Term 1, Week 9, 2020
From the Dean of Learning ELC-6
Hearts and Minds in Action
Mrs Wendy Abernethy - Dean of learning E-2
Semester 1, 2021 seems like a distant memory now that Semester 2 has begun. Girls in the Junior School worked hard during the first half of the year to care for others and reflect Jesus’ love, as they participated in our first two Service Learning Days.
CRAWFORD SERVICE LEARNING DAY
The Crawford House Team decided to support the Kids with Cancer Foundation. A gold coin donation in exchange for the privilege of wearing a crazy hairstyle helped to raise money for this wonderful charity and students worked together to create a beautiful rainbow made of many little pictures and messages. The idea behind the rainbow was to share some love with children who are living with cancer and to thank the dedicated workers at the Kids with Cancer Foundation for all they do. The rainbow is displayed in the upper level of the Junior School Library as a reminder. A small group of Year 4 students decided to boost our financial donation by holding a ‘Cookies and Easter Cards’ fundraiser for Stage 2 girls to enjoy. This was a lovely example of student action and was a huge success. The Kids with Cancer Foundation have sent a certificate and thank you letter to the Tara students. They were extremely touched by the pictures of our lovely rainbow.
HAKE SERVICE LEARNING DAY
Our Hake House Leaders connected us with the charity ‘Dignity’ who work to support people experiencing homelessness in Sydney. Junior School students enjoyed an opportunity to wear warm scarves and beanies to school for the day. They also generously donated warm winter items and essentials such as socks, underwear, pyjamas and tracksuits for men, women and children. These wonderful donations filled an entire van! Students listened carefully to our visitor, Sherin from ‘Dignity’, as she talked about her work and answered all our questions. In her thank you email, Sherin said, “We are all so very grateful and appreciative to the whole Tara community for choosing to support Dignity and our guests this Winter! What an amazing effort and such incredible generosity.”
I look forward to working with our Walker and Waugh House Teams as the year progresses.
From the Head of Learning Resources
Beyond Google: Searching the invisible web with Tara’s subscribed library resources.
Mrs Christine Sinden
Dear Students and Parents,
In this time of dedicated online learning, I encourage you to look beyond Google and turn to the Tara Library portals, both Senior School and Junior School, to take advantage of the wealth of subscribed services that are provided for you. Please login to Oliver with Tara network username and password to access services from home.
- Senior School: http://cloud.tara.nsw.edu.au/seniorlib
- Junior School: http://cloud.tara.nsw.edu.au/juniorlib
General Academic Resources – Senior School and Junior School
Encyclopaedia Britannica
In Britannica School, students will find thousands of searchable encyclopedia and journal articles, images, videos, audios, primary source documents, detailed maps, editor-recommended Web sites, learning games, a world atlas, Merriam-Webster dictionary in English and Spanish, and a wealth of how-to research tools.
World Book Online
World Book Online offers a progressive suite of digital databases with unique, educational content and features for users of every age, ability, and interest. These intuitive databases include all the articles from The World Book Encyclopedia, a wealth of multimedia, and features to help with each step of the research process along with supplemental tools, such as language translation and text to speech.
World Book eBooks
Access to hundreds of World Book publications as well as classic Open Access Books. Our World Book eBook subscription allows us to give you and your family access to all the eBook titles at home 24/7, using your computer or mobile device. On this platform an unlimited number of users can access each resource simultaneously.
Links Plus
A searchable online database with thousands of teacher-reviewed, approved and annotated web sites
Scholarly Research for Senior Students
Project Muse
Access to full text versions of over 700 scholarly journals from 125 publishers in humanities and social sciences.
J Stor
Access to more than 2,600 academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Journals span continents and languages, with titles from 1,200 publishers from 57 countries.
EBSCO Trial
Senior Science students should take advantage of this trial product, available until mid-October.
The following products are included
1. Academic Search Premier – full text search database – 6,548 peer-reviewed journals
2. Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre – full text search database
“Designed for libraries in Australia and New Zealand, this database provides a thriving collection of leading regional and international periodicals, full-text reference books, full-text biographies and a collection of images containing photos, maps and flags.”
3. Australia/New Zealand Points of View Reference Centre
“Containing resources that present multiple sides of a current issue — including information on key topics of interest to Australia/New Zealand researchers — this database helps students realise and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues and develop analytical thinking skills.”
