Term 1, Week 4

Grade 12 Supporting Cancer Council

For the School’s 58^th Walkathon, Grade 12 have chosen to focus their awareness and fundraising efforts on the Cancer Council. As a grade, cancer has had a significant impact on a number of them and I look forward to seeing the whole School learn more together about how we can support individuals and families through the pain and loss cancer brings to communities.

Grade 12’s first fundraising event is the Acoustic Night held this Friday night at 5:30pm in the Quad at the Senior Campus. Food and drinks will be available and tickets ($5 child / $10 adult) are available at the gates. If you are in Launceston and looking for a relaxed and inspiring evening, do come along and support a great cause and wonderful students.

Pavilion Renewal

The Sir Gordon Rolph Memorial Pavilion was opened in 1961 by Robert Menzies and over the last sixty years has served our cricket and football teams well. To ensure the Pavilion continues to be fit for purpose for another sixty years, the space will be renewed over the next two months. The history of Cricket and Football at the School will continue to be on display in the space and a scorer’s table will be made from the old floorboards which are being replaced as decades of studded shoes has worn them down. The rear end of the building is where the majority of work will occur so that change rooms lead on to separate toilets and showers for each team and visitor toilets are separate from student facilities. As plans for the renewal have been developed there has been consultation with staff, students and alumni and when the 1^st XI Cricket team were recently shown the final plans there was significant enthusiasm for the work that will be undertaken over the coming weeks.

Sporting Success

While a large focus of our sports programme is on helping students learn how to be healthy throughout their life, many of our students have been excelling individually and collectively. Our 1^st XI Cricketers have won the first three games of the season and have defeated St Patrick’s, Hutchins and Guilford Young. This weekend (Saturday 27 February) the 1^st XI play Guilford Young again at Launceston Grammar with the game starting at 10:00am.

Student involvement in rowing continues to grow and Head of the River at Lake Barrington, which is on Saturday 13 March, will be here before we know it. Our rowing crews are to be congratulated on their recent performance at the Launceston and Henley Regatta where, despite some windy conditions, our crews were awarded trophies for winning Division 1 in the U14, U15, U16 and coxed quad scull events. Students also won the U19 mens quad and double and U19 womens quad at the State Championships last week with the School also being awarded the Schools’ Pennant for the 2020-21 season.

Earlier in the year Jake Elmer took out the state tennis champion winning the UTR 18-and-under singles and doubles titles in Hobart. For some of our students, football is already under way and Kara Hennessy and Zoe Bourne are to be commended for their selection in the Tasmanian Devils football team.

All students at the School have participated this term in House Swimming Carnivals with Wilkinson House winning the day at the Senior Campus and Lyttleton-Hewton winning at the Junior Campus. A reminder that students are encouraged to take up the opportunity to attend the School indoor heated swimming pool for general fitness or intensive carnival training on Tuesday or Thursday (7:15am – 8:15am) each week during Term 1.

175^th Anniversary Events

If you have not already visited the 175 Anniversary page on the School’s website dedicated to the School’s 175^th anniversary, I encourage you to have a look . Recently, a number of the key events scheduled for June were added to the page. Please check out what is planned during 2021 on our School Calendar page and put some of the key dates in your diary now, particularly the 175 Cocktail Gala (19 June), Founders’ Day Service (20 June).

Richard Ford
Headmaster

Would you allow your young child to get a tattoo?

Not only is this illegal, but no parent of a young child would allow them to make such an important decision at this age. Online activity is often referred to as a “digital tattoo” with all activity being traceable in some way. Young children should be monitored and guided in their online activity, but is more important that we educate our young children now about online safety and how to make choices that they are proud of.

At Launceston Grammar there is a sense of community the moment you walk through the front gate. We pride ourselves on every individual feeling valued, connected and a sense of belonging to our wider Launceston Grammar community. Now, more than ever, that connection continues beyond the gate and into the home.

As a School, our strong sense of tradition and focus on cultivating good character in our students has become the catalyst for our students’ ongoing success. At the forefront of this we know our students are moving into a world where we have never been more connected or had more information at our fingertips. It is imperative that as a School we equip our students with the tools they may need to navigate through ‘being connected’ in an entirely new form.

Last year our Remote Learning programme at Launceston Grammar was highly successful. Our students were nurtured, challenged and inspired to grow and flourish as self-regulated learners. Never before have we seen such advanced and exemplary information technology skills throughout our Junior Campus cohorts as when we shifted online, and I once again congratulate all of the families and carers for their adaptability.

