Our Learning

Year 9 Connections 2022

By Esther Hoggart, Year 9 Coordinator

I am pleased to report that the 2022 Year 9 Redbanks Mud Run was a fantastic success! Although the obstacles might have been challenging, the sense of camaraderie and teamwork amongst our Year 9 cohort was amazing, assisting each other to step outside their comfort zones and achieve their best. There were also some impressive landings down the bottom of the mud slide to all celebrate and admire! The Redbanks Mud Run provides the perfect opportunity for students to put their resilience to the test, practising skills they have developed through exploring gratitude, empathy and mindfulness within The Resilience Project's curriculum. In 2023, we will be launching the first Year 9 Career Education Day as part of their Connections Program; stay tuned for some exciting developments in the new year!

2022 Exceptional TCE Results

After an anxious wait, our Year 12 students received their much-anticipated TCE results on Wednesday, with 13 Friends’ students achieving an Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) (or equivalent ATAR) of 98.35+, placing them in the top 1.65% of students nationally.

These results are a testament to the wonderful efforts of our students, our staff and to the dedication of our supportive School community. Our students participated in all aspects of School life, represented the School’s values and they leave Friends’ enriched by much more than top ATAR’s.

On behalf of the whole School community, congratulations to all our students on their hard work and excellent achievements.

Read more here

The Friends’ School also has a number of International Baccalaureate Diploma students who will receive their results in early January.  The School looks forward to acknowledging their efforts in the coming weeks.

Morris Camps

This term has been extremely exciting with Year 3, 4, 5 & 6 all attending camps and sleepovers. Building resilience and independence are important skills for our students and camps facilitate opportunities for these to be experienced and lived. Our Year 3 students slept over in the Clemes foyer with their mats and sleeping bags, enjoying a barbecue dinner, a movie evening in The Farrall Centre and a very early breakfast enjoying the fresh air on the play equipment at 7am.

The Year 4 children were delighted to stay overnight at Orana, sharing cabins with their peers and relishing camp life with beach and wilderness activities. 

The Year 5 cohort participated in a two night outdoor adventure camp at Spring Beach - Orford, with risk-taking a key for many on the flying fox, kayaking and commando course. The facilities included cabins and an amazing indoor gymnasium, which hosted an unforgettable ’Talent Quest’ evening.

The Year 6 Tassie Trip was a highlight for our Year 6 studnets with a week away from home. Based in Poatina, they experienced  day trips to various parts of Northern Tasmania to learn about Tasmanian history and conservation. The itinerary was jam-packed with activities. The highlights being Seahorse World, the Tasmania Zoo, seeing the peacock strutting at The Gorge, street handball in the evenings, the quiz nights, gold mining at Beaconsfield and Hollybank high ropes course.

Japanese News from Morris

By Melissa Wickins, Morris Japanese Teacher

Konnichi wa,

During term 4, Year 3 students were challenged to create their own mini-styled Japanese garden. The students were the ‘kami’ or gods of this work and crafted many items like ‘torii’ gates, ‘hashi’ bridges to include in their mini world. Year 3 students ran garden tours to show student and parent visitors our work and to use Japanese language to identify items and English to explain the meaning behind them.

Year 5 students were asked to design and make their own obento (Japanese-styled lunch in a box). The results were amazing and looked very ‘oishii’ (delicious).

We took our obento bako (lunch boxes) on an in-school picnic and used language to identify the food we ate.

Year 4 students participated in a fashion parade to share their developing Japanese communication skills and risk-taking ability.

Students designed their own outfits, wrote Japanese language to match and rehearsed their own self-introductions to present to the Year 3 cohort in a fashion parade.

Our work was original and creative and was very well received. Everything was on show from Elsa from Frozen, pandas, animals, sleepy people and athletes and everything in between.

