Principal Mrs Susan Middlebrook flew from Sydney and was able to attend the Expo on Friday afternoon before joining Registrar Cilla Walker, and myself at a dinner at the Old Bank Restaurant for current, past and future families. The food and company were magnificent, and it was special to spend time socialising with our families whom we do not often get to see in person. The real highlight of the Expo for me, however, was seeing our current families talking to prospective families with such passion about the experiences their own girls are living and the opportunities that Tara is providing.

This year we will also be attending the Narrabri Expo on 23-24 July.

Each year in May following the Expo, boarding schools across Australia commemorate National Boarding Week. This is an initiative started by the Australian Boarding Schools Association (ABSA) to celebrate boarding life, our wonderful boarders and our staff.

Our boarders spent the weekend making decorations to adorn the school in the boarding house colours, which we hope was a nice surprise for everyone when they arrived at Tara this morning. The boarders and kitchen staff will also stand out this week with their pink hair ribbons and caps. A variety of activities have been planned by our Head Boarder, Grace R, and Deputy Head Boarder, Sophie G, including the boarding assembly on Tuesday where the girls will debunk some of the common myths often asked about boarding while touring the house. Thursday there will be a sausage sizzle to raise money for the Vanessa Grant Trust, a foundation the boarding house has supported for many years, along with a friendly Newcombe Ball competition.

Boarding is such a unique experience for all involved. The sense of community and sacrifice is enormous, one that deserves to be celebrated in style!

We revised previous knowledge learned about water in Science to expand our understanding in Geography of the human impacts on water. We were taught about and walked through some of the catchment area of Manly Dam, and how its urban surroundings and recreational use could affect the water quality. We could see the impacts of a built environment on runoff. Nearby recreations like the Wakehurst Golf Course could also pollute the water, because to maintain a golf course they need use many chemicals like fertilizers, pesticides, and glyphosate which enter the nearby creeks on a rainy day and contaminate the water. As Environmental Officers, Year 8 learnt to test the turbidity of the water using a turbidity tube. We also tested the pH levels of the water and soil using drops of universal indicator. This told us if the water was acidic, neutral, or alkaline.

Highlights of the day included looking for indicator animal species in Manly Creek and the golf course creek to determine the health of the creek and seeing how tolerant they were, looking at eighty-three engravings that the Cammeraygal people made and eating lunch by Manly Dam.

During the day, they debated topics including “That the dropping of the atomic bomb in WWII was justified” and “That the USSR won the space race”.

Year 10 Tara A won all three of their debates, and finished the day with success! Congratulations to Hannah W, Ashley K, Alisha V, and Alisha G.

"It was an immensely enjoyable experience and during the debates it was fascinating to see how everyone approached the topics from varied viewpoints and brought up different matter." - Hannah W

Year 10 Tara B also participated in two debates on the 4 May, and achieved huge success in their debate against Northholm Grammar. Consisting of Faith W, Olivia D, Siya P, and Imogen B, the team was motivated to research their assigned topic in depth, bringing strong historiography and manner to the debate.

Both teams worked really hard to anticipate the nature of the real debate, so we congratulate them both for their efforts.

Best of luck to Year 10 Teams in their future debates!

With Year 11 debates coming up in the next few weeks as well, wishing them all the best too!

Over the two weeks that the drive was held, the FPS team collected one thousand, two hundred and sixty-nine pieces of stationery including: 

• 592 pens
• 239 pencils
• 504 coloured pencils
• 230 markers and textas
• 142 crayons
• 126 highlighters
• 31 pencil cases
• 139 exercise books
• 28 sharpeners
• 42 rubbers
• 27 folders and binders 

A variety of other items were also donated, such as rulers, scissors, glue sticks, liquid paper, math sets, contact paper, and play equipment. 

The Year 9 FPS team would like to thank the Tara Community for generously donating so many good quality pieces of stationery. Your assistance was very much appreciated. We would also like to thank our supervisor, Mrs Wong, for helping us organise and run this whole initiative.

Our last hurdle is to find ways to help cover the cost of postage of the stationery collected and the FPS team would greatly appreciate any assistance from our wider Tara community. If you are able to help, please email jwong@tara.nsw.edu.au.

