News

Head of Student Support 2024

Our school community is excited to welcome Eliza Lovelock as Head of Student Support. Currently our Kinder to Year 6 Resource Teacher, Mrs Lovelock has already made a huge impact around our school, and we look forward to her guiding and leading her departments next year. 

"I recognise that all we do at school communicates values and beliefs to students about themselves and the world. I want students to experience and understand God’s message through how they learn in a Christian school. I have a heart for students to flourish, regardless of their background, abilities, or experiences, so that they thrive in an inclusive school environment. I have a passion for universal design principles applied to education that enable all students to access, engage with, and demonstrate learning. Open ended, high quality, collaborative learning, and the promotion of supportive, collaborative learning cultures in classrooms where mistakes are welcomed as learning opportunities are key to how I work. Most of all, I want our school to narrate the story of the gospel: of its truth, beauty, and goodness, so that students leave school knowing God personally as their Father and are equipped to continue walking with Him when they leave school."

Footy Colours Day

It was Footy Colours Day at LCS today, and staff and students are excited for the AFL grand final tomorrow, as well as the last day of term three!

We asked some long-time supporters of the two final teams to tell us how they are feeling about the upcoming game:

Mrs Barracu (Collingwood Football Club): We've made it to the final, we're proved that we are good enough - now we just need to put that into action!

Mrs Worthington (Brisbane Lions): I can hear the mighty roar from here already...

Melodic Times - Rock Challenge State Runner-Ups

Congratulations to Lucy, Frankie, and Serena on their incredible recent acoustic performance in the State Final of the Tasmanian Rock Challenge. Melodic Times were awarded with runner-up, and we are thrilled they received such an outstanding result. 

Fostering Lifelong Literacy

In our Primary School, we have a number of initiatives to support students' literacy skills, and we are blessed to have educators who have a passion for developing their expertise in this area.

Sacha Marshall and Nicole Serret were recently invited to present at the ‘Leading Change Towards Structured Literacy’ principal’s seminar hosted by Independent Schools Tasmania. Sacha and Nicole shared their journey of literacy practice change in the Primary School at LCS and their future plans to continually improve student outcomes in this area.

Lit Up is about lighting the way for children to learn to read and spell. This program operates daily, is fast paced, engaging, and uses the science of reading to underpin targeted learning activities to accelerate reading progress. The program aims to help students gain skills to decode text, increase the size of their vocabulary, spell words correctly, and read more fluently and confidently. Students participating in the program and their teachers can already see the positive impact this program is having on children’s reading and their ability to navigate their regular class tasks. We work in small teams with students encouraging and supporting each other and celebrating gains together. I am so excited to see these students gaining valuable reading skills using scientifically validated methods that are transforming how these students view themselves as readers and learners.

In Peer Mentoring, Year 5 and Year 1 students are strategically paired to help Year 5 students gain valuable leadership and empathy skills while Year 1 learners have reading skills reinforced through game-based activities that I program based on the science of reading. It is wonderful to watch the Year 5s stepping up to lead young students toward greater reading confidence and capability. The Year 5 children show patience, gentleness, and kindness as they work with these young children, and the young children respond to their mentors with serious effort and joy in working to hear a ‘good work’ or a nod and a smile from their buddy. It is great to see these positive partnerships that foster connection and genuine care between older and younger students while they are developing important skills. 

Rite Journey Service Challenge

Throughout term 3, Year 9 students have been asked to unpack and articulate some of the deeper questions of life. Why are we here? Who is God? What happens after we die? And what should we do with the things we have been given? Both students and teachers will continue to pray and wrestle with these big questions, but one important encouragement has been that life should not be spent focusing on the self, but on others. 

Luke 6:45 states, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”. 

We want to encourage our students to have hearts for service, compassion and hospitality. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ,” (Galations 6:2), and “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13). 

So, to finish the term, we placed our year 9 students into groups and asked them to attend to a need in our school community. The students were excited and engaged, as they set about planning, preparing and performing their tasks around the school community. 

