Mentor Spring 2020

MENTOR THE MAGAZINE OF MENTONE GRAMMAR

SPRING 2020

INSIDE:

02

PRINCIPAL'S WELCOME

06

TWO WEEKS IN MARCH

24

VCAL: TEAMWORK AND ADAPTABILITY

36

NEWS FROM THE MENTONIANS

WELCOM Mentone Grammar is the benchmark for outstanding coeducation in bayside Melbourne.

We offer a progressive, well-supported learning environment with wide-ranging opportunities for students from our Early Learning Centre to Year 12.

Mentone Grammar is fortunate to have a very high demand for enrolments into the future. As you can imagine, this is a good situation for our School and clear indication that the School is doing great things, even in challenging times.

We are renowned for our successful learning model of Together-Apart-Together, where girls and boys in the middle Years (Years 5-9) learn within a coeducational environment in gender specific classes. In Early Learning through to Year 4 and in Years 10-12, students learn in a fully coeducational environment.

CONTENTS 02 03 04 08

12 24 26 36

PRINCIPAL'S WELCOME

A CULTURE OF THINKING STARTS EARLY

BOARD REPORT

VCAL: TEAMWORK AND ADAPTABILITY

INNOVATION: THE SUCCESS OF OFF SITE TEACHING & LEARNING

THE JUNGLE BOOK...

LIKE NEVER BEFORE

LESSONS FOR A NEW REALITY

THE MENTONIANS

Front Cover: Year 5 student, Viktor, making the most of remote learning during Term 3.

ME We really appreciate that people are so interested in our School and, if you are aware of anyone who wishes to be on our future waiting lists, we would appreciate you reminding them that it is critically important to visit our website: www.mentonegrammar.net/enrol to register and pay a (non-refundable) registration fee per child online.

We encourage early applications to increase the likelihood of securing a place in the preferred year of entry. Places at Mentone Grammar are offered according to waiting list priorities, in order of the date of application and at the Principal’s discretion.

We find ourselves in extraordinary and changeable times right now and our School is doing its best to remain supportive and flexible. Choosing a school for your child is one of the biggest decisions that families will make – but it doesn’t have to be a stressful one. I’ll tell you a Registrar’s secret…

A NOTE FROM THE

REGISTRAR we actually want you to find the right school for your family, whether that is our school or another. The reason for this is that a school is made up of its people and the communal values they share. It is in the best interests of both the school and your family to find a community that aligns with your values and will support you in raising your child. Too often, we are contacted by families who are overwhelmed by the choice, information overload, and perceived pressures of making a decision. We want your family to really enjoy the process of learning about the exciting opportunities on offer for your child.

Our Registrar’s virtual office is open for enrolments but closed to visitors.

We are well prepared with the tools and resources to work remotely and continue to provide valuable assistance to families if you wish to discuss enrolments and the many opportunities available for your sons and daughters at Mentone Grammar.

Should you wish to get in touch, please don’t hesitate to contact me at: enrol@mentonegrammar.net or +61 3 9581 3216.

I would be delighted to answer any questions you have about our School and support you in making the right decision for your family.

Once our School reopens to the wider community, we invite you to visit us at Mentone Grammar. In the meantime, you may want to take a look at our new virtual tour: Virtual Tours https://mentone-grammar-tour. goodmediahosting.com/ or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. I look forward to welcoming you and your family to our Community.

PERNILLA EKLUND ALLAN REGISTRAR

01 02

01 S chool Registrar, Pernilla Eklund Allan, looks forward to showing families around the Campus, once again.

02 Year 9 Literacy … there is nothing quite like remote learning with your best friend.

01

FROM THE PRINCIPAL It would be extremely remiss of me to start this article with anything but an acknowledgement of the extraordinary work of our staff and students throughout the coronavirus health crisis.

The impact on our operations has been massive but, overwhelmingly, our Community has risen to the challenge and, whilst we would have all loved to have been at School, and now have an even greater appreciation for that special place in Mentone, such has not been possible for some time over winter.

It would have been easy to focus on lost opportunities but, rather, our Community set about trying as hard as possible to make the best of a bad situation. We all know each other even better as a result of this experience and we all know ourselves even better.

Our Community is stronger for this adversity.

It is the inspiring efforts of our Community that led me to reconsider my resignation and to work with the Board to provide stable leadership in a time of crisis. I am honoured to serve this amazing School and never prouder than right now when we are all being challenged. The efforts of so many have stood us in a strong position to tackle the many and varied challenges that have been presented to us.

As we continue to work through the changed environment in which we operate, there are very real opportunities that are presenting themselves. Our Strategic Plan, Heading Toward Our Centenary, has, as one of its core pillars, Digital Transformation.

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Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

Two other core pillars are those of developing more independent learners and further enhancing teaching quality. All three of these pillars have been advanced significantly during this health crisis and it is the intention of the School to continue developing these pillars, whilst always underpinning everything that we do with the mantra of Happy, Healthy, High Achieving young people.

I suspect the rapid implementation of so many teaching and learning strategies in recent times is only the 'tip of the iceberg' and as we map out a future of further exciting developments in this sphere it will see our School, its staff and students thriving and not just surviving. Being job-ready and having the skills to work in a transforming economy are never more important than during harsh economic times.

This edition of the Mentor, once again, highlights the great work being undertaken within our School and I commend it to you for a good weekend read.

MAL CATER PRINCIPAL

FROM THE CHAIR One of the main responsibilities of the Board of Directors is to ensure the financial viability of the School. In forming our Budget each year, which in turn is the major determinant of tuition fees, we have to consider a number of factors before coming to a final determination.

Factors such as staffing levels, class sizes, program offerings, building and maintenance costs and the impact on parents are all taken into account in our deliberations.

The COVID crisis has certainly caused a major disruption to our 2020 budgeted plans and we have had to adjust accordingly. Whilst our enrolments have held up well to date, we are acutely aware of the financial strain being experienced by many School families. In response to this, we have been able to work with families to enable, in most cases, for them to keep their children at Mentone Grammar.

Some of our programs have had to be suspended due to Government imposed restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the virus: International Learning Journeys, Interschool sport, Cadet Camp, Special Events, Concerts, Excursions and Incursions. Additionally, we have deferred all minor and major capital works planned for 2020. Some of the savings from these changes have been passed back to parents in the form of fee rebates.

The reality of school finances, however, is that approximately 70 per cent of the cost of operating a school (indeed any school) is staffing costs. The only way staffing costs can be reduced is to increase class sizes or make staff redundant.

Whilst it was distressing to have to make some non-teaching staff redundant, I am proud of the fact that Mentone Grammar has not made any classroom teaching staff redundant throughout this crisis. It is not something we have even considered, as off site teaching incurs a greater staff workload than school-based learning. The Principal, Executive and staff have done an amazing job in adapting their work to the demands and challenges of off site learning. The School Board is proud of the way they have risen to this significant challenge.

We are currently in the process of farewelling the Year 12 Class of 2020.

The experience of this graduating class is very different from those who have preceded them. Many of the experiences reserved for Year 12 have been either diminished or entirely missing in 2020; leading their Houses, taking lead roles in the School Production, leading the Cadet Unit to Annual Camp, and captaining the School teams in interschool sport, have all been denied to them. Despite these disappointments, the graduates of 2020 have earned our admiration for their resilience, their adaptability, their embracing of digital, off site learning and their independent learning skills. They have even managed to assist younger students through a mentoring program they developed called Team Mates.

Whilst they have missed out on a lot, the skills and attitudes that they have developed in this COVID world will benefit and serve them well throughout the rest of their lives. They have shown themselves to be a most remarkable group and we wish them well.

In closing, I thank all members of our School Community for their ongoing support.

GEOFF RYAN AM CHAIR

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2020 Mr Geoff Ryan AM (CHAIR)

B Com, B Ed, Grad Dip Curriculum, Dip Ed, FACE, FACEL, AAIM, MAICD Educational Consultant Mr Ross Joblin (DEPUTY CHAIR)

LLB (Hons), Dip CorpMgmt, FAICD, FCIS Company Executive Mr Simon Appel OAM PhC, FAIM, FAICD Pharmacist Rev. Kevin Pedersen B. Theol, B.Marketing, Dip Min Minister of Religion Mr Troy Riley BA (Politics/History) Company Director Ms Amanda Codila BA (Psych), MA (Psych) Human Resources Manager Ms Kylie Watson-Wheeler BA (Politics and English Literature), Grad Dip (Communications, Marketing and PR) Managing Director Mr Darren Murphy B Comm LLB (Hons) Lawyer Mr Chris Hewison MBA, Grad Dip Management, B Bus (Property) Executive Director Property & Chief Procurement Officer Attendees Mr Malcolm Cater (PRINCIPAL)

B Bus (Acc), Dip Ed, MACE, MACEL, MLM Ed Ms Nicole Bradshaw (DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS)

B Bus (Acc), CPA, GAICD

03

INNOVATION THE SUCCESS OF OFF SITE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Despite the challenges faced during the pandemic, our students have experienced a diverse program online which has allowed for powerful learning to continue.

LEARNING & THINKING 04

Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

The online experience at Mentone Grammar has thrived. With the lessons learnt by teachers during the short experience of off site learning in Term 2, students have gained many new skills in their learning. With future skills the focus of much of the current educational research, as ‘the new survival skills’: effective communication, curiosity, and critical-thinking skills. ‘They are no longer skills that only the elites in a society must muster; they are essential survival skills for all of us.’ - Yong Zhao.

For Mentone Grammar students, online learning has enabled the increased focus of many of these skills in their learning, such as creativity, communication, collaboration, empathy and emotional intelligence.

Throughout the Terms, teachers have developed the curriculum and assessments to empower student agency and self-paced learning through many digital tools. Students from the Early Learning Centre to Year 12 have developed their independence and collaboration skills through Microsoft Teams, the School intranet and group chats. Students have further developed their digital literacy through supported research tasks and communicating their knowledge in creative ways such as through online concept mapping, collaborative assignments through Microsoft Word and OneNote as well as through Adobe Creative tools.

Students have also continued to develop their skills in many of their practical subjects by undertaking real-time food practical classes, tracking their Physical Education activities through shared apps to keep students motivated and competitive within in-class teams, along with Visual Arts demonstrations in real-time. Students have also experienced high levels of collaboration in our cocurricular offerings with continued performance rehearsals through Zoom for our Musical and Performing Arts ensembles and stage plays.

Our innovative teachers have adapted lessons during off site learning to offer as many reallife experiences as possible in a digital classroom. This has included student presentations through our online platform of Teams, sharing student learning through student-led group discussions and online simulations of Science pracs. Students have also experienced online excursions in English and Humanities by undertaking virtual tours of galleries and museums.

Our senior students have grown exponentially with their resilience and intrinsic motivation to continue to progress their learning whilst off site. Many of our senior students have collaborated to offer optional online study groups and online fitness sessions at lunchtimes.

Our VCE students will continue to consolidate their learning during the holidays through our VCE Enhancement Program that will now be delivered online and will tailor revision for our students to ensure their continued success in their final exams.

Mentone Grammar’s teachers and students have, yet again, shone through times of adversity to ensure our students continue to be Happy, Healthy and High Achieving.

We look forward to continuing with the innovation learnt during this unique time, but more so we are looking forward to working with our students back in the classroom during Term 4.

KARA BAXTER HEAD OF TEACHING AND LEARNING YEARS 7-12

05

INFORMATION CO &TWO TECHNOLOGY WEEKS IN MARCH For the many Teaching & Learning challenges that 2020 has thrown up, there have also been surprising benefits.

Most notably, the innovation and infinite possibilities that have evolved from creating a digital learning platform. In March this year, our industrious ICT team worked tirelessly to build an impressive, durable system to support over 2000 remote users.

Step back 12 months and a small contingent of Mentone Grammar staff was participating in Microsoft Tune Up 2019 to get a hands-on experience of Microsoft Tools for Education.

Excitement was high for the possibilities that Microsoft Teams could provide, into the future. Much thought was given to how long the reviewing, training and organisational change would take.

Consultation would suggest that two years was a reasonable timeframe for considered implementation.

For Mentone Grammar, 2020 was to be a pilot year, utilising the tool for a few classes, some staff groups and really just to get a feel for the product. We knew that some staff would like to use Class Notebook in their classroom, so the decision was made to create groups for those classes on a needs-basis. The ICT team’s philosophy has always been to automate tasks wherever possible, so we also worked with Microsoft in the USA to institute School Data Sync (SDS) in order to synchronise the Class timetable into Microsoft Office 365. It was early in March.

On Thursday 12 March, the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic and the first impending lockdown was upon us. In the days leading up to the School’s transition to remote and online learning we implemented over 900 Teams.

For our staff and students to access their working files remotely in a ‘work from anywhere approach’, close to 2000 personal storage spaces were migrated to OneDrive with Microsoft Support. It was on Wednesday 18 March that we cautiously conducted a simultaneous multi-campus remote learning trial, with pleasing results and relief all round. The following two days were spent readying staff and student devices, installing applications and fixing anticipated issues.

By Monday 23 March the entire School was remote learning with limited on site presence, as Term 1 came to an abrupt close.

This work was all achieved whilst trying to minimise any health risk to the ICT team. We split our team between on site support and working from home, where we utilised remote control tools such as Teamviewer and the Screen Share feature in Teams to provide remote support to all. Our Helpdesk hours were extended until 7pm four days of the week, to allow staff and students to be provided with technical support outside of classroom hours.

It would not be until Monday 25 May that students would stagger their return to School.

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The earlier implementation of the School Data Sync (SDS) would soon prove its worth. With the impending upheaval of a second lockdown, the School’s ICT was now highly automated and well prepared for the next challenges: offsite learning, Semester changeover, delivery of online student reports, Parent and Teacher Interviews and the delivery of calendared events, to name a few.

