7 December 2016

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT:

So many WOW moments!

Over the past 2 weeks we have had reason to celebrate and acknowledge wonderful achievements in our school community.

Leadership Induction Session

On Wednesday 23rd November Mr Dean and I hosted,(on behalf of Mrs Lovitt), a session for our newly elected 2017 Prefects, House Captains and Beacon Ambassadors. It was a lovely afternoon where the students and their parents learnt more about the expectations for their new roles and the exciting year ahead for them, including a leadership camp early in Term 1. We have more student leaders in roles next year and we were extremely impressed with the high calibre of applications and interviews from all students. We know that 2017 will be a fantastic year for them all in their elected roles and positions. All our student leaders for 2017 will be introduced formally to our school community at the Presentation Assembly on the 15th December.

Grade 8 Interviews and Presentations

Last week I had the privilege of listening to some of our Grade 8 student interviews for the Cambodia Trip in 2018. I was so impressed with their mature and articulate responses, particularly around questions relating to leadership and resilience and I have full confidence that they will have an amazing adventure. I was also invited to listen to some Grade 8 Drama presentations in Mrs Geale's class and once again I was blown away by how passionate, sincere and articulate these young people were as they spoke about a variety of emotive and incredibly personal topics in such a supportive manner. To witness these was certainly a privilege.

Sport News

On Wednesday, 23rd November, we had 30+ students compete in the All Schools Triathlon event held at Devonport. After an early start the team, supported by Mr Stokes and Mr Smith, had a fantastic day with wonderful performances from all team members.

Congratulations to Bailey Wells who recently competed in and won the Australian Boxing Title - 57kgs. This is the THIRD consecutive year that Bailey has won the title - what an outstanding achievement. Well done Bailey!

On Sunday, 27th November, we had a staff member and a student compete in the world class Stan Siejka Bike Classic race, racing around the streets of Launceston. Mr Michael Smith and Sean Hughes-Roberts in Grade 10 both raced in this prestigious event in fine style. All the best to both of them for their future racing endeavours.

On Thursday, 1st December, our Grade 7 Girls Basketball team played off and WON the NHSSA Grand Final at Elphin Sports Stadium. The girls played Grammar and were a little nervous before the game, but their coach, Miss Males, was soon to calm their nerves and they took charge of the game early. Many of the girls have never played basketball before and to make the grand final and then be champions is a wonderful achievement. We hope that they continue on together in the rosters next year. Well done to the girls - Jewel Banks, Makala Bingley, Emily Nugent, Eliza Matthews, Kaitlyn Faulkner, Jazmine Hodgetts, Elizabeth Stonehouse, Katelyn Hodgetts and Georgia Sawford.

Dance Fever

I had the pleasure of attending Dance Fever last Thursday evening at The Door of Hope auditorium. In it’s 10th year, Dance Fever is a wonderful opportunity for students from primary schools right through to college to come together and share their love of dance. Once again it was a wonderful dance spectacular and congratulations to all our students who participated and performed with such vigour and enthusiasm. They were; Molly Gimpl, Brooklyn Maher, Catelyn Nugent, Holly Macpherson, Portia Rigby, Georgia Triffitt, Georgia Murphy, Jessica Springer, Caitlin Bingley, Meira Stanley, Isabella Darsaklis, Nikita Presland, Ella Ross and Mattieka Vanderheide.

"Stepping Up " Student Leadership Event

Ava Wheatley, Ruby Stevenson and Anabel Thomson-Callaghan travelled with Ms Sherron Casey early last Wednesday to Hobart on invitation from Ms Michelle O’Byrne MP, to attend this event. They spent the day as guests, looking particularly at careers for women in parliament. Please read the girls separate report later in this edition. A big thank you to Ms Casey for taking the girls down to Hobart to enable this wonderful opportunity.

Student Presentation at State Conference-"Preparing for Work in Times of Rapid Change"

Congratulations to Meira Stanley, Bianca Colquhoun and Mahdi Nourouzi for speaking at this Statewide conference about their pathways and future aspirations. I have received lovely feedback about how confident and articulate these young people were at this conference and how impressed all delegates were of them. Fabulous ambassadors for KMHS.

