Issue 1 - Wednesday, 12 March 2025

Principal's Report

The Evening of Excellence was again a night full of celebration for Hellyer College.  We were fortunate to have strong support from students, parents, sponsors and staff in recognising the outstanding efforts of our students in 2024. Please take a moment to view Dr Ruth Forrest’s speech to parliament recently, highlighting our students’ achievements. The link is included below or can be found on her website.

Where have the first 6 weeks gone? Our students have settled into the year quickly and have already formed positive relationships with their teachers and peers. Our attendance is even stronger than the same time last year, which we expect to translate into improved achievement levels for students. The 11/12 student leadership group was announced, and we are looking forward to the student leaders being a strong voice for their peers this year.

We predicted 647 full-time equivalent students for 2025. As of census date, there were 672 full time equivalent students. There are approximately 80 shared enrolments with Hellyer Regional Collective schools. 

Our attendance data is 4.4% above the sector average and is ahead of our attendance rate at the same time last year. Links are provided below my report for a graphic representing our School Improvement progress in 2024 and our draft improvement targets for 2025. These will be influenced by the recommendations of our External School Review, which is held in all government schools on a 4-year rotating basis.

Our student leaders provided a tour of the college for the review panel of 5, consisting of current and former principals. They will conclude their review and share their recommendations on Friday, 14 March. Thank you to the parents, students and association members that gave up their time to share their views of the college with the panel this week.

Thank you once again to all our parent/carers for your support and partnership in providing a strong start to student learning in 2025.

University of Melbourne - Hansen Scholarship - Congratulations Lauchlan Kentish

Hellyer College AGM

Variety School Breakfast Club

Hellyer College is thrilled to have received a generous grant from Variety Tasmania, enabling us to support and sustain our exceptional Breakfast Club program. This initiative has become a beloved part of our school community, with students eagerly participating and enjoying a nourishing start to their day. The program offers a variety of hot drinks, toast, fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal, and baked goods prepared by our talented cookery class. In recognition of this collaboration, members of the Variety board will present a commemorative plaque to Hellyer College in May, celebrating this wonderful partnership.

2025 Hellyer College Student Leaders

The 2025 Student Leadership Team was recognised in an assembly held on Wednesday, 5th March, with students selected representing each of the school values of connection, courage, growth, respect, and responsibility. This was highlighted in their top-notch written applications and well-delivered interviews.  

We are excited to work with the new leadership team this year and support the school community through strong student leadership. Keep an eye out for future events planned by this amazing group of young people.

Congratulations again to our new student leaders! 

All the best, Kate and Ronan.

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Career's Corner

Planning to study on the mainland next year?

Now is a great time to start investigating universities and course options.

Registrations are open now for the following Monash University webinars.

• Discover Medicine: Tuesday 18 March, 5:30 - 6:30 pm
• Discover Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences: Thursday 27 March, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
• Discover Nursing & Midwifery: Tuesday 6 May, 5:30 - 6:45 pm
• Discover Fine Art, Curating, Design & Architecture: Tuesday 6 May, 6:30 - 7:00 pm
• Discover Biomedical Science & Nutrition Science: Tuesday 13 May, 5:30 - 6:45 pm
• Discover Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, & Paramedicine: Tuesday 20 May, 5:30 - 6:45 pm
• Discover Radiation Sciences, Radiography & Medical Imaging: Wednesday 21 May, 5:30 - 6:30 pm
• Discover Health Sciences, Public Health & Psychology: Tuesday 27 May, 5:30 - 6:30 pm
• Discover the Bachelor of Learning Design & Technology: Thursday 29 May, 6:30 - 7:30 pm

Melbourne University are offering UniMelb 101 on March 26^{th -} see below

Please see Jane if you would like information about other mainland universities.

Chemistry 4 Experiments Underway

A new year and a new group of Chemistry 4 students are working hard in the lab. Students are working towards pathways in medicine, pharmacy, optometry, veterinary science, biomedicine, science, nursing, engineering and teaching. A dedicated group of students who all want to serve their community in one way or another.

Outdoor Education – Line 5

The Line 5 Outdoor Education class has thrived in all parts of the course so far this year. In theory lessons students have learnt about Leave No Trace principles and have begun planning for their Term 1 camp.

In our practical activities, students have completed their swim testing and learnt basic snorkelling techniques at the pool. In week 5, students travelled to Boat Harbour and put the snorkelling skills they learnt to the test. Although conditions were not perfect for snorkelling, (we had some small waves), students were positive and smiling throughout the trip and demonstrated a strong level of teamwork.

In the coming weeks, students will be preparing for their first camp in Week 7, (17^th & 18^th March), at Fulton Park in Forth. Students will begin practicing their cooking skills on Trangias and will be required to bring small amounts of food to cook. All students have received a camp letter with a detailed itinerary and equipment list. Should you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Abby via email – abby.goninon@decyp.tas.gov.au or by phoning the school on 6435 5200.