For many families, screen-time continues to be a contentious issue. Young people are saturated with global trends and social pressure to share their information online. At Grammar we harness the best of these opportunities within our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme and set our children up for success by proactively seeking experts to upskill our students in cyber-safety.

Our Grade 3 – 6 students participated in a webinar with cyber-safe expert Brett Lee. Brett spoke with our students about their safety network, gaming and to stop and think before posting online. These sessions were age appropriate and established the foundation for further learning as our students move to the Senior Campus. Brett Lee and his team will be conducting further sessions throughout the year.

I share with you below tips for parents in keeping our students safe online, adapted from the Brett Lee’s-Internet Safe Guide for Parents.

We will continue to work together as a community to ensure our students develop exceptional information and communication technology skills and be globally connected in a safe and supportive environment. As always, our students’ safety, at school and online, is paramount and our core focus at Launceston Grammar. I look forward to sharing further learnings of managing our digital footprints and I encourage you to have conversations at home about online safety to support these important skills.

Mrs Jessica Kernan
Acting Head of Junior Campus

Set Rules and Boundaries

There are a number of apps available that support parents in monitoring their child’s phone. We recommend speaking to your child about this and being open and honest about the reasons for checking on their activity.

A good starting point can be asking your child to show you around their device.

• Time limits and curfews
• An understanding of what language is acceptable
• Guidelines on where in the home technology can and can’t be used
• What websites, games and apps can be used
• Not looking at or posting anything that they cannot share with you
• What to do if something of concern happens or a mistake is made.

Stay Current

Parents should increase their knowledge base as needed.

• What devices can connect to the internet?
• When those devices are connected?
• Where kids are going online and what programs and games they are using?
• Who they are connected to?

Additional Resources

• Cybersmart – Australian Government website
• Safe social networking – Stay Smart Online (Australian Government)
• Common sense media – Common Sense Media is the leading source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families.

Launceston Grammar’s visual art, creative arts, dance, drama, music and many more scholarships are available.

Applications Close Monday 1 March 2021.

To find out more and share with your family and friends visit our Scholarships page.

A Message from the Registrar’s Office

If you have not yet enrolled your other child/ren at Launceston Grammar, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible as places do fill quite quickly.

Places for 2021 enrolments filled quite quickly last year and we had to waitlist a number of families so early enrolment, regardless of the year of entry is recommended.

Please note that we do allocate sibling and alumni priorities to each year group; and a family application for enrolment fee if enrolling more than one child at a time in recognition of your support and commitment to your child’s education at Launceston Grammar.

Please contact Carolyn Roney, Registrar or Bonnie Reeves, Assistant Registrar to learn more.  Registrar@lcgs.tas.edu.au or 6336 6000

Carolyn Roney
Registrar

Our Head of Boarding, Ash Keatch and Girls Senior Boarding House Assistant, Zoe Vandervelde with boarders Olivia and Emily.

Ash and Zoe will be on King Island from this Monday for the King Island Show on Tuesday.

If you would like to catch up with them feel free to give them a call on 0403 799 321.

Would you like to host one of our International boarders during weekends, long weekends or term breaks? 

Hosting provides a wonderful opportunity for your family to share the Australian lifestyle with our international students, and for you to learn more about their lives and where they come from.

Many of our international students were unable to return home to their families last year, and we hope that the Launceston Grammar community will reach out and support them this year.

If you would like to know more about what is involved, please contact our Head of Boarding, Ash Keatch AKeatch@lcgs.tas.edu.au or our International Student Coordinator, Puspha Kunasegaran PKunasegaran@lcgs.tas.edu.au 

Launceston Grammar’s Junior Campus invites you to the Primary Years Programme Parent Session.

Learn more about the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme at Launceston Grammar. As our School enters the final stages of becoming a fully
authorised International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school, come and hear more about the programme and the benefits of it for your child and the Launceston Grammar difference.

EVENT DETAILS
Date and Time: Tuesday 2 March 9:00am – 9:30am
Venue: Resource Centre
Catering: Tea and Coffee provided

Visit Our School Calendar to Book Your Place.

Discover why reading to, with and by children in the early years lays the foundation for their future reading lives with Launceston Grammar teacher and Early Years Literacy Consultant, Lauren Bunker.

Lauren has over 20 years’ experience working in early years settings in Australia, London and Hong Kong.

