On Thursday and again today I’ve had the opportunity to attend the Tasmanian Educational Leaders Conference, Capturing Hearts & Minds, Shaping Futures, at the Paranaple Centre in Devonport.  Whilst this has been an amazing opportunity to connect with Principals from across the state and hear some inspiring and amazing stories from keynote speakers such as Kate Ceberano, Lee Crocket and Nadine Champion (10 Seconds of Courage), it was some other guests that demonstrated well and truly more than 10 seconds of courage and captivated and impressed the audience at the beginning of the conference for which I derived the greatest pleasure.

 

Our Vivace Choir, conducted by Mrs Lusted, began the conference by belting out renditions of Lanterns and Naughty (from Matilda the musical). This brilliant performance provided me with a proud  ‘dad-like moment’.  I had the opportunity to video them and sit proudly (and a little nervously) with an enormous smile on my face, as the principal of our amazing school. Watching them perform to the room singing loudly and proudly with enjoyment and excitement written all over their faces, will be something I won’t forget. You can view some of their performance on our PDS Facebook Page. Thankyou to our support crew of Mr Beard, Alanah and nurse Alex who accompanied the team, demonstrating theirs and our commitment to school and students by being at school by 7:20am to facilitate this great opportunity. Thankyou to the students and families for ensuring they too were at school for what might be their earliest start to a school day in their little lives to date. A great example of our staff and families working in partnership to support our kids.

It is for these ‘little people’ that we turn up each day. Lee Crocket described it eloquently in his keynote at the conference when he described, that WE as educators are in the business of building better humans and the extreme importance of our role given whist children are only 15% of our population, they are 100% of our future!

Mr King and Miss Schake provided an opportunity and support for a group of over 20 motivated senior learners to attend The Science and Engineering Challenge in Burnie this week. The ‘Challenge’ encourages students to consider a career in science or engineering, and to study the enabling sciences in senior high school. Impressively our budding Einsteins finished tied for 2^nd and whilst Mr King thought we might have possibly won if we had been a bit better at tidying up at the end of the day for some ‘bonus points’, we are certainly proud of their efforts. 

It’s little wonder that the days and weeks go by so quickly in ‘school land’ when we manage to pack so many wonderful experiences into them. On Tuesday and Thursday all of our students participated by walking, jogging or running (or almost flying Miller!) in our Primary and Secondary Cross Country races. The running craze has really taken off all along the coast with Parkruns and running clubs popping up all over the place. With an emphasis on being active and participation, get on down to the Big Penguin on Sunday mornings to join the Sunday Penguins Run Club, held each week at 8:30 am.

On Wednesday our classes were ‘tuned in’ for National Simultaneous Storytime. This annual event to celebrate and develop a joy of reading and books, sees the nation stop (readings version of the Melbourne Cup) to view and listen to the same story at 12pm. This year’s choice was a beautifully illustrated and eloquently written picture book from Aura Parker - Bowerbird Blues. It’s a touching story of longing and connection about a beautiful bowerbird on the search for blue!  Take the opportunity to listen to the book read by the author National Simultaneous Storytime Livestream 2024 (youtube.com) or read along with your child PDF version of the book at home.

This week has been National Volunteers Week.  I cannot say often enough, how invaluable volunteers are in supporting our school and broader Penguin community. Our Breakfast Club is possibly the most well received and eagerly anticipated morning each week for our students who get to enjoy the fruits of our volunteers’ labour in prepping hot toasties and providing freshly cut fruit. On behalf of the school, I would like to say THANKYOU to all our volunteers, we are extremely grateful for the sensational support you provide for our school. If you’d like to volunteer some of your time to support our children please contact your child’s teacher and make sure that you have your WWVP Card and have completed the Safeguarding Visitors Training.

As always, I encourage you to keep your eye on Schoolzine, Seesaw and the newsletter for information about upcoming events and for celebrations of our students’ success.

Yours in partnership

Matthew Perry