Greetings from St Bede’s College.

We have had a good week and the boys and staff are now in the swing of this first of the winter terms.

Year 9, 10 and 12 students had presentations from David Kobler, from an organisation called Your Choicez, Australia, and over 100 parents attended his seminar on Wednesday evening.

The topic for the parent night was "Raising Teens in a Hyper-Sexualized Society". The seminars for the boys dealt with the concerns around pornography, sexting, relationships and sex.

As I said to parents at the Wednesday evening presentation, the exponential increase in young people's exposure to inappropriate images online is difficult to manage, not only for parents but also for young people.

In a very professional and skilled manner, David dealt with these delicate issues and it was most helpful for boys and parents alike.

In future newsletters, we will provide links and resources to his presentations.

Yesterday we had the Summer Sports Pocket Assembly. Prize-winners follow later in the newsletter. My introductory comments follow for you interest:

"For a couple of minutes by way of introduction, I want to make a few comments about sport in general and about the importance of being active, and building physical activity into being part of our lives, and that being an important part of feeling good about ourselves. I will leave our PE Faculty to talk more about the science of why our bodies need exercise, but increasingly, exercise is far more now a conscious effort to do.

We see examples everywhere of how we have become more sedentary and how for an outlet, sitting in front of a device is seen as the preferred release from our core job rather than being active in some way. Year 12s, year 9s and year 10s are getting a related message as they attend the excellent seminars led by David Kobler, which illustrate that if the device is the prime source of an outlet for anyone in their spare time, there is potential harm that may cause on a number of fronts.

I am not going to steal his thunder however. Rather, to elaborate upon my point, I am going to tell you a story that happened in a city in China. Over the last 30 years the city of Shanghai has grown exponentially into one of the largest cities in the world and it has done so very quickly, now one of the financial powerhouses of the world. To build that city into the modern metropolis it took millions of workers from the Chinese countryside who came in and lived on the building sites. Some brought their families, some didn’t. Makeshift shanty dwellings were built on the building sites to house these many workers. The workers on these sites worked extraordinarily long hours but they were instrumental in growing Shanghai so quickly. Multi national groups either partly or fully owned many of these businesses that sprung up. A group of these along with their Chinese partners realised that the workers needed some outlet to give them a break. It was all very well building a new city quickly, but the people doing the dirty work needed a break of some kind. They realised this was a basic human need. What they also noticed was that the children of the construction workers had no education.

So a group of local and foreign businessmen, recognising that sport was only played by either the talented or the rich, set up a foundation called “Sport for All”. Interesting name because one of the first things they did was set up schools for the children on the building sites, ensuring that those schools offered sport as part of their curriculum. They recognised that sport was an important component and a basic need in the development of young people. Many construction companies followed suit and these schools and the sport curriculum in them still flourish today.

As we speak, last year’s deputy head boy and 1st XI Cricket Captain, Joe Bradley, is in Sri Lanka. He was in the country at the same time of the bombings, working in a similar foundation established in Colombo, the capital of that country. That Foundation was set up to give the opportunity to many poor children in that country to not only play sport, in this case cricket, but also to get an education. They too recognise that a basic need for young people’s development, is to be active.

Here at St Bede’s, I am pleased to say that 85% of you play sport for the College which is well above a national average. One noticeable statistic is the number who stop playing when they leave school, remaining inactive. Exercise is an important part of a healthy life style, not just while you are at school.

While many of the people we will acknowledge today are involved in individual sports, another aspect of playing sport is about playing in a team, which many of you do as well.

There are things you learn about being a part of a team, that not only apply to sport. They are transferrable to many other parts of life. The aspect I like about the Player of the Day awards that many teams run, is that while we acknowledge an individual, we also celebrate as a team. Good teams put TEAM first, and recognise that everyone has a part to play. Good teams recognise that……… for example, while a striker in a football game may get all the plaudits for scoring the goals, there are plenty others setting up that person to score them…… and there are many other similar examples in other sports with similar scenarios.

So when I look at our best sports teams, whether they are the first in their code or the C teams, that notion of playing for each other, enjoying each other’s successes and picking each other up when things go wrong, is an important lesson for life.

Outstanding achievers both from individual sports and team walk the stage today. I hope they appreciate how that is possible.

We congratulate them, but they must know that without the help of many others, including their team-mates, they would not be receiving any award.

And let's not forget the support of coaches - many of whom are here today, parents, the clubs and the overseer of Sport, Mrs Kissick. I know you will show your gratitude whether you receive an award or not." 

Until next week.

Justin Boyle