Let me tell you about what was happening in Senior School on Monday of this week…
Our Senior Girls and Senior boys Football teams matched up against two visiting teams and performed wonderfully! You can read more in this Edition, but I would like to commend them on their conduct and their enterprising play. Our field was in beautiful condition thanks to our wonderful maintenance staff who prepared it to a professional grade pitch for the occasion as they always do!
While the boys match was playing their second half, the Senior School attended different seminars depending on their Year Group:
Year 11 and 12 attended a Christian Studies session run by our new Head of Christian Studies, Richard Newton. Mr Newton unpacked the theme of ‘Religion being the cause of war’, and critiqued the Christian faith throughout history to see if this claim could be levelled at Christianity. A thoroughly robust topic for the most mature students of our College to be considering.
Year 10 held a Work Experience session with Careers Advisor, Michael Roper. Mr Roper encouraged the students to be thoughtful and aspirational when considering their chosen vocation to experience for a week. Such impressions could be crucial in determining the course of their lives or at the very least aide them in decision making for the years ahead. Getting a sense of the workplace has been a really useful tool in subject selection for Stage 6 study. May I also add that his ability to answer the many questions which came his way was very impressive.
Year 9 heard about the College’s Duke of Edinburgh program from Dany Yako and a carefully selected group of Year 12 students who had engaged with the program in different ways over the last few years. These Year 12 students unpacked their different experiences on the hikes and in the service aspects of the program which gave students a real sense of the fun and challenges of the program.
Year 8 students attended a learning skills seminar with Douglas Broadbent, our Director of Teaching and Learning. Mr Broadbent explained some habits that would assist students with their organisation and unpacked some helpful techniques to aid them in furthering their learning.
Year 7 attended an English workshop run by the Leader of Learning in English, David Gawthorne and the entire faculty, who explained to the students how to approach their first English Assessment task. From the drafting process through to the process for submission via Canvas, Year 7 students are now well equipped with the ‘how’ and ‘what’ to do to ensure that they submit their best work for this upcoming assessment.
I wanted to share this snapshot of a single moment in time on a given day at the College, so that you would have a sense of the wide variety of activities provided for students and also to get a sense of the high level of expertise that we are lucky enough to have on staff. We are truly blessed to have such passionate and professional staff at a time when many schools are finding it hard to fill roles with qualified teachers. The support of the parent community for our staff continue to make Thomas Hassall an attractive proposition for prospective teachers.
For those of you who attended the Meet the Teacher and Faculty Fusion events, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. I loved seeing our Year 7 guides proudly showing off their school to their parents and I was blown away by the performances of our talented Music staff and the support they received, to raise some money for the much-needed musical equipment for the upcoming Cherry Blossom Musical Tour to Japan.
Make sure you have booked in for the Year 12 Parent teacher night coming up on Thursday. See you there!