For all upcoming events please see the Penguin District School Calendar

Best wishes to all of our families for a safe and enjoyable holiday break. Thank you for your connection and support of our school during the 2022 school year and your personal support for me across the past 6 and half years that I have had as principal of our school. We have a brief newsletter going out to families today with staffing updates, key dates for next year, Kinder-Year 12 awards and end of year speeches.  We look forward to working with you all again in 2023 and I’m sure you’ll make Angela McAuliffe welcome as she joins PDS as the incoming principal. Warm regards and take care - Mr Mat Grining

I am pleased to announce that the we have been able to finalise our staffing profile for 2023. Whilst I publicly acknowledged in assemblies the contributions of long standing staff members Lyn Brown, Kae Keep and Pietta Nicholls who will be enjoying retirement in 2023, I’d also like to also thank and celebrate the contributions of other staff that will be starting term 1 in other roles, schools or taking up other exciting opportunities - Nick Turner, Adam Lane, Sarah Cappelli, Sally Smith, Noah Johnstone, Demi Hancock, Katherine Smith (our primary campus TA), Brielle McNaughton and Isaac Atuer.

Congratulations

We know the commitment and courage that it takes to undertake further study, as well as balancing that whilst working in schools! This year Matilda Lutwyche, Darcy Schake and Noah Johnstone have all completed their Masters in Education, and Corinna Caberica, Karen Helm, Sally Smith and Jessy Jordan have finished their Diploma in Education Support. Penguin was the most well represented school with the highest number of participants in the Diploma course through UTAS. Congratulations to you all and please know that we are proud of your achievements!

School Association Update

Following our recent AGM, the School Association committee for 2023 is Paul Kenny (Chairperson), Elisha Franks (Deputy Chair), Carol Bracken (Treasurer), Julie McKenna (Secretary), Brandan Ivory, Melika Kelly, Melanie Grey, Sheila Steele, Matt Perry and Lennice Wilson and Andrew Geddes (Community Rep). I’d like to thank and acknowledge all of our members who have served on the School Association for the past twelve months.

2023 Teacher Staffing

Our school leadership team will include, Mrs Angela McAuliffe (Principal), Mr Matt Perry (Assistant Principal Primary), Mr Geoff Davis (Assistant Principal Secondary), Mr Adrian Beard (Quality Teaching Coach), Miss Amie Dunlop (Quality Teaching Coach), Mr Joel Reeve, Mrs Jessie Eberhardt, Mrs Karina Van Essen, Ms Jodie Murphy, Mr Jade Hughes, Mr Robert Maywald, (Advanced Skills Teachers)

Kinder - Mrs Olivia Bracken

Kinder - Ms Megan Maney

Prep – Mrs Carla Hubbard & Mrs Wendy Radcliff

Prep – Mrs Elisse Gardam

Prep – Mrs Melissa Atkins & Mrs Laura Gee

Grade 1/2 – Miss Maddison Penton

Grade 1/2 – Mrs Lynne Taylor

Grade 1/2 – Miss Zoe King

Grade 1/2 – Ms Nicky Green

Grade 1/2 – Ms Moira Paterson

Grade 3/4 – Miss Elysia Beard

Grade 3/4 – Miss Paige Blackett

Grade 3/4 – Mr Justin Rattray

Grade 3/4 – Mrs Kylie Mudford

Grade 3/4 – Dr Janet Mackenzie

Grade 5/6 – Mr Damien Rabe

Grade 5/6 – Miss Maddison Hayward

Grade 5/6 – Mrs Bronwyn Enright

Grade 5/6 – Mr Joel Reeve & Mr Tim King  

Literacy Support – Mrs Deb Haberle, Mrs Susan Broadby & Miss Bronwyn Gibson

Music – Mrs Christine Lusted/Miss Emily Rieper

PE – Mr Chris de Ruyter

Digital Technology – Mr Tim King

Visual Arts - Ms Jenny Slater/Mrs Beth King 

Secondary Campus Teachers

Jodie Murphy, Nick Owen, Tash Turner, Darcy Schake, Charlotte Solomon, Angela Fitzallen, Geoff Davis, Emily Rieper, Narelle Butler, Amie Dunlop, Ashley King, Rebecca MacLachlan, Jade Hughes, Robert Maywald, Beth King, Abby Goninon, Jordan Taylor, Sarah Mott, Tim King & Angela McAuliffe

