TAS Talks Term 4 Week 3

Co-curricular Captains

In our assembly this week our new student leaders across a wide range of co-curricular activities were introduced and formally inducted and they now take up their new roles. Unlike the roles of prefect and house leaders, co-curricular captains are called on to lead in specialist roles that they are particularly passionate about. In every case, they will be prominent players or participants in their area, but the role of leader goes beyond recognition of performance and calls on those taking it up to serve their co-curricular area through a good example, encouragement of the other students engaged in it and promotion of all that is good about that area of school life.

Last Friday night 86 TAS students decided to sleep ‘rough’ to highlight the plight of the homeless and to raise funds for specified charities. I applaud the initiative of Jim Pennington once again, not only galvanising the students to participate in a worthy cause but also in being able to incorporate this activity into the Triple Crown requirements as the usual events that contribute to the Triple Crown have been cancelled this year because of COVID. The students slept on bits of cardboard in sleeping bags and were moved a number of times throughout the night with their final move being to the gymnasium because of the rain in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I would like to thank all of the staff who volunteered to supervise throughout the entire night and who cooked breakfast for the students early on Saturday morning.

Our rowers, being typical TAS students, not only slept on bits of cardboard but they were on a bus at 6.30 in the morning to head out to Malpas Dam and train in the inclement weather.

Alan Jones
Head of School

Christmas Puddings - Get in Quick!

We’ve already sold half our fabulous Christmas Puddings so if you wish to get one please get in quick!! They are selling really fast….

The puddings are only being sold online this year. They are still $25 each and can only be ordered and paid for on TryBooking https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=655022&.

They will also only be available for collection (after ordering) from Reception between Thursday 26 November and Thursday 3 December.  Any puddings ordered but not collected or not sold by end of day on Thursday 3 December will be donated.

If for some reason you are unable to collect your pudding during the dates given above (especially parents of Year 12 students) please contact the P&F and I’m sure we can sort out a way to get your pudding to you so that you can enjoy it during the Christmas season.

Dried Fruit Available

We have a couple of kilos of dried fruit left over from the pudding bake.  We are selling this at cut price – cheaper than you can get in the shops.  Sourced by Monk’s in Armidale it’s beautiful for your Christmas baking so if you would like any please contact the P&F at [email protected]

Next P&F Meeting – Wednesday 18 November 7pm

We will be having our final P&F meeting for the year and Christmas farewell’s on Wednesday 18 November and would love for you to come. Hopefully, this meeting will be held in person but watch this space for confirmation over the next few weeks.

Mrs Rachael Nicoll
P&F President

HSC Exams 

TAS wins the LLS Property Planning Competition

A team of tomorrow’s innovative land managers from TAS has taken out the prestigious Northern Tablelands Local Land Services Schools Property Planning Competition for their work analysing the real-life challenges faced by a Guyra farming family.

TAS was awarded the Leanne Savage Perpetual Shield for the highest performing school in the annual competition, which recognises students for their understanding of core issues like sustainable agricultural production, biosecurity and natural resource management. TAS students won the majority of the awards, with Tom Scifleet and Hamish Pearce being named champions; Jack Armstrong was one of two Highly Commended entries, whilst Bronte Dagg and Samuel Coombes achieved an Encouragement Award.

The focus of this year’s competition was the Guyra property ‘Brookfield’ owned by Darryl and Leanne Savage, who lent their support for students to develop management plans to improve the farm’s economic and environmental sustainability. Because the owners don’t live on the property the students utilised a range of technology to assist with management remotely, such as monitoring tanks and troughs with a mobile phone app, and an in-paddock automatic livestock weighing system. The use of drones and on-farm energy generation systems such as wind turbines also featured in the students’ entries.

COVID-19 restrictions meant students had to rely on maps, photos and written resources for their plans, with an on-farm field day not possible.

One of the judges commented that the entries were the best she had seen in six years as a judge of the competition.

Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall MP presented the awards to students at TAS on Monday.

This year’s competition was jointly funded by the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, University of New England, Regional Development Australia – Northern Inland, and Meat & Livestock Australia.

It was wonderful to induct the new members of the SRC at Tuesday’s assembly. This group have been elected by their peers to represent them and to implement change at the school. For the first time students were asked to nominate to be elected to these positions and I congratulate all those who nominated as they demonstrated courage and a willingness to serve their peers.
 
