School Captains

Howdy!

My name is Addi and this is my sixth year at Pulteney Grammar. It feels genuinely surreal to say that I am your school captain! I could not be more grateful or excited for this opportunity. Six years ago, I walked through the South Terrace gates, led by the 2016 school captains, and realised that Pulteney was my home. I am both happy and unsurprised to say that I still feel the exact same way about this school as I did the minute I stepped foot onto the grounds. The walls of one ninety, the science wing and the music centre have come to feel like second homes and, bar the cliché stresses that come with every education, I have not made a bad memory within them.

I am undoubtedly a people person, and this current pandemic has not been kind on my inclination to hug just about everyone. But, with these restrictions, I have come to learn the importance of words. I am a big fan of encouragement for everyone. Whether it be cheering on a year 7 in their first sports day race, letting a teacher know how grateful I am for their help, or meeting the receptions and awing over their brand new painting, encouragement is a favourite pastime of mine.

Being a people person has also meant that some of the most important things I have received from Pulteney are the friendships and memories I have made. I was lucky enough in 2018 and 2019 to travel interstate with some of my now closest friends (vice captains Lily and Finn included) to compete in the Tournament of Minds competition. Although we were there to compete, looking back on it now it was so much more that. I forged friendships and relationships with teachers and students alike that I never previously would have, and I could not be more grateful for that opportunity. Although building relationships through travelling now seems like a foreign idea, I will forever be grateful for the moments I had and have thoroughly enjoyed building connections via other pathways in recent years.

I am so excited to meet you all throughout the year to come and cannot wait to lead this school alongside my incredible cohort!

Hello all!

I am so excited to have this opportunity to work with the 2022 Leadership team to guide our school into what will be another challenging year given the Covid-19 pandemic. Something that I can assure all of you of, is that behind the scenes, the School community is working tirelessly to provide us with the best education and opportunities, despite the world being a little different at present.

I came to the school for ELC in 2009 and then came back in year 6. I always had the thought in my mind that being part of a leadership team in a school steeped in tradition and built on community, one just like Pulteney, would be the most amazing opportunity and here I am. I am so thankful for all of my family and friends for supporting me through my Pulteney Journey and also the teachers, some of whom I have built relationships with that have become instrumental parts of my schooling and home lives.

A little bit about me, I spend most of my spare time in a music studio or standing on some variant of a sports field. Something that has really helped me throughout school is taking part in co-curricular and even recently, I have picked up new things to do, like joining some past Navy Blues on the footy field for the Old Scholars. Once a Navy Blue, You are Always, A Navy Blue. Beyond that, taking part in these co-curriculars has given me the opportunity to make friends older and younger than myself. There are graduates from 2017 that I still regularly speak too and will always be able to call a friend, which is a credit to the community that Pulteney has built. Much like my counterpart and close friend since 2010, Addi, I am a big-time extrovert and when not participating in one of my many co-curriculars, you’ll almost always catch me out and about with my mates. So, if you see me around the school or in the yard, please feel free to come and have a chat – I am always, up for that!

I am so excited to take this opportunity to work with a wonderful leadership team that will help strive to better our school each and every day. Welcome back to school this year everybody, I am so eager to get started on another year at Pulteney!

Hello!

My name’s Lily, and I’m both incredibly excited and grateful to hold this leadership position for 2022.

My first year, back in 2017, is largely a cloud of hormones and resembles a loose guide to how I got where I am now. The calluses on my palms remind me of the many afternoon I spent in Year 7, peering over the edge of the Pulteney rowing boat’s hoping I didn’t fall into the Torrens. I remember it fondly, the laughs, the ice-creams after training and in later years the camaraderie that comes with 5:15 AM buses.

In 2018, my time at Pulteney saw me and a group of people I would soon call some of my closest friends – go to Darwin for the Tournament of Minds final! I will forever be grateful to Pulteney, and especially Ms Mavropoulos, for the opportunities they’ve let me chase my dreams with.

Fast forward to Year 10 and it’s that time of year – camp. Luckily there’s a beginners option and Addi and I find ourselves eating Betty Crocker icing for dinner.  One of my favourite parts of Pulteney have been the school camps. Whether it’s been surfing, hiking or even the dreaded shiny shiny (cleaning the Trangia) the camps Pulteney took us on taught me resilience, independence and how true friends will walk with you to the long drop at 2 AM.

As SACE entered the picture in Year 11, I realised that the best part of Pulteney is the teachers. I could always rely on any of my teachers to go over Math at lunch, Biology at recess or to discuss philosophy with Mr Boe.

And bam – Year 12! What I’ve learnt is that being a Navy Blue is more then school. It’s being a good friend, sportsperson, student and person.

Hi!

I’m Finn and I’m fortunate enough to be one of Pulteney’s Vice Captains this year. More than five years have passed since my first day as a Pulteney student in 2017. This intimidating, faraway land known as ‘the city’ was so different to the quiet suburban streets that had surrounded my primary school. But my fears were quickly allayed, and it wasn’t long before I realised what an asset the city was. Middle School trips to places like the Adelaide Zoo and Parliament House showed me the opportunities and benefits being in the city can bring, and by year 12 I had discovered that the State Library was just a tram trip away, letting me study after school in a quiet environment where I could adopt a more focused headspace away from the most dreaded of distractions: the TV.
The other unexpected aspect of life at Pulteney was the one-on-one connections I have built with many of the teachers. So many teachers go above and beyond to support students in both their academic journey and their life journey – offering mentoring, support and guidance to students when they need it most.

Pulteney is neither too small nor too large – big enough that I found a good group of like-minded friends, but small enough to avoid students feeling overlooked, forgotten or ‘lost in the crowd’.

Since 2017, I’ve tried just about every school activity on offer: tennis, choir, band, musical, basketball, debating, jazz vocal ensemble, student leadership, rowing, problem-solving challenges…the list goes on and on. I’ll forever be grateful for the opportunities I’ve received at Pulteney, and the experiences I’ll never forget.

It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that soon my days of being a school student will be over. Being able to serve the school community as Vice Captain is a fantastic opportunity for me to give back to Pulteney, a school that has given me so much and become such a large part of who I am.

I hope you have a fantastic 2022!