The Don College Musical Production, School of Rock, has been an absolute highlight for Term 2, 2023. I acknowledge the superhuman efforts of our staff and students to bring such a high calibre, quality production to the stage. Consistent with the culture of Don College, School of Rock celebrates the diverse strengths and competence of individuals. We have diversity in our staff and students and we encourage students to exploit their interests and work in the areas where they feel most confident and ‘alive’. I am amazed by the talents of our students and their capacity to excel in these really complex roles. Congratulations to all involved.

We have been really fortunate to have some visiting exchange students for the past six months: Lucia, Sophia and Hannah from Argentina and Samanta and Sara from Italy will, sadly for us, return to their countries next week. They are very brave to embark on their exchanges and I thank them for travelling all the way to Tasmania and enriching our lives with their enthusiasm, joy and deep interest in international events. Taking inspiration from Dr. Suess, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

Here are some heartwarming comments from the exchange students about their time in Tasmania and at Don College:

"Tasmania is a beautiful place full of great experiences and even better people, I had the time of my life here."- Sofia

"Thank you Don College for making these months so unique. We gonna miss everything and getting lost around the school for the infrastructure."- Samanta

"The teachers always helped me whenever I need it, the also explain me all the things as many times I need it. Because of my outdoor education class I been in beautiful places, so I’m really grateful with my teachers because without them I would not be able to be in those places or have some experiences that I had with them like the camp. All my classmates were really friendly, they always made me feel comfortable."- Lucia

This term has seen a lot of illness among staff and students. We hope that the holiday break will provide opportunity for rest and recovery and we hope to see an improvement in our attendance rates next term. We understand that staff and students must stay away from school if they are symptomatic. We hope the worst of the winter bugs is over and in Term 3 we can flourish.

Don College Association

We invite interested parents and carers to be a part of our school community and have a voice. Our School Association meets once a term. If you are interested in meeting with other members or hearing more about the Don College Association, please call Dee King on 6424 0200.

In introduction to Psychology and Sociology the subject of psychological development has been analysed and explored through a variety of beneficial activities and learning opportunities.

One major focus area our class has been investigating is the impact of deprived environments in childhood on psychological development. After watching an insightful Turning Point episode, Romania: What happened to the children? the real impact of a lack of cognitive, emotional, social, and physical stimulation in infancy/childhood became apparent.

This was followed with an assignment in which our class could exhibit their understanding on deprived and enriched environments, their differences, and effects on psychological development. Additionally, a variety of other imaginative and productive activities have been completed throughout this unit. These included making brain hats to extend our understanding of the brain and playing the Brain Architecture Game, which involved making brain towers out of pipe cleaners, straws and mini weights; demonstrating the relationship between environmental and genetic impacts on psychological development.

Although many of our towers did not go as planned and our brain hats did not stay together, these activities opened our eyes and furthered our understanding of psychological development. Moreover, this enjoyable unit has allowed us new insight into the world of psychology and some of its many aspects.

Written by Intro to Psychology student, Paige Smith. 

The Maths team has been busy teaching a wide variety of Maths courses as every student is after their Numeracy tick and working on their maths at a level appropriate to them.

One of the courses is Maths Specialised, taught by Tino Delbourgo. This course is aimed at students who have already achieved highly in their previous pre-tertiary algebra intensive maths course and is especially relevant for preparing students who are interested in science or engineering at university; although it is also a popular subject for students intending to study Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary Science as it helps them gain a high score to enter these competitive university programmes.

Don students have been learning about a variety of different topics within the course. One of these is called Sequences and Series and it’s all about ways of doing repeated calculations to get approximate answers to solve complicated problems. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you press one of those “magic” buttons on your calculator that work out things like the square root, sin, cos, tan or log, then these students now know how. For example, how does the calculator know that the square root of 2 is approximately 1.41421? How would you work this out if you didn’t have a calculator with a square root button? That’s one of many topics we have been covering this year.

Students who study Maths Specialised need to be very confident of algebra.

Here is an example of a piece of student work solving a problem using proof technique called “mathematical induction”. You can see that we need to be able to break the problem into many small steps and these students know how to do this proficiently. There’s lots of study ahead and we wish all Maths students well in their upcoming assessments and, for those who are studying pre-tertiary subjects, their November external exam.

Above: Monte Bovill with Media Production students: Tobias Doherty, Kosta Mallios and Jacob Lake

ABC news reporter and UTAS Bachelor of Media graduate Monte Bovill visited Don College this term, speaking to students interested in a media pathway.

Monte, who recently accepted a six-month contract to work at the newsroom in Parliament House, Canberra, has until now, been working as a reporter for the ABC.

He began working casually for the news broadcaster before graduating, and then accepted a full-time position based in the Burnie office, working across the North-West Coast of Tasmania. He said working for the ABC was a unique situation.

“We work across every platform. We have radio, television, print and online,” he said.

“One of the challenges is that we are losing audiences across ordinary platforms. News audiences are diving because people aren’t watching anymore.”

Despite the difficulty of reaching audiences through traditional means, he said that online access to news was gaining popularity. For reporters like Monte, this means he needs to be across all forms of media, applying knowledge of video, radio and print journalism to create content for their platforms.