2022 Grade 7-12 Principal’s Address

Thankyou Mackenzi for providing the welcome to country – I’d like to thank and acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, including those in the room, as the ongoing custodians of the land that we meet on, to learn and play together each day. 14,000 years is an extraordinary amount of time. That is how old the ancient petroglyphs or rock art was that was returned from the museum in Hobart only this year, to the sacred site at premeghana in the far North West. It’s remarkable to think that the Tasmanian Aboriginals had been looking after the land, seas, skies and waterways – as lutrawita’s first educators well before this time. I’m excited that we will have an Aboriginal education worker on our staff from the beginning of next year, to add further value to our offerings and experiences at Penguin.

Whist this will be my last week as principal at our school, I hope that you can indulge me a little, given that I’m known to get a bit emotional at just about anything, from watching a Disney Pixar movie to winning a close final, reading a picture book to a class, or watching the Notebook (I’m sure that more than half the adult audience would have, but most won’t admit it!) or even if I’m just reflecting on some of the simple things in life to be grateful for. So for that reason, I won’t labour the point of how much I love our school community and everything about it!

When reflecting on why our school is so special, unique and a place that many people look to be a part of, I always find myself coming back to the notion of community. But I wanted to go deeper in understanding why I always return to this as being our foundation, so I put seven years of celebration assemblies in to a word cloud, just to see what trends would come through.

There were no surprises. So what makes us tick as a school? If we had to paint a picture, how would we illustrate the work that we do?

Relationships, connections, culture, community, together, care and journey were all key words that came through over and over.

There are mighty exciting times ahead for us as a community moving in to 2023, but our school isn’t defined by a building. Mr King would still have you doing a Kahoot on a beach, Miss Dunlop teaching you about DNA chains of an alpaca in a local paddock, Miss Mott could still engage you in a lesson on the Industrial Revolution out the front of Henks Supermarket, Mrs Goninon’s could comfortably take a crew through a health and wellbeing lessons on top of Mt Montgomery and I’m sure that Mr Turner could teach anyone to play a ukulele and pull together a rock band in a vineyard somewhere.

What I’m trying to say, is that a school is so much more than a series of purpose built spaces for learning. Quality educators and a culture that values care, genuine connections and high aspirations for young people will always make a greater difference on improving student outcomes, than a modern facility ever will - as stunning and comfortable as a workplace as it will be. And for that fact, can you please join me in thanking and acknowledging the commitment of our 92 strong team of staff at Penguin.

I am grateful for the hard working and committed leadership team that we have at Penguin with wonderful leadership from our assistant principals Mr Matt Perry and Mr Geoff Davis. I’m sure that Mrs McAuliffe as our new principal will greatly appreciate your knowledge, skills and expertise in leading our community.

A memorable moment for many of us this year was the school production of Rapunzel. When we have prep aged students that are going home idolising the cast members and singing the songs, this for me highlights the level of impact that the production has had. Everyone involved should feel immensely proud, just as we as audience members were of their achievements.

Our mission is not to focus or specialise on any one area of the curriculum, but to create a balanced culture that provides opportunity and allows students to achieve their personal best across all areas. With a balanced approach, there should be plenty of magic moments and lasting memories across a range of subjects and programs throughout the school year, just like the production would have provided for so many.

Our 5 yearly External School review and recent community surveys showed great improvement beyond state averages, particularly in the area ‘I recommend this school to others’. To stay accountable to the level of improvement that our students deserve, we must all work together as a community and I ask that families accept the invitation to communicate openly and freely with our school, and take any invitation to work towards your children having a successful year of learning and achieving. Our responsibility as a school is to ensure that our environment is welcoming and engaging to all families, and that we are providing the opportunities to strengthen partnerships with our community. I have been determined that our school will be considered the centre of the community and that the concept of community, will always be central to how we operate as a school.