After a brief interlude, the School was once again closed for faceto-face learning and, pleasingly, a seamless transition to remote learning ensued. At the time of writing, we are unsure when our students will return to School.

In summary, with the help of the Teaching & Learning team the ICT team has delivered what was considered a two-year project in the space of two weeks, way back in March.

SCOTT MILLER DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & TECHNOLOGY

OMMUNICATION

DIGITAL UPDATE -2021 Our School is pleased to confirm that three changes, informed by our digital transformation agenda, as outlined in the Heading Toward our Centenary 2020 – 2023 Strategic Plan will commence in 2021. It is proposed that these changes will create a number of efficiencies, are environmentally friendly, and are a direct response from feedback and learning throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic.

1. DECOMMISSIONING OF THE LMS

IGITAL DIARIES FOR 2. DSTUDENTS IN YEARS 7-12

IGITAL 3. DTEXTBOOKS

Our Learning Management System (LMS) will be decommissioned at the conclusion of 2020. In order to consolidate the number of systems used across our School, Microsoft Teams will become our primary teaching, learning and communication platform. All assessment and reporting functions currently sitting within the LMS, will move onto Teams and TASS. The Student Performance System (SPS) will continue in its current form, drawing its information from the updated systems instead of the LMS.

tarting next year, students in Years 7–12 S will no longer receive an official Mentone Grammar hard copy diary, instead they will utilise Outlook as their diary.

In 2021, with the exception of English, we will booklist digital versions only of textbooks for all subjects across Years 7 -10. In 2022, this will also include VCE subjects.

Not all features in the LMS will translate directly across to Microsoft Teams.

However, this provides us an opportunity to look at new and improved ways of doing things within the Microsoft Teams environment.

Our student timetables are currently being imported directly into their Microsoft calendar. We are also developing a professional learning program for students and staff to ensure that everyone is supported in this transition. All the current information that sits in the front of a Mentone Grammar diary, will be stored electronically on a newly created tab on MyMentone. This will ensure that students can access this material, as required.

(Students in Eblana and Years 5 & 6 will continue to receive an official Mentone Grammar hard copy diary)

With the development of digital textbooks now advancing far beyond PDFs - including interactive elements such as search, formative assessment, simulations, experiments, video and audio, we believe this is a positive step forward and aligns with our Strategic Plan.

ADRIAN CAMM DEPUTY PRINCIPAL – TEACHING & LEARNING

07

LESSONS FOR

REALITY

A NEW

Wellbeing is pivotal to education. If this year has taught us anything it is how important it is to take care of ourselves and one another.

Throughout the lockdown period, it has been wonderful to watch our staff and students work together to support each other in a wide range of ways.

As always, rollcall and mentor classes have continued to develop students’ skills in areas such as empathy, resilience, organisation, effective communication and self-care. During online learning, the focus of rollcall every morning has been to check-in with students and to further develop the connections between the students and their mentor.

Each mentor contacted five students each day to find out how they were travelling. These calls were a wonderful way to ensure that students retained a strong connection with their mentor and felt supported.

During mentor class times the students continued to follow a structured curriculum. In Eblana and Bayview they developed the skills outlined in the RULER Program. Greenways students were introduced to the Open Parachute Program and our Frogmore students explored empathy, mindfulness and gratitude through the Resilience Project. These mentor lessons were also a wonderful opportunity for students to build connections.

Furthermore, during mentor times the students were given year-level specific incursions. In September, Johnny Shannon spoke to the Year 7 students about Cybersafety and the Year 8 students, once again, worked with Project Rockit. Both Year 8 and Year 9 classes participated in yoga with staff members Naomi White or Melanie Nimorakiotakis, who also produced a range of wonderful stretch videos for students to practise between classes. Perennial favourite, success coach Darren Pereira, continued to help Years 10–12 students to develop their leadership skills.

Student wellbeing was further supported through a wide range of webinars, fun activities and student-led programs, which occurred outside of class time. While it is impossible to mention everything that has taken place over the past few months, a highlight was the collaborative work that our senior students initiated with the younger

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students. From writing letters to the Year 5s or making motivational videos, to offering fitness sessions during lunchtime, our Frogmore leaders did everything in their power to ensure that every student felt cared about.

There is no doubt that 2020 has been a challenging year but, thanks to the tireless work of our incredible teachers, students, administration and Executive teams, we will leave the year more resilient and cohesive than ever. Wellbeing at Mentone continues to be at the centre of every lesson, every day, in every location.

TERRY MATTHEW HEAD OF WELLBEING – PROGRAMS

Connecting all of this together, at our latest Mentone Stories community event, Dr Justin Coulson spoke to parents about navigating a ‘new reality’. Justin is one of Australia's leading experts in the areas of parenting, relationships and wellbeing. He delivered an entertaining and informative guide for parents, to help us all navigate through this unique time.

THRIVING IN OUR NEW REALITY – Dr Justin Coulson

MANAGING OUR OWN ANXIETY In order to support our children, we need to take care of our own anxiety.

Avoid the news. While it is important to know generally what is going on, news headlines are designed to create anxiety.

If it is really important you will know about it. Watching the news makes us more anxious and less able to cope with what is going on around us. When we are really upset, we are less able to make good decisions and communicate as well as our emotions are too high.

Psychological Distancing – When you are struggling with an issue within your family reach out to someone you respect to talk through it with you. They are not ‘stuck in the moment’ and so can look at the ‘problem’ from a different viewpoint.

Self-talk to help yourself to create your own psychological distance.

You could say things like, ‘Emily you can do this.’

T hink of the advice that you would give to a friend with a similar problem and use it to help yourself. You can be your own ‘inner mentor’.

Try to focus on what you can control rather than what you would like to control. We can’t change everything, but we can control some things.

Focus on your circle of influence rather than your circle of control.

UNDERSTANDING OUR CHILDREN The French word for ‘grieve’ means to carry a heavy burden.

Our children are currently carrying a heavy burden right now.

We need to have compassion for our children (and ourselves) right now.

Compassion originally meant, to suffer together. So today, when our children are suffering, they need us to step into their suffering and be there for them. We can’t fix it, but we can grieve with them.

Have soft eyes - When anyone in your world is having a hard time, approach them with ‘soft eyes’. It is impossible to be angry with someone when you are speaking to them with soft eyes. Instead you will be looking at them with a desire to help. Remember, children act out when they are feeling terrible.

Connect

before you correct – when your children frustrate you, first acknowledge how they must be feeling before correcting their behaviour.

Focus

on the child’s perspective.

Try to imagine what it is like to be them right now.

Let

them regulate before you try to fix things. Before telling them what to do, give them the opportunity to calm down and suggest their own solutions.

When

working with your children ensure that you: are on the same page are clear in your communication answer questions concisely – don’t throw too much at them at once.

THE WAY FORWARD Navigating screen time There are three types of screen time: Consumption – this is the junk food of screen time. Binge watching NETFLIX, watching YouTube etc. This is scrolling through social media. It is passive.

Creation – Minecraft, schoolwork and many other games allow children to create things.

Connection – the way in which people connect with one another using technology. Facetime, skype, chats etc. can be used to connect.

If children are connecting or creating – leave them – especially during the pandemic. If they are consuming or using technology instead of sleeping, doing schoolwork, exercising or engaging with their family, then chat to them about their screen time.

Don’t

cross bridges until we get to them.

Rather than worrying about how your children will cope when this is over, just deal with today.

When

your child is anxious, acknowledge their feelings (name their feeling) and then offer to help. Don’t make a big deal about it – the bigger you make it, the bigger it will become.

DR JUSTIN COULSON

https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/

09

MARY JONES

EARLY LEARNING CENTRE Welcome Back!

Well, as we all know Term 3 was another unique experience!

Our teachers and children were so excited to be back at the ELC ready for a wonderful term ahead of learning face to face but, sadly, this all changed after three weeks.

ANOTHER UNIQUE EXPERIENCE! 10

Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

We were off site again, with the children restricted in being able to visit family and friends, explore their local playgrounds, celebrate magical birthdays and so on.

This, however, did not curb our enthusiasm to interact with our children and families, and we really found that this time around, the children were better prepared for online teaching and learning, as were their parents.

As teachers, we discovered new ways of delivering our teaching, whether it be through Teams, uploading stories read by staff, music lessons, STEM activities for the families to engage in, to name but a few.

Each week, ELC staff met online with the children both individually and in small team meetings, so that the children could still connect with their peers and enjoy socialising on screen. Family members often joined in too, and parents sat back and watched how their child blossomed during these lovely moments of connection. We also stayed in touch with our School families by receiving and sharing photos as a way of staying connected throughout Term 3.

Our Essential Services families were grateful and relieved that we were able to provide care for their children during this period. It was great to have the children arrive eagerly each morning and mix with children they did not know previously, as we had children from all seven classes represented in this program.

Our staff members were also able to get to know the children better and build relationships that will assist us all when our Kinder 3s move on to Kinder 4 next year. As the saying goes, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ and this is definitely how it has been during these interesting times.

Learning and new experiences have come about in the most surprising of ways and we have enjoyed being able to offer the Essential Services Program to our families and children.

This time has also taught us all the value of the simple pleasures of life. The children are excitedly telling us of trainer wheels being removed, of having a set family night where they share a favourite meal together and watch a classic family movie, simple card games such as Uno and Snap, kicking a ball with Dad, building a cubby under the dining table, going for family walks etc. I really hope that these fun family times do not disappear when life returns to ‘normal’, but rather we reprioritise these times and understand that life goes by so very quickly … so treasure having these moments where life is less hurried and simple activities bring the family together. I have had many families say to me that their busy, scheduled weekends will never be reinstated, as they really enjoy having less organised times in their lives.

I look forward to seeing everyone in Term 4, so we can finish 2020 in a fabulous way.

LIBBY CHISLETT HEAD OF MARY JONES EARLY LEARNING CENTRE

Learning and new experiences have come about in the most surprising of ways and we have enjoyed being able to offer the Essential Services Program to our families and children.

11

A CULTURE OF THINKING STARTS EARLY During our brief return to on-campus activities in Term 3, Mentone Grammar welcomed Nigel Coutts, as he settled into his new role as Head of Teaching & Learning – Foundation to Year 6.

I am the new Head of Teaching and Learning for F-6 at Mentone Grammar having just moved to Melbourne from Sydney. I am a passionate believer in life-long learning and enjoy opportunities to share ideas with other teachers, and through coaching and mentorship, facilitate their professional growth. I look forward to opportunities to learn with and from the talented teachers at Mentone Grammar.

The School has a compelling vision for education that will provide students with the dispositions they will require now and into the future. Times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity require a heightened capacity to think creatively, critically, collaboratively. This demands that our students are routinely engaged with learning that requires them to do thought-provoking things with what they know, such as considering different viewpoints, reasoning with evidence, uncovering complexity and building explanations. Such complex thinking does not occur automatically, and our students will need to master structures which support this. Visible thinking strategies assist teachers in making deep thinking a routine part of their classrooms and allow them to ‘see’ how their learners are engaging with concepts. Because all learning is a consequence of thinking, schools must transform themselves into ‘cultures of thinking’; this is a goal Mentone Grammar is well on the way to achieving.

My areas of interest include empowering student agency, design thinking, maker centred learning and teaching for understanding. I have experience in Gifted and Special Needs Education and with ‘Making Thinking Visible’. I am a coach with Harvard’s Project Zero, where I support teachers around the world as they develop cultures of thinking in their schools. From this online coaching role, I gain a broader perspective on the challenges and opportunities confronting educators as they adapt their pedagogy to the demands of contemporary society.

I look forward to being able to support teachers at Mentone Grammar as they empower their students to become enthusiastic learners, and of course, I look forward to getting to know the students and the whole community of the School.

NIGEL COUTTS HEAD OF TEACHING & LEARNING FOUNDATION – YEAR 6

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Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

BLESS OUR

PETS

This year, our Eblana Pet Service looked a bit different. Eblana students ran this event at home by saying a prayer for their pet that had been provided by the School. To show they had participated, students sent in a photo of them with their pet. Pets have been a wonderful support to all of us in our time of off site learning and it has been good to be able to take the opportunity to thank God for them and all the joy that they bring to our lives.

REV. ANDREW STEWART CHAPLAIN

13

EBLANA FOUNDATION-YEAR 4 Fantastic Foundation Eblana students have exceeded our expectations this term, none more so than our amazing Foundation students. These little people have experienced a first year of school like no other, yet these amazing little learners have thrived with the support of their teachers and families.

The students of the Class of 2032 are well on their way to becoming dedicated and adaptive learners. The highlight for them in August was undoubtedly the 100th day of Foundation. This was celebrated uniquely, off site, with a small celebratory gift delivered to each child on the day. Students spent their special day counting groups of 100, writing about being 100, solving problems, decorating their homes and enjoying the array of activity choices, provided by their teachers.

During the winter months, students in Eblana continued to find a creative number of ways to stay connected both while learning and having fun off site. From creating online quizzes for each other, a pet show, performing concerts, student-led cooking classes, a ‘Plate of Origin’ cook off and much more! Our Class groups remained in touch in a variety of ways, which supported both their wellbeing and fostering continued social connection. Term 3 wrapped up with the annual Footy Colours Day, all done off site and online and was ably led by our Year 4 House Captains. Their creativity and excitement even included a virtual footy team parade. None of this would have been possible without the support of our wonderful families. From the bottom of our hearts we thank you for everything.

JESSICA RICHARDS HEAD OF EBLANA

AMAZING

LITTLE

LEARNERS 14

Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

Even off site, our students remained enthusiastic and passionate around the Eblana Growing Greener Initiative during the winter months and collaborated on the decisions made regarding the Magic Garden.