Personal Health & Wellbeing

Students in Personal Health and Wellbeing have had a terrific start to 2025. In our theory lessons, we have been completing gratitude activities and have set personal goals for the year. We have also participated in a range of team building activities to strengthen our relationships.

In practical lessons, we have completed our swim testing at the pool, magic tricks, and basic gymnastics. Our most recent excursion to the Foreshore was a special one as we had an incredibly special guest join us for our costal walk, (see photos below).

It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside the fantastic students in this class and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us!

Dramatic Start to the Year

Drama, Theatre Performance, and Technical Theatre students enjoyed viewing DoMaur Production's performance of Once at the Burnie Arts Centre on Thursday, March 6. After this brilliant performance, cast and crew members from the show generously shared their experiences and answered many questions from our students. This behind-the-scenes insight into the show was an invaluable learning experience for them. We would like to thank DoMaur Production for their generosity in providing these amazing opportunities for young people.

Students were given the opportunity to further develop their own performance skills on Tuesday, 11 March through attending acting workshops with internationally renowned performer and workshop facilitator Clinton Bolster. These fun, interactive workshops helped students explore the genre of physical theatre. We are looking forward to showcasing some of the skills developed in our mid-year plays later this year.

Outdoor Leadership Camp - by Sam Chilcott

 The first camp for the year for Outdoor Leadership was held from March 4-6 at the Guildford Lodge. The group left Tuesday after school after packing all our gear for two full days and nights of adventure-based leaning!

The short drive was filled with Murray’s knowledge about Henry Hellyer and how he explored the area. We were able to see St Valentines Peak, (which Hellyer climbed on Feb 14, 1827) and started to get excited about the next day’s adventure to summit it. The lodge is a beautiful oasis inside the Forico Forests. Dinner that night was the first look at student-led mini projects that we had been planning in the weeks leading up to the camp. Thanks Ellie and Maria for the delicious tacos for dinner.

We all got up the next day, fairly well rested - other than a few who slept under the dorm exit lights! We started the day with breakfast and prepared to hike up the mountain. We stopped and spoke with some Forico employees at the chip mill and in some rainforest -both outlining how the forestry industry works and the lengths the company go to harvest yet preserve the forest environment.

Beginning the hike with full drink bottles and good boots.  Leo led us up the peak, resting halfway up to appreciate the view and have a snack. Rivi and James led the rest of the way to the top, not before several false summits took away some hope of ever reaching the top! We enjoyed lunch on top and talked about how much we loved the view! Murray and Kellie talked about the mountains we could see from the top.  Riley and James led us about halfway down; Murray had us spend some solo time in nature, just sitting on the track pondering, snoozing, reflecting - just out of sight of the next person. After 15 minutes we were collected by the person behind and rejoined the group. The two leaders decided to run an egg and spoon race, but with rocks as eggs! With only minor cheating, we decided that Seb and Ollie were the winners.

Back at the lodge, Rivi and Imogen cooked us Mac and Cheese. We were so hungry almost everyone went back for seconds! We had a better sleep the second night!

The next day, Thursday, was filled with fun as most students ran their mini leadership project at Talbots Lagoon. Seb and Sid taught us how to fish, Ollie and Edgar ran kayaking, and Isabel and Sam instructed us how to light a small campfire and boil a billy. We encountered several challenges, such as not many fish biting, lack of kindling and a ‘nearly’ kayak rescue of Murray! According to Murray, it was a ‘set up’!

We all had heaps of fun during the camp even though, at times, it was difficult. We completed most of our goals and overcame many challenges.

Thank you to Murray, Bailey and Kellie, for organising the camp.

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Free Broadband Available to Eligible Families

Free broadband access is available for eligible families until 30 June 2028.

To be eligible for the Australian Government School Student Broadband Initiative

(SSBI), families must have at least one child studying in a Tasmanian government

school in grades Prep to Year 12 and live at a premises with no active broadband

service over the NBN network.

How does the initiative work:

• Families who are interested in this service, need to contact the National Referral
• Centre on 1800 954 610 (Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm AEDT) or by visiting
• www.anglicarevic.org.au/student-internet.
• The referral team will check to see if the family qualifies and help them get
• connected.
• Once qualified they will be provided with a voucher to use with a participating
• internet provider to get access to free home NBN internet.
• The provider will have their own process to get the family connected to the free
• service.
• Qualifying families will also receive a free modem/Wi-Fi router that does not need to
• be returned.
• The student will need a device to access this service. Note  - this may be a device
• ‘loaned’ to the student from their school, where available.
• Other household members can also use the internet service.

Note: A maximum of 30,000 connections will be made available nationwide.

LINK: School Student Broadband Initiative webpage

Ecofest 2025

NW Umpire Association