The end of the school year brings with it mixed emotions as we need to say some farewells. Across our assemblies, we’ve been able to acknowledge Kae Keep, Lyn Brown and Pietta Nicholls’ tremendous careers and service to education, and thank Nick Turner, Adam Lane, Noah Johnstone, Hayley Marshall, Sarah Cappelli, Isaac Ateur, Belinda di Maria, Sally Smith, Demi Hancock, Katherine Smith (not from the office) and Brielle McNaughton who will start 2023 in other roles and opportunities.

Lyn Brown joined Penguin Primary School back in 2006 from Ulverstone Primary School and during that time she has supported hundreds of students through their primary school journey. Her exceptionally warm and caring approach, passion for making sure that every child has the best chance to succeed, and her great sense of humour means that she has left us with many great memories. After 41 years in education across 3 schools, we wish her well as she now enjoys more opportunities to travel and spend with her growing family! My hunch is that we might still see plenty of Mrs Brown in town, or even back at PDS!

Pietta Nicholls has spent the past 4 years as part of our early childhood team after joining us from Burnie Primary. Miss Nicholls’ calm and kind manner and passion for inquiry and connecting learning and play for our youngest students has provided plenty of memorable moments for our prep students. After a wonderful career in education, Miss Nicholls will now have some extra time to catch up with her own very well-travelled children

If there’s one thing we would love to take up to the new kinder with us, it’s Kae Keep! Many of our grade 3-6’s sitting here today would have had plenty of special moments with Kae. With her warm smile and always willing to go the extra mile to assist young people to really shine she is always able to put a smile on people’s faces. After 28 years of service in our school community, Kae deserves to feel like the celebrity that many of our youngest students treat her like when they see her out and about in Penguin.

Mr Nick Turner started at Penguin High in 2012, after an invitation to formally start his teaching career at Penguin. Mr Turner quickly emerged as a teacher that students warmed to with his balance of humour, care and genuinely wanting to see students giving themselves the best opportunity to shine. Quite often in his own time he could be found jamming with students in break times, or sharing his general musical wisdom, further strengthening his connections with students. Mr Turner will be sorely missed and the song that Nick wrote and performed in last week’s year 10 assembly said it all, it’s what you do, do, do, doooo. Nick, we are grateful that our school has been such a big part of your family for a long time.

Mr Adam Lane started at Penguin in 2011 after joining us from Nixon Street. Mr Lane has a knack of always making other people feel special and valued, and that extends to the adults that work with him as well. Whilst Mr Lane hasn’t formally left us, we are ‘loaning him’ as he takes up a leadership position at Hillcrest in 2023, and we know that Hillcrest really needs a Mr Lane right now! We felt it was a good opportunity for us to say thank you in our assembly, just in case!

Mr Noah Johnstone will be relocating back to the mainland after two years teaching service in our community. Thank you for your contributions and we hope that you are able to take back plenty of great memories and connections from your time with us at Penguin.

Thank you to Mrs Sarah Cappelli for the strong leadership and guidance that you has provided teachers this year as our Quality Teaching Coach. We wish you well as you are able to increase your impact as you move in to an exciting leadership position working across our region. Thank you also to Isaac Atuer and Belinda Di Maria in their important support roles around the school. 

Our school is considered to have a very high level of attendance, and that can be directly attributed to your connectedness. Whilst we haven’t wanted families to take unnecessary health risks, with COVID adjustments I’d like to acknowledge that we’ve had two students at school each and every day and as a result have 100% attendance - Congratulations Campbell Luck and Ben Staples!

I appreciate the time that parent volunteers have invested in our school by volunteering in a variety of ways across either campus. It’s wonderful to have more people putting their hand up to add value to our school. Thank you to our brilliant School Association, led by Chairperson Paul Kenny. The School Association have had a busy year with a focus on increasing the engagement with the broader school community. Thank you to the representatives of this group for your strong advocacy of our school, and to previous chair’s Tim Powell and Rodney Jupp for your support during my time.

I would like to publicly acknowledge the parents of all of our students. Thank you for making Penguin your school of choice. Tasmania has a strong public education system and we are proud of the growth that we are continuing to make as a school community, and we’ll continue to strive to push further in to 2023. 

