School sporting scholarships/recruitment

[behindtheshed]

Vallance?!

I don't know the man . but I will say I overheard a conversation about a year ago . and it was while sitting in one of Sydney's most exclusive clubs (of which I am not a member) and this Grammar old boy was ripping into Valance . a high profile barrister . whose name will remain unstated for obvious reasons

unfortunately I couldn't quite capture the entire conversation . but it was in the wake of what apparently had been very disappointing HSC results

and this person had a daughter at either SCEGGS or Ascham, as well as a son at SGS . I didn't quite catch it . but he was of the opinion that SGS was a disaster and he benchmarked it to Ascham (?)

his view was SGS had been HIJACKED . and Vallance had well and truly over-stayed his welcome .. been ASLEEP at the wheel . other emotive language . and it sounded like moves were afoot to push Vallance . but then nothing came of it

anyway I will say Grammar is a school, that has old boys in powerful places . like no other . stating the obvious I know

it will be very interesting to see who is the next headmaster, and to see if sports regains some of its lost importance in the educational process

I heard almost the same complaint about SGS from a group of current parents on the sidelines of girls' sport recently. If you are a top achiever, you receive a lot of attention and support. Anything less, and you are quote, "invisible". No pastoral care, extremely rigid and conservative educational methods, a sense of failure among boys in the lower ranked classes (who would probably be academically outstanding anywhere else), absolutely brutal "sink-or-swim" ethos.....if I'd been taking notes I could go on. Both said they wished they had sent their sons somewhere else.

 

[BeastieBoy]

Dr Lambert had a very different perspective at Scots. His sequential strategy appears to have been:
Step 1. Ensure rugby (and basketball and cricket) success with top flight players.
Step 2. Build a world-class rugby (and rowing and basketball) program with facilities, time to train, and coaches.
Step 3. Enrolment demand rises as prospective parents (especially those with talented sons) see the benefits of giving their sons access to the world class sporting facilities at a winning school.

 

[BeastieBoy]

Yes it is. Unfortunately all the A teams are taken up with sponsored boys. You pay your $47k in school fees in year 8 and your boy doesn't get a look in. Crazy. As a result the percentage playing the sport is dropping. Rugby is no longer compulsory in years 11 and 12.

 

[formerflanker]

Yes it is. Unfortunately all the A teams are taken up with sponsored boys. You pay your $47k in school fees in year 8 and your boy doesn't get a look in. Crazy. As a result the percentage playing the sport is dropping. Rugby is no longer compulsory in years 11 and 12.

Do you mean that sport is not compulsory for boys in years 11 and 12?

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Both said they wished they had sent their sons somewhere else.

Love to know where and what they thought they were supposed to get for the money.
Guarantees?

 

[Spieber]

Newington may not be Sydney Grammar, but scholarship is taken very seriously at the school

Something that has not escaped the attention of this thread over the years.

 

[Rob hart]

Interesting to note that the Stanmore rowing coach from Kinross has had two "new" boys turn up with him in year 11......... The previously pure sport seems to have been tainted .......... Same parent said 8 boys in the New 16a"s rugby were being helped in one way .......... Or another ......

 

[behindtheshed]

Love to know where and what they thought they were supposed to get for the money.
Guarantees?

None mentioned money. They did not begrudge the money. Their complaint was the sense that their boys did not matter to the school as human beings.

 

[CatchnPass]

how's his rowing program going????
the one thing you can't import success in!

Why is that? One would have thought bringing in a few well credentialled rowers would give a significant boost to a boat/program

 

[JuanBarn]

Their complaint was the sense that their boys did not matter to the school as human beings.

That's interesting as that's how I felt about my time at Shore finishing in the v early '90s. Basically persona non grata. After being in 'A' teams for most of my schooling, developing type 1 diabetes and loosing weight then muscle mass in the process, and being dumped down about 4 grades for my health apparently. Everything in the school changes once your not seen as a chosen one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Not in straight]

Interesting to note that the Stanmore rowing coach from Kinross has had two "new" boys turn up with him in year 11... The previously pure sport seems to have been tainted .... Same parent said 8 boys in the New 16a"s rugby were being helped in one way .... Or another ..

