Term 2, Week 9

In this edition of the Headmaster’s Newsletter Message we recognise a major milestone for the School, our 175-year-old birthday!

This week we celebrated our 175-year-old birthday with an all-school service, a photograph on the School oval, cake cutting and cupcakes, as well as a special evening service at St John’s Church. Here are some highlights.

Click here to view the St John’s Church Celebratory Service.

Friday 15 October
Opening of the refurbished Cricket Pavilion
Senior Campus

Please register your interest here for the Cricket Pavilion

Saturday 16 October
Spring Fair and Gala Cocktail Evening
Senior Campus

Please register your interest here for the Spring Fair event 

Please register your interest here for the Gala Cocktail Evening

Sunday 17 October
Midday Chapel Service

Many colourful and lively characters have walked our halls and shared our classrooms and those captivating memories and stories have partly shaped who we are today. Here is the first of our 175 stories as told by you, our parents, our alumni, and members of the Launceston community.
Click on the link below:

175 Stories

Our Early Learning students say happy birthday to Launceston Grammar with a little help from Buzzington Bee and a very special chair.

Grade 4 Coombe have just received their special 175-year celebratory lapel badge, which will be provided to all students across both the Junior and Senior Campuses in recognition of being a student at the School in this very special year.

This term Grade 5 students have been learning about how ‘Adaptation enables survival’. One of their lines of inquiry is about how the choices humans make now, will impact future generations. As a result of their learning, they are looking to take responsibility to change the recycling habits of our School community. They want to reduce the amount of plastic going into landfill and found in our oceans.

During their research they discovered the Wonder recycling rewards for schools program where you collect bread bags, wrap packets and bread tags for recycling by the Wonder Bread Company (they can be any brand, not only the Wonder brand). Please help them make a difference by bringing bread bags, wrap packets and tags to the front office of the Junior or Senior Campus.

From Grade 5 at Launceston Grammar

Here are some thought-provoking poems created by Grade 7 as part of their English unit.

The Grade 7 English Speech Competition was held last Thursday with a number of compelling speeches including exploring school camps, social media, mental health and sport. Griffin Ball, with his informative speech on Electric Scooters took out first prize. Rowan Annis and Heidi Curtis spoke persuasively on Climate Change – It’s Up To Us, and Cyberbullying respectively, taking out second and third places. Thank you to all our speakers for their commendable performances.

If you haven’t already seen the latest Poimena Gallery exhibition, PAINT_2021, we highly recommend you do so. On show until Thursday 1 July, the exhibition features works by Anna Van Stralen, Jake Walker, Maz Dixon, Kit Hiller and others. Gallery open 10am to 4pm weekdays during term time at the Senior Campus. Here are some images taken at the exhibition opening. Photographs by Louise Middleton.

Learning how to make new friends and keep them, involves a number of skills every young person needs to understand and develop. For some these skills will come very naturally, allowing them to easily move between different friendship groups, sharing their experiences and opening up to new people. For others, this can be much harder to navigate. Belonging to a group that is like-minded with similar interests is highly beneficial to a young person’s wellbeing. It gives them a sense of security helping them feel valued which in turn builds their confidence.

In this edition of SchoolTV, adult carers can learn how to support their young person’s friendship so that they experience a sense of belonging. If you do have concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the School for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to this month’s edition
https://lcgs.tas.schooltv.me/newsletter/friendship-belonging

Austin Health are hosting an information and demonstration evening via Microsoft Teams on Thursday 12 August for students interested in becoming an Occupational Therapist. To RSVP email Tina Morley at tina.morley@austin.org.au by Wednesday 28 July.

Careers Centre

Students involved in our Community Service programs recently presented a report in assembly. They also acknowledged the students who carry out their own individual community service activities as well as those who have volunteered for one-off events such as serving at the recent Care for Africa Ball.

Sensational Start

Grade 12s have really enjoyed volunteering for the Breakfast Club at Mowbray Heights Primary School. The program involves groups of 3 or 4 Launceston Grammar students arriving at their school’s kitchenette at 8 am each morning to prepare and serve younger students with a filling breakfast of toast and Weet-Bix.

Breakfast Club is an extremely rewarding experience. It is a great way to start the day and we thoroughly enjoy giving back to the community all the while getting to know the younger students. We highly encourage future Grade 12s to consider participating in Breakfast Club and continue Launceston Grammar’s strong community service activities. It is truly a fulfilling program.

Annabel van der Heide

A Love of Reading

The student2student reading program is a great reading initiative run by The Smith Family. We are partnered with younger readers anywhere in Australia who are behind in their reading and we get to listen and help them read over the phone or online. This is my second year doing it and it is so much more than just hearing them read. We get to know them as a person, and you can really tell the improvement that they make from the start of the program to the end, not just in their fluency but also in their confidence. It is easy to slot into your day as it can be done anytime for about 20 minutes. It is genuinely rewarding, and as a buddy I tend to find myself celebrating all their reading successes too. The program runs until September and there are about 16 of us doing it this year. I would like to say a big thank you to Reverend Grayston who is the Launceston Grammar organiser for the program. Student2student really does help to make meaningful connections between students all around Australia.

Lavinia Freeland

Building Buddies

The New Horizons program has been running at Launceston Grammar for many years and is an excellent opportunity for Grade 11 students to give back to the community. We meet during recess and period 3 every Tuesday to work with our buddies on different woodwork and craft projects. My buddy this year is Emma. She is very competent at sawing, drilling, sanding, gluing – you name it really, so she’s been teaching me lots of nifty tips and tricks! Last term we worked on a basketball desk game and this term we have started work on a decorative box. The best part of the program has been getting to know Emma as well as the other New Horizons members. It is lovely to check in with each other each week and to form a friendship that I would not have made without the program. It has been a great experience so far and I believe our buddies are really enjoying it too!

Isabel Brown

New Horizons getting ready to start work in the Tech Centre with Nick Hansson’s guidance

Chapel Reading  

Calm in a Storm from Mark Chapter 4

It was evening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
³⁹ Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Reverend Paul Grayston

Emma Keen, Social Worker and Provisional Psychologist with the Launceston Therapy Clinic is running a series of workshops in July through her work with the clinic.

Here are the details and to register simply contact the Launceston Therapy Clinic on 03 6331 4664 or email admin@launcestontherapyclinic.com.au