CGS OUTLOOK DECEMBER THE MAGAZINE OF THE CANBERRA GRAMMAR SCHOOL COMMUNITY 2015 READY FOR THE WORLD FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE 21 Senior School ventures 1 From the Head of School to China EDITORIAL DETAILS 4 NEWSbites 21 Primary School staff Editor: Reece Cummings Sony Camp 2015 explore China Design & Layout: Blueboat and CGS hosts a ‘Wheelie Fun Day’ Vanessa Schimizzi for The Woden School 22 Chapel of Christ the King Photography: William Hall African Children’s Choir in Canberra celebrates 50 years Photography, staff and students Presentation Night 2015 CGS Dragon Boating continues 24 Peer support in the Printed by: CanPrint/Union to succeed Primary School Offset Printers Basketball Reaches New Heights FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL Contributions: Thank you to the 24 Pierre De Coubertin & A new look and feel for CGS 2015 has been another very big year for Canberra Grammar School, with much activity in the daily life of our many people who contributed to 7 Long Tan Award CGS Outlook, including the numerous community, as is evident in these pages, and with momentous decisions taken for the future of our School. 8 2015 North Coast Rugby Tour Below is a full copy of the Head’s address from Presentation Night, which includes an account of the year and teachers, students, and staff 25 Primary School continuing the changes ahead. who supplied articles and photos to exceed standards 8 CGS students participate On the cover: CGS Dragon in ABC’s Q&A ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests, Likewise, that extraordinary experiment in digital percussion Boating Team 25 Pre-School children celebrate Chairmen and members of the School and Foundation that you’ve just seen and heard on screen was the Sounds 100 days of School © Canberra Grammar School 2015 9 Year 10s go on a life Boards, colleagues and, most importantly of all, young of Grammar distilled; its living pulse; the rhythm of our year, changing experience men of Canberra Grammar School. I am delighted to add collected over months and pieced together for tonight in 26 Chess continues to excel my welcome to this celebration of 2015 and the vibrant representation of a School that is thriving, as we feel daily WOULD 10 CGS hosts ANZAC Centenary life that is our School. in the energy that our boys bring to the cut and thrust of 26 CGS Old Boy awarded p Memorial Service lessons, to the broadest diversity of sport that I have ever YOU LIKE TO prestigious Golf Scholarship Once again, we assemble here, united in appreciation of known in any school, to carnivals, to camps and expeditions another great year of learning, of enjoyment, of friendship CONTRIBUTE? 11 Walk Safely to School Day and exchanges, to the care and connectedness that goes 27 CGS turns pink for breast and achievement, of progress individually and collectively in Please forward any news, on in houses, to public speaking, to drama, art and music, cancer research all the domains that have defi ned the purpose of our School information and photos to the 11 Primary School experiences and to the spirited singing that has lifted assemblies and since its foundation: the intellectual, the physical, the Editor, Reece Cummings at colonial times Chapel all year. 27 CGS raises money to support cultural, social and spiritual. That holistic aspiration is fi rmly [email protected] local communities after embedded in our culture, and is manifest this evening, in This was the year in which we transformed the Quad into a 12 Da Vinci Decathlon 2015 devastating disasters the award of our academic prizes, in the presentation of circus tent for Barnum, a magnifi cent and hugely enjoyable 12 Celebrating the spoken our scholarships, in creative and experimental performance, opportunity for more than a hundred boys and girls to DID YOU Primary School Campus and written word 28 in great music, in the words of our student leaders, in rehearse, to perform, to sing, juggle, and soar into the air KNOW WE’RE Renewal Project announced our shared participation in prayer and song, and in the together, at the heart of a School that knows how to learn ON ONLINE? 13 Geography continues representation on screen and stage of our active and and grow in style. 