Our Community

Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Summary | Semester 2, 2022

By Tracie Acreman (Chair of the RAP Working Party)

Picgured above: Artwork created by Year 10 Student, Amelia Hoskin-Newell, titled, ‘kunanyi in SPICES’. The work connects First Nations art and culture to the Quaker Testimonies of community and simplicity. 

I acknowledge the palawa communities of lutruwita as the Traditional Owners and Ongoing Custodians of the land, seas, waterways and skies of this place. I pay my respects to past and present palawa Elders and acknowledge the muwinina people of nipaluna who, for countless generations until colonisation, lived on and cared for the place on which our school now stands.

I recognise that I have much to learn from Tasmanian First Nations peoples who represent one of the world’s oldest living cultures. I commit to listening deeply and being respectful of Country. I honour the strength and resilience of all palawa peoples and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

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The Friends’ School’s first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP Reflect) remains in draft form, although there has been significant progress in our journey towards publication. The Working Party recently received approval for the second draft of our RAP, submitted to Reconciliation Tasmania at the beginning of Semester 2.

The RAP Working Party members come from all areas of the school, with teaching staff from Friends’ Early Years, Morris and the High School, administrative staff, students and a Board of Governors representative meeting regularly this year to work on submitting the second draft. In Semester 2, parents from our community offered feedback on the draft RAP, which helped to inform our path forward and was gratefully appreciated.

The second draft will be presented to the Board of Governors Meeting in early 2023 and with their approval, the RAP will be submitted to Reconciliation Australia for review.

If you would like to know more about our Reconciliation Action Plan or become involved, please contact Tracie Acreman, Chair of the Working Party tacreman@friends.tas.edu.au

Climate Action Update

Nicola Anderson presented an update on the formation of the School’s Climate Impact Policy at the End of Year Gathering on Wednesday 7 December 2022. Read her insightful, informative and passionate presentation here.

Morris End of Year Disco

What a blast the primary years children had at the recent end of year Morris Disco! Our thanks to the dedicated organising committee of parents who volunteered to run this event and those who volunteered their time on the day. It was wonderful to see our community come together to celebrate the year and kick up their heels! With an unexpected surge in last minute ticket sales a small surplus was produced, which has been donated to the Hobart City Mission Christmas Appeal.

End of Year Gathering

Friends’ families, students and staff attended the End Of Year Gathering, held in The Farrall Centre on Wednesday 7 December. This year the theme was Earthcare and included contributions from all sections of the School and staff. It was an opportunity for The Friends’ School community to come together to listen, reflect, centre and share. It was a meaningful and reflective event.

1,000 Peace Cranes

We are delighted to report that we have achieved our goal of folding 1,000 paper cranes to be sent to the Children’s Peace Monument in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan.

The project started last year - the International Year of Peace and Trust. The High School Library had rotating displays in the library exploring this theme and a permanent paper crane folding station.

The goal was to reach 1,000, which was kickstarted by a donation of hundreds of cranes folded by students in tutor group U8. Since then, all students from the High School were invited to fold paper cranes and add them to the display. One of our students, Skye Li-Byrne (pictured above), has contributed many cranes to the project. She, along with Raph Bartlett (Year 10), have also been stringing the cranes and advising on colour combinations. We will be sending 1,157 paper cranes to the Peace Monument.

Tutor Group Service & Colony 47 Christmas Appeal

Recently, Tutor Groups and the School community came together to collect donations for Colony 47's Annual Christmas Appeal and toiletry packs for Bethlehem House and the Hobart Women’s Shelter. We thank the House Tutors and their Tutor Groups for supporting our local community partners at this time of need.

Pictured below is a Colony 47 representative accepting donations from Lainey James, U4 Tutor, on behalf of the School community.

National Recognition for a Friends' School Teacher

We were thrilled to learn that Casey-Rae Mullen, our Year 10 Coordinator and Dance Teacher, has been recognised, amongst six other outstanding Tasmanian classroom teachers for her expertise and classroom practice through the national certification of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers (HALT) initiative. Read more here.

Boxthorn Project Update

Our Year 11 IB students worked with members of the Young Migrant Education Program (YMEP) and Councilman Bill Harvey at Bell Street on the Landcare Tas Boxthorn elimination project. Thanks to Brenda Winning for such a worthwhile and community building experience. 

As well as some fun and games at Bell Street with our YMEP friends, Bill Harvey (President of Landcare Tasmania) generously gave up his time again to inspire and work with our Year 11 studnets on Boxthorn as part of our CAS day.  His modelling of stewardship is incredible. He’s out there working in the community each week to make a difference. There are exciting opportunities for our students to work with him on council committees. 

Brightening Up Lives at the Hospital

As part of The Friends' School Service Program, Unwin 1 Tutor Group elected to run a flower drive with wellness cards for patients of the Calvary Hospital.

The students, along with their Tutor Adam Blackburn, collected flowers from School community members and put them together in bunches along with kindness cards in Long Tutor before delivering them to the Hospital.

Well done to all involved on such a fantastic initiative.

Grandparents Day

In October, our Primary Years students welcomed their Grandparents or Older Friends to share in their learning and join us for morning tea. The weather was a bit wet but it didn't dampen the spirits on the day.

Cooking for a Good Cause

The Year 9/10 Food Enterprise students recently completed a unit of work where they cooked large scale meals for service organisations, including Anglicare and St Vincent de Paul. This was a good opportunity to practice and perfect portion control with baking to ensure a consistent size and quality of products.

One of the products produced was Anzac biscuits, which were packaged and delivered to Loui's Van (St Vincent de Paul). This was a great way to give something back to the local community.

student2student Reading Program

Leela Walford, a Program Specialist from The Smith Family, presented our High School students that participated in the student2student Reading Program with a certificate and lapel pin to recognise their time, effort and commitment to working with younger readers as a buddy mentor.

Pink Stumps Match

The High School Stewardshop Committee held a fundraiser for the Jane McGrath Foundation, which is an Australian breast cancer support and education charity. At lunchtime there was a staff versus students ‘Pink Stumps’ cricket match where the students successfully raised over $200.

5 Ways of Wellbeing

Some Years 11 and 12 Tutor Groups recently went to the Understorey Network (Landcare Tasmania)’s Native Garden in Tolosa Park Reserve to engage in some garden maintenance and sporting activity as part of engaging the 5 Ways of Wellbeing. Whilst there, the students and Tutors, Sam Norton and Karina Churchill, pruned, weeded and raked to tidy up the pathways and garden beds. They followed this with a few rounds of Spikeball. The purpose of the excursion was to connect, keep learning, keep active, take notice and help others.

Prep Exhibition

During term 4, the Prep children held their 2022 Exhibition - a culmination of our How We Express Ourselves unit of inquiry.  The children were designers, curators and guides of the Exhibition. As they guided family members and school staff through the varied exhibits, they discussed how they had expressed themselves using clay, charcoal, paint, wire, plaster, paper mache plasticine, and paper, as well as the purposes behind each piece. For many children, their clay platypuses took pride of place in the Exhibition as they raised funds for the Hobart Rivulet Platypus and platypus conservation.