TERM 2 REVIEW
Who can believe another school term is nearly over? Term 2 has seen many highlights spanning the academic and co-curricular lives of our students. They have excelled in equal measure on the sporting field, on stage and in their academic pursuits.
Our Senior School students have now completed their mid-year tests and examinations. We encourage students to carefully review their results and take every opportunity to learn from them as we head into Semester 2. To our TCE students, the remainder of the year will pass by quickly, so now is the time to prioritise your academic goals.
This term our teaching staff have continued their journey towards becoming a Professional Learning Community. Professional Learning Teams have refined their individual and collective teaching practice through focused cycles of learning. I have enjoyed working alongside some of the teams and supporting their work.
On the sporting field, it has been a highly successful season in AFL. Our Boys Firsts made it through to the Elimination Final and our Girls are all set to fight for the Premiership tomorrow. You can watch a livestream of our girls in action against Guildford Young College here at 12:30pm. We wish them every success. Our Badminton teams finished Runners Up in the NSATIS first grade roster and were Premiers in the second grade roster. In other sports, our athletes took out the Junior and Senior Trophies at the Newstead Athletics School Series, and all other teams have enjoyed a successful Winter season.
The Middle School production of Fantastic Mr Fox kicked off the term for our Middle School performers and the TCE Play, Blithe Spirit, showed the road ahead. The comedic acting from our senior students was enough to raise the dead! We look forward to our youngest performers taking to the stage in the Junior School production of The Jungle Book next term.
The Autumn Concert heralded a welcome return to the Horton Auditorium stage and last week our Year 6 instrumentalists shared their learning at the inaugural Year 6 Music Showcase. On Wednesday our Junior School musicians performed to appreciative audiences at the Elphin Music Soirees in the Mary Fox Hall.
Year 9 Education Outdoors students recently spent a week in various locations around the state, including the beautiful Freycinet National Park. Back on campus, their peers engaged in our Community Service Program, connecting students to a range of community organisations, including The Tasmanian Fire Service, the S.E.S., The Royal Flying Doctors Tasmania, St. Vincent De Paul, The Salvation Army, and Red Cross. Over the term break, some of our students will participate in an Entrepreneurship Development Program in partnership with UTAS.
Earlier this week I addressed our Year 9 and 10 students about the results of the Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey, conducted at the end of Term 1. It is reassuring that most of our students are doing well most of the time. We know that students across the state typically experience lower levels of wellbeing in the pre-TCE years, so a key message in my presentation was that we need to include them in the process of understanding and responding to this data.
Of course, a significant opportunity in this process will be identifying wellbeing trends over time and knowing where to focus our energy to ensure every student feels that they belong, that they feel safe and that they have a trusted adult they can speak to at school.
I again encourage everyone to access SchoolTV. It is an invaluable wellbeing resource, designed to empower parents with credible and sound information and provides realistic, practical ongoing support strategies.
Wherever you may be over the coming weeks, I wish everyone a safe and relaxing term break in the company of family and friends.
Ben Marsland
Deputy Principal