Dear Parents/Carers

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. It is certainly nice to see a few more warm, sunny days than what we have experienced in the early part of spring.

On Monday, 27 October a group of interested students from Year 9 and 10 visited Country Club Resort to engage in a tourism and hospitality excursion through our partnership with the Beacon Foundation. The Growth Industry Preparation Program enabled students to participate in tours of the many varied aspects of the site, engage in speed careering and participate in discussions with industry mentors. Thank you to the Federal Group, who are always such generous and welcoming hosts, the Beacon Foundation and our wonderful Beacon Co-ordinator, Belinda Selby for supporting students with this experience.

Another successful Athletics Carnival has been completed for the year. This year was somewhat unique as we had to be flexible and adapt due to the industrial action and,  as such, we had a day in between the two days of our carnival. Nevertheless, both days ran smoothly. It was great to see students embracing the opportunity and getting in and having a go irrespective of whether or not they are experienced and capable athletes. We were blessed with the weather and it was great to see some house spirit and smiles on student’s faces. There were also some wonderful individual performances. Thank you to family and friends who were able to come along and support this major school event. Thank you to Emma Attard for her overall co-ordination of the Carnival, the Health and Physical Education Team in particular and to all the staff for their contribution. It certainly takes a team effort to run events such as these. I would particularly like to acknowledge parent, Jayne Praciak who has assisted at our carnivals over a number of years.

Recently the annual Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey (SWES) data has been available to us. This extensive and valuable data set is one we use to plan, monitor and review school improvement targets. Most importantly, it is the voice of our students. Broadly, student engagement is one of our three priority areas (along with quality teaching and learning and reading) in our school improvement plan. While the data is extremely varied and comprehensive, there are certainly some positives to celebrate and areas to keep working on. Students answer a series of questions with responses grouped to provide an overall rating of high, medium or low wellbeing. Our top five most positive areas with high wellbeing are; organised activities (70%), absence of cyberbullying (69%), friendship intimacy (63%), absence of physical bullying (63%) and connectedness to adults at home (62%). Similarly, if we combine medium and high wellbeing together, our five most positive results are; emotional engagement with teachers (94%), absence of cyberbullying (93%), absence of physical bullying (93%), connectedness to adults at home (89%) and future goal planning (89%), although the latter is only a question for Years 10,11,12.

Friday, 31 October was a Professional Learning Day for staff. While we understand these days can sometimes be an inconvenience for families, they are really valuable for staff learning, development and growth, so I thank you for your support and understanding.  We spent the day examining our Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey data and continued our school improvement work on reading and attendance.

On Tuesday of this week, our Year 9 students completed their leadership speeches as part of the selection process for leadership roles in 2026. Students prepare a written, application, are interviewed, complete a speech and then a vote is conducted. While this extensive process is a means to an end in that it enables a student leadership group to be selected, it is also a valuable learning experience for students irrespective of whether they are selected or not. To all the students involved, well done on having the courage in applying, as we know that sometimes when you put your name forward some students may be elected and some may not. Either way, be humble in success, gracious in disappointment and learn from the experience. For next year, we are trialling combining all roles into one student leadership body which will hopefully enable a very strong leadership group to work as one cohesive, collaborative and focussed group.

Tomorrow evening, 6 November, we are holding our annual Arts Night at the Princess Theatre. We have a very strong Arts program at our school, characterised by a strong and dedicated teaching team. This event is always a highlight on the calendar, so I urge you to come along and see our talented students perform. The team has already started planning for the future whereby the Princess Theatre will be unavailable due to renovations and upgrades. I am sure it will be an amazing night. Best wishes to everyone involved.

Looking ahead, we have teams involved in the Basketball Tasmania Regional High School Tournament on 8 and 9 November, Careers on Wheels on 13 November, staff from Speak Up! Stay ChatTY working with our Year 9 students, Interhigh Athletics on 14 November and college enrolments for Newstead College on 13 November and Launceston College on 14 November. It is unfortunate the college enrolments clash with the Interhigh Athletics Carnival. This has been communicated with Year 10 families and adjustments made where a student may be involved in the Carnival and also involved in enrolments. Unfortunately, this situation has been beyond our immediate control.

