A Fortnight at Fahan - Term 3, 15 September 2023

Principal's Report

In the last fortnight, students and parents have engaged in Parent Teacher interviews. It is through such processes that we establish and build on the critical relationship that we have between families and teachers. Taking the time to build on this solid foundation makes it so much easier to navigate and resolve any issues that may arise in the future and for us to work together for the best outcomes for our students.

Learning how to build positive, harmonious and meaningful relationships is essential for us all and one of the aspects that we learn throughout our childhood. These skills are explicitly taught at an age-appropriate level through the Pastoral Care program from Kinder to Year 12.

Humans are social creatures and whether child or adult, we all want to have positive and meaningful connections with others. We want others to take an interest in what we do, value our opinion and consider our needs. We also want respect and acknowledgement of who we are.

Angela Lockwood, an occupational therapist and Australia’s leading authority on creating calm from chaos, has created a list of five key aspects to building meaningful connections, which are outlined below:

1. Appreciate perspective – the way we connect and interact with others is influenced by our background and experiences. Know how to share and hear stories.
2. It’s not about you – find out what motivates and inspires the other person. Be a good listener and be interested. Look for things you might have in common to help build the connection.
3. Send clear messages – learn how to communicate so that the other person hears the message in a way that is meaningful and has impact.
4. Know your strengths – if you don’t have the skills needed to make the relationship a positive one, speak with others or use resources that may be able to help.
5. Enjoy the possibilities – taking the time to connect with another person opens up a great many opportunities for growth for both you and them.

These are all points worth revisiting with our children, and even for ourselves.

This fortnight has been a sad one for many at Fahan. We learnt that Kizzy Ball, Class of 2022, had passed away. Her funeral was on Monday and was attended by many staff, and past and present students. The service was beautiful and a fitting way for us to celebrate the life of Kizzy, whose kindness was remarked upon by all. Her zest for life, sunny nature and big smile will be remembered by all who knew her. She will be forever in our hearts at Fahan.

Best wishes
Meg Lawson

Student Absence

You are reminded that if foreseen absences are unavoidable, such as holidays during term time, a Request for Absence form should be completed and returned to the School.

Notification of student absence as a result of illness should be emailed to absence@fahan.tas.edu.au, advised by telephone on 6225 1064 or submitted through the Fahan App. 

Learning in Pre-Kinder

Since the development of the fire pit on the Fahan School grounds, the educators in Pre-Kinder have been making this a regular extension of our program.

This has linked nicely with our previous excursions to the Sustainability Centre at Mt Nelson and our bushwalk on kunanyi.

Within this space we have been holding our morning meetings, sharing our acknowledgement to country, reading, and sharing stories, connecting with our buddies and ‘Little Sparks’ families, making and cooking damper, as well as the occasional morning tea and toasted marshmallow.

The storytelling has opened opportunities for the children to share their own experiences beyond the care setting and enjoy conversations about camping, bush tucker, weather conditions, how to make a fire and what’s needed for it to create flames and coals, as well as the general safety involved in being around fire.

The cooking of the damper saw the children hypothesising about how long it might take the damper to cook and what it might look like once cooked. They watched on as steam came out of the edges of the pot, each taking it in turns to predict a time frame of when it might be ready. Once cooked, they tasted the damper and had the option of adding butter, jam or vegemite.

Lisa, Kelly, Moya, Vivienne and Hattie
Lady Gowrie Pre-Kinder Educators

Learning with Hutchins

On 4 September, Year 5 had an excursion to The Hutchins School. We took a short bus ride which was filled with excited chattering. When we arrived, we were placed into our Fahan groups. Each group was given a sheet of paper with different questions like: Did you make something creative at home in the holidays? What is your favourite ice cream flavour? Have you had Mexican food? and lots of others. As there were 75 Hutchins boys and only 35 of us (110 in total), we were outnumbered, but it was a lot easier to ask questions. Once we had finished asking questions, we walked over to the auditorium and got into groups with Hutchins to complete some tessellating puzzle activities. We worked within our groups to complete as many as we could. To make it even more difficult, we had to flip over some of the shapes so they could fit into the puzzles properly.

