Blog

“The vlogs are too long!” spake the people and lo verily, the vlogs were shortened by the power of the people’s voice!

Yes, the feedback has been that in a bid to get across important information, we are now risking the consciousness of our community through the length and detail of the vlogs. So I have been set a new target of a maximum of 90 secs duration! The first one of these is below and while it is a fraction long, I am looking at it with a Growth Mindset and I am sure I can get better!

Supporting every individual do the best that they can is at the centre of the Tintern philosophy. With this last week being the semester examinations for our Year 10 and 11 students, the Senior College section of the campus has been both quiet and has also had a palpable hum of working brains! For our Year 10 students, these are generally their first set of true examinations and their attitude and approach is very indicative of their state of mind and preparedness. We all do our best when we are appropriately attentive, a bit keyed up but not when we have significant anxiety.

Watching out my window as the students assemble prior to each examination, has seen our students cheerful and happy as they wait for the instructions to enter. Subject teachers and pastoral staff take great care to prepare students for both the academic and content challenges of examinations as well as the stress and challenge of the process itself, which makes most of us at least a little anxious! Teaching staff are united in their approach to this, working to ensure there are no surprises for students when they open the papers and that they are well practised at the skills and in the knowledge required to complete the papers. As a result, I also often see the students leaving the examinations cheerfully too – a very positive sign for our young men and women on the road to Year 11 or 12.

Tintern has an enormous number of co and extra-curricular activities happening at any time but two are worth a particular mention. Firstly, we have kick-started our Girls’ Junior School Robotics Club. This is an after school activity that has now been running for three weeks and is already over-subscribed! We have had to extend the finish time as we cannot get the girls away from their projects – a terrific state of affairs!

The Heads of the Girls’ Junior and Middle Schools, Mrs Anna Riddell and Ms Oriana Constable have envisaged and launched this initiative, which was generously supported by the Tintern Association just prior to its merge into the Tintern Parents’ Group. It was intended to be a pilot program but we are already looking at how we can expand it into the Girls’ Middle School next year as part of our commitment to STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education to ensure our young women are ready for a world where they can wield their interests, skills and influence in an environment of equality and inclusion. Let’s hope the world is ready for them!

The second co-curricular item is Tintern’s amazing co-educational team for the Regional da Vinci Decathlon. Held at Methodist Ladies’ College on Friday 6 May 2016, our team finished 3rd in a very, very strong regional group and qualified for the State Championship for the first time! This is a brilliant effort by our students, particularly on the back of our amazing National Mathematics competition wins last year! Other schools are now beginning to notice us in these academic competitions and see us as very significant opposition! Congratulations to the team and mentor Anthea Watkins on a terrific effort.

Principally – in 90 secs! – 03-06-16 from Tintern Grammar on Vimeo.