Curriculum News

At the end of Term One students in Year 7 attended our annual camp held at Spring Beach.  Students were accompanied by nine staff.  In near perfect weather conditions students participated in a range of activities including the flying fox, beach volley ball, shelter construction, drama games, archery and board games. Students rotated through each of the activities. The overarching aim of the camp was relationships:  making new friends, working with new people, consolidating relationships.  It was a great success and I would particularly like to thank our teaching staff who gave up their time to make the camp so enjoyable.

Rostrum Voice of Youth Competition

On Saturday 4 May, Year 7 students Cathy Wijayaratne and Aimee Stacey participated in the Rostrum Voice of Youth Competition held at the Friends School. Fourteen students participated in the Junior Section of the competition. There were two sections to the competition. In the prepared section students needed to speak for six minutes.  Aimee spoke on the topic:  Be Part of the Discussion and Cathy spoke on the topic, The Generosity of Strangers.   In the second section students were given 15 minutes to prepare an unseen topic with a  speech time of 3 minutes.  Both Aimee and Cathy were outstanding on the day and the adjudicators’ feedback was fantastic. 

Only one student from the group was selected to move forward to the final, Cathy gained a second place in her section.  It was a pleasure working with the girls. I would also like to thank Mrs Catherine Jetson who listened to the girl’s speeches; I had heard them on a number of occasions, and a new ear is always valuable. I would also like to thank Mrs Aimee Woodward who accompanied the students to the competition.

NAPLAN 

As our students in Years 3,5, 7 and 9 are just about to be participating in online NAPLAN testing, I would like to remind them to relax, it is just another experience, and a snap shot in time.  Our students are well prepared both for the tests and the online experience.  Just a reminder that students will need to bring their iPads fully charged, and also to bring their ear phones.  We have spares of these if a student forgets.

I hope everyone has a fantastic term.  It is a busy time for us with visiting authors, visits to Guilford College, UTAS Engineering students working with Year 6 and 7 students, various excursions and much more.  Our Curriculum Heads will keep you updated about some of these experiences as the term unfolds.

Mrs Kim Schade

Director of Teaching and Learning