Year 7 Connections Term 4

Year 7 students have had a range of learning experiences for their Connections days this term. To prepare for camp they undertook a nutrition / trangia day. This involved planning a meal to cook on the trangia, shopping at Woolworths for the ingredients, and preparing, cooking and cleaning up. Some delicious and nutritious meals were cooked. Students had a fabulous time on camp, albeit the experience was a little wet for some groups. To link in with the topic of classification that was being studied in Science, students visited the Museum and undertook research into an animal of their choice. To prepare for the Film Festival, students had a session with Peter Jones, a passionate Quaker and activist. Peter shared the history of Quakerism through to today, and students gained a deeper understanding of the values that the School upholds. Mott and Oats finally got to have their Recreation for Life Day, visiting Bounce, either Woody’s Skate and Play or 10 Pin Bowling, and participating in a wheelchair basketball session. Each class re-lived their fabulous year and produced their class Yearbook. The year culminated with a four-day Film Festival where students were encouraged to ‘let their films speak’ through connecting to one or more Quaker Testimonies and including the symbolic prop, which this year was ‘thread’.

2022 My Place Competition

By Lindy Maddock, Year 5 Teacher

This term, the Morris Primary Years Where we are in place and time inquiry focused on historical perspective and we explored Nadia Wheatley’s My Place picture book. Our central idea was 'Recognising bias helps form a balanced understanding of history’.

Presented by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF), Reading Australia and ABC Education, the 2022 My Place Competition asked Years 1-8 students to write about change and continuity in their own communities.

Eleanor Reid (Year 5) won 3rd Prize for her stunning piece - read it here. You can view the ACTF announcement here.

A Curious Mind

Alexandra Syka in Year 9 recently submitted an application to participate in Curious Minds and the Science Department is thrilled that she has received a placement in this year’s 2022-23 program. Curious Minds empowers girls who are passionate, high performers in Science,  Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to explore their full potential, through a six-month hands-on extension and mentoring program. Well done Alex.

Science, Engineering, Investigations Awards

Five Year 8 students presented their negotiated studies to two visiting judges from UTAS as part of the SEIA (Science, Engineering, Investigations Awards). Students needed to write up either scientific or engineering reports, display their findings on a poster and answer questions related to their project. The final scores were very close. There were two Highly Commended Awards presented to Caitlyn Cooke for her investigation on which toothpaste removes the most plaque and to Peter Cadman Tompson for his glass sorting device. Congratulations to all the students involved.

Prep visits The Lea

Our Prep classes visited The Lea for an Outdoor Education experience. They used natural materials from the bush to express themselves creatively, constructing shelters, mini forests and mandalas. After a bushwalk, a student summed up our day (which coincided with Outdoor Classroom Day) perfectly: “I just realised something - nature really IS a playground!"

Debating Competition

The Southern Schools Debating competition, organised by the Tasmanian Debating Union, sees schools from Hobart and surrounds debating fortnightly across Years 7-12. This year, the season was protracted, running from June until November due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. One of the two Year 10 teams reached the Grand Final and debated the topic, “That we should overthrow governments that do not take action on climate change”, against Taroona High School. Friends’ was given the negative position and in a unanimous decision by the three adjudicators, they won the debate. Congratulations to the team members, and to all debating students on their participation in Season 2022.

Mary Stanfield Public Speaking Competition

The annual Mary Stanfield Public Speaking Competition was held at the end of October, the topic was “The Clock is Ticking...”. This year we were fortunate to have alumnus and former staff member Mark Nicholson as guest judge. The quality of work presented was excellent and offered the audience an opportunity to reflect on how the future will look.

The Mary Stanfield Public Speaking Competition was named in honour of a stalwart of The Friends’ School; who gave devoted and loyal service during her 36 years as a teacher at the School (from 1927 – 1963).

Congratulations to our winner, Sahansa Udawatta, and all our participating students who presented their speeches. Follow the link to read the winning speech from Sahansa and other thought provoking work from our Year 10 students.

Meet the Food Producers

As part of the Year 9/10 Food Enterprise course, students were invited to go on an excursion to visit several small food producers in the Huon region to develop their knowledge and understanding of the Tasmanian food industry and various food enterprises.

Classes visited Miellerie Honey in Woodbridge to learn about organic and biodynamic bee keeping before heading to Gardners Bay Farm to hear about their sustainable gardening initiatives. Students were also treated to an enjoyable lunch at Peppermint Bay where they met Tas-Saff Saffron Threads & Tea to learn about the art of growing and harvesting saffron in Tasmania.

We want to thank all the producers involved for taking the time to speak with us and share their knowledge and passion with our students.