OUR WONDERFUL WINTER GARDEN In our challenging year, our wonderful garden has continued to grow, even though we have not been able to enjoy it over the winter months.

Even off site, our students remained enthusiastic and passionate around the Eblana Growing Greener Initiative during the winter months and collaborated on the decisions made regarding the Magic Garden. We were fortunate to be at School at planting time so students could be involved in the initial planting of our winter crop.

The following actions have been delivered as part of the initiative:

A new Green Team was elected at the beginning of the year. While off site, students were invited to be involved in the preparation of the garden through online meetings to discuss the winter and spring plantings.

The Magic Garden continues to provide students with great enjoyment, the opportunity to experience the joy of watching plants grow and sampling a variety of vegetables when they harvest the produce.

The worm farm is thriving which has allowed us to supply two ELC farms with worms to help reduce food scraps. The liquid worm juice has played a large part in ensuring the success of the vegetable crops.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in bottle caps. Due to everyone’s generosity we now have sufficient caps to reuse in a mural for the Magic Garden.

Students have started submitting possible design ideas.

Pre-recorded videos were posted to students in Terms 2 and 3 to keep all students updated on the garden. This resulted in many students sending in videos and photographs of their own gardens.

Despite our absence, our garden is as vibrant as ever and we all look forward to being back in it soon.

BELINDA MCKINDLAY EBLANA GREEN THUMB

15

YEARS 5&6 Even a second lockdown has not been enough to dampen the enthusiasm of our fun-loving Year 5 & 6 students. With the support and guidance of their mentors, who walked every step of this journey alongside them, the students remained superbly motivated.

They adapted and challenged themselves throughout Term 3 and have come out smiling.

What an amazing effort.

We’ve Missed You!

I have foun d coronaviru s both stra challe nging. nge and I star ted he aring things and was ge on the new tting nervou s s. By the tim to online sc e we went hool I was q ui te sc out that I en ared, but it joyed onlin turned e school an le arnt a lot. d I think I ha Whe n COV ve ID star ted, I w a book abou as re ading t a girl calle d C hloe Baylis a ballet te ac s who is her and ac tress. She thre atening had a lifeblood disea se, but she her best ev kept tr ying en though things were her. This m difficult for ade me re al ise that ther things goin e are worse g on in the world and th fortunate. I at I am very am luck y to have acce ss awesome te to such chnology to help me le ar even though n, and that online scho ol ing can som tricky it is st etimes be ill re ally fun!

Eve n if I don frie nds and ’t se e my te achers fa ce -to-face know that th for a while, ey are there I and always me. So, even suppor ting though CO V ID -1 I encourage 9 is challe ng you to ke ep ing, tr ying becau always a brig se there's ht side to th e darke st cl ouds.

ALEX ANDRA 5A

nce has bee n expect; however, the experie ning, I had no idea what to lear ne onli to put in all sor ts ed and mov os we When morning we say our hell different adventures. Every morning), d goo ing say l a blast involving all sor ts of a swimming poo a polar bear jumping out of of GIFs (this morning we had e’s day. which brightens up everyon through the hs class for example. We go Yes of course it is. Take Mat ne tool, Math onli our use to Is online learning different? off d hea ld in the classroom, then we wou we as e sam so it can be the son ic per subject top ’t get to see each other in have learnt in class. We don we t ’t get as wha don se revi you to time ce, Spa er, but at the same bounce ideas off each oth difficult to discuss topics and distracted.

lly sal a bit challenging especia hestra practice and rehear orc es mak also rn m roo nste e and Ms Morge Not being in the sam play together. Mr Cornish rent instruments trying to play. to us whe n there are lots of diffe for ts’ hoo ‘Ka and all sor ts of different joke s make it really fun though with friends back to school to see my , but look forward to heading nce erie exp this yed enjo Overall, I’ve other activitie s. and get back into sports and ELLA 6B

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y le arning g, and I enjo very excitin is time with ng e ni or ar m line le le to spend ab For me, on n ee b do the way. I have ore time to that I had m in a differe nt d un This fo ’. d ys d pets an is ‘Fri-Ya my family an line le arning on day of e rt th e pa . A fun s us a them things I love Hardie, give lated r re M r, ng hi he et ac m r te or bring so is where ou up ss e re d ub Rubik’s C we have to theme was r before and ou Cube ay ’s d ik day. O ne om the Rub to it the next y colours fr I an se m au as ec r b l to wea stre ssfu and we had le arning le ss s are e ng lin ni on or d m y fin d. I and m as we coul the one spot re source s in y m n: l al ee b ve ve ha hts ha . Two highlig ark le ss rushed arliament, M ember of P M l to ra ce de an Fe ch with our ve had the - Meeting may not ha e W . om Zo Dreyfus, via Canberra. if we went to m hi to lk ustralian ta useum of A t to ound the M ar ur to rs said we go a he g . Our teac - Havin om .

Zo on a vi rs pe so , al to see in Democracy t be allowed we wouldn’ see places JAMES 6D

My personal expe rie nce the se last few months have a rollercoaster of be en emotions, some ne gative, but als positive. At first, o many I was scared and disappointed. I mi my frie nds and tea ssed chers, and I was worried about ho pandemic would w this change our live s.

But I quick ly rea that it was up to lised me to change my perspective and out what I could to figure do to make this a positive experie nce.

Of f site, online lea rning opened up my eyes to a new I learned to be mo world. re disciplined, I lea rned about new technology, and I learned to appr eciate some sim like walking or rid ple things ing my bike durin g the day. I also spending more tim enjoyed e with my family and getting an ex 30 minutes of sle tra ep ever y morning ! One of the thing most grateful ab s I am out is how lucky I am that I live he that I go to a scho re and ol where teachers have done so mu suppor t us durin ch to g this time. I try to stay positive and reminding myself ke ep that ever ything wi ll be ok.

NATALIE 6A

I think that off site learning was a big change. It made me more organised, independent and responsible for my own learning. In the long run the coronavirus will end, and we will have gained new skills.

Stage to online learning, ‘We will be going on rry. wo ht slig h er says wit 4’, the news report …’ wave This is the se cond ds of to crawl with all kin rts sta ch ma sto My g will lon w ns such as, ‘Ho worrie s and questio ess str ch mu as I have just we be here?’, ‘Will ft so cro Mi to on ly log as last term?’ I quick . our school is doing at wh e se to s am Te it ng and we will play ‘We’re online learni d his itte bm su s ha ey by ear’. I se e Mr Ril on the they announced it statement as soon news.

, and s in person’, I think ‘No se eing my frie nd . ath bre my r unde ‘no sport’, I whisper too this - shouldn’t be I have already done hard.

JASPER 5C

ng us to change to has impacted our education, forci This year has been very weird and est to keep work ing. hard our tried very resilient and have off site learning. We have all been as to how I would cope online school again I was nervous Whe n I found out we had to go to how much exercise to see my friends. It’s interesting and sad because I wouldn't be able or folders around. bags ol scho s to class and carr ying our you miss out on, walk ing from clas . soon al norm to back thing, we will all be If ever yone continue s to do the right CAMPBELL 6C

JACQUELINE CARTWRIGHT YEARS 5 & 6 COORDINATOR

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BAYVIEW MIDDLE YEARS 5-8

Bringing Bayview Home It’s a typically Melbourne winter’s day. Waking up and looking out of the window of your room, you feel your stomach sink with the thought of having to jump on your bike and ride through the shards of ice falling from the sky, knowing that you’ll spend Period 1 and 2 drying out and returning your fingers to room temperature just so that you can finally hold your pen.

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Perhaps by recess the rain will have stopped and you might get a few minutes out in the yard huddled closely like Emperor penguins to protect yourself from the brisk bay winds before getting back to the relative warmth of your classroom… and then you realise it’s Semester 2 and you’re remote learning. Suddenly, you can take an extra few minutes in the warmth of bed, arrive in dry clothes to your first class and enjoy recess in the sanctuary of your front room. No thawing required.

This semester, Bayview students have continued to progress academically with teachers able to make learning and thinking visible in online notebooks, through digital platforms and by harnessing other digital tools. While physical excursions have not been possible, several of our students have benefitted from online experiences to places like the NGV and with ‘visits’ from people such as author Tim Cope and motivational speaker Jonny Shannon.

As remote learning continued through the winter months in Bayview, students have continued to enjoy many benefits and successes in this new way of learning. While it has been hard to be away from the personal contact with friends and some of the cocurricular opportunities they might normally have had, students have adapted and created new habits and interests from the comfort of their own homes.

Outside of the classroom, we have had students involved in singing concerts, debating groups, short film competitions and a range of sporting challenges. They have definitely been keeping busy! A particular highlight was the online Bayview play, which enabled audiences to enjoy the performance from the comfort of their own lounge rooms, with the possibility of a repeat performance at the mere press of a button. Who wouldn’t have wanted a second watch of Baloo leading the monkeys through the dance routines!

But enough from me - here’s what Bayview students said they have enjoyed about remote learning 2.0:

Waking up later, stretch and prepare and more time to do fitness and catch up on work are some of the positive sides.

The feedback and effort the teachers are putting in is exceptional.

I’ve learnt to remove distractions and focus on my work.

Having the freedom of wearing whatever you want is great. Uniforms are going to be a weird thing to get used to again.

As we look forward to warmer months and anticipate a return to school in the future, we must continue to celebrate the opportunities and experiences that remote learning has provided.

It hasn’t always been easy but there are, no doubt, a lot of great benefits to online platforms and flexible learning arrangements, and Bayview will continue to evolve and enhance our offerings through these digital platforms into the future.

JAMES WALTON HEAD OF BAYVIEW

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GREENWAYS YEAR 9 CAMPUS

The Village Raises a Leader…

Some stark realisations have occurred for me this term. I can’t believe I am in my final week at Mentone Grammar. A 15-year journey goes quickly…and I remember its beginnings vividly.

Mentone Grammar was a K-12 school of about 850 students in 2006. It was also the year we welcomed girls into our classrooms – a huge historical milestone.

A traditional boys’ school transitioned into an innovative coeducational environment where our Together-Apart-Together model flourished. Our School embarked on a dynamic and aggressive period of growth. Enrolments grew and so did our programs, spaces and staff. And, as a result, the structure of our School has evolved and responded to the current needs of our students.

WELCOMING & SUPPORTIVE

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In 2006, most schools provided a separate campus for ‘that’ year level. ‘That’ year level was seen in the eyes of parents and staff as the challenging age and stage of adolescence – Year 9. The idea of a special place that accommodated the diverse needs of Year 9s evolved and the Greenways Campus was born. At the time, I was working directly with Year 9s and 10s as one of the White House Coordinators in Frogmore. The opportunity to develop, introduce and lead a new campus at Mentone Grammar genuinely excited me and here the story truly begins; my application was successful.

The School’s vision to create a dynamic learning space and program for Year 9s started to unfold. As the 2012 Ian Webster Scholarship recipient, I had the opportunity to travel to Finland and explore learning spaces in both schools and universities.

This experience gave me the inspiration to lead and develop this new initiative for Mentone Grammar.

Each day, I walk into a place where I know that students have the best chance to thrive.

Greenways is a very special place.

Our former Thorold Hall became the new footprint for the Greenways Campus.

The grey cement bricks, the parquetry stage floor, the burgundy carpet and seating and the memorabilia of the original Thorold Hall foyer walls were all reimagined. I recall Principal Mal Cater and I standing in the shell of the building visualising the end product with absolute excitement. We had been privy to the creative ideas and plans for this special place - the innovative, bright and energetic space you see today.

I spent the greater part of 2012 working alongside the leadership team, developing the purpose, programs, structures and protocols to underpin the successful commencement of a new campus.

The settlers of Greenways arrived at the beginning of 2013 ready to transform a space that was inviting, dynamic and ready to explore. We spent time carefully planning the potential uses of the space to support teaching and learning at Mentone Grammar. Learning was not limited to the four walls of a classroom – learning was encouraged through explicit instruction, collaboration, teamwork, hands-on experiences, all in a range of inviting indoor and outdoor spaces.

Study sessions, guided fitness training and wellbeing activities supported the progress of our students. Our longitudinal data suggests that the Greenways experience has promoted positive growth in learning since its inception.

The foyer of Thorold Hall was transformed into the Greenways Café which has proven to be one of the core hubs where you see learning, connection and collaboration in action. A key feature of the Greenways experience is the Café experience.

Students spend time in the Café as part of the Year 9 Program and learn to run a small business, develop financial literacy and create and make the daily menu. One of the highlights is learning to make barista-quality coffee. It’s a great atmosphere that encourages students, staff and parents to spend time together.

If you ask a younger student what they are most looking forward to at Mentone Grammar, most will say the Greenways Learning Journeys experience. The students view this as the chance to experience fun beyond the classroom for four weeks. We see this as the opportunity to personally develop each student through a variety of carefully planned activities. The Program has involved a city experience, a rural experience and time spent at our much-loved Shoreham site and has evolved over many years.

The Learning Journeys are designed to challenge students and take them out of their comfort zones. Flying, scuba diving, understanding life on the land and navigating the CBD are some of the activities geared to developing independence, resilience and teamwork.

The Cadet Program also creates opportunities for our students and allows them to experience the outdoors and learn leadership skills.

We have created a ‘home-away-fromhome’. Welcoming and supportive. I am in awe of the staff and the time and effort they dedicate to mentoring and providing the best possible learning experiences for our young people in their care. Each day, I walk into a place where I know that students have the best chance to thrive.

Greenways is a very special place.