Thank you once again, 

From the Year 9 FPS team:

Grace M, Hruthika D, Stephanie H, Gabrielle M, Dana G and Ella W.

All 60 prefects were able to participate in group discussion and a number of fun teamwork games such as Human Connect 5, developing valuable connections to students from various schools from different areas of Sydney.

The event was a great success, with many guests stating that it was one of the most enjoyable Prefect Afternoon Teas they had attended so far. We would also like to extend a massive thank you to Mrs Losco for supervising on the night, to Tony Griffiths for providing delicious catering as usual, and to the Year 12 hospitality girls for helping out on the night!

After the initial meeting on Zoom, groups of schools were separated into breakout rooms, with Knox Old Boys hosting each room. They directed each session, and as a result of their hard work, all schools completed and submitted their work on time, to the best of their efforts. As a result of taking part in the Decathlon, we learnt, and enhanced a variety of skills, including teamwork, and creative thinking, and reflective of the online environment, collaboration and media literacy skills. A highlight from the afternoon was Creative Producers, in which teams took part in a drama performance, addressing the stimulus reminiscent of the classic philosophical dilemma of the ‘trolley problem'. This required us to display quick thinking, and teamwork skills, planning, performing and filming the performance on the iPads in 20 minutes. A special thank you to Ms Mann, as we applied the skills we had learnt in our practice sessions, allowing for a better, and more cohesive outcome. Thank you also to Ms Ngui, and Mrs Westerbrink who enhanced our communication, critical thinking and organisational skills, enabling us to feel more cohesive as a team. Finally, a huge thank you to Miss Brown, for running the event at Tara, and ensuring each team had a fantastic time competing and strengthening our approaches to learning.

Overall, the Da Vinci Decathlon of 2021 was an extremely enjoyable and rewarding time, which has without a doubt equipped us with skills that will stay with us in the future.

RESULTS

Congratulations to the Year 9 and 10 teams who placed first in Code Breaking! This is an excellent result as there were over 100 schools competing each day – more than in previous years due to the online format.

Other results included:

Year 7 – 5th in Code Breaking

Year 8 – 5th in Creative Producers and equal 4th in Engineering

Year 9 – 5th in Creative Producers

Year 10 – 4th in English

Year 8 began the year exploring how a purpose of tourism is to facilitate an understanding of culture in different contexts. They researched a variety of Japanese cities and presented their chosen city at an expo, persuading people to visit their city using their Japanese language skills. The two Year 8 Japanese classes collaborated on the expo and created a wonderful learning experience for each other. The expo booths included posters, origami, local food delicacies as well as digital presentations. It was definitely a highlight of the term.

Year 8 also had lots of fun doing calligraphy. Not only is it a fun way to study and learn new kanji, but as they discovered, it is a great way to calm and focus the mind.

Year 9 has been investigating school life in Japan and exploring the differences and similarities with their own school experience. They have participated in a Japanese style sports carnival as well as a video exchange with our sister school in Japan. Our Japanese sister school requested videos about our cafeteria, library and club activities and so the girls have been busy writing their scripts in Japanese and planning their short films. 

Year 10 began the year considering how a purpose of reflecting on personal experience is to better understand our connections to our past. The girls shared their childhood memories and baby photos, as well as significant milestones. There was much laughter and discussion around how these might be shaped by such things as family and culture. An activity that the girls particularly enjoyed was considering the significant milestones of people that they admire and creating posters about them. Many of the girls commented on how proud they felt being able to write at this level in Japanese. Here is a sample of their writing.

News

Our latest addition has been a manga wall outside the Japanese room to celebrate our talented manga artists. Submissions are always welcome.

Announcement

This term we will launch our Anime club which will take place at lunchtime for all our anime fans. Stay tuned for more details. Everyone is welcome.