30 Atomic Landscape Exhibition sporting endeavour, for which so many awards are also to be a winner This was the year in which we marked the fi ftieth Follow the offi cial CGS Twitter given at ceremonies throughout the year. 2015 Debating re-cap anniversary of our Chapel, and in which we opened the account for updates, information, Subject Feature: Art, Design 30 14 As ever, our Presentation Night is intended to encompass Snow Centre, after twelve months of construction in our news, and community activities. and Technology 31 Students create innovation as full a range of School experience as we can, and midst, with performance and poetry in multiple languages in ICT to include as many members of our student body as to represent our community’s expansive embrace and to Year 10 students leading CGS.ACT.EDU.AU 16 is possible. welcome to our School intellectual, political and diplomatic in innovation Better Music Guitar Awards leaders of our city. In this year, our unique Australian 31 This occasion is not merely the formulaic closure of a TWITTER.COM/CANBERRAGRAMMAR recognise talent Studies lecture series brought ambassadors, economists, 16 Year 9 IT students win year that’s done. It is an extension of the year itself; the human rights lawyers, public health consultants and Canberra iAwards expression of a School determined not simply to look LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/ 32 CGS Alumni Reunion defence commanders to share their insights with our back and inwards, but ambitious, even on the very last CANBERRA-GRAMMAR-SCHOOL senior boys in preparation for their entry to higher studies 17 Young Designers excel evening of the year, to stretch its possibilities further FACEBOOK.COM/CGS-ALUMNI-OLD- 33 In Memory and the world. in Light Rail Competition than before. Even tonight, we are creating the life and the BOYS-193268637358109/ culture of our School together; defi ning it as we speak of This year, once again, no less than fi ve of our boys earned 34 CGS Old Boys AGM 17 HS.HACT Awards 2015 it, generating shared experience of it in our performances, Confucius Scholarships to universities in China following affi rming its values in the highest academic awards that their predecessors in a trail that must now be unparalleled The paper in this magazine is 35 CGS Foundation 100% recycled. 18 The Big Top comes to CGS we present, celebrating the joy of being so lucky as we by any school in the country, but which is the natural The paper manufacturer has Our 2015 Supporters are to experience every day the beauty of our open, sunny extension of our desire to see our students – and indeed been independently certifi ed in 36 www.fsc.org My Confucius Institute 20 campus and the sheer happiness of learning and playing our staff – learning not just of the world but in the world, RECYCLED accordance with the rules of the Paper from responsible sources Forrest Stewardship Council. Scholarship in China together as we witnessed in this evening’s opening fi lm. whether that’s on camps, on study tours abroad, on FSC® C000000 Printed on FSC certifi ed paper. 20 Scholarships in China CGS Outlook | December 2015 | 1 The hard fi nancial reality fi rst: as many of you will know, If that is to be the reality, and it will be – which of us wants In the past few weeks I have had lunch in groups with all we receive Federal Government funding in inverse it otherwise? – then our boys, as young men, should be boys in Year 7, as I do each year, and co-education, of proportion to our parental demographics; but, for fully engaged with it and proud of their part in making it course, has been a topic at the table every day. I cannot historical reasons that we cannot alter, almost all other so. It’s not about school merely mimicking the workforce – adequately convey just how impressive discussion has non-government schools in the ACT receive maintained education is so much more than that – it’s about acquiring been; how thoughtful, how curious, how open-minded, and Rugby tours to the north, or with the Dragon-boaters at the and indexed funding at signifi cantly higher levels per the personal confi dence and ease and naturalness of mature. It is one of the great privileges of my job, and it’s World Championships yet again, or as part of the Code capita than we do, even where our socio-economic relationship and mutual understanding that will give our how I know that this step is right for the young men of our Cadets’ regular outings to Silicon Valley in their on-going scores are virtually identical. I do not begrudge them that boys – and girls in time – the best chance of fl ourishing in School and that they will respond with intelligence and quest for global domination. consequence of history. I wish we were so fortunate. the kind of world that we know that they are going to enter; complexity; they already are. This was the year in which we added Indonesian in the However, we simply do not have their advantage, which a world in which girls are now very confi dent and more-than- For evidence, just look around us tonight. See our boys’ Primary School to our portfolio of languages and as helps keep their fees lower and therefore their population equal participants, not just in education but in a broader role in the on-going creation of all that we are celebrating.