Term 1, Week 9

Senior Executive

One Hour of Life

As we reach the end of this week, there remains only one week until the Term One holiday break. This time of year sees the end of many of our summer sports rosters, as winter rosters begin. As with all years, a great deal has occurred in this term. Camps have challenged students, school production preparation stretched their artistic talents and a myriad of challenges tested their resilience. For our Grade Twelve students the challenge of the 60^th iteration of the Annual Walkathon will come next week.

One of the great educative experiences that students have in schools is providing challenges and opportunities to be confronted in a safe and nurturing environment. These experiences help shape them and develop their resilience and character for the years to come. The passion, curiosity and camaraderie developed in so many areas of school life are as important as the core academic subjects. I say this because the tenacity developed on a sports field or stage can be applied to exam revision, university studies, apprenticeship challenges and the challenge that is life itself.

I was fortunate to attend the recent State Memorial Service for Professor Derek Denton, former Alumnus of the Year and founder of the Florey Institute in Melbourne. Professor Derek Ashworth Denton AC, the Florey’s founding director, was one of the most eminent Australian scientists of his time. Derek Denton helped us understand the mechanisms of blood pressure and the effects of salt on blood pressure, among many other incredible pieces of research. He was a man who spent his life giving back to society to make our world better. He counted among his friend’s many wealthy benefactors who supported his research into understanding the human body. All to the end of improving our collective quality of life. As I sat listening to the service, I kept thinking that this story began at Launceston Grammar over 85 years prior. A young man is challenged to think, who no doubt felt the joys of success as well as the setbacks of failure. But what a journey it was.

In closing, this brings me to the introduction of this article, which I will leave you with. As Walter Scott would have it;

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum”

I hope you have a great weekend with your children and challenge them to challenge themselves.

God’s Blessings.

Nicholas Foster

Head of Senior Campus

Dear Hawkes Boarding Families and Wider Grammar Community,

Well, we are nearly at the end of Term 1 and what a fantastic start to the year it has been! It has been a term of many firsts and new beginnings, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to lead this amazing community and Boarding family for the past 9 weeks. We welcomed 13 new students into our Hawkes Boarding family, and, with 1 week left in term 1, I can confidently say that all of our 41 Boarders have settled into our family. Each Boarder adds their own unique characteristics to make us who we are, and it is amazing to see the culture of Hawkes house developing.

Mr Dale Bennett and I have reflected on our boarding environment this term as we look for ways to continually evolve our culture. Key areas that we highlighted as important to our culture are community, a sense of belonging, and a safe and inviting environment where our Boarders can be themselves, express themselves, and know that they have agency. We also value the relationships we form with our parents, and we are excited to start our Hawkes Boarding Parents Support Group at the commencement of Term 2. We hope that alongside our Boarding parents, we can continue to grow our Hawkes community. If you haven’t seen the information regarding this first meeting, please contact me for further details.

An alpaca surprise on our trip to Lake Barrington to support the rowers.

This coming weekend we will be attending the Football at UTAS stadium with over 20 of our students staying in to go to the game. We will also be going to the movies on Sunday. The last week of term will see our Grade 12 Boarders embark on their greatest challenge – the annual Walkathon. It is a special occasion for our Grade 12s and something that they will cherish for years to come when they think about the challenges of walking for 24 hours but doing it with their peers. We wish them all the best for this challenge and will be waiting eagerly at the school gate to welcome them as they walk through on Thursday morning.

Just some final housekeeping to finish the term off – our Boarders can leave their clothes and belongings in wardrobes and cupboards, with bigger pieces able to be stored in storage. The only requirement is for floors to be empty, bedding taken off, and mattresses flipped.

I wish you all a safe and happy Easter Break with your children.

Kind Regards,

TJ Pieters

Head of Boarding

Teaching and Learning

Welcome to the second edition of our Staff as Students series. As we wrote last time, an important part of our teaching practice is to model to our students the attributes of a lifelong learner, to build our professional capacity as educators for our own practice and to enrich learning outcomes for our students.

When planning professional learning, we often reflect on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL Standards), which encompass three domains – professional knowledge, professional practice, and professional engagement – to target a particular area for improvement. When seeking full registration, a teacher needs to demonstrate their proficiency across all standards in all domains. Similarly, teachers can seek Highly Accomplished or Lead certification in these standards.

While Professional Learning specifically falls into Standard 6: Engage in professional learning, we can also seek professional growth across the other standards. In this newsletter, we will hear from 3 of our staff members who have sought to build their capacity in a range of standards.

Dale Augostin, Health and Physical education teacher, recently attended a training course to enrich his teaching of the Grade 8 HPE ‘Rock and Water’ module, which helped foster Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.

Louise Middleton, Art Technician and Curator of Poimena, recently attended the Zart Summer School to support Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it.

Amanda Luttrell, Head of Grade 7, engaged with Berry Street to build Standard 1: Know students and how they learn.

On the 20th, 21st, and 22nd of March, I attended a Rock and Water 3-day workshop to further develop my ability to improve student self-efficacy. The Rock and Water course is a physically engaging program that we are running through the Grade 8 curriculum. Evidence has shown participating in this program can enhance student decision-making, self-confidence, and self-awareness. The Rock and Water concept we are focusing on is the tough, immovable rock attitude versus the mobile, communicative water attitude. This concept can be developed and applied at various levels: the physical, mental, and social level. I am excited to bring what I have learned back to Launceston Grammar.

Dale Augostin

Health and Physical Education Teacher

In January I attended the Zart Summer School. This was an opportunity to devote two focused days in the studio – working live in person with two acclaimed contemporary painters. 

Keith Burt was our tutor on day 1. Keith has been featured in the Archibald Portrait Prize a number of times and was the winner of the Brisbane Portrait Prize 2020. We worked directly from life, practising observational drawing, proportion and form. Keith demonstrated his own self-portrait first. It was amazing to see how quickly and precisely he worked. There was a little bit of magic in his process. 

On day 2, Dagmar Cyrulla (Archibald and Moran finalist) guided us through her process of recreating Old Masters in black and white. The project was challenging, and I found myself experiencing what many students may feel when they are confronted with a project that seems out of their depth. Working through the process I became more confident, and the end result was very rewarding.

The Summer School was a wonderful opportunity to network with art teachers and assistants from all over Australia and to experience a few days in the student seat.  

Louise Middleton

Art Technician

The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) is a highly researched education model which supports educators to gain new perspectives, strategies and skills to build safer, healthier and more engaging classrooms for all students. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend a 2-day professional development program focusing on the mind-body connection in children and how to effectively prepare students for learning. I will return in Term 2 for a further 2-day seminar addressing these concepts further. The resources and skills in this course link well with the Resilience Project work we have begun in Grade 7 and will continue to build on throughout the year.