The tasks included:

• completing some maintenance jobs around the school, 
• some healthy eating education for younger students, 
• a scavenger hunt object lesson, 
• a morning tea for Teacher Aides, 
• a ‘Welcome to High-School Milk-Bar for year 6 students, 
• some communication skills drama activities for Year two students, 
• some words of affirmation posted to members of the local community, 
• a middle school survey to apply for funding with the PiC
• Some paper recycling boxes made up and distributed around the school.
• Some classroom storage being made. 
• A bench for the schoolyard. 
• Some planter boxes to refresh the garden beds around F-Block. 

Year 8 Ceramics

A popular subject option for our students in Middle School is Art. Check out these incredible creations that are about to be glazed and put in the kiln. 

Spelling Bee Success

For the first time, a number of LCS students from Years 3 to 6 were nominated to enter the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee, a national competition with over 140,000 participants.

The competition was staged in regionals, state finals and then the national final.

Two students from LCS managed to qualify for and place strongly in the national final. These were Year 4 Students Eden, who finished an astounding 4th in the nation, and Cash, who finished 16th.

Congratulations to all the students who participated, and well done to Eden and Cash!

Student Spotlight - Trixi Dingemanse

Year 6 student, Trixi, recently placed 1st in a Tasmanian writing competition (Pilgrim Artists Festival) in the U12 section. Trixi's teacher, Mr Ballard, has been encouraging her lately to enter some writing competitions, and is proud of her enthusiasm and drive to extend herself by entering.

Congratulations, Trixi! We hope this wonderful achievement encourages you to pursue your passion with writing. 

Science Olympiad Results 

Our Year 10 to 12 students have achieved outstanding results at this year's Science Olympiads. Congratulations!

David Brown - High Distinction: Chemistry, Biology, Earth and Environmental Science, and Physics

Elizabeth Sexton - High Distinction: Physics, Distinction: Biology, and Earth and Environmental Science

Esther Sharpe - Distinction: Earth and Environmental Science, and Physics, Credit: Biology

Gian Ward - Credit: Earth and Environmental Science

Vaidehi Oommen - Credit: Earth and Environmental Science 

Year 6 - Lighthouse Project 

What Guides Us?

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

This term, our Year 6 students have been working on the Lighthouse Project. This unit centres around the question: 'what guides us?'

After learning about the history of lighthouses, considering components, planning, constructing, painting, and adding special finishing touches - their models are complete, and they look amazing!

The lighthouses are on display in our library.

Netball Wrap-Up

NHSSA Saturday Netball Grand Finals Report 

On Saturday 16th September the NHSSA Saturday Netball Grand Finals were held up at the Silverdome. 

It was so awesome to see the LCS community in action, with the LCS crowds far outweighing the opponents in the 2 Grand Finals that we were involved in. Thanks to all those who came along to support our girls.

Both Grand Finals were incredibly close with a 1 point margin in each match. 

Our Jnr. 3rds kicked off the day at the 8am timeslot. They played an excellent match that finished in a draw at the end of regulation time! That sent the match into overtime and unfortunately St. Pats were able to score the winning goal with 3 seconds left of the clock. Holding out for a 23-22 victory. Well done to the girls on an excellent season and congratulations to Michelle Ajay who was awarded MVP of the Grand Final by the umpires. Thanks to Mrs. Shand who coached them and to all the parents who score kept and supported the girls throughout the long season! Mrs Shand and Mrs Jarvela celebrated the season with a brunch at Riverbend.

Our Snr. 1sts Grand Final saw LCS taking on the top of the table Prospect High School. The girls got off to an excellent start and had a handy 7 point lead at the half time break. Prospect managed to trim the margin in the 3rd quarter which set the scene for a very tense final quarter. LCS and Prospect went goal for goal throughout the last quarter with the girls holding them out to win by one point, a very similar scoreline to Jnr. 3rds match! 24-23. Congratulations to Molly King who was awarded MVP of the Grand Final by the umpires! This is the first time in 11 years that we have won a Senior 1sts title so a special shout out to the team!! Thanks to Esther and Eunice Kidmas who coached the girls this season and again to all the parents who score kept and came along to support the girls throughout the season!

