balanced
You understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal wellbeing for yourself and others.
Mothers’ Day Chapel Service and High Tea
This week we held our annual Mother’s Day Chapel Service and High Tea. It was an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the wonderful and unique gifts of our mums. Our Years 5 and 6 boys had the chance to spend an afternoon with their mum or significant female in their life, enjoy a bite to eat and engage in meaningful conversation. To be able to provide a time for the boys and their mums was lovely to witness. This poem entitled ‘Mum’ best captures the sentiment we all share about our mums:
You held me close when times were tough, Been by my side when life got rough, Praised my gains, embraced my flaws, Backed my side, despite the cause. You are my rock, my inspiration, Gave my life its strong foundation, Ever loving, patient, kind. And listen with an open mind, You mean the world, for all you do, I love you mum for being you.
Class 2A has been working on measuring using informal units, including Unifix cubes, MAB blocks, handspans and paddle pop sticks. This will help us measure and estimate during the marble ramp project.
Year 3
In Week 4, the Year 3 cohort came together under the direction of Scott Whitehead to brush up on their IT skills in our unit of inquiry lessons. The boys began learning how to create an infographic, an image that conveys information or data visually using images, text, maps or diagrams. During week five, these lessons will teach the boys the necessary skills to create an infographic, allowing them to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the characteristics of a chosen biome. This will ultimately result in a colourful A3 poster that the boys will use for their ‘Sharing the planet’ showcase at the end of the term.
Shannon Nicholson Year 3 Team Leader
Garden Club
This week we went on a sweet potato hunt. The first objective was to clear the garden beds as the sweet potato vines were becoming invasive and weedy. The second objective was to see if there were any sweet potatoes to harvest. After a long chopping session and then a dig into the garden Joe, Theo and Joseph were the lucky ones to find the potatoes in what was a disappointing harvest. We have decided that purple sweet potatoes were not a good productive planting choice!
Symond Russell Year 6 Teacher
Japanese
We have enjoyed celebrating Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day) in Japanese Club.
Kodomo no Hi is held on 5 May every year in Japan. Kodomo no Hi celebrates the health, growth and future aspirations of all children in Japan through various cultural rituals and family activities. It highlights the importance placed on children in Japanese society. Families with young sons traditionally display carp streamers (koinobori) outside their homes, with one carp for each son, to symbolise strength and success. They also display Samurai armour including a kabuto (helmet). The Japanese Club members had a great time looking at the koinobori and samurai armour that is on display in the Japanese room making kabuto and koinobori and then playing the shogun game to see who the top shogun would be.
Tanaka Sensei Japanese Teacher
Cold weather uniform
As the colder winter months approach, it is important to communicate the basic Prep School uniform expectations when trying to keep warm.
If students are wearing blues and greys or their formal uniform, the only option for warmth is the blue woollen Churchie jumper.
Students are not permitted to wear the Churchie tracksuit top or pants.
If students are in their sports uniform, they may wear the blue woollen Churchie jumper or the Churchie tracksuit. Both options are suitable when in a sports uniform.
It would be greatly appreciated if parents and students could abide by this uniform policy in the coming months.
Mark Wyer Head of Preparatory School
Senior School
GPS Cross Country spectating – Years 9 and 10
This Thursday 16 May, all students in Years 9 and 10 will travel to Limestone Park in Ipswich to support the Churchie runners competing at the GPS Cross Country Championships.
Buses will depart from Oaklands Parade after Headmaster’s Assembly and return to Churchie before the end of the school day.
Students must bring morning tea, lunch, a water bottle and sunscreen in a Churchie bag or backpack.
Year 9 and 10 students should wear their Blues uniform on Thursday (Whites are not required for Headmaster’s Assembly). They must also bring their Akubra, and school jumpers are also recommended.
AI-powered assessment feedback workshop
Date: Wednesday 22 May (Week 6) Time: 3:20 to 4:15 pm Venue: The Centenary Library (CL110) Presenter: Ms Fiona Philip
Please note this is a student-only workshop for Years 10 to 12.
Learn how to use AI ethically to provide constructive and targeted feedback on your writing. From simple tips to improve spelling, grammar, and cohesion to identifying gaps and weaknesses against the marking criteria, this session will empower you to use AI ethically in your writing process.