She is a literacy coordinator for a large trilingual, biliterate Kindergarten organisation in Hong Kong comprising 9 campuses with 4,000 students.

Lauren currently consults for a school in China developing their balanced literacy programme and is writing curriculum books for a learning centre in Hong Kong.

The session will include tips on how to make story time engaging, develop comprehension skills and the stages your child will go through before they are reading conventionally.

EVENT DETAILS
Date and Time: Tuesday 11 March 7:30pm
Venue: Resource Centre
Catering: Supper provided

Visit Our School Calendar to Book Your Place.

What do an ex-lawyer and an ultra-marathon runner have in common?

Join us at Launceston Grammar to hear from our expert guest speakers.

Jacqui Bell – Anxiety and Teenagers

EVENT DETAILS
Date and Time: Thursday 11 March 7:00pm
Venue: Cafe 1846 at the Senior Campus, Mowbray Heights

Visit Our School Calendar to Book Your Place.

David Gillespie – The Teenage Brain

EVENT DETAILS
Date and Time: Thursday 29 April 7:00pm
Venue: Cafe 1846 at the Senior Campus, Mowbray Heights

Visit Our School Calendar to Book Your Place.

The year in Drama and Dance has begun well. Already students from Grades 8 and 9 Drama and Grades 8 – 10 Dance have undertaken the annual workshop with Cirque Soleil performer, Clint Bolster. His expertise in physical theatre and use of mask gives students a great kick-start to the year.

Marianna Hedges has already begun preparing for the year’s Production which was announced recently. She has undertaken to write a show which aligns with this year’s 175^th celebrations. The show will take place on the week starting August 2 and will be a variety-style performance linked together with an original story, set through the end of the Second World War. Auditions will take place in Week Eight of this term and there is a Production Launch planned for the middle of Term Two. We look forward to bringing this new project to life!

There have been some exciting new changes to staffing. Mrs Anne Pickering is teaching Grade 8 drama and comes to Launceston Grammar with vast experience including writing and directing performances and teaching senior drama for many years.

Ms Ingrid Reynolds is bringing her years of experience to the teaching of Grade 7 Movement and Grades 8 – 10 Dance. As an ex-‘Stomper’ herself, Ingrid has worked closely with the creative directors of Stompin’ and Tas Dance in a styling capacity. She has participated in Workshops with Chunky Move (Melbourne) and performed as a dancer for Mona Foma. The last 2 years, Ingrid has been co- secretary of TATA (Tasmanian Arts Teachers Association) and sat on the panel for the Launceston Grammar’s Dance and Drama scholarships.
In 2021, her Movement and Dance classes have discussed themes such as identity, art and pain and the students have been experimenting with kinesphere and shapes. Recently, Miss Reynolds is challenging her students to think outside the box regarding what constitutes performances spaces, such as spite specific installation and more.

Staff are ably supported by this year’s leaders: Poppy O’Shea and Charlotte Savva (Drama Captains) and Ashleigh Hutt (Drama Vice-Captain) with Estella Campbell-Hodge and Maddi Ward being Co-Captains of Dance.

2021 offers the opportunity to be involved again in the Launceston Drama Competitions in May and already we have organised for senior students to attend upcoming live performances including Boat, Caravan, Treehouse by Mudlark Theatre and Gloria! , a collaboration of IO Theatre and Three Rivers Companies.

Louise Peters
Head of Drama

Care for Africa’s Into the Night Garden Friendship Ball will be held Saturday 13 March 2021.

There will be live music, plus a live and silent auction and a raffle.

Proceeds will go to Care for Africa Foundation and Will Smith ‘The Beast’ programme empowering youth in Tasmania.

EVENT DETAILS
Date and Time: Saturday 13 March from 6:30pm
Venue: Tailrace Centre, Launceston
Dress: Black Tie
Tickets: $150 pp – $1,400 table of 10

Friends of the Library, Launceston’s Annual Library Book Sale will be held on Saturday 13 March 2021.

This is Launceston’s best book sale with a wide range of good quality donated secondhand books – crime, thrillers, science fiction, romance, children’s, cooking, health, travel, crafts, gardening, sports, war, DVDs, collectables and Tasmaniana – all at rock bottom prices.

EVENT DETAILS
Date and Time: Saturday 13 March from 9:00am – 1:00pm
Venue: St. Ailbie’s Hall, 46 Margaret Street, Launceston