Youth Speak Out Event

Youth Speak Out is a yearly event celebrating and expressing themes of Reconciliation by the next generation. Students from Years 5 to 12 are encouraged to enter with presentations and exhibitions in November in Hobart.

This year two Friends’ students, Sahansa Udawatta (Year 10) and Emily Hansen (Year 9), were chosen to attend the Youth Speak Out Day at Government House. Sahansa presented her speech, The Voice ofthe Forgotten and Emily’s artwork (see below) was also recognised at the event.

Congratulations to both students for actively participating in this important initiative and being selected as finalists for Youth Speak Out 2022.

Interschool Chess Championships

On Monday 31 October, 10 Primary Years students and eight High School students travelled to Launceston to participate in the State Finals of the Interschool Chess Championships. Over the course of the day, students played 9 games with the scores of the top 5 players being combined to give an overall team score. Congratulations to all of our participating students and to our Primary Years team for winning the State Finals, by just half a point!

Waterworks Reserve Excursion

Our Year 2 students travelled to Waterworks Reserve to explore animal adaptations, primarily through the study of animal scat. Students enjoyed their day out, creating huts, searching for scat and learning about our unique native Tasmanian animals.

IBDP Group 4 Projects

Our International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) students have been taking part in their science-based Group 4 Projects. The purpose of these is to introduce students to the idea that science is a group activity that is undertaken in teams. Within the IBDP, Group 4 subjects include: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Design & Technology, Environmental Systems & Societies, Physics, Sport, Exercise and Health Science. The Group 4 Project brings together these subjects and asks students to undertake a self-directed project based upon ethical, social, economics and environmental implications of using science and technology. This year’s theme for Friends’ IBDP students was: Reducing our Climate Impact and Regenerating our School.

This year the IBDP students shared their works with our Year 5 students who enjoyed learning about their topics.

Tasmanian Science Talent Search

The Tasmanian Science Talent Search (TSTS) 2022 was a great success for our senior research investigators. Some of the investigations included Lily Neyland (IB class of 2022) investigating the impact of nutrients on the growth of Salix fragilis (willow) cuttings. Lily was also awarded the Bell Bay Aluminium Research Investigation Award. Group Project, by Year 11 IB biology students Maeve Bylsma, Angela Holland and Evan Thomsett on the effect of enzymes and temperature on apple juice production, was runner up.

Congratulations to the following students who received recognition at the TSTS Awards Ceremony:

• Peter Cadman Tompson (First Prize STEM Challenge and Royal Society of Tasmania Excellence Award)
• Lily Neyland (First Prize Research Investigation and Bell Bay Aluminum Award for Excellent Research Investigation)
• William Bock (Inspirational Award Engineering and Invention)
• Eva Foley (Inspiration Award Research Investigation)
• Maeve Bylsma, Angela Holland and Evan Thomsett (Runner Up Research Investigation)
• William Linnett (Runner Up STEM Challenge)

Year 2 Musical

This year, as their end of year production, our Year 2 students performed 'The Starfish' musical by Brendon Renwick and Anne Gibson. It was exceptional and a delight for every person who was able to watch their performance. A special thank you to all the teachers, community members and parents who donated their time and services to help achieve this.

IBDP Extended Essay Presentations

Recently, our International Baccalaureate students presented their Diploma Extended Essay. This year the ideas being investigated range from: the plight of sea grass; the representation of marriage in Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby; the link between stress and genetics; the mysteries of digital image compression (!); the legal rights of the environment; the marginal social benefit of the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers; the systematic marginalisation of African American women; the consequences of colonisation in the art of Tasmania’s Julie Gough; and everything in between. It was a very informative and engaging afternoon.

IB Evaluation Report - December 2022

As an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, The Friends’ School is required every 5 years to carry out an evaluation of the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Diploma Programme (DP).  The purpose of the IB Evaluation is to help schools continually develop their capacity to implement IB programs in order to have a greater effect on student outcomes through the development of teaching and leadership practices.  The final evaluation report is the external assessment from the IB World School organisation on the School’s ability to deliver on the IB Programme standards and practises.

In 2022, the School completed a combined IB Evaluation for our PYP and DP.  This was the first time we have undertaken the evaluation of both programs concurrently. 

For the Evaluation Summary Report, please click here