antichrist

Checkmate: school tells champion boys to leave

antichrist

Public schools do not behave like that. I guess private education will do anything to be different, even be stupid.
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antichrist

Told to find another school ... Kevin and Rowan Willathgamuwa at home with many of their trophies. Their parents were advised not to take them to Brazil. Photo: Sahlan Hayes
TWO of Australia's best young chess players have been told by Sydney Grammar to find another school next year after taking unauthorised leave to compete in the World Youth Chess Championships in Brazil.
Kevin Willathgamuwa, 8, and his brother Rowan, 9, have also been excluded from Grammar's chess team competing in the Australian Schools Teams Championships at Knox Grammar this weekend, despite missing only one day of the long competition. The boys were away from school for 10 days. In Brazil, Kevin placed 10th out of 90 boys in the under 8s, and Rowan won half his matches. The Australian grand master, Ian Rogers, who was at the competition, said Kevin was clearly the best player of his age in Australia.
''It's incredible someone should be punished for missing two weeks of year 2 for representing Australia,'' Mr Rogers said. ''It was very important for him to go to the world youth championships. It's not just the tournament but it's important for him to see what other kids have achieved at the same age.''
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The school had strongly communicated its position to the boys' father, Ignatius Willathgamuwa, before the family left for Brazil.
''As has been made clear to you, the boys will have to leave the school at the end of the current school year if you proceed to take them on your proposed trip,'' wrote the principal of Grammar's St Ives prep school, Rowena Lee. ''We would be sorry to see them leave and hope that you will accept our decision.''
Grammar is one of several private schools in Sydney to enforce strict attendance rules.
Last year the boys were denied permission to compete in the world titles in Greece. But they were given permission to go there for a family reunion. The family then remained in the country for the competition.
Dr Willathgamuwa said the family were very disappointed. Other children at the world championships had been celebrated at their school assembly and told they were role models.
''We are very frustrated at this. It is like the boys are being punished for their excellence,'' he said. ''If taking them to the world championships is going to make them leave the school, then we have no regrets because a school with this approach to their development can be quite detrimental for them in the future.''
The boys participate in a range of extracurricular activities, including music and soccer. Their academic results had been ''brilliant'', Dr Willathgamuwa said.
The family returned from Brazil on Tuesday so the boys could play this weekend. They had competed more than 15 times before missing the last round but Mrs Lee's letter said they had been left out as ''a matter of fairness to the other boys'' who replaced them while they were in Brazil.
Mrs Lee did not respond to calls from the Herald.
edu@smh.com.au


Read more: Checkmate: school tells champion boys to leave

The Seeing

Of course , far better to not interrupt the serf-sheep's indoctrination-programming sessions than allow them the opportunity to exercise their brains in the art of pure thinking .

Just2Good

Much ado about nothing.

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"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."

~ Isaiah Berlin ~

The Seeing

Compliance is not what the great warriors of ozchess are all about !

I will pretend that i never saw this post .

The Seeing

What we need is a posse of chess players to march onto the school and spit like they've never spat before !

.....And i'm talking the whole 9 yards.

Non - Chessplayers

antichrist

Exactly your reaction to CC moderating of yourself of course - you were so respect and obedient to them.

Just2Good

Its nice to see you following my example, confident in the knowledge that no matter what you do they will never permanently ban you or else they would have to start eating their own.
Keep urinating in their pool AC. Its entertaining and what we've come to expect from you.

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"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."

~ Isaiah Berlin ~

Firegoat7

A Gray classic comment. Made on a chess forum, in which two juniors have been effectively expelled from school for representing their country at chess. Gray is concerned about the schools version of event. What a clown!

Load up the spit gentlemen this is the ideology of the non chess player. Seriously, Gray, resign from all chess commitments nobody wants your non chess player mentality involved with organising chess.

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"...What I meant?

Dear Mr Ian Rout (ACF news publisher) could you please put Ozchessforum in the next news letter! There is no reason to hide this forum from the Australian chess public.

What they meant?

Sorry, No english!- Amir Karibasic

Iconoclast

What chess player would want to hear from the school. It is obviously not on the side of chess success.

So, come here Gray.

cccrrrrRRRT ..... WOOTT!!