The session will include strategies for writing across different subject areas, including analytical, persuasive, creative and report writing genres.
Please bring a digital copy of a piece of writing you would like feedback on.
Limited spaces available.
Kelly Jackson Senior Learning Support Coordinator
Aquila news
Churchie Literature Challenge
Over the past two weeks, 120 students from Churchie, Somerville House, St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School, Brigidine College and St Laurence’s College have participated in the 2024 Literature Challenge. Students were asked to read a range of literature within this year’s chosen theme: the Gothic. Choices included in the junior division: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Chris Priestley’s Mr Creecher. Intermediate texts included The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Macbeth and Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black. The Senior division read works by Oscar Wilde, Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte and Angela Carter. Students competed in four rounds: creative writing, analytical writing, a discussion round and a quiz. They received a mini-lecture from Old Boy and current Ramsay Scholar Dean Burger (2021) who spoke about ‘Science and the Supernatural in Frankenstein’. Congratulations to the Year 12 team of James Aralar, Finbar Curran and Addison Edmonds, who finished third in the senior competition.
Queensland Philosothon
Head of Philosophy Thom Robertson accompanied students to the UQ Philosothon where students were invited to discuss a range of philosophical issues with students from across South East Queensland. The 2024 topics included the relative merits of happiness, the tendency to anthropomorphise animals and humans’ relationship with nature. Special congratulations go to Charles Chen, who was the winner of the Rob Hamilton Memorial Award for Most Promising Philosopher, and the junior team of Charles Chen, Darby Prabhu, Marcus Chan, Deric Zuo, Sam Zuo, Aiden Jamieson and Jonathan Vickery, who were the winning team in their division.
Grant Smith Head of Gifted Education (Aquila)
Year 10 Emotional Intelligence and Resilience Parent Information Evening
The Senior School is hosting an Emotional Intelligence and Resilience Year 10 Parent Information Evening on Thursday 23 May from 6 to 7 pm. This is an online event, which can be viewed via the following Teams link: Year 10 Teams presentation – please click here.
Professor Con Stough, Head of Emotional Intelligence of the Swinburne University of Technology, Emotional Intelligence Research Unit, will facilitate the presentation, which is a parents-only event.
Please be reminded that Year 10 students have completed a self-assessment and peer assessment of their emotional intelligence as part of their pastoral learning curriculum. This information aims to increase student awareness of their own emotions and that of their peers as well as improve their ability to reason, be empathetic and resilient under stress.
Individual student emotional intelligence reports will be made available via myChurchie by the end of Term 2. This presentation is designed to help parents decode their son’s report.
Please contact your son’s housemaster if you require further information about this event.
Dr Alex Krzensk Acting Head of Senior School
Music
Introducing the 2024 guest artist for Jazz Under The Stars
At the annual Bands Concert in week three, it was announced and confirmed that James Morrison OAM would be the guest artist for Jazz Under the Stars 2024.
James Morrison is, by anybody’s standard, a virtuoso in the true sense of the word. Besides the trumpet, this multi-instrumentalist also plays trombone, piano, saxophone and double bass.
At the age of six, he started on piano; at seven, he took up brass; at nine, he formed his first band; and at thirteen, he was playing professionally in nightclubs. His international career developed just as quickly with a debut in the USA at the Monterey Jazz Festival at age sixteen.
This is a significant opportunity for Churchie to host such an esteemed musician as we aim to make him feel welcome with the biggest audience yet at Jazz Under the Stars on Friday 2 August 2024. More than anything, he is a wonderful Australian who gives so much to young students and their education. Please start to organise your tables of 10 as we keenly await the release of tickets. Below is a video of James Morrison playing as part of Australia Day celebrations with a huge audience in support.
Upcoming events
Big Band 1 will perform at the Jazz Club on 15 May 2024 at 6 pm at BEMAC. Chamber Strings 1 will perform at the wonderful St Peter’s Concert Hall as part of the QYMA Festival on 16 May 2024 and Morris Winds will perform at the QYMA festival in the same concert hall on 15 May 2024. Please come along and support the students during this competitive experience.
Tomorrow night we will see the best of Churchie Choral as part of the May Concert Series. Please invite your friends, family and any other guests to enjoy a night of wonderful music reflecting the hard work of these ensembles across two terms.
