Secondary News

Secondary School

With Term 3 well under way, it has been great watching our students approach their school life in such a positive manner. There is a challenge for all students to balance their academic efforts across their subjects, with their active involvement in our co-curricular program. Following on from their Semester 1 results, our students have been challenged to set themselves goals based on their measured Learning Behaviours. This could come from a variety of factors including organisation, time management, active involvement in class, or any one of our key areas that will help them to achieve their own level of success. A new Semester, with some new subjects (Years 7 – 10), provides a great opportunity to start some different practices.

This term has seen the beginning of our House Music competition which will conclude on Thursday 22 August prior to our mid-term break on Friday 23 August. House Music has our students performing to a designated theme and this year it’s the 80s. It includes a song of choice for each House, as well as a common song across all Houses, and this year it’s You’re the Voice by John Farnham, a favourite among everyone! We are also very fortunate that Lisa Edwards (mother of Maddy, Class of 2016) who was one of John Farnham’s back-up singers at the time of You’re the Voice, will be a judge for the event. We look forward to a great competition and then to hearing all our community join as one to sing it at Celebration Evening.

The House competition continues to be strong across the School, and the cross-country was held last week. Held on-campus at School, the course takes our students on a path down onto the farm, around the back paddocks and then back up the hill through the bush. In real cross-country style, the run was a great mixture of hills, dirt tracks and mud. The effort from all students was amazing, with Mansfield-McKie running away with a big win on the day. Congratulations to all Mansfield-McKie students and to our individual place getters across all year levels. See the Sports Matters for more photos and results.

Another process currently underway is our subject selection process for 2025. This includes our Years 7 and 8s looking at electives they may wish to try next year, to our Year 9s considering the idea of potentially accelerating into a VCE subject, or continuing with a straight Year 10 load. Our Year 10s are forming their ideas around what their VCE load will look like over the coming two years and our current Year 11s will be consolidating their plans for their final year based on their experiences so far. These selections are due by the end of this week, and it is important that all students submit their selections on time.

This term provides more opportunities for our students to engage in activities outside the classroom. We have our Years 7 and 8 debating competition beginning, Year 9s going on camp to the snow, our Ski/Snowboard team competing in the School Championships, the Middle School Musical, and much more! Along with the extra activities, our students are reminded of our ongoing Homework Club and Maths Assist that operate throughout the week and provide an opportunity for anyone to receive assistance with their learning.

Premier’s Award

We congratulate Year 12 student Jerrod who was awarded a Premier’s VCE Award at a ceremony on Wednesday 17 July 2024. The annual Premier’s VCE Awards recognise students who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE).

This is an exceptional achievement for Jerrod, who in Year 11 achieved a perfect score of 50 for General Mathematics. The entire Tintern community is proud of Jerrod’s dedication to academic excellence.

Public Speaking

The Kate Jenkins AO Public Speaking Award is a coveted annual event for students in Years 7 to 10 at Tintern Grammar. Each Year level conducts the competition, that culminates in a final and we are fortunate to have Alumni return to Tintern to adjudicate. This week, we held the Year 10 Final, a lively competition that demonstrated the depth of analysis and expression in these confident future leaders. The place getters were:

1^st: Tammy Lerk

2nd: Sebastian Humphrys

3^rd: Cheuk Yui Lam

We thank Assistant Principal Oriana Constable, Belinda Collins Class of 1991 and Samantha Green Class of 2003 for their expert adjudication and thoughtful feedback.

Debating

With the final round of the Debating Association Victoria (DAV) last week, we are thrilled to announce our B grade (Year 11) team are through to the Playoffs towards the finals!

The topic for the final round for the season was a secret topic, and with just one hour to prepare, they argued and won for ‘That we should eliminate national representation and have athletes compete as individuals at the Olympics’. This will be the third year in a row that this team of students has made it to the finals.

The other B grade team, Tintern 2, unfortunately lost their debate by the narrow margin of 2 points. The C grade (Year 10) Tintern 1 team and D grade (Year 9) Tintern 3, both won due to a forfeit by their opposition. A disappointment, given that these teams were ready to debate and were looking forward to the challenge. In D grade Tintern 1 were scheduled to debate against Tintern 2, so we could only have one winner. After a most interesting debate on the topic ‘That streaming services (eg Netflix) made the wrong decision to ban password sharing’, Tintern 2, arguing the negative side of the debate won by 2 points.

Our Year 7 and 8 students will be starting their debating program this Term. We look forward to watching their skills develop as they become confident and articulate speakers. Read our Debating Captains article.

World Challenge Nepal 2025

Last week at Assembly we heard from the World Challenge team about an exciting opportunity for our students to take on the World Challenge in Nepal in 2025. We have a Parent/Student Information Session on Tuesday 6 August in the Theatre at Tintern Grammar.

If you are interested in World Challenge, please RSVP to attend to find out more about this exciting opportunity for students currently in Years 9 to 11.

100 Days of Year 7

Tuesday 30 July marked 100 days of Year 7 at Tintern Grammar with an afternoon of fun activities to celebrate. We caught up with the Year 7s who had just created their own potato athlete to enter in the Tintern Grammar Potato Olympics.

The potatoes took on some creative personas, competing in events such as, diving, dancing and gymnastics. Afterwards our Year 7s enjoyed a bbq cooked by our Year 11s.

The Big Freeze

The Big Freeze in our Secondary School was held at lunchtime on Friday 14 June. Secondary teachers and students volunteered to have a freezing bucket of ice water poured on them on the Tintern oval. It was a terrific day of fun and fundraising that showed the Tintern spirit. Our Junior School teachers braved the freezing conditions first thing in the morning to fearlessly face the ice bucket challenge. Funds were raised by the sale of Big Freeze beanies and those who purchased a beanie were in the running to tip the bucket over teachers. We will leave you with some images of these brave volunteers!