SCHOOL OF CHARACTER Ivanhoe Grammar School: The Journey of Accreditation to a ‘School of Character’

Being a School of Character means that:

• there is an intentional effort to develop in young people core ethical and performance values that are widely affirmed across all cultures.

• to be effective, character education must include all stakeholders in a school community and must permeate school climate, culture, teaching, and learning.

The criteria supporting the application was extremely extensive and included:

• Demographic Information

• Population Analysis

• Our Character Journey

• How we implement each of the 11 Principles – and with evidence

• Any additional evidence

On Friday 27 January, prior to the start of Term 1, the School’s entire cross campus staff gathered for a day to hear the Principal’s address on the School’s strategic direction.

This was followed by the announcement that Ivanhoe Grammar School is officially an ‘Honourable’ School of Character. When the process for full international accreditation is completed later this year, we will be the first school in Australia to achieve this accolade!

At Ivanhoe Grammar School, the journey of character dates back 100 years, starting with our Founding Principal, Reverend Sydney Buckley who quite famously quoted ‘In a recent issue of a daily newspaper, character training was described as a sideline in education. It is not a sideline. It is the very core of education.’

In September 2022, the School embarked on an application process to be accredited as an official School of Character, by the organisation Character.org. This was led by Fiona Devlin, Deputy Principal and Head of Plenty Campus (pictured above). This organisation was identified by Principal Gerard Foley as being aligned to our values.

Founded in 1993, Character.org is widely known for its 11 Principles Framework for Schools: A Guide to Cultivating a Culture of Character, a comprehensive structure developed by school leaders and character education researchers. During the past 20 years, more than 1,000 schools have been recognised by Character.org as National Schools of Character.

• we envision a future where honest, trustworthy, respectful people treat others as they want to be treated

• young people are encouraged to form their own moral compass, based on timeless principles.

Character.org is based on 11 Principles that all accredited schools must meet and practice.

• Evidence of Impact across NAPLAN Data, VCE/IB Results, School Behaviour Data, Attendance Data, School Climate Survey Data, and photos that demonstrate our Attributes in Action

• Testimonials and Self-Assessment of each of the 11 Principles from Teachers, Non-Teachers, The Principal, Alumni, Parents, Administration and Community members.

11 Principles

The 11 Principles focus on all aspects of school life including school culture and climate, social and emotional learning, student engagement and academic achievement amongst others. They are:

1. Core values are defined, implemented, and embedded into school culture.

2. The school defines “character” comprehensively to include thinking, feeling, and doing.

3. The school uses a comprehensive, intentional, and proactive approach to develop character.

4. The school creates a caring community.

5. The school provides students with opportunities for moral action.

6. The school offers a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners, develops their character, and helps them succeed.

7. The school fosters students’ self-motivation.

8. All staff share the responsibility for developing, implementing, and modelling ethical character.

9. The school’s character initiative has shared leadership and long-range support for continuous improvement.

10. The school engages families and community as partners in the character initiative.

11. The school assesses its implementation of character education, its culture and climate, and the character growth of students on a regular basis.

There were numerous members of the School community who were willing to provide a testimonial. Two such examples are below.

Graduating Parent 2022

‘I have been fortunate during our eight years at Ivanhoe Grammar School to witness first-hand an expansion of, and improvements in character education. I have watched with gratitude and awe as character education has grown at the School from a noble and respectable - albeit generalised - belief in growing young people, to a systematic, explicit, and all-pervading character. Education with many examples over the years where I have proudly watched the development and extension of Ivanhoe Learner values in all school activities’.

Alumni and associated community member since 1959 – Geoff Brown (’62)

‘The most telling aspect was when deliberating as to whether I should come to Ivanhoe in 1959, it was my brother Ron (’49) who instilled in me the meaning of mateship and the advantages Ivanhoe Grammar School had to offer. And that it was going to be, using the parlance of the time, character building – don’t mess it up! The ethos of Reverend Sydney Buckley was as strong then as it is now, it being that “our students must be serviceable human beings of character and strive to be the best we always can be”. I have had the pleasure of seeing boys, and now the girls, pass through our doors and into the big world outside, each equipped with the Ideals of an Ivanhoe Learner, which in my opinion reflects a genuine person of character! I am a fervent believer that the Ivanhoe of today would make our founder swell with pride. His ethos lives on!’

