From the Principal

Please enjoy our lead article this issue  from Catie McNamara, Director Student Welfare Services

Self-love and compassion and their positive effect on mental health and wellbeing

School can at times be extremely challenging for students. Students may feel pressure from workload such as assignments and exams, maintaining a healthy social life and making decisions about the future. It is normal to have difficult periods at school and testing times throughout life, in general.

There are a few things that can be done to ensure that our sense of self, mental health and wellbeing are looked after during these times, such as: self-love and compassion.

Self-love and compassion can be beneficial for many reasons, inclusive of; a rise in self-esteem levels, resilience, increase of connections and strengthening of relationships, improvement in mood and lessened feelings of ‘failure’.

The following will represent four ways to exhibit self-love and compassion towards ourselves. Note; “you are the one person you’ll be with for every moment of your life … [so] self-love and compassion make a HUGE impact on your wellbeing” (Headspace).

Caring for yourself:

Two top ways to look after yourself are:

Participating in physical activity: exercising has numerous mental health benefits, it can be used as a mighty tool to alleviate tensions, worries and anxiety. According to the department of health, young people (aged 13-17 years) should have 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. This could include walking, running and bike riding. Find what works for you and feel the dopamine and serotonin promote positive physical and mental health benefits.

Ensuring you get adequate sleep: multiple studies on sleep have represented that sleep is important for brain function, such as; intellect, attentiveness, general efficiency and functioning. The national sleep foundation has assessed teenagers need 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night. This can also aid in maintaining emotional well-being.

Reassure and comfort yourself:

When going through tough times, remind yourself that it is okay to feel certain ways and emotions. Additionally, that others have experienced similar situations and have progressed through it. Find contentment by being tolerant, supportive and protective with yourself. Imagine how you would treat your closest friend when they’re going through a tough time and do the same with yourself!

Use kind words towards yourself:

Kind words are more effective than harsh. Try to write down positive affirmations about yourself, then progress to reading them out loud and lastly reading them in front of a mirror. I’ll start with one: ‘I’m grateful for my body today as it carried me through a large run I first thought I couldn’t get through’.

Accept it’s okay to not always be perfect at self-love and compassion:

Ensuring and maintaining self-love and compassion is not always getting it right. As humans we make mistakes and can get caught up in things such as; comparisons. When this happens, it is okay to realise we tried our very best and then start again. It may be helpful to acknowledge the comparison out loud or exchange dialogue with your internal critic and challenge the undesirable messages.

For more resources and support on self-love and compassion, feel free to access:

• Headspace
• Beyond Blue
• Student Welfare Services: Catie McNamara

Catie McNamara | Director Student Welfare Services

References:

_{https://headspace.org.au/blog/how-to-be-more-compassionate-to-yourself/}

Monash University and ACEL Leadership Award

We congratulate Jason McManus Vice Principal, for being awarded the ACEL Excellence in Instructional Leadership Award.

The award recognises and promotes excellence in educational leadership and was awarded in conjunction with the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence presented for being the top graduating student of the Master of Educational Leadership in 2021.

The Resilience Project

Welcome to Semester 2 Parents and Students!

After a very busy Semester 1, I hope you have relaxed over the extended winter break and found time to enjoy some sunshine on the cold winter days that are now upon us! 

Over Semester 2, Tintern will continue to deliver The Resilience Project’s wellbeing curriculum in our Year 7 – 12 pastoral classes. The Project is an evidence-based platform offered at school and via resources to parents on the portal, as a way to begin conversations about the challenges we face each day, as opportunities to develop resilience which is a necessary preparation for adult life. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to explore The Resilience Project Parent and Carer’s Hub and try some of the amazing strategies with your children at home.

This past term, Tintern staff have reflected on the results obtained from our secondary students when they completed The Resilient Youth Survey early in 2022. Some significant patterns of behaviours and attitudes were found across our secondary cohort. For our male students, feelings of tiredness and being low in energy are common themes, as students are regularly sleeping less than 8 hours a night. VicHealth recommends teens should be getting between 8-10 hours of sleep each night to support attention and focus, mood stabilisation, as well as providing significant benefits for mental and physical health. Check out the tile above and THIS PAGE for more information on the importance of sleep. 

Our female students identified needing to have someone they trust to talk to and being able to forgive themselves when they make mistakes as issues that inhibit their ability to learn. There are some excellent strategies about these topics on THIS PAGE, which may assist you in starting conversations on how to reframe negative thoughts and build supportive connections.

