Newsletter:
PRINCIPAL'S NEWS
The last two weeks have been full of lots of activity across the school. Year 12 have completed their trial examinations and Year 11 are getting ready for the yearly assessment tasks. This week alone, we had Dr Burns leading a parent seminar on managing anxiety in young people, HRIS primary netball gala, HICES primary athletics, Wear it Purple Day in the senior school and Book week in the junior school. We were excited to welcome both Bishop Peter and the executive director of Education and Child Development, Ms Liz Knight to join us for WIPD and Book week. We are well into planning for your Year 12 final events, the colour run, orientation and transition activities, and getting ready for our Kindergarten (2023) students. Year 12 parents should have received details of these earlier this week. Year 11 completed a first aid course; Year 9 completed their geography field work, and we had a team compete in the finals of the science and engineering challenge and come 3rd. To say it was a busy week may be understating it!
The school has received the summary of the Perspectives survey completed by students in Years 5-12 and all parents and staff. We have started our analysis which will assist us in setting our priorities for 2023 and beyond.
The Perspectives survey gave us data across five domains (school environment, teaching and learning, student wellbeing, leadership, and community). These five domains were then further broken down into 19 dimensions. Four of the five domain means (on a six-point Likert scale) have increased since the survey completed in 2019 and all of the domain scores were over 4 (agree and strongly agree areas).
Our senior leadership team have started analysing this data and have identified key themes to address, including timely and concise communication, use of technology in the classroom, break times in the junior school and providing students and parents a clear understanding of who to contact and when – particularly with regards to behaviour and classroom concerns. Our next step is to develop focus groups (students, staff and parents) to review the data to inform a future strategic plan.
Thank you to those parents who have already nominated to be ‘class’ parents to assist in communication. If you are interested, please send your name, child’s name and year group to pa@lakes.nsw.edu.au
Mrs Deborah Clancy
Principal
KEY DATES FOR THE DIARY
Week 7
- Mon 29 August – ICAS mathematics competition
- Mon 29 August – Year 11 Elevate Education – study skills and more
- Tues 30 August – HRIS netball
- Thurs 1 September – Years 7-10 Night at the Museum – details later in newsletter
- Fri 2 September – Father’s Day breakfast – details later in newsletter
- Fri 2 September – HSC drama practical examination
Week 8
- Tues 6 September – Year 7 2023 support orientation day – identified students only
- Tues 6 September – AICES Athletics
- Tues 6 September – Year 11 distance education examination
- Wed 7 September – Indigenous literacy day
- Wed 7 September – Junior school parent teacher interviews – (on site)
- Wed 7 September – 2023 student leadership team announced
- Wed 7 September – Year 11 distance education examination
- Thurs 8 September – RUOK Day
- Thurs 8 September – HRIS primary boys soccer gala day
- Thurs 8 September – IPSHA performing arts festival
- Thurs 8 September – Year 10 SRP presentation
CHAPLAIN'S CHAT
Over the last two weeks Chaplain Pete and I have had the privilege of working with a chaplaincy prac student. Our school has had a fair share of teacher prac students, but Darren is our first ever chaplaincy prac student. He has been hanging out with both Chaplain Pete and I as well as venturing into some of our other classes to watch and learn from our teaching staff. Across the full three weeks he is with us, hopefully he will experience a full range of what we get up to as chaplains. Our desire is that as Darren experiences, watches and listens, he might be able to reflect on his own skill set, personality and style and discern where those growth edges are. It has reminded me of my first year in chaplaincy in Perth back in 2005.
That’s right, I was in chaplaincy before beginning here at Lakes and essentially did a year of apprenticeship. I worked under a chaplain named David Lord, so his title officially was Reverend Lord, and he was a big guy from Yorkshire. As a short fella new to the game, I could easily have been intimidated, but David really took me under his wing and guided me with care and honour. He was able to give me enough space to be able to “have a go” and gracious enough to help me reflect on my experiences so that I learnt. I was still pretty green when I arrived here, but the process of reflective learning was well and truly established.
Having quality mentors in our lives is so helpful to our learning and growing experiences. They are wise people who choose to invest into us so that we can continue to work on our growth edges. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable, but ultimately, we will bear fruit. It is indeed the model of teaching that Jesus himself used with the disciples. Jesus had them living in his pocket most of the time where they literally immersed themselves into who he was. His investment into their lives changed the whole world for the better. My hope is that we might all see how we are mentoring others and can choose to be even more intentional. The next generation depends on us doing the best mentor job possible. Here is hoping too, that as Darren spends one more week with us, that he can take what he has learned to wherever God may lead him next.
Bless ya!
Reverend Matt
Chaplain
WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS
ACADEMIC CARE
Wear It Purple
Today there was a mass of purple in the senior school as we celebrated Wear It Purple Day.
Our focus for the Wear It Purple Day is to encourage our senior school students to be an ‘ally’ for those who may feel isolated, different, or on the margins. This could include students who identify as LGBTIQA+, students who don’t feel connected to their peers, students who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, young people living with illness or mental health issues and those who come from different cultures or backgrounds.
Bishop Peter and Mrs Liz Knight (executive director education & child development at Newcastle Anglican) visited Lakes Grammar senior school for the morning, witnessing many of the activities happening in the classrooms.
Many purple cookies were purchased during the day, with proceeds going to the Wear It Purple organisation. Thank you to Mrs Stephanie Rooke for making those amazing cookies for us.
