ST GREGORY’S COLLEGE EVENTS

Events at the College

Boarding Family Weekend

Mr Luke Morrissey - Director of Boarding

The St Gregory’s annual Boarding Family Weekend was held on mid-May at the College. Having missed this opportunity in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was wonderful to have the College brimming with families again celebrating their son’s successes.

We were also blessed to have many students from the Class of 2020 there to celebrate with them, as they couldn’t do this last year. Having our Old Boys as part of the weekend made the event even more special.

On the Friday, it was encouraging to see many families engaging in the student-parent-teacher interview process and then gathering for dinner in the evening.

The Rugby Gala Day on the Saturday, despite the freezing temperatures, turned out to be a great day with close contests across all age groups and divisions. A highlight for the families was the jersey presentation from Jason Thompson. Jason spoke so eloquently about his experiences at St Gregory’s, in particular his sense of family, community and mateship whilst a boarder here.

The highlight of the Gala Day is always the tunnel for the 1st XV with parents enjoying welcoming their son onto the ground.

The most significant event of the weekend is the Family Mass on Saturday night with the parents being able to see and hear the talent the boys possess when it comes to singing. Although COVID-19 did place some restrictions on this event, the students showed their parents how passionate they are about their faith through their singing. The night finished with a Parent Cocktail Evening and sibling dinner for the students. This was a fun night, with all the boarding parents having the opportunity to mingle.

A massive thank you to the Hill, Alcorn, McDonnell, Elworthy and Sherd families for all their donations that made the event possible. We look forward to 2022 being bigger and better!

Year 10 Family Fun Night

Mrs Ally Buckley - Parent Engagement Coordinator

At St Gregory’s we see value in our parents sharing the schooling journey with their sons. We invited Year 10 boys and their parents to a fun filled evening of art and sporting activities.

Parents were led by their sons to the College Visual Art rooms, to engage in a lesson from our Visual Art staff. There was lots of experimenting as families worked together to create an abstract artwork using coloured and iridescent inks. Mini designs were created as families experimented with the colours to then finally join together to design a larger family piece.

There certainly were lots of different techniques as our artists used straws to blow the ink around the page creating unique designs. The evening concluded with dinner in the Boarders’ Dining

Hall and the announcement of the winning abstract artwork. Parent feedback was very positive with comments about how much fun was had and the great idea of mixing sport and art activities. The parents were very appreciative of the time the College staff gave up away from their own families to share in the Year 10 Family Fun Night.

College Trivia Night

Ms Melissa Watts - Communication & Community Engagement Coordinator

On Friday 28 May the College hosted its inaugural Years 7-12 Family Trivia Night. We had a wonderful turnout from families from Years 7-12, along with their sons, friends and family members. In excess of 140 people attended the evening, and by all accounts had a wonderful night!

There was some friendly competition on the night and some very unusual team names, but most importantly, everyone had fun. A big thank you to the hosts, Time For Trivia, who ran the evening perfectly and to Santo’s Pizza on Wheels for the delicious wood-fired pizzas.

There were opportunities for guests to make gold coin donations throughout the evening and with their generosity we raised over $400 for Marist Solidarity. The funds will go to support a school in

Timor Leste.

The winners on the night were team, ‘St Elmo’s’ and the winners of the Wooden Spoon award were team, ‘Dynamic Duo’. Congratulations to both teams. We look forward to hosting an even bigger and better night in 2022!

Junior School Mothers’ Breakfast and Liturgy

Mr Joel Weekes - Head of Junior School

To celebrate Mother’s Day 2021, the Junior School had the privilege of having over 150 ‘Mums’ brave the wet weather and attend our Mother’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy with their sons and daughters.

This was our chance as a College, to thank all the mothers from the St Gregory’s community, for all that they do for the students. We thank all who attended the Mother’s Day Breakfast and shared a lovely morning with us. We trust that all had a wonderful time as a family in the Junior School.

After the breakfast, our Junior School mothers and carers had the opportunity to listen to our Junior School Prayer in a variety of languages that make up our community and listen to a very cute poem led by our Kindergarten students and teachers. Our mothers and carers, then spent some time in the classrooms seeing their child’s work, making a lovely set of rosary beads and participating in a classroom liturgy led by the Junior School staff. It was a lovely experience to walk from class to class witnessing the interactions in the classes laughing, talking and experiencing time at school together. This event was missed in 2020 due to COVID-19, so it was a great experience this year.

During the week, the students also had the opportunity to buy their Mum a gift from the Mother’s Day Stall. For some of our younger students, this was a great learning opportunity as they not only got to buy something for Mum by themselves!