Reports

Future-focus

The Launceston Church Grammar School Board is delighted to oversee the development of the School’s Strategic Plan and Master Plan in this our 175th year.

The Strategic Plan will help set the priority areas and ensure we are working toward common goals and the Master Plan will inform the long-term built attributes and physical fabric of our School.

Within this edition of News from Launceston Grammar we feature an interview with the Master Plan Committee Chair, Rev James McKee about the exciting developments and initiatives to occur across our Junior and Senior Campuses. The Plan’s purpose is to ensure the School has thoroughly considered how to best use the spaces available to benefit and inspire future generations. We are seeking to engender a consistent vision which will bring our community together and deliver modern learning, teaching, and exciting play spaces.

Further to this, the purchase of over 5 000 square metres of land directly behind the existing East Launcestonbased Campus will see the expansion of our footprint by more than half of the Junior Campus’s current land size. The additional land will be incorporated into the Master Planning process and further enhance the opportunities for our students and staff to engage in active learning and recreation beyond the classroom.

Our School was founded at a time when Launceston was described as ‘a small town with a population of about 8 000 people’. Today, it is a thriving and diverse community built upon the determination, courage, and selfless actions of those who have gone before us.

I am encouraged to see the continuation of involvement by students in community service programs including the Breakfast Club, New Horizons Craft group for people with disabilities, and The Smith Family student2student reading program. These programs serve to highlight the community spirit and selflessness of our students. It is their genuine desire to look beyond themselves which manifests itself in positive experiences for our students, staff, parents, and the wider community.

Our staff, parents and alumni continue to deliver and support the excellent educational outcomes of our School, embracing diversity and inclusion within our community, and on behalf of the School Board, I thank and acknowledge you for your tireless efforts.

In this our 175th year, please join with us as we mark this milestone with a programme that commemorates our past, celebrates our present, and considers our future.

Nigel Bailey

Chair, Launceston Church Grammar School Board

Looking forward looking back.

When the founding fathers started the School in 1846 the world was a very different place.

A time when many referred to England as the mother country and we were not the nation of Australia but a series of colonies. I often wonder on that first day what the students, staff and parents thought would become of this small school located in a small island state. Fast forward to 2021 I also wonder what those students, staff and parents of 1846 would be amazed at, and what would be the similarities in comparison. In 1846 the School was looking to produce a progressive educational institution that allowed for children to be rounded citizens of the world. Those traits of curiosity in learning still underpin in 2021.

The role of the School is to help prepare students for a world that is uncertain and give them skills to enable them to navigate the many pitfalls and obstacles that they will face. I often reflect on a student from the early 1990s who went on to make a very successful online business. When they were a student there was no internet and they would have to go to a computer-lab to access technology. Today most of us carry in our pocket a computing device more powerful than a lab full of computers in the 1990s.

As an educator I know that the world our students will live in tomorrow will be vastly different from today. But what schools do is give them the skills and elasticity of thinking and imagination to enable them to solve the challenges they may face. Throughout our 175-year history we have seen students create airlines, the black box, operas, become great sports stars, leaders of their communities, Rhode Scholars and Nobel Laureates.

Looking forward and looking back we can say with pride that our students have a flexible set of skills to be adaptable in their thinking and do well in any generation. I read once that Franklin Roosevelt said, ‘We cannot prepare the future for our children, but we can prepare our children for the future’. For 175 years our School has and will continue to aim at doing just that; preparing our children for the future and helping them become the best version of themselves.

As we celebrate this significant milestone it is important to remember the milestones are made up of moments, and that for 175 years our students have forged a path into the world to make a better community locally, nationally, and globally. I know that the next 175 years will be equally as fruitful.

Nick Foster

Head of Senior Campus

Hope & joy.

Joining Launceston Church Grammar School as Head of the Junior Campus has been such a positive experience. The children, parents and staff have been warm and welcoming.

The recurring theme of conversations is the importance of ‘family’ and the very special nature of the ‘Launceston Grammar family’.

In a very short time, I have seen evidence of the Launceston Grammar family firsthand. The students show kindness and compassion through fundraising efforts, assemblies showcase how engaged they are in learning, a healthy spirit of competition and support can be seen at sporting events and concert performances give our young musicians a chance to showcase their talent, courage, and perseverance. Family and friends are supportive of the efforts of the children, and the staff have the children at the heart of all they do. There is a great sense of hope and joy on campus. In June, the School was authorised as an International Baccalaureate World School offering the Primary Years Programme (PYP). This is wonderful news and I congratulate the Junior Campus staff, Leadership Team and Claire Calvert, our PYP Coordinator for their diligent and collective work in enabling the authorisation to become a reality. In relation to the IB PYP, our current and prospective families will be interested in our philosophy, our resources, as well as the written, taught and assessed curriculum. Our students are engaged and happy learners, curious and challenged and increasingly aware of global issues. Our educators too, are committed to continuous learning and improvement.

By continuing to work together , we will be able to fulfil our goal to provide the best environment for our young people, to equip them with the skills they need to adapt to our rapidly changing world and to strengthen the sense of belonging and involvement of the whole Launceston Grammar family. In this, our 175th year, we deserve to be proud of our history, to enjoy the present and embrace the future with great optimism.

Sheona Carter

Head of Junior Campus