Basketball

Round 3

S02 Tara 1 vs Brigidine 1, Loss, 28-43
S11 Tara 2 vs BYE
S16 Tara 3 vs PLC Sydney 5, Win, 62-0
S17 Tara 4 vs Abbotsleigh 14, Win, 23-13
J03 Tara 5 vs Loreto Normanhurst 15
J06 Tara 6 vs St Catherine’s 4, Win, 29-10
J08 Tara 7 vs Ascham 8, Win, 29-10
J10 Tara 8 vs BYE
J11 Tara 9 vs Loreto Normanhurst 20, Win, 20-16
Y702 Tara 10 vs Abbotsleigh 27, Win, 14-8
Y705 Tara 11 vs Santa Sabina 5, Loss, 10-21
Y709 Tara 12 vs Loreto Normanhurst 24

Some very impressive scores coming out of Round 3, especially the Senior 3rds with a convincing 62-0 win!! Davinna S showing her consistent shooting skills, sinking shots from just inside the three-point line, and Natasha R with her strong offensive and defensive skills. Another Tara win this weekend, with the Junior Seconds finishing with a 28-14 score. All the girls showcased improved skills, especially Diya H who scored lots of baskets and kept a strong defence by going for many rebounds and intercepts. The Year 7 girls are still getting in the swing of playing basketball and working as a team, whilst it’s only the third game of the season, the girls are putting in an amazing effort and are improving after every training session. The Y709 girls scored 12 points in just four minutes in the second half!! What an amazing effort! Along with this, more teamwork is coming into play, and there is a lot of excitement for both the girls and families around the goals! Congratulations to all the Tara teams this round, all your hard work is paying off.

Jaz H - Basketball Captain

Football

Round 2

S03 Tara 1 vs Pymble 3, Draw, 2-2
S10 Tara 2 vs Pymble 8, Win, 5-2
J08 Tara 3 vs Ravenswood 7, Win, 1-0

The Senior 1sts had a great match which ended in a draw against Pymble. An amazing goal by Popi T and indirect free kick from Natalie A helped us stay in the game. The team is also extremely grateful for Popi T and Mena T for coming up from the team below to help us!

Tara 2 played a home game against Pymble. During the game their forwards scored amazing goals and came back with another win. The whole team played incredibly well together and won 5-2

Tara 3 won 1-0 against Ravenswood and played exceptionally well! Congratulations to Ellie H who scored that outstanding goal!

Round 3

S03 Tara 1 vs Kincoppal Rose Bay 1, Loss, 1-2
S10 Tara 2 vs Loreto Normanhurst 5, Win, 4-1
J08 Tara 3 vs Roseville 8, Loss, 1-2

This week unfortunately the Juniors lost 2-1 against Roseville. However, the team worked well together and greatly improved on their passing.

On the weekend Tara 2 played another home game and came back with a win! Their striker Navika G scored an amazing header. Overall the team played exceptionally well on the weekend!

The Senior 1sts played their best game yet against Kincoppal, with Siena L making many incredible saves as well as an incredible goal by Sophie G!

Sienna E - Football Captain

Cross Country (Age Champions)

12 Years
1st: Belita K
2nd: Sarah S
3rd: Bhavya B
4th: Raelene W

13 Years
1st: Zayla T
2nd: Bernice T
3rd: Abigail R
4th: Verity A

14 Years
1st: Abbey V
2nd: Chelsea C
3rd: Mackenzie N
4th: Navika G

15 Years
1st: Skye A
2nd: Charlotte O
3rd: Dana G
4th: Caitlin I

16 Years
1st: Cameron K
2nd: Olivia D
3rd: Emma M
4th: Keisha L

17 Years
1st: Jaz H
2nd: Angela V
3rd: Zoe G
4th: Sarah D

18+ Years
1st: Macayla H
2nd: Kathy G
3rd: Sarah F
4th: Winnie D

Overall Individual Cross Country Results

Junior (12, 13 & 14) Cross Country Champion (Trophy)

1st Place: Zayla T
Runner Up: Abbey V

Intermediate (15 & 16) Cross Country Champion (Trophy)

1st Place: Skye A
Runner Up: Cameron K

Senior (17 – 18+) Cross Country Champion (Trophy)

1st Place: Macayla H
Runner Up: Kathy G

Overall Cross Country House Results

1st: Crawford (332 points)
2nd: Hake (285 points)
3rd: Waugh (281 points)
4th: Walker (255 points)

House Cheers

1st: Crawford
2nd: Waugh
3rd: Walker
4th: Hake

Sophie B - Cross Country Captain