Staff Insights
The first half of today’s Secondary School assembly was dedicated to National Reconciliation Week, which starts this Friday. In my usual address to staff and students, I attempted to give the students some context as to why this week is important for all Australians and gave some practical ideas as to how we can all celebrate and learn more about what has now become an important cultural, historical, and societal event. The following excerpt is part of the speech I delivered at the assembly.
So, what is Reconciliation Week? It’s a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.
At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians.
Next Monday we’ll get a public holiday, but rather than just see it as a day off from school, I’d encourage you all to think of one thing you can do, to learn more about Indigenous culture and engage with this year’s Reconciliation Week theme “Be Brave, Make Change”.
Official celebrations are taking place between 10am and 3pm at the National Arboretum, Canberra. It is a family-friendly event designed to promote conversations and foster a deeper understanding of our national story and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
If you are attending, be sure to look out for some of our students from Wandoo House, in their light blue shirts, who will be assisting on the day.
We are lucky to be living in Canberra, with access to so many of our national institutions, like the National Museum and National Library, which both have Indigenous collections.
The National Gallery is currently hosting the Ceremony exhibition, featuring the work of more than 35 First Nations artists. From performance and the moving image, to painting, photography, sculpture and immersive installations, Ceremony articulates the central role of art and artists in connecting community, culture and Country.
You might like to listen to some music by Indigenous artists, whether that be Archie Roach’s song "Took the Children Away," about the Stolen Generations, or the hip-hop of Baker Boy from Arnhem Land, whose lyrics move between English and the Yolngu Matha language.
The Reconciliation Australia website has a film page to help you read more about movies and documentaries you can seek out and watch, like Rabbit Proof Fence, The Sapphires and Samson and Delilah.
And if you like being in nature, why not visit the Namarag nature reserve in Molonglo, which only opened late last year. It is considered a special location for the Ngunnawal people, as it is where their ancestors would gather, with the Molonglo River once utilised as a pathway to move throughout the landscape.
Whatever you decide to do, make a commitment to keep learning about Indigenous culture, for it is only in improving our understanding that we can continue to work together towards reconciliation.
Acting Deputy Principal/Head of Secondary School
At today’s assembly, I also informed students that following Dr Johnson’s departure at the end of this term, Ms Louise Wallace-Richards will be Acting Deputy Principal/Head of Secondary School for at least Term 3. As explained in my last article, although we quickly initiated a nation-wide recruitment strategy to replace Dr Johnson, the time taken to advertise, interview and then allow the successful applicant to give notice at their own school, means we will not have a replacement in place until at least the start of Term 4, and perhaps even slightly longer.
We will now be looking for an internal candidate to take on some of the work that Ms Wallace-Richards currently does in her role as Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning. I am confident that all of these interim arrangements will be in place by the end of the term.
Additional Prefects inducted
Last year a decision was made to appoint a small number of Year 12 students to a Prefect position in Term 2 of their final year, in addition to the Prefects who had been named towards the end of Year 11. This decision was made to recognise those students who may have missed out on a Prefect position the year before but had continued to demonstrate outstanding leadership qualities and an ongoing commitment to the College over the first part of their Year 12 year.
After consultation with staff, I am delighted to confirm the appointment of two additional Prefects for 2022: Tia Priest-Willimott and Natalie Neshev. Both Tia and Natalie were nominated by staff and acknowledged as having made a significant and enduring contribution to the life of the Secondary School. We have every confidence they will continue on in this manner throughout the year.
I presented Tia and Natalie with their badges last week and this event was filmed and shown at the assembly today. I am sure the College community will join me in congratulating Tia and Natalie on their appointments.
Safety issues along the back road
Two weeks ago, I attended the Autumn Concert in TB Millar Hall. As usual, it was a thoroughly entertaining and uplifting event, showcasing the talents of our musicians from across the College. I left the concert feeling upbeat and jovial, once again marvelling at the great work that is being accomplished in our performing arts section of the College.
However, as I drove out from the back of the hall, I was once again dismayed by the long line of cars parked on the footpath joining one side of the campus with the other. This newly created footpath has multiple NO PARKING signs along its entire length, yet many parents had simply refused to abide by the parking regulations which have been specifically designed to provide a safe passage for all of our community members.
I was even more concerned as I continued to drive along the back road to see that two groups of people were forced to walk along the road because the footpath was blocked by cars. I am sure many other people had no option that night but to walk on the road as they made their way back to the Morison and general car parks, where they had parked their car legally.