Here are some thoughts on the afternoon from the girls:

It was nice to interact and meet people before the social.  Pixie

I enjoyed getting to know more people and doing the puzzle with them. We had lots of fun.  Lottie

The puzzles were fun, challenging and tricky for our mindsets. Chloe, Bianca and Isabella

I liked how we did lots of activities.  Lucy

I liked experiencing a different school and meeting new people. Saige

We really enjoyed this opportunity, and we would like to thank the teachers for taking us and organising it.

By Sofia Irving-Damico and Freya Boost

Learning about Health in Year 4

In Health, Year 4 students have been exploring ways to keep both our minds and our bodies healthy. We have focussed on maintaining strong connections with friends and family, eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, and regular physical exercise. Students were asked to form a small group of 3 or 4, and devise an enjoyable physical activity or game which they then explained to their classmates. We had so much fun trying out all the new games!

Mrs Nicole Bury

Learning about Still Life in Art

Year 7 students have created some wonderful works inspired by Australian Contemporary Artist, Cressida Campbell.

Each student drew and painted their chosen image onto card, incorporating collage from found imagery, old wrappers, foil and newsprint. The final paintings were vibrant, capturing the beauty of everyday objects, interpreted in an original way.

Ms Alex Pitt

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Learning about the Deep Time History of Australia

As part of our exploration of the Deep Time History of Australia, both Year 7 classes visited the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). We spent the majority of our time in the ningina tunapri gallery, where we had the opportunity to handle some Aboriginal artefacts such as shells, stone tools and ochre.

Each student is completing their own project on an area of interest, including shells, ochre, dance, megafauna, food, landmarks, etc. They had some time to explore the museum taking photos to enhance their projects. Here are 7O’s thoughts on their visit to TMAG:

I liked the animals.  Mathilda
I thought the kelp was cool.  Essie
I liked seeing the still-life paintings.  Grace
I thought the muttonbirding was interesting.  Nina
I liked the room with the thylacine.  Phoebe
I like that the shell necklaces looked like the shells that you would find on the beach.  Claudia
I liked seeing the ochre.  Evie
I thought that the stuff they make out of muttonbirds was cool.  Charlotte
I liked how the kelp can hold water.  Ava
I liked the ochre. I also liked the shells.  Eve
My favourite area was the Tasmanian Tiger room.  Bailey
I liked all the types of shells.  Felicity
I liked how you could stick your entire arm down a hole and touch a stuffed baby muttonbird.  Sophie S
I liked learning about the thylacine.  Alex
I liked everything.  Maisey
I liked the shell drawers that you could pull out and the shell necklace display.  Molly
I liked the bug display, because it said where they were from and lots of them were from where I live.  Ruby
I liked watching the Tasmanian Tiger video.  Lucy S
I found it interesting how the kelp felt like leather.  Lili
I liked taking photos of all the little stuffed animals, but I felt sorry for them.  Sophie U
I liked seeing all the animals on display.  Yifan

I encourage the Year 7s to return to the TMAG on the weekend and explore all the other exhibitions that we didn’t have time to visit. A few of them thought they could do this with friends and combine their visit with lunch at Mures!

Thank you to Ms Perrott and Mrs Shearing for accompanying us on our excursion.

Ms Fiona Short

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Learning about the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee

This year, all of Year 6S participated in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee run by Kids News (News Corp Australia’s news-based classroom website).

The first round was a School Round, where students were challenged with 30 words that varied in difficulty. There were nearly 60,000 student registrations at this stage of the competition across the different age brackets. 

After the School Round, we were really excited to hear that four of our students, Sahaja Bathineni, Caroline Senkbeil, Hannah Abbott and Olivia Grubb, advanced to the next round, which was the State/Territory Finals. There was tough competition at the State Final, but Sahaja was successful in making it to the National Final, which she competed in last week.

There were 69 National Finalists in the Years 5-6 category from all around Australia, and Sahaja made an incredible effort to finish in 9^th place!  Congratulations, Sahaja, and all Year 6S students.

Mrs Kathryn Lumsden-Steel

Learning about Vaping and Driver Safety

In Year 10 Health this term we have been diligently learning about risk-taking. Within this unit so far, we have studied vaping and driver safety.

