TAS Talks Term 3 Week 1

Welcome back to all students and families for the new term and semester after what I hope has been a refreshing mid-year break. I particularly welcome those new students who join us this week as boarding and day students as well as those visiting on exchange. I trust that these first few days in a new school environment will be happy as well as busy as new friendships are made and the settling process begins.

As many will know, I was fortunate to take study and long-service leave during Term 2 and I offer special thanks to the TAS Board for granting that leave and to Alan Jones who took on a range of additional responsibilities last term to make that possible. As well as enjoying some welcome time away, I was able to visit a range of schools in the United Kingdom as part of study toward our ongoing strategic planning process and I both look forward to reporting on that in due course and thank those schools which were so hospitable and helpful in that study. All were schools in similar circumstances to TAS and the insights offered from different, but like-minded environments were invaluable. As well as new ideas and perspectives, those visits highlighted the common challenges and opportunities that are presenting themselves in today’s schooling and was as reassuring as it was interesting.

During the term break our PDHPE teacher and girls’ boarding deputy Catey Curtin gave birth to her new daughter Alice and I am pleased to report that both mother and daughter are doing well. We look forward to welcoming them back to our school family in due course. With Ms Curtin now on maternity leave, Ms Arlene Fletcher has joined the PDHPE Department and will take on Acting Deputy of Girls Boarding in Week 4, whilst continuing her music teaching with us and I wish her well as she settles into these new roles.

For our Year 12 students, this final school term of school life will be a significant and memorable one and I particularly wish them well for it. With HSC Trial Exams looming in the coming weeks there will no doubt be nerves and plenty of hard work to accompany the excitement of the prospect of finishing school and I know that the whole school will be keen to support them in that. As Mrs Hutton finished her time at TAS last term to move into boarding at PLC, Mrs Susan Polson has moved into the Year 12 Study Centre to support those senior students and I welcome her and wish her well in that.

Holiday Activities

Whilst the mid-year break is traditionally a ‘quiet’ one in terms of school activity, our staff enjoyed hearing reports from several activities during our Monday staff day this week. Highlights of that included the success of the annual Forensic Science Camp which again brought a large number of talented Year 8 Science students together from across the country to solve some gruesome crime scenarios created by the camp ‘controllers’ using cutting edge scientific methods. I congratulate Alice Hudson and Luke Polson who again organised and ran the camp as well as our Head of Science Alasdair Hey who supported through the week with his scientific expertise and our student leaders Kade Stanley and Hudson McAllister who clearly did a sterling job.

At the same time a number of students headed to Sydney to compete in the Shakespeare Festival, including our first TAS Dance Troupe who placed third with their original work and Boom Tangpoolcharoen who won the film category. This is an annual event celebrating the legacy of the great Bard and I encourage other budding thespians to get in contact with Mr O’Connell to register their interest for next year.

We also had a good number of students from the growing and increasingly successful TAS Hockey Club representing the School and their region in State Championships and I congratulate them on their commitment and performances.

As I write we have our senior students from the TAS Rifle Club competing in the GPS Championships at Hornsby and I look forward to supporting them in their final day of competition today and to reporting on that.

The Semester Ahead

As I commented to Middle and Senior School students at our first assembly yesterday, the beginning of the new semester is an ideal time to set fresh goals for the remainder of the year. First semester reports will be fresh in the minds of all and the advice given in those should be used well to guide aspirations, motivate work habits and inspire classroom participation. However successful the first half of the year has been, the start of a new semester brings an opportunity that should not be missed and I wish every student well as they endeavour to make the most of that and I hope that all parents will join in that.

Murray Guest

On this day 50 years ago… 1 Corinthians 13

Fifty years and a few days since we went to the moon for the first time.

Jim Irwin, an astronaut who spent three days on the Moon in 1971 as part of the Apollo 15 mission, during an address given to a small crowd in country New South Wales, described his experience.

Irwin, standing on the Moon and looking back at Earth, closed one eye, held up his thumb and covered the entire planet — every mountain, every city, every person, every valley, every ocean, all under his thumb.

Irwin said it made him feel terrifyingly small.

Buzz Aldrin, on arriving at his destination, paused and took communion.

In the stillness after the dramatic lunar landing, Aldrin radioed back to Earth, “This is the LM pilot. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way”.

Then in the silence, Aldrin quietly read from John’s gospel, then took communion in thanks to God.