I’d like to sneak in a thank you to my wonderful wife Catherine for her patience, love and support. School leadership can be lonely and isolating for some, but I have never felt that, and it’s been quite the opposite, given that we made the choice as a family to live and work in our community, it was the best decision we could make. On behalf of my family, thanks for making the journey so rewarding and so much fun.

To the students sitting in front of us, you have much to be proud of. You are the reason that we are here and you should know that you have all achieved something special. Thank you for allowing me to lead your school and congratulations on a memorable year of learning at Penguin District School.

Entering the Workforce

Congratulations to Frank Powell, Josh Prehn, Fletcher Kable, Georgina Fielding, Blaze Moran, Charlotte Walker and Shannon Fyle who we have received confirmation that they will be commencing the 2023 year in the industries and trades that they have a true passion for. This is a tremendous achievement in a competitive time in the jobs market and you should be immensely proud of your efforts. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts from Mr Robert Maywald in co-ordinating our work placements and thank the tremendous support of our local businesses and employers in giving the young people at Penguin the best chance of being skilled and ready for the workforce that they aspire to be a part of.

Principal For a Day (or two hours at least!)

Two tenacious year one students back in term 1, decided they would like to have a shot as being a principal as it looked like it was fun. So almost 10 months later, Layla and Marli were able to have their time to shine! They were able to fit a lot in, starting with a new enrolment tour, speaking at the year 7-12 assembly, checking on the completion of the new playgrounds, meeting with the site supervisor from Vos, a quick phone call to our new principal Mrs McAuliffe and then a video meeting with the Department’s capital works consultant giving them an update on their thoughts of the new school.  It finished off with lunch time duty at Dial Park and a walk back to Penguin’s Got Talent after lunch. For me, the highlight would be how comfortable and confident our young people are in communicating across a range of different situations. Needless to say, it may be that Principal Layla or Principal Marli may be at the helm of Penguin in 20 years to come!

Collaborative Mural

West Australian/Tasmanian artist Mel McVee has been collaborating with students and staff over a few days to transform the old mustard coloured substation in to a stunning piece of art! We are so excited about how this has not only lifted this space, but also provided a point of reference where our youngest students through to our year 10’s know that they have already ‘left their mark’.

Congratulations to James B, Johann E, Sammie F, Archie K, Willow M, Owen P and Heidi R for winning our major Green Penguin Raffle.

These students will enjoy some movie money for the holidays. 

Grade 3/4 JM were the final class to experience fun in planting and caring for our beautiful sensory garden. We celebrated with pizza topped with herbs and edible flowers from the garden. The children have great memories of previous times in the garden and have become familiar with many of the plants. We hope to transplant some of the plants later next year to a new sensory garden in the new school.

Beach day was a huge success. We are so lucky to have an amazing place to be able to use year after year, to celebrate a packed year of school. 

A special thanks to Penguin Surf Life Saving Club for hosting, parents/carers for helping on the day and all the staff who put lots of work in, to make this day the success it is. 

We wish you all a safe and happy holiday. 

Congratulations to our grade 3/4 netball team who represented the school at the Alan Hudson Netball Tournament on the weekend. All students played hard all day, with fantastic teamwork and great, positive attitudes. They ended up in third place, a top effort.

Spectacular representation of our school today at the annual Burnie Netball Association Schools Tournament.  

Years 3 - 10 students played up to 7 games in the heat today and represented our school proudly and with great commitment to each other.  

Amarli, Mattea, Lauren & Alicia have played their last games for PDS as we see Georgia, Clem & their friends begin their netball journey through the year levels.  

We proudly won third place on the 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 age groups and runners up in the 9/10's. With covid hitting our secondary teams, Macy T stepped in from Marist and Ellie S from Burnie High. 

A proud day as a PDS community!  

Please congratulate the boys and girls if you see them as well as thanking Tracy Ivory, Jemma Wells, Brendan Ivory and in her last coaching role at PDS after ten years, Jenni Browne! 

Over the past few weeks, students and staff have been contributing to a stunning mural with WA/Tassie artist Melski. They are turning the old substation in to something fairly spectacular.

We'd like to thank Melski for her work on our new mural. It is such a nice representation of the flora and fauna we find in our local area and are so grateful that some students received the opportunity to help her paint. 

