29 August 2025

Principal's Message

I acknowledge, with deep respect, the traditional custodians of this land, the mumirimina people and pay my respects to Elders past and present, to the Aboriginal people with us today and to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community who continue to care for Country.  I stand for a future that profoundly respects and acknowledges Aboriginal perspectives, culture, language and history.

Our School Values

Our Commitment:  In partnership with community, we provide a welcoming school of choice that inspires and supports all learners to succeed as connected, creative and curious thinkers.

Dear families,

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the families who joined us for Winter Fest and helped make it such a memorable celebration for our school community. Your presence and participation brought warmth and joy to the event, and it was truly wonderful to see our school come alive with laughter, fun, and a genuine sense of togetherness.

Winter Fest is more than just an event, it is a powerful opportunity to strengthen the partnerships between families, staff, and students. Your support reinforces the collaborative spirit that defines our school, where students thrive because they are surrounded by a network of caring adults who believe in them and in the shared vision of our school. These moments also help shape and celebrate our strong school identity. Winter Fest was a beautiful reminder of what we can achieve when we come together.

We thank our School Association for their ongoing support of this event. Planning is already underway for next year, and we cannot wait to build on this year’s success.

NAPLAN

At Sorell School, we have prioritised reading instruction and delivery for several years, establishing strong foundational pillars to support students in deeply understanding and comprehending a wide range of texts. Across all year levels, from our Early Years classrooms to our Year 11 & 12 VET programs, every student engages in consistent practice of word recognition and fluency techniques. These skills form the bedrock of successful comprehension and are embedded in our daily teaching.

As a result of this sustained and intentional focus, our school has made significant gains in reading achievement, surpassing similar schools. There have also been notable improvements in other learning areas such as writing and spelling. Sorell School now sits just below the Tasmanian average for medium to high gain, a testament to the hard work of our students and staff.

We are incredibly proud of our students and the outcomes they are achieving. Their progress reflects the strength of our approach and the commitment of our entire school community.

Kelly Dyer
Principal

https://www.facebook.com/SorellSchool
Email: sorell.school@decyp.tas.gov.au
Phone: (03) 6269 1100

ECE Campus

What a wonderful celebration we had for Book Week. It was fantastic to see the creativity and imagination shine through in the wide range of costumes worn by our students and teachers alike. From classic storybook characters to modern favourites, the parade was a real highlight and showcased just how much our community values reading and storytelling.

Our Prep classes also enjoyed a visit to the Sorell Library for story time, where they were able to immerse themselves in new stories and share in the joy of books together. The walk to the library added great excitement and the weather was perfect.

Alongside Book Week, our community lessons have been focusing on developing a growth mindset. Students are learning to acknowledge and talk about the feelings that come with challenges, while also building the confidence to try new things. These lessons are helping children see that mistakes and setbacks are a normal part of learning and can lead to new discoveries and successes.

We have also begun our Year 2 transition into the Year 3-6 space. As part of the process, students brainstormed a list of thoughtful questions to take with them to ask senior staff, helping them feel more informed and confident about the move. They also enjoyed a tour of the building, which gave them a sense of the exciting opportunities that await them next year. This is just one of many opportunities our Year 2 students will have to spend time in the space and interact with new staff, helping to ensure a smooth and supportive transition.

Teresa Spinks
K-2 Assistant Principal

Meet the ECE teaching team

Name: Mary Hepher

Role: Prep Teacher

How long have you been at Sorell School? Just over a year. I was an intern at Sorell school last year before graduating. Now I'm teaching full time on Prep.

Tell us something about yourself: I enjoy any excuse for a dance. In my spare time I like to read outside while I am kept company with my chickens and cat (Smokey). 

Year 3–6 Campus

It has been a busy and exciting time in the 3-6 space this term.

Book Week was a huge hit. The children looked amazing in their costumes. Thank you for all the effort you put in at home to help bring their favourite book characters to life. It was lovely to see the joy and creativity that books can inspire.

Winter Fest was a beautiful celebration of our school community. Families came together to enjoy music, food, face painting and the silent disco. Students created amazing artwork which was proudly on display throughout our building. A highlight in the 3-6 space was the treasure hunt and the smiles on everyone’s faces said it all. A big thank you to everyone who helped out or came along.

Our Year 5-6's have been busy with Winter Sports this term, including, football, soccer and netball and they have all showed great teamwork and resilience.

The next few weeks sees some of our classes participating in a variety of excursions and we trust they will represent our school with pride and bring home some new learning to share with families.

Bree Griggs
AST

5-6 Winter Sports

Year 5-6 students have been participating in football and netball as part of our winter sports roster this term. Students have displayed excellent sportsmanship and teamwork in these games. Our remaining games are Friday 12 September against Richmond Primary at Richmond and Friday 19 September against Rokeby Primary at Rokeby.

