It has been a busy start to the Term with students in Grade 7 engaging in both PAT and ORF testing. Students are currently finishing their life writing unit, with most students this week finalising their final interview assessment, putting themselves in the shoes of Ahn Do. 

In this unit students have been given the opportunity to read several short picture books which have outlined various life stories. The Grade 7 staff have been sharing some of their life stories with students. In this unit students have completed a short memoir, written a small moment in time picture book and have finished with their interview of Ahn Do.

Grade 7 students will finish the year by completing a poetry portfolio.

On Thursday 24th October a number of Grade 7 and 10 classes attended an incursion run by the Mawson-Hut-Foundation. The Antarctic mobile classroom taught the students about the carbon cycle, climate change and some history about Antarctica.

Recently in Grade 8 Maths, students have been studying linear relationships and developing their skills in substitution, locating coordinates on a cartesian plane and plotting points to create their linear relationships.

Students have also been lucky enough to be introduced to the online software Desmos, which allows them to complete a whole process using technology in a much quicker and efficient manner. Using Desmos has allowed students to investigate how changing aspects of their linear relationship equations will impact upon the graph that they produce.

As students move through Term 4, they will begin to look at statistics and probability, before finishing the year with a study of congruency of shapes.

This term, Grade 8 students have explored Feudal Japan, stepping into the lives of Samurai warriors through imaginative writing tasks. They learned about the warriors' roles, responsibilities, and values while creatively expressing their understanding through letters, diary entries, and essays.

In geography, students investigated landforms and landscapes, researching iconic locations like Uluru, the Twelve Apostles, and Mount Everest. They examined how people connect with these landscapes spiritually, culturally, and economically, and presented their findings in engaging group projects.

Students also explored Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Creation stories, gaining insight into the deep cultural significance of Australian landscapes. It’s been an exciting term of hands-on learning and creativity!

During terms 2 and 3, Grade 9/10 students produced artworks based around their chosen themes which varied from, portraits, wildlife, landscape to patterns and colour. Work produced used various mediums such as watercolour, acrylic, and pencil and were represented in various forms such as drawing, painting and sculpture.

Student requirements were to research, use their journals to support their planning and inspirations and to produce work based on their theme. Work is on display until the end of week 7.

Ariella, Grade 10

Day by the Pool

[watercolours, acrylic paint, pencils, plaster, paper, fine line markers]

My theme is a summery poolside vibe. I have seen a number of artists that create similar pieces, such as, Bethany Lord. I love summer so I thought I could draw things that remind me of it, such as, pools and bikinis.

Sophie, Grade 10

Sun and Moon, Landscape, Pattern

[pencil, watercolour, fine liner]

I created these artworks because I liked how it looked and the medium that was used. They are a simple intricate piece and were fun to complete. My second piece was a lot more experimental, as I am not good with adding colour to things, so I tried with the landscape, and it turned out better than I thought.

Maddie, Grade 10

 Ocean Vibe

 [watercolour]

My theme is based around ocean critters as I like calmness of the water and the cool colours and also experimenting with watercolour.

Miranda, Grade 10

Unbound Reality

[oil pastel, ink, acrylic paint, clay & wire of different thickness]

The theme “Unbound Reality” is to show how we influence ourselves and others, taken into the realm of abstract obstruction of nature.

A deer is seen as prey by many, constantly hunted for how it looks. In this piece the sedentary deer mount has features of a predator, with a hunger for the violence of its maw. This piece is to represent the distress and violence caused by stereotyping the unexpected.

This piece is to represent the gore that comes as a result of objectification; the false innocence that is assumed by the watching majority. They deface her and leave her defenceless; make her spill her guts and leave her standing.

The theme “Unbound Reality” is shown through this visual representation of a world darkened by our hate and judgment.

Ava, Grade 9

Collage

[magazine papers, tissue paper, handmade paper]

My artwork is inspired with enjoyment of reading Frankie and Breathe magazines.

I enjoy collage because it allows me to find a different meaning in others work and apply it as a creative and unique story of my own.

Shigeomi, Grade 10

Architecture

[mixed media of coloured paper, chalk, coloured pencil, fine liner and pebbles]

My theme was architecture. I enjoy the shapes and lines found in different building designs and wanted to make these into a series of artworks.

