Dear Families,

Welcome back!

Our 2025 school year has started well.  Our students have started the year exceptionally well.  I would like to take this opportunity to remind families that attendance at school an expectation of Launceston Big Picture.  Being at school everyday on time ensures the best learning outcomes for your child – through social connection, developing strong personal work habits and maximising opportunities to grow their understandings and knowledge.  Please ensure you notify the school of any unavoidable absences.

Grade 9 Camp

Our Grade 9 students participated in a camp  in Week 2.  The camp gave students the opportunity to get to know each other and key staff.  Community culture is critical in Big Picture learning, learning from each other and with each other was a strong component of the camp.  The camp also gave students who are new to the Big Picture learning design the opportunity to learn about how we learn at Launceston Big Picture.  We are very proud of the students who participated in the camp and are very grateful to the staff who made the camp possible.

Out learning

Outlearning is a key component of our learning design.  Mel, our LTI coordinator has been kept very busy this term supporting our learners to connect with our community to establish connections and learning opportunities for our learners.  A large number of our learners are already learning in the community through our learning through interest and our learning through internship programs.

VET – Hospitality

This year we are offering Cert 1 and Cert 2 in Hospitality.  It is a great opportunity for our learners to build industry ready skills in out fantastic facility.  Marianne and Rob have been working very hard to get our VET program up and running. 

HAP Program

The University of Tasmania offers a High Achievement Program to our senior secondary learners.  It is a great opportunity for our learners to engage in tertiary studies in their area of interest.  This year there are 60 students across Tasmania participating in this program – 8 of these are our Launceston Big Picture learners.  Congratulations to our learners who have the courage to take on new challenges and to further their learning in this space.

New Staff

This year we welcome four new staff members to our team.

Vivienne Webb – SBM Term 1 and 2

Hayley Gangell – Grade 10 Advisory Teacher

Anthony Rosengren – Grade 9 Advisory Teacher

Carmel Morgan - Education Facility Attendant (EFA)

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

Scottsdale Aquatic Centre - School Picnic!

Dear families

We're bringing exciting news to you - Tom’s Year 12 students have organised a trip to the Scottsdale Aquatic Centre on the 7^th of March.

Letters have been sent home with everything you need to know. Please ensure that consent forms are completed and returned to school.

Senior Project Topics in Tom’s Advisory

WorkSafe Tas Reflection

On Tuesday the 18^th of February, Grade 11-12 students attended a presentation by Tim, a Work Health and Safety advisor, about being safe at work and what to do if things go wrong. He shared statistics, facts, videos and information about various aspects of the workplace, including injuries, deaths, common causes of injury, and the roles of different people when an incident happens. 

I learnt a lot about workplace safety in this session that I would not have known about otherwise. Under worker’s compensation in Australia, 122,000 people are injured at work a year and 200 deaths occur each year. These numbers alone are shocking to me – I thought such statistics would be lower. Information about who to talk to and who is responsible for the safety of a worker was provided, giving me an idea of how things will work when I do go into the workforce. I am glad I have obtained this knowledge as it will assist in me settling into a working environment in the future.

Overall, I found the presentation both entertaining and a great source of information for people like me who do not have a job, but also for those who are working. It was slightly rushed towards the end due to time constraints, but all in all I enjoyed learning about the workplace and how to stay safe.

Officeworks Excursion - Grade 9

It has been a busy start to the year for our Grade 9 learners participating in a broad range of activities in the first few weeks of term.

From Transition Week to Camp Clayton, Riverbend excursion and WorkSafe Tas presentations, we have been busy!! Amongst this we have explored our interests and organised the resources we will need for our learning, creating a shopping list and budgeting.

Grade 9 students visited Officeworks on the 20^th February and are now organised for Term 1. Eli has set up his work space with his resources in 9B Advisory and is enjoying the creative materials that he selected for his project.

Pancake Breakfast

Our Friday hospitality crew have not disappointed! What a way to start a Friday. Thanks Jesse, Ciara and Rob

Art - Artist Spotlight

Alex has started the year in Art with enthusiasm, creating a landscape painting during active learning. It has been wonderful to see Alex’s independent approach to exploring new skills and techniques. Alex’s style reflects the learning goal of empirical reasoning, as he is willing to challenge himself to be active and experiment through his creativity to reach his vision.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” Pablo Picasso

Dungeons and Dragons

Welcome Adventurers to another year of Dungeons and Dragons! There are many fantastical journeys to be had, intriguing characters to meet and friends to be made. As always, our intrepid young heroes are awaiting the beginning of their travels and the chaos that inevitably ensues.

For those of you who are new to the Dungeon and Dragons Universe here’s a quick summary of what this whole D&D thing is.

Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D, is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game set in an imaginary world often based on medieval myths. Players (or young adventurers) take on the roles of different characters and embark on quests. The Game is a story-lead affair run by the Game Master or GM (I am one of these GMs). The GM runs the game and is both friend and foe, creating worlds, weaving creative stories, characters and plots for the players to investigate and experience. Players work collaboratively to face the situations that the GM places in front of them and both the story and adventure unfolds from there.

So just a really simple straight forward game for your Friday afternoon fun.

This year as one of the GMs I am endeavouring to document the quests and inevitable shenanigans that happen each Friday afternoon and report them back to you, the young adventures guardians. I hope to share the laughter and joy that we get from playing D&D by sharing the highlights with you.

Until next time,
Your GM, Ash

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:

• Anika Kruijver: Responsibility & Growth - For working hard on draft one of your Learning Plan
• Jesse Gabel: Courage & Growth - For giving things a go at Riverbend

Big Picture Distinguisher: 3

Distinguisher #: Personalisation: One Student At A Time

Individual Learning Plans and the Learning Goals

Each student has different strengths, passions, interests, needs and learning preferences. Therefore, each student has a focussed, individual Learning Plan that is tailored to meet those individual interests and needs. This plan is the map of a student’s journey through their Big Picture school experience and will be at the forefront of all their work. The Advisory teacher ensures the Learning Plans focus on different Learning Goals throughout the year leading to a well-rounded educational plan.

At the Launceston Big Picture School, we set high standards for student work which culminates in a highly personalised Learning Plan.  The Learning Plan includes six Learning Goals that have been identified as the key for all students to become successful learners.  The Learning Goals cut across all learning areas, and do not distinguish between academic and vocational pathways. Students relate all the work they do in and out of school to this set of Learning Goals. Every student’s curriculum is created around personal interest. 

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