Should parents continue to disregard the very prominent and obvious parking signs, we are going to be forced (for the safety of our students) to install bollards along the footpath to block cars from parking there or driving along it. This would be an unsightly and costly exercise but one we may be forced to resort to.
I ask all parents to please observe the parking and traffic signs we have across the campus.
News
The Collegians Association is delighted to invite members of the Radford Community and their friends to hear from an Australian hero, Dr Richard Harris SC OAM, at the Collegians Long Lunch event on Friday 17 June, at The Marion, Regatta Point.
Dr Harris was joint Australian of the Year in 2019 for his part in the Tham Luang Thai cave rescue in 2018. He was also awarded the Star of Courage and medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution.
Dr Harris’ passion for cave diving goes back to the 1980s, and he developed a professional and voluntary interest in search and rescue operations. In 2018 he played a crucial role in the massive operation to ensure the safe rescue of twelve young boys and their 25-year-old coach, who were trapped in a flooded cave from 23 June 2018 till their rescue on 8–10 July.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Dr Harris speak, while enjoying a fabulous lunch at The Marion, Canberra’s outstanding new lakeside venue. Book now. Don’t miss out, tickets are limited!
Where: The Marion, Regatta Point
When: Friday, 17 June 2022
Time: 12:00pm sharp
Tickets: $150 (includes drinks, canapes, 2-course lunch)
Enquiries: cate.mcdonald@radford.act.edu.au (flyer)
This event is open to everyone, come along and bring your friends for this very special event!
Tracey Markovic, Assistant Head of Junior School
The Oxford Dictionary defines an excursion as:
- a short journey or trip, especially one taken as a leisure activity or
- a deviation from a regular activity or course.
If an excursion is heading out of the classroom on a short journey or trip, what is an incursion?
An incursion is where an outside organisation is employed by a school to visit to run an educational activity for students.
When asked, students at Radford College described excursions and incursions as:
- An incursion is when you don’t go on a school bus. It’s somewhere you can walk to near the Chapel. – Brax
- An excursion is when you learn something but it is outside. An incursion is a bit like an excursion but inside – like an ‘incursion’ is when you stay at Radford. – Kieran
- … when you go out of school and go somewhere fun. You might not have been there before. The teachers plan excursions to give us new experiences. Excursions make us think more and we learn. – Amelia & Ryker.
- The meaning of excursion for me is where you go out of your school to learn. In excursions and incursions, kids are more interested because they get to have new experiences. – Milaan
- … when you go somewhere and that place may be an adventure. You go to different places and learn all about the place and then you come back to school and do something about it. When you are back at school you might write about it or share your ideas and thinking. An incursion is like an excursion but you go somewhere in the school. – Harlow & Michael
- I think that excursion means to go somewhere, in order to learn and understand new concepts and ideas. I also think that excursions mean that you are learning in a different way, instead of just learning and experiencing it in the classroom. A good thing about excursions and incursions is that they are an extremely interesting and engaging way to learn. For example, the recent Planetarium incursion, which made learning about light and the Solar systems easier to understand through its engaging circular projector shining all around us. – Sophie
Excursions form an integral part of the school curriculum. They allow students to explore, extend and enrich their learning in a non-school setting. As a PYP school, an inquiry model to learning is at the heart of our approach. Through this approach the ‘finding out’ stage supports students to develop deep understandings. Our students do this in a range of ways, through books, online resources, and conversations with others. A powerful way for students to ‘find out’ is through engaging with experts and individuals who can extend students' skills and challenge ideas and beliefs. Excursions allow students the opportunity of learning different skills by actively participating and ‘doing’.
Over the past couple of years, COVID-19 has had an impact on schools and our students’ ability to head out of the classroom and attend excursions. We are very fortunate that over the past few weeks we are seeing excursions and incursions back in our school days.
At Radford, we are fortunate to have been part of some incredible excursions and incursions over the past few months.
Geocaching on Bruce Ridge – Year 5/6 Round Square Co-curricular
A highlight of the geocaching excursion was being in and surrounded by nature. Bushland and nature is depleting from human causes so there is less bush surrounding us, so I really loved being in the beautiful Australian bush. – Sophie
Our Round Square Co-curricular group went to Bruce Ridge Nature Reserve to participate in a geocaching adventure experience. We used an iPhone to view the geocaching map, which displayed the location and distance to the geocache. We worked as a team to navigate to and then find each geocache.
