From the Principal

The past few weeks have witnessed many outstanding educational initiatives and learning experiences that provide opportunities for personal growth and for our students to develop a love of learning. As a community we have also enjoyed some most enjoyable social gatherings that have been warmly welcomed and well supported by our families.

Wellbeing Day

Last Wednesday the Senior School staged a hugely valuable and successful Wellbeing Day. The positive feedback that we have received from so many families has been greatly affirming and encouraging. To hear of the excellent conversations that commenced between students and their families concerning many important social and developmental issues is a clear indicator that the activities and workshops in which the students engaged were judged to be worthy, informative and valuable.

Approximately half of mental health conditions emerge before the age of 18. Therefore, it is vitally important to equip our students with the knowledge and skills they need to manage their world and live their lives to their fullest potential. Schools, in partnership with parents and carers, play a crucial role in educating the whole person. 

Wellbeing Day saw a number of our own skilled staff and inspiring external presenters engage with our students on a number of contemporary wellbeing issues facing our youth today. Students worked with staff and facilitators on breaking down limiting gender stereotypes, developing assertive and strength-based language and communication skills, e-safety and online rights, responsibilities and obligations,  how to establish and foster respectful relationships with peers and the wider community, as well as wellbeing and self-care strategies for all ages. 

I am extremely grateful to the many external facilitators and to our staff who participated in the day, some who shared aspects of their experience as they journeyed through the challenges of adolescence. The significant success of the day was only possible due to the planning and organisation of our Head of Wellbeing, Miss Olivia Kite, thank you for your vision, energy and dedication that ensured such a valuable learning experience for our students.

Windermere Open Day 

Kinross Wolaroi celebrated its first Open Day at the school’s Windermere Farm on the afternoon of Friday 3 March. 

With attendance from around 100 families and 100 students, it was a busy and fun event where our families were able to discover some of the exciting real-life learning experiences we offer students. 

Windermere was looking magnificent, with its sprawling grassy paddocks featuring market gardens, mountain bike tracks, beehives, space for cattle and sheep, ducks and chickens. As students demonstrated soap and candle making skills, drone demonstrations buzzed in the air above. Junior school musicians played while others donned bee suits to experience bee keeping firsthand. Visitors dug for potatoes to take home, while others enjoyed tea and coffee at the farm cottage. 

Our Food Technology and Hospitality students demonstrated their paddock-to-plate philosophy by serving a delicious paella and their own pork sausage sandwiches. From the produce stand, visitors were able to purchase fresh vegetables, fresh honey, hand made egg trugs filled with free range eggs and many other tasty goods. 

Two important events marked the day: the opening of the mountain bike track and the opening of the bush tucker garden. 

Bush Tucker Garden 

Development of our new bush tucker garden has been overseen by our First Nations Team of Lee Taylor and Corey McLean and I would like to warmly thank them for their work. 

For thousands of years, before the cities and towns we know today existed, bush tucker helped build communities and acted as a sustainable source of food and medicine.  

The Bush Tucker Garden will benefit students’ learning by: 

• Strengthening awareness about food and biodiversity
• Teaching about the immense value of Australian plants and wildlife
• Providing an opportunity to learn about cultural diversity, and how to respect and acknowledge the differences between cultures
• And teaching that care for the environment is a social responsibility that every one of us must take on, just as caring for country has always been integral to the cultural identity of Australia’s First Nations people. 

This quote from Palyku woman, Ambelin Kwaymullina says this so eloquently: 

Rock, tree, river, hill, animal, human – all were formed of the same substance by the Ancestors, who continue to live in land, water, sky.  Country is loved, needed and cared for, and country loves, needs, and cares for her peoples in turn. Country is family, culture, identity. Country is self. 

I am delighted to have the bush tucker garden at Windermere and look forward to seeing it develop over the coming years, along with our relationship with our First Nations community. 

I would like to extend warm thanks to Uncle Neil and our dancers for making this opening a very special event. 

Mountain Bike Track 

The Windermere mountain bike track was designed and implemented by Jack Rahilly who attended the opening.  

Designing the track was a multi-step process: 

• Jack facilitated a workshop for a Year 9 End of Year program on sustainable principals of mountain bike track design in 2021. 
• He then mapped out a track at Windermere with a Year 9 Geography classes in 2022 and the group considered all of the components of a good track. 
• Jack then designed the track and students in Geography had the opportunity to virtually ride the track through a computer simulation in 2022. Read more here: https://advancedcad.com.au/projects/kinross-wolaroi-school-track  
• Iconictrails then built the track for us in May 2022 – read more about them here: https://iconictrails.com.au/ 

The track is now a great resource for all of our students – as seen on the day, when Ms Noffke’s students showcased their ‘Maths in Motion’ learning. 