Lachie S named the blue tongue Zing, and the blue wren Puff. It's lovely to see these names included on the mural. 

Please take some time to wander through and admire this epic piece. 

As part of the exhibition held on the 9^th Dec students and guests had the chance to vote for their favourite art work. Congratulations to the following students who received a gift voucher that was kindly donated to the school from the Penguin op Shop: Year 7: Polly O, Year 8 Hayden A, year 9 Lara F and year 10 Ava H

Well done all involved

Mrs King

On Wednesday 7 December, 57 students in Years 7-10 competed at the inter-high athletics carnival in Penguin. The team started the day in the new courtyard with eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, muffins & fruit before gathering at the athletics track. Throughout the day I felt incredibly proud of our team and the effort they put into their events. There were so many stand out performances, especially to the students who competed in multiple events throughout the day. Penguin finished in 3^rd place overall which is a tremendous effort and the best result that the secondary campus has ever received.

Below are students who placed top 3.

Year 8 – 800m – Logan R – 1^st place

Year 9 – 800m – Mayson L – 3^rd place

Year 10 – 800m – Fletcher K – 2^nd place

Year  7 – 100m – Avery P-L – 1^st place

Year 8 – 100m – Manni S – 2^nd place

Year 9 – 100m – Will S – 3^rd place

Year 9 – 100m – Brady W – 3^rd place

Year 10 – 100m – Lauchlan D – 3^rd place

Year 7 – 100m – Katie M – 2^nd place

Year 7 – 100m – Grace S – 2^nd place

Year 7 – 400m – Hamilton J – 3^rd place

Year 7 – 400m – Hudson G – 3^rd place

Year 8 – 400m – Logan R – 1^st place

Year 8 – 400m – Lachlan T – 1^st place

Year 9 – 400m – Karmichael P-C – 2^nd place

Year 10 – 400m – Fletcher K – 2^nd place

Year 10 – 400m – Isaac L – 3^rd place

Year 8 – 400m – Emma B – 3^rd place

Year 10 – 400m – Jenna F – 3^rd place

Year 8 – 1500m – Connor P – 2^nd place

Year 9 – 1500m – Chad Mc – 3^rd place

Year 10 – 1500m – Fletcher K – 2^nd place

Year 7 – 200m – Hamilton J – 2^nd place

Year 7 – 200m – Lenny P – 3^rd place

Year 8 – 200m – Logan R – 2^nd place

Year 8 – 200m – Lachlan T – 2^nd place

Year 7 – 200m – Mia J – 2^nd place

Year 9 girls – Discus – Issy K – 3^rd place

Year 10 girls – Javelin – Amarli J – 2^nd place

Year 10 boys – Triple Jump – Zeb K – 3^rd place

Year 10 boys – Shot Put – Josh P – 3^rd place

Year 9 boys – Discus – Will D – 3^rd place

Year 7 boys – Triple Jump – Hamilton J – 3^rd place

Year 10 girls – Shot Put – Amarli J – 1^st place

Year 9 girls – Javelin – Issy K – 2^nd place

Year 8 boys – Javelin – Jaxx Mc – 3^rd place

Year 9 girls – High Jump – Samantha M – 3^rd place

Year 7 boys – Shot Put – Mitchell S – 2^nd place

Year 10 girls – Discus – Amarli J – 2^nd place

Year 8 girls – Discus – Tahlia V E – 2^nd place

Year 10 boys – High Jump – Zeb K – 1^st place

Year 8 boys – Long Jump – Logan R – 3^rd place

Year 8 boys relay – 2^nd place

Year 9 boys relay – 2^nd place

Year 10 boys relay – 3^rd place

Year 7 girls relay – 3^rd place

Attention!

The student board have decided that next year we want our school to contribute in more support fundraising for third world countries, including sending shoebox gifts to children. The shoebox gifts are when people from Australia and other first World Countries fill a shoebox with gifts and send them off for a Christmas present to a child in third world countries. Our school would like to participate in this activity in 2023 so we shall be needing lots of shoeboxes, parents and carers, if you have any shoeboxes at home now or over the summer holidays we would love if you could donate them, and bring them to the office.

Donate NOW!