Illalong Newsletter 10 September 2021

IGNITE – a week of inspiration!

I was fortunate this week to be a member of the pre-judging panel for the IGNITE pitches and I was incredibly inspired by what I witnessed. The IGNITE: Ideas with Impact week for Year 10 has clearly had a significant impact on these students and their consideration of our environment and need to change. At the beginning of the week, the students are tasked with developing a sustainable business idea that has a compelling need, either locally or globally and can present a clear solution to this challenge.

The calibre of the presentations that were witnessed was impressive with business models that ranged from protecting your pets and animals in shelters, devising a device that allows for a panic alert to be sent to protect women who are at risk and an autonomous boat that collects rubbish from our canals. Each group had to consider the potential to scale their business as well as produce a well thought out budget to start up the company. It was evident that each group had worked incredibly hard and the five groups that progressed to the next round competed today in front of a panel of judges and their peers.

Mr Vanessa Baxter has facilitated this event and I am sure that students will be thanking her for the opportunity to challenge themselves to think locally to provide a clear and compelling solution to a global issue. I look forward to hearing more from our students about their trade show and the final ‘pitch off’, and reading more about their experiences in upcoming issues of Illalong and Vision Splendid magazine!

Charlotte Brook
Head of Senior School

Poetry is Good for the Soul

Following the successful annual Poetry Competition in the Junior School this week it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the power of poetry, its obvious connection to A.B. Paterson College and why it is so good for the soul!

Here are eight particular reasons why Poetry is so good for the soul and is considered one of the most underutilised mediums in modern culture.

1.Poetry is Good for Developmental Learning

In child education, children’s verbal and written skills are somewhat underdeveloped. Poetry helps by teaching in rhythm, stringing words together with a beat helps cognitive understanding of words and where they fit. Additionally, it teaches children the art of creative expression, which most found highly lacking in the new-age educational landscape. In essence, poetry gives them a great tool for developing one’s self.

2.Poetry is Good for Developing Skills

Writing, speaking, and understanding can all be greatly influenced and nurtured by the use of poetry. Learning rules for writing, and then breaking them with poetry, can give writing alternative beauty. Speaking poetry aloud with its beat, rhythm, and rhyme can loosen the tongue and craft a firm foundation for verbal communication. Learning to understand poetry also gives the mental fortitude, as well as the drive, to understand written communication.

3.Poetry Helps Improve Ideas

Have you ever sat there and not known what to write? Picking up poetry, reading through different excerpts from classic poets can blossom ideas you never knew existed. Reading and writing poetry makes you think of new ideas, but can also dramatically change the way you perceived old ones. It is a way to process experiences, visual descriptions, and emotions.

4.Poetry is Therapeutic to the Writer

Poetry Therapy is a creative arts therapy using the written word to understand, and then communicate, feelings and thoughts. Poetry is typically short, but largely emotional. Writers get in touch with sentiments they might not have known they had until it was down on paper. Expressing how one feels is difficult. Poetry is considered one of the best outlets.

5.Poetry is Therapeutic for the Reader

For those who have a harder time expressing themselves, reading poetry can have a similar positive effect as writing it. Reading poetry allows one to see into the soul of another person, see what is weighing on their minds and on their hearts, and can open doors to feelings that are sometimes suppressed until that door is opened. Reading can shine a light on all those dark and hidden crevices of the heart and mind once thought permanently closed off to the world.

6.Poetry Helps you Understand the Significance of Words Themselves

By design, poetry is broken into short, but strategic sentences. By doing so, writing and reading poetry makes one understand the significance of every single word and their placement. Sometimes, without a single word, it can change the entire rhythm and meaning of the poem itself. Writing poetry forces the person to consider, and reconsider, each piece and length of their verses. In poetry, words are magical, moody, deep, and even quite difficult. One gains the utmost appreciation for them when handling delicate sentence structures provided in poetry pieces.

7.Poetry Helps you Understand People

One of the hardships of the current age is the ability to understand one another. Miscommunication and misunderstandings lead to mass amounts of frustration. Reading and writing poetry actually gives people the improved ability to understand others. From a writer’s prospective, you have to be able to convey the true nature of your writing to an unknown reader. That means diving deep into what parts you want them to understand, what you want them to feel, and what to take home with them that will resonate long after reading.

8.Poetry Helps you Understand Yourself

Ever felt out of place? Have you ever wondered why you are thinking or feeling a certain way? Ever been frustrated because your friends couldn’t ever possibly understand you because you don’t even understand what is going through your head? Poetry makes you think. It puts a spotlight on what the issues might be and forces you to logically and methodically answer to it. Poetry can give you insights into yourself that you never knew existed but always wanted to understand. There is no greater sadness than not knowing one’s self-worth, but there is no greater power than the complete understanding of one’s identity. Poetry can give you that power.

We saw an excellent standard of poetry recitals this week by the finalists from Years 1 – 6 in the three categories of Traditional, Own and Humorous verse. I wish to say congratulations to all students who put in the effort in their classes to participate in the competition, those who made it to the finals in the LPAC this week and those who were adjudged the winners. It truly showed the love of poetry at the College and our deep seated values were on display, in particular community, integrity, creativity and learning.

Simon Edgar
Head of Junior School

Year 10 Semi Formal

The months leading up to the Semi-Formal were filled with excitement as our cohort anxiously waited for our big night. After a near miss with lockdown, we were fortunate enough to have our big night out; the perfect way to end exam block. Semi-Formal was definitely worth the wait, everyone’s outfits were stunning. The chance to dress up and spend a night with friends was very exciting however, we could never have anticipated the amount of fun Semi-Formal was going to be.

A beautiful performance by Joe Dejima on the piano, welcomed us as we arrived. As the festivities got under way, people raced to the photobooth and dance floor. The photobooth was a hit; everyone wanted to have their share of the fun. People left with stacks of photos and a collection of unforgettable memories. Meanwhile, people danced the night away on the dance floor. The Rock Band performed three amazing pieces which were a hit with our cohort.

Semi-Formal was a night to remember, which would not have been possible if it weren’t for the amazing people coordinating the event. I would like to give a special thank you to Angelina Inthavong – College Leader Interact – and the volunteers from the Interact Club, who made the Semi-Formal fun for everyone. A very big thank you to the staff who took the time out of their weekend to make our evening so very magical. And of course, thank you to the Class of 2023 for creating a night full of everlasting memories.

Charlotte Squire
Year 10 Student