Thank you 

The Windermere Open Day was a great way to celebrate the teaching opportunities offered to our students through access to the Windermere farm. Every day of every week our students leave the four walls of their classrooms to visit Windermere and see their learning come to life. Every aspect of learning can be enhanced through hands-on activities that provide real life context – mathematics, visual art, biology, hospitality, primary industries, textiles and design, software design and development, and many more subjects were all represented on the day. 

Thank you to the amazing TREE team – Sue-Ann Gavin, Liam Callaghan, Robyn Youll, Bernie Sharpe, Rebecca Essex, Jo Howarth and Frank Weymouth for their work in getting Windermere ready. 

Thanks also to the staff who ran activities: Angus Brotherton, Penny Chandler, Andrew Orme-Smith, Helena Rollo, Jody Hayden, Jessica Noffke, the Junior School Twig Team of Marlo Robson and Zoe Morris, as well as Katie Sinclair for organising the talented Junior School musicians. 

A big thank you, as well, to all of our wonderful student volunteers. 

I hope that those members of our community who were able to attend had an enjoyable afternoon. 

If you attended Windermere Open Day and can spare a few minutes to provide us with feedback, we would be grateful if you completed a short survey by CLICKING HERE. 

Staff Appointments

I am delighted to announce the following two staff appointments.

Ms Elly Reynolds - Head of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education 

It is with great pleasure that I announce the appointment of Ms Elly Reynolds as our new Head of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education. Elly will commence her new role in a part-time capacity this Term and will commence in a full-time capacity at the start of Term 2, 2023.

Elly has 11 years of teaching and leadership experience in various educational contexts. For the past eight years she has been Head Teacher of PDHPE and Sports Coordinator at Newtown High School for Performing Arts. During her tenure in this role the school saw a considerable increase in students wishing to study PDHPE and significant improvement in academic results. Elly has strong knowledge, understanding and expertise of the PDHPE curriculum and is a highly respected presenter on syllabus matters at Staff Development courses. She is also an experienced HSC marker.

Elly is vastly experienced at interpreting and analysing data regarding student performance and successfully uses this information to inform changes within her faculty’s teaching and learning practice. For the past six years Elly has led the Innovative Technology team at Newtown HSPA and has implemented various whole school initiatives that have delivered very positive outcomes in improving teaching and learning. The whole-school changes that were in line with the School’s Strategic Improvement Plan also benefited productivity and efficiency in teaching and learning for students, staff and the wider community. 

Elly has a Bachelor of Education: Human Movement and Health Education from the University of Sydney and Master Trainer Certificates (III and IV Fitness) from the Australian Institute of Fitness, Sydney. 

Elly enjoys many sports including Netball, Touch Football, Rugby, Hockey and Surf Boat Rowing.

Miss Harriet Symons - Head of Learning Enhancement

I am delighted to announce that Harriet Symons will take on the role of Head of Learning Enhancement (Senior School). Harriet is well known to us, spending the last 15 months working in the Learning Support faculty. Harriet came from The Armidale School where she has been a Senior Teacher of HSIE, Acting Head of Learning Support, Master in Charge of Basketball, Rugby Manager, Pastoral Care Advisor, Student Representative Council facilitator and Abseiling Team member with the TAS Cadet Unit. Harriet was also involved in the Boarding program where she was Deputy Head of Middle School Boarding for three years. Prior to teaching at TAS Harriet was at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview.

Harriet has a Bachelor of Arts (Human Resources) from Macquarie University, a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) from Charles Sturt University and is very soon to complete a Masters of Inclusive Education from Charles Sturt.

I am very excited that Harriet has taken on this role, and very much look continuing great improvements in the Learning Enhancement area of the School.

Congratulations

Triathlon – All Schools Triathlon

At this recent event, three Kinross Wolaroi teams finished in the overall Top 10:

• Junior Girls placed 3rd – Georgia Clunas, Imogen Christmas, Skye Napier
• Junior Boys 8th – Hamish Searle, Ashton Montagliani, Max Horne
• Senior Girls 7th - Sienna Whalan, Sophie Martin, Ava Petersen

Two of our athletes finished in the Top 10 in the CIS Individual Seniors event

• Sophie Martin – 4th 
• Luca Telfer – 10th 

Orange Running Festival

Last Sunday morning 61 of our students, many staff and community members participated in the Orange Running Festival 5km Challenge at Gosling Creek. Our Senior School team won the High Schools event and kindly donated their $500 winners cheque to the charity they were supporting ‘Running for Premature Babies’.

Congratulations to all our students who enthusiastically supported this worthy cause. Well done.