Academic Christian Caring

ISSUE 7TERM II 2016

Newsletter

The Cast for the 2016 School Production

The Wizard of Oz

HeadmasterThe Arrowsmith Program offered at TIGS is now in its second year and the improvement shown by our students is remarkable.

For those that are not familiar with the Arrowsmith Program it is a cognitive program designed to strengthen learning capacities rather than learning ways to compensate for learning difficulties. The program is based on the application of over 35 years of neuroscientific research that demonstrates that it is possible to help students strengthen weak cognitive capacities that underlie their learning difficulties.

In the Arrowsmith Program students receive an individualised program of cognitive exercises designed to address one or more of nineteen identified areas of cognitive weakness. The Arrowsmith Program deals with the causes of the learning disability rather than managing the symptoms. Students become more effective learners, capable of performing complex tasks once the weak cognitive areas are strengthened.

The Arrowsmith Program is not for every student with a learning difficulty. The selection criteria for student entry into the program at TIGS are:

• Be of average or above average intelligence

• Not be diagnosed as having emotional or behavioural disorders

• Not have an acquired brain injury or an autistic spectrum disorder

• Enrolled in, or close to, the preferred cohort of Year 3 or 4 (for the Full-time Program)

• Enrolled in the cohort of Year 3 onwards (for the Part-time Program)

• Currently receiving documented curriculum adjustments in the mainstream setting due to learning difficulties (documentary evidence required)

• Have a combination of the learning dysfunctions that are described on the Arrowsmith School website.

Currently, there are 10 full-time students and 13 part-time students enrolled in the Arrowsmith Program at TIGS. The commitment to what is a taxing program of cognitive exercises each day is considerable. A typical full-time Arrowsmith student will have 2 hours and 40 minutes of intensive and repetitive cognitive exercises at school each day plus some mainstream classroom

lessons then an additional 1 hour of exercises after school. It is not for the fainthearted or moderately committed. The commitment of the students and their families is considerable and they deserve our admiration and encouragement.

It is therefore pleasing that there has been significant improvement in their ability to read, comprehend, process and communicate, not to mention their self-confidence and self-esteem.

The evidence of improvement in the students at TIGS is supported by university research. Dr Lara Boyd from the University of British Columbia has been using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to identify changes to the way the brains of Arrowsmith students operate.

Dr Boyd has been able to identify shifts in the locus of activity in the brain that explain improvements in writing, written expression, academic aptitude, cognitive fluency and cognitive retrieval. She has also noted shifts in cerebral activity from areas of the brain that require a large amount of energy and have low efficiency to areas where thinking becomes automatic.

The example I use to illustrate this type of cognitive change is the cognitive process required when we sit in a chair. If we had to think about how we sit down and then keep our balance every time we sit then we couldn’t think about anything else. Fortunately the thinking required to sit successfully in a chair quickly shifts, when we are young, from deliberate thought to automatic thought. The same applies to comprehension – if a student has to struggle to read and understand each word in a sentence, instead of automatically recognising the word, then understanding the meaning of the sentence becomes very difficult.

Research like that presented by Dr Boyd is always encouraging because it helps us to know what is behind what we are observing - that the lives of our Arrowsmith students are being changed as their cognitive ability is transformed and their brains work more efficiently.

Parents wishing to find out more about the Arrowsmith Program should view the School website, Arrowsmith website or contact the TIGS Enrolments Department.

Stephen KinsellaHeadmaster

Stephen KinsellaHeadmaster

Chaplain’s MessageA POSITIVE REPORT

Rev James RogersChaplain

Parents delight to hear that their children behave well outside the home. We can put up with most things at home if it means that we are fashioning our children to be responsible friends and citizens. The same goes for schools. It is a great joy to hear that our students perform well in the community. It makes the struggle worthwhile.

This week I received an outstanding report concerning one of our Year 11 students who is presently engaged in our unique Year 11 Community Service programme. This programme calls our students to be serving those in our community who are in some way disadvantaged or disabled. They serve them outside normal school hours. It is a challenging programme. You can imagine how thrilled I was to read the following report from a parent of one who is receiving our student’s service.

Firstly I would like to acknowledge the amazing students from your school that I have had the pleasure of meeting. My son Daniel is a participant with The Disability Trust. Last year he attended the Sony/TIGS camp where he had two lovely young ladies as his buddies, Steph and Azalea, for the weekend. He still brings out the beautiful scrap they made of his experience and talks about how nice they were to him.