Within our vaping unit, we learnt about the staggering chemicals that are in vapes and the life-threatening health conditions that are associated with vaping. Further, we were able to deepen our understanding and raise awareness of these by creating vaping posters to put around the Senior School. This allowed us to understand the statistics around vaping and made us more aware of the consequences of vaping. We were then fortunate enough to have people from the Department of Health come and talk to us. In this session we strengthened our knowledge on the dangers of vaping and provided feedback on what we thought would be beneficial for other students to learn about. Additionally, we had the opportunity to provide feedback to a doctor who is part of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research and was investigating the dangers of vaping. This talk also provided an opportunity for us to see what a vape looks like, further enrich our knowledge of the dangers and participate in interactive activities.

The next topic in our risk-taking unit was driving and RYDA, Rotary Youth Driver Awareness. RYDA is a compulsory event for all Year 10 students which is intended to make us better and safer drivers. The day was held on Friday 25 August at Claremont College. At RYDA we were divided into class groups and went around to the six stations run by Rotary that were designed specifically to improve young drivers. The activities were Speed and Stopping, Drive S.O.S, Mind Matters, the ‘I’ in Drive, Road Choices and Crash Investigators.  Our favourite activity was Speed and Stopping which was very interactive. Further, the most thought-provoking session was when we talked to someone who had actually been in a car crash. This made us all rethink our driving habits and we are all now better drivers because of it.  Each session provided something fun, and we all learnt something in the process. We were all grateful to be able to count five extra hours to our driving logs. Thank you to Mrs Buchanan, Mr Allenby and Rotary Hobart for running this life-changing event.   By Betsy Ryan

It was really fun and made me learn about the road and how to improve my driving habits.  Audrey Bradford

It was a good opportunity to learn about the importance of keeping ourselves and others safe.  Chloe Pringle-Jones

I thought that the RYDA course was really important for emphasising driver safety for Australian youth, I also liked that I got to add hours to my drivers log.  Chloe Wimmer

We really enjoyed hearing from someone who had suffered from a brain injury due to a road incident. It was really informative and made us all realise how important it is to obey the rules when driving.  Zara Marino and Ruby Bartulovic

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Learning about the Tournament of Minds

Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a program for all primary and secondary students providing the opportunity to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and teamwork (from tom.edu.au).

On Saturday 8 September, a group of Year 7 Fahan students competed in the Tournament of Minds competition, held at the Ogilvie Campus of Hobart City High School. The students selected the ‘Language Literature’ challenge and worked hard over the past few weeks to create a Dr Seuss themed presentation. The team consisted of Mathilda Brown, Essie Burke, Evie Imberger, Keira Lynch, Yifan Wang, Coco Barton and Myla Philp.

Two team members were unwell on the day, but that didn’t stop our remaining team members from giving it their all. They competed as a team of five and did a wonderful job in both their ‘Language Literature’ challenge, as well as in their ‘Spontaneous’ challenge where they were presented with a problem to solve in a matter of minutes!

The team truly embodied the Fahan values of Learning, Spirit and Community. They learnt a lot of new information, learnt to be flexible and learnt what ‘antimetabole’ means! They demonstrated spirit, as they worked together, supporting each other and showing great courage.

The sense of community at ‘Tournament of Minds’ was electric, and it was exciting to be part of such a wonderful day. Congratulations to our Year 7s, and we look forward to entering more teams in this competition next year.

Ms Fiona Short

Learning about Transport in Cells

This week in Senior Biology, we have been studying how plants transport substances. We have learnt that plants have two different sets of tubes for transport. One set – the xylem – transports water and minerals from the roots up to the leaves. These xylem vessels are dead, thick-walled and essentially like microscopic straws. The other tubes – the phloem – transport sucrose solution from the leaves (where sugar is made in photosynthesis) to the other parts of the plant. We spent Thursday’s lesson making transverse (or cross) section slides of celery tissue that had been sitting in blue food dye overnight. This enabled us to clearly see the xylem vessels under the microscope, as they were stained blue. We made some longitudinal sections down the length of the celery stalk and were able to clearly see some of the spiral thickening – caused by the presence of lignin, a structural protein – that makes these xylem vessels so strong, so they stay open and won’t collapse under pressure. The spirals looked amazing and reminded us of the rings of cartilage around our windpipe, that keep it open.

It was interesting to contrast plant transport with animal transport, in which our main fluid transported is blood, through blood vessels.