Grade 7 Excursion to Low Head

As a culminating activity to a Water Unit for all Grade 7s, there was an excursion to Low Head beach on Monday, 21st November. I know that all students had a fabulous time and thank you to the Science team for arranging such a wonderful culminating activity.

Orientation Day

On Wednesday, 30th November, we hosted over 150 students at school as part of their orientation to high school. Students from 9 different schools joined together, undertaking a variety of activities throughout the day. It was wonderful to move around the classes watching these students getting to know each other, whilst making truffles in Home Ec, constructing a Picasso style art piece, undertaking sport activities and learning more about English and Maths at high school. This was a big day that ended with another parent evening for incoming families to undertake a tour of the school and listen to more information about transition to high school.

We are very excited about our 2017 Grade 7 group and were impressed with their attitude and behaviour on the day. Thank you to all staff for supporting this day, particularly Mrs Williams and Mr Dean and especially to the Grade 7 Transition Leaders for all their work on the day and evening.

Grade 8 College Taster Day

Grade 8 students attended a College taster day at both Newstead and Launceston Colleges last week and Mr Smith and Ms Tyson reported that they had a great day learning more about college world and future pathways and possibilities. Both programs are indicative of the strong transition programs we facilitate at KMHS to ensure our students are well informed and ready for the next stage of their schooling.

Our Principal In Action!

ROCKS STARS:

As part of our Positive Behaviour Support Program at Kings Meadows we will be acknowledging students who have been contributing positively to our learning environment. This means that they have been supporting our school wide expectations.

Respect for others, self and environment
Organisation
Commitment to learning
Keeping safe
Sensible behaviour

We would like to acknowledge the following students:

Grade 7:

Leah Fullbrook – for consistently following the ROCKS in all her classes.
Darren Blackberry – for his commitment to all work tasks.

Grade 8:

Shonee Pedder - for consistently following our school ROCKS, being polite and courteous at all times.
Liam Monks - for helping out a fellow classmate, showing initiative and being a good friend.

Grade 9:

Georgia Brown - for her excellent work ethic and positive attitude to all aspects of school life.
Jordan Talbot - for his excellent performances and conduct during the KMHS and Inter-High Athletics Carnival.

Grade 10:

Chayce Jones, Mitchell Cream, William Murfett & Grant Holt - Our Inter High Grade 10 boys 4 x 100m relay team, winning 4 years in a row!

NHSSA Thursday Basketball Results:

Week 8: (10 November)

Week 9: (17 November)

Week 10: (24 November)

Week 11: (1 December) GRAND FINALS:

Grade 7 Girls Basketball:

The Grade 7 Girls Thursday night Basketball team had a fantastic season. The team consisted of Jewel Banks, Makala Bingley, Emily Nugent, Eliza Matthews, Kaitlyn Faulkner, Jazmine Hodgetts, Elizabeth Stonehouse, Katelyn Hodgetts and Georgia Sawford.

The girls developed their basketball skills and demonstrated good sportsmanship consistently throughout the roster. After some tough games the girls ended the rostered round of games 1st on the ladder. This meant that we qualified for the Grand Final, which was held on Thursday 1st December, against Launceston Church Grammar, a team that we hadn’t played due to a forfeit during the season. Playing against a team we didn’t know, the girls were quite nervous before the game, however, kept it together and ended the season with a win, 25pts to 8pts. Not only was it fantastic for the girls to finish on top, but also to see their display of team spirit and pride representing the school. We will definitely be back next year to defend our title. Congratulations Girls!

‘Stepping Up’ Women in Parliament Leadership Program:

On Wednesday, 30 November 2016, Ava Wheatley, Anabel Thomson-Callaghan and myself travelled to Parliament House in Hobart for the ‘Stepping Up’ Women in Parliament Leadership program. The aim of the day was to meet women who work in parliament and experience what goes into having that leadership position.

