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Dear Families,
In the blink of an eye, we are approaching the half-way mark of the Term (end of next week). Our students and staff are continuing their positive start to Term 3 which makes it easy to forget we hit this mark soon. This work is intensely focused on the goals for and progress in Semester 2, and it has been really pleasing to see our students engaged with a firm focus in the present.
It is somewhat strange in contrast then, that most of my work, and that of the Executive Leadership team and of other key leaders, is focussed intently on the future of 2023 (and beyond). We are the school for choice in this area (and becoming more well-known for this outside of our area too), and part of this, is that there always a leadership sense with an eye on the future. I have seen a few specific elements of this just over these last few weeks:
- As a growing school, over the last few weeks we’ve interviewed and appointed 13 permanent staff for next year. This is purposefully earlier than most schools and we attracted a wide field of applicants. Throughout these appointments I am so pleased that we attracted a mix of familiar, known and new faces to TMC, all of whom shared a really clear common goal: to join or re-join us at very excitation time in our School's history (more specific details to come later this year- sorry for the tease!).
- 2023 Senior School subject selections are in full swing, led by Assistant Principal: Teaching and Learning Dr Chris Soar, and supported by other Senior School Staff. This is an exciting time across a young person’s journey (I say this also as a Father with my oldest son currently working through a similar process at a different school), but also one where a sense of anxiousness can pervade. We do this really well at Thomas More College, where our teachers, leaders and staff work side-by-side with our young people where they are placed at the centre of this process, and whereas families you also play a vital role. As a previous Deputy Principal at another school where these processes were my ‘bread and butter’, as a parent and Principal I have been pleasantly surprised about the level of autonomy and options afforded to our young people. Armed with the right information, so many different options are open to them. As parents and guardians our role is to find that right mix of challenge and support, which we at school can lead you through. Please keep in conversation with your daughter or son’s wellbeing teachers with general pathway questions (they may refer you to another leader depending on the question), and the subject teachers with specific questions about next year.
- Just last week we had over 20 staff involved in enrolment interviews for the future; however, as a sign of our growth and positive work, these were for This forward-thinking is necessary at the moment given the positive enrolment demand that we have and is a good place for our students and school to be.
- Closer to the present and near future, it’s so good to see classes and our uniform shop operate in #42 Amsterdam Crescent (across the road). I keep referring to it as our ‘second campus of Thomas More’, and while the long-term use is around entrepreneurial learning, this flexible, short-term use for teaching and learning spaces is so important for next few years given we are about to approach some major building and expansion works at our school (stay tuned!).
What a great vision for the future we have at Thomas More College. We do not let this detract from our most important work though: that which exists in the present in working with our young people.
TMC is a great place to be.
Take care,
Corey Tavella
Principal
2022 Semester 1 Student Awards
In the best interests of the health and safety for student and staff we decided to only gather the students in the smaller year level groups to acknowledge and celebrate the academic and application towards their learning. We hope to begin to gather in larger groups in the future to celebrate and acknowledge student success.
The lists of students below honour those who had an exceptional semester, academically, and with their exceptional attitude towards learning. Our award winners for Semester 1, 2022 were:
Academic Excellence Awards | ||
Year 7 Jacinta Atterton Sharlise Fitzpatrick Felicity Laing Beau Leggatt Zuha Nosrat Riya Singh Imogen Tezacker Tram Tran |
Year 8 Angelina Cao Eric Charles James Hatzaw Mackenzie Knight Amy Lam Roger Le Destiny Nguyen Mahi Patel Prisha Shah Nhi Tran |
Year 9 Tina Deng Talia Hoang Amy Huynh Grace Leonello Tara McAuley Annie Ngo Alyna Sok |
Year 10 |
Year 11 |
Year 12 |
Exceptional Attitude Awards | ||
Year 7 |
Year 8 |
Year 9 |
Year 10 |
Year 11 |
Year 12 |
Mr Shannon Bertram
Deputy Principal
Kangaroo Tail was on the menu this week! With the support of our CESA ATSI support mentor, Keenan, our Indigenous students were able to learn and practice traditional ways of preparing and cooking kangaroo Tail on a campfire. Keen to taste the delicacy, the group waited 2 hours whilst the kangaroo tail cooked in the hot coals which was then covered by warm sand.
Have you ever seen the park across the road and thought it could be bigger and better? A place for the community to connect and have fun? This is the question that the Year 7 cohort have been examining during their PBL unit integrating English, HASS and Maths subject areas.
Students individually designed maps after researching the history and demographics of the area. Maths skills, such as scale drawing, perimeter and area were also explored and used to construct the final designs. Students then got into collaborative teams where they needed to combine their ideas.
On Tuesday, 9 August the whole of Year 7 put on a showcase of their learning. Students created displays, maps, images, sketches, models and even Minecraft virtual models of their version of the park. Creativity was on display and it was a buzz to see students proud to share their ideas and learning. Congratulations to everyone involved for celebrating success.
Middle School Pedagogy & Innovation
Open Boys and Girls Volleyball
Both boys and girls open teams won through to the finals of Division 2 Statewide Schools Volleyball. They won all their games in the first round of the competition to progress through to next stage. Congratulations!
Volleyball Coach
As part of Year 12 Photography Community Connections, Paul Tran and Tiana McClarty chose to hold a Media Arts Exhibition for the photography created by students in Semester 1 this year.
