Issue 13 SJC News 2020

A moment that has stayed with me over the decades, since my very first teaching role at Camberwell Grammar School in Melbourne as an attendee at a full school assembly, is the powerful speech made by the then Principal, Arthur David Pearson Dyer. In a school that hung its hat on solid HSC results, nestling comfortably in a neighbourhood of marked aspirational wealth and populated by the privileged ranks of society, Dyer spoke passionately to his students about the importance of using leisure time constructively and creatively. Posthumously, he is credited with introducing wellbeing into the independent school system long before wellbeing was recognised as a powerful part of one’s being.

Forced into an embargo of all that we have taken for granted in terms of social activity, we recognise the power of constructive engagement in leisure time and its ability to provide fulfilment, personal peace and a semblance of autonomy in a time where we are not in control of our topsy-turvy world.

Our boys have lost the ability to ‘play’ with each other – whether that be sport, music, chess - and we need to reconfigure ‘connection.’ We need to channel those curious minds and encourage the desire to improve existing skills, master new skills and network with each other in whatever ways are available to us.

So how do we connect when connection is virtual?

Our Music Department have had online sectionals occurring and are gearing up for a Virtual Band Performance with the Senior Band in the next couple of weeks; the Curious Minds Book Week invited students to partake in quizzes and competitions and enjoy and appreciate literature and film. Boys can choose to be a part of the Postcards project, contributing their story from 2020. There are Wellbeing Tips and Gift Time activities every week, and Skills Challenges - in week 7 Australian Socceroo, Josip Skoko, set a juggling challenge for the boys to master. We have many student driven activities including a Friday ‘catch up with your mates’ Zoom session for our Year 12 boys, and a new podcast series delivered from our Year 11 students about to drop.

As always, we recognise that we are a part of the wider community, and we have opportunities to shop or to bake to assist the homeless in Geelong and an accessible drop-off point to facilitate easy delivery, and we look forward to the two new mullet cuts on the block, as Cal and Anton raise funds for mental health awareness by chopping off prized locks.

Our staff and students are particularly grateful to the SJC PE staff, who have fielded all manner of events – online Pilates and Yoga, Strava competitions, the Run Australia program, and the SJC MOVEment and Wellbeing plan that encourages online classes, technique tips and sporting initiatives that bring people together. Here is the link to an array of great activities – Movement and Wellbeing Program – and particular thanks go to Chris Lynch, Coby Cunningham and Bec Westwood for keeping people engaged in so many ways through these activities. I am sure I speak on behalf of all of the participating players and spectators in Year 12 who were involved in the football game against Geelong College on Saturday 1 August, to give thanks to the staff and our AFL trainees who organised the event. For many Year 12’s this was their one and only opportunity to play for the school and their one and only football match for 2020 – a fantastic day and now a special memory.

Motivation is possibly our greatest challenge at present: we know all of those activities await, but getting started - tuning up an instrument or putting on the right gear to go and exercise on your own - is a real challenge in and of itself.

Here is a little clip, shared with us by one of our College Clinicians, Amanda Williamson, that reminds us of the importance of balance and order in our lives:

Yes, we do have a lot of time in our present world.

Be creative, be selective, be curious – the very same principles advocated by David Dyer many years ago.

Find balance and structure to your day.

Refresh with recreation.

Develop your ‘creation station’ and prove your best self to yourself.