4. History Reference Centre (this is located with other History products on Oliver)
“Covering both U.S. and world history topics, History Reference Center is a full-text database featuring historical reference books, magazines, journals and thousands of primary source documents.”
5. Explora – a student-friendly interface which searches all the above databases
There are also numerous subject-specific digital resources available for
- Music
- History
- PDHPE
- Food tech
- Science & Technology
- Social Science
- English & Drama
From the Chief Financial Officer | Director of Operations
Fee Statement Information
Mr Paul Ryan
Term 3 fee statements will be issued on 28 July 2021.
The School has recently changed accounting systems, and as such the next fee statement will look slightly different to those issued in the past.
Should you have any questions regarding your fee statement, please email schoolfees@tara.nsw.edu.au
Commonwealth School Data Collection Notice
Important Notice
The Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (the department) would like to advise all parents and guardians that it collects certain information about your child’s school, its staff, and student body.
Please read this important notice here.
Tara Community News
Tara Old Girls' Association - Joan Waugh Scholarship
Joan Waugh Scholarship applications are now open!
Miss Mary Elizabeth (Joan) Waugh was the headmistress of Tara Anglican School for Girls from 1887 to 1845.
In recognition of her long career which spanned two centuries, Miss Waugh received strong appreciative respect amongst her peers and students. The Tara Old Girls' Association decided to honour her work and memory through the naming of the first Old Girls' Scholarship to the value of $5,000.
The Joan Waugh Scholarship is reserved for the candidates who demonstrate excellent endeavours in different aspects of community life and a potential for leadership in addition to their academic abilities. The Award aims to assist the former student in the undertaking of further studies, research or development in a particular field of interest, skill or expertise, either in Australia or overseas.
Applications close 30 September, 2021. To apply please download the application form from the Tara Anglican School website at https://www.tara.nsw.edu.au/community/.
From the Uniform Shop
Opening Hours
Due to current government restrictions, the Tara Uniform Shop is operating at the following times until further notice.
- Tuesday and Wednesday 10:00 – 4:00pm
- Thursday from 12:00 – 4:00pm
- Friday 12:00 – 4:00pm
Customers are not permitted on site.
Please note that parents are only able to order online (details for online ordering are available on Edumate in the Tara Docs section), via email or by telephoning the uniform shop on 02 8838 2646.
Once your order has been placed please telephone the Uniform Shop upon your arrival to collect your items and you will be advised where to collect them.
#TaraTogetherToday
Tara Together Today
Thank you to everyone who has sent in their joyful moment photos. If you haven't sent yours we would love to receive them.
Email your photos to communications@tara.nsw.edu.au.
Photos received will be uploaded to the Tara Facebook and Instagram pages. Only use first names and include a brief description of your joyful moment and we will do the rest.
Junior School News
Spanish Day 2021
Mrs Wendy Abernethy - Dean of Learning E-6
Junior School students in Years 1-6 love learning Spanish!
As an IB school, we believe that a culture of language learning excites learners, fosters strong communication skills, builds international mindedness, and strengthens relationships. Our recent Spanish Day was a celebration of our wonderful language program and the Hispanic culture. Students and teachers arrived dressed in colourful costumes and joined together with anticipation and a readiness to embrace what the day was set to offer. The first session began with some vibrant, traditional Hispanic music and an insight into some commonly used instruments which was provided by Lily Guerrero and Enrique Berbis. This was followed by an opportunity to learn some Latin dance moves. Before lunch, the girls were able to get up close to an alpaca and create some stunning craft such as colourful paper flowers, Mexican banners and friendship bracelets. A livestream tracked the cooking process of some delicious paella which was devoured during the lunch break to the sweet sounds of a staff Mariachi band. Thank you to Senora Jaure and the Junior School teachers for planning and actively participating in this wonderful day of cultural celebration!
Senior School News
Debating and Public Speaking Results
Charlotte S - 2020/2021 Debating Prefect
Term 2 saw many successes in Debating and Public Speaking.
Congratulations to the Tara 7B (Hannah L, Hannah R, Ruti S and Anna W) and Senior B (Jessica D, Alicia G, Siya P, Alicia V and Faith W) teams for reaching the Friday Evening Debating Grand Final. Even though Year 7B did not win their final debate, they are still the top two team in their division. The Senior B team are the top team in their division and were undefeated throughout the competition.