Students from Year 7-12 have their work on display, and staff and students had the chance to vote for the People’s choice award.
The new Art space also hosted a Film premiere by the Year 12 Photography and Film boys, ‘B201 Productions’.
The event was a huge success, with many staff and students attending to support their students and peers!
People’s Choice Award Winner: Dalton Thomas
People’s Choice Award 2nd Place: Grace Leonello
Raffle Winner for Voting and Feedback: Isabella Rogers
Congratulations to Brooke Woodbridge who over the weekend installed her Year 12 artwork, Critically Endangered in the Bosco Courts area at Thomas More College.
This type of work is called a ‘Paste Up’ and is commonly embraced by Street Artists like Adelaide’s Peter Drew.
Brooke’s art is one of the largest Year 12 works that the school has seen measuring 6m x 2.4m!
Time lapse video of the Installation can be seen here:
Brooke was passionate about presenting her work in a public space and used the following Practitioners Statement to form her installation proposal to the College Executive:
Practitioner’s Statement:
“CRITICALLY ENDANGERED”
Within my family, elephants are seen as a symbol of protection. That if the tusks of an elephant statue point towards the door of the house, it will bring safety to my home. It struck me how ironic this was, that these elephants were my symbol of protection despite being critically endangered due to human interference. Critically endangered, the title of my artwork, is a label given to a species that are at an extremely high risk of facing extinction in the wild. Species like the African Forest Elephants, whose population is dwindling primarily due to poaching. My symbol of protection has inadequate safety policies that protect it from humanity.
The initial inspiration for my artwork was the issues of climate change and the impact humanity has on the planet. I also enjoyed the idea of Street or Public Art which led me to Laurence Vallieres, who uses recycled cardboard to create oversized public artworks of venerable species. Inspired by this, I created art from surgical masks, a widely used resource utilised during the global pandemic to protect against COVID-19. Despite the necessity of these masks and the growing education of climate change, particularly among young people, I often saw masks littering school courtyards or public settings. Because of this, I was inspired to create an artwork purely from these masks as a representation of the estimated 3 million masks being used and disposed of each minute. It also related to my theme of safety and protection as we as a global society became so fixated on protecting ourselves during the pandemic while endangered species were left unprotected, the work on conservation organisations being threatened due to the decrease in support and an increase in poverty and economic instability which caused a rise in poaching.
Throughout the process of making this artwork, I learnt how to manage my time effectively as the sculptures were very time consuming. Although it doesn’t feature in my final artwork, I also learnt how to create and use stencils and spray paint. My original idea was to stencil over an image of the sculptures however decided against this concept due to time constraints as well as concerns about how clearly the artwork could be perceived by the audience.
Taking a photo of my sculptures, I then enlarged and printed it to create a mural spanning a wall within my school. I also created a smaller version of the photo to be displayed in a gallery. Because of the large-scale artwork, the audience is overwhelmed - almost suffocated within the space by the rolling blue wave of elephants. As it was my aim to create an artwork that conveyed the urgency of the threat to elephants, I believe this was successful as the image is unavoidable to the audience from any position in the room.
I hope that through my artwork I can spread awareness about the vulnerability of these elephants, making people question humanity’s influences on the planet and make steps to improve it.
On Wednesday, 10 August Thomas More College participated in the Maths Association of South Australia Annual Maths and General Knowledge Quiz Night. The event was hosted by King’s Baptist Grammar School and four teams represented TMC out of 12 teams from three schools in total.
The teams were as follows:
Year 12: Emma Bun, Sally Cucuk, Anna Tran and Teresa Tran
Year 8: Ryan James, Cosmin Radu, Fergus Sherman and Alan Truong
Year 7: Heath Culley, Santino De Sanctis and Kidus Yohannes
Year 7: Hayley Frank, Emma Lamb and Hong-Phuc Nguyen
I am proud to announce the TMC winners were:
First Place Mathematics Senior: Emma Bun, Sally Cucuk, Anna Tran and Teresa Tran.
First Place Mathematics Junior: Ryan James, Cosmin Radu, Fergus Sherman and Alan Truong.
First Place Overall Junior: Hayley Frank, Emma Lamb and Hong-Phuc Nguyen.
A big congratulations to all teams who participated in the Quiz Night. All participants showed excellent persistence and collaboration.
Anna Beinke
Maths Learning Leader
The Open Year 11 and 12 girls were admirable in their three-game fight at the Golden Grove Recreation centre today. The first game was against Gleeson College and the girls lost 51 to 21. The second game, Modbury High versus Thomas More, was closer with a score of 52 to 32 which was fabulous given that a very polished Modbury team knocked out Gleeson and will progress to the next round. Importantly, the girls came back with an amazing one-point win against Paralowie in the final game, winning 30 to 29 in a thriller. Commiserations to those girls who could not join us due to injury and Outdoor Education camp - we missed you.
Thank you to all those who played with wonderful spirit in the team.
Netball Coach
Students and families are reminded to be wary of approaches from strangers, especially when they are unaccompanied or travelling to and from school. If they are approached students should not respond and should not accept offers of rides or gifts.
Students should seek the assistance of other nearby adults if they feel unsafe and should report the event to a trusted adult (parent or school staff member) as soon as possible.
SAPOL advises that taking out a mobile phone and calling police can deter the offender and they recommend the student making a formal report to their closest police station.
Be Safe.
Mr Shannon Bertram
Deputy Principal