Term 1 I The Way Newsletter I Friday 08 March 2024

Our Easter Hat Parade (P-4) and Eggshibition (5-6) events are happening in Week 9. As your child starts the design phase, I’m encouraging families to consider using sustainable practices when creating their hat or Eggshibition display. 

It is a valuable learning experience to speak with your child about possible materials they could reuse or recycle as part of their hat or display. Have the conversation about what happens to what they create afterwards – where does it go? It is good for us to consider our environmental footprint and model sustainable choices as the creative process unfolds in your household!

• What parts can be recycled and what parts need to be thrown away?

• What will happen to it if it is thrown away? 

• How can we reduce waste? 

There are well over 800 students in the Junior School and what an impact we can make by considering sustainable practices in this process. Everyone can make a difference and every recyclable choice has a positive impact in our world. 

What can you do?

• Try looking at recyclable item items for inspiration that could be repurposed. 

• Try finding items around the home to use temporarily on the hat or display and put back afterwards

• Try setting a goal to use at least one recycled item or more! 

• Can anyone make it fully out of repurposed items?!

All the best with your projects Junior School students. I look forward to seeing your fantastic designs later this term that express the meaning of Easter.

Words possess remarkable power. When used skillfully, they can uplift and empower many. Conversely, when used carelessly, they can cause harm and pain. Reflect on this: what's the most challenging word you know? I recently came across a list of daunting words to pronounce, and here are a few examples for you to attempt:

• Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism

• Schadenfreude

• Quetzalcoatl

Quite a tongue twister, aren't they? Yet I know a 5 letter word that most people find hard to pronounce : ‘sorry’.  How hard is it to get our children to say ‘sorry’ and mean it.  How many school tiffs could be solved with ‘sorry’. How many family problems could be simplified with an authentic ‘sorry’.  

However, saying 'sorry' isn't always easy. It requires humility, as it forces us to confront our mistakes, face our shame, and sometimes revisit past hurts. It's often easier to evade accountability and pretend the problem never occurred. For Christians, though, saying 'sorry' is not merely a choice but a fundamental aspect of repentance—a step toward aligning oneself with God's will.

8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while - 9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  
2 Corinthians 7

Dealing with issues is painful but worth it. Sometimes the journey to genuine joy is along the road of sorrow – via dolorosa. God knows about the pain of reconcilliation, the Father sent his Son to take the eternal consequences of our actions so as to heal our relationship with him. 

Mistakes are inevitable for all of us and this means that sorry is a word that must be known.  I urge you to not only teach but also model genuine repentance to your children, equipping them to lead fulfilling lives both in their relationships with others and with God.

To receive an award is a recognition to your hard work, excellence and service in the College. 

Congratulations to the following Junior School assembly merit award recipients:

Congratulations to the following Senior School Bronze SRS award recipients:

We are already halfway through the term and so much is happening in the Science Department. 

Year 7 students have been completing a topic called ‘Working Scientifically’. This involves thinking scientifically, identifying common laboratory equipment, knowledge of the branches of Science and some insights into its history. This topic provides the base for future studies and an understanding of the world God has created around them. 

Year 8 have been learning how to ‘Work Scientifically with Data’. Students have been using first-hand and secondary data, conduct a variety of investigations, perform specific roles safely, apply simple numerical procedures such as calculating means, use scientific language, research from a range of sources and compare the reliability of gathered data with that from other sources.

Year 9 have been learning about how life and energy are related in the topic ‘Ecosystems’. From the energy provided by the sun for photosynthesis to the energy derived by animals from the food they eat, life could not exist without a constant inflow of energy.

Year 10 have been immersed in Chemistry, learning all about the Periodic Table and the Chemical Reactions of the elements that make it up. Ask them about Mendeleev who he was and what he did.

Our Yearr 11 Science students are in the midst of their studies and are about to complete their first assessment task and Year 12 will be completing their Mid-Course exams at the end of the term. We wish all students well in their upcoming assessment tasks.

Mr Andrew Street 
Science Coordinator

In Visual Arts, we have welcomed Mrs Kaye Crowe to our Senior School Visual Arts Faculty, Mrs Ann McDermott as a full-time Visual Arts Teacher in the Junior School (Years 1-6) and Mrs Kathryn Kurilowich (Years K-1).  Our new teachers have a wealth of experience and have already made a positive impression on their students. They have quickly become valuable members of our expanded Visual Arts faculty with Mrs Clarissa Sutherland and myself. 

These specialist Visual Arts teachers now facilitate our Curriculum, which extends from K-12 at Thomas Hassall Anglican College. This brings artistic concepts, creative thinking, problem-solving, and skills into the lives of our students much earlier. Students can now build on these over the years ahead. 

This semester, the Senior College students have begun the year with a variety of preliminary work.

Year 7
Our students have been learning about the proportions of portrait drawing, the different forms that can be created in Visual Arts, colour mixing, and the importance of tone in a drawing.

Year 8
Each student has been learning about watercolour techniques and how they can be used in a painting to show different effects, including applying rock salt, rice, and brush techniques. These techniques will be applied to a more considerable aquatic-themed work shortly. Year 8 Experiments using rock salts, coffee, and rice as an effect on watercolour painting

Jod K Elements of Art Fish Artwork

Year 9
Students have been creating still-life drawings and learning about proportion, scale, and tone, which help create depth and form in their artworks. They are learning to draw even transparent glass, a complex technique. Individual students and groups of students have been creating their still-life settings similar to those of the Dutch Vanitas painters, e.g. Caravaggio, Harmen Steenwijck, etc.

Year 10
Students have been creating album covers that ultimately include aspects of a self-portrait. Their image is abstracted or distorted through printmaking techniques, including gelli pad printing, eucalyptus transfer methods, painting, and printing directly off a mirror using paint and a fine mist of water for effect.

Year 11
Students are learning about Modernist Art Movements and starting to create their own paintings using the techniques and ideas of the various artists from each art movement e.g. Monet and Impressionism. Visual Arts student Ana N has just started her portrait painting (only one or two lessons so far), but it does show how an artwork starts with a basic outline and how the form is built through tonal washes and layers of paint. We will look forward to seeing the end result towards the end of the term.

Ana N

Year 12
Students have been creating individual artworks called a “Body of Work,” which they submit to NESA for external marking in Term 3. These works can be created in any form of artmaking and include the student's own ideas and concepts. Currently, we have students creating paintings, drawings, digital photographs/ videos, and sculptures. However, some students may add or change their Body of Work as the year progresses.

It has been an exciting start to the year, and we look forward to creating final works for their assessments in Semester One. 

Mrs Genelle Griffin
Visual Arts Coordinator