Isabella and Alicia P competed in the Rostrum Public Speaking State Final on Saturday June 12. Although they did not achieve a place in the Interstate final, they are congratulated for being one of the top 12 speakers in NSW.
On May 22 and May 23, six Year 10 girls spent the weekend participating in MUNA (Model United Nations Speaking Assembly), representing Indonesia and Italy. This enabled them to learn more about the United Nations and enhance their public speaking and debating skills.
Tara is currently travelling nicely in the Archdale Debating Competition. There are two preliminary debates to go until the final rounds in August.
Pi Day
To celebrate π Day, students at Tara were encouraged to wear spotty clothing to class and completed an online quiz related to this special irrational number.
We also investigated places where π is used in the real world and used string to measure the circumference of circular objects found around the home.
Here are some of the interesting facts they discovered about π.
- The symbol for π has been in use for over 250 years - Tahlia
- π is used in architecture and construction - Deniece
- Computers can calculate π to 22 trillion digits - Evelyn
- The largest pie made weighed in at 10 540kg - Henri
- π was discovered on Babylonian tablets dating back more than 4000 years - Jessica
- π has uses in Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics - Elinor
- 43% of Americans eat pie on one day - Chiquita
- π has 6.4 billion known digits. It would take a person approximately 133 years to recite all of them without stopping - Mahima
- There is no zero in the first 31 digits of π - Caitlyn
Tara Tracks
This week is our second week of online learning at Tara, and in order to keep spirits up we have started an initiative called 'Tara Tracks'. This involves girls sending in song requests along with the reason why they have chosen to share this song with everyone. Each day one of these 'Tara Tracks' is then sent out to the girls so we can all connect, even whilst we are physically apart. The girls have been enjoying the songs as a way to break up the online school day with music to give them energy and lift their spirits.
So far we have listened to tracks such as ABBA's ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘When You Believe’ sung by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, with many more to come!
DJ T-Dogg (Tanisha K) and DJ Igor (Mr Hoy)
Sport News
Rhythmic Gymnastics News
Congratulations to Nikhita G and Janice Y for their performances at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Levels 5-8 Trial #1 held on 5-6 June at Shire Gymnastics, Kirrawee. The gymnasts received top six placings for their routines across rope, hoop, ball and ribbon routines:
Nikhita G (Level 7 Snr) placed 5th in Ball, 3rd in Ribbon and 6th overall; and
Janice Y (Level 8 Jnr) placed 2nd in Rope, 1st in Ball, 2nd in Ribbon and 2nd overall.
Well done and good luck in the preparations for the next competition!
NSW Basketball
Congratulations to Abbey V, Year 9, who has just been selected to receive a NSW Basketball Leadership Scholarship 2021/2022 from NSW players aged 15-22 years.
The 12 month scholarship program aims to provide education and specialised training to develop advanced skills in basketball, teamwork, interpersonal skills and knowledge of the game as a whole. Abbey will be entrusted to impart these gained skills into the next generation of basketballers at the conclusion of the program.
Throughout the 12 month program she will be undertaking education sessions on leadership, basketball career pathways, wellness and media relations. She will also have access to speak with professional athletes, and will take part in a FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Women’s World Cup Event (Sydney 2022). Well done Abbey - such a fantastic opportunity for you!
CIS Touch Football
Congratulation to Cameron K, Year 10 on her selection in the 2021 CIS Open Touch Football Team. This is a tough competition and is a testament to Cameron's skill and dedication to the sport. Fabulous result Cameron!
CIS Cross Country
Congratulations to Belita K, Year 7 on her amazing result at the CIS Cross Country carnival in June at Eastern Creek. Belita came 6th overall and 5th out of the IGSA Schools that were represented. An outstanding effort!
Careers News
Careers Newsletters
Mrs Michelle Williams - Careers Coordinator
Congratulations to the many Year 12’s who have already received some Early Offers from universities and colleges!
All girls are encouraged to apply now for multiple early offer programs. See details in the UAC Summary below.
UAC Early Offers Summary https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/documents/ug-fact-sheets/ug-fact-sheet-early-offer-schemes.pdf
Many institutions which are not part of UAC, also offer Early Entry Programs. See relevant websites for application criteria and key dates.
Girls are encouraged to see the Early Entry Summary Chart and links to universities and colleges on the Careers Canvas page.
Careers Newsletter - 15 July 2021
Careers Newsletter - 22 July 2021
For more information please contact Mrs Michelle Williams via email.