This year has been bizarre, to say the least. I sat in front of a Visual Art class at the start of Term 3 and realised that those students were my last treasured face-toface class at Mentone Grammar. This term has been an accumulation of ‘lasts’ – the last assembly, the last staff meeting, the last discussions with a passionate team of mentors. Sadly, it is the last time I teach my Greenways students and graduates of this wonderful program. However, this village has prepared me for my next steps.

The Mentone Grammar village has raised me as a leader, as a mentor, as a teacher, as a friend and has supported my family, for which I am extremely grateful. More importantly, the village has provided me with lifelong friendships, connections and memories that I will cherish forever.

I would like to thank the Mentone Grammar Board of Directors, Principal, Mr Mal Cater, my Executive colleagues, the staff, students and parents. Without you, the continued success of this Campus would not have been possible. I trust you will continue to reflect and evolve this fantastic initiative.

And to the students – I ask you to continue to strive for the very best in your learning journey at Mentone Grammar. Only expect big things.

NATALIE MCLENNAN HEAD OF GREENWAYS

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FROGMORE SENIOR YEARS 10-12

OPPORTUNITY IN ADVERSITY As the end of Term 3 approaches, and with staff and students preparing to undertake a well-earned break, it provides an opportunity to reflect on the nature of this year and, more importantly, the manner in which we have responded to meet the challenges of these unique times.

As always, the commitment, endeavour and resilience of our students were evident as they engaged with their learning through our online platforms. Although challenging for some, and occasionally inhibited by the limitations of internet and WiFi connections, our students were able to maintain their connections with their studies and progress their learning. Further, the manner in which they supported each other to do so is also worthy of mention. Also, we must acknowledge the continued efforts of the staff quickly and effectively implementing online learning strategies and resources to ensure our students maintained their learning progress.

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Y

Despite the challenges provided during Term 3, it is wonderful that our students have still looked to engage with their School...

Indeed, the effective adoption of our online learning platform has certainly reaffirmed the opportunities these technologies present and, in keeping with the School’s strategic direction, there is certainly scope for continued development in this area for our Frogmore students.

While many of our cocurricular programs were cancelled, one of the areas that was able to continue, and swiftly adjusted to online competition, was Debating and it was wonderful to see our teams progress through the rounds via Zoom. Mentonian, Sam Ponsford, has superbly mentored and guided our teams to a high degree of success and I commend both of our Year 12 teams who progressed through to State Finals, ranking them inside the Top 16 teams in the State. In addition to numerous students awarded Best Speaker, I commend our senior students who were Mentors to our Year 7 and Year 8 Debating Teams.

Indeed, many of our senior students undertook roles as Mentors including those who oversaw online fitness sessions and coaching of our younger students. While the Winter season of Sport was ultimately cancelled, these students provided positive opportunities and many more of our students have continued to engage in regular exercise and have taken advantage of their one or two hours per day as they seek to maintain their fitness and develop themselves.

Online events and activities have also been evident within our Houses. While our House competition is in hiatus, it has been wonderful to be part of some intra-House competitions as our House Captains and House Leaders have maintained a sense of connectedness with their peers. Zoom catchups, Kahoots and Quizzes have replaced our more traditional events, yet the smiles, laughter and high participation remain and are reflective of the positive culture that continues to exist within our House groups.

Despite the challenges provided during Term 3, it is wonderful that our students have still looked to engage with their School and grasp the opportunities to progress their learning, connect with classmates, maintain their fitness, set themselves challenges and develop their sense of self and character. Well done Frogmore!

MONASH SCHOLARS PROGRAM ‘Monash Scholars is a prestigious program for high achieving secondary school students. The program is offered by Monash University to give high potential students a unique headstart into university life.

It provides opportunities for personal and academic development, as well as, giving students the knowledge, skills and confidence to make the right study choices. It also enables them to expand their network of like-minded peers.’ We congratulate Year 10 students: Alannah Marriott, Ulyana Kondratova and Jake Newman on their applications and acceptance into the Monash Scholars Program. This is a great achievement and will set them up well for their upcoming VCE years.

Alannah: I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the 2020-2022 Monash Scholars cohort, a program designed for students to enhance their learning experience throughout VCE, as well as increase connectedness and networking opportunities between peers and

mentors. Not to mention the friendships that are certain to be formed in the coming few years. Whilst transitioning into Year 11 is undeniably a daunting task, I feel more eager than nervous with the knowledge that I will not be alone in this endeavour but surrounded by uplifting and motivated staff and students not only at School but within the Scholars Program as well.

Ulyana: Being selected to be a Monash Scholar for the next two and a half years has definitely been a highlight of my 2020. Monash Scholars is a program held by Monash University

that allows students to develop and grow both academically and as a person. I first discovered this program at the end of last year and instantly knew it was something I wanted to apply for. From a network of like-minded peers from all around Melbourne to lectures on exam preparation, I knew this program would allow me to explore a wide range of beneficial opportunities.

With just a few being selected from each school, the competition was tough. I enter my VCE journey excited and supported, together with my peers and fellow Monash Scholars, curious to see what the years will bring.

More information can be found at: https://www.monash.edu/study/why-choose-monash/information-for-high-achieving-students/monash-scholars CAMERON LANCASTER HEAD OF FROGMORE

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TEAMWORK AND ADAPTABILITY VCAL students have been extremely productive over the winter months, from designing and constructing new School facilities, to community engagement programs, to DIY home renovations.

It was great to see some students implementing some of the skills learned at projects in school, to create raised veggie beds, decking areas and landscaping.

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V

VCAL VCAL students have been extremely productive over the winter months, from designing and constructing new School facilities, to community engagement programs, to DIY home renovations.

Term 2 saw the ongoing construction of a second decked area with built-in seating, adjacent to the pizza oven. A welcome addition to this rather unutilised space, it has become a popular place for Frogmore students to enjoy their lunch or engage in outdoor classroom learning. All students, regardless of their industry preference, participated in this project, developing important skills in communication, teamwork, problem solving, adaptability, and of course, the application of occupational health and safety procedures.

For studies in Personal Development Skills, the students are required to plan, implement and evaluate a project that seeks to address a community issue. Students collectively decided to focus on groups that had been impacted by COVID-19. One student group engaged Eblana and Year 8 students to write letters to residents of Avonlea Aged Care home in Mentone. The VCAL students then created care packs with bundled shortbread and a personalised letter and delivered them to the facility, much to the delight of the residents. Other groups focused on homelessness, supporting 300 Blankets, hosting a fundraiser involving students across the school to shoot 1,000 ‘baskets for blankets’ in one day, which they achieved. The Big Freeze event, supporting FightMND, was a huge success, with students in Years 9-12 and some dedicated staff, braving a wintry day to be soaked by a bucket of icy water! VCAL organisers hosted the event, ran a free-dress day and sold FightMND beanies, raising over $3,000.

We also had the opportunity to work with the Food Security Network, an organisation educating schools and community groups about the issue of food insecurity in Australia and across the globe. Students learned about community groups in Melbourne for whom food insecurity is a real and ongoing problem. They constructed raised vegetable beds and planted more than 200 kale and parsley seedlings, which they will continue to nurture until harvest time, when they will be donated to the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre and Fare Share.

During remote learning, students have been completing home improvement projects for their Work Related Skills unit. They identified the 21st Century skills they most need to improve and embedded these into the planning of the project. Students then created a feasibility report for their project to be signed by key stakeholders, undertook a risk assessment of their ‘job site’ and developed appropriate timelines, a budget and materials list.

It was great to see some students implementing some of the skills learned at projects in school, to create raised veggie beds, decking areas and landscaping. Projects also included cleaning windows, bedroom refurbishments, painting the fence and constructing furniture.

SHELLEY MUIR VCAL COORDINATOR

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PERFORMING ARTS 2020

THE JUNGLE BOOK... LIKE The Bayview Production of The Jungle Book commenced at the start of the year with a plan and a schedule like all productions do. Little did we know that, before the halfway mark, our schedule would all have to change and adapt, more than once.

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NEVER BEFORE

Completely uncharted territory lay ahead. Hosting online rehearsals and continuing to do the work became our focus while our outcome of a live performance had become uncertain. After numerous discussions, we were very fortunate to confirm a new schedule and with our production in a new format; to be filmed live and distributed digitally to the Mentone Grammar Community.

With a newly defined outcome we set to work.

With a newly defined outcome we set to work. As the students arrived back at School, they put a tremendous amount of effort into relearning their blocking, their characters and their focus. It was a short amount of time before the cameras were ready to roll and with haste everything started to fall into place, from costumes to lighting and the set. Filming day arrived, and what a mammoth day it was! The students did such an amazing job helping each other run lines backstage and fix bits of costume before heading down to film their scenes. It was a combined group effort, from the actors, the camera operators and the senior students conducting the lighting and sound. It was an experience I doubt we will ever forget.

Thank you to our 26 incredible Bayview performers for their enthusiasm, commitment and adaptability, a big future awaits.

The feedback from our at-home audience was heartwarming.

I would like to thank Mentone Grammar for supporting the Performing Arts programs and the Performing Arts department for their creative response during this time.

We hope you enjoyed Mentone Grammar’s Production of The Jungle Book.

CHRIS STOCKDALE DIRECTOR

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VISUAL

ARTS

Galleries around the world may be temporarily closed, but students at Mentone Grammar are proving you don’t have to leave your home to see, or even be, a work of art. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles challenged people to post photos of themselves recreating their favourite works of art from the safety of their homes. Our students in Years 6A and 6B embraced this task, while having fun with family members. Students completed written tasks, and each gave an oral presentation to a selected guest panel. Following are quotes from those presentations:

NIKKI M. FLAMING JUNE FREDERICK LEIGHTON 1985 I chose this image to copy because I thought it would be a fun painting to dress up myself and decorate the room. Mum used the original picture as reference while getting me into a similar position.

NATALIE N.

MIA A.

THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING

SELF PORTRAIT FRIDA KAHLO 1940

JOHANNES VERMEER

I chose the Frida Kahlo painting as I felt I could replicate the makeup well.

The makeup was fun to do, however, making the flower crown was a fair bit of work. I needed to pin lots of flowers together, so I had some help from my mum. I also recreated the earring and threaded it through a sleeper.

1665 After all the hard work and effort, I appreciated the painting even more and became more curious about it.

ZAHRA J. SELF PORTRAIT AMRITA SHER-GIL 1931 My mum and dad and my sisters helped me with the shoot. My mum was the most helpful as she took the photo, told me which angle to place my head. My dad gave me feedback like where I should stand for better lighting. And my sisters helped evaluate my outfit.

OLIVIA A. RAGE FLOWER THROWER BANKSY 2005 The greatest challenge was to change the image to black and white and then hand colour the flowers. I was also very surprised at how many takes it took to get it right.

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ELLA W. DOG LYING IN THE SNOW FRANZ MARC 1911 I chose this image to appropriate because I thought it would be a challenge. To get your dog in a specific position is hard.

MIA D. CARD GIRL STREET ARTIST BE FREE I am most happy with the playing cards on the wall. That must have taken me more than three days to do.

PHOENIX P. YOUNG GIRL COMBING HER HAIR PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR 1894 I chose this image because my hair colour is close to the hair in the painting and mum had a similar dress that I could borrow.

AVA P. THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR ROY LICHTENSTEIN 1964 I struggled to find a red backdrop and then I realised that I could just lay down on our couch, although I did have to adjust the angle of the photo.

SIENNA L. THE SCREAM EDVARD MUNCH 1893 I chose this work because I was familiar with it and I could use the pier out the front of our holiday home.

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A CHAPLAIN’S REFLECTION One of the great parts of my job of being a chaplain is responding to students’ questions. Getting questions from students means that no RE lesson ever runs the same way twice, and you often find yourself going off on unexpected tangents prompted by a student question.

I am blessed to work with Foundation students all the way through to Year 12s. I love the innocent questions from our youngest students that would flummox the most sophisticated theological thinker such as – ‘What colour is God?’ I enjoy the good-natured questioning of some of our Year 8 boys who think they have got this whole issue of religion figured out and are a bit surprised to discover that I still believe in God in this day and age. I enjoy hearing the thoughtful questions of our Year 12 students as they deeply reflect on the world they are going into and their place in it.

Questions are such a part of the rhythm of my daily school life that I often forget that I am part of a society that is typically not interested in asking them. In our contemporary society genuine searching questions are rarely asked, so these types of questions from students can often feel like a sacred gift.

As a chaplain I get asked a range of questions.

Sometimes the questions are prompted by what I am wearing – ‘Is your shirt with the odd collar some sort of religious thing?’ Sometimes they are an attempt to discern how serious I am about my Christian beliefs – ‘Are you 100 per cent positive on God?’ And sometimes it is a question prompted by what is going on in the world – ‘Why does climate change exist if God loves us?’ In recent years a question that seems to come up a lot in class is – ‘What does God think of atheists?’

Long hair for boys has recently come back into fashion and one of our Year 7 students who had long hair in primary school had to get it cut when he joined our School. While he loves being part of our School Community, he laments the loss of his long hair.

This boy asked a great question one day in class – ‘If Jesus had long hair why can’t I?’ It was asked with a bit of feeling behind it and I wasn’t sure how best to respond other than to note that as a bald man, hair certainly wasn’t my area of expertise.

1

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a lot of questions from all corners of society. I knew that our students would have a lot of questions about what we are going through. I thought it was important to allow the space for students to share about their experiences and to ask the questions it had prompted.

I have been asked a lot of ‘Why did God cause coronavirus?’ type questions. In response to my claim that God is in control, one student bluntly responded by asking ‘So what just happened then?’ I have also been asked some really thoughtful questions such as ‘Was this a signal from God to value our world and our life?’

