It is with enormous pleasure we can announce that these seven students have won a TASC VET Outstanding Achievement Award for exceptional skill, ability and determination in the Agriculture and Horticulture industries. Kane, Seth and Sarah for their studies in Agriculture Certificate II, Ayden in Horticulture Certificate II and Patrick, Georgina and Crystelle for Certificate III in Agriculture. These students have been recognised by a panel of judges for outstanding achievement in their studies, including gaining their VET certificate and TCE. The panel noted the exceptional leadership demonstrated both educationally and within the wider community.
Lilydale District School is bursting with pride to have seven recipients of this prestigious award. Seven Lilydale students are the top VET students in the state out of twenty three awarded in total statewide.

We all travelled to Hobart Town Hall and received a medallion and certificate from Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania.
Congratulations to you all, a huge honour to recognise your hard work and commitment.

We share some of our students with Launceston and Newstead College and both colleges send their congratulations.

Photo of Ms Stanfield and students waiting nervously outside Hobart Town Hall, we were sorry Seth couldn’t join us.

On the Thursday 4th of March, 10 very keen members of the Junior Leadership team along with Mrs Beament attended the Grip Leadership conference, held at the Tailrace Centre in Riverside.  The group were one of the first there, and ended up in the front row, which gave us a great view of all that was going on.  The day was split into 3 sessions.  Each session was designed to give us leadership inspiration to lead ideas back at school. 

The first session was called “It’s My Time”.  This section was for the group to explore the acronym T.I.M.E. and what it could mean.  This led to us finding out that the meaning was Talents, Interests, Making a difference and Experience.  The activities in this session had us mixing with other leaders in other schools and getting to know them.  As individuals and groups we reflected on what had been done by our past leaders, and found out what had happened with other schools past leaders.

Session 2 was about Time to take responsibility (which was how to be a strong leader, and putting others first) as well as Time for Bright Ideas.  We each came up with our own ideas, and then shared them with other people, and combined ideas.  Some of the things were looked at were a place to brighten the school, a way to help brighten how students feel and a way to help brighten students with their learning.   As a group we were brimming with ideas!

Session 3 was a Time to Plan.   We first came up with an idea and work out exactly how to enact it.  We look at how to talk to a teacher to get the idea started, as well as take on student and adult feedback in order to improve and implement the idea.

It was a fantastic day, and we all learned a lot about leadership, and how to be a good leader in a school.  The opportunity to meet grade 6’s from other schools and discuss ideas certainly helped us come up with some great plans for our school.  Declan, Chontelle, Grace, and Ashlen all got to go onstage to represent the school and their ideas and did a great job!

By Chontelle, Grace, Declan, Lilah, Jamie, Austin, Ashlen, Haylee, Zoe, and Hamish.

Student Leader Assembly

Earlier in the week we introduced our Student Leadership Group, both Juniors and Seniors in a whole school assembly.

Congratulations to the following students for taking on this role for 2021, we are certain you will to a wonderful job representing our students.

The Junior Leadership Group is made up of Zoe, Ashlen, Grace, Lilah, Haylee, Hamish, Chontelle, Austin, Jamie and Declan.

The Senior Leadership Group is made up of Brydee, Delaney, Broady, Arthur and Liam.

We will have the official opening of our new Early Learning space this Friday.  The Minister for Education and Training, Mr Jeremy Rockliff, will be our special guest.  It is exciting to finally formalise these works and to celebrate the wonderful opportunities that these building works and refurbishment are offering our school and wider community.  We know how important quality learning environments are as part of an overall learning package, and we have been exceptionally pleased with how we have been able to collaborate and refine our ideas to create this space, including our wonderful play space.

We trust everyone had a restful long weekend and that all our students and staff are ready for the remainder of the term.  It is important to reflect regularly not only on what we are doing and why we are doing it but also on the effectiveness of our initiative.  Whilst we are supporting student well being and ensuring safety during students’ time at school it is learning that is our fundamental priority. 

For a large percentage of our students at Lilydale, the learning that they are offered is engaging and purposeful but to allow learning to be highly effective we need the right amount of “ingredients” to be put together at the correct time to have successful short and long term outcomes.  Firstly, we need students who are ready to learn.  We have been using a range of strategies, including Ready to Learn scales, in classrooms to assist students to think about and indicate to their teacher, their readiness to learn.  This metacognition (thinking about our thought processes) is helping students increase their independence with their learning and emotions and allow them to identify strategies that assist in returning them to a positive cognitive space that supports their learning.

Our staff, who are knowledgeable, planned and supportive, are being learners too.  They have been participating in spaced Professional Learning, revising their understanding of student development and need and reviewing new strategies to assist them to help students.  Staff are structuring lessons to establish ways of working that have clear organisation, explicit learning intentions and consistent and predictable routines for our learners.  We have been strategically using brain breaks to try to maximise the thinking and application of students to facilitate effective learning.