This term is action packed and before we know it, we will have come to the conclusion of another year. I would particularly like to take this opportunity to remind our Year 10 students that the year is not over and therefore they need to stay focussed on their learning, maintain high standards of behaviour, act as positive role models to our younger students and therefore ensure that everyone has a positive and memorable finish to 2025.  It is always unpleasant if students miss out on end of year events due to poor attendance, inappropriate behaviour or not upholding our expectations. Ideally, we want every student there at the end to celebrate. However, that is a privilege, not a right.

Regards,

Cary Stocks
Principal

As part of our Positive Behaviour Support Program at Kings Meadows we will be acknowledging students who have been contributing positively to our learning environment.  This means that they have been supporting our school-wide expectations.

Respect for others, self and environment

Organisation

Commitment to learning

Keeping safe

Sensible behaviour

We would like to acknowledge the following students:

Year 8:

Zoltan - Zoltan is to be congratulated for his participation and positive attitude in the Athletics Carnival.

Joey - Joey has been recognised for his positive attitude and wonderful participation in the Athletics Carnival.

Year 9:

Preston - For his participation in events at our school athletics carnival. 

Charles - For showing significant improvement in his PAT reading results. 

Laila - For her efforts and preparation of her leadership speech during our whole school assembly. 

Luke - For his efforts and participation at our school Athletics Carnival.

It’s hard to believe we are already in Term 4! Students have quickly got back into the rhythm of school life and have dived right back into their learning programs. 

On 25 September a group of eager Year 8 students were involved in a careers opportunity at Toyota Launceston. Students received a tour of both Toyota and Mazda sites, including hearing from people in different departments within the industry. Areas that sparked interest were, sales, service, parts and the mechanics workshop. As students move into Year 9 in 2026, we strongly recommend those interested in work experience and school-based apprenticeships to start a conversation with both Toyota Launceston and Mr Guy to make it happen. There will more information provided to students about school-based apprenticeship pathways early in Year 9. It is important to mention that students were incredibly well behaved on this excursion for Mr Johns and Mrs Pearce and asked some thought-provoking questions to strengthen students overall understanding/interpretation of this industry. 

For the first part of this term students who have been involved in the Beacon Ambassador process have undergone interviews to present themselves as exemplary students for the role of Beacon Leaders in 2026. These interviews allowed students to practice their communication skills and ability to showcase why they would be the best fit for the roles available. We are incredibly proud of how all student applicants presented themselves at interview. Students will find out the outcome of this process in Week 5. 

Within HaSS lessons students have changed gears from Geography to Business and Economics this term. Classes are beginning to look at supply and demand, consumerism and the importance of budgeting. To finish the school year students will look at Australian Parliament System and how world leaders work closely with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

English are focussing on the film Inside Out. This work includes unpacking the importance of relevance of the themes to them, presented with the film. This allows students to deepen their understanding of emotions and how individuals feelings impact their ability to self-regulate. Therefore, making a connection between text to self.  

Athletics Carnival days were met with a lot of eager participants from our Year 8 students. Regular participation from consistent students and support from those on the sidelines were outstanding, providing a fantastic and supportive atmosphere for students across both days.  

Arts Night is happening in Week 4. Students across the school participating in a music, drama and dance capacity have been lending their time to practicing their items for the event. It has been fantastic to see and hear from students how enthusiastic they about their involvement in Arts Night and some sneak peeks of rehearsals are displaying a high level talent across Year 8! If possible, please get around our KMHS students and support all their hard work, along with the guidance and support from our dedicated Arts teachers.  

It’s been a busy two week in Year 9 and I would like to congratulate our students for the way they conducted themselves over this period especially with their iPads being collected and small changes to their normal teaching and learning programs due to their participation in statewide Progressive Achievement Testing (PAT).  A quick glance over recent results has shown excellent progress for most of our students, especially in reading, with the majority continuing to show improvement from last year.

