TAS Talks Term 3 Week 2

GPS Shooting

I offer congratulations to Luke Rorke who continued his good form from the GPS Championships last week whilst competing with the Combined GPS Rifle Team at their representative match last weekend. This ‘next level’ of shooting sees GPS students in competition with some of the best adult shooters from across NSW and simply being selected is an honour. Luke shot two ‘possibles’ (meaning that he did not drop a point) from the four ranges and this reflects great form and a wonderful finish to his school shooting career.

Year 10 Parent Information Sessions

Parent-teacher interviews for Year 10 this week will be accompanied by important information sessions and I encourage all Year 10 parents to attend one of those if they possibly can. These sessions will present information that all parents need to have in order to support their children as they move into the challenge of the HSC years. This will include guidance from our Director of Studies Seonia Wark on subject selection, the structure of the HSC, scaling and ATAR calculation and how to find assistance along the way. Significant curriculum changes were introduced to the Preliminary HSC this year and these will roll into Year 12 next year, so even parents who have travelled the HSC journey before will find this information invaluable. Advice will also be offered by our Director of Pastoral Care Adam Whalley on how to approach the important senior years as students and parents. There is no doubt that the step up to Year 11 is a big one, regardless of academic ability, and every student will benefit from having united support from family as well as the School.

Identical information sessions will be held at 6:15pm on Thursday evening in Big School and 11:45am on Friday in the Hoskins Centre. Please note that all Year 10 students will attend the session on Friday and so they will not be required on Thursday evening.

Reunion Weekend

Reunion Weekend is always one of the biggest and busiest times of the year as welcome hundreds of Old Boys and now Old Girls back to the School not only for their own social gatherings and dinners, but to get involved in a range of school sports and activities with our current students. The chance to bring different generations together in activities from chess, swimming, shooting, tennis and even tug-o-war is rare in schools, but so important in establishing that sense of community that is so important at TAS.

This year, being our 125th anniversary, is likely to be our biggest reunion weekend for very many years and I know that many people are looking forward to that. The GPS Championship winning 1959 rifle team will compete against the School, we will dedicate the new Chapel Street gates donated by the Old Armidalians’ Union, the new ‘Reflection Space’ will be open for all to visit and Scots College will be with us for rugby games culminating in the First XV fixture at 11:30am. This will be a weekend for all and I look forward to having as many families as can make it.

Murray Guest

TAS boarding was filled with excitement when the boarders returned to their respective houses on Monday 22 July. Walking amongst the houses and talking to the returned boarders, there was a feeling of enthusiasm to be back amongst their friends after an extended mid-year break. The Years 6 – 8 girls returned to Dangar House which, as expected, was well received by the girls and parents. Special mention to Mrs Bekk Baumgartner and her staff for all the work behind the scenes to ensure Dangar House was in immaculate condition to receive the girls. There will be some patience needed from all parties over the coming weeks as Dangar becomes operational again and minor issues are attended to. Feedback from the girls and parents on Monday afternoon, and since discussing with a number of Middle School girl boarders last week, continues to be positive. Having the Middle School girls residing much closer to the Middle School boys will allow more social interaction between the two particularly on weekends. It was great to see both the Middle School girls and boys cooking and eating their Sunday BBQ breakfast, at the newly renovated White House BBQ area, together on Sunday morning. This is just one of a number of initiatives intended to allow both groups to spend social time together moving forward.

Term 3 is a busy term for the senior boarding houses with the upcoming Trial HSC Exams for Year 12 (Weeks 4 and 5) and the End of Preliminary Course Exams for Year 11 (Week 9). Term 3 sees the changing of the guard with regard to house leadership, with the Year 11’s now filling many of the senior duty roles within each house. This gives the staff and students an opportunity to closely observe their respective Year 11 students before they vote on their 2020 house leaders later this term.

After feedback from a number of boarding and academic staff on how boarders, at times, aren’t completing set academic work from a Friday through to a Monday or rushing to submit/print assessments of a Monday morning, it was decided that all senior boarding houses will introduce evening prep in houses for a minimum of one hour of a Sunday evening. During this time students will remain in their own rooms/areas completing prep or preparing for the academic week ahead by organising their school resources. I will be seeking feedback from staff and students on the effectiveness of this additional hour of prep but am confident this time will allow all boarders to start their academic week better prepared.

Attending the Boarding Schools Expo in Tamworth on Friday I was humbled by the genuine interest in TAS Boarding from a large and diverse group of prospective families. Sharing a hall with schools from the Southern Highlands, Sydney, Armidale and the Gold Coast it was pleasing to attract such a large number of families to the TAS booth and hear so many positive stories about TAS passed on from our current students and parents. The Expo highlighted to me the positive steps TAS is making to ensure our boarders are happy, safe and striving to excel across all areas of their school lives and reinforced the responsibility we have as a school to continually improve.

I hope to see many of you around the grounds next Saturday at Reunion Weekend with a number of activities planned across the three days.