Year 6 – Rowing (Friday Sport)
Going to rowing was a great opportunity to experience a sport we haven’t tried before. – Will
Years 5&6 – Sirens Gym
Sirens Gym is really fun. There is a lot of different kinds of equipment there. The instructors give you precise instructions and the instructors are always happy to help. – Khushi
Year 6 – Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House)
When asked about their excursion to the Museum of Australian Democracy, students had the following to share:
This excursion gave us a lot of ideas of what we might be able to explore in Exhibition. – Will
It helped us understand how cartoons can visually represent ideas. – Sam
It was eye-opening and showed us different issues in society. – Junyou
Year 2 – Visit from Tyronne, a Ngunnawal elder
Tyronne visited us and took us to Gossan Hill. We sat on Gossan Hill and he shared how Indigenous people used to use the land. We also talked about ants' nests and where other animals lived. – Harlow & Michael
Year 1 – Light and Sound Incursion with Dr Graham Walker
I liked the ‘Laser Waterfall’. The colours mixed together and fell into the bucket. – Kieran
Dr Walker taught me all about sound and light. He taught us a little about sound and then a little bit about light. – Brax
Year 3 – Science Incursion
Dr Graham Walker showed us lots of fun experiments. Lots were about heat. Two of them were outside and they were canons that sent things flying in the air. We learned more about science and heat. –
Amelia
Our Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students are eagerly anticipating their upcoming excursions to the Canberra Museum & Gallery (PK) and the Canberra Theatre (PK & K) to see ‘Guess How Much I Love You?’
By Scott Corbett, Director of Service Learning
As we move into term with fewer restrictions, we have been able to engage in a variety of service learning activities, seeing our students make a positive difference across Canberra.
Grind to Ground
This term we have started a new partnership with local social enterprise Grind to Ground. They are a wonderful community organisation focusing on sustainably turning used coffee grounds into compost, as well as providing work for young adults who are living with an intellectual disability.
Our students visit once per week to provide support for all areas of the business. It has been wonderful to get to know the volunteers and help them in leading a successful social enterprise.
If you would like to support Grind to Ground, they are hosting a fundraising quiz night on Friday 3 June at the Canberra Labor Club in Belconnen. Tickets available here.
St John’s community lunch and storeroom packing
We have been fortunate to grow our relationship with St John’s Care, by now providing direct support to their community lunches and assisting in their storeroom. Once a month, students attend the pop-up restaurant community lunch, serving lunch to community members.
We also visited St John’s with a group of Year 7 students and some members of RAS (Radford Awareness and Service) to assist their volunteers in the storeroom. The students sorted and stored donations that have been made to St John’s for their emergency relief program.
Calvary art classes
A group of students, led by Eloise Flynn (Year 11), have been running art classes for residents at Calvary Haydon Aged Care. Eloise and her team lead the group of ten older Australians as they participate in the art classes. It is a joyous time watching both residents and students engaging with art and the joy that it brings. [See previous article about Eloise’s selection as a finalist in the Young Archies].
Mother’s Day Breakfast
Under the guidance and skill of Ms Cathy Jackson, Head of Design and Technology, Year 9 students volunteered to assist with the food preparation and service at the Junior School Mother’s Day Breakfast event. It was a wonderful event with over 400 people attending. The students did an excellent job providing a high-quality service to celebrate the wonderful mothers and mother figures in the Radford Junior School.
We are thankful to all the staff, families and community organisations that make it possible to provide these rich learning opportunities for our students. Thank you for your ongoing support of service learning.
By Monique Glavonjic, P&F Publicity Officer & Administrator
TB Millar Hall was alight with colour and community spirit on Friday 20 May as we opened the 38th Annual Radford Art Show.
The show attracted 60 artists and there were close to 300 works on display.
We thank Ms Virginia Rigney of Canberra Museum and Gallery who judged the works early Friday morning and returned that evening as guest speaker, and to award prizes to the winners. The winning works quickly sold at the Gala Opening.
Winners and prize sponsors as below.
1st prize |
Carole Osmotherly |
Radford Collegians Association |
Highly |
Caroline Reid |
Perm-a-Pleat |
Emerging |
Zoe Stevenson |
Radford College Development Foundation |
Student |
Sophia McPherson |
Radford College P&F Association |
People’s |
Zoe Stevenson |
Barton Grocer |
People’s Choice |
Marion Schumacher |
Sweet Pea & Poppy |
We would like to thank everyone who helped make the event so special, including:
- our wonderful curator, Camelia Smith
- our amazing student and parent volunteers
- our College Principal, Mrs Fiona Godfrey
- the College Facilities staff
- the Radford Communications team – especially Celia Lindsay
- Claire Osborne from the Collegians Association
- administrative staff who helped with deliveries and support – Angie Walters and Cate McDonald
- Secondary School and Junior School art teachers for their fantastic student display
- our generous sponsors
- our sensational Art Show Jazz Band, and
- our Radford and artist community.