That’s a wrap for both the NSATIS and NHSSA netball seasons! 

Socials

Middle School - CHILDHOOD TV SERIES SOCIAL

Year 10 - OP SHOP SOCIAL

High School Championships Report

In week 9 we were privileged to attend the High School netball championships at the Silverdome.

Over the course of the week we had 5 teams take part in the event which is coordinated by Netball Tasmania.

It all started on Tuesday with our Yr 8 Girls who were undefeated in the pool stage which earnt them a semi-final berth against Deloraine. They had an amazing comeback late in the match, coming back from 4 points down with 4 minutes to go to eventually win by 2, booking them a berth in the Grand Final. LCS finished runners up to SPC and as a result have been invited to participate in the state titles in Ulverstone in November. An awesome effort!

Wednesday saw our Yr 8 boys take part. This was our first ever boys team entered into the High School netball champs. They played really well and ended up finishing 3rd defeating Deloraine in the 3v4 playoff match.

On Thursday our Yr. 9/10 girls had a tough pool draw but ended with 2 wins, 2 losses in the pool stage which gave them the chance to play off for 5th against Queechy. The girls had a great final match to secure 5th place!

On Friday the Yr. 9 and Yr. 10 boys team competed in 2 different pools. The level of competition was high and our boys competed well and our Yr 10 boys ended up finishing 8th and our Yr. 9 Boys finished 11th.

A big thanks to Miss Connors who was the main coordinator for this day and also ran numerous lunchtime practice match sessions.

It was a great week of netball and an excellent experience for our students. It was also excellent to see us enter boys teams for the first time in this event!

Looking forward to seeing LCS involved again in 2024 and all the best to our Yr. 8 girls in your State Finals in Ulverstone.

Healthy Lunchbox Initiative 

Mrs Lundie's Year 3 class enjoyed cooking some healthy lunchbox snacks in our HEC kitchen. Parent helpers led small groups, and each group cooked a recipe. Students were able to take home these delicious treats and share them with their loved ones. Thank you to our wonderful helpers!

Recently, our Year 4 students have also been designing healthy sandwiches at school, with so many delicious options, and then making them for their lunch.

Hands-on opportunities like this instil a love for healthy eating and trying new foods, and most importantly, confidence and practice in how to prepare them.

Teacher Trainee Information Session

We are excited to share that we have a part-time position at LCS for a Teacher Trainee, commencing in January 2024: Position Description - Teacher Trainee

Primary or Secondary teaching Information Session will be held at 5pm on October 26th 2023

Register your interest with our Teaching & Learning Coordinator Nicole Serret: serretn@lcs.tas.edu.au

Employment Opportunities

Employment | Launceston Christian School (lcs.tas.edu.au)

From the ICT Department

MUST READ - IMPORTANT LCS TECH UPDATE LCS 

Parent Lounge

I'm excited to let you know of a major new initiative for Launceston Christian School, the LCS Parent Lounge. The Parent Lounge will help parents to access and action various administration tasks through self-service tools including:

• Viewing and downloading current school fee balances and statements
• Viewing and downloading academic reports
• Viewing attendance and illness records
• Student timetables
• Updating student medical details
• Updating address details
• Updating media permissions
• Submitting absentee notifications and acknowledging unexplained absences
• Booking parent-teacher interviews

In the future, we hope to roll out extra features including school fee payments and schedules, extra-curricular sign-ups, and even sporting fixtures.The LCS Parent Lounge will go live over the term break. The easiest way to access the LCS Parent Lounge will be via TheHub. Once logged into TheHub, look for Parent Lounge in the top menu.