One question, ‘If I get corona does this mean that God doesn’t like me?’ was challenging to answer, not so much intellectually but in terms of the insights the question gave into the emotional wellbeing of the student who had asked it. It hasn’t been the time to try to offer easy answers and I shared with students how this time has caused me to ask lots of questions also.

Mathematician and Christian apologist John Lennox in his little book about our recent experiences notes, ‘We each need to make sense of coronavirus in three different ways: intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.’1 As we start to process the intellectual and spiritual questions that this time has raised for us, it has been important to try to pick up on where our students are at emotionally, and I have found the opportunity to ask questions has been a good way to do this.

One question from an inquisitive Year 2 student, ‘Will this cause God to ask Jesus to build another ark?’ made me realise that I still need to do a bit of work on my RE teaching.

REV. ANDREW STEWART CHAPLAIN

Where is God in a Coronavirus World? by John Lennox (The Good Book Company) 2020, P. 17

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FROM THE

ARCHIVES CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE

SERVICE OF CAROLS AND LESSONS Although Mentone Grammar was founded in 1923, it was not until 1945 that a Concert Night was formerly added to the School Calendar. The decision to formalise this annual event followed the successful public performance in Mentone’s City Hall the previous year. Despite the fact war was still wreaking havoc in 1944, a full house of parents and friends turned out, raising the roof as they applauded the students’ ‘amusing burlesque work and clever gymnastic feats’. However, it was the School Choir of about 100 voices, that, according to the Mordialloc City News, restored more of a dignified concert tone to the evening. And so, the Concert Night was born at Mentone Grammar.

Over the decades School Choir performances at Concert Night blossomed and grew under the direction of a number of Mentone Grammar music staff legends. During the war years, Mr Coonan and Mr Warren balanced much needed joviality of singing and slapstick, with the decorum of classical choir events, culminating with a memorable performance at the Commonwealth Jubilee in 1951. By the mid-50s, Malcolm Thrift (1949-1957), had raised singing standards and confidence so high as to embark upon an ambitious three year program of Gilbert & Sullivan operas in which huge casts of students took part.

In 1958, with our official Church of England affiliation, came a new School Chaplain, Reverend A. V. Maddick.

The School’s Church status led to the emergence of the Chapel Choir, occasionally replete with formal chorister frills and robes. Music at Mentone over the next 20 years was led by Mr Hardie (1961-1966), followed by Mr Godsil (1966-1981).

Mentone Students performing Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, 1954

Mentone Students performing Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, 1955

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Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

VAUNE LEWIS

(1964-1983) In 1964, Headmaster Keith Jones hired another giant in Mentone’s history – Mr Brian Lewis (1963 -1989) an English teacher who went on to be Mr Jones’ Assistant Principal. The Headmaster also hired Brian’s wife, Vaune, who had been a college music lecturer in Tasmania. As well as teaching music at Mentone, in 1969, Keith Jones asked Vaune if she would also take responsibility for the Junior and Senior Chapel choirs.

Several years before, in 1958, whilst visiting Brian’s family in England, Vaune had attended a Christmas Service of Carols and Lessons at the famous chorister’s school, King’s College, Cambridge. She has never forgotten the impact it had on her. Vaune, a much loved past staff member, parent and grandparent of Mentonians, cherished and active supporter of our Alumni community, still remembers every note she listened to that night. And so, over a decade later, back at work, and rising to the Headmaster’s challenge to take the School choirs to the next level, Vaune ambitiously set about bringing the King’s College arrangment to Mentone Grammar.

On a sweltering 6th of December in 1970, the precision trained voices of Mrs Lewis’s Junior and Senior choirs filled St Augustine’s Chapel to deliver Mentone’s very first Service of Carols and Lessons. A resounding success and of such high quality, the event soon became the epitome of Christmas in the Mentone Grammar calendar.

The Chapel, King’s College, Cambridge

From 1982 to 2008, Music Director, Lewis Plumridge, himself a fine church organist and greatly assisted by his wife Carole, continued to develop and grow the choirs. As the School expanded, the Service of Lessons and Carols outgrew St Augustine’s and Mr Plumridge moved it to the prestigious St Paul’s Cathedral. Fifty years on, the tradition is stronger than ever under the magnificent musical direction of maestro Gavin Cornish.

Under Mr Cornish, the Service has expanded to include a featured vocal soloist and four choir items as well as the congregational carols, and the Carols Orchestra, for added splendour and inclusion. Those who remember the glorious 2019 event will know that Mr Cornish now composes choral works, with student contributions, specifically for the Service – ensuring that it continues to break new musical ground every year.

This December, however, as we 'come together' COVID style for the School’s 50th Service of Lessons and Carols, let us honour the choral inspiration of Vaune Lewis.

Labore et honore.

DR COLETTE RUSSELL

The inaugural Service of Lessons & Carols, 1970,

SCHOOL ARCHIVIST

St Augustine's, and the Order of Service

33

MENTONE GRAMMAR

FOUNDATION BUILDING FUND 2020 Mr J & Mrs S Rosaia Mr R & Mrs N Lorinc Mr S & Mrs T Scott-Branagan Ms C Hegarty Mr S & Mrs K Nish Ms A Syme Mr J & Ms S Meagher Mrs J d'Alquen Ms A Wilson Mr & Mrs L Bartle Mr Y Liao & Ms H Jiang Mr C & Mrs E Thompson Mr D & Mrs S Bunnett Mr R & Mrs D Rose Mr J Chen & Mrs L Wu Mr Y Monzie & Mrs G Delgado Ms M Leet Mr I & Mrs C Richards Mrs M Basin Mr J Papagiannis Mr W Huang & Ms J Chen Mr A & Mrs S Fix Mr S & Mrs S Nickols Mr Y Sun & Ms L Fu Mr P Goddon & Ms L Anderson Mr X Ren & Mrs J Zhang Mr N Parsons & Ms L Jackson Mr M & Mrs N Wloszczak Mr D & Mrs M Lettieri Mr C & Mrs A Bristow Mr T & Mrs V Lyons Mr Y Sun & Ms H Yu Mr E & Mrs J Mefsut Mr G Kinyanjui & Mrs A Maingi Mr G Peng & Ms K Zheng Mr M Mairs & Ms A Byers Mr A & Mrs B Sawyer Mr R & Mrs S Hollingsworth Mr L & Mrs J Piciocchi Mr E Yu & Mrs C Li Mr G & Mrs Z Watt Mr G Georgiou & Ms N Jefferson Mr M & Mrs S Patron Mr B Fernandes & Ms J Setterfield Mr M O'Rourke & Miss N Blackwood Mr N Lanthois & Ms C Inglis Ms L Fryer & Mr D Webster Mr I & Mrs K Bohlken Mr J & Mrs E Forster Mr S Naim & Mrs S Worthy Mr N & Mrs L Short Mr M O'Hare Mr R & Mrs N Webster Mr P & Mrs M O'Sullivan Mr A & Mrs V Gaitanis Mr W Mo & Mrs X Huang Mr S & Mrs J Arvanitakis Mr A & Mrs E Hood Mr Y Wang & Ms Y Cai Mr J Naffine Mr A & Mrs D Persic Mr M & Mrs D Wilson Mr N & Mrs J Caley Mr J & Mrs L Redfern Mr G Devereux & Miss J Treagus

34

Mrs N & Mr S Knight Mr J Dumoff & Ms R Hughes Dr R Singh & Dr S Nimesh Mr M O'Rourke & Miss N Blackwood Mr C Robinson & Ms E Steverink Mr V & Mrs M De Zoysa-Lewis Mr D & Mrs M Hughes Mr M Quin Mr K Davies & Ms A McVean Mr S Driscoll & Ms E Simpson Mr S Wallace Mrs M Scarafile Wallace Mr R & Mrs R Rotar Mr R & Mrs O Malaeb Mr G & Mrs M Orfanidis Mr M & Mrs H Simpson Mr J & Mrs M Cooper Mr L Chen & Mrs C Liu Mr O & Mrs G Blombery Dr A Le Nepveu Mr A Littleford & Ms C Jupp Mr J & Mrs S Cregeen Mr D He & Ms D Zheng Mr B Qian & Mrs M Lin Mr I Reynolds & Dr J Dixon Mr R & Mrs C Denbury Mr P Brady Mr W Zheng and Mrs Z Yang Mr L & Mrs M Hart Dr P & Mrs S Gowdie Mr T Antoniou & Ms K Farr Mr Z Qiao & Mrs J Zhang Mr E & Mrs E Lucarelli Mr J Yu & Mrs J Xu Mr R & Mrs H Goodman Mr S & Mrs K Gade Mr S & Mrs A Bera Mr G Van Ameyden & Ms S Nuttall Mr P & Mrs M Nayna Mr Z Liu & Mrs Y Zhao Mr B Pavan & Dr S Nashi Mr M Goble & Ms T Robertson Mr G & Mrs K Bentley Mr M & Mrs H Doig Mr X Tan & Mrs L Lei Mr I & Mrs D Kohler Mr A Duck & Ms P McConville Mr M & Mrs D Brown Mr M Wuillemin & Mrs C Jordan Mr D & Mrs L Whitehouse Mr J & Dr V FitzGerald Mr E & Mrs M Katsouranis Mr A & Ms S Silove Mr J & Mrs K Oliver Dr P & Mrs M Ferguson Dr B & Mrs T Burke Mr C & Mrs R Barlow Mr D Boyd & Miss S Ford Mr M Mirhom & Mrs G Gergis Mr L Wan & Mrs W Zhang Mr Y Huang & Mrs Y Li Mr J Sun & Mrs D Huang Mr N & Mrs K Meakins Ms K Edwards Mr A & Mrs M Austin Ms C Li

Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

Mr Y Piao & Ms H Zhang Mr M and Mrs M Parker Mr J & Mrs N Kitchen Mr X Gu & Mrs Z Li Mr M Wang & Mrs S Dong Mr M & Mrs H McComb Mr T Zhang & Ms X Wang Dr S Venkatachalaiah & Ms A Narayan Mr Z Romanis & Ms G Nadenbousch Mr P Soden & Mrs Z Eidi Moghaddam Mr G & Mrs S Berry Mr T & Mrs K Ryan Mr D Jones & Ms J Chong Mr S Li & Mrs J Zhou Mr I & Mrs L Vrionis Mr P Potts & Mrs N Clark Mr N Groeneveld & Ms R Mason Mr J & Mrs F Calvi Mr S & Ms A Dugar Mr S & Mrs S Hill Mr J & Mrs J Riddle Mr F Bizzotto & Mrs P Smith-Bizzotto Mr C & Mrs T Male Mr D Jupp & Mrs A Di Iorio Mr C & Mrs O Akgun Mr C & Mrs M Kent Mr Y Zhou and Ms D Wang Mr S & Mrs T Poll Mr K Mooney & Ms K Brown Dr A Tucker & Dr J Selman Mr T Johnson & Ms K Burchmore Mr M & Mrs D Bell Mr I & Mrs M Dimits Dr K & Mrs K Barron Mr K Chho & Mrs S Chan Mr B & Mrs S Clayton Mr G Vlamakis & Ms A Jackson Mr A & Mrs J Lowe Mr K & Mrs A Weldin Mr M & Mrs M Hurlston Dr R Jones & Ms S Diamond Mr T & Mrs J Hall Mr N Xu & Mrs X Pan Mr P & Mrs M Williams Mr R & Mrs T Mackenzie Mr M & Mrs N Bouwmeester Mr J & Mrs G Kruss Mr Y Wang & Ms L Ma Mr W Huang & Ms Y Zhao Mr A & Mrs S Hirst Mr N Ma & Ms Y Cao Mr J Hu & Ms X Liu Mr S & Mrs S Toncinich Mr R & Mrs A Hood Mr T & Mrs M McGlone Mr D & Mrs A Kerr Dr Y Nikolayevsky & Mrs M Nikolaevska Mr J Tirta & Ms C Sardjono Mr P Krishnamurthy Mrs P Sekar Mr M Popelianski & Ms H Papasoulis Sue Hobday Mr A & Mrs E Dunn Mr V Trantino & Ms M Worley Mrs S Wilson

Mr G & Mrs C Van Rooyen Mr G Muller Mr C Chen & Mrs J Liao Mr D & Mrs J Murphy Mr M Huang & Ms C Zhu Mr T & Mrs K Paroz Mr B Dart & Mrs K Ewart Mr E & Mrs B Duman Mr G Challice & Mrs A Giezen Mr M & Mrs M McFarlane Mr S & Mrs J Carroll Mr W Shi & Ms L Liang Mr R & Mrs M Murphy Mr Y Duan & Ms P Li Mr M & Mrs D Granell Mr R & Mrs M Leydin Mr L & Mrs M O'Donnell Mr J & Mrs J Laurent Mr A & Mrs V Chaplin Mr & Mrs Beynon Mr R & Mrs A Smith Mr P Leason Mr V & Mrs A McCullough Dr A & Mrs L Leaver Mr C Leffler & Ms J Salvana Mr S & Mrs S Iatropoulos Mr N & Mrs J Cheah Mr M & Mrs K Humphreys Mr I Kulakovskiy & Miss P Lagutina Mr S & Mrs F Stevenson Mr K Yang & Mrs H Liu Mr C & Mrs J Hulley Mr G & Mrs L Duker Mr J & Mrs T Wang Mr A & Mrs A Hunt Mr M Truelove & Ms H Tang Mr D and Mrs K Durston Mr J Cuevas & Ms I Real Mr A & Mrs G Hamilton Mr S & Mrs N Spencer Mr & Mrs V Chun Mr C & Mrs M Apostolidis Mr M & Mrs N Smith Mr A Kondratov & Mrs E Kondratova Mr T & Mrs C Orchard Mr X Xie & Mrs J Wu Mr N Matthews & Mrs M Power Dr Z Hossain & Dr F Quamar Mr S Song and Mrs R Li Mr S Oh & Ms H Do Mr D & Mrs A Green Mr N & Mrs J Riley Mr Q & Mrs F Baxter Mr C & Mrs Q Zhang Mr W & Mrs C Growdon Mr G Gupta & Mrs K Rao Mr B & Mrs L Rafferty Mr A & Mrs J Straw Mr L Ben & Mrs L Wang Mr G & Mrs H Schmidt Mr M & Mrs V White Mr G Zheng & Miss H Shi Mr Z Weng & Mrs B Wei Mr D & Mrs K Bedford Mr R & Mrs C Esakson