Ms Felicity Jacobs

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Spirit of Learning

We would like to acknowledge that our much-loved Kindergarten Educational Assistant, Kate Bowler, recently graduated from UTAS.  After four years of dedicated study, Kate is now a fully qualified teacher, successfully completing her bachelor's degree in Primary Teaching. After her ceremony, Kate paid a special visit to Kinder to show them the Academic Gown and Mortar Board worn for the graduation ceremony. Congratulations, Kate!

Spirit of Drama in Year 8

For the past 9 weeks in Drama, Year 8 students have been working hard to script, stage and perform a series of short plays, coinciding with the theme: Futuristic Fairytales. We worked in groups of four or five to come up with a relevant idea, write and edit comprehensive and witty scripts, improvise scenes, create entertaining blocking and implement production elements. Although many of us struggled to come up with the perfect storyline, memorise our scripts and remember our places on stage, after weeks of hard work and effort, we performed these plays to the Junior School and our parents and friends on 6 September. The performances were all spectacular and the effort put in was well worth it. Good job everyone!   By Ula Lagden

The drama performance was an amazing way to embrace different characters and learn new skills to help us with acting and improvisation. Everyone performed really well in their performances and everyone should be very proud of themselves.  Ava Mignanelli

I enjoyed the versatility with what the plays could be about and how each was significantly different. Camilla Cox

I enjoyed the freedom of creating our own plays and the processes that came with scripting them. Sarah Berner

Ms Christine Best

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Spirit of Drama in Years 9/10

For the lead up to the Years 9/10 Elective Drama play, a stage combat teacher at REACT Drama School, Andrew Casey, came and taught the students how to fight with swords. He taught them how to be careful when fighting, the different moves involved to create a realistic sequence of actions that would accurately depict a fight and he helped the students work out the blocking of the fights to put them on stage.

The class is excited to show what Andrew has taught them about fighting on stage in Term 4 when they present their play.

Ms Christine Best 

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Spirit of Outdoor Education Camp

The TASC 2 Outdoor Education class recently completed a four-day expedition that showcased their skills, knowledge, and love for the outdoors. During this excursion, students took charge of planning and executing every aspect of their journey, from creating the expedition itinerary to tackling the challenges of the great outdoors.

The expedition kicked off in Week 6, where the students set out to explore the stunning beauty of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. The ambitious itinerary began with a hike along the picturesque Arm River track, leading them to the New Pelion hut, which would serve as their basecamp for the next three days.

Over the course of their expedition, the students delved deep into the heart of this pristine wilderness. They spent three days immersed in the natural wonders of the area, exploring its nooks and crannies, and taking in the breathtaking sights. A highlight of their journey was summiting Mount Oakleigh, an achievement that rewarded them with awe-inspiring panoramic views of the surrounding landscape.

But the adventure didn't end there. On the final day, the students faced an exhilarating challenge: pack rafting down the Forth River. This demanding activity tested their skills on the white-water rapids, honed over the course of the year. It was a thrilling climax to their expedition, pushing the boundaries of their outdoor abilities and cementing their bond as a team.

The class's four-day expedition was not just a journey into the wilderness; it was an exploration of their own potential and a testament to the rewards of pushing one's boundaries in the great outdoors. As these students return to their daily routines, they carry with them the memories of this extraordinary adventure and the invaluable lessons they've learnt along the way.

Mrs Stacey Maley

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Spirit - Junior School Sport

Junior House Athletics

When: Thursday 21 September
Time: 10:30am to 2:30pm
Where: Domain

If any parents are able to assist at this Carnival, please contact me at dalet@fahan.tas.edu.au.

2023 Tasmanian All Schools Track and Field Championships

The 2023 Tasmanian All Schools Track and Field Championships will be held at St Leonard's Athletics Centre on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October 2023.

This competition is open to all school students in the U14, U16 and U18 age groups (as at 31 December 2023) and in 10yrs (born in 2013), 11yrs (born in 2012) and 12yrs (born in 2011) age groups. 

For more information visit https://www.tasathletics.org.au/events/200562/

JSSATIS Athletics

When: Thursday 9 November
Time: 10:00am to 2.30pm
Where: Domain

Back up day (Monday 13 Nov)

Mr Tim Dale
Junior Sport Coordinator
dalet@fahan.tas.edu.au

Spirit - Senior School Sport

Swimming

The SATIS Swimming Carnival was held on Wednesday 13 September at the Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre.

