Blog

Ironically, I write the final article for 2016 commencing with a date alert about 2017! On the Aspectus calendar, you will see that the School will be closed on Friday 27 January 2017. There will not be staff in attendance, nor answering the telephone, so please ensure that anything required from the School, particularly any Uniform Shop fittings or purchases, are not planned for this day!

I write this on the eve of the final day of school for 2016. The final two weeks of the year have been full of purposeful activity. Transition Week finished last week for our 2016 Year 10 and 11 students, during which they completed units of work for their 2017 subjects and got a genuine head start on their VCE and IB courses.

Following the end of 2016 academic curriculum classes last week, the cross-curricular enquiry project completed by teams composed of Year 7 and Year 8 students this week has drawn out impressive creativity and collaboration across a range of ingenious and challenging tasks. These required a combination of intellect, creativity and teamwork to complete. With a less linear and set structure than much of the classroom activities of the year, students needed to display initiative and risk-taking to get tasks completed – have you ever tried to make a Ferris Wheel out of chick peas and tooth picks? Well, one group did and it was 40 cm high and very impressive (and didn’t event win the challenge either!)!

While last week was the final camp for our Year 9 boys and girls, for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week they became Year 10s, completing three days of 2017 classes (complete with substantial amounts of homework!), along with a range of targeted academic testing that enables us to assess student progress using quality data to inform and assist us.

In our Junior Schools we have had two terrific Speech Nights, with wonderful choirs, productions, video and impressive student speeches and presentations. For our young men and women moving from Year 6 to Year 7, these were very significant occasions and their mindful and considered attitude towards them showed they understood the significance of the events.

In amongst all the activity, there has also been time for reflection on a wonderful first year as Tintern Grammar, a combined school. The formation of our new parent support group, the Tintern Parents’ Group, the establishment of the Tintern Alumni Association to support and enliven our leavers this year and into the future and the early appearances of our combined uniforms are all signs of our increasingly cohesive and collaborative nature, as a community.

With VCE results to be released at the end of this week, we have 80 or so young men and women who are in various states of ‘elevation’! We wish all our students good luck and I am sure that in amongst all the media hype of 99+ ATARs and percentages of this and percentages of that, our whole cohort will be as proud of their results as we will be. They have worked hard for themselves and for each other and leave a terrific legacy that I am sure will only be enhanced by Monday 12 December!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and period of family time and a safe and restful holiday. We look forward to seeing everyone back refreshed and energised in February and hope we will see as many of you as possible at the Tintern Foundation Service on Friday morning 10 February in Week 2 of Term 1 2017.

Factis non verbis.

Bradley Fry
Principal

Please view the Video Blog below from our Principal, Mr Bradley Fry.