You may recall that recently we had students assisting at the LSSSA (Launceston State Schools Sports Association) primary school mass dance event at the Silverdome. I received a lovely email from one of the organisers which provided some fantastic feedback about our students. Excerpts from this email are included below: 

• ‘The students displayed exemplary behaviour and were more than willing to help in any way they could, used their innovation to make changes where needed and were proactive in their support. ‘
• ‘Thank you for allowing your students to come along and support our event. They were truly amazing and helped to ensure the event ran as smoothly as possible.’

Once again, congratulations to our students and thank you to Dylan Warren and Belinda Selby for supporting them in this experience. It is great to see students representing our school with pride and distinction in the community.

There is always so many things happening in our school for our students. Last week we had a speed careering event for Year 9 and 10 students interested in the construction industry. We have also had students visiting the Australian Maritime College. Thank you to Belinda Selby for facilitating this event and to our many wonderful industry mentors who support our school so well. Yesterday, we had the Bell Shakespeare Company visit and perform for our Year 10 students. Last week we had some of our talented writers attend a Writers Workshop at Newstead College. Thank you to Rebecca Glasby for enabling this enrichment opportunity for our students. Tomorrow, Thursday 26 September our Year 10 students attend RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Awareness) at Symmons Plains. This is a valuable road safety education experience for our young people who will be starting to drive in the near future, or even in some instances, now!  Thank you to James Guy for organising this important and potential lifesaving excursion.

We held our final whole school assembly last Thursday, 19 September. As part of the Tamar Community Peace Festival’s ‘Peace in Schools Program’, we welcomed Laura Johnson as the keynote speaker.  Laura Johnson is an extraordinary young person who actively works to improve the lives of others. She lives in Smithton, is a proud Palawa woman and a lived-experience advocate in mental health and suicide prevention. Laura has also received many other accolades and awards for her work.

Congratulations to all students who were recognised in the assembly, well done to our musicians who performed and thanks to our student leaders for co-ordinating the assembly. Thank you also to our chair crew for their work in setup and pack up of the event. Thank you also to Rebecca Glasby and Kate Blaubaum for their overall organisation of the assembly.

On Friday 20 September, we hosted an AFL umpiring clinic for girls interested in this pathway. The session was facilitated by AFL Tasmania and covered field, boundary and goal umpiring. It was great to see many girls take up this opportunity as umpiring can not only develop many personal attributes and general fitness but also provides a potential opportunity for well-paid, casual employment or even a starting point to umpiring at a higher level.  Thank you to Emma Attard for supporting this opportunity for our students.

Although Term 3 is not a reporting period, it is still important that learning is a partnership between students, parent/carers and teachers.  Over the last week or so parents and careers have had the opportunity to check in with teachers in person, over the phone or via TEAMS, at a mutually convenient time, to discuss their child’s learning progress and possibly look at evidence of learning.  This also culminated in an extended afternoon/evening where most teachers were on site until 6pm. Thank you to parents and carers who took up these opportunities.  Simply taking an interest in your child’s education is a positive and supportive factor. 

Winter sport has concluded for another year. Congratulations to all students who participated and represented our school positively. Thank you also to everyone who assisted with coaching, managing, umpiring, refereeing or spectating.  I really value these sporting opportunities for our students and I know many in our community would agree. However, running multi-school sports rosters is a huge undertaking, so thank you to everyone involved, including the Northern High School Sports Association (NHSSA) Executive Officer, Rachel Buck. I would hate to ever lose these opportunities for our students but like any sporting club or organisation, they require the commitment of many people, not just the players. In particular, congratulations to our Junior First Boys Football Team who won their grand final. Well done boys, you did us proud!

Have you ever considered that some of our students are young carers? Research shows there are 2-3 young carers in every classroom in Australia. We recognise the definition of a young carer in line with the Carers Recognition Act 2023 (Tas). A Young Carer is a person who is under the age of 25 and provides unpaid care and support to a family member, or friend, who:  

• has a disability 
• has a mental illness 
• has a chronic or life-limiting condition 
• has alcohol-dependence or drug-dependence; or  
• is frail or aged 
• is a child, if the person is an informal kinship carer of the child.  

Sometimes young carers can be at risk of disengagement or reduced educational outcomes due to the extra responsibilities they take on. I have included some links below where there is support available for our young carers.

youngcarersnetwork.com.au. 

Home | Carer Gateway

As I hope you know, our school has an ‘Off and Away All Day ‘policy in relation to student mobile phone use. Parents and carers can support us by reminding their child of this expectation and by not contacting their child directly during the school day (8.35am until 2.50pm). Similarly, if a student arrives late to school or needs to leave early, we must have direct contact from the parent or carer in this regard. Your support is appreciated in this area.

Recently, we temporarily farewelled teachers Matthew Chatwin and Ben Killalea who will be taking some leave until the end of the year. Mr Chatwin’s classes will be taken over by Jake Chamberlain and Brendan Poke respectively, while Mr Killalea’s classes will be covered by Connor Williams. We also welcome Sam Lucas to our teaching team and he will be taking over some of Mr Chamberlain’s and Mr Poke’s classes due to the swaps mentioned above. We also farewell Patrick (Pat) Daly who will be taking up a permanent position elsewhere. Congratulations Mr Daly!  As a result, we also welcome Jacob Fisher to our teaching team. I am sure everyone will make Mr Fisher and Mr Lucas feel welcome, supported and part of the team. At the end of term, we also farewell Wendy Jacobsen from our office administration team. I thank Wendy for her outstanding contribution and wish her well in her future endeavours.

Looking ahead to Term 4, we have PAT (Progressive Achievement Testing) occurring across the school from Week 2, our two day Athletics Carnival in Week 3, a Professional Learning Day (student free day) on Friday 1 November and then our External School Review and Arts Night the following week.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our wonderful school community over the course of this term.

I hope students and teaching staff have a restful and enjoyable break once holidays commence at the end of this week. I look forward to welcoming them back to Term 4 on Monday 14 October.

Regards

Cary Stocks
Principal