Through accreditation by the School of Character, we are holding ourselves accountable and actively measuring that we actually do what we say we do. The 11 Principles act as an audit through which we measure our programs and experiences across the School, and ensure students have the opportunity to develop their character through their Ivanhoe Learner attributes.

To now be further successful in our goal of international accreditation, the following needs to be achieved.

1. A steering committee to reflect on the auditor’s commentary and how we need to meet Principle 5, 7 & 11 before the next deadline. As a school, we just dipped below the scoring requirements for these principles.

2. To accept our invitation to join the international conference in Washington in November 2023 which will be attended by Principal Gerard Foley and Deputy Principal Fiona Devlin.

3. Our international application is due November 2023.

Fiona will be leading the application process for this international recognition up to the November conference. Further updates and developments will be included in forthcoming editions of the Brown and White.

‘Ego Yah, Ego Yah’ - The School War Cry

It has been bellowed out at every AGSV sporting event for over 75 years. As soon as the first two words are spoken, there would be very few alumni who can’t remember what follows or even launch into their own chorus. But how did the School War Cry originate?

The Start

Up to the early WW2 years, house war cries were used for inter-school events until a visit to another school led to what we now know as the School War Cry.

In 1940, a group of Ivanhoe Grammar School students, including future School Captain Mon Penney (’46) spent their Term 2, 1940 holiday in South Australia. While there, they visited Victor Harbour High School and overheard chanting from the students during a sporting contest. Whilst possibly an element of plagiarism could be construed, Mon and his friends wrote down the words, and on the train back to Melbourne, made a few alterations to fit an Ivanhoe context. The first two and last two lines together with the ‘boom jigger jigger’ were kept, and the rest composed.

After much discussion, the boys decided to make it Sherwood House’s War Cry, and after many rehearsals in ‘the orchard’ (where the School Chapel now stands), started using it in inter-house sports competitions. At that time, Sherwood House was solely for boarders but to their surprise, the day boys rather liked the chant and also started using it in inter-school competitions, so shortly thereafter, the Sherwood War Cry was adopted as the School War Cry.

SCHOOL

War Cry

Ego Yah! Ego Yah!

Ego Whoppee-Gah

Terri Erri Oppee-Gah

Orki Orki Yah Yah Yah

Boom Jigger Jigger

Boom Jigger Jigger

Boom Jigger Jigger Jigger

Boom Boom Boom

Here We, Here We, Here We Go

Ivanhoe Grammar School, Hoe Hoe Hoe!

Sherwood, meanwhile, having lost its own war cry, was determined to try again. It created an alternative adaptation and after numerous rehearsals in the orchard, used it right up to the time when the School was moved move to Yea (1942). Unfortunately for Mon, it was not the outstanding success that ‘Ego Yah’ was, and eventually fell into disuse.

World War 2 Years

As with other aspects of school life, the war cry lost its way during 194243 when the School grounds were transferred to the Army and the School operated as two separate entities. The majority of students were evacuated to Yea and the remainder - largely local Ivanhoe boys - were taught at St James’s Parish.

The two sections of the School were reunited in 1944 at Ivanhoe after the army relinquished its use of the grounds and facilities. However, this required attention to re-establishing a school which had been divided for two years; in addition, there were also 100 new day boys.

Rebuilding the school at this time was not easy and the remaining senior boys had to re-educate both the two separate campuses – and the new boys – into the war cry. School Captain Graham Hawke (’44) recalled that “when we returned from Yea, part of my role as School Captain was to do something to rebuild the spirit of the School and join together the two factions of Ivanhoe and Yea. Senior boys re-educated the rest in the School War Cry because once the School had been split up and then came back together with so many new boys, there were very few who remembered it … and it was something of a rabble.”

Along with the creation of the School Song, the War Cry played a key role in improving school spirit since the extraordinarily difficult and tragic consequences of the war years.

