Dear Families,

As we complete the Term 3 Learning Plan Meetings, we are excited for the learning journey our students are on this term.  Our Grade 9 students are approaching their planning with greater confidence as they draw on their experiences from Terms 1 and 2. 

Jennifer Kendall, our School Business Manager has returned from five months leave. We welcome her back.

External School Review

During the final week of Term 2, our school was reviewed by an external panel.  The Four-Year Annual Review Process applies to all schools and colleges and is in place to support principals and schools improve student outcomes.

The external panel spoke with students, staff, parents and our community partners.  They observed classes, staff collaborative planning and attended LTIs.  I would like to thank all involved for their contribution.  At the completion of the review, we received a report including key affirmations and key improvement strategies.

Key affirmations identify effective practice that has a positive impact on improvement, and key improvement strategies indicate the school’s priority focus areas in the next four-year planning period.  We were very pleased for the key improvement strategies to support the continuing of our current work. 

Our key affirmations support the progress we have made as we strive to live the Big Picture philosophy, “one student at a time in a community of learners” by delivering all of the design, all of the time, all of the way through.  The key affirmations from the school review included:

	There is a strong commitment from all members of the school community to the Big Picture philosophy and design.
	Students, staff and families describe a strong sense of connectedness and optimism that is supporting a sense of belonging.
	Students value that they have opportunities to have a voice in all aspects of the school, including their individual learning.
	Assessment of student work is highly personalised, based against six assessment frames, supporting strong student agency.
	The school has established mutually beneficial partnerships with the local and wider community with the express purpose of improving outcomes for students.

UTAS High Achiever Program (HAP)

This year we have had students enrolled in a range of UTAS HAP units.  Semester 1 results arrived at the beginning of term, with a number of our students receiving passes, credits, distinctions and high distinctions.  We are very proud of their efforts and the way in which our students embrace these learning opportunities.  Congratulations to the following students for their successful completion of the following units:

School Association

On Monday the 4^th of August we will be holding our next School Association Meeting.  This is a great opportunity for parents to be actively involved and engaged with our school.  We welcome and encourage new members.  The meeting will be held at 4:30pm at the LBPS.  I hope to see you there.

Thanks,
Cindy

Cindy Johnston
Principal 

We want to acknowledge the businesses that have supported our Learning Through Internship Program!

Launceston Big Picture School appreciates the support of the businesses who have offered a Learning Through Internship placement. We look forward to working with those businesses in the future.

If your business would like to find out how to become involved in our Learning Through Internship Program, please contact Mel Van Asperen via email on melanie.van.asperen@decyp.tas.gov.au

Pride Day

On July 3^rd, some of our students hosted a Pride Day event at school to celebrate our LGBT+ community.

Student leaders, Harvey, Rory and Annie, worked on creating some themed activities as well as a ‘Queer Icon’ themed dress-up.

Continuing from last years' event the Pride Day celebrations supported awareness and acceptance of LGBT+ people. Students took the opportunity to use chalk and draw the various Pride flags on the ground out the front of the school.

The organisers are grateful to those who participated and hope the event can continue in 2026.

June is traditionally Pride Month because of the Stonewall Riots in the US on June 28^th 1969, where people protested against a police raid at the Stonewall Bar – known as a popular Gay Bar.

Attendance Lunch

During the last week of school, we hosted our end of term Attendance Lunch to celebrate high attendance and significant improvement in attendance.

This term we had 57 students invited to the attendance lunch. There were 50 students whose attendance exceeded 80% and 7 students who had demonstrated significant improvement in their attendance.  Congratulations to all who were invited.  A huge thanks to the catering team for providing a fantastic meal for our students.

Cindy Johnston

Principal

Picture by Alex

David Claridge

10A Advisor

Term 3 Learning Plan Meetings

Thank you to all students, families and staff who participated in the Learning Plan meetings. All of our young people have made a plan for their learning and are going to do some exciting projects this term!