We encourage those who attended the Art Show to complete the feedback form. This will help us to improve the experience of the event for our artists and guests who attend the exhibition in future.
Outstanding Australian-level sport achievements
Congratulations to Will Gregory (Year 12), Alex Gordon (Year 12), Owen Toyne (Year 9) and Ashley Fernandez (2020 graduate) for achieving some outstanding accomplishments in their chosen sports.
Will was invited to attend the 2022 Australian Rowing Junior National Team selection trials. A tough and gruelling week of time trials and racing, Will finished ranked as Australia’s 4th best U19 Men's Single Scull rower. Even though he missed National selection, Radford is extremely proud of this achievement.
Ashley, a current member of the ACT Women’s Brumbies Rugby Team, was selected in the Australian Barbarians Team that played against Japan on Friday 6 May in Brisbane. Japan survived a spirited effort from the Australian Barbarians to secure a 24–10 victory. Congratulations, Ash, on your Australian representative honours.
Alex and Owen competed in the 2022 Australian Junior Track and Field Championships. The outstanding performances of both student-athletes have earned them a representative honour with the Australian Junior Track and Field team to compete at the Oceania Athletics Championships in June. Team Australia will have 335 athletes, with 25 Olympians and 16 Paralympians, who will be using the meet for their preparations for the Oregon 2022 World Athletics Championships and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Almost 200 juniors will join Australia’s elite at the Oceanias as they build towards the World U20 Championships, including Owen who will be competing in the U18 5000m Walk, and Alex who will compete in the U20 400m Hurdles.
Congratulations Alex and Owen – the many hours of training and competing is paying off.
ACT Rugby achievements
Congratulations to Nikita Crabb and Campbell Kruger (both Year 12) who have been selected in the ASC Rugby teams to play a CSC team on Saturday 1 June at Marist. The girls game will kick off at 1:00pm and the boys game at 1:30pm.
Congratulations to Baxter Sicily and Hugo Hayward selected for the U15 ACT Junior Rugby Union Brumbies training squad and Zander Lubiejewski selected for the U14 training squad.
Basketball
The Radford U12 Eagles had an amazing game on the weekend.
At half-time, the Eagles were down 8–16, but the coach knew the girls could do it and encouraged them not to give up.
The Eagles came back soaring. Working together as a team, the Eagles took control. Tight defence forced turnovers that the Eagles capitalised on, and at the end of the third quarter the Eagles had scored 10 to the Ramblers' 2.
It was a strong contest in the final quarter, with the Eagles holding on to the lead and the well-deserved win. Congratulations Eagles!
Cross Country
Congratulations to the age champions listed below, and good luck to the 50 students representing Radford at the Belconnen 8–12 Years Primary School Carnival on Thursday and the 120 students representing Radford at the ASC Secondary School Carnival on Friday at Stromlo.
AGE CHAMPIONS
- PK Girls – Elle Whitby
- PK Boys – Alexander Godwin
- Kinder Girls – Georgia Russell
- Kinder Boys – Hugh Macintosh
- Year 1 Girls – Zoe Tabisz
- Year 1 Boys – Ollie Milner
- 8 Years Girls – Millie Moss
- 8 Years Boys – Harry Carter
- 9 Years Girls – Tahlia Smith
- 9 Years Boys – Oscar Eyers
- 10 Years Girls – Elsie Osborne
- 10 Years Boys – Patrick Maundrell
- 11 Years Girls – Mae Smith
- 11 Years Boys – Henry Moss
- 12 Years Girls (JS) – Gemma Voortman
- 12 Years Boys (JS) – Alexander Fillingham
- 12 Years Girls (SS) – Isla Murphy
- 12 Years Boys (SS) – Aarav Kochhar
- 13 Years Girls – Kaiya Barsby
- 13 Years Boys – Callum Boyd
- 14 Years Girls – Astrid Evans
- 14 Years Boys – Otis Hibberd
- 15 Years Girls – Katherine Maundrell
- 15 Years Boys – Owen Toyne
- 16 Years Girls – Emily Watson
- 16 Years Boys – Clancy Probyn
- 17+ Years Girls – Eloise Flynn
- 17+ Years Boys – Hamish Roberts
Branko Zec has been part of the Radford community since 1995.
Having begun here in a janitorial role (during which time Radford won awards for cleanest school), he has also worked in campus security and is now one of the College’s bus drivers. Though this role requires only a few hours a day, he’s happy, as he acknowledges it was time to slow down. Whether he actually does slow down remains to be seen, though. Always an extremely active person, Branko maintains an activity level that would exhaust someone half his age. He walks 50km a week and plays golf three to four times a week at Royal Canberra Golf Club, caddying too.