On Friday last week our Year 9 staff team were also able to look at recent Wellbeing data during our student free day and it was pleasing to see our cohort of students continuing to improve within the Loved and Safe Domain.  Our students continued to show significant improvements and higher wellbeing in areas such as having important adults at school, school climate, safe at school, absence of physical bullying, absence of verbal bullying, absence of social bullying and absence of social bullying.  It is worth noting that within our Year 9 cohort 13% had increases into high wellbeing when feeling safe at school.

On Tuesday 28 and Thursday 30 October, our students participated in their Athletics Carnivals last week.  It was wonderful to see so many students competing across both days and especially participating in support of receiving house points.  I would like to thank everyone for their encouragement of each other on the day, for their sense of community and for their sense of inclusion.  While some of our students were highly competitive wanting to earn placings or selection in the interhigh athletics carnivals, others participated in support of each other or their team, even if athletics wasn’t an area of strength.  Well done to those students for helping our carnival to run smoothly but also for providing a sense of community, positivity and encouragement on both days.

Congratulations to Sophie who recently made the state team after her performance in the All-Schools Athletics competition. Sophie placed 2nd in U16 Discus (1st U15) and 3rd in Shot Put (2nd U15) to make selection in the national team.  

On Tuesday Block 4 this week all potential Year 10 Student Leaders in 2026 gave a speech in front of our whole school in the hope of persuading our community of staff and fellow students to vote for them in supporting the leadership and improvement of KMHS in 2026.  I would like to thank Miss Attard, Miss Blaubaum and Mrs Glasby and this year’s student leaders for their support of student leadership selections, ensuring our processes were rigorous, fair and rewarding. 

Well done to all our students who had the courage to present and share their speeches in front of our school.

Levies are one of the valuable ways families help strengthen our school community.

They play an important role in supporting student learning by helping cover the cost of essential resources and services.

When setting levies and charges, we carefully consider inclusive education, community expectations and the financial circumstances of families.

Our goal is always to keep levies as low as possible while ensuring students have access to the tools they need to thrive.

On Monday 27 October, 22 Year 9 and 10 students attended Part 2 of the Beacon Foundation Tourism and Hospitality Experience - The Growth Industry Preparation Program at The Country Club Casino. They participated in tours, speed careering and discussions with industry mentors. All capped off with a delicious catered morning tea and lunch! Thank you to the Federal Group for funding and hosting the day.

A further reminder that our Annual Arts Night is on tomorrow night, 6 November.

On Wednesday 22 October, 11 Year 10 students visited the Launceston Airport for a Beacon Careers experience. They visited many areas of the airport and listened to staff describe the many and varied roles including Ground Services, Biosecurity, Fire Safety and Operations. Thanks you to the airport for hosting us for an amazing day!

At our school, we’re committed to making sure every child and young person receives the literacy support they need—when they need it. That’s why we use a consistent, evidence-based approach across all Department schools called the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Here’s how MTSS works:

• Tier 1 – For all students: Every child is taught to read using proven, evidence-based teaching strategies. DECYP Document title 2
• Tier 2 – For some students: Those who need extra time and practice with specific literacy skills work in smaller groups. Once they’ve mastered the skill, they return to Tier 1.
• Tier 3 – For a few students: These learners receive one-on-one support to help them learn specific literacy skills, alongside the learning in Tiers 1.

This system ensures that every student gets the right amount of help at the right time. Whether it’s extra practice or individual support, MTSS is our way of making sure no student is left behind in their literacy journey. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how your child’s learning is supported, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher.

On Friday, 28 November, the Prefects are raising money to support the nationwide effort to support Australians living with Motor Neurone Disease. On this day, students are invited to wear silly socks to school for a gold coin donation. All the profits will go towards funding essential care and advanced research aimed at finding a cure. Every dollar raised makes a meaningful impact so get your crazy on and sock it up!

Leadership Staff

Support Staff