Other important supports for all students’ learning also include positive and safe online behaviours (which is an area of focus for the Middle School Pastoral Program this semester) and better managing time, competing pressures and personal organisation. Pastoral and teaching staff have been working on these areas for many years, and they will continue to make this a priority as your child(ren) progress through the secondary school.

If you have questions about The Resilience Project and how we are supporting your child’s wellbeing, please contact me via the details below. Questions about the broader Pastoral Program in the Middle School and Senior College can be directed to the corresponding year level coordinator.

Wishing you good health and happiness this term.

Rebecca Infanti |The Resilience Project Coordinator
rinfanti@tintern.vic.edu.au

THE RESILIENCE PROJECT

ELC News

In the ELC we have been delving into Cultures of Thinking and implementing Thinking Routines within our curriculum. Through implementing Thinking Routines, we aim to collaborate with children to make their ideas and thinking visible, guiding them with a set of questions to encourage active thought processing and contribution.

This term we have been implementing two new Thinking Routines, Creating a Space for Learning and Feelings and Options. The routine focuses on developing the children’s emotional skills, looking at how our feelings impact our learning. This routine is designed to foster a self-awareness, autonomy and mindful, compassionate concentration. It also focuses on building the children’s understanding of Respectful Relations, learning empathic problem-solving, ethics spotting and communication skills for social development.

Creating a Space for Learning Routine begins with the children meditating for one minute to focus on one thing that is on their mind or in their heart. They were asked to reflect and draw a feeling, thought or idea that they were thinking of during their meditation. Then the children had the opportunity to share their image, discussing what they had drawn highlighting their feeling, happy, excited, sad, love, angry, silly, shy, sleepy, shy, or calm. As we move through the term, we will build on this routine, acknowledging how these feelings will impact our learning and interactions with others.

The Feelings and Options Routine was presented to the children at Group Time, they were asked to break into smaller groups and look at an image of a social dilemma. These ranged from not sharing toys, to excluding peers, isolating and ignoring peers. Some of the images were real children, which were relatable, where others were less concrete which meant the children could apply their own ideas and thoughts into the image. The children discussed complex social issues and came up with real strategies to support the social dilemma.

The Children’s Voice:

Problem: “The red one, he was playing with the other ones, and he made a crack in the floor because he was angry. The blue ones moved away, that made the blue ones sad”

Solution – “If it was happening to me, I would say stop it. And if it was happening to someone else, I would ask them to come and play with me”

Problem: “This one is happy as she has all the toys and this one is angry as she only has one bunny”

Solution – “We can just share”

Solution – “Would tell them not to worry, and give them more bunnies”

Problem: “All the goldfish have partners, and the green fish doesn’t”

Solution – “Going to bring him back home”

Solution – “If we see the green fish we can ask it to be a partner”

Giving children a voice and developing the language to communicate is an important part of developing respectful relationships. The children’s maturity to reflect upon social and emotional strategies were emphasised during these Thinking Routines. They demonstrated confidence in advocating for those who are faced with ethical social problems and had the autonomy to make fair and just decisions for all.   

Claire Trappitt | Prep Teacher 

Kristin De Vos | Head of ELC 

Girls’ Junior School News

This week students in Year 5A went to the farm as part of a creative writing activity. The girls were able to spend some time walking around the farm, taking in the lush scenery with the sounds of the birds, chickens and goats. They reflected on how lucky we are to have the farm as part of our School and the peace and serenity it provides. The students spent time on their own reflecting, and wrote short pieces based on the five senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch/feel) about their time at the farm (pictured above).

The students loved visiting the farm and are looking forward to returning to draw inspiration for other writing tasks!

Explorations in Art

All students have been exploring a variety of media such as painting, ceramics, paper mache, watercolour and printmaking to showcase their skills in preparation for their gifts for Father’s Day. Preps, Year 1, Year 3 and Year 4 have been focusing on ceramics and have been taught a variety of skills such as applying texture to clay to create pattern, joining clay and applying colour. The Year 2 students have thoroughly enjoyed their journey in paper mache, creating 3D artworks and painting their constructions using metallic paints. The Year 5 students displayed great sophistication while experimenting with soft-carve lino to create lino-prints based on a botanical theme. Both the cutting and printing process require great skill, and the Year 5 students have flourished with the challenge. The Year 6 students have been exploring tonal painting techniques in landscape to produce some amazing work. The students’ confidence in their skillset continues to grow which is reflected in their artistic endeavors.

Jenny Kerr | Girls’ Junior School Art Teacher

Year 3A 

The Year 3A Learning Community have had terrific time, here are some of our recent activities.

