From the Deputy Principal

Looking forward to our 16th Foundation Day celebrations!

Back in 2006, the second year of Moama Anglican Grammar's existence, I was honoured to speak at our very first Foundation Day on behalf of the teachers (all four of us!). I spoke about my commitment to this new school and how courageous our 16 founding students were. Becoming Deputy Principal was not part of my plan back then. It’s funny how things turn out sometimes.

As we head toward 2021 Foundation Day on Wednesday 5 May, I am reminded about how far our little Independent country school has come. We now have some traditions that are celebrated on this day such as welcoming one of our Alumni to speak at the Assembly and enjoying our Foundation Day games and Cup afterwards. We look forward to celebrating our 16th Foundation Day in ten days time. 

This term we welcome a couple of new staff and farewell three. Ms Jessica DeMaria joins the Secondary PDHPE Faculty, taking over Ms Leah Thompson’s secondary school classes. Leah has left us to join the Police Force who are very lucky to have her. We will miss Ms Thompson but warmly welcome Ms DeMaria. Mrs Anne-Marie Rykers joins our Teacher Aide team taking over from Mrs Paula Smith. Mrs Sandra Carey has also joined the Teacher Aide team, taking on some of the responsibilities of the departing Mrs Jenny Todd. Both Jenny and Paula have been instrumental in helping many of our students with learning needs achieve academic success. We wish Mrs Todd and Mrs Smith all the very best and extend a warm welcome to Mrs Rykers and Mrs Carey. 

It is very exciting that COVID restrictions continue to be lessened. However, we need to remain on our guard and there are still some protocols in place that need to be abided by. One of those is that any student who has cold or flu symptoms must be kept home. If students arrive at school with cold or flu symptoms, families will be contacted to pick up their child.

For parents and guardians that are not aware there are some excellent parenting resources at www.parentingideas.com.au. As a mother of two relatively grown up boys I can certainly attest to the effectiveness of the advice given on many of Michael Grose’s blogs. This one is an excellent example of some good tips for parents and guardians of boys: ParentingIdeas-ConnectingWithBoys. 

This year I am teaching the Year 10 Psychology class and thoroughly enjoying it – I hope the students are too! As a passionate mathematics teacher for my whole teaching career, it has been a surprisingly enjoyable change. I studied a minor in Psychology at University and have done a number of Behavioural Science courses since, so have had a keen interest in Psychology. 

Last term the Psychology students worked on their first Assessment task where they had to gather their own data around an area of Psychology they were interested in. A number of the students investigated age related cognition and so we visited one of our Year 2 classes and our Year 5 classes to play the Memory Game. Whilst gathering some valuable data there was also a lot of fun to be had! This term we are studying the brain and it's function. This week students put a life size model brain together and researched the name of each part and what its specific function is. They then completed an online quiz to see whether they use their right Cerebral Cortex more or their left Cerebral Cortex more. You too can do the quiz – head to: https://braintest.sommer-sommer.com/en/ to see which side of your brain you use more.

Kathleen Kemp

Deputy Principal