Mr R & Mrs O Sleep Mr P & Mrs R Cowan Mr A & Mrs K Macmillan Mr M & Mrs N Horne Dr D & Mrs C Noble Mr P Atlee & Ms J Vannucchi Dr J Galanos & Mrs S Nhieu Mr D Harding & Miss R Kay Mr J & Mrs P Procter Mr & Mrs F Hutchinson Ms M Gill Mr D & Ms F McCall Mr W Xue & Ms X Wang Mr S & Mrs B Caldwell Mr P & Mrs V Papanikolaou Mr A & Mrs S Cafarella Mr M & Mrs K Gentle Ms Y Armstrong Mr B Zhong & Mrs C Tang Mr R & Mrs L Langenfelds Mr H Gu & Mrs M Wang Mr J Kiriakou & Ms A Stefanatos Mr P & Mrs E Lansley Mr P Righetti & Ms K Fergusson Mr D Orlenskiy & Mrs T Orlenskaya Mr A & Mrs D Corcoran Mr D & Mrs M Warmuz Mr X Jiang & Mrs H Zhu Mr D & Mrs K Nixon Mr T & Mrs T Bucci Mr N & Mrs B Hobbs Mr M Collins & Mrs C Bennell-Collins Mr S & Mrs C May Mr A Bromidis & Mrs E Minasian Mr B & Mrs D Henshall Mr B Hodgson & Ms D Melrose Mr J Lu & Mrs L Wei Mr S & Mrs J Holmes Ms L Pitt Mr A & Mrs L Malby-Luke Mr P Turnbull & Mrs K Wilson Mr S & Mrs K Dale Mr B & Mrs L Baker Mr F Wassmann & Mrs S Bulut-Wassmann Mr S & Mrs T Reed Mr M Walters & Mrs K Kroeger-Walters Mr J & Mrs L Lau Mr B & Mrs T Frankland Mr A Bozic & Ms D Katanovic Mr J & Mrs V Leonidas Mr S & Mrs D Peachey Mr J and Mrs H von Zweigbergk Mr G Weng & Ms M Wang Mr K & Mrs H Hennessy Mr R & Mrs N Awasthi Mr N & Mrs C Hogios Mr P & Mrs Y Bartonek Mr C & Mrs M Burnside Mr A & Mrs L Hudson Mr G Tian & Ms G Yang Mr S & Mrs R Mudholkar Mr R Terry & Mrs S Clark Mr S & Mrs J Hooker

The School gratefully acknowledges the following donors to the Mentone Grammar School Foundation Building Fund up to, and including, September 2020.

Mr M Harper & Mrs R Harper Mr S Brook & Ms M Farrin-Thorne Mr G & Mrs J Kershaw Mr J Pan & Ms J Zhu Mr A & Mrs G Bethune Mr M Selby & Ms J Stewart Mr S & Mrs V Johnson Mr S & Mrs G Dakic Dr M Ledger Mr X Fang & Mrs W Li Mr J & Mrs A Doulgeridis Mr E & Mrs J Glotzer Mr D & Mrs M Parr Mr S & Mrs A Dormer Mr K Aravindth & Mrs H Fonseka Mr J Redzia & Mrs S Chung-Redzia Mr M & Mrs D Finnis Mr R & Mrs A Fox Mr D & Mrs B Ingram Mr M & Mrs K Sorrenson Mr J Davis & Mrs S Gulde-Davis Mr D & Mrs K Federici Mr C & Mrs L Mouzouris Mr K Enkelman & Ms E Olsson Ms L Fedotova & Mr B Fedotova Mr C Lin & Mrs X Wu Mr M & Mrs M Karageorgiou Mr G Hayton Mr H & Mrs B Brown Mr A & Mrs T Richmond Mr & Mrs K Carson Mr C & Mrs G Rowlands Mr A & Mrs K Meldrum Mr & Mrs S Farrow Mr A & Mrs R Ishchenko Mr T & Mrs L Gallagher Mr N & Mrs T Lund Mr C Paterson & Mrs A Le Marquand Mr M & Mrs W Savage Mr C & Mrs F Dunkerley Mr R Grelewicz & Mrs D Jaden Mr A Athanasopoulos & Ms S Watt Dr C & Mrs D Pregnalato Mr R & Mrs S Hayes Mr M & Mrs E Selby Mr R & Mrs M Edmondson Mr M & Mrs V Riach Mr D & Mrs S Shipton Mr M & Mrs C Bond Mr R & Mrs G Carter Mr M & Mrs E Gorringe Mr T Hussain & Mrs E Karamantsos Mr C & Mrs M Rann Mr P Magennis & Ms J Haslam Mr A & Mrs G Moran Mr A & Mrs S Murray Mr J Schultz Mr P & Mrs K McKinnon Mr M & Mrs K Dannals Mrs R Wilson Mr S Eustice Mr S & Mrs C Bourke Mr D & Mrs B Coates Mr W Jin & Ms J Zhang Mr K & Mrs R Devers

Mr J Guppy & Mrs O Ludzish Mr M & Mrs M de Vos Mr D & Mrs T Murphy Mr D & Mrs T Flower Mr M & Mrs T Alapont Mr G Joynson & Mrs G Smith Mr C & Ms S Foster Mr C & Mrs L Albiston Mr Z Zhu & Mrs W Zhong Mr M & Mrs V Windram Mr M & Mrs A Huber Mr V Shanmugamani & Dr G Meenakshi Sundaram Mr G and Mrs W Scott Mr S Poberezovsky & Mrs N Poberezovska Mr R & Mrs K Holmes Mr M & Mrs M Gude Mr G Yu & Ms Y Li Mr & Mrs C Papadopoulos Mr M & Mrs G Toby Mr S & Mrs C Markovic Mr M & Mrs J Howe Mr D Taylor & Mrs D Taylor-Haynes Mr M Chan & Miss R Wane Mr A & Mrs D Chambers Mr C & Mrs H McNeill Mr P & Mrs J Cooley Mr D & Mrs J Spitzer Mr & Mrs Zallmann Mr R Wei & Ms G Han Mr D & Mrs K Grant Mr P Neylan Dr M Gokhale & Dr S Aradhye Mr V Le & Mrs K Tran Dr P New & Ms M Hodes Mr P Pavlidis & Ms S Giannakis Mr Brewer & Mrs Ramon-Michel Mr P & Mrs R Birch Mr E Zoggia & Ms E Giannakis Mr A Wright & Mrs S Lennard-Wright Mr C & Mrs J Thomson Mr G Scott & Mrs D Bucheler-Scott Mr P & Mrs J Mentiplay Mr N & Mrs N Hall Ms J Drewett Mr M & Mrs K Georgiades Mr D & Mrs K Carnegie Mr M Wheeler & Ms K Watson-Wheeler Mr M & Mrs C McGrath Mr Y Tian & Ms Y Chen Mr M & Mrs J Skinner Mr J McNamara & Mrs L Hilder Mr D & Mrs E Laws Mr A & Mrs H Long Mr A & Mrs B Kennedy Mr B & Mrs K McCarthy Mr D Grant Mr C & Mrs C Phillips Mr Y Yu and Ms S Fan Mr D & Mrs T Greig Mr A & Mrs J Brown Mr J & Mrs M Raffaut Mr B and Mrs G Connor

Mr D & Mrs A Tryfonopoulos Mr G Hanson & Ms P Torossi Mr M Robertson & Mrs C Veness Mr J & Mrs L Quenault Mr T Fantas & Dr G Soldatos Mr C Jones & Mrs L Matthews Mr P & Mrs J Hopkins Mr T & Mrs F Rickard Mr M Davey & Ms T Nash-Davey Mr P Hodgkinson & Ms C Ramage Mr M & Mrs S Wane Mr N & Mrs T Panagis Mr P & Mrs D Stilianos Mr C Hancox & Ms S Harriott Mr M & Mrs T Levey Mr F & Mrs M Sfameni Mr M & Mrs F Marshall Mr P & Mrs A Kokkinos Mr J Orr & Mrs A Lucena-Orr Mr S & Mrs C Davie Mr R Walker & Ms N Wane Mr M & Mrs S McCulloch Mrs Q Cao Mr M Jones & Miss J Saville Mr T & Mrs R Philp Mr K Brodie & Ms B Morris Mr G Pyszczek & Ms M Monk Mr C Prior & Ms S Tozer Mr D & Mrs C Ruberu Mrs S Higgins Mr U & Mrs I Guvenir Mr D Royale & Ms P d'Avrincourt Mr G Caris Mr B and Mrs J Lenarcic Mr C & Mrs S Clark Mr C & Mrs S Clark Mr G & Mrs K Barker Mr J Tan & Mrs R Bian Mr P & Mrs C Manning Mr C Sallabank & Ms J Douglas Mr J & Mrs P Malamatinas Mr D & Mrs J Goedheer Mr R & Mrs K Watson Mr J & Mrs M Clark Mr M & Mrs S Bailey Mr P Duffin & Ms A Schunker-Duffin Mr M & Mrs S Duggan Mr F & Mrs C Vitiello Mr C & Mrs A Michael Mr & Mrs L Donchos Mr S Biggs & Mrs J Snow Mr X Liu & Mrs H Dong Mr P & Mrs S Appel Mr C & Mrs V Nenke Mr R & Mrs S Zammit Mr L & Mrs R Moran Mr Y Xia & Ms Q Tang Mr R Lynch & Ms T Filiadis Mr D & Mrs D Notman Mr L & Mrs S Temby Mr D & Mrs T Nguyen Mr M Zou & Mrs Y Xu Mr K & Mrs S Nitschke Mr A & Mrs M McCauley Mr M & Mrs R Griffin

Mr N Oliver & Ms C Terry Mr G Smith & Ms E Cabanillas Vega Mr M & Mrs L Fennessy Mr P & Mrs R Brown Mr S & Mrs A Luca Mr P & Mrs I Derham Mr M Lighton & Ms E Kishida Mr M & Mrs M Jones Mr J & Mrs K Barrett Mr C & Mrs E Bakas Mr R & Mrs K Steiner Mr R & Mrs K Perring Mr S & Mrs J Cummins Mr A & Mrs T Jacques Mr G & Mrs J Wallwork Mr B & Mrs N Chaplin Mr D & Mrs A Pickering Mr G & Mrs M Stephenson Mr A & Mrs K Caughey Mr & Mrs Hunt Mr K Ong & Ms M Law Mr S Whittaker & Mrs K Chong-Whittaker Mrs J Swindells Mr A Thow Mr Z Yang & Mrs C Xu Mr E Abelnica & Ms J Kominotrus Mr J Shim Mr T & Mrs J Lucas Mr P Harrington Mr K Wang & Ms X Xia Mr R & Mrs K Block Mr B Murchie Mr J Sha & Ms Q Zhang Mr R & Mrs L Hennig Mr A & Mrs J Marsh Dr D & Mrs K Blackham Mr H & Mrs P Pham Mr and Mrs Becker Mr V Gromov & Mrs N Gromova Mr A & Mrs A Fraser Mr R & Mrs S Sniezek Mr G Smith & Ms E Cabanillas Vega Jude m Lau Mr T & Mrs F Rickard Mr A & Mrs D Newman Rev & Mrs K Pedersen Mr D & Mrs S Kent Ms K Althoff & Ms D Dowell Mr C & Mrs N Williams Mr N & Mrs F Sheppard Mr C & Mrs S Barden Mr A & Mrs S Gowan Mr M & Mrs N Stephens Mr M & Ms C Laidlaw Ms J Spargo Mr S & Mrs C Markovic Mr P & Mrs M Ellix Dr R & Mrs J Armit Drs T Osianlis Mr W & Mrs M Bean Drs A & C Van Heerden Mr T Simmons & Ms L McLeod

Mrs M Miller Mr D & Mrs L van Straaten Mr P & Mrs K Ursprung Mr M & Mrs S Saigal Mr G & Mrs T Brooks Mr P & Mrs K Zahra Mr R & Mrs J Dumont Mr G & Mrs L Chorianopoulos Mr T Phan & Mrs T Nguyen Mr S & Mrs T Poll Margret Bellamy Mr V Panopoulos Ms J Kemelfield Mr B Zhong & Mrs C Tang Mr B & Mrs M Rowse Mr X Fan & Ms H Sun Mr A & Mrs L Fogarty Mr S Zou & Mrs E Liu Mr S & Mrs L Turner Mr G and Mrs W Scott Mr A Jiang & Ms M Bao Mr W Hsu & Ms P Wong Mr W Wang & Mrs P Cai Mr R & Mrs D Rose Mr C & Mrs H Jin Mr J Chen & Mrs L Wu Mr S & Mrs Q Zhang Mr P & Mrs C Grella Mr D Meng & Mrs K Zeng Miss C Sreng Mr F and Mrs M Jung Mr X Fang & Mrs W Li Mr K Wang & Ms R Lu Mr Q Chen & Mrs X Lu Mr S & Mrs R Mudholkar Mr T Nguyen & Ms T Huynh Mr D & Mrs J Cusack Mr J Lee & Mrs E Chae Mr W Jin & Mrs X Ma Mr P Zhang & Mrs Guo Mr Z Xiang & Mrs M Jin Mr J & Mrs L Erickson Mr L Gong & Mrs R Qi Mr H Ruan & Ms X Feng Mr H Zhang & Ms J Qiu Mr C & Mrs A Huxtable Mr M & Mrs S Amos Mr X Huang & Mrs L Jiang Mr D Wee & Mrs C Ng Mr T Pullar & Ms M Robinson Mr M & Mrs E Jones Mr P Righetti & Ms K Fergusson Mr W Ouyang & Mrs P Li Mr C & Mrs Y Guneysu Mr N & Mrs M Raymond Mr S & Mrs L Kitson Mr S & Mrs S Toncinich Mr D Eley & Ms J Bladen Mr X Zeng & Ms M Sun Mr M Robinson & Ms V McMahon Mr A Al-hashimi & Mrs M Alyassin

Correct at the time of publication.