Mr David Drain
Director of Boarding

Residential Colleges – Year 12

Some of the higher profile residential colleges are finalising their application processes shortly. They all offer scholarships, especially to worthy country candidates as they are very keen increase their residential numbers in this area.

All the colleges offer different opportunities and have different application processes which makes it very difficult to establish a rule for applications. Each has to be considered on its own merits and an awareness of opening/closing dates for application is essential. Hopefully, the students have made some preparation for their college applications and well on the way to finalising them.

University Open Days

Most of the major universities are holding their Open Days in August and 31 August seems to be the popular date. If you have the time and are able to attend the Open Days, you find plenty of information about what each university has to offer as well as experience the aura and sensation of the campus and university life. Full list available at the link below.

UAC NEWSLETTER ITEMS

ATARS Released same day as HSC

ATARs this year will be released at 1pm on Tuesday 17 December – the same day as HSC results. Students will have all the information they need on the day to make their future study decisions and have more time to finalise their preferences for December Round 2.

The deadline for finalising December Round 2 offer round preferences is midnight on Thursday 19 December 2019. This is the first major offer round for Year 12 students.

All 2020 courses online in August 

All 2020 courses from UAC’s participating institutions will be available on UAC’s website from Friday 2 August. For students who have already applied, remind them to log in to their application to review and update their preferences. For students who haven’t yet applied, now is the perfect time. Also let them know that the Early Bird application period ends at midnight on Monday 30 September, at which time the processing fee increases, so even if they’re not sure, apply now so they can keep their options open and their budget sweet.

Educational Access Schemes Application Guide 

A reminder that if your students have applied for EAS they’ll need to provide supporting documentation for each disadvantage they claim. UAC has produced a quick reference EAS application guide to make the process easier for you and your students.

Trinity College, University of Melbourne, scholarships

Trinity’s scholarship program, awards over 100 scholarships ranging from  $35,000 to $2000 to  support students of all backgrounds to experience college life.  This will give any talented student with a demonstrable record of getting involved at school, in sport or in their community the chance to attend Trinity. From 2020 Trinity has added a further 16 full Access scholarships to its program for students who have extreme financial need. Full details are on our website.

Mr Mark Taylor
Careers Advisor

GPS Shooting

Congratulations to all members of the TAS Rifle Team on their efforts at last week’s AAGPS Rifle Shooting Championships. A special mention to Luke Rorke who was selected in the Combined GPS team. The TAS team included both boys and girls ranging from Year 8 to Year 12. Their shared sense of purpose and cohesion were a tribute to the coaching team of Mr David Lawrence (MIC), Mr Mark Morton, Mr Rob Bondfield, Mr Alasdair Hey, Mr Angus Murray and Mr Hugh Morton. Their dedication and the calm and caring manner in which they instructed the team, were recognised and appreciated.

I extend my thanks also, to all the parents who contributed to the 10 days of preparation and competition. It is a mammoth undertaking and their willingness to help contributed to the day-to-day running of the event as well as the sense of community within the team.

Lessons Learnt through Sport

Social Intelligence is your capacity to know yourself and know others; to engage appropriately in a variety of social settings.

These are skills that are not explicitly taught but are developed through experiences and interactions with others. Sport is one of the many activities at TAS that provide the opportunity to develop social intelligence – both as a participant and a supporter.

Over the course of ‘High Weekend’ our students were tested both on and off the field.

They were gracious in victory and defeat; showing both sportsmanship and character. They supported their mates in an enthusiastic yet dignified manner befitting the nature of the competition. This says a lot about the culture at TAS. It is neither a winning culture nor a losing culture. It is a culture that prepares students for the real world; one that is filled with highs and lows. TAS students are encouraged to assess the situation – to grow through success and adversity.

There were a number of occasions over the weekend where you couldn’t help but pause and smile; a combination of pride and fulfilment. One of the highlights was seeing Year 12 students playing across sports; purely for the enjoyment of playing with your mates. It was also encouraging to see the Under 13 Rugby abandon their game when TAS were well ahead and blend teams to provide a positive experience for all. It was also pleasing to see the Year 11 students stepping up their leadership in both their example and their actions.

The question is how will they measure up to the expectations of Old Armidalians this weekend? We all know that “back in my day” students were impeccably dressed, perfectly behaved and model citizens. Perhaps they will never measure up but it would be great to see all students supporting the events this weekend (see schedule attached) and presenting their best self to those who share their pride in this School.

Mr Will Caldwell
Director of Co-curricular

Second Semester

We are fortunate that formal exams begin at Year 6 level at TAS. Students have ample opportunity to learn: about study techniques that are specific to their learning needs and styles; about the best methods of seeking further feedback in areas where it is most needed; about the fact that improvements, where necessary, can be made; about optimizing their potential to perform to advantage under timed conditions. Amongst other things, I’ve already spoken to students in this week’s Town Meeting and have had some enquiry from parents about how best to optimize time and resources this term – the goal is to get the best possible outcomes from the term and the next exam block that ‘falls’ reasonably early next term.

