Our Community
The Farrall Centre 10 Year Anniversary Celebration
The Farrall Centre has been at the heart of our community for a decade, bringing us together for assemblies, gatherings, musical performances, drama productions and events.
On Saturday 26 June 2021 we welcomed members of our community to come together at The Farrall Centre to celebrate the opportunities it has created for our students. Performances from dance, choir, music, art and drama students were included in the showcase, with an alumni performance from Tasmanian Soprano, Sophie Mohler (Class of 2017), who visited us from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
It was a beautiful evening shared by some of our oldest and youngest community members, showcasing the extraordinary talent of just some of our students. Many thanks to the students who entertained us, to the staff who dedicated so much time and effort to ensure that the performance ran smoothly, and to the community members who braved the cold to join us for such a special night.
Check out the full story here.
Check out the Facebook Image gallery here.
Check out a short tribute video to The Farrall Centre here.
Mother's Day Walk & Afternoon Tea
On Saturday 9 May 2021 we held a Mother's Day Walk & Afternoon tea to celebrate all the mums in our Friends' community. The Walk was a leisurely stroll along the Rivulet track in Hobart and ended at Cascade Gardens where there was coffee and snacks waiting.
The weather held out long enough for us to enjoy a beautiful Autumn afternoon under the trees.
Thank you to everyone who attended the event, we hope to share details about what we are doing for Father's Day in the near future.
Crazy Socks for Docs Day
On Friday 4 June, students in the Friends’ High School wore crazy, colourful and silly socks to show their support towards doctors. ‘Crazy Socks for Docs Day’ is celebrated on the first Friday of June to show awareness for doctors because they can have a lot of built up stress from their jobs. Doctors work so hard for our community and it is very important that people not only celebrate this day but also continue to give ongoing support to doctors. ‘Crazy Socks for Docs Day’ was first established because it was realised how much stress doctors have to go through on a daily basis, and if we can help doctors by showing our support then we can lower their stress levels. ‘Crazy Socks for Docs Day’ should become an ongoing event at Friends’ across the School because with many of our parents working as doctors, and students aspiring to follow that career path, the concerns of this cause are a real benefit for our school community.
By Isabel Jolley (Year 7)
Questacon Invention Convention 2021
Lily Neyland was one of the five Friends' School students who participated in the Questacon Invention held at the Sustainability Centre at Mount Nelson over the Term 1 break. Students worked in pairs based on what need they would like to fulfil with their invention project. Here is Lily's reflection of her experience:
Our invention was a turtle back scratcher which provided turtles living on reefs with a sensor-operated machine that helped scratch their backs for them, removing excess algae and providing a nice sensation. While originally designed to help turtles in rehabilitation programs scratch their backs without human interaction, we worked with another group to design two scratchers, one which would be placed out on the reefs and one which could be used in rehab centres. I learned a lot more about lego bots, which we ended up using in our final prototype to help control the back scratcher.
I really enjoyed meeting other people who also had a passion for creating solutions to real-life problems, as well as learning new skills, and realising just how much you can actually achieve in less than three days.
VoiceQuake
32 brave Friends’ staff members from across all campuses formed a singing group affectionately called "VoiceQuake" to perform in the Festival of Voices Corporate Choir Challenge to raise funds for Hobart City Mission.
The ‘big gig’ was held in the Federation Concert Hall on Monday 28 June to a sold out audience. VoiceQuake sung a rousing rendition of "Here comes the sun".
Reconciliation Action Plan
Quaker testimonies call us to action in our everyday lives and guide the ethos of our school. A testimony to social justice and racial equality is fundamental to the values we hold as a community, in which we seek to help our students develop as people who will think clearly, act with integrity, make decisions for themselves, be sensitive to the needs of others and the environment, be strong in service and hold a global perspective.
As a learning community, we recognise the value of continuing Aboriginal knowledge and cultural practice, which helps inform our understanding of history, culture and country. We recognise the importance of reconciliation which will work to create greater understanding and harmony between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Tasmanians. As part of our reconciliation journey, the School is developing a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) with support and guidance from Reconciliation Tasmania. The RAP will be a strategic, accountable framework that will drive our contribution to reconciliation, not only among our students and staff, but within our entire school community to give rise to broader change and a more unified future. If you would like to participate or contribute to the development of a RAP, please contact the RAP Working Group Tracie Acreman - tacreman@friends.tas.edu.au
Lad's Day
About 50 boys and staff from Clemes took part in the Lads' Day sunrise walk last Thursday to 'shine a light' on men's mental health awareness. Boys walked from Clemes to the Domain to watch a spectacular sunrise and hear from Mitch McPherson from Speak Up Stay ChatTY before returning to school for breakfast. Normalising conversations about our wellbeing and seeking support from those around us were key takeaways from the event.