35

FROM THE

PRESIDENT Earlier this year, we were just becoming aware of COVID-19, however, six months later we now know that the global pandemic has dramatically changed the way we live, work and are educated.

To this end we have followed government advice, postponing our reunion and events program, for the foreseeable future. At the time of writing, we still do not know when we will be able to gather again, and what kind of restrictions we will have concerning attendee numbers. However, as soon as we can make calendar arrangements, we will do so and communicate this to all Mentonians.

Whilst we know that there is no substitute for face-to-face conversation in a group setting, involving those with the same interests as ourselves; we have found the majority of us have become more innovative and adaptable. We have embraced technology and now hold our committee and other meetings via Zoom. This included our recent Annual General Meeting at which all committee members retained their current positions, creating stability in our governance at this time.

Our Mentonian Clubs have worked with us to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their members; managing all aspects of ‘risk and compliance,’ commencing with the initial shutdown of our Keysborough facilities; followed by a return to training – only to be shut down again as the second wave hit Victoria. We sincerely thank our TMA Club Presidents and representatives for the exemplary manner in which they managed the entire process.

We are also pleased that, with the support of School leadership, we recently hosted a mental health wellbeing session to provide support and assistance to club members.

TMA COMMITTEE PRESIDENT Mark Henricks (1977)

VICE PRESIDENT Jon Ponnusamy (2010)

TREASURER Vic Stroumos (1978)

SECRETARY Georgia Ahern (2011)

COMMITTEE MEMBERS Josh Burt (1989) Cameron Dunkerley (1986) Mike Durack (1967) Ivan Eaves (1966) Miranda Ingram (2013) Jono Ling (2008) Jeremy Longstaff (1989) Peter Newton (1966) Mark Pearman (1982) Rob Sinclair (1976)

ALUMNI MANAGER Suzanne Ashley

Whilst the School has been closed, our ‘virtual’ office has remained busy updating data, sharing happy and sometimes sad news; along with many phone calls to express care, concern and keep in touch.

We have regularly communicated via online newsletters, bulk emails, the Mentor magazine, website and social media. We have enjoyed sharing archival memories and milestones and, despite not being able to gather, we are pleased to have continued our Friends of Frogmore video series.

Our Virtual Annual Dinner is, without doubt, a testament to the fondness with which The Mentonians and Mentone Grammar are held by former students. Despite lockdown, our 2020 Virtual Annual Dinner involved more than 50 contributors with insightful interviews, celebrated memories, musical performances, messages of support and the presentation of the Tony Drinan Medal to Steve Warrington AFSM (1978).

We also send our best wishes to the Class of 2020 for every success with their forthcoming exams and look forward to welcoming them as our newest Mentonians!

MARK HENRICKS (1977) PRESIDENT

36

Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

WELLBEING STRATEGIES...

KEEPING OUR CLUBS CONNECTED

With sporting seasons currently on hold, The Mentonians Association and Mentone Grammar have been working alongside Alumni Sporting Clubs, offering opportunities to participate in wellbeing and support webinars.

The sessions are specifically designed to provide teams and clubs with the tools to navigate through many of the issues they are currently facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In early September, members from each of the TMA Clubs were offered the opportunity to participate in a Sport & Life Training (SALT) Club Re-connect session with professional facilitator, Dave Burt. The Zoom session outlined key wellbeing strategies for our clubs and their members.

It also enabled everyone in the group to confidentially share how they have been coping, using an online poll to answer questions. For some of the questions, statistics were provided to evaluate the wellbeing of those in the group; allowing the session to be tailored to the attendees.

In the absence of being able to participate in sport together we realise, more than ever, that sport is about people and when we are away from each other, we miss out on really important social connections.

DAVE BURT The course was excellent and really hit the mark with the attendees. The course leader was honest and frank about the unique situation we now face and the importance of looking after our own health and wellbeing, whilst building strong leaders within sporting clubs who model resilience and character and are not afraid to reach out to family, friends and peers. Thank you to OMBC, OMCC, OMFC, MHC and MSC for proactively embracing opportunities to support the wellbeing of their members.

THE MENTONIAN CONTACTS OFFICE

AUSTRALIA

INTERNATIONAL

03 9584 4211 thementonians@mentonegrammar.net

ADELAIDE Peter Bray (1985) peter.bray@westnet.com.au

CANADA Ontario Mervyn Archdall (1957) marchdall@rogers.com

Alumni Manager Suzanne Ashley suzannea@mentonegrammar.net 03 9581 3254 (direct) 0481 602 144

BRISBANE Dan Chalmers (1999) daniel@chalmers.email CANBERRA Michael Taylor (1955) mbt@netspeed.com.au SYDNEY Luke Murphy (1990) lmurphy@csr.com.au PERTH Tim Ponnusamy (2006) timothy_ponnusamy@hotmail.com Phillip Yap (1985) pyap01@gmail.com HOBART Michael “Rusty” Reynolds (1986) michael.reynolds@dhhs.tas.gov.au

ENGLAND London Cambell Lean (1993) Cambell.Lean@isgplc.com Plymouth John Read (1973) theoldtro@gmail.com HONG KONG Peter Cheung (1992) cpcheuc@hotmail.com JAPAN Onomichi City Gareth O’Gradie (1999) ogradie@hotmail.com MALAYSIA Kuala Lumpur Kamal Ragupathy (1992) kamalpathy@gmail.com

Please contact The Mentonians Office: 03 9584 4211 if you would like to become one of our representatives.

To ensure that we remain in contact with you, don’t forget to keep your details up-to-date via our website: www.mentonegrammar.net/mentonians/update-your-details

USA Florida David Pearson (1987) aussiepearson@gmail.com New York Chris Leslie (1982) chris-leslie@macquarie.com Arnold Ephraums (1982) aephraums@mac.com Chris Jacob (1999) cj@cjacob.com Vermont Justin Johnson (1985) qdo606@gmail.com SINGAPORE David Goh (1961) davegoh@fastdel.com THAILAND Jitti Rachjaibun (1964) jitti_rach@dhonsiridsel.co.th David Wylie (1973) david.wylie@yahoo.com U.A.E. James Halliday (2008) james.halliday@hotmail.com

37

TONY DRINAN

MEDAL 2020 STEVEN WARRINGTON, AFSM Steve Warrington has enjoyed a remarkable career, which has made significant operational and leadership contributions to Australian emergency services.

Steve completed his education at Mentone Grammar in 1978. In his time, he was Captain of Were House, Vice Captain of the Cross Country team, served in the Cadet Unit and was an active participant in the School’s Community Service program. Outside of school, Steve was a Queen’s Scout and enjoyed sailing.

Steve’s career in emergency management spans over 40 years, commencing as a volunteer firefighter in 1978 with the Country Fire Authority at Chelsea. He took on further education to progress his academic qualifications and completed the CFA recruit course in 1983, serving 14 years as a staff member and volunteer, with his final volunteer years spent at Langwarrin. Steve holds a Graduate Diploma in Executive Leadership and is a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy, Maryland, USA. As a career firefighter, Steve held a wide range of operational positions within the CFA, a secondment to the Office of the Emergency Services’ Commissioner, and a senior role in the Community Safety Directorate.

Steve’s commitment to a collaborative approach to emergency management placed the community at the centre of the CFA’s actions, and focused on ensuring that the CFA continued to meet its legislative responsibilities, delivering services to the community.

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Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

01 02

Steve has significant strategic, operational and tactical experience at major incidents, including - the Arthur’s Seat chairlift collapse, the 2003, 2006 and 2007 bushfires, and the ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires in 2009.

More recently, he was challenged with the 2019 NSW bushfires – leading the deployment of over 2,500 Victorian firefighters on the ground, earning the trust and confidence of the people of NSW. In 2019, the CFA’s strategic intent to tackle the East Gippsland bushfires focused on protecting life and property, with a shift in strategy to educate people facing oncoming fire fronts and how best to look after themselves, to preserve life. As we live in one of the most bushfire prone zones in the world, Steve is incredibly proud that the CFA was able to move strike teams into towns well before the fire front arrived and hold community meetings. The CFA also remained in towns after the fires to make sure that people were well protected.

Prior to his retirement in June 2020, Steve was appointed to the dual position of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Officer of the Country Fire Authority on 31 May 2019. He was previously appointed Chief Officer on 30 June 2016. Prior to that, Steve was a Deputy Chief Officer, a rank he had held since 2007 across both the Readiness and Response and Emergency Management portfolios.

Most recently he has led the implementation of the Emergency Medical Response, Brigade Classification, Common Doctrine, CFA/MFB Secondment Program and was responsible for the CFA’s operational incident security arrangements.

In recognition for his distinguished leadership and contributions to emergency services, Steve was awarded the Australian Fire Service Medal, in the 2017 Governor General’s Queen’s Birthday honours.

Steve Warrington is a worthy recipient of The Tony Drinan Medal for 2020.

03 01 The Tony Drinan Medal.

Steven Warrington Acting CO 02

04

June 2010 to November 2010.

03 On the ground with the troops.

Steve online with his 04 Tony Drinan Medal.

39

VIRTUAL ANNUAL

DINNER 2020 Despite the challenges of 2020, the TMA was determined to deliver another fantastic Annual Dinner, to celebrate the many successes, achievements and contributions of our sports clubs and Community.

It was past president, Mark Pearman (1982), who first suggested we take the opportunity during this time to interview a ‘legend’ of each club, via Zoom, and make short videos to keep us all connected; especially whilst those of us located in Melbourne endured weeks of lockdown. A sub-committee was formed to progress the interviews, which included filming and post-production by talented fellow classmate, Stephen Witherow (1982). Our Annual Dinner, Master of Ceremonies Stephen ‘Chooka’ Grey (1974) and TMA Vice President and Co-Master of Ceremonies aka ‘The Apprentice’ Jon Ponnusamy (2010) along with Alumni Manager Suzanne Ashley, completed the group.

In a short period of time during lockdown, which included regular evening Zoom meetings, filming and follow-up in between other projects and their own ‘day jobs’ - the group worked to bring together our 2020 Virtual Annual Dinner. Highlights of ‘the evening’ were many:

Above: T ony Drinan Medal Winner, Steven Warrington AFSM (1978).

Right: 2 020 Young Achiever Kate Hore (2012).

Stephen Grey, filmed an extremely engaging interview with our most deserving 2020 Tony Drinan Medal Winner, Steven Warrington AFSM (1978).

Jon Ponnusamy filmed an inspiring interview with our 2020 Young Achiever Award Winner and Melbourne Football Club player, Kate Hore (2012) - AFLW Goal Kicker of the Year (2020) and All Australian.

Mark Pearman filmed interviews with the following TMA Club Legends:

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Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

OMBC

OMCC

OMFC

MHC

MSC

Roger Stansfield (1977)

Ivan Eaves (1966)

Garry Norton (1971)

Josh Burt (1989)

Cameron Dunkerley (1986)

Jon Ponnusamy also interviewed proud Honorary Mentonian awardee - John Christou, President of Mentone Soccer Club, as he reflected on his 10-year association and his desire to wear his new Mentonians tie!

Jon also recognised the service of the following Mentone Grammar Staff members achieving Honorary Mentonian status, recognising their (10 year) dedication and commitment. Jon also noted that whilst he is already a Mentonian, Craig Best (1988) has also completed 10 years of service at the School.

Above: 2 020 John Christou Hon OM MSC. Above Right: Current staff member and Mentonian, Craig Best (1988).

Right: Current staff and Honorary Mentonians 2020.

Below: L-R Don Ingram OAM* (1955), Jan Drinan, Emeritis Professor Glenn Bowes (1966), Mary Jones*.

We were also proud to include ‘lockdown’ messages of support from Mentonians and contributions from our Performing Arts Alumni group – Panther Productions. We are most appreciative of, and acknowledge the support of: Principal - Mal Cater (1981), TMA President – Mark Henricks (1977), Anna Mallows (2017), Shane Warne (1987), Dhruv Rodrigues-Chico (2016), Meghan Witherow (2014), Georgia Ahern (2011), James Shaw (2016), Blake Fischer (1992), Caitlin New (2015), Lachlan Howard (2020), Claudia Barlow (2018), Miles Thomas (2018), Jude Low (2018), Bridgette Kelsey (2015) and former Tony Drinan Medal winners, Geoff Ryan AM (1965) Board Chair, The Very Rev. Dr John Shepherd AM (1959) and Bob Nottle CBE (1960) along with ever-popular teachers, Trevor Stevens and Henry Kiss.

In addition, we thank past staff member, Greg Wilkinson for his introductory voiceover; passionate music teacher Lidia Mancini for connecting us with some of her Alumni music proteges, our Archives team and, of course, The Mentonians Association committee and Mentone Grammar for their support.

We also thank Jan Drinan, pictured in this iconic 2001 photo with the inaugural Tony Drinan Medal winner, now Emeritus Professor Glenn Bowes (1966), Don Ingram OAM* (1955) and Mary Jones* for her continued support, friendship and connection with this award and our community.