And currently we have Nicholas attending Thursday night sport at Croome Rd Albion Park. He is an amazing young man, who interacts positively with each of the participants, encouraging them and celebrating their success. He is very at ease and confident in his interactions; all the participants enjoy having him there.

It’s not often that you find young people with such a natural ability to engage with other young people with a disability. As a parent it warms my heart to see how accepting he is. All the parents at the program speak very highly of Nicholas and some of the boys are hoping to have him at this year’s camp.

Not only is this a testament to his family, but also to your school for instilling strong values to your pupils. So congratulations and thank you for showing us the shining example they set for your school.

This is such a wonderful report. It says we are doing something right at TIGS. This is not always evident. Sometimes we might wonder whether we are making a positive difference. It is hard to see growth when you’re up close to it. We often need the perspective of an outsider.

I am greatly encouraged by this report. I trust you are too. I hear a lot of positive comments like this as our students go out into the community. We don’t work for these comments but they certainly are refreshing to receive. More importantly, these comments provide assurance that we are moving in the right direction as a school.

Rev James Rogers

CAR LINE PROCEDURESParents will have noticed that we are trialling some additional safety measures in the car line this week with the introduction of a visual barrier to prevent students from stepping off the kerb without being under the supervision of a staff member. The safety of students and staff in this potentially dangerous part of our school day is paramount. Our parents are extremely helpful and supportive of the car line procedure and we appreciate that support. We do request that parents refrain from texting or using phones in the car line, that they continue to follow the direction of our traffic management and safety team and that they smile and do another lap if their child is not ready.

ASSEMBLY/CHAPEL2M will be hosting next weeks Assem-bly. Assembly begins at 12.10pm in Rees Hall.

Junior School

Judi NealyDeputy Headmaster,

Head of Junior School

DEBATING NEWS

Two Year 6 teams are currently competing in the NSW HICES (Heads of Independ-ent Co-Educational Schools) Debating competition. Our competition area in-cludes schools around the South Coast region such as Broughton Anglican School, Oxley College, Nowra Anglican School and more. Our final debate of the first round took place on Tuesday 14 June and both Junior School teams were victori-ous as they argued for the negative side on the topic ‘that our politicians should be paid more.’

The next stage will see us competing in impromptu debates, where the topic is issued only one hour prior to the debate. Team members, without teacher assis-tance, grapple with the topic as they prepare their case. It is an exciting time and we are very proud of our 2016 selected representatives.

Last Friday saw the staff back in the classroom while our students enjoyed an extra long weekend. Professional Development (PD) days impact on the lives of our busy working families so it is important that parents are confident of the value they add to their children’s learning experience. We were very privileged to engage Kath Murdoch for our PD day. Kath is an acknowl-edged world expert in the area of in-quiry based learning. Her most recent book has been listed globally as one of the top 6 professional reads for edu-cators in 2016. The staff benefited from work-shopping what inquiry looks like in the classroom and how to use this ap-proach more effectively to engage our learners and to achieve fantastic learn-ing outcomes with them.

COCURRICULAR CLUB HIGHLIGHT-MINDFUL MOVEMENT Mindful Movement begins with a peaceful meditation. We observe the noise of the students enjoying their lunchtime games outside. As we lay on the soft carpet, the stress of the busy weeks fades away as we centre our mind on our body and breathing. We then begin to awaken our muscles by bringing our awareness to each part of our body to prepare for our strength and flexibility session. We quickly move into poses such as Downward Dog, Co-bra, Warrior 1 and 2 and even hold a plank position to get our heart rate up. It is the balance session that we enjoy the most. Poses including Tree, Aero-plane and Frog make us laugh as we try to develop our focus and balance. We end the session with some light twists and more relaxation time to en-joy the peace and newfound focus we all feel before heading back to class.

Images right.

