Firbank Grammar School

Our boys have worked hard to construct creative and challenging products and have worked after school and on the holidays to get their pieces finished. We congratulate this year’s cohort for a successful year of building and folio work. I hope you all get to enjoy some family time together over these holidays. Good luck to our Year 12s as they commence the final stages of their Year 12 journey with the trial exams during the holidays. Congratulations also to the F1 in Schools team for their skill in not only making to the world finals in Singapore this week, but for their excellent results.
Both teams were presented Awards in a traditional Rugby post-match function, and are looking forward to the many new rugby experiences ahead in their futures, with Commonwealth and Olympic Games, and Rugby World Cups coming to Melbourne. Victorian Schools' Rugby Union is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Liam Neveling as Head Coach and Mr Tony Hollamby as Manager of the 2023 Victorian Schools' Rugby Union team. Liam takes the reins over from Mr Anare Koliavu who did a wonderful job over the last 4 years and was amazing during the difficult times of the Covid pandemic.

From joining one of our parent groups or committees to assisting with our mentoring program or simply sharing an idea, you can make a difference to the strong sense of community support we enjoy at BGS. The gift you make today will enable the School to support scholarships, build funds to invest in School facilities and support programs that would otherwise not be available. For 140 years, BGS has advanced through the generosity of our benefactors. Our promise to you is that not one cent of your gift will go into the general operational accounts of the School.
As we head into our final term for the year which will be action packed, it’s a great time to reflect on how far our youngest boys in the school have come this year in their development and love of learning. We have an obligation to continue to develop a caring and nurturing environment among our students. Of course, our boys will ‘slip up’, make mistakes and poor choices, that is part of life and the learning journey our boys are on. As we approach the end of Term 3, our Year 12 students and Year 11s who are studying a Unit 3/4 subject are well entrenched into their study routines as they work towards their final examinations next term.

I encourage parents to read this week’s news from Crowther which focuses on the importance of mindfulness, and to listen to Dr Ray Swann’s podcast with high-performance mindfulness coach Emma Murray who echoes these messages. Noone Imagewear runs a program whereby outdated academic uniforms can be used by less privileged communities. Shorts and pants will be the same for all students from Prep to VCE, making the uniform more cost-effective. Other changes include the use of better quality fabrics, and more comfortable and age-appropriate fit. We felt that a new uniform, with a more consistent design from ELC to VCE, was required to reflect BGS as a single-campus school. Implementing a consistent look across the School also means uniform cost savings for parents.
In the coming weeks, our Year 6 students and parents will have their first formal day and presentation, we will host our new Year 3 to 6 boys who are joining us next year and we will welcome our 2024 Prep boys to the  corridors of Wilson House. These programs are also a reminder of how fast the end of the year is approaching. Michael Spencer Urwin was appointed headmaster at the beginning of 1996.

Through the extreme generosity of an Old Boy, along with his wife, a Creativity and Entrepreneurship Scholarship has been established at Brighton Grammar School. The donors’ motivation to establish this scholarship is not only admirable but also aligns with the School’s intent to embark upon a Design Thinking approach to learning. Firbank Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school, situated in the suburb of Brighton, in the Bayside area of Melbourne, Australia. Many parents report feeling unprepared and unsure about how they should support their children on the party scene. Our Christmas Pageant rehearsals are now in full swing as the boys make their way over to the RT Hall for our daily rehearsals. We have also started to practise with stage lights and microphones – always an exciting experience.
Our ELC4 boys have developed so much this year and are now ready to practise being Prep boys. They will travel across the car park to Prep over the next three Thursday mornings. The wearing of the broad-brimmed hat during recess and lunch will be compulsory from Monday 9 October. Wednesday saw the culmination of efforts, with our top 16 finalists presenting their projects to a panel of esteemed staff members and the 2022 iDesign champion, in what we fondly refer to as ‘Sharktank’. Presenting your 2023 iDesign award winners.During Week 1 of Term 4, the Year 8 boys unveiled their impressive iDesign projects, which they had been working on since Term 1.
The introduction of a new striped blazer for Years 11 and 12 ensures that the senior boys are easily recognisable as leaders within the School and the wider community. This blazer will be presented to boys by the School at the conclusion of their Rites of Passage program towards the end of Year 10. For some young people, the idea of going to school can cause high levels of distress.

Through our partnership with MITS we now have several Tiwi boys attending Brighton Grammar School. The purpose of these experiences is to give our boys an extended opportunity to develop relationships, learn about the cultures of the Thaayorre, WIk and Kugu people and spend time exploring the beautiful landscape of Gulf. Brighton Grammar School acknowledges that our school is on Country of the people of the Kulin Nations. We wish to honour the connection to Country of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and pay respect to their Traditional Custodians and Elders past and present. We extend our utmost gratitude to Ms. Yan from BGS and Mr. Tang from FGS, for their support, assistance, and supervision during the events.
Parents interested in becoming a Year Level/Parent Representative in 2023 should notify Odette Kerr by end of term. Communications will be sent in early 2023 regarding a time to meet with Simon Angus, Deputy Headmaster, Head of Secondary School. Speakers reflected on the year’s highlights, we celebrated the academic achievements of our students and then showcased the breadth of talent we have across the school in the performing and creative arts fields. Both were uplifting events that rounded off our 140th year in true style and underlined where we are at as a school. The Haileybury program is tailored to suit each educational stage, building resilient and independent learners, with a strong work ethic and critical skills in decision-making, leadership and enterprise.