Sport has always been a passion. He tried his hand at professional tennis in the '60s and '70s before turning to coaching, working as Assistant Coach at the (then) National Tennis Centre, and coaching former world number 15 Wally Masur, among others.
After competing in representative karate, soccer and tenpin bowling over the years – in addition to tennis – Branko somewhat reluctantly turned to golf in 1996, when his knees gave him little alternative. He fell in love with it.
Faith is another passion and Branko's duties as President of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Forrest, and keen choir member, also keep him busy. He recounts one of his proudest moments as singing in the Radford Chapel for an event ‘about 15 years ago’.
He sang in Serbian, with Father Richard Browning translating the lyrics, and though he was at first nervous, he recalls this as his best-ever performance.
Another proud moment came on Foundation Day 2013 – the College’s 30th anniversary – when selected members of the Radford community had their handprints set into the Dirrum Dirrum and the Scar Tree artwork by Duncan Smith, now displayed in the chapel. The College Captains were asked to select a staff member to be included and chose Branko. His handprint features in the bottom-right corner.
Branko has enjoyed all his jobs at Radford and says he loves the connection with students on the bus – many of whose parents he knows through the school or golf. While he says ‘minding your own business’ will get you a long way in life, Branko loves a good chat, finds talking with the kids enjoyable and takes his responsibility for keeping them safe extremely seriously. He enjoys nothing more than seeing collegians who return to the College and take the time to say a quick hello and thank you.
Branko was largely educated in his native Serbia but was unable to complete his final year of school here in Australia, due to the need to work and contribute to his family. He regards Radford as an excellent school and says its growth is a clear sign of this.
‘I enjoyed Radford from day one. When I started in 1995 there were 300 students; today there are over 2000. This has to mean the school is doing the right thing.’ He sees Radford as a place that builds in its students respect, honesty, good judgement, good intentions and compassion.
Today, Branko and his wife, Sandra, have been married for 47 years. They have three children and now ten grandchildren, who bring them much joy.
‘You don’t know what is coming tomorrow or the next day, so you have to have faith and a positive attitude,’ he says with a smile. ‘I pray every night and in the morning for all the children and all the people in the world. God, health, love, happiness, honesty, work and golf. That’s what’s most important.’
From Michele Sharp, Head of Languages
On 10 May, some keen Year 11 Japanese students participated in an evening Zoom call with students from Linden Hall High School and Junior & Senior High School of Kogakuin University in Japan.
The theme of the Language Lab was “nature”, and the Japanese students taught various vocabulary and sentences to students from Round Square schools. It was a well organised, student-led session that provided our students the opportunity to use the language at beginning, intermediate, or advanced level in breakout rooms. The Radford students had a great time learning from their peers in Japan.
This was an activity organised by Round Square and we look forward to future sessions. A big thank you to Ms Notley for passing on information about this opportunity. Reflections from some of our students are below.
There were students from multiple schools from all around the world who had come to learn Japanese. The students from Linden Hall High School and Junior & Senior High School of Kogakuin University taught us new words with beautiful PowerPoint slides. The amount of effort they put into the seminar was amazing – the presentation, their professionality. It was an incredible experience we had, to be able to get valuable speaking practice, with native speakers helping us. We even got to play a fun Japanese word game with everyone. It was a wonderful experience and we have to give a big thanks to Ms Sharp for making it possible. – Methuli Wijayathilaka
I found the Japanese nature zoom call very engaging and enjoyable. The hosts were extremely friendly, and their English was better than mine. I really enjoyed learning new words, and it also further enlightened me about Japanese culture, which was also very interesting.
ありがとうございます(thank you)！
– Edana Hosking
The next Executive and Wellbeing Committee (EWC) Forum will be held on Thursday 2 June 2022 from 5:30–6:30pm, in the Morison Centre, MOR 2.5.
The upcoming EWC presentation is a chance to explore the theological and pedagogical underpinnings of religious inquiry and spiritual formation from Pre-K to Year 12 and beyond.
This open forum will include a presentation by Rev. Dr Katherine Rainger (Senior Chaplain) on how our Anglican identity is embodied at Radford College, with a Q&A to follow.
Participants will have an opportunity to engage in discussions and provide feedback on reporting.
Please RSVP by emailing Kelly McMahon: Kelly.McMahon@radford.act.edu.au
If you wish to participate remotely, a Microsoft Teams link will be shared when you RSVP.
