PRINCIPAL'S REPORT:
It is hard to believe that we are more than halfway through the term already. I know that staff have been meeting to look at moderating student work in their learning areas as they will be compiling end of year assessments and report writing will begin soon. I must urge all students to continue to apply themselves well to their learning tasks and assessments and aspire for the very best results at the end of the year. Thank you in advance to families for also continuing to support student learning at home by ensuring your children have good learning habits engaged. Such things as getting enough sleep and limiting screen time at night; healthy eating and exercise habits all assist.
Wellbeing Survey Results
Following on from this message about healthy habits, I am pleased to let our school community know that we have received our Student Wellbeing Survey results which give us a clear indication of how our student body are travelling in terms of their wellbeing. Some pleasing results indicate that the majority of our students feel connected to school and safe at school but there is still work to do around real engagement. Other areas of focus for us will continue to be building resilience and supporting students to manage their worries and be optimistic. We will share more results as we continue to interrogate the data.
Basketball Championships
Over the weekend of 9th and 10th November we had teams participating in the Northern Schools Basketball Championships at Elphin Sports Centre. Games ran throughout the weekend and we had representation in all age groups, both boys and girls. Thank you to all the families and staff who supported our students over this weekend and especially to the staff who coached teams for giving up their whole weekend to do so, these being Miss Males, Mr Heger, Mr Bent and Mr Elliott.
Congratulations to the Senior Girls Team, ably coached by Miss Males, for taking out the title for the Division 1 Senior Girls.
Arts Night –“ What if?”
On Tuesday 12th November the annual Arts Night was held at the Princess Theatre. This years theme was “ What if?” which provided the students with a fabulous theme to dive deep into when thinking about their work. It sparked wonder and intrigue and we certainly saw this through the work that was showcased on the evening. Some examples of performance pieces were; “ What if the Rules of Science Could Be Broken”, “What if Michael Jackson and Iron Maiden Made a Band” which was an excellent interpretation of a Michael Jackson son with a heavy metal twist, “What if Musical Instruments Were Invisible” – a play on air guitaring that was well executed and an excellent senior dance girls piece titled” What IF We Could All Find Peace”. These were just to name a few and the night certainly provided three hours of outstanding entertainment. Thank you to all staff for supporting in different roles and to the magnificent Arts Team who have given up hours to ensure we enjoyed such a professional show. Thank you to our major sponsor – Key2 Property as their contribution ensures our students have the experience of performing in such a grand theatre like The Princess Theatre.
My Education Day 7
On Thursday last week we had our 7th My Education Day. This was another big day for our school with the morning seeing over 20 businesses and Industry representatives set up in our school for the annual Careers on Wheels event run by the Beacon Student Ambassadors. This was once again a fabulous event and thanks to the BSA's and Mr Elliott for all their work in co-ordinating this event which provided our senior students with valuable information about potential career pathways.
The Grade 10 students undertook their College enrolments as well last Thursday which was a big step in their transition to Year 11/12 in 2020. Grade 9’s are continuing some fabulous work around sustainability and the environment and the Grade 8 “$20 Boss” Team were out and about selling their wares. We continue to ensure that our My Education Days provide our students with a depth and breadth of activities, learnings and experience that will all aid them in their development particularly around career and life planning.
Prefect News
The Prefects coordinated a “Bandana Day” last week to assist in raising valuable funds for teenage cancer patients. Their commitment to helping others this year has been impressive. This week they held a “Sun Day Fun Day” event to raise awareness for the importance of skin cancer and preventative measures around this. It was lovely to see Mrs Ella French from the Cancer Council in attendance to help with the event.
Successful Grant Application
Our Climate Action Group are becoming very proactive in our school and the staff involved have recently applied for a “Resource Recovery and Waste Minimisation Grant” through Northern Tasmanian Waste Management and they were successful!!!
Congratulations on receiving a grant of $4612.00 which the group are hoping will purchase some hand dryers for the toilets to save on paper towel. Well done and we will continue to support this group in their endeavours to make us all more environmentally conscious.
Congratulations to:
Georgia Gillow for being selected in the Athletics Tasmanian State Team to compete at the Australian All Schools Championships in Perth in December along with Abbie Butler.
Jessica Homan has qualified to swim at the Victorian Age Championships in Melbourne next month.
Abbie Butler for being awarded The Examiner Coles Junior Sports Award Female Rising star this week at their awards ceremony.