Mrs Seonia Wark
Deputy Head of School

Keeley O’Connor, Zac Clarke, Oscar Ryan-Naylor, Ben Rowe, Fred Kearney, Emily Buntine, Emily Palfreyman, Bella Fernance and Lachlan Anderson have been elected onto the SRC for the next 12 months

Leadership

Mr Will Caldwell
Director of Co-curricular

Co-curricular Captains and Vice Captains for 2021: Timothy Lindeman, Eliza Ward, Alex Hall, Alexander Gibson, Nick O’Neil, Josiah Alcorn, Louis Cannington, Lachlan Hey, Archi Lawrence, Tobias Hall, Cassidy Williams, (middle row) Hudson McAllister, Todd McDouall, April Draney, Sam Skipper, Hannah Neilson, Georgia O’Donoghue, John McGregor-Thew, Joe Kermode, Archie Chick, Jack Armstrong, Harry Litchfield, (front) Piyumi Ekanayake, Nichola Clarkson, Kade Stanley, Bronte Dagg, Isabella Gooch, Lara Benham, Zac Clarke

Mr Andrew O’Connell
Creative Arts Coordinator

Year 11 Visual Arts Big Day Out

For starters it’s not a whole day, just a half-day, but we call it that because it sounds good. The Big Day is big in a metaphorical sense, big information, big excitement and big-name artist.

Year 11 Visual Arts 2020 visited Angus Nivison in his studio at his property near Walcha. Angus and Caroline are true advocates of education and both have and continue to contribute to the academic and creative life of our Visual Arts students here at TAS.

Angus is refreshingly candid in sharing the machinations of being an artist. He talked us through a typical day (surprisingly 9 to 5) how to get started, what to do when you stop, how to not let stuff get you down and the secret to a good artwork!!

His studio is deliciously untidy, with layers of paint, brushes, pencils, tubes, blocks, buckets, charcoal sticks; a history of his work over the years. In the midst of this is an old cane chair and on the chair is Wag, the Jack Russell, Angus’s constant companion and delightful distraction.

We left reluctantly. Tomorrow Year 11 will back in our artroom adding to their ArtSound contributions while mulling over the things Angus and Caroline shared with us, and probably wishing that Wag was in our studio!

Ms Fiona Xeros
Senior Art Teacher

Middle School Assembly

Aladdin Jnr

Mr O’Connell is still looking for talented Junior School artists to create backdrops for Aladdin Jr. They will appear throughout the film replacing our green screen, and you can see a great example from the film created by Casper and Eva Cook with help from mum Maartje.

Important points you need to know about your artwork:

• A4 is fine (but A3 would be better)
  • Make sure they are in full colour
  • They are just backgrounds (so no people or animals please)
  • Do not fold them – please bring them in a cardboard tube or folder, we can’t have any creases
  • You can use any materials – pencils, watercolours, paints, crayons, collage
  • Have a look at the 1992 animated film for ideas, search pictures online, or use your imagination! Locations we need:
  • Streets of Agrabah
  • Agrabah marketplace
  • Aladdin’s home inside
  • The Palace (outside)
  • The Palace (inside)
  • Jasmine’s bedroom
  • Jafar’s secret hideout
  • Desert/sand dunes
  • Inside the Cave of Wonders (treasure room)

School Spirit Awards

Congratulations to the following students for receiving School Spirit Awards last week:

Carla Price, Mishkah Alrdadi, Anna Trevaskis, Raseel Alazizi, Freddie Post, Cooper Lacey, Rudra Tandon, Rupert Newton, Daniel Bayne, William Dennison, Kaitlyn Baker, Toby White, Mohammed Alrdadi, Aamer Alazizi, Arthur White, Minnie Chick, Edwina Newton, Nick Morelli, Andi Li and Hugo Broun.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Chloe Chen, Minnie Chick, Rupert Newton, Rayaan Shahid and Bella Widders-Major for your special days this coming week.

Mr Ian Lloyd
Head of Junior School

This week classes from Year 1 to Year 5 have all commenced their new units of inquiry.

Term 4 is an exciting one as the students have become really familiar with the IB PYP essential elements and have many opportunities to complete self-reflections based on the progress they have made throughout the year.

Mrs Veronica Waters
PYP Coordinator

Gymnastics

The TAS Gymnastics squad consists of over 20 students from Kindergarten to Year 2. On Monday they rotated through four different activities.

• Activity 1: Statics- statics on bars with legs moving as though on a pushbike
• Activity 2: Spring & Land-springboard box work and stick the landings-some of the landings were most impressive with some excellent balance
• Activity 3: Rotations- forward rolls
• Activity 4: Locomotion-complex beam locomotion.

The students absolutely loved the activities and some are really beginning to push themselves and extend the tasks involved in the rotations on offer. Many are trying to walk backwards on the beams and try new ways to move from one end of the beam to the other… the height of the beam is certainly no deterrent!

A friendly reminder to ensure if you are collecting your child from the Armidale Gymnastics Centre that you arrive between 4:40pm and 4:45pm as we cannot wait beyond 4.45pm.

Mrs Veronica Waters and Mrs Grania Fawcett