Wentworth, Grade 9

Creative Abstract

[cotton, clay, fabric, plaster, foam, hot glue, acrylic paint, plastic, foam, clay and wire]

My artwork is a mixed media sculpture of a woman’s head. My theme is ‘Over Thinking’ and represents how stressful it is to overthink situations. Some of the materials I used were cotton wool, canvas fabric, foam base head, and plaster bandages.

Archer, Grade 9

Landscapes

[paper, coloured pencils]

My theme is landscapes. After the past two terms, I have used colouring and texturing with pencil to demonstrate this theme. I enjoyed doing this because it led to a diverse learning experience, encouraging me to understand blending, using gradients and colours, and adding texture. I have improved only minimally in these fields, but I have enjoyed the experience, nonetheless.

Personally, I typically enjoy artwork that actively suggests a story, like when something is actively happening. I think it creates more depth than my typical landscapes, and so I feel that artworks like these tend to stand out. In all of my artworks I have applied the blending of colours. This is the one skill that I truly began to achieve this year and I think it significantly improved my art, and was helpful adding texture. There were, however, a few things that I didn’t like about the creation and results of the artworks. I struggled to demonstrate how the atmosphere influenced the colour of the objects, making the lighting unnatural, this was particularly present when trying to add darkness in certain areas. I didn’t like doing research either, and sometimes I just simply felt unmotivated to draw. Overall, however, I enjoyed my theme and learnt significantly, having a new experience. I do aspire to continue developing my art skills and will make more artwork, especially revolving around my chosen theme.

On Friday 18 October a select number of Grade 8 art students enrolled in an online ‘Mythological Portrait’ workshop.

The workshop was run through the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. The artist was Atong Atem – a Melbourne based artist who creates photographs of her family and friends with links to her South Sudanese culture. She uses face paint, fabrics, beads etc. to present her compositions.

Atong got us to ‘warm up’ our creative process by drawing with our less dominant hand, sketching without looking at the paper and putting a time limit on it – 1 minute, 5 minutes etc. It was fast paced and a challenging series of techniques to get us all observing creatively.

We did a mapping exercise to plan out ideas for our own portrait and now we look forward to starting on the journey of creating our own piece of work.

Below are a couple of examples of Atong’s artworks. It was quite inspiring to get to experience a workshop with an internationally recognized artist!

I am pleased to report that students have settled in well to their learning for this very busy and important Term 4 of 2024. As I visit classrooms, students are focused, and their learning environments are calm and conducive to maximised learning outcomes. Our yard is also very settled during break times, and this is also a very positive reflection on our school community.

Term 4 is an extremely busy term and already there have been a number of amazing opportunities for our students happening at the Q. Last week we had F1 in-school State Competition held at the Tailrace Centre in Riverside. Our students have been extremely busy up to this point designing and building their model F1 cars to race in this competition. Our students represent the school with pride and managed to secure 2^nd place which is an absolute excellent result. Well done to all students who participated in this competition. On Monday this week we had a number of business people from around Launceston come in a speak to the Grade 9 students in our speed careers program. These presentations gave students valuable insights into many employment opportunities that are available to them when they leave college. I would like to thank all of the business people who made themselves available to come in and speak to our students. On Tuesday we had umpires from AFL Tasmania come in and run an umpiring clinic for girls. The clinic ran for two blocks looking at different AFL game day scenarios and making correct umpiring decisions. Thank you to AFL Tas for running the clinic.

We have had significant intertest in our Aged Care course for Grade 11 students in 2025 from both students here and from other high schools and this has been fantastic to see. We look forward to welcoming students to Queechy High who have attended other high schools for Years 7-10 and also continuing to support and engage those Queechy High students who are choosing to remain here for their Grade 11 studies. I am very proud of the Grade 11/12 courses that we offer here and want to thank Mr Tepper once again, Mrs Milner, and Mr Woolley for their ongoing work in this space.

Our Athletics carnival will be held in week 4 at Queechy and parents/carers are welcome to attend this event. It will be held on November 6 and 7 which is the Wednesday and Thursday immediately after the November Long Weekend. Thank you to our Health and Physical Education staff for organising this event. We will have photographs and a report from the carnival in future newsletters.