We are also focussed on celebrating successes and recognising student achievement.  It was great to be involved with our assembly last week to induct our senior and junior student leaders.  We are excited to see what they have learnt at their respective GRIP conferences on Thursday and Friday last week and how they can use this to make a difference during the year.  We are hoping that their impact will be a real positive for our school community.

Colin Pearson – Principal

Last week we held our Primary and Secondary Swimming carnivals. The weather gave us a challenge on the Primary day with it raining, hoodies going on and needing to head back to school early. The Secondary day was the opposite- sun was shining, the BBQ cooking and the tans were happening.  Whilst some grade groups lacked participation numbers those who joined in had a productive day.

We had 1 record over the 2 days which was Charlie in the Grade 7 Girls 1 lap Backstroke. She broke her sister Christie’s record of 19.76 from 2016.  Charlie swam a brilliant 19.60 to get her name in the record book. Although it was bittersweet, it was fantastic to see the record stays in the family.

It was particularly pleasing to note the large number of supportive parents who attended on the days, even under the strict guidelines due to Covid.  Thank you for your support, encouragement of all swimmers, entertainment and even coffee for PE staff one day.

Thank you to all the student leaders who helped at both carnivals, to all our teachers for their efforts on the day and of course the PE staff for their organisation and running of the 2 days.

Our Champions were the following:

Year 3 Girls	Bede	Year 3 Boys	Kaiden
Year 4 Girls	Jade	Year 4 Boys	Louie
Year 5 Girls	Olivia	Year 5 Boys	Cale
Year 6 Girls	Zoe	Year 6 Boys	Ryan
Year 7 Girls	Charlie	Year 7 Boys	Harry
Year 8 Girls	Thylacine	Year 8 Boys	Joe
Year 9 Girls	Kaitlyn	Year 9 Boys	Rafferty
Year 10 Girls	Delaney	Year 10 Boys	Kye

With the house championships, Corinna gained a solid early lead and maintained it throughout both days. This was due to their high participation rate during many of the age groups. Congratulations to Corinna.

We look forward to a positive day at the Division 2 Swimming Carnival at The Launceston Aquatic Centre on 29 March 2021. Please note there are no spectators allowed this year unfortunately.,

More details to come as to the team for the Tamar Primary Swimming carnival to be held in Term 4.

PE Staff

Our Kinder kids are just so adorable, we need to share some more first day photo's with you all. Enjoy!

2021 School Photo Day is on Thursday, 18th March, (next week!). Students envelopes have been distributed to students via their classroom teachers. Please return the envelope as soon as possible with your child or to the school office.

Last week, students in high school and primary school were fortunate enough to participate in first aid training provided by  St John’s Ambulance. The students were able to learn what to do in an emergency, how to administer CPR and also how to use a defibrillator.

School Banking is a fun, interactive and engaging way to help teach your child the importance of saving. Children who deposit money into their Youthsaver account through School Banking will earn an exciting reward everytime they reach 10 deposits.

The rewards available during 2021 are: 

School Banking is also a great fundraiser for our school. Our school receives a Regular Savers Contribution of $5 for every 10 deposits processed per student as well as an Annual Contribution which is based on the number of students who made at least one School Banking deposit in the prior year. For more information about contribution payments, visit www.commbank.com.au/sbinfo .

Getting involved in School Banking is easy!

All you need to get involved in the School Banking program is a Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account. You can open an account for your child in one of two ways: 

1. Online

Visit www.commbank.com.au/schoolbanking  and click on the link to open a Youthsaver account.

2. In branch

Visit a Commonwealth Bank branch with identification for yourself and your child, like a driver’s licence and birth certificate.

If your child has an existing Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account they can start banking straight away. They just need to bring their deposit in every week on School Banking day using their Dollarmites deposit wallet.

If you would like to know more about School Banking, please ask for a 2021 School Banking program parent guide from the school office or visit www.commbank.com.au/schoolbanking

Hillwood Mini League

Training commenced for the Hillwood Mini League on Thursday, 18th February at the Hillwood Recreation Ground for the 2021 season.

We are looking for any interested football players between the ages of 8-11 to join us to play in the Tamar Valley Mini League.

Training will be from 5:00pm-6:00pm at the Hillwood Recreation Ground.

Under 12s games are played every Saturday morning at 9:00am or 11:15am at Beaconsfield Football Ground.

It is a great competition which is played on a full ground with AFL rules. It is a fantastic opportunity for the kids to develop their skills and love of football.

New and present players all welcome. Please contact Shane Crawford on 0438 624 626 or via the Hillwood Sharks Mini League facebook page for more information.

Friends of the Library Book Sale

Friends of the Library, Launceston’s Annual Library Book Sale will be held on Saturday 13 March 2021, 9.00am – 1.00pm at St Ailbe’s Hall, 46 Margaret Street, Launceston.

This is Launceston’s best book sale with a wide range of good quality donated secondhand books – crime, thrillers, science fiction, romance, children’s, cooking, health, travel, crafts, gardening, sports, war, DVDs, collectables and Tasmaniana – all at rock bottom prices.