TIGS 1 TIGS 2

Alexandra Wall Nicholas Chiaverini

Bowen Kimberley-Mastalir Katie Gorham

Beth Michelmore Lachlan Boardman

Ryan Jinks Clara Swainson

Isabella Atkinson Charlotte Atkinson

Cooper Kerridge Nathaniel Makotsvana

KH Ethan Tierney, Hafi-Malik Syed, Adya Sinha, Heathcliff Peacock

KP Eva Still, Akilan Kumaresan, Ideen Hashemi

1M Coco Threadgate, Evelyn Sanzone, Bridie Hughes

1S Noah Bottele, Jannah Kermali, Nikhilan J Avinash

1Y Aushada Ranamuka Rallage, Ammar Saherwala

2C Lotte van Oijen, Calix Langton

3R Katherine Binks, Ashton Tregonning

3S Campbell Boardman, Annabelle Sheargold, Fergus Dutch

4Y Tyler Sullivan

5S Guoqin Ding, Lin Yu Ma, James Gardner

WEEKLY AWARDS

AcademicPoppy Bambrick

Riya Bahl

Amarah Banks

Aiden Da Deppo

Ameesha Gogulan

Ainslie Goodman

Grace Hobeika

Roscoe Kambouris

Inaaya Kermali

Kasim Kermali

Calix Langton

Tahlie Oxman

Daniel Peden

Nicholas Radojicic

Alizeh Syed

Alexander Tonkli

Subhaan Ul-Haq

MERIT CERTIFICATES

Greg LanyonHead of Senior School

There is much research in the area of adolescent mental health that points to the importance of schools providing multiple points of connection for students as an important protective factor in their development. As a school this translates into providing a diverse range of opportunities for students beyond the classroom, whereby students may find and pursue a passion with other like-minded people, so that they feel more connected to the school. For some adolescents this point of connection may be the one thing that provides the motivation for them to engage with and enjoy school.

Consistent with this research and The Illawarra Grammar School’s core values, the School believes that success in learning involves the development of the whole child by offering a broad curriculum and adopting a holistic approach to each student’s academic, spiritual, physical, aesthetic, cultural, social and emotional development. The extent and diversity of co-curricular programmes at TIGS reflects this

approach. For this reason I wanted to share with you some of the activities that students have been involved in this term, to provide a sample of the points of connection available to our students.

At this time of year, the most obvious activity outside the classroom is the annual school production. This year it is the Wizard of Oz. The big risk is that the director, Ms Jane McIntosh, is attempting two big “no no’s” of theatre; working with both children and animals. From a staging perspective, the technical crew will be attempting to create both snow and a twister in the IGC!

At last count over 130 students will be involved in some way in staging this performance. The production involves a range of talented performers, musicians, lighting, sound and backstage crew, and makeup artists. For those students and staff involved it will be a culmination of hard work, juggling the demanding rehearsal schedules with regular classroom commitments. Performances will run from Wednesday 22 to Saturday 25 June. For tickets and performance dates and times, go to the school website and look for Events and Bookings.

Students also achieved success at the Future Problem Solving International Finals at Michigan State University, USA last week. Two groups from the School made it to the finals after winning through in the Australian competition.

In the Senior Division of the Community Problem Solving Competition (CmPS), Meena Jasim and Robert Martin, both from Year 11, competed in the Environmental and Human Services Category. The team focused on the reduction of household food waste as an effort to save money and mitigate the impact on climate change. Over last year they developed a relationship with local Illawarra food waste reduction NGO “Hidden Harvest”, published a cookbook and worked at schools and in community events to educate these groups about how to change attitudes and practices around the use of household food

waste. Robert and Meena placed third in their division and third overall.

In the Middle Division of CmPS, Lola Bond, Francesca Lambert and Minseo Kang, all from Year 9, competed in the Civics, Culture and Environment Category. Their project was centred around the voluntary mistreatment of domestic pets. In particular, they researched and developed educational strategies about issues related to pet care, such as under or overfeeding, obedience training and exercise. Apart from the travel experience, all students involved reported that they gained invaluable skills in time management, creativity and teamwork. A special thanks goes to the parents who supported the students by getting them to the world stage to compete. The students also expressed their thanks to the teachers who have supported them in honing their skills to reach the finals, including Mrs Burton and Mrs Dubowski.

As I write, the Open Girls TIGS football (soccer) team is playing in the CIS Football Cup final against Pymble Ladies College. On the road to the final in Round 1 the team drew with Shellharbour Anglican College 1-1, but won 9-7 on penalties. In Round 2 they accounted for Abbotsleigh College 4-1, in the quarter final Presbyterian Ladies College 4-2 and beat St Andrew’s Cathedral School 7-0 in the semi-final. Unfortunately, I have just heard that the girls lost in the final 8-1 but never stopped trying against a team which has won this tournament every year for the last nine years. This has been an unprecedented run by a TIGS girls football team at this level. Congratulations to all the girls and their coaches, Mr Deck, Mr Keating and Mr Edgerton.

Images right.

