TAS Talks Term 2 Week 3

Too Far Jesus! Jesus says cut off your bits. Matthew 5:27-30

I don’t know if you have in your group of mates, one friend who has the reputation for going too far. They always go over the top. Spare a thought for the disciples – Jesus’ closest mates.

Jesus always seemed to take the conversation over the edge. Take for example his discussion on the seriousness of sin. He says if your eye causes you to sin – gouge it out; if your hand causes you to sin, chop it off.

Is Jesus really calling people to mutilate themselves? Sounds like you might be going ‘too far’ Jesus!

Let me say – very clearly – don’t start chopping off your bits – what Jesus is saying is, take sin seriously, take eternal life seriously, take drastic action so that life may be held on to, and if sin is causing you to throw your faith away, make the cut. It might be that you stop watching that show or that internet site, make the break with that group of friends, do what is necessary to avoid sin. Value life.

You may remember Aaron Ralston the rock climber who become trapped when an 360kg boulder shifted, crushed his hand, and pinned him to the canyon wall. A movie was made about it.

Trapped and facing certain death, Ralston chose a final option using a multitool – a blunt one. He valued his physical life so much he painstakingly chopped his hand off so that he might be freed. He took life seriously.

As for the pain Aaron says, “overall, it was a hundred times worse than any pain I’ve felt before. At the same time, it was also the most beautiful thing I’ve ever felt.”

Jesus, the one who urges in this reading to take sin seriously – to love life, eternal life, he gave his own life, not just a limb, he gave it all so that we might live, he took sin seriously.

Jesus says take eternal life so seriously that you will go to extreme lengths to hang on to it, to hang on to the life that Jesus made possible through his own life and death, don’t allow your hold on things in this life – which pass away, to be tighter than your grip on eternal life that will never fade.

NEW EXECUTIVE

At our AGM last Wednesday we said goodbye to three P&F Executives – Mrs Jo Neilson and Mrs Karen Morgan have stood down as Vice Secretaries and Mrs Melissa Jubb stood down after several years as Treasurer and Vice Treasurer. Jo, Karen and Melissa will be sorely missed.

Our new Executive for 2019/20 is now:

• Rachael Nicoll – President
• David Lawson – Vice President
• Fiona Nash – Treasurer
• Sophia Wright – Secretary

CONTACTING THE P&F

If you want to know what’s going on in the P&F join us on Facebook!  We regularly post updates on what we are doing, what events are coming up and any other useful information that comes to mind.

We have our own Facebook page – use the keywords TAS Parents and Friends and then ‘like’ us.

Don’t forget each year also has their own Year Group Facebook Page… These are closed groups for parents to catch up on what’s happening… Please search for TAS Year 12 and then the year your class will graduate from Year 12. For example, this year’s Year 12 Facebook page is TAS Year 12 2019.

Finally, if you have anything you would like to raise with the P&F please either contact your Year Group Liaison Person or any member of the Executive or send us an email on [email protected]

BECOME A VOTING MEMBER OF THE P&F

In line with our Constitution if you wish to be on the Committee or Executive or vote at our meetings you must become a Voting Member. To be a Voting Member you just need to fill in the form that can be found on the website and send it to the P&F at [email protected]  Forms can be filled in at any time, including if you pop in to a meeting.

If you don’t wish to be a Voting Member – don’t worry, if you’re a parent, you are automatically a Casual Member and can still come to our meetings and get involved.

NEXT P&F MEETING WEDNESDAY 12 JUNE – ANNUAL FUNDING MEETING

Come and help us spend the money you’ve helped us raise at the Funding Meeting on Wednesday 12 June at 7pm in the Maxwell Meeting Room.

If you would like to come along and help us determine where the money we have raised in the past year should be allocated we’d love to see you there. Meetings are open to all parents… but to vote you need to be a Voting Member – just fill in that form!

Alternatively, if you wish to put forward a proposal for the use of funds please send these to Mr Jones as soon as possible so all proposals can be evaluated prior to the meeting.

Funding proposals should be costed, justified and seek to help a significant proportion of school. Any proposal should also be for things that are tangible, something that school wouldn’t normally pay for and on the ‘really nice to have’ list.  If you have any queries about the funding process please contact me on [email protected]

RUGBY HOME GAMES

Our next rugby home games are against St Joseph’s College on Saturday 25 May. We will be running our usual BBQ on Backfield (or in McConville if the weather is really bad).  A coffee cart will be available behind Middle School as usual to ward off the chill.

Year 11 Parent Teacher Interviews

English Tutoring – Years 9 – 12

Mrs Seonia Wark
Director of Studies

Supporting Your Child

At times it is difficult to know the best way to support our children; when to push, when to step back, when to catch them, when to allow them to fall?