Year 7–8 Campus

The term is flying by in Year 7 and 8. This fortnight’s spotlight is on Maths. In Year 7, students are learning about measurement. This includes linear, area and volume. How does this relate to the real world? Measurement is used constantly in everyday life. In short: measurement makes maths practical - it is how we connect numbers to the physical world around us. In Year 8, students are about to start a new unit of work where they will be learning about statistics. This includes using various forms of data (map, satellite and street data) to understand trends. How does this relate to the real world? Understanding statistics help us to make sense of information and make better decisions. In short: statistics is how we understand the world through data - it helps us interpret information, make fair comparisons, and make smarter choices.

I would like to take this opportunity to discuss mobile phones. Department and school policy is, “Off and away all day”. This poses a challenge for some students, particularly those who use their phones frequently outside of school. In Year 8, we did some anecdotal gathering of data in relation to student screen time over the course of a week. Students averaged 3 hours per day. This equates to 21 hours per week – almost an entire day on a screen. Some students averaged 8 or more hours per day. Ask your children to look up their screen time and discuss it with them. Do you know what they are spending all their hours viewing on their mobile phones? When do they have a break from screens? We need students to take a break from their screens whilst at school. This gives them the opportunity to focus on other important tasks or skills like learning, filling their time during breaks and socialising, person to person. Mobile phones detract from these important school opportunities. Please support us in monitoring your child’s phone use. It will help them in the long term.

Congratulations to our Reclink netballers and inter-school chess participants that competed in their respective tournaments during the past fortnight. We achieved some amazing results. I would also like to congratulate Jayde and Laylah in Year 8 who won awards at their recent Best and Fairest evening at South East Junior Football Club. I would also like to congratulate Phoebe in Year 8 who was recognised by the Southern Tasmanian Netball Association for her contribution to the Junior Leadership Program. Keep the good news stories coming from the community.

Lauren Clements 
7-8 Assistant Principal

Meet the Year 7-8 teaching team

Name: Trish Fleming

Role: Year 7 Science and Year 8 Maths teacher

How long have you been at Sorell School? 2025

Tell us something about yourself: I like knitting

Success at Chess

Last Thursday the Sorell School Chess Club attended the Term Three BlackSquare Chess Interschool competition hosted by Rose Bay High School. A team of 15 student players represented us against over one hundred other students across the Eastern Shore division. Our team performed excellently across a big day of seven highly competitive matches. In a fantastic result, Sorell School placed second overall. This has qualified us to represent at the State Championships next term. Congratulations to all attending chess members – you have done Sorell School proud.

Year 9-10 Campus

Halfway through the term already and the Year 9's and 10's are really showing their ongoing push to achieve quality learning, striving to persevere and building a strong sense of belonging.  

One of the great advantages of being a K-12 school is when our older students get the opportunity to model for, mentor, and inspire our younger students. We have seen a few great examples of that over the past few weeks. The Book Week Parade is predominately seen by our Year 9-10's as for the younger students but this year we had an amazing group of students who took on the challenge, dressed up and joined the primary grades to show them that celebrating reading of good books is not just for the younger ones.  As reading is our focus across the whole school, it is great to see our older students modelling the joy reading a great book can have.

We have also had students volunteer to assist and umpire primary interschool sports, helping to ensure our younger students have the opportunities to participate in sport like they had when they were in primary. It is also fantastic to see and hear some of our older students during their breaks, take the time to play handball, kick a footy or just chat with the younger students too.

Last week, our Tourism class got the opportunity to explore MONA and evaluate its cultural significance, its appeal, its visitor experience and its effect on Tasmania tourism. We look forward to sharing some of their photo stories, evaluations and reflections.

Finaly in this edition of “What did you learn at school today?”, Year 9 HASS is starting a unit of work on our federation and the federal government and looking at the history of our government. Hopefully Year 9 students will be able to answer questions around Why did the Australian States decide to form a federation? What does "Federation" mean in Australian history? What are the advantages of having a Federation?

Keep up the great work 9-10's.

Jamie Harwood 
9-10 Assistant Principal

Reclink Netball Competition

Three teams from Years 7 to 10 proudly represented us in the recent Reclink netball competition last week. The players showed fantastic teamwork, skill, and sportsmanship throughout the tournament, delivering some truly exciting matches. Although we didn’t make it to the finals, the experience was a great opportunity for growth and camaraderie and we are already looking forward to coming back stronger next time.

Winter Fest 2025

This was an amazing community event filled with fun, food and artwork. It was great to see so many families dancing in the disco, getting their faces painted and everyone coming together as a community to see all the amazing things happening at Sorell School. The secondary artwork was very impressive with many students having work on display.

A special thank you to Lillian and Harlee in Year 8 who were the creative directors behind the ‘In the winter garden’ break out spaces in the Year 7 hub. Congratulations to all those students who submitted work for display, the terrariums and aurora artwork looked fantastic.

Mel Symmons
Art Teacher/Year 9 AST

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Year 11–12 Campus

The preliminary enrolment process for Year 11-12 has started to wind down now. Most students should have selected their subjects for next year but if they haven’t it is a good time to make contact with your preferred school to start the process. Subjects are all still open so the choices are still available and changes can be made well into Term 4 if you change your mind. We will also be starting a longer