Term 4

As the year comes to an end and we all start wrapping up presents for our loved ones, Narrabri Clontarf have one last weekly recap to share with you all. 

Keeping pace with the rest of the year the last two weeks have been jam packed with events and activities. For our final two morning trainings we played Oz Tag on the school lawns. Fast paced games full of great teamwork, a few laughs and some awesome displays of skill. We especially appreciated the efforts made by Rozina Broderick, Bethany Bray and Liam Mair for coming down in the mornings and joining in on our training session. Full credit to the young men in our program ensuring the teachers were involved in our games and enjoyed themselves. Rozina was particularly impressed "So good to see the manners the boys displayed. That they were all pitching in. The boys were happy to include me, telling each other to throw it to me making sure I had a turn and got to touch the ball! It made me feel good."  Looking forward to more teachers finding the time to get involved in 2025. Morning trainings are every Wednesday and Friday morning from 7:00am with breakfast served at 8:00am.

A group of Year 9/10 boys went on a worksite tour with corporate partners Whitehaven Coal. Wanting to play the part, the boys were all proud as punch to be dressed in the appropriate PPE, talking as if they had been working in the industry for years? Well, doing their best impression. Once we arrived on site, we received a briefing on daily operations from the site manager and a few others. Callum was fascinated by the work and had a lot of questions. Tyler asked the question on all the boy’s minds, "How much money can I make if I work here?" The boys were impressed with the answers and are all considering a job in the mining industry. We moved on to one of the lookouts over the pit, where we could see all the machinery in action.

Thursday night last week we held a school sleep over for our top attenders. We had over 20 boys attend the night. It was highly successful and something we'll repeat again next year. The boys got to go to the pool after school for a swim and some games, the Tourist Hotel for dinner, they purchased party food with the money they earned from the return and earn scheme, had a call of duty tournament hosted by games master Jye Norris, played hide and seek around the school, which came to a quick finish when the sprinklers came on and finished the night with a scary movie. 

We are so proud to see the boy’s achievements every year and I remain continuality impressed with their outcomes and watching the young boys grow into men. It was fantastic to see so many academy members receive awards at the school's presentation night. 

From Clayton, Corey and Ashley we wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. 

Whilst Ashley, Corey and our top students in Years 10, 11 and recently graduated 12, where away on the Gold Coast for the end of year camp, the junior academy members got a lot done around Narrabri. On the hottest days of the week, we always look to go to the pool to cool off, the boys showing off their dives and bombs into the water, Rydell is the ultimate zen relaxing underwater. Braydon went to Tryeright for a week of work experience, picking up some casual work over the holiday period. Great work Braydon! Cody, Michael and Jamarlee recycled bottles and cans from around the school at the local return and earn, raising money for our end of year school sleep over party. The boys then met up with our local partners at Bunnings to donate a table and bench set assembled in store by 4 of our Clontarf Academy members, something we will repeat in Term 1 next year, the table was donated to Winanga-Li in Narrabri, as chosen by our Clontarf students.

First stop of the Years 10, 11 & 12 camp we visited corporate partner Brisbane River City Ferries who operate in conjunction with Sealink. It was an awesome experience for the boys. We then ventured into the city for the Storey Bridge climb, it was a

a little too much for Luke, who got to the bottom of the bridge stairs then had to turn back with wobbly legs. Wednesday, we headed to Movie World, some of the boys took on the big rides while those not so keen performed their best impersonations of Wonder Woman. After which we spent the afternoon at the beach, the boys had a ball before heading back to our accommodation for a shower and relax. We then headed to Top Golf, we think there are more Happy Gilmores than Tiger Woods' when it comes to the driving range, Zeiken and Ethan fancied themselves as golfers. Thursday, we went shopping at Harbour Town and Pacific Fair before Friday morning when we got up early for our trip home to the ninth wonder of the world – Narrabri.

Monday morning Clontarf leader and 2025 school captain Blake Christian attend the Narrabri community Remembrance Day event held by the RSL. He was joined by 3 other Clontarf leaders who have recently been involved with the Cadets program in Tamworth. All boys portrayed a great example for both Clontarf and Narrabri High School. Well done men. You can see more photos of the boys from the day in the local paper.

Later that afternoon we held our annual Clontarf Awards Evening. It was great to see so many people from the local community getting out to support our students. The awards night is an opportunity for us to celebrate the many achievements of the Clontarf students. The award winners for this year are as below.