Parent ID Passport (PIPs)

Along with the LCS Parent Lounge, Launceston Christian School has partnered with K12 Solutions to provide a new way for parents to access our online resources.Next week, you will receive a welcome email with your new LCS parent account credentials, your Parent ID Passport (or PIPs for short). This one account with allow you to access all our online portals including:

• TheHub
• Our smartphone app
• The LCS Parent Lounge

What’s even better is that this single account will also allow you to log in using one of the following identity providers: Google, Microsoft, Apple, or Facebook, provided the email registered with the provider matches the email you have currently given to LCS.

Please be aware that your old login credentials will stop working so you will need to update any stored credentials in your web browsers. You will also need to log out of our smartphone app and then log in again using these new credentials.

So, what now?

• Keep an eye out for your Parent ID Passport welcome email. You should see it next week. Follow the instructions to set up your new account including linking an identity provider. Again, your old credentials to TheHub will stop working so get this done as soon as possible.
• Once you have set up your new PIPs account, log into TheHub and check out the Parent Lounge. Maybe update some details like your children’s swimming ability or medical information.

Brad Robinson, ICT Coordinator 

From the Office

Office Hours for Term 3 Break

The school office hours during the term break are listed below

First Week

Monday = CLOSED

Tuesday -Thursday = 9am-3pm

Friday = CLOSED

Second Week

Monday – Wednesday = 9am-3pm

Thursday & Friday = CLOSED

Did you know that Launceston Christian School has an Association Scholarship?

The Association of the Launceston Christian School (Inc.) have kindly set aside their annual membership fees to provide a discretionary Scholarship to a new or existing family who is committed to Christian Education, who can demonstrate a practicing Christian faith and who might otherwise not be able to afford Christian education for their children.

The Scholarship will provide $2,000 per year for a period of 2 years towards the successful applicant’s total Tuition Fees.   

Application forms are available our website: Board & Association | Launceston Christian School (lcs.tas.edu.au)

The deadline for applications is the 29th of September 2023.

If you would like any further information, please contact Keryl Robinson via our school office:

Ph:  6327 2854  Email:  RobinsonK@lcs.tas.edu.au

________________________________________________________________________________

Notices of Intended Withdrawal of Enrolment

At this time of the year we are processing a significant number of enrolment enquires. Term 4 is also the time when we begin the process of organising classes for 2024. 

To assist us in this process, we ask that families intending to withdraw a student at the end of 2023 provide the required one term (10 school weeks’) notice in writing to Mr Stuart Kent ASAP, stating when the student will be withdrawn and where they are to be educated.  

Please be aware that end of year withdrawal notices received after the start of Term 4 will be considered insufficient notice, and a penalty of 5 weeks’ tuition fees may apply, which may be deducted from the family’s Fee Deposit paid on enrolment.

A reminder that we are an Allergy Aware school - no nuts or nut products are to be brought on to campus. 

Car Parking

Please familiarise yourself with our Parking Policy that can be found on our website or by clicking this link - PolicyConnect

We do have parking available on site however there are a few things to be noted :

• Visitors carpark is available for short term parking, if you are going to be at school for longer than 2hours, we suggest you park in the main carpark or on West Tamar Road.
• Please be aware that the first six carpark on left hand side of carpark are reserved staff parking and parents are asked to keep these clear during 8am-4pm.

Illnesses

If you child has any flu-like symptoms such as a cough, sore throat, runny nose, or fever they should be kept at home.    If your child experiences Gastro or Gastro type symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea, Students should remain home until they've had no vomiting or diarrhoea for at least 24 hours.

The Wellbeing Unit

Uniform Matters

The uniform shop is open by appointment only during the school holidays. 

Call Anne on 0400573902 to book an appointment. 

