This year in Drama each class has participated in a range of different styles of performance and dramatic skills. Highlights have included the Kindergarten students performing a piece about Vikings in an assembly, last term’s melodrama performances by the 7-8 class and last week grades 5 – 10 were able to go on an excursion to the Princess Theatre to see Launceston College’s production of Grease which was fantastic and enjoyed greatly by all.

Earlier in the year we also had the performance of Stressica visit us which was seen by all of the primary students and had some fantastic messages about dealing with stress and having resilience.

The aim is to have every class from kindergarten through to the grade 9/10 class to have at least one performance experience this year at school. We are continuing to build upon the drama skills the students have and are looking forward to the continuing progress the students are making.

Kelly Howell - Drama Teacher

7-8B have had a busy first half of the year. Among school carnivals, musicals and fun runs we have woven into our class work, strategies to help the room be as calm and welcoming as possible. Some strategies that have been included are brain breaks, regulatory activities and changing the physical appearance of the room by adding some plants and a fish tank.

Alongside this we have had explicit lessons on identifying stress in our bodies, emotions, respect and gratitude. All of this has helped to make our room a much more enjoyable and productive environment.

Brad Tuffin - 7-8B Class Teacher

Students in K-2 were given the opportunity this week to participate in Lilydale's own Mini Olympics. The event started with an Opening Ceremony Torch Relay where two students from each class were chosen to be the flag bearer and torch runner, finishing with 'lighting the cauldron' to officially open the games. Students rotated in class groups around five different events - Teddy Bear Hurdles, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Equestrian, Bean Bag Throw, and Soccer. Student leaders assisted at the events by explaining the rules and supporting K-2 students to join in.

All students demonstrated great sportsmanship by not only participating positively in the events, but also by cheering on their classmates. The Lilydale Mini Olympics finished with a Closing Ceremony where certificates were awarded to four students from each class for Having a Go, Leadership, Respect, and Sportsmanship.

Lilydale VET Horticulture students and some Prep to 2 students planted trees around our school grounds, installing tree guards and thinking about what plant was best suited to the site.  Sincere thanks to Lilydale Landcare for the donation of 50 flowering shrubs to beautify our grounds. 

With the ongoing issues with COVID on the mainland it is important that we continue to maintain good habits to keep everyone safe.  Please continue to sign in via the QR codes across the school if you are entering the school buildings, including your child’s classroom.  We will ensure that students have ongoing access to sanitiser and that they use good hand hygiene to keep themselves as safe as possible.  I must reinforce the need for parents and carers to keep your child/ren home if they are unwell or showing flu like symptoms as I have to with my staff.  Thank you for your cooperation with this very important shared responsibility.

We enjoyed an exceptionally professional performance of Grease by Launceston College students at the Princess Theatre last Wednesday.  The entire event was a real positive for all of our students and staff and reaffirmed our understanding of our students’ capacity to ‘Be Their Best’ with both their public and audience behaviour.  To be able to take such a large group out on mass and for the process to be problem free is very affirming for all. 

As part of our excursion, we saw all our students in uniform.  What this tells us is that students have a uniform and are choosing when they wear it.  We are expecting that all our students are in uniform each day.  This certainly is true about our inter school sports days too.  Our students look part of a team due to their consistent uniform and it helps identify us as individuals and as a group. 

We had a very positive sports days on Friday with our Year 7-10 students playing at Scottsdale across Netball, AFL and Soccer.  The feedback from staff again identified our students’ ability to show great sportsmanship and playing skill across the day.  Our 5-6 sports stars were equally impressive at South George Town Primary with their positive approach and commitment during the matches that they played and were also encouraging and supportive of others.  This feedback is a great measure of our culture and one we should be proud of.

I wanted to reiterate the message that there is a clear statewide policy in place regarding mobile phones at and during school.  The message is still “Off and Away all day!” Phones are not an essential component for learning and should not be out at all during the day.  For any of our primary students the clear rule is that phones should be signed into the office upon your arrival at school and retrieved at the end of the day.

Thank you to all of you who made the time to come in and discuss your child’s learning with teachers.  Our Parent teacher discussions are a critical component to ensuring that formative and summative feedback is being heard and received by all of those involved in the learning partnership. If you haven’t been able to organise a meeting, I would strongly encourage you to ring and at least talk to your child’s teacher – we can all improve irrespective of where we are currently at.

We have a lot happening at Lilydale particularly in the next fortnight.  We had tree planting happening late last week and we will have AFL Tas representatives coming out this week to work with our students.  Science week will happen from the 16-20 August with a range of activities for various grades and we were successful in securing the Young Tasmanian Scientist program to work at our school.

Finally, I would like to congratulate Alana Lava who has been successful in winning a position as Assistant Principal at Punchbowl Primary School in an acting capacity for the remainder of the year.  Whilst Alana’s skills and expertise will be a loss for Lilydale, we are excited for her as she pursues her career, and we wish her all the best for a smooth transition into her new school and her new role.  We will advise her successor as soon as the process has been finalised.

Colin Pearson – Principal

Our School Association meets on the second Monday of each month in the Kinder space. Their next meeting will be Monday, 13 September at 7pm. We would love to see more people at the meetings and invite you to attend. 

Year 11-13 Horticulture students worked in the Woolmers Estate National Rose Garden pruning their roses as part of the pruning unit. We also took cuttings. Thank you to Jane Burbury for her instruction.

We also had a quick look around the buildings. Students an Ms Stanfield enjoyed their day of practical learning.

Mandy from Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers ran a session around farm biosecurity for our Year 11-12 students at our school farm.  Certificate II Agriculture and Horticulture students have been writing policies for our farm including preventing the spread of pests, disease and weeds. Here is one of our policies students have compiled.  Thank you Mandy and TFGA for the informative talk and fun activity.

1. Staff and students to undergo training including what procedures are in place
2. Have a policy for the business/organisation
3. Have a washdown area for vehicles/machinery/equipment entering and leaving the property.  Needs to be an area where water does not wash into paddocks, run off into creeks, dams….
4. Car park for vehicles, policy they do not travel around the property, use the business vehicles.
5.  When new stock arrives, get all necessary paperwork.  Keep in yards until can look over and treat if needed.  Then let into quarantine paddock.
6.  Holding/quarantine paddock (next to stockyards) new or returning stock to go there for 2 weeks and monitored.  Ensure all stock vaccinated.
7.  Treat cattle for lice/worms..

Following on from a direction from the Tasmanian Government, we now have some changed arrangements in place for parents and carers when visiting schools.   

You will now need to check in using the Check-in TAS app when entering school buildings; this includes classrooms, the office or the canteen.

Students are also NOT required to check-in, these arrangements only apply to adults.

We have posters displayed in and around the school site with the QR code to use for checking in. 

For those who do not have a smart phone and need to manually check-in, please come to the school office for assistance. 

We appreciate your support in ensuring we are doing the right thing. 

For more information, visit www.checkin.tas.gov.au

SWIFF’s Nextwave Youth Short Film Competition is open for entries!

The Coffs Coast’s Screenwave International Film Festival is looking for the next wave of young filmmakers!

Enter a short film into the Nextwave Youth Film Competition for your chance to win awesome awards and prizes, including Best School, and have your film premiere at SWIFF 2022 on the Coffs Coast! 

If you like being creative, and want to have a go at filmmaking, SWIFF wants to see what you can do!

The rules are simple:

• Make a film under five minutes
• Include a pineapple
• Enter before October 12th to win!

For full terms and conditions, visit www.nextwavefilm.com.au “

Taking a look at TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.

Rotary Tasmania

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