Greg LanyonHead of Senior School

Senior School

Student Success HICES DEBATINGOur HICES Middle Division, Nicholas Seal, Aria Bacic-Johnston, Daniel Michelmore and Samuel Aubin and our Seniors Robert Turney, Zara Winter, Jana Massingham and Malachi Sigmund won against Wollondilly and Chevalier respectively and our Opens Angus Day, Benjamin Woodard, Matthew O’Hanlon and Joseph Daly won their friendly debate after Nowra forfeited.

For some debaters it was their very first time speaking and a special thank you to Robert and Joseph who stepped in on the morning to replace unavailable team members.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

“Lions, tigers and bears...oh my!”

FOR SESSION TIMES AND TO BOOK TICKETS VISIT www.tigs.nsw.edu.au

An International Baccalaureate World SchoolAcademic • Christian • Caring

23 - 25 June 2016

An International Baccalaureate World School

Academic • Christian • Caring

Extend@TIGSWINTER HOLIDAY PROGRAMME BOOKINGS ARE OPEN!Book by the deadline to take advantage of lower rates! NSW booking deadline: Friday 24 June

We have heaps of fun activities planned these school holidays and can’t wait for you to attend! Join in on Extend’s own mini Olympics tournament and aim for gold! Have fun with science experiments, come along in costume and join in on our party afternoons, and participate in a bunch of craft activities and team games. Join in on all this and more at Extend’s Winter Holiday Programme.

To check out what’s on visit our website at http://extend.com.au and book via the Parent Portal.

Extend@TIGS has a lot of different and exciting upcoming events organised. Last week we had heaps of fun creating paper plate flowers, marble paintings and recycle craft. We also played Wembley, soccer, dodgeball and red light green light. This week we have a range of exciting science, craft and cooking activities planned so please come along and join in on all the fun.

ONLINE BOOKINGS: extend.com.auCALL OUR OFFICE: 1 300 366 437

TIGS FoundationBUSINESS DIRECTORYHave you been online recently to visit the new initiative of TIGS Foundation? TIGS Community Business Directory enables TIGS families to promote their business/s by advertising their details on the TIGS website.

There is an annual fee of $300 per business each calendar year for advertising in the Directory. Applications are currently being taken.

The Business Directory will provide an opportunity to strengthen and tighten the bonds between the School, parents and the businesses contained within the School Community.

If you are interested and would like to be involved please phone, Lisa Wilson on 4220 0264 or Joanne Danckwardt 0426 264 771, or email: foundation@tigs.nsw.edu.au

TIGS reserves the right to decline any advertisement or request changes before accepting any submissions.

Year 11 2017 PARENT INFORMATION EVENINGSDiploma Programme (DP) 5.30pm to 7.00pm Tuesday 21 June in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library)

Higher School Certificate (HSC) 5.30pm to 7.00pm Monday 27 June in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library)

WEEK 9 ACTIVITIESMonday 20 June Craft: Origami ButterfliesSport: Soccer

Tuesday 21 June Activity: Shaving Cream ArtOutdoor sport: Dodgeball

Wednesday 22 June Science: Balloon tower challengeSport: Wembley

Thursday 23 June Activity: Paper Plate Dream CatcherSport: Soccer

Friday 24 June Craft: Recycle CraftSport: Handball

“Lions, tigers and bears...oh my!”

FOR SESSION TIMES AND TO BOOK TICKETS VISIT www.tigs.nsw.edu.au

An International Baccalaureate World SchoolAcademic • Christian • Caring

23 - 25 June 2016

An International Baccalaureate World School

Academic • Christian • Caring

UPCOMING EVENTS

WEEK 9Production - Technical and Full Dress Rehearsal9.00am Sunday 19 June in the IGC

Year 10 Parent Teacher InterviewsMonday 20 June in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library)

Year 11 2017 Parent Information EveningDiploma Programme (DP)5.30pm to 7.00pm Tuesday 21 June in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library)

Production - Technical and Full Dress RehearsalTuesday 21 June in the IGC

Production - Shows11.00am Wednesday 22 June7.30pm Thursday 23 June7.30pm Friday 24 June2.00pm Saturday 25 June7.30pm Saturday 25 June

WEEK 10Year 11 2017 Parent Information EveningHigher School Certificate (HSC)5.30pm to 7.00pm Monday 27 June in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library)

Year 9 Parent Teacher InterviewsThursday 30 June in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library)

Last Day of Term IIFriday 1 July