Last week we held our Class Captain speeches and voting procedures. Each girl who chose to nominate was required to write a speech highlighting why they believed they would be a good representative of our Year 3A Learning Community. I congratulate Emma, Briana, Isla, Olivia, Lucy T, Lucy F, Kayla, Deni and Jonti for being brave and putting themselves forward for this role. Our Class Captain for Semester 2 is Olivia. We congratulate Olivia on being elected by the class for this role. Olivia was acknowledged and received her badge at Assembly this week.

During our Assembly this week the girls had the opportunity to celebrate and share their learning. We shared our learning in STEAM, PE, Strings, the Writing Process and Maths. We had a combination of speaking and demonstrations. The girls all did a wonderful job of putting together the presentation, including preparing their individual elements and combining this as a shared presentation.

During STEAM sessions the girls have been using the ‘Stop Motion’ Movie Maker program to make movies. Taking photos of a small figurine, each photo was a slight adjustment.  For each one second of time, they required 15 photos. Working with a partner, the girls created a background. Using paper, a clear frame, and blu-tac to enable the features to be easily moved to change the background visual. Using the ‘Stop Motion’ app, the photos were converted into a short movie.  

In our other STEAM session the focus was on Coding. The girls use the GROK Academy Program, ‘Monster Maker’ and ‘More Monster Maker’ to code their own unique Monsters, including features and colours.

Miranda Price | Junior School Curriculum Co-ordinator 

Boys’ Junior School News

Our Assemblies last week afforded us the opportunity to discuss the moon landing, with its anniversary being 20 July.

While talking about the space race, the adversity that needed to be shown in the face of disastrous setbacks, the ingenuity, grit and courage of all involved, there were three main ‘takeaways’ that I asked the boys to remember.

1. It is estimated that 400,000 were involved in the moon landing, including engineers, scientists, mechanics, technicians, pilots, divers, seamstresses, secretaries and more who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to achieve the first lunar footsteps.
2. Not everything is possible. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can’t achieve what we would want and this is important for our boys to remember, as it helps build their resilience. But having dreams, and striving towards them, IS possible. And if they are achieved, there is such a strong and infectious sense of positivity and accomplishment.
3. Joanne Morgan was the only woman in the launch firing room for the Apollo 11 lift off. As a female engineer, she was initially only allowed to work the night shift, had to use a toilet in a service station across the road as there were no female toilets in the building, and was asked if she could make coffee for the other engineers. But through her determination and self-belief, she became an instrumental figure at NASA including being the first woman senior executive at Kennedy Space Centre (KSC). A brief article found here is worth reading. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-story-of-joann-morgan

Up until now 566 people have entered space, 65 have been women, no woman has walked on the moon. These are important discussions as a part of our continual discussions and culture of respectful relationships, and our understanding of the road towards equality and diversity.

We spoke about being part of a successful team and achieving an end result from everyone playing their role. While not quite the grand scale of the moon landing, our Superstan production was an example of this, with so many people involved on and off the stage. Not everyone has to be ‘the star’, but the star is only made possible by everyone else.

Adam Kenny | Head of Boys Junior School and Director of Students

Congratulations to Prep 100 Days of School

On Monday 1 August we celebrated 100 Days of School for our Prep class. It was a day of celebration and fun as all students were very creative in their dress up costumes as 100 year old.

Secondary School News

Activities in the Secondary School have certainly ramped up in the last week or so. There have been a number of excursions across different year levels such as our Year 12 Business Management class travelling to the Chocolaterie in Yarra Glen, the Year 10 Commerce classes to local businesses in Eastland and our Year 12 Core English classes who went to ACMI in Federation Square for a group lecture on the texts they have been studying in Units 3 and 4.

Music Camp
Our Music department held their annual Music Camp from Friday 22 July to Sunday 24 July with over 120 staff and students attending throughout the weekend. It is a huge event that brings together all of our music students and includes solo performances, small group ensembles as well as our larger orchestra groups. A huge thank you to all students for their efforts and especially to the music staff who provide such a great support for all our students.

Volleyball tournament
On the weekend just gone we had in excess of 70 students representing Tintern in the Volleyball Victoria Four Days School Cup at the State Volleyball Centre in Dandenong. Our volleyball squads have been training for this since the end of last year under the guidance of our Head of Sport Mr Viney, Mrs Petchell, Miss Vine, Ms Thomas and Ms Nguyen. They have worked incredibly hard and improved significantly over this time. Congratulations to all students for their effort and participation in the tournament. 