There were many impressive individual and relay swims and the Fahan team finished 6^th in the Girls Aggregate Shield.  Fahan were 3^rd in the Under 13 Pennant, 8^th in the Girls Senior Shield and 6^th in the Girls Junior Shield.

Congratulations to Ava Mignanelli who came 1^st in the Under 14 50m Freestyle. Ava must also be congratulated on her outstanding results at the State Short Course Championships held last weekend. Ava was 1^st in the 12-13 year old 100m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, 1^st in the Open 400m Freestyle, 1^st in the 12-15 year old 800m and Open 800m,  as well as 3^rd in the Open 200m Freestyle. Ava also won 4 relay medals in her Club Open and U14 teams. A massive effort!

Soccer

Congratulations to the 1^st Grade Soccer team who played in the SSATIS Grand Final on Thursday 14 September against an undefeated Guilford Young team. The Fahan team fought bravely and whilst Guilford Young won the game, we congratulate our Fahan team for their determined effort. 

The Fahan 2^nd Grade team contested their Grand Final also on Thursday 14 September. This was a close game with GYC winning the battle 1 – 0.

Well done to both teams for reaching the finals and thank you to Mr Jake Bevan and Dr Mel Fitzpatrick for their encouragement and dedication in coaching soccer this term. 

Lawn Bowls

This term, Fahan introduced a lawn bowls team. A team of six students commprising Alice Bergman, Holly Braithwaite, Camilla Cox, Tiger Somerville, Alex Jones and Yifan Wang played at the Sandy Bay Lawn Bowls Club each Wednesday afternoon. These students thoroughly enjoyed learning to play lawn bowls and their improvement throughout the term is to be commended. Thank you to Mr Robert Owens for coaching and mentoring this team. We look forward to being able to offer lawn bowls as a sport again next year.

Term 4 Sport

A reminder to complete the Term 4 sport sign ups through the Edsmart sent to all students, by Thursday 21 September.

Sport options for Years 9 and 10 for Term 4

• Tennis – Games played on a Monday afternoon
• Touch Football – Games played on a Wednesday afternoon
• Triathlon – Thursday 30 November

Sport options for Years 7 and 8 for Term 4 

• Tennis – Games played on a Tuesday afternoon
• Australian Rules Football – Games played on a Thursday afternoon 
• Touch Football – Games played on a Monday afternoon
• Triathlon – Thursday 30 November

Mrs Jo Banks-Smith
Senior Sport Co-ordinator
bankssmithj@fahan.tas.edu.au
0428 031 012

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Community - Fundraising for the Ukraine

Please help!!!

Empty out your pockets...

Lift up the couch cushions...

Look under the mats in the car...

Empty out the swear jar!!!

We are chasing coins of all shapes and sizes (and will gratefully accept notes as well!) The Amnesty Group’s friendship with the Ukrainian Society of Tasmania has seen us aiming to purchase a generator for a school in the Ukraine. One of the schools there is also in desperate need of a ventilation system built in their underground shelter – right now, they need to keep a door open, which isn’t ideal in an underground shelter!

Each Pastoral Care Group in the Senior School has been given a big money box that we are hoping will be filled up with coins and cash! With all of these money boxes put together, we hope to raise $2,300. This is a huge task, but we are hopeful we will make it. The Pastoral Care Group that raises the most money will be treated to a pizza lunch at the end of term.

If you would like to help us achieve this goal, you can send some money along with your child to put in their moneybox. Or, if your child is in the Junior School and you’d like to make a general donation to this cause, please email Felicity Jacobs (jacobsf@fahan.tas.edu.au).

Your generosity is appreciated!

The Amnesty Group

Important Notes

Second Hand Uniform

The Uniform Shop is no longer accepting second hand uniform items for sale.

School Canteen Contact 

As previously advised, Amelia Edwards has taken over from Birgitta Browning as the Food Services Manager and can be contacted at edwardsa2@fahan.tas.edu.au for any Canteen-related queries.  

Community - Lady Gowrie Vacation Care

2024 Term Dates

2024 Term Dates have been finalised and are available through the link on the left panel of the newsletters, the School website, Fahan App (under links on the bottom right hand corner) and below.

Community Notices

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Fahan School Bus Service

For more information on the Fahan Bus Service, please click here.