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The individual is hopeless without the group.
The group is hopeless without its individuals.

antichrist

Schools line up to take chess boys
Andrew Stevenson
December 6, 2011

Wanted ... several private schools have offered places to Kevin and Rowan Willathgamuwa. Photo: Sahlan Hayes

SEVERAL Sydney private schools have offered places to the young brothers told by Sydney Grammar to find another school because they took unauthorised leave to compete in the World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil last month.

The boys' father, Ignatius Willathgamuwa, has spoken with the preparatory schools at Knox Grammar and The King's School about enrolling Kevin, 8, and Rowan, 9, next year.

''The headmasters of both schools are welcoming the two boys and are saying that, when it comes to the world championships, it will be a matter of submitting a leave application and that it won't be a problem,'' Dr Willathgamuwa said.

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The boys were absent from school for 10 days, having reached the world championships for a second successive year. The registrar of St Andrew's Cathedral School, Bruce Perry, said he would be happy to discuss the possibility of enrolling the two boys.

''My school … has a proud history of supporting students with their outside school commitments, particularly those at an elite level,'' he wrote.

The director of studies at Wollemi College in Sydney's west, Brett Wright, promised the boys ''the complete support of our entire college community'', should they have the chance to compete again.

The chairman of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools in NSW, John Collier, said the balance was difficult to strike. ''It is always really tricky for a school to balance school-based activities with external activities and the more substantial the external activity the harder it is,'' he said. Sydney Grammar refused to comment on its leave policies yesterday.

Other Sydney Grammar students have encountered resistance to their pursuit of extracurricular activities.

James Rowlinson left the school at the end of year 10. In 2007, the headmaster, John Vallance, authorised five days' leave to compete in the world kayaking championships on the ''understanding that leave for a similar purpose is not sought again''.

Mr Rowlinson said he needed nine days' absence to travel and compete and, when he returned to school, he was immediately taken aside by the head of discipline ''for a sharp and noisy word''.

Mr Rowlinson, whose ambition was to compete in the 2009 championships, switched to Knox Grammar. The competition clashed with his Higher School Certificate trials, he said, but the school allowed him to sit his exams a week early.

''It was just a polar opposite,'' he said. ''At [Sydney] Grammar, their idea of education is that the HSC is the be-all and end-all.''

edu@smh.com.au



Read more: Schools line up to take chess boys

Firegoat7

Reading between the lines.....


It looks to me that Ian Rogers may be correct when he suggests that the decision by the school was motivated by spite. It is completely plausible that the school was attempting to force the kids to play in the National qualifier instead of the World Championship. It may be that the schools primary motivation was to win the state chess title. This is what I glean from reading between the lines.

If this version of events is true, then the state organisers need to accept some responsibility for scheduling clashes. They need to ensure that important junior National events don't clash with world Junior events.

Furthermore, were the boys receiving chess scholarships at the school? It may be an important fact, but I doubt primary school kids get scholarships.

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"...What I meant?

Dear Mr Ian Rout (ACF news publisher) could you please put Ozchessforum in the next news letter! There is no reason to hide this forum from the Australian chess public.

What they meant?

Sorry, No english!- Amir Karibasic

Kerry Stead

There was no clash between the World Juniors & The Australian Schools ... others like Karl Zelesco, played in both competitions, so it was obviously possible.
The school's argument was apparently that the brothers missed one round prior to the finals, so the students who replaced them became a permanent part of the team as a result.
As for scholarships, no the boys weren't recieving scholarships (and according to Vlad on the other forum, Sydney Grammar don't offer them before year 7). Some other primary schools offer scholarships, although often if a chess player is to be a recipient, there needs to be more than chess on the 'resume' to be awarded on.

Firegoat7

Unfortunately AC has taken poetic license with what I stated, which has exaggerated and distorted my statement. It seems as if the boys missed a critical qualifier whilst they were in Brazil. I was speculating that this may have been a tit for tat response by the school for not including them in the final. It has been suggested that the qualifier was possibly stronger then the final. It would be worthwhile for chess admins to examine if the qualifier could have been scheduled at a different time to the the World Championship.


It would be interesting to find out if the school knew that the final was going to be a weaker tournament. Otherwise, it seems like the school wanted to punish the kids twice for breaking their rules.
Yes, I would have thought they would not have been on a scholarship to such an expensive school. However, I just needed to ask since it may have been a possibility.

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"...What I meant?

Dear Mr Ian Rout (ACF news publisher) could you please put Ozchessforum in the next news letter! There is no reason to hide this forum from the Australian chess public.

What they meant?

Sorry, No english!- Amir Karibasic