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| 15 Jul 2022 | |
| General News |
Term 3 Welcome Back
How quickly have the last three weeks flown? I hope you have enjoyed your time together and that our students have had a well-deserved rest. I look forward to welcoming everyone back next week and for Term 3 to be a productive and focused term of learning. Our boarding houses will open on Monday afternoon for the return of our boarders, with all classes commencing on Tuesday, 19 July.
I wish to extend a very warm welcome to students joining us this term, and their families. I hope you settle in quickly and soon feel part of the NEGS school community.
Welcome to our new staff members:
In other staff changes, I am delighted to inform you Emma Maughan has accepted the position of Stage 5 Advisor and will be supporting our Year 9 and 10 students.
I congratulate the many students who competed in sporting and equestrian events over the school break.
Sadly, I believe the Netball State Championships were washed out.
Over the break, our maintenance team have been hard at work, ensuring the campus is ready for the return of our students. I thank them for their continued dedication to the care of our facilities and grounds.
This term will be a busy one. From an academic perspective, it is an important term of learning and consolidation. It is the final term for our Year 12 girls. I am confident they will be well prepared for their final exams, with the support and guidance of our staff. We are looking forward to formally celebrating this outstanding year group at the end of term.
I do bring to your attention the calendar of important dates attached to this newsletter. We look forward to celebrating as a community some significant events such as Grandparents Day, Father’s Day BBQ Breakfast, IGSA sporting events, and NEGS Stockman’s Challenge.
Working in partnership with our parents is a core goal for our staff, so please do not hesitate to raise any concern you may have. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible during the course of the term.
Liz Van Genderen
Acting Prinicpal
A warm welcome back to Term Three!
We hope you have had an enjoyable break and you are as excited as we are to start the new term! Whether you are returning to school after the holidays or you are new to our school, the Junior School staff is looking forward to connecting in our classrooms, with a busy term of new and interesting learning opportunities planned. It is wonderful to have a number of new students joining our NEGS community.
This term we welcome Ms Lauren Czinner back to the Junior School, with the PE department also welcoming Mr Malcolm Gaukroger. Both Ms Czinner and Mr Guakroger are well known in the Armidale community. Ms Czinner has completed her studies at UNE and brings an energetic approach to education. She is experienced in working with children in various capacities and is passionate about sports, particularly hockey. Mr Gaukroger is an experienced and accomplished teacher, who has lead PDHPE departments across the North West.
As a staff, we are focused on continuing a productive partnership with you to ensure our children can achieve their highest potential.
Key dates and events for Term Three include:
More information about the above events will be sent out as the dates draw nearer.
Finally, we emphasise the importance of maintaining open communication with the school and home to ensure that your child has the maximum opportunity to be successful. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Stay warm, keep well and enjoy your weekend, as we look forward to seeing you next Tuesday.
Heidi Dent
Junior School Coordinator
Term 3 is shaping up to be a great term for our boarders. Although it is a big term academically, we have an Activities Calendar planned that will give the girls plenty of choices for their downtime. Social events include trips to Tamworth, the beach, skating, movies, a social towards the end of term, and scenic bush walks. These are subject to change, depending on the weather and Covid.
We have some new additions to boarding staff this term. To ensure best practice in boarding, student well-being is first and foremost in my mind. NEGS has secured full-time permanent staff to cover the supervision of the girls on the weekends. Although we will continue to use casual staff, it has proven difficult at times to secure casual staff to cover the weekend shifts. The girls may get several young women looking after them, when the ideal would be one full-time House Mother and a casual staff member.
To ensure consistency of care, I would like to welcome Kerry Middleton, Tracey Everingham and Kassy Cassidy as weekend House Mothers. All women have a long association with NEGS, and I don’t doubt they will provide great care for your daughters. Two of the women, Tracey and Kassy, will be job sharing the weekend supervision in White House, rotating every second weekend, and Kerry will be the sole weekend House Mother in Saumarez. The current casual staff will continue supporting these women in their new roles. We continue to advertise for a third full-time weekend House Mother.
Boarding reopens at 2 pm on Monday. If there is an unforeseen issue with returning after 2 pm, a staff member will be available to supervise. Although luggage can be left at your House, supervision will be organised in the library.
We are also welcoming families to come into boarding to assist their daughter with her unpacking if they wish. We are endeavouring to put Covid behind us where possible, and we would like to see more of a family atmosphere in boarding, particularly at the start and end of term.
We ask that masks be worn if you have come into contact with a Covid positive case and keep your daughter at home if she has been unwell and is continuing to show symptoms until those symptoms have abated. We finished Term 2 with many severe viruses and hopefully, these will have disappeared by the start of Term 3.
We are looking forward to working with the Australian Boarding Schools Association throughout Term 3. They will come to NEGS to carry out a review and provide advice to ensure NEGS meets the Australian Boarding Standards. The professionalism of the Australian school boarding industry rests on uniformly high standards of residential care. The Australian Boarding Standard offers an evaluative instrument that combines the best state and territory school boarding standards found throughout Australia and from boarding schools overseas. Most importantly, the Australian Boarding Standard represents the collective wisdom from a large number of experienced boarding staff and administrators. As a Boarding School, we welcome this opportunity to improve our level of care and resources for our students and to ensure we are a leader in boarding in Australia.
Please see our activities calendar below.
Di Kerr
Head of Boarding
'The one thing that matters is effort'
Welcome back to all of our students and families for what will be a jam-packed term of sport and activities.
This term will see our annual IGSA Hockey and Netball trips taking place in Weeks 1 and 7, with finals in Week 9, if we are successful. We will have a team competing at the IGSA Athletics Championships in Week 5, and IPSHA in Week 7. There is also an opportunity for girls to trial for IGSA Open Netball in Week 4.
Thanks to one of our parents, we have been invited to take a small team to compete in the City 2 Surf, on 14 August. Our team would be supporting the wonderful charity, ‘Feel the Magic', which focuses on helping grieving children heal. I will be discussing this with the students upon return. Training will continue for the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic, and our teams will be clocking up the miles on Dumaresq and Malpas Dams.
Added to these special events, our local sporting teams will still run around in their respective competitions as they strive to make the finals. It is important that all students return refreshed, recharged, and ready to commit fully to their sporting responsibilities, as it will take a team effort to juggle the many activities that lie ahead.
The school will collaborate with Hockey New England to host the State Championships for Masters in 3 age groups, and our wonderful P and F will be running the BBQ and canteen. As always, any help that we can get would be well received.
Our many clubs and activities will continue this term with opportunities to sing, play, dance, and create available to our students.
Dates:
22 - 23 July, 2 - 3 September, 16 - 17 September - IGSA Hockey and Netball
29 - 31 July - Masters Hockey
18 - 19 August IGSA Athletics
29 August - IPSHA Athletics
8 August - Open Netball Trials
14 August - City 2 Surf
Yours in Sport
Jamie Moore
Director of Sport and Activities
The NEGS P and F will be running the BBQ (selling the famous NEGS Steak Sandwiches), canteen and bake sale at the Hockey Masters Championship, which is being held on 29 - 31 July, on the NEGS turf.
We are asking for help from our community:
All parents are invited to the next P and F meeting, Wednesday 27 July, in the W H Lee Room, or you can join via zoom. Minutes of the last P and F meeting can be accessed via the Parent Portal.
We warmly welcome the new families to NEGS and look forward to connecting with them throughout the term.
NEGS P and F
Term 3 is shaping to be a busy term.
Please click here to see the Term 3 Calendar.