As Simon Smart said in an ABC online article “it’s a striking thing that in this moment of astonishing human achievement, perhaps the zenith of scientific endeavour to that point in time, a key player in the drama was reaching for something spiritual to make sense of the experience.”

I’ve mentioned two blokes and the experiences they had as they reached the moon, the reality was that many, many more of the astronauts who ventured to the moon, had similar experiences, spiritual experiences, existential crises, most of the time due to the fact that they had seen the world, the existence that they held so dear in another light, they saw it from a bigger perspective.

In the School Lesson read at Assembly, we learn that while we strive for our own small victories and enjoy our own successes, they will pass. There will come a time when all the experiences of our lives will be put into perspective.

“¹² For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.”

There will come a time when we will have a clear picture, but that time is in the future, what about before then, do we have any hope of gaining a better view on life?

Well notice Paul’s experience,

“¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

A clearer view is possible. Paul is able to say that he sees more now than what he used to, and when that perspective was given to him, he saw his life for what it was, he saw that he had too small a view of the world, his view needed to include Jesus and that will give perspective and change your view on the world as you know it.

Mr Richard Newton

Welcome Back

I hope the holidays provided an opportunity to reconnect with family and recover from a busy term; ready for another eventful term. Sport has resumed with some slight changes to coaching personnel due to the rotation of our Gap Students (see attached)

CLICK HERE.

Whilst most teams are midway through their season, Term 3 offers an opportunity to recalibrate goals and strive to further develop skills and teamwork.

This term is a special milestone for Year 12 and the culmination of years of co-curricular contribution. Whilst all staff are mindful of the pressures of HSC Trials, we also recognise the value of physical activity in dealing with this pressure. Your coach will work with you to ensure a healthy balance.

TAS Blue

A reminder to Year 12 that nominations for TAS Blue are due to the Co-curricular Office by midday on Friday 9 August.

Sydney Boys’ High Visit

This weekend we are hosting Sydney Boys High. The fixture is unique on the TAS calendar as an opportunity to host students in playing a range of sports including some which otherwise do not have regular inter-school competition. More broadly it is a wonderful TAS community event where country hospitality is on display to city visitors, many of whom are venturing into regional NSW for the first time.

The two schools will compete for the Hannon and Harris Cup across four sports: Basketball, Tennis, Football and Rugby. All students are encouraged to participate or support (wearing Formal uniform). A schedule of fixtures is attached.

CLICK HERE

The Australian Olympic Change-Maker program

The pride we share in watching our Olympic teams striving on the world stage has inspired Australians for generations. As we all know this spirit can transcend the sporting field and be a potent force for positive change.

The Australian Olympic Change-Maker program recognises and rewards students who are demonstrating the Olympic spirit through leadership and driving positive change in their communities. The new program, which has evolved from the former Pierre de Coubertin Award, encapsulates leadership and what it means to have a positive effect on communities.

This can take on many forms – from minor to major, and from the ordinary to the amazing. Whether leading teams, coaching juniors, supporting seniors, making a difference at a sports club, a national cause or effecting change on the world stage.

Students from Years 10 and 11 are invited to nominate by emailing Mr Caldwell at dcc@as.edu.au. Please provide a brief description (200-300 words) of how your attributes and actions best demonstrate leadership and making change in the community. Nominations are due Wednesday 7 August. Up to TWO students will then be nominated by TAS for the award. If selected, you will be required to produce a one-minute video which will be attached to your nomination.

All students nominated by their schools will be invited to attend an Olympic Forum to be held in each respective State / Territory during September 2019. This Forum offers a unique opportunity for your students to connect with like-minded young people, learn from Olympians and experience the Olympic spirit first-hand.

Additionally, each award recipient will be considered for the National Olympic Change-Maker Summit. Selection to attend the National Summit will be chosen by a panel of Olympians based on the video submissions and contribution at the State / Territory Olympic Forum.

Mr Will Caldwell
Director of Co-curricular

Welcome to Term 3. We’ve already had our first whole school assembly, and also Homeroom advice time and our collective charges seem to be fine and willing to navigate new semester timetables. Such willingness suggests they’ve had a really good semester break and this is the best way to start something that will, like its predecessors, be very busy.  Reunion Weekend, for example, is only two weeks away – and it’s a special one for us, isn’t it? To be frank, this last break from general routine was excellent and clearly everyone benefited because people are amenable and smiling, everyone (we need to be careful of absolutes, so I qualify this by adding ‘within reason’) is prepared to listen, everyone has a neat uniform. We’ve certainly come back to strange weather – days can be warm (yesterday reached a very manageable 19 in Australia’s highest city), nights, freezing, and clouds, I’m afraid, are few and far between. It’s not been easy, has it – so, we just hope and pray. What we are going to do this term is advertise water use here at school, so that everyone is aware of the necessity of ‘tightening belts’ in relation to it. This awareness will have to be encouraged through boarding of course, and also through HSIE and Advisor time – and it’s necessary. We’re all feeling this one and we all need to be proactive in relation to it so, as indicated, awareness is the first step to change, particularly of habits.