JOIN US FOR DINNER...

A link to our 2020 Virtual Annual Dinner link is available on The Mentonians website via: www.mentonegrammar.net/mentonians Please visit TMA website for details.

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The Mentonians Association

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FRIENDS OF FROGMORE On Friday 4 September, we should have been hosting more than 130 Mentonians for our very popular Friends of Frogmore Luncheon. A day on the calendar not to be missed for our Mentonians 40 plus years out. Obviously, this year we were unable to gather. Not to be deterred, we still wanted to provide the opportunity for everyone to reminisce and recall memories of happy days gone by. This was achieved via our Friends of Frogmore interview series, which we usually conduct in person prior to the luncheon each year.

WE THOUGHT THAT WE WOULD ‘DO OUR BEST’ TO CREATE THIS YEAR’S INTERVIEWS, VIA ZOOM, WITH BOB BOX (1969), MARK BISS (1965) AND GRAEME LUND (1968).

Right: Bob Nottle in 1980 Below Right: Brian Lewis Below: Bruce Lobb in 1984

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Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

Left: Bob Box (1969) Below Left: Mark Biss (1965) Below: Graeme Lund (1968)

Once set-up, the interviews continued from our homes during lockdown in Melbourne, and we were both surprised and delighted with the results. We gained some wonderful insight into the Mentone Grammar School of the 1960s and some very interesting and often amusing anecdotes were shared.

Bob Box attended the School from Prep through to Form 6 (Year 12). Bob spoke about the camaraderie of his year group and his favourite staff members, Bob Nottle (1960) an OM himself, and a young Accounting teacher in 1969. Bob helped the students hone their work ethic and organisational skills, which Bob Box said helped shape his life in an incredibly positive way.

He remembered Brian Lewis, a talented English teacher and well respected educator and, of course, who could forget the big personality of Bruce Lobb (ex-Army) School Marshal, who maintained order and ensured that the boys’ hair met strict compliance standards by arranging haircuts with the on-site school barber. The barber’s chair and associated stories, have also been a popular addition to many school reunions. Bob, along with Nick Toovey, Head Boy in 1969, worked tirelessly in 2019 to reconnect with their peers from 1969, ensuring a very special evening when they celebrated their 50 Year - Golden Reunion. Bob said that amongst the highlights for this group was the ability to catch-up with each other at the Friends of Frogmore luncheon, on the day prior to the 1969 Reunion.

This included, Canon Chris Ford flying in from Manchester (UK) and Gary Greig from Zanzibar, Tanzania and others arriving from various states and country areas around Australia, to attend.

Bob was absolutely amazed at how well the group ‘clicked’ with each other, especially as many members of the group had not seen each other since they had left School.

Mark Biss also has a long association

Graeme Lund started at 12 years of

with the School, commencing in Prep, describing it as a ‘small, integrated happy environment where you were able to strongly feel part of the School, community and local suburb’. Mark’s childhood home was around the corner from the School, and he lived next door to The Very Rev. Dr John Shepherd AM (1959), a favourite amongst his peers.

Dr Shepherd was the winner of the 2003 Tony Drinan Medal for Services to the Anglican Church.

age in Form 1 (Year 7) and said that after coming from a local primary school, he found it to be a big change to wear suits and caps and adapt to the more regimented school environment. Graeme said that he considers that a Mentone Grammar education in those days, a boys school made a ‘man’ of you, ensuring the ability to be able to walk into a room and speak to people, have good manners and to hold you in good stead with work, family and every aspect of your life. Graeme is still closely connected with his peers from the Class of 1968 and along with Ross McKenzie and Russell Vinning helped to organise a large gathering of their peers to celebrate the Class of 1968 – Golden Reunion in 2018; where they also remembered 1968 Head Boy and friend to all, Tony Drinan. Graeme’s three sons attended Mentone Grammar – Nick (1998), Ben (2001) and Tom (2003) with grandson William commencing in the ELC this year, and brother Christopher joining Year 2, next year.

Mark’s father, Cyril Biss (pictured left) was also quite a figure in the School’s history.

He was a Board, foundation member in 1957 and Deputy Chairman for many years. In 1984 when he retired from the Board, then Headmaster, Keith Jones, described Keysborough and Shoreham as ‘monuments to his vision, his commitment and energy’. He was considered the master strategist in the School’s master plan developments of the 1980s.

Mark warmly recalled school buildings, including the very small old classroom block where Science classes were held, being updated with the construction of the Benefactors Wing of Senior Science Laboratories and classrooms, completed in 1965, with the assistance of a Commonwealth grant and generous subscriptions from parents, Old Boys and friends of the School. Teaching facilities in the mid-1960s were greatly enhanced as seen in the photo with Mr Doug Mckenzie (pictured left).

He also commented that at that time, the School oval was probably the greatest asset as there was a groundsman called ‘Johnno’ who used his draught horse, ‘Bobby’ to sow grass seeds, ensuring that it was always in immaculate condition. Furthermore, Mark had notable memories of Cadet camps at Puckapunyal using ‘Bren light machine guns and Lee Enfield .303 rifles followed by an extremely memorable Cadet camp working as a ‘Slushy’ in 1966 at Portsea.

Phil is a former student, long serving past staff member, Officer of Cadets and amongst his many other talents, narrator of many of our existing video memories; including our House competition videos from the 1930s -1950s, shown at last year’s luncheon.

We would have also sent our condolences to Shirley Howard and family, on the recent passing of Graeme Howard (1955).

Graeme and Shirley always made the trip from Kyabram to join us and their friends from the Class of 1955 for our annual luncheon. We have included a Vale for Graeme on page 44.

Labore et Honore

Graeme still maintains great friendships with his peers from 1968 and associations with our clubs, especially the Old Mentonians Football Club. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Graeme has been pleased that members from the 1968 group have actively reached out to each other to check on their wellbeing.

So, if you haven’t done so already, give your school friends a call, check in and make sure that they are ok. There is no doubt that your contact and friendship will be appreciated. We are certainly planning our 2021 Friends of Frogmore Lunch and further interviews, hopefully face-to-face on the morning.

Above: The Lund Family L-R Tom (2003), Graeme (1968), Ben (2001) and Nick 1998) Below: Phil Kent in 2018

Sincere thanks to Bob Box, Mark Biss and Graeme Lund for their participation and good humour with their interviews.

If we had been able to gather, we would certainly have made a toast to Phil Kent (1948) who recently celebrated his 90th Birthday.

SHARING MENTONE MEMORIES Look out for our 2020 Friends of Frogmore video interviews for the Friends of Frogmore Luncheon event with Bob Box (1969), Mark Biss (1965) and Graeme Lund (1968) under the Friends of Frogmore section on our website: www.mentonegrammar.net/mentonians If you would like to share memories of your time at Mentone Grammar, please contact Suzanne Ashley: Email: suzannea@mentonegrammar.net Phone: 03 9581 3254

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VALE We record with sadness the passing of the following Community members; and extend our sincere sympathy to their families.

Further details are included online in our Monitor newsletter.

GRAEME HOWARD (1955)

In his time at Mentone Grammar, Graeme was awarded Colours for Football and Tennis and was a valuable allrounder for the 1st XI Cricket team. He was a School Prefect and one of four Under Officers who ably led the 1955 Cadet Unit. At the completion of ‘Year 12’, Graeme received an Academic Achievement award, presented to him by Sir Ian Clunies Ross, the inaugural Chairman of the CSIRO. Graeme was one of 62 boarders and matriculated with a clear pathway to tertiary study. His schoolmates remember him fondly as being humble and unassuming. The Class of 1955 and Boarders thoroughly enjoyed the company of Graeme and Shirley at our annual Friends of Frogmore luncheons and we send our heartfelt, sincere condolences to Graeme’s wife Shirley and children, Jeff, Tracey, Anthea, Tara and their families.

Labore et Honore

DOUGLAS CHARLES DENYER PH.C. JP Mentone Grammar and the broader Mentone Community lost a pillar of our society with the death of Doug Denyer on 29 June 2020, he was 98 years old. Doug was born near Maryborough in Queensland on 8 November 1921 and became a Liberator bomber pilot during WW2. After service in The Pacific, Doug returned to study and qualified as a Pharmacist, married and settled in Mordialloc where he ran a successful pharmacy for many years.

Doug became a Mordialloc City Councillor in 1957 and served until 1966 including a term as Mayor in 1962. He and his wife Winsome were well known for their involvement in community organisations. It is not surprising, therefore, that Doug became a founding member of the newly formed Mentone Grammar School Board of Management in 1958.

He was to serve until his retirement in 1994, and his service is recognised in the Douglas Charles Denyer Courtyard located in the Senior School.

Doug had three sons who attended Mentone – Tim (1964), Anthony (1968) and Spencer (1976). Remarkably Doug was still flying light aircraft well into his eighties and was still driving at 98 – a life well lived.

Labore et Honore MENTONE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOARD OF MANAGEMENT 1978 Seated: J. H. Charlesworth, D. C. Denyer, C. E. H. Biss, (Deputy Chairman) Finlay Anderson (Chairman), L. R. McBeath (Treasurer), C. G. Weir, C. W. M. White.

Standing: J. R. Waite (Assistant Registrar), N. F. Anderson, N. R. Pearson, J. J. Thorold (Secretary), J. E. Massey, D. J. Hamer, K. W. Jones (Headmaster).

AND NOW FOR SOME HAPPY NEWS...

Congratulations to Melanie and Josiah Crispin (2008) on the birth of beautiful daughter, Nina.

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Mentone Grammar WINTER 2020

WELCOME Congratulations also to Jess and Trent Goulding (2002) on the safe arrival of their gorgeous daughter, Scottie in Queensland.

Trent's family and father, Cliff Goulding (1976) are extremely proud.

MENTONIANS:

UN-DEBATABLY THE BEST! Despite restrictions and lockdowns, our Debating and Public Speaking Students were not going to give up on the Debating Season without a fight! Thanks to the students’ resilience, flexibility and determination, we have been able to virtually run all of our programs online, starting with our Years 5 and 6 Public Speaking Club and going all the way up to our Year 12 Debating Program.

Final Design

Style Guide

All of the students have worked incredibly hard to continuously improve their public speaking skills this year. In particular our Year 12 students have impressed us all with their willingness to attend extra training sessions, participate in coaching sessions with expert external coaches and actively take on board and implement feedback. This sheer hard work from our Year 12s resulted in both of our Year 12 teams progressing through to the State Finals!

To assist the Year 12 Debaters in preparing for the State Finals, we enlisted the help of some Mentonians via Suzanne Ashley, Alumni Manager and we were fortunate to be able to facilitate a Year 12 Mentoring

M

session, via Zoom, with members of the 1990 Year 12 Debating Premiership team: Justin Graham, Leath Nicholson and Stephen Foreshew. Our Year 12 Debaters loved chatting with the Mentonians and hearing their stories about what Debating was like 30 years ago!

The 1990 Debaters then stayed to listen as Year 12 (Team 1) competed in a Mock Debate against Year 12 (Team 2). Following the debate, the Mentonians spent time providing our Year 12 Debaters with extensive feedback and advice. This was invaluable information which greatly assisted their preparation for the State Finals.

To further assist the Year 12s for the State Finals, they participated in an Online Debate against the 2018 Year 12 Debating Team: Brandon Demura, Meg Siedle, Alex Siedle, Angus Goodwin and Imogen Schwartz.

This was a fantastic opportunity which gave our students practice in competing against a very experienced, elite team.

It has been an absolute joy to witness our Year 12 students work with our 1990 and 2018 Debating teams and I want to express my sincere gratitude to these Mentonians for giving up their time and providing their experience and expertise to assist our current teams.

SAM PONSFORD HEAD OF DEBATING AND PUBLIC SPEAKING 2020

From Justin Graham (1990): ‘When Sam and Suzanne reached out to us, we were delighted to hear about the endeavours and successes of the current MGS debaters, and it was a real pleasure to meet them and see them ‘in action’ over Zoom. It was also a pleasure to be reminded of our ancient win in 1990 (we would have completely missed the anniversary if not for Sam’s initiative!) and then to reconnect as a team, which we did on 12 September, 30 years to the day, with Stephen in the UK and Leath and me in lockdown in Melbourne. The consensus from our catch up was that 30 years has passed in the blink of an eye, that our experiences as debaters rank amongst our favourite memories from school (and were quite prophetic in terms of our vocational paths in later life), and that we were glad we didn’t have to come up against the current crop of MGS debaters who are a very talented group indeed!’

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SWIM WITH US

SWIM CLASSES AND SQUADS STARTING BACK SOON

Mentone Grammar is pleased to be in partnership with Engine Swim, that now manages aquatic programs, including the Learn to Swim, Squads and Schools in our recently refurbished Peter Royston Aquatics Centre. The Centre now operates as Mentone Aquatic.

Led by Olympic Games medallists, Toby Haenen and Andrew Lauterstein, Mentone Aquatics philosophy is to provide a high-quality swimming and water safety program, in a safe and healthy environment. Mentone Grammar is excited about this collaborative partnership that will provide all swimmers with the opportunity to be part of an outstanding program.

Find out more about Mentone Aquatic by visiting their website at www.mentoneaquatic.com, and stay up to date on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MentoneAquatic/ and Instagram at www.instagram.com/mentoneaquatic/.

Contact info@mentoneaquatic.com

THE MENTOR PUBLISHED BY MENTONE GRAMMAR

CONTRIBUTORS

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With special thanks to:

T +61 03 9584 4211

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Suzanne Ashley (TMA Editor), Sharon Bates, Kara Baxter, Adrian Camm, Jacquie Cartwright,

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