Kinross and rowing? Has to be an Oxymoron.

Wouldnt have thought the inland schools was the place to look for rowers.

 

[Rob hart]

Kinross and rowing? Has to be an Oxymoron.

Wouldnt have thought the inland schools was the place to look for rowers.

Check the results ........ Kinross was doing very well and would have / were very competitive in all races ........

 

[Not in straight]

Check the results .... Kinross was doing very well and would have / were very competitive in all races ....

Well, I'll be.

Training on Lake Canobolas or Suma Dam?

Must be the altitude training,

 

[formerflanker]

Must be the altitude training,

Nice.

 

[loiterer]

Well, I'll be.

Training on Lake Canobolas or Suma Dam?

Must be the altitude training,

Don't you need a hyperbolic chamber for that?

 

[Lindommer]

Kinross and rowing? Has to be an oxymoron.

See here: http://www.kws.nsw.edu.au/FF (Folau Fainga'a)-rowingclub There's been quite a bit mentioned about KWS's rowing prowess over on the rowing thread. Don't look there much, Nis?

 

[RugbyFan14]

Probably right . . . But there is a nasty little thing called the AAGPS Code of Conduct that all Heads of School have signed up to. That rather inconvenient little agreement expressly precludes schools from recruiting talented athletes.

Hypocrisy 101.

The AAGPS is founded on traditions of honour, and allowing free reign by amending the agreement could undermine the very foundations of what the AAGPS stands for.

I'm new to this thread and slightly puzzled - it is a very active thread devoted to scholarships. How is it that they are precluded? In practice scholarship/ bursary recruitment seems to be the normal practice, so I can only conclude the so called agreement has been abandoned.

Which leads me to ask - if scholarships are a normal part of recruitment then why not allow others to contribute/ pay / sponsor? It allows kid who cannot afford it to go these great schools. Same happens in US colleges. If people want to spend their money in this way then why not?

 

[RugbyFan14]

Enrollment demand and Rugby success.

Don't think these 2 things are linked.


Anyway that's my take on it from a Shore perspective.

Agree there is no link, an example of the narrative fallacy. The population of Sydney is growing rapidly and there are no new GPS schools. The proportion of enrollments driven by rugby success is very low. Numbers enrolled have grown, but much slower than the population.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Welcome to the Hotel California, @RugbyFan14.

The main issue is not the existence of scholarships (in their various guises) but the fact that the 9 Heafs of School from the NSW AAGPS Schools have specifically agreed against these. Not only is it "olde school" in the best of gentlemanly traditions which are a foundation principle, in the eyes of many who are forking out large amounts of post tax income for a sandstone private school education, but the current mob of Heads of School have recently reiterated their support that Scholarships are forbidden in the AAGPS environment.

Doesn't send a good message about behaviours to their students (read "future leaders of Australia, and future "Captains of Industry" - why else would you invest $30k + pa?) if the heads are shown to be blatant hypocrites.

There is no specific prohibition that I am aware of against Scholarships in most of the other private school associations.

Each year we get a new tranche of recruits to the Hotel California, as if they were the first ones to have "discover" that which the AAGPS heads deny.

Randomly click a page in this threads history and scan a couple of pages from that point forward to get the gist. Nothing is new.

 

[TheKing]

And the Brisbane GPS schools have had a scholarship free for all for a few years now. It doesn't appear to have either lessened the number of mismatches or done anything to improve the standard of rugby played.

Au contraire, Quick Hands.

There are just two schools in the GPS at the moment who aren't competitive. Both have imports, just possibly not in the right positions to swing their fortunes.

At the top end of the competition, there are four teams tied for first place on the ladder and last week there were five.

The sixth placed team handed an undefeated team their first loss last week, while the seventh placed team should have beaten two more undefeated teams only to fall short by 3pts or less.

It's the closest the competition has been, ever. I think the balance of scholarships in the GPS is just right at the moment.

On a different note, I understand that there are 19-year-old player(s) still at school who are too old to play First XV - so they've been dumped into the Second XV.

While it's certainly not the first time it's happened (Alex Gibbon, who starts for Brisbane City this weekend, did the same in 2010), I wonder how the AAGPS handles the too-old-to-play rules?