Marianne Olsen

Assistant Principal

Dungeons and Dragons

With TA Ash O’Kane away for the second half of Term Two there have been some big shoes to fill for a group of students who look forward to her story telling and planning behind wonderful adventures every Friday afternoon in Active Learning.

Enter Dave, a D&D novice who played a few games five years ago…

I tried to run a campaign when I started here last year, and the students weren’t interested. Since then, I observed and occasionally join in.

I challenged myself to step in for Ash while she was away. Talking to her and Alaska, another Dungeon Master, I received a lot of good advice. The best was “stick to what you know”. So I fired up the 3D printers to make some buildings and created a campaign around something I knew a lot about – fire.

The first session had the players starting in an inn, late at night. It took a few turns before they realised that the village outside was under threat by a fire.

Players got to work using ingenious methods to stop the fire spreading, some ideas made things worse due to bad dice rolls while others explored the village to find buckets to access their water source and tried to save the locals. Experimenting with potions and magic had a mixture of outcomes.

After four sessions and a variety of students participating, the feedback I got was wonderful. It has inspired me to potentially step in and offer a group moving forward, allowing students more variety in their gaming experience.

David Claridge
10A Advisor

Library

Great to see our library space coming together. A huge thanks to Hayley for making this happen. Book Week is just around the corner - thanks to Ghost, Ruby and Bryah for getting our school ready for this.

Jewellery Making

We have continued to enjoy getting creative in Jewellery whilst having informative discussions about a range of topics and ideas. We have set new goals this term linked to our learning goals.

Students are enjoying expanding their skills and working with a range of materials that they may not have preferred previously.

There is also planning in place for a second group of students to work with Fimo Clay this term. This will be an exciting opportunity to explore our creativity and to work on our fine motor skills.

Mel Tyson
Teacher Assistant

Connection, Respect, Responsibility, Growth, Courage

We are always looking for ways to reward positive behaviour at our school.

Students and staff are encouraged to nominate those people who have shown Connection, Respect, Responsibility, Growth and Courage.

Winners receive a voucher to dine at Cafe Red and our winners this month are:

• Jay: Growth & Responsibility - For being responsible
• Lydia: Responsibility - For being responsible

Distinguisher 8: Everyone's a Leader

In Big Picture Schools, leadership is shared among the principal, staff, students, family, and community partners. Opportunities for leadership are created for everyone.

We would like to congratulate our Teacher Assistants who have been nominated for the Australian Teacher Assistant Awards. They have been nominated in the ‘Team’ section and show their leadership everyday in our school.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Please ensure your student keeps their school polo top in their bag or keeps it safe in their Advisory room at all times.

It is compulsory for students to wear their school uniform when attending school excursions, interviews, LTIs or if they are representing the school at events. 

Uniforms can be purchased from the school office and are sold at cost price:

• Polo Shirts with school logo = $30 
• School Hoody with school logo = $65

Any pre-worn uniform donations would be very much appreciated and are used in our emergency uniform/clothing pool.

COMMUNICATION & USEFUL LINKS

I would like to remind families of some useful links and apps that you may use to assist with receiving communication from our school.

• SMS Only - 0427 016 460 to report student absences, please send a text to our short message service
• Schoolzine App & Newsletter - Our newsletter is published at the end of every month through Schoolzine. Schoolzine is an app that allows you to communicate with the school, receive notices and newsletters

2025 Student Leaders 

Our Newsletter

Thank you to those people who have signed up to receive an electronic copy of our newsletter! I certainly hope that you enjoy reading it!

If you haven’t subscribed, please use the link below to do so:

If you are involved in a community organisation and would like to advertise in our newsletter, please contact our office. Where possible, we will be happy to assist.

Thank You

Just want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the Launceston Big Picture School students who have contributed to this month's newsletter; we really do enjoy reading your articles and stories of your personal progress.

If students have stories they would like to share, then please email your news items to me jennifer.kendall@decyp.tas.gov.au

Jennifer Kendall
School Business Manager