Eric Kim Headmaster’s Assembly performance
Congratulations to Eric Kim on yet another wonderful Headmaster’s Assembly performance where he recited his QSO Young Instrumentalist Prize repertoire entitled Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate. Please follow this link to a recording of Eric’s performance:
Bohdan Davison Director of Music
Sport
Round four of GPS football and tennis, played at home, proved to be our most successful GPS programme result thus far this season. Our values and commitment to supporting each other and competing in good spirit are apparent on every field and court. We should take stock of what we embody as a community and reflect upon this outstanding achievement. Well done! Congratulations to the Year 7 water polo team who emerged victorious in their final as undefeated premiers last Friday night.
GPS round four results
After another exciting GPS round four last weekend, we invite everyone to view the weekend’s results summary via myChurchie – GPS Sports and Activities.
Tennis
Finally, our favourite round of the season arrived and all games were played against good people and in the right spirit. The programme also experienced one of our most successful rounds with results that haven’t been replicated in many years.
In total, 24 GPS matches were played across our venues, and Churchie won 23. This was a wonderful effort against Toowoomba Grammar School, with whom Churchie has battled in a tight contest for many years. Many amazing individual results were recorded throughout the day; check this week’s match report for all the action.
The good times continued with our First IV boys recording their first win of the 2024 season. Our top boys won three of the four doubles matches and three of the singles battles to win six rubbers to Toowoomba’s two. This is a fantastic reward for the boys’ hard work and determination so far in the competition.
In round five we take on Brisbane Boys’ College (BBC) with our younger grades at home and our senior grades at the BBC venues. We know it’s always a tough day of tennis against this strong programme.
On behalf of the Tennis Support Group, we invite all families to the 2024 Tennis End of Season Presentation event on Saturday 8 June at the David Turbayne Tennis Centre following our round eight matches. The event, organised by the Tennis Support Group for Years 7 to 12 players and families, is a celebration of the boys’ efforts and the season, and it is free for all to attend. Please RSVP online by Friday 31 May.
A reminder that there is a small number of boys who have outstanding levy payments. Please contact your year level coordinator, and they will send you the payment link.
Ian Malpass Director of Tennis
Football
Last week, we hosted Toowoomba Grammar School (TGS) in the fourth round of the GPS Football season. Our boys put in a dominant, whole programme performance. We ended up with an incredible 23 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses. In addition, 11 supplementary games were played, with victories in 9 of the 11 games.
Our First XI team made it four out of four. The boys controlled the game from start to finish against a stubborn and hard-working TGS outfit. Our first goal came through when Arden Hogan put in a clever pass to Quinn MacNicol, who slotted home his second goal in as many games with a half-volley. Mid-way through the second half, Zane North put in a brilliant free kick to Xavier Veivers Brown, who made it 2–0 with a glancing header. The boys’ focus now turns to round five’s game against BBC.
Below are a few examples of boys living by the Churchie Football values of integrity, discipline and determination in round four:
Integrity
Eliott Apel (10E) played for the other team when they needed extra players.
Discipline
Billy Gough (8B) played out of his preferred position at times without complaining. Right until the last minute of the game, he was making big runs to get forward and working hard to help defend.
Determination
Aristos Alexander (8C) always does his best in training and aims to improve each session. This attitude led to him scoring two goals on the weekend, and he continues to improve each game.
Prep School Man of the Matches:
Archie Maloney 6B: In a dominant team performance where 20 goals were scored for Churchie, Archie would have had a hand in over half of them with his set-up and vision. Archie also scored himself, with the best being a header from outside the box.
Fraser Smith 5D: In a superb win for our 5D team against a stronger opposition from Ipswich, Fraser led from the front with his superb passing and defensive skills—catalysts for a great team victory.
This week, we make the short trek to Toowong to play BBC. We are looking forward to many entertaining games. The First XI boys have been blessed with huge away support for both of the first two away games. Let’s turn out in even bigger numbers for this week’s game.
Three Churchie teams played in the finals last Friday. The illness-ravaged Year 7 team was reduced to just seven players but still won the final 4–3, completing their season as undefeated premiers. The Year 8 team and a combined Years 9 and 10 team both put in good performances but had to settle for second place in their respective competitions.