Subject Selection
We have completed the process of subject selections for 2023 across all secondary students and I would like to thank everyone for putting their preferences in on time. These choices are important for all students with our Year 7s and 8s looking to choose subjects based on fun and interest for their elective program, whilst our Year 9s have the option of continuing with electives in Year 10 or potentially adding in an accelerated VCE subject should it be deemed appropriate. Our Year 10s are looking at putting together the suite of subjects  they feel will carry them through their two years of VCE, whilst our current Year 11s are in most cases moving into the Unit 3 & 4 of the subjects they are currently studying. The process of subject selection and timetable development is a huge task within a school and I would like to thank Mr Hobday (and others) for his work in this area.

Cross Country Training
Cross country training has begun this term and is open to all students from Years 5 to 12. The sessions run Monday 7am – 8am, Wednesday 3:45pm – 4:45pm and Friday 7am – 8am.

Maths Assist
Maths assist is our “Maths Help” program that is student to student assistance under the guidance of our Head of Mathematics. They run on Monday lunchtimes for the Middle School (Years 7 – 9) in our library, and on Friday lunchtime for our Senior College (Years 10 – 12). This is a program for all levels of Mathematics; those who find it hard can get some assistance and tutoring, whilst others who may be looking for a bit more of a challenge can also come to the sessions with questions that they have.

Leadership
We have begun our leadership process with the current Year 11s in preparation for 2023. This process will continue for most of Term 3 with applications and speeches, followed by voting occurring later this term. This is also the case with our current Year 8s who will be doing a similar process in the Middle School in preparation for the Middle School leadership positions in 2023.

Year 7s and 8s
In their pastoral time, our current Year 7s and 8s have been working through a program based on self-confidence and body image. These topics are extremely important for all girls and boys across all ages and our pastoral staff have been helping to facilitate conversation and develop understanding around these important areas. In the coming weeks we will be having our next GEM Day across the Middle School and our Year 7s & 8s will be involved in sessions to do with online safety which leads them into their next pastoral unit, another extremely important topic for our younger generation.

Year 9
Our Year 9s are currently preparing for their upcoming Winter Camp (Aug 08 – 12) where they will undertaking activities such as white-water rafting, hiking, mountain biking and cross-country skiing. These experiences are fantastic for our students in terms of their own personal development along with bonding experiences they will have with their peers and their teachers.

In their pastoral program they have been doing a number of preparatory activities for the camp such as snow safety sessions and rafting sessions in our school pool (a little warmer than the water they will experience on the camp!). They have also been working on other areas such as financial literacy, school-based service activities and the beginning of their road safety module titled Roadset.

Year 10 and 11 Incursion
On Wednesday 20 July our Year 10 and 11 cohort participated in an incursion focussed on being future ready and on leadership. Our Year 10 session was titled Lead for Impact and focussed on developing ideas around self-leadership, leading others, leadership behaviours and practices, and influencing the systems, services and institutions around them. Our Year 11 program was titled Future Ready and this is aimed at enabling our younger generation to explore the future world of work, explore future career options and identify the contribution they want to make in the world. By adopting a proactive and optimistic stance young people enhance their prospects and gain a competitive advantage.

Brett Trollope | Head of Secondary 

Music Matters

Monash Youth Music Festival

On the afternoon of Thursday 28 July, Tintern’s Senior Girls’ Chamber Choir competed in the Secondary School Chamber Choir Section of the Monash Youth Music Festival at the Huntingtower School Performing Arts Centre. With Mrs Alison Bezaire conducting us, we first performed a dulcet choral arrangement of Blackbird by Lennon and McCartney, accompanied beautifully by Mr Dave Bathgate on acoustic guitar. This was followed by a performance of ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’, accompanied by Ms Heather McKenzie on the piano, in which the choir delivered this contrasting jazz item with devised choralography that captured the dance-like energy and joy in the song.

We had practised these songs thoroughly for weeks and had gained in confidence as we prepared for our first competition since the onset of the COVID lockdowns. It was a very exciting result to achieve second place, only 1 point behind the Our Lady of Sion Chamber Choir who placed first. We congratulate everyone involved on their wonderful performance. We not only enjoyed the benefits of our hard work, but also recognised areas in which we could improve to better ourselves. We are thankful for such an amazing opportunity to gain performance experience, display our skills and learn from the event.

Natasha Gillam & Ella Jones, Year 11 |Choral Captains 2022

Victorian School Music Festival

Chamber Orchestra

On Wednesday 27 July, the Tintern Grammar Chamber Orchestra attended the Victorian School Music Festival at the Hawthorn Arts Centre, which was a stunning building and former Town Hall. We performed a program of three pieces. We started with Italiana, which is from the third suite of Ancient Airs and Dances by Respighi. This suite differs from the other two as it is arranged for strings alone while the others are arranged for a full orchestra. Our next piece was Summer from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Sophie Qiu was the soloist and did a fantastic job. Our last piece was Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, with Jedid She as the soloist.