The uniform shop is open in Term 4:

Monday to Friday

8:30 am - 9:30 am

Wednesday

1:30 pm - 3:30 pm

If you have any inquiries regarding uniforms, please get in touch with our Uniform Coordinator, Anne Rixon, at 0400573902 

A REMINDER: LCS Uniform Policy - Shoes

Designated sports shoes only

Itinerant Music Teachers 2023

LCS has a number of instrument teachers who take students for individual lessons at school during school hours. This is an excellent way to learn an instrument and can help students make much faster progress on their instrument. It is recommended that student’s seriously contemplating studying music from grades 9 onwards definitely consider having some private instrument tuition to further their overall music advancement. Any student in grades 5 – 8 who are serious about starting an instrument should also have lessons in order to learn crucial proper technique early in their playing life.

Students continuing lessons from last year will be individually contacted by their teachers to organise lessons for the year.

If you would like your child to start having lessons this year, please email Mr Stewart (stewartp@lcs.tas.edu.au) and include the following details.

1. Students name:
2. Class:
3. Instrument to have lessons on:
4. Contact phone number:
5. Your contact details (phone and email)

This will be passed on to a relevant teacher who will contact you for further details.

We currently have teachers available for the following instruments:

• Piano/keyboard
• Clarinet/saxophone and Flute
• Guitar
• Bass
• Brass (trumpet etc)
• Voice 
• Drums 

LCS Volunteer Application Form

At LCS, we believe in the importance of fostering a positive, supportive community. We believe that parents and community members are essential partners in achieving this goal, and we would like to invite you to consider volunteering at LCS. We welcome your involvement if you have a specific skill or talent to share or simply want to lend a helping hand. 

If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out the form below and return it to the Office/email it to kibbelm@lcs.tas.edu.au together with the required documentation.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you.

Notice From Food Technology Department

The Food Technology Department would like to encourage anyone with excess produce in their gardens or orchards to consider donating them to our Food Preservation Unit. 

Donating your excess produce not only helps reduce waste, but also provides a valuable learning opportunity for our students. 

Infectious Illnesses update

Student Bus Travel Expectations

Student Office Passes Information

ABSENCES/ATTENDANCE

Communication regarding a student’s absence needs to come via the school office. This information will then be passed on to the student’s teachers. Parents are asked where possible to telephone the school or email the office in advance when a student will be absent.  If you subscribe to the mobile app, The Hub you can also lodge an electronic absentee form which will reach the office immediately.  The school telephone number is (03) 6327 2854 and email is office@lcs.tas.edu.au

Students who are late must sign in at the school office.  Students will be issued a ‘late pass’ that must be presented to their teacher.  Students who sign in ‘late’ must have a note of explanation from home.   Three unexplained late arrivals will result in a detention.

Yr11/12 students that have a study period in the morning and do not attend Class Teacher must sign in at the office as soon as they arrive at school, if students have not signed in whole day absences will be on their record. Yr 11/12 students may leave the school grounds during study periods, however they are required to sign out and back in at the office.  This is important, particularly in the case of an emergency, so students can be accounted for by the staff and emergency services.

Written permission is required to leave the school grounds during school hours (except Year 11 & 12).  Students are to meet parents at the office. All students must use the sign out folder at the student counter in the main office.  When students return to school, they should report to the student counter in the main office and sign in.  

If families intend to be absent from school due to extended holidays (3 days or more), parents need to fill out in advance an Application for Extended Leave for Travel form, found under the Parents and Students/Downloads & Policies tab on our website:  www.lcs.tas.edu.au(Please see Extended Leave Policy on next pages)

MEDICATION

Should your child need to take prescribed medication at school please inform the school office.  All medication, both prescription and over the counter medication, needs to be in original packaging and labelled with clear dosage instructions (prescription medication needs dosage instructions from a registered medical practitioner) and must be administered at the school office and students are not permitted to carry medication at school. Medical forms are sent home at the beginning of each school year and parents are able to indicate whether they give permission for paracetamol to be administered if required.

UNIFORM

Students who are not in correct uniform, wrong jacket or coloured socks etc must get a uniform pass from the office.  A note of explanation should be provided by parents.  Three uniform non compliances, without parent explanation, will result in a detention.

Parking Policy