18th May 2017 14 China bound PRINCIPAL’S REPORT Timboon P-6 open morning! Next Thursday 25th May, 9:15am- 10:30am. All visitors are invited for some tea and cake in the Library (from 10:30am onwards) – a great opportunity to meet Good luck to our six Year 9 students (pictured on the front of the our new Acting P-6 Assistant Principal, Gill Hampson. newsletter) who headed off to the China for the next six weeks as part of the Victorian Young Leaders to China Program (Alpine School Camps – Last week we had two camps take place. Our Year Leadership Camp). This program gives students, teachers and 6 students attended an overnight camp at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat. school leaders the opportunity to be part of a life-changing This camp provided students and their teachers a chance to international education experience. As part of the Victorian State attend a goldfields school! Dressed in 19th century-style clothing, Government’s vision to internationalise our education system, and using classrooms and equipment typical of the era, students 1500 Victorian Year 9 students will travel to China over five years enjoyed two memorable days in one of the themed schools as from 2014. This is the second year students from our school have they role-played the lives of goldfields students and came to been selected for this select entry program. understand social conditions during the great Year 6-7 Transition Evening: Timboon On Display – last night we Victorian Gold Rush. What a great way to learn about the had a very positive response to school ‘Timboon On Display’ open Australian Gold Rush! A big thank you to Mr Venn, Mrs Moriarty evening. I would like to again encourage families to contact me or and Mark Cuthell (parent) for their assistance. Dan Walker (7-12 Assistant Principal) if you would like to book a personal tour of the school. It’s a great time to be involved in A big thank you to TSPA! The pie drive was a huge success and public education and our 2018 Year 7 students will be the first lots of great gifts offered at the Mother’s Day Stall. year level to begin their secondary education in the new building; exciting times ahead! In addition to this, we would like to again Our Year 11 cohort had the opportunity to attend work remind families to submit their transition enrolment form to the experience in Melbourne for the week. This really does provide a general office by Friday 30th June. real life learning opportunity for our students. Students were A big well done all of our students across the P-12 participating in expected to independently travel to and from work each day on the Warrnambool speech, debating and poetry Eisteddfod. We public transport. Many former students often comment on the will provide the overall results over the next couple of weeks once confidence this camp provided to them. Navigating through the competitions are complete. Melbourne is not easy! A big thank you to Mr Deppeler and Ms Introducing the digital world! What a great way to share their Nicholson for assisting students during this week. learning! Some of our Year 6 students have been providing digital mentoring to some of our local senior citizens (pictured below). Good luck to our P-12 students competing at the HSSSD Cross country competitions tomorrow. Some important dates for the term include: Education Week 22nd-26th May P-6 Open Morning 25th May, 9:15am-10:30am Secondary exam week 22nd-26th May VCE GAT 14th Jun SEAN FITZPATRICK PRINCIPAL ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT I was born and raised in Noorat. My parents were dairy farmers and they share farmed in Noorat for most of my life. I now live on the outskirts of Noorat on a 10 acre hobby farm. A big thank you to potential students and their families who What’s your favourite thing to do in your spare time? attended last night’s ‘Timboon on Display’ evening. The night I love umpiring netball and going to the local footy/netball on proved to be a showcase of the learning opportunities for Saturdays. I don’t really follow any particular team, but love to go students who attend Timboon P12 School. Thank you to all staff and watch the kids I know, or have taught, play. I barrack for who had input into the night and informed parents on the Collingwood too. learning and direction of the school. Before children, I enjoyed horse riding and would one day love to have horses again. I also love camping and fishing and having fun This year we have 44 Year 7 students attending our school. It is with my family. excellent to see such healthy numbers of students in this year Do you have any pets? level and as a year level they are enthusiastic and a very engaging Yes, I have a crazy Jack Russell pup, called Zoomer, two cats, group of people. We look forward to bringing a new cohort of Tabby and Rosie, heaps of chooks, cows and other typical farm Year 7 students into the school to continue to build on our culture animals. of improvement and success. Where is your favourite place to go on holiday? We love Jubliee Park / Hopkins River Park near Warrnambool. We Year 10 and 11 exams start next week. They will be running on love camping, so anywhere that allows us to camp and fish and Tuesday 23rd, Wednesday 24th and Friday 26th May in the school have fun really. hall. All students have been given a timetable and it has also been I asked the kids to tell me of things that they would like to see posted on Compass. The end goal of implementing exams is to change at Timboon, and they couldn’t really list anything. They all improve the capacity of our students to work under pressure and agreed that school was a happy place and they love coming here. respond successfully. They were very excited about the new building project and couldn’t wait to be the first Year 7s in it. I was really impressed On Monday of week 7 our Year 9 students will be attending South with the way they spoke and I got a true feeling that they took West TAFE’s ‘Try a Career Day’ in Warrnambool. This is an pride in their school and those that are in it. They are a credit to excellent opportunity for students to build an idea of potential their teachers and parents. future careers. It also an important step in encouraging students Nuts & Bolts to start thinking about their subject selections into the future. Open morning – all parents, grandparents and friends are invited Year 9 camp will also be running from the 5th June. to the open morning next Thursday. Teachers would like the first Kind regards, 15 minutes of the day to get rolls marked and carry out the usual DAN WALKER morning duties, so from 9:15am to around 10:30am, everyone is SECONDARY ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL welcome to wander in and watch a normal morning session take place. Late arrivals – please ensure that if your child is late to school, a What a whirlwind ride the last few weeks have been! I am very parent or guardian reports to the office to sign them in. It is much looking forward to Acting as Assistant Principal for the preferred that all children enter the school through the main gate remainder of Term 2 and Term 3. It is an opportunity I didn’t think and not be dropped off at the gate near the hospital please. I would be so lucky to be given and I’m over the moon with how Finally, please don’t hesitate to drop in and introduce yourself. I wonderful everyone has been in my first few days. would love to meet as many parents as possible over the next few Yesterday, I sat with some of the Year 6 House Leaders and whilst weeks, so I can continue the great partnership the school has getting to know them a bit, they got an opportunity to quiz me. established with you in the past. Here are just some of their questions: Thanks Where have you taught before? GILL HAMPSON My previous school was Cobden Technical School, where I’ve P-6 ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL been for the last 10 or so years. I have also taught at Lake Bolac P-12 College, Noorat Primary School and Terang P-12 College. How long have you been teaching? GRADE SIX NEWS 18 years, mostly as a secondary school Maths teacher. Why did you choose to be a teacher? I love Maths and Science, and for job security one of my teachers suggested that I should teach. It wasn’t till I was in Year 12 that I actually decided to be a teacher. Now, there is nothing I would rather do. What would be your preferred role: principal or class teacher? A mixture of both. Already, I’m missing not having a class and at the moment, it is a bit strange not having to run off and teach. Please come and say “G’day” when you can. I am looking forward to learning how to support the school’s literacy program, in particular reading, and will be away for two days this week in Melbourne attending MiniLit training so I can do exactly that. Do you have any family? I have two children, Maddison, aged 7, and Bradley, aged 5.