After the performance, we had a workshop with Dr Gail Barnes on stage. Dr Barnes is professor of Music Education from the University of South Carolina, and a specialist researcher in string ensembles. She provided some helpful insight about continuing to develop our collective sound and explore the musicality of our works. Afterwards, we watched other schools perform, that were great to watch. It was nice to see what other schools were doing, experience some outstanding music and gain inspiration on what we could add to our own playing. Many thanks to Mr Veldman for organising this event for us.

Nishka Fernando, Year 12 | Instrumental Music Captain 2022

Victorian School Music Festival

Scrolls

The Victorian School Music Festival, or VSMF, was an incredible experience for all of the students involved. We were fortunate enough to travel to Hawthorn on 25 July to perform with three other schools at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. Tintern’s Scrolls String Orchestra played two of our favourite pieces, Scottish Ballade and Maelstrom. After performing, we were lucky enough to be coached by one of our adjudicators, International Music Educator, Dr Gail Barnes.  

Before our performance, we were able to listen to the other schools performing their music. Each school did an exceptional job. They all had wonderful qualities which made their performances very enjoyable. A few days after our performance at the Festival, Scrolls received our mark from the adjudicators. We received a silver award, which is an incredible achievement, especially considering it was our first time performing at the Festival. All of our members are extremely proud of our work, and are incredibly grateful for the effort that our teachers put into the experience. We had a marvellous time and cannot wait for next year’s Victorian School Music Festival! 

Isabella Di Felice Year 8 | Scrolls Cellist

Music Camp

Over the weekend of 22-24 July, 110 of our ensemble musicians and choristers enjoyed a period of intensive rehearsals at our Annual Music Camp (an onsite event).

Scholarships

Tintern Grammar Scholarship applications are open to students commencing in Year 5 and in Years 7 through to 11 in 2024.  To find out about the broad range of scholarships on offer, academic testing days and to apply online  Click here 

Applications close 4pm 9 September 2022.

We are holding a Scholarship Information Evening  with iDAT on Tuesday 19 August. Click here to register

Community Matters

Friends of Music Jazz Night 2022 – Winter Wonderland

Tintern Grammar Friends of Music are excited to present a fabulous night of jazz music and dancing featuring jazz musician Ross Irwin and his band, and performances from our amazing and talented student jazz ensembles.

Come dressed for jazz and dance the night away on Friday 26 August 2022.

Feel free to bring your favourite drinks & nibbles – tea and coffee is provided.

All attendees on the night have exclusive access to our Jazz Night Raffle. Tickets cost is 1 for $5 or 3 for $10.

Our wonderful prizes include:

• A voucher for bed and breakfast at Lancemore Lindenderry Estate, Red Hill
• A hand-made tambourine which can be personalised for the winner
• A selection of wonderful Hampers

Please bring cash on the night to purchase you raffle tickets.

Any enquires can be directed to Liz Feenane in Music on 9845 7777 or Community Relations by email communityrelations@tintern.vic.edu.au.

TPG Trivia Night 2022

Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets for the TPG Trivia Night last Saturday. It was an incredible evening, led by Adam Kenny, Quiz Master extraordinaire, and managed by an amazing team of Volunteers from the Tintern Parent Group.

It was a festive atmosphere, with our first place Costume Winners taking the Christmas in July theme seriously. We were excited to see so many amazing costumes, including our second place winners Top Gun and the Sailors, amongst many others. Congratulations to our overall Trivia winners, with our first place winners achieving the top spot on the final round.

All proceeds from the raffle and games will be donated charity, which will be announced in the next newsletter. In 2021, we donated to both Kids Helpline and the SES.

A special thank you on behalf of the school to the hardworking members of the TPG who made this night possible. Haidee Wallace, TPG President, was supported by a dedicated group of parent volunteers, whose time and dedication were integral to the success of this special annual event.

Thank you also to Adam Kenny, who once again led an incredible 5 rounds of Trivia and many wonderful special activities and games, including Tintern’s Got Talent (and there was some amazing talent!).

A final thank you to the Green Team and Social Justice Group, who organised a fantastic Silent Auction, with the money raised going towards the Future Rising program.

We look forward to another wonderful Trivia Night in 2023!

Policy Updates

Please note the following policies have been recently updated and approved as part of our ongoing policy review cycle. The following policies can be accessed via these live links and are found on the myTintern Portal under School Policies – Parents

School Policies – Parents

• • First Aid Policy
  • Student Counselling Policy
  • Harassment and Bullying Policy