I hope yours has been a good break and that you’re happy (enough) with Semester Reports. If, for some reason, you wish to ask questions and make comments please contact us as Homeroom staff and we’ll do our best to address issues arising from the reporting period. I’ve already seen some students, responded to a number of parent emails and had some meeting -probably a good thing. We need to work together on improvements, adjustments and even attitudes as they relate to academic performance in general and exams, in particular.

I indicated that we’re in for a busy time this term: we have ‘home away games’ for sports and of course, the pace of life here will test us, but it’s better to be busy that its alternative.

While it is not a formal examination term, this one is important in that it will be succeeded by a small window of opportunity next term before the next battery of examinations. As indicated, new timetables for the term were issued during lesson 1 and discussed during Advisor time yesterday. Students need to be gainfully employed during prep time. We’ll continue to ‘work on’ boarders and we want you to ‘work on’ day students at home. What do I mean by this? We need students to be vitally aware of the fact of work and the necessity of keeping them on task. We need also to continue to work together.

I hope you are well,

Mr Mark Harrison
Head of Middle School

Welcome back to Junior School Term 3

I hope the holidays have been a great opportunity to wind down and clear out the Term 2 cobwebs. I know from our staff, that they provided well-earned respite from the wintery coughs and colds that had become so difficult to manage and that for some, it took  a good deal of time to recover. Today however, it was fantastic to see so many smiling faces, particularly those of our new students who joined us this term. I look forward them all settling into our community and finding their way quickly at school.

Hosting Tezukayama from August 17

Our relationship with Tezukayama was enhanced recently with a joint project to celebrate a well known Festival in Japan called Tanabata. Tanabata, also known as the Star festival, takes place on 7 July and students place their wish for the year on colourful strips of paper and are attached to bamboo and places outside classrooms. Our Year 4 and 5 students wrote their wishes in Japanese on these sheets of paper and were shared with Tezukayama Year 4 and 5 classes. Our students wrote wishes like, what they wanted to become in the future, who they would like to meet etc. Tezukayama’s exchange organiser said, “Our students looked happy to see the wishes of the students who had been to TAS in 2017 and looked happy to remember the days there. The students who had been a host family last December were looking at the stripes to try to find the familiar names”. This will be an annual event and will help us to build the relationship between our two schools.

Tezukayama will be visiting TAS next month and we still looking for host families to billet 1 or 2 Tezukayama students for five nights. If you can assist please contact Sandra Lasker in Junior school. As this trip is rapidly approaching.

Welcome to our new Gappies

We welcome Miles Hollington and Jamie Short to Junior School this term as our resident Gap students. Miles is known to us all from last term as he assisted our PDHPE classes. Jamie has arrived from Scotland, a product of the Gordonstoun School and comes very highly recommended indeed! His father was also a Gap student at TAS in the late 1980s and it is fantastic to see the family tradition continue! Later this term we expect Elizabeth Koobatian from Hotchkiss School (USA) to join us as well, adding to the wonderful support team we can offer in Junior School.

Arriving at School…and being unsupervised in the playground

It is timely to mention again that the Junior School playground is not supervised before 8.15am in the morning. While there may be occasions when children need to arrive at school earlier than this, it should only be for an activity which would have the appropriate supervision. We are keen to avoid the increasing number of early arrivals who have been asked to sit in the Junior School Reception area until the appropriate time.

In addition to this, while we understand the pressures of getting children off to school in the mornings, the morning routine at school is an important one. It is widely recognised that children benefit from playing with friends in the playground before school. It is also disruptive when late arrivals occur once a lesson has started. If your child is late please escort them to the Junior School Reception desk prior to heading to the classroom and sign them in, as it is likely that they have been reported absent.  We thank you for your ongoing support.

Happy Birthday

Many happy returns to Hugo Broun, Harry Brownlie, Hercules Nedianu, Elsie Nexo and Ruby Ogilvie for your special days.

Mr Ian Lloyd
Head of Junior School