Mr Rick Hampson
Director of Academic Care (K-12)
CANTEEN HELPERS NEEDED
Our junior and senior canteens always need helpers. Any parents, caregivers or grandparents are more than welcome if you can spare a day once a fortnight or once a month.
If you can spare time to help, please email canteen@lakes.nsw.edu.
We are very pleased to announce that this year we will finally be presenting our annual Night at the Museum once again! The museum will showcase Year 7-10 student major projects. The event will be held in the senior school hall on Thursday 1 September from 6pm to 7.30pm. Our whole school community is warmly invited to attend.
Join us on Friday 2 September to celebrate Father’s Day.
Help needed for Father's Day Breakfast
If any parents or friends would be interested in helping at the Father’s Day Breakfast – serving beverages and food, we would be very grateful. Please contact Julianne Sheedy, marketing and community relations officer – julianne.sheedy@lakes.nsw.edu.au
JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWS
HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL
Science Week was held in Week 5 and many of our students enjoyed the experiments and activities on offer. Year 3 were testing out the thermal ovens they created, to cook S’Mores on one of our sunny days. Year 6 presented their science projects to the junior school classes and Mr Worrall donned his lab coat to share the incredible lengths of some of our marine animals.
Congratulations to the many junior school athletes who have represented Lakes Grammar and NSW over the last couple of weeks.
Our athletes represented with pride on Friday 19 August at HRIS. Huge congratulations to Ava B (Year 3), who was the under 9 age champion at HRIS, and our under 9 girls team consisting of Gabriella P, Ava B, Bridey J and Maddison R won the teams point score.
Best wishes to these students who will go on to represent HRIS at CIS Athletics in Sydney on 20 September 2022.
Our Year 5 students Aaliyah C and James M are to be congratulated on their recent success at the School Sports Australia Swimming Championships, where they represented New South Wales.
James M won silver in the multi-class 100m butterfly, 4th place in the 200m freestyle, and 5th place in the 50m butterfly.
Aaliyah C won gold in 50m freestyle and 200 freestyle, bronze in 100m freestyle and the medley relay, 4th place in the 50m butterfly, and 7th place in the 50m backstroke.
Lexi R (Year 6) also smashed it for Lakes Grammar in the Snowsports at the NSW/ACT/QLD State Championships at Perisher. Lexi has had a very successful week placing 6th in giant slalom and winning a bronze medal for the snowboard cross.
Lexi has now qualified for the Australian Championships to be held at Perisher from 6 September.
What a magnificent effort from all our sports achievers.
Mrs Kylie McPherson
Head of Junior School
AROUND THE LIBRARY
Premier’s Reading Challenge 2022
Congratulations to all 171 K-6 students who have completed the 2022 Premier’s Reading Challenge. Awards from the Premier will be received in early December and presented then.
Book Week
Book Fair
Thank you to all the staff, students and parents who supported our library for this year’s Scholastic Book Fair. It was a momentous week, and it is encouraging to see lots of students reading their books at school and in the playground. A reminder that we receive 35% in commission from total sales and this amount will be known in the next newsletter.
Book Parade
It was wonderful to see so many costumes at today’s Book Parade! Students had a wonderful time showing off their brilliant costumes and creations. Thank you to all staff, parents, and students in creating a wonderful day and promoting and celebrating all things reading!
Thank you to Mrs Clancy and Bishop Peter for being our K-2 and 3-6 judges for most creative costumes.
Mr Daniel Summers
Junior School Teacher Librarian
Join the junior school
music ensemble
We are looking for junior school musicians to join our string ensemble at 8am on Thursdays in the music room. If your child/ren would be interested, please contact Ms Albert - esther.albert@lakes.nsw.edu.au
SENIOR SCHOOL NEWS
LIFE SAVING SKILLS FOR YEAR 11
This Term Year 11 have been putting their skills into action whilst studying two elective options. Congratulations to all students for successfully completing their RLSSA First Aid course this week. I hope this qualification will be beneficial in helping you gain employment in the upcoming years.
It was also terrific to consolidate learning about community group fitness with an excursion to Mingara One Gymnasium. Students took part in two contemporary fitness classes being GRIT and Aqua Spin and students were able to talk to personal trainers and instructors about careers in the fitness industry.
We have also been lucky enough to have exchange student, Jean-Baptiste L, in our class over the last month. While in Australia, our students shared their knowledge and skills in a game of Oztag and Jean-Baptiste taught our students some expert tips in his favourite sport, European handball. The class will miss Jean-Baptiste and wish him a safe trip home to France. Year 11 have now completed their preliminary PDHPE course and can spend quality time revising for their examinations.
Mrs Megan King
PDHPE Teacher
SPORT
Equestrian
A big congratulation to Harriet P (Year 7) for her success at Arndell Anglican College Interschool equestrian day. This was Harriet’s first time competing for Lakes and represented our school very well.
Upcoming events
- Liverpool Plains Equestrian Interschools; 17-18 September 2022 – more details to come.
- Arndell Anglican College Jumping Classic; 8 October 2022- entries on nominate.com
- ISHE- Tamworth Interschools Horse Extravaganza; 13-17 October 2022- entries on nominate.com
- Berry Interschool Championships; 17-18 December 2022. More information to come.
Lakes Grammar Interschool Equestrian Competition
It is with regret that we will not be holding a Lakes Grammar Interschool Equestrian day in 2022 due to a number of issues. We will postpone our next event until 2023. We hope to make our event in 2023 bigger and better than ever. I appreciate your consideration in this matter.
Mrs Cynthia Jobe-Parker
Equestrian team coordinator