Knowing how to support your child’s coach is much simpler. It is important to remember that they have a job to do. We love the fact that so many parents are on the sideline at the game. However, we no more expect them to be on the sideline at training than to be at the back of our classroom. Please let the coaches coach; support them – trust them. They care about your child.

I have attached our Expectations of Parents below as a reminder of our shared values. Although, I think the sentiment is best captured by the following words of wisdom.

“Your child’s success or lack of success in sports does not indicate what kind of parent you are. But having an athlete that is coachable, respectful, a great teammate, mentally tough, resilient and tries their best IS a direct reflection of your parenting.”

Parents

1. Focus upon the child’s efforts and performance rather than the overall outcome of the game. This assists the child in setting realistic goals related to their ability by reducing emphasis on winning.
2. Teach your child that an honest effort is as important as victory, so that the result of the game is accepted without undue disappointment.
3. Encourage your child to always play according to the rules of the game.
4. Never ridicule or yell at your child or another student for making a mistake or losing a game.
5. Remember students are involved in organised sports for their benefit and enjoyment, not yours.
6. Remember children learn best from example. Applaud good play by both teams.
7. If you disagree with an official, raise the issue through the appropriate channels rather than question the official’s judgement and honesty in public. Remember most officials give their time and effort voluntarily for your child’s benefit.
8. Support all efforts to remove verbal and physical abuse from sporting activities.
9. Recognise the value and importance of coaches. They give their time and resources to provide recreational activities for your child and other students and deserve your support.

Armidale Eisteddfod

My best wishes to all students participating in the Armidale Eisteddfod. I realise this is a big commitment on top of a busy schedule and will demand some careful time management. Could I please urge students to notify their teachers if they are going to be away from class -this will allow them to better support you.

Mr Will Caldwell
Director of Co-curricular

For all our dedicated supporters in the TAS community I hope you can mark in your diaries that next Sunday 26 May is our massive Working Bee to clean up the Hoskins Centre costume room. We’ve got some amazing costumes dating back decades but the area is in serious need of a fix-up. We’ll be hard at work from 10am so if you have a couple of hours to spare we’d love your assistance ensuring that future productions can continue to look incredible and the hard work of costume designers is properly looked after.

Next Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm we have the epic rock stylings of Steve Thorneycroft, Steve Tafra, Sarah Thorneycroft, Dave Van Tongeren and Warwick Dunham in Edge of Sky. It promises to be a spectacular display of musical wizardry with the awesome sound of epic 70’s and 80’s rock. Stunning new arrangements will bring to life the fabulous sounds of great bands like Sky, ELP, Pink Floyd and more. Jump online to grab yourself a ticket as this legendary show is not to be missed.

A reminder that the Middle School and Senior School Technical Production Teams meet every Thursday lunch in the Hoskins Centre with Mr Cornford. If you’re interested in learning about theatrical design or operating/crewing for live shows then come along (with your lunch in hand) and learn from our resident expert.

Mr Andrew O’Connell
Creative Arts Coordinator

Tezukayama Gakuin Visit

As the arrangements for the TEZ visit to TAS are now taking shape, we are keen to hear from parents who are able to host a student or two during their staff with us. We are down on numbers at the moment so we would really appreciate your support. If you have any questions about billeting, please contact us at School.

Round Square visit to Indonesia

Reading the report from our students Tom Rowe, Charlie Ward and Sinclair Little, about their experiences over the Term 1 break, has reinforced the importance of ensuring our students have the opportunity to broaden their horizons. Their reflections,  having visited another country and experiencing such cultural diversity, bring home the importance of embracing the opportunity to experience something outside our comfort zone. We are an increasingly multi-cultural school and I know this type of challenging excursion takes a great deal of time and effort. I am so thankful that staff give up their own valuable family time to support our students. It was a wonderful experience for all involved and I encourage you to read and take in their report.

What a privilege to support a program that is helping these beautiful creatures….

Winter Sport

As I circulated around the fields on Saturday (quickly being reminded that winter is not far away…) I was pleased to see the enthusiasm from all our players, particularly from some of our youngest players. And, as you’ll read in a report from Charlie Ward and Katie Hynes, it can be a lot of fun when you play teams from your own school. I guess this photo says it all, reminding us the key reason we play sport at TAS is to have fun while pursuing an activity that we enjoy, that is healthy in so many ways and develops our skills and interests outside the normal learning environment. Helping our players develop a love of the ‘game’ is important and I seek your support to promote the positive elements and sportsmanship we would all like to see in our children.