Congratulations to Nick Mattiske, Flynn Swift and William Hansen, members of the Metropolitan East Open team that finished as runners-up in the state championships the previous week.
This Friday will be the final games with Churchie entering the First VII and a team selected from Years 7 and 8 in the annual Queensland Water Polo tournament’s Senior and Junior divisions.
Alan Greenbank Director of Water Polo
Sporting achievements
Congratulations to Adam Beiers (Year 12), who won gold in the 4 x 400 m team relay while representing Queensland at the Australian Athletics Championships.
Last week Adam was selected by Athletics Australia to represent Australia at the Oceania U18 Championships and the U20 World Athletics Championships. These championships will be held in Fiji and Peru respectively. Adam is currently ranked second in Australia for the 400 m in the U18 age group and fourth in the U20 age group. With these rankings, he will compete in individual and relay 400 m events at the Oceania U18 Championships. At the U20 World Athletics Championships, he will compete in the men’s 4 x 400 m relay and the mixed 4 x 400 m relay.
Trent Goodrick Head of Cocurricular
Adam Beiers (far right)Photo: Kirsten Beiers
Churchie Rugby Luncheon
The annual Churchie Rugby Luncheon will be held on Friday 9 August 2024 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Brisbane’s South Bank. This event precedes the Wallabies’ match against the current World Champions, the South African Springboks at Suncorp Stadium. As always, there will be top-level entertainment, with Justin Harrison as the main speaker, along with a panel discussion conducted by MC Greg Clark featuring new Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt and other former Wallabies. Additionally, there will be the usual raffles, auctions and the ball-passing competition for both men and women.
With the much talked about British and Irish Lions Tour in 2025, tables purchased for the 2024 luncheon will receive priority for 2025, which will undoubtedly be a sell-out at the new venue, The Star Casino, Brisbane. Save the date for the Churchie British and Irish Lions Test on Friday 18 July 2025.
Pixevety is Churchie’s photo platform, where photos from across the School will be uploaded weekly. The system recognises students so parents can simply click ‘myVIPs’ and see their son’s photos in one easy location.
Families new to the School may not see ‘myVIPs’ yet, as new student ID photos are still to be processed in the system. However, you can still browse the galleries.
Watch the video below to learn how to use Pixevety.
Parent Connect is the school-wide parent community support group focused on nurturing the fun and family-centric side of school life. We provide valuable support services through formal and informal networks across the School. We intentionally communicate, connect, coordinate services and facilitate wellbeing support for our families and the greater community. Click here to access on myChurchie.
Join Parent Connect
It is a long-standing initiative of the Churchie parent community to enable the sharing of contact details for those who opt in and provide consent. Joining the Parent Connect database is easy. Once you have joined, you will receive communication from your parent coordinators, access to your cohort’s parent contact list and membership to join the private Facebook groups. Join here.
Parent Connect contacts
We are happy to share with you all that the Parent Connect executive team, Year, House and Volunteer coordinators can be viewed on the Parent Connect page on myChurchie. Click here to view on myChurchie
Services and volunteer engagement
Any member of the Churchie community (parents, old boys, friends and staff) can participate in these services or make a confidential request for wellbeing support. Click here to volunteer or request support.
Meals on Wheels parent volunteers needed
We also invite you to participate in our Chapel Centenary Special Project. The Chapel is celebrating its 100th year, and we are coordinating a creative task force of volunteers to add to the beautiful collection of kneelers and create some new pieces inspired by Reverand Sharon and Chaplain Stephanie. Click here to volunteer
Midweek meditation
All are invited; the chapel will be open from 7:45 to 8:10 am on Wednesdays for meditation, an opportunity to take a quiet moment in our busy lives. We will endeavour to post the meditations in the Churchie Parents Facebook Group.
Parent Connect upcoming events
Parent Connect Meeting Brenan Pavilion (29 May)
Wellbeing Speaker Series (TBC)
Best wishes, Parent Connect Executive Team and Coordinator Community.
Tuckshop news
Viking Café volunteers
We welcome mums and dads to volunteer at our tuckshops. Please contact the Tuckshop Volunteers Coordinator for more details if you can spare some time during the term to help in our busy tuckshops.
