Welcome back to another exciting school year at Campbell Town District High School.

I am so pleased to be here in Mr Flanagan’s absence until mid August. I appreciate the warm welcome I have received by staff, students and families and need to say that I am thoroughly impressed with the way staff and families have supported our young people to have a smooth and productive start to the year.

I want to formally welcome new staff to CTDHS in 2025:

Mr Scott Brown (Grade 5 teacher)

Ms Mai Hoang (Teacher intern)

Ms Alice Healey (Speech Therapist)

Ms Jo Kohler (Social Worker)

In addition to our new staff, we also welcome back two staff from leave. Miss Kelsey Maconachie is returning as our kindergarten teacher and Mrs Lyrae Rattray is returning as our Safeguarding Lead and Grade 5 teacher for one day a week.

We have had a very productive and positive start to the school year and I am pleased with the way students are settling into positive learning routines. Of particular note is the way that all teachers are embracing our approach to structured literacy with gusto. This approach saw significant growth in students’ reading results in 2024 and students’ positive adoption of these new routines is admirable.

2025 priorities:

CTDHS will continue to build on the good work of previous years to implement a common instructional model and our structured approach to reading. Attendance and Safeguarding continue to be an area of attention too.

Visit from the Minister for Education

It was a pleasure to host The Honourable Jo Palmer MLC, Minister for Education this afternoon. The Minister was able to tour our new Ag Building and also to learn about the exciting and rich learning underway in our classrooms. I thank our student leaders for their participation in this event and will provide a full report in a future newsletter.

Attendance:

One of the greatest predictors of success at school is regular attendance. Students are much more likely to be successful at school if they attend at least 90% of the time. Please reach out to a member of our staff if you need any support with maintaining regular attendance and please continue to notify our office of any unavoidable absences.

Student success:

A few days ago I had the great pleasure of joining a Grade 7/8 literacy class. I was so thankful for the way Ms Hodge and Mr Martin were supporting students and for the rich learning they were leading. Students were working on descriptive language (metaphor in particular) and were working in groups to incorporate prompt words into a piece of creative writing. I was so impressed that Sapphire, Izzy, Makayla and Atiria were able to write this descriptive piece in four minutes:

He sat there empty and alone. He felt like he had no place to call home, and if he was to return who would be there for him.

Who knew the feeling of losing someone would make you feel so distant. He sat, cold and staring at a sorrowful grave

where she lies abandoned, although peaceful and resting.

Past student success:

Today, I also want to acknowledge and celebrate past students who have gone on to achieve much success at Newstead College. They both received awards at the College’s recent awards ceremony:

Danielle Smith

• Ampol All Rounder Award
• Public Education Foundation Tertiary Teaching Scholarship
• Academic Excellence ATAR 80-89
• Athlete Development 2 - Subject Award
• Sociology 3 - Subject Award

Newstead College tells me that Danielle's journey at Newstead College has been marked by her outstanding leadership, commitment to service, community, and achievements in sport and academics. She balances her sporting, academic and community responsibilities with exceptional dedication. As Captain of her club netball team and Vice-Captain of the Newstead College netball team, she motivates her peers and actively fosters team spirit. Congratulations Danielle.

Olivia Holt

• TASC Outstanding Achievement in VET (Vocational Education & Training) Award.
• Vocational Education & Training Award for Certificate II in Retail Cosmetics 
• Contemporary Art Practice 2 - Subject Award
• Design and Production 2 - Subject Award

Olivia Holt performed to a high standard in all aspects of the Certificate II in Retail Cosmetics. She is now undertaking an apprenticeship at Prospect Hair and Beauty. Congratulations Olivia.

Out and about in the school

It really is such a pleasure to be able to walk the grounds and hallways of the school on a daily basis. I see students engaged in play and then transitioning quicky into focused learning. Here are some of my favourite photos of the start to the 2025 school year.

They show students interacting with each other and staff positively and engaged in learning in classes. Please follow our Facebook account to see more.

Please reach out if I can be of any assistance.

In partnership,

David Bryant,

Acting Principal

Our school has appointed Lyrae Rattray as our Safeguarding Lead.  

Safeguarding Leads are appointed in every DECYP school and CFLC in Tasmania to help ensure children and young people are known, safe, well and learning. As Safeguarding Lead, Lyrae will enhance our efforts in promoting and nurturing a culture of safeguarding at our school. This will enable us to better support the wellbeing of all our students and reinforce the understanding that keeping children and young people safe is everyone's responsibility. By improving our safeguarding culture, we can create a safer and more supportive environment for all. Please support Lyrae in their new role! For further information on Safeguarding in Schools and CFLCs, please visit Keeping children safe through safeguarding - Department for Education, Children and Young People

At Campbell Town District High School we are committed to being a child-safe organisation and proud to support the Tell Someone campaign. We stand with the children and young people in our community and are committed to keeping children safe.

Children should feel safe and be safe in the places where they live, play and learn. Children need to be confident that they can speak up if something isn't right and trust that they will be heard and believed.

The ‘Tell Someone’ community awareness campaign provides information to the Tasmanian community about where to get support and report child sexual abuse.
It is a call to action and provides information on contacts for parents, children,caregivers and community members who want to make a report.

If you have seen or experienced something that doesn’t feel right, it could be grooming or abuse. Tell someone.

Further information and a list of available support services can be found on the website: https://tellsomeone.tas.gov.au 

Tell someone:  Speak to a trusted person at the school.

As we kick off the new school year, we want to remind our school community about the important requirements for volunteering at our school. 

To ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, it is mandatory for all volunteers to have their RWVP (Registration for Working with Vulnerable People) and to have completed the Our Obligations – Safeguarding Training 15-minute video before engaging with children and young people in a volunteer capacity at our school. Certificates for the training video are valid for 12 months from the date of completion. These steps are essential in helping us maintain a safe and
supportive environment for our children.  To apply for a Registration for Working with Vulnerable people, please visit Apply for registration to work with vulnerable people | Service Tasmania To complete the Our Obligations – Safeguarding Training 15-minute video please visit: Compulsory Safeguarding Training for Workers - Department for Education, Children and Young People Volunteers are a vital part of our school community, and we are excited to collaborate with you in the year ahead!

Lyrae Rattray

Safeguarding Lead

We have been very busy this week learning about our new routines and exploring our classroom. We have had many students enjoying our hair salon and magnetic blocks. Another favourite has been mat time where we have enjoyed stories and learning some new songs. If you have a Prep student at home, ask them to sing you some of our new songs!

Rachel Langiu

Teacher