School Uniform – Changes into the future….

Through consultation with the Clothing Shop, the TAS Junior School uniform is undergoing some change. The philosophy behind this is to align the uniform across the school, making it more….uniform. Primarily affecting the girls’ winter uniform, in particular the skirt and pinafore, shirt and blue ribbon, all variations will be introduced over a number of years providing an extensive changeover period avoiding having to upgrade recently purchased uniforms. In the meantime, you can look forward to receiving a letter from Junior School which will have a number of photos that will depict the variations to make this completely clear. Until then, please contact Mrs Vivienne Tearle in the Clothing Shop on 6776 5900 or Junior School Reception.

Congratulations to the following students for receiving School Spirit Awards at last week’s assembly:

Abud Alshammari, Hunter Crane, Ted Draney, Lachie Wood, Sophie Banister, Kaitlyn Baker, Aziz Binmahfod, Minnie Chick, Oliver Robb, Sam Ford, Ryne Wilkinson, James Leahy and Hussain Majrashi.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to Salam Alkhathami, Sophie Banister, Lucy Taylor and Levi Watts for your special days this week.

Round Square Conference – Indonesia Easter Holidays

In the April holidays, Sinclair Little, Tom Rowe and Charlie Ward joined Year 7 students, Alexandra Nivison, Isabella Crawford and Will Brett, along with Mr Luke Polson and Miss Emma Channon on the trip of a lifetime to Singapore and Indonesia. Following an enjoyable pre-conference tour in Singapore, the British School of Jakarta hosted us for a five day conference, ‘Journey to Java’. The conference was based on the Round Square IDEALS.

For internationalism we met many different people our age from other schools in different countries including China, Thailand, Indonesia. We also got to experience cultural activities such as cooking, puppet making, batik dyeing, music and language lessons.

Guest speakers came and spoke about the impact palm oil plantation is having on the baby orangutans and the health foundation they have started up. A wheel chair basketball player shared his inspiring story about the challenges he has overcome in his life to be where he is today.

For environmentalism, we went to the Taman safari zoo where we learnt about elephant poo paper, pandas, elephants, endangered Sumatran tigers and many more – we also got to pat baby orangutans which was amazing.

For adventure, we went to a village outside Jakarta in the highlands and planted rice and we also collected coffee beans and made coffee from scratch. It was very wet and slippery there and a lot of trekking but it was good fun.

For leadership, we went to a village and we played games with younger local children. In doing so we taught them how to play a few Australian games including limbo, soccer, Jenga, twister and many more. We also had the change to leave some games behind so they can continue to play after we left.

And finally for service we went to an organic farm called Yum Farm and helped plant vegetables and make fertiliser plus a heap of other activities.

Ali was lucky enough to be able to go and deliver food from the farm to elderly people who lived in the village that were in need. It was incredible to hear their stories and amazing to see the way they went about their daily lives.

By Year 5 students Sinclair Little, Tom Rowe and Charlie Ward and Mr Polson

The Round Square crew

Mr Ian Lloyd
Head of Junior School

Junior School Upcoming Events

Under 12 TAS Blue and White

On Saturday, both Under 12 teams started the season off by playing each other and we all had a great time. TAS Blue scored three goals in the first half TAS White scored one goal. Whilst it was a challenging game, with almost freezing temperatures and only one training session, everyone was keen to just have a go and try their hardest. Everyone talked to each other right throughout the game and he teamwork was amazing! When the bell rang for half time we enjoyed oranges and a quick drink before going back on for the second half. During the second half, TAS Blue played really well and managed to score the winning goals. After the game, both teams came together and congratulated each other for the great game that they had just played. Afterwards, a team photo was taken and then the teams broke up for a team talk. We all enjoyed playing soccer on the weekend and, at the end of the day, both teams went home feeling positive and ready for the season ahead. A special thank you to Mrs Ward and Mr Thompson for refereeing the game.

Written by Charlie Ward Year 5 (TAS Blue) and Katie Hynes Year 5 (TAS White)

Under 6’s TAS T-Rex’s v TAS Triceratops

What a great start to the season for two of our three Under 6 teams! On a very cold morning, with everyone turning up for their teams, all players showed a fantastic approach to the game, happily taking their turn off the field while showing off their considerable skills on the field. Hunter and Ted worked well together, especially when getting the ball from Simon, William and Daniel and the goals really started to mount up. From the T-Rex’s, their defence improved all the time with Toby Hugh and Freddie never stopping. Paddy, Boyd and Cooper all played their part in a game that went to all parts of the field! Congratulations to all on a wonderful start to the season.

Mrs Christine Wright
Junior School Sports Coordinator