The 85% or over Attendance Awards

Year 7 – Tyrell Russell-Towney, Jesse-James Quinn, Michael Harris-Clayton, Rydell Kelly and CJ Lamb

Year 8 – Tyreake Dixon, Beau Laws, Mavrick Croaker, Rylan Bassett and Jacob Teer

Year 9 – Beau McKnight, Tyler Walford, Leondre Smith, Koby Hennessy and Rodney Gibbs-Eulo

Year 10 – Ethan Harris and Ethan Walford

Year 12 – Jye Norris

The Education Awards

 Year 7 – Deklan Condran, Rydell Kelly, Cooper Mason, Tyran Lawler, Jesse-James Quinn and Sonny French

Year 8 – Douglas Parker, Kostah Rooney, Jarrad Lawler, Cooper Rickard and Jacob Anderson

Year 9 – Tyler Walford, Cody French, Levi French, Callum Lawler, Michael Stanford, Leondre Smith and Rodney Gibbs- Eulo

Year 10 – Luke Gordon

Year 11 – Kaden Harvey and Declan Rooney

The Encouragement Awards

Brayden Hanslow, Hunter McMahon, Troydell Ward and both of our MC’s Blake Christian and Zeiken Green Murray.

Young Achiever Award - Rydell Kelly

The Principals Award - Jacob Teer

The Clontarf Spirit Award and Emu of the Year Award - Jye Norris.

Whilst the weather continues to heat up and the days get longer, we are still super excited to be here working with the young Aboriginal men in this town. 

Tuesday afternoon we had a small group of boys hang back to carve jack-o-lanterns for the upcoming Halloween night. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon we are inviting all of the boys to stay back and take part in our activities. Although we'd like to see more boys involved it's good to know a large number are currently partaking in OZtag every Tuesday afternoon (which will help us at the week 5 Fox Sports Clontarf OZtag competition). Jamarlee, CJ, Rydell and myself all made 4 very different looking pumpkins. I was very impressed with the boys focus and creativity.

Wednesday morning Corey and Ashley lead the boys out onto the school oval to practise their cricket skills. Michael was eager to show off his cricket skills constantly reminding everyone he plays on the weekends. For many of the boys the game didn't come naturally to them, but with perseverance and determination they started to get a handle of the rules and skills involved. 

Thursday afternoon we had a 9-hole hit out on a very long course designed by Cody, Levi, Tyran and Tyreake. Thanks to the NHS PE department for lending us some antique golf clubs, we were able to get around the course quicker and everyone completed it by the time we needed to head off, there were some impressive drives off the tee. 

Friday morning, we started our preparation for the earlier mentioned OZtag camp in Sydney. The boys hard work is starting to pay off. With some highly skilled and competitive games. The boys will partner with workers from Fox Sports in week 5 and play in a 6 pool OZtag competition. Each team will play 3 games with the top teams playing off in the finals. This camp is open to all Year 7, 8 and 9 Clontarf boys. So long as they are attending school (and class) above 80% of the time. It will be a great camp to reward those boys that have done the right thing. 

We find ourselves in the last school term of 2024, week 1.

Due to some technologic mishaps, we are only having 2 photos to share with you for the week, but I think they are pretty good. Michael has been instrumental in the success of our vegetable patch. A project several boys have had a hand in over the last few months. Can't wait for the harvest, already looking a lot more promising than last year’s crop.

You will find on the school's website, via the Clontarf 2024 page an invite to our end of year awards. Through the week CJ and I went and visited our local partners giving them each an invite to our end of year ceremony. Followed by myself and Rydell handing out invites to each staff room within the school. Please come on down to help us celebrate the boys and their many achievements this year.

We had good numbers to our morning training this week. Moving ahead the boys will be doing Oz-tag as they have a round robin competition coming up in Eastern Sydney hosted by Fox Sports. The boys are very passionate about any rugby league related games. We look forward to taking the boys down in week 5.

Our senior students will be treated to a camp in the Gold Coast in week 7. All boys are welcome to come as long as they can meet the following requirements. Term 4 average attendance of at least 80%, no outstanding N-Awards and they have completed their health checks. We are working hard to lock in activities for this camp. Last year the boys went to Top Golf, NRL Titans training session, Wet 'n' Wild, Go Karts, Laser skirmish and the beach.

Will have more photos to share next week, apologies once again.