Work, Sport and Reunion Weekend

It’s TAS and as I indicated last week we’re already busy. This term is no exception: in fact, it will be very busy in terms of academic pursuit and sports. Being slightly longer than Term 2, assessments will be on-going and it is important that all families keep abreast of their requirements, due dates and the necessity of ‘pacing’ work output so that students aren’t overwhelmed by requirements of all subjects studied. The new timetables seem to have presented little difficulty for people and this is a good thing. I don’t know how Mr Luke Polson does this this part of his job with such reasonable ease! It’s a very good idea to ask your children about their work, to encourage them and, where appropriate and practicable, to assist them. For boarders there is still the facility of tutorial attendance in Core areas that reflects as far as possible the ‘home help’ situation. Above all else, we need to encourage them to pace themselves and the best way this can be done is to know what’s due and when. This is especially important because of weekend sporting commitments. As you are aware many of the away games are ‘done’ so this will translate as a good time for students to be relaxed, per having a little more down time – as with everything though, too much of this is as unwise as too little. Balance is the thing we need to work towards.

As suggested last week, overall, the term has begun well: staff seem well rested – in fact, all in this section of the school are happy enough to negotiate the second half of the academic year and I’m grateful for these people – they ‘help one another out’ and, very important for me, are very good to me. We keep one another on track, really.

Well, it’s Reunion Weekend and being our 125th, I expect it will be very busy indeed. I wish you well if you’re coming to TAS and ask, as others in our recent Assembly have, that if it rains you celebrate the fact rather than commiserate about the damp. We need this – so much. We’re actually talking about measures regarding how we, as Armidalians, can cut back our water ‘consumption’ as a whole school. TAS is the third largest consumer of water in the local government area. The fact that this drought persists hasn’t halted interviews for prospective students for 2020. You people are amazing: those most hopeful about this situation are you. People like you are what I call the positive mindset people: “No”, you encourage, “it isn’t raining – yet”.

Well, this is another short one, isn’t it.

Mr Mark Harrison
Head of Middle School

Illness in Junior School

Unfortunately, TAS Junior School, like others is still suffering from the winter malaise with gastro and flu-like symptoms floating around. We ask that parents take care with sending their children to school, especially if they have a temperature or are displaying symptoms of any contagious illnesses. We all think a little bit of rain might help…..

Lost Property

I would like to remind everyone to ensure all items of clothing are clearly labelled.  We have been receiving multiple requests to look out for lost jumpers, jackets, track pants and hats. While some have turned up because they are well named, many have no identification at all making it difficult for us to return them to their owners.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Ted Draney, Jack Shenko, Layla Abu Assab, Mishkah Alrdadi, Ethan Downes and Liam Hoad this week.

Mr Ian Lloyd
Head of Junior School 

Scholastic Book Club

Thank you to all parents who have been ordering from the Scholastic brochures. The latest brochure from Scholastic (no. 5) is now available and orders should be placed through the Scholastic LOOP order website by Friday 9 August, 2019.

Football

Under 12 TAS Blue

TAS Blues played Easts on the weekend and it was a tough game with the final score 5-0 to Easts. TAS worked really hard as a team and even though we had no subs, we were strong across the field. The oranges were gobbled up in no time at half time! The team wish a huge thank you to the Year 4 support players who backed up after an earlier game. We really appreciate their willingness to team up with us.

We would also like to thank Mrs Ward and Mrs Hardin for their ongoing efforts and support. We are very lucky to have these amazing coaches on our side, keeping us focussed and making us laugh no matter what.

We are looking forward to next weekend and another run on the field.

James Leahy (Yr 5)

Under 12 TAS White

Unfortunately, the TAS White reporter was away last weekend so I did some investigating myself in order to write this week’s report. From all accounts, it was a fabulous game and, despite being overrun a little in the first half, the team kept their heads together and worked closely to score three goals in the second half. The final score was 5-3 to the South Strikers, who also played a fabulous game. Special mention goes to Katie Hynes who, I am told by one of her team mates, had her best game of the season! Congratulations also to Blake Whitehill who not only scored the three TAS goals, but also shot one very technical and impressive goal that had the crowds cheering. Well done, TAS White.

Mrs Tania Hardin

Under 10s 

The TAS under 10’s team played against the Guyra Cobras at Dangar field and although we lost by a couple of goals, the team showed a lot of persistence and kept their heads up for the whole game. The whole team played strongly, but special mention goes to Josiah Baumgartner and Harry Brownlie.

Kelvin Kamau

Hockey

TAS Navy Vs United

We were pumped to have another chance to play against United.  Last match we were in awe of their skills and had to remind ourselves that they had been playing together for a number of years. On the day it was 1 nil at half time and it looked like we were heading for another loss. However, the boys started to mark their players and look for holes in their defence. It was a nail-biting game with each team closely scoring after each other. I can proudly say that we have come a long way with the final score being 3 all.

Mrs Lana Hawksford