Monte said that his time at UTAS as a Bachelor of Media student prepared him well for his career choice.

“University gave me the opportunity to choose units and structure my course in the way I wanted to do it,” he said.

He said that for this degree, in the first year, it was considered a foundation year. Different units were focused on various areas of media. The media production unit, for example, provided the opportunity to film and use a camera. There were also screen writing units and a public relations unit which gave Monte the opportunity to experience different media platforms and career paths.

Monte described the second and third year of the course as an opportunity to refine work from the first two years of the course and to choose a focus for a media career.

“By the end of the course, you can get a huge portfolio of work together to show employers,” he said. 

Monte’s focus was to create a folio of news reports to show a prospective employer. This, along with his casual work for the ABC helped secure him a job in the industry of his choice. He said he loved journalism and intended to stick with it for as long as he could.

“Everyday is different, you never know what you are going to do. That’s what I love about the job. I find myself asking, what amazing place am I going to go to? Sometimes something will happen, and you will have to cover it, and then sometimes you have to come up with your own things.”

Thank you to Monte for visiting Don College and answering the questions students had about the course and journalism as a career. Good luck in Canberra!

This week, Don College celebrates NAIDOC Week.

At our Term 2 taypani Limilinaturi, Year 12 student Chloe Padmore shared with the Don College community the meaning of NAIDOC Week.

NAIDOC Week is all about positive dialogue and celebrating the histories, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with this year’s theme being “For Our Elders”.

On Friday, the Don College community held a fundraiser BBQ for Nayri Niara, raising $125 to donate to the enterprise. Nayri Niara is an Aboriginal-owned social enterprise located in Lutruwita/ Tasmania. They celebrate arts and culture through projects such as First Nations art exhibitions and youth mentoring programs. In the spirit of NAIDOC Week, this enterprise was student-selected as the recipient of the proceeds from our BBQ.

Thank you to student leaders, the Don College Support Staff and Loaves & Fishes for making this event happen.

After 16 years teaching English and living in Japan, UTAS pre-service teacher Emily Millar has returned to her home turf of North-West Tasmania to complete her teaching degree.

Emily has been completing her second teaching placement at Don College over Term 2 as part of the Master of Teaching course. She has been working closely with Japanese and Visual Arts students, and mentor teachers Karen Marshall, Lisa Garland, Sonia Van De Wolfshaar and Loralee Newitt to refine her teaching skills and to gain an understanding of real-world teaching expectations. She has already completed all the theoretical components of the course.

In the Japanese classroom, Emily said it was fantastic to see students engaging so willingly with languages.

“We have been looking at numbers and time, and revision of other elements for the exams. The students are lucky to have Karen, and I’m really appreciative that they’ve accepted me as someone new with different techniques and a different teaching style.”

In Visual Arts, she has been seeing how students work with their teachers to progress their ideas for the major works they are working towards.

“There are a lot of different mediums students are working with: ceramics, painting, photography. The students have also been developing skills in critiquing and developing their own ideas.”

Emily hopes that in her teaching career she will be able to bring her knowledge of Japanese culture and her artistic discipline of painting together to provide transdisciplinary learning for her future students.

“There’s so much more access to Japanese culture now so it would be great to look at those art forms in Japan.”

Emily said she has enjoyed her first experience within a senior secondary environment. She said while at times it felt overwhelming to cover all the outcomes required for students to meet the standards of the course, it was great to see students engaging so enthusiastically in their learning.

“What has been really heartening to see is that students are pursuing subjects they love and trying something new in some cases.’

We  thank Emily for her assistance this term and wish Emily all the best in the remainder of her degree at UTAS and into her career as a teacher.

On July 29-30 the Outdoor Leadership class went to Cradle Mountain National Park with teacher Andrew Jarman and pre-service teacher Sarah Morrison. The weather was wild, with strong winds. However, we were lucky enough to stay in 'The Scout Hut', a 45-minute walk from Ronny Creek carpark. The first day we braved the winds to walk up the steep track to Marion's Lookout. The second day saw the group walk in strong winds and rain to Kitchen Hut, Dove Lake and to the new Dove Lake Visitor Centre. The group then took the most direct track back up to The Scout Hut, as we were all a bit soggy.  This trip allowed the students to practice their leadership skills, navigation skills, and decision-making skills that had been discussed in class time. A most memorable trip was had by all. 

Contributed by Sarah Morrison.  

Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and wore shorts yesterday for Speak Up! Stay ChatTY’s Shorts Day. It was great to see so many staff and students wearing shorts and supporting this event.

As a school, we have raised $234.40 for Stay ChatTY. Through programs, events and community work, SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY delivers key messages across Australia about the importance of talking about mental health, getting help and supporting each other through tough times.

Don College AST Amy Best and the Student Leadership Group organised the event and were extremely thankful for everyone's generous donations.

Thank you to Cathy, Meredith, Ceinwen, Leah and Sarah (school support and school nurses) who organised the fruit and juices for students to enjoy at lunch on Thursday as part of raising awareness for mental health.