During the day we were given a tour of Parliament House, participated in a question panel and played parts in a role play in a Parliament sitting in the Lower House, to show us the process of getting a bill passed for free transport. These activities showed us the importance of parliament and gave us a new insight into women in leadership roles. The message that resonated with us was to take every opportunity you can and you’ll never know what career path you may take in the future.

Written by Ruby Stevenson

Grade 7 Science Excursion:

On 21st November, Grade 7s travelled to Low Head as part of their Life and Living unit in Science. We completed three different activities; a rock pool ramble, scavenger hunt and intertidal survey.

In the rock pool ramble we were instructed to find and photograph different living things found amongst the rock pools. Mr Richardson also told us that we each had to hold a crab and put our finger in a Waratah Anemone. The second activity that we had to complete was the scavenger hunt. At this time we also had the opportunity to have lunch and a break on the beach. For the scavenger hunt we had to find objects that matched coloured cards we were given. Most of our finds included rocks, shells, seaweed and the occasional piece of rubbish. The final activity we completed was an intertidal survey. During this task we were given a quadrant with the aim of measuring the percentage coverage of living and non-living things such as sand, rock, seaweed, water and crabs.

Overall we had a fantastic day which would not have been possible without the organisation of Ms Casey, Miss Males, Mr Stokes and Mr Richardson. With a special thank you to Meghan from NRM North for also coming along on the day.

By Makala Bingley & Tarkyn Webb

ThinkUKnow e-Newsletter - November 2016:

We are seeing an increase in game and app developers taking more social responsibility and implementing additional ways to protect users. We’ve summarised what Instagram and Facebook are doing for you.

Instagram: Hiding inappropriate comment controls

Instagram has created a new setting, which allows users to automatically hide inappropriate comments. It will hide a default list of keywords, including obscene language. Here’s an interesting fact — you can also include additional keywords that you would like hidden - like those “cute” comments from Mum!

Want it?

Go to Instagram Settings> Comments> and turn on ‘Hide Inappropriate Comments’.

Facebook and Instagram: Self-harm prevention tool

In Australia, it's estimated that 45 per cent of people will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime.

How can you help?

Facebook and Instagram have worked closely with mental health experts to address self-injury.

Both platforms have recently released a suicide and self-harm prevention tool enabling people to anonymously report other users who show signs of self-injury through their images, “likes”, comments or hashtags.

The platform then sends the owner of the posts a message, along with details of support services.

“Someone saw one of your posts and thinks you might be going through a difficult time. If you need support, we’d like to help.”

How to report?

• On Instagram, you can report an image>It’s inappropriate>Self injury.
• Facebook allows you to report a post> I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook>It’s threatening, violent or suicidal.

For more information:

2016 Secondary Schools Triathlon Challenge:

This year’s Triathlon Challenge was outstanding, with students from all grades thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to represent KMHS as individuals or in the team’s events.

We arrived, after an early 7:00am start, at the Devonport Bluff, with a group of 30 excited students. Whilst it was raining in Launceston and Burnie, Devonport was lucky enough to have fine weather, albeit slightly windy, but great conditions for the day’s competitions.

All students represented KMHS to a very high standard, competing to the best of their ability in all the events throughout the day. A highlight was the Grade 9 Girls team consisting of Hope Darsaklis (Grade 8), Anabel Thomson-Callaghan and Ava Wheatley, who placed 2nd in their team’s race.

The 2016 Team consisted of:

KMHS UNIFORM SHOP:

The final day for uniform shop sales this year will be THIS FRIDAY, 9 December.

Back to School Uniform Shop Opening Hours:

Monday 23 January 2017

9.00am - 1.00pm
4.00pm - 6.00pm

Tuesday 24 January 2017

9.00am - 1.00pm

Term 1 2017 Trading Hours:

Tuesdays: 1.00pm - 2.00pm
Thursdays: 2.30pm - 3.30pm

COMMUNITY NOTICE BOARD:

Leadership and Support Staff