Mon Penney, later Wing Commander Penney, wrote that ‘a lengthy war cry should not be abused; rather it should be regarded with reverence. Cooperation is needed for best effect. Every member of the School should be in one place, and in the smallest place possible, and then all at once - and at regular intervals - yell out the war cry.’

Mon also remarked that the intention of the war cry is to encourage the team, not frighten it!

It is not clear if that sentiment is universally adopted by the thousands of Ivanhoe Grammar School students who have screamed it during AGSV events but at times, it has certainly been intimidating to the opposing sides.

Year 2 Tradition

For many years it has been an annual tradition for Year 2 Buckley House students to come up to The Ridgeway Campus in Term 1 for an educational and historical tour of the School. At the start of the year, they are taught the war cry, and during their early morning tour, under the direction of Development Manager Geoff Brown (’62), scream several versions of it outside Principal Foley’s office until he comes out of his office to welcome them!

Their enthusiasm for entertaining Gerard seems to grow every year with most of the School hearing the refrain ‘Ego Yah, Ego Yah’ bellowing around the campus. Our sporting teams will continue to have incredible vocal support at every interschool event if the passion shown by our youngest students this year is any guide.

Alumni Returning to School

Since the gradual lifting of travel restrictions into Australia over the past 12 months, Mirella Busso-Lee, Alumni Coordinator, has been contacted by a number of overseas alumni who returned for a family visit over the Christmas holidays and to take a tour of the School.

Olaf Juhnke (’82) (above left), commenced at Ivanhoe Grammar School in 1978 in Year 8 after his father received a secondment from Germany. Olaf completed his schooling in 1982 and after his last exam, the family had dinner at the ‘Flower Drum’ and then boarded a plane back to Germany.

Mirella showed Olaf and his partner Sybillie around the School in February. He was amazed at the changes since his time here and was thrilled to see his name was on the Honour Board as the Dux of Science in 1982. Olaf had many stories to share about his time at School and was impressed how it had developed over the years.

Several other alumni also flew to Australia over the Christmas holiday season. This included David Ng (‘85) from Malaysia, Zoe Cooper-Sutton (’10) a solicitor living in London, and another old boy from Germany, Till Maurer (’76), above right.

Remembering Damion

The tragic death of Damion Drapac (’06) in 2019 after a road accident while cycling has led to a donation to Deakin University from his father Michael in Damion’s honour. Damion, who was 30 when he died, had just completed his medical degree and had an internship at the Austin Hospital. He had taken the long road to a career in medicine, going through the rigorous selection process three times in four years before finally being accepted into Deakin University’s Doctor of Medicine course.

Michael Drapac, a property investor and owner/founder of Drapac Pro Cycling, recently gifted Deakin University $6.1 million, the largest donation in the university’s history.

To be known as The Damion Drapac Centre, it will provide scholarships to aspiring medical students from disadvantaged, diverse and regional backgrounds, groups typically underrepresented in the medical professions. Above all, it will honour and uphold the spirit and values that Damion embodied.

Leading the Band

Congratulations to Corporal Ruby Lulham (’13). At the Recruit Training Unit’s Graduation Parade in September 2022, she led her first parade as the Air Force Band’s newest Drum Major. Not only that, but Ruby is also the first ever female drum major of the band in its 99-year history! After leaving school, Ruby completed a Bachelor of Music (Hons) at Monash University. Ruby joined the Royal Australian Air Force Band as clarinettist in 2018 and noted that ‘learning the skills to be a Drum Major is a completely different craft than playing the clarinet in a marching band.’ Ruby was honoured to receive a surprise visit from the Warrant Officer of the Air Force Fiona Grasby OAM, just prior to stepping off on her first parade as Drum Major.

Season 2023 is here. Go Hoers! Preparations are well underway for the 2023 season. Training has seen strong attendances and with most of last year’s squad returning and with strong recruitment, there is an air of excitement about the prospects for the club this year In 2023, the club is planning to field a Senior Men’s, Senior Reserves, Senior Thirds, and Men’s U/19s (born 2003 or later) teams. Additionally, it is hoped to re-establish the women’s program and field a team in 2023 but a significant increase in playing numbers to make this happen is needed.

The football club is an excellent way for the Ivanhoe Grammar School alumni community to stay connected. There are many ways to get involved with OIGFC and anyone interested in volunteer roles, critical to the club’s success, are welcomed.

Sponsors play a key role at the club and offer excellent opportunities to build profiles within both the club and broader OIGA community. Details on sponsorship and membership packages can be found on our website at www.oigfc.com.au.

As well as a place where people meet to play football, the club aims to be an extension of the School, helping to develop players into valuable members of the community. This year, it is planned to incorporate an education course to underpin the football program; it is also seeking mentors from the OIGA community, and to connect employers with potential employees within the OIGFC community. Interest in any of these initiatives can be directed to Chris Branigan, OIGFC President at chris. branigan@ivanhoe.com.au.

Finally, be sure to follow the club on Instagram (#oigfc) and our website to keep up with the latest news. We hope to see you at Chelsworth Park soon or perhaps at our Gala Night at the Park Hyatt on Saturday 13 May! Go Hoers!

Nick Clarke (’03)International Alumni

In the space of just a few years, Nick Clarke’s career has figuratively and literally flown to new heights. In a somewhat perverse way, he has the global pandemic to thank for the move which now sees him working in Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific, one of the world’s best airlines.

Following school, he completed tertiary studies (Arts/Commerce and International Relations) at Deakin University (2010), followed by a Masters in International Relations at the University of Melbourne and an MBA at Sydney Business School (2019). He studied Mandarin throughout this period including time at Fudan University in Shanghai. Between studies, he found time to play football with the OIGFC and backpack through Eastern Europe.

His qualifications set him on the path to an international career. His work as a Team Leader at the Expo Shanghai 2010 at the Australian pavilion led to work in China and Hong Kong for Jetstar and subsequently a role with Qantas in Sydney. However, when the global aviation downturn occurred during the pandemic and his role with Qantas faced an uncertain future, he relocated to Hong Kong to seek opportunities there. While this kept him apart from wife Kathy and daughter Holly for 10 months, he kept busy by joining community sporting groups where he reconnected with Will Cornelius (OIGFC) and Vojin Vujacic (’03), Director at Mizuho Financial Services, also currently working in Hong Kong. His persistence and determination paid off and in 2021, he landed a global role with Cathay Pacific as Head of Customer Insights. He now leads a team spanning brand, customer experience and strategic projects.

Nick credits the support from Cathay Pacific and their leadership team, which includes Edward Bell (’87) who is the GM of Brand, Insights and Marketing Communications and Nick’s Manager, as well as the experiences he received at the School for his interest in working overseas.

Although working overseas, Nick remains in regular contact with his friends from school and recently flew to Melbourne for Christmas to catch up with family and friends (see above). We wish Nick, Kathy and Holly the best in one of the most dynamic cities in the world.

Snippets

King of the Cross Claude Jabbour (’04) and his acting career continues to grow impressively. From school productions to YouTube comedy, he is quickly amassing a very impressive array of television, film and theatre credits. He is currently featuring in a leading role in the acclaimed 10-part television drama series Last King of the Cross. (Claude with arms crossed in image above courtesy of Paramount)

The Fabulous Bacskos Boys!

For the fifth year in succession, the Bacskos brothers have competed in the Portsea Swim Classic, one of Victoria’s largest and most iconic open water swims. First held in 1987, the race is customarily held over a 1500-meter course which attracts around 2000 competitors, with competitors swimming with the tide. This year, Alex (’13), Chris (’07) and Michael (’09) (above) entered the 2500-meter Classic Gold event which is limited to 400 serious competitors in an around the buoys format. Bring on 2024!

Top Performance

Congratulations to Lucy Schaefer (’22) who received a top score for her Theatre Studies Year 12 monologue performance exam. After appearing in front of a panel of Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), Lucy has been invited to present at the Malthouse Theatre in front of public audiences where only a handful of students with top marks get invited. Lucy was heavily involved in the performing arts while at the School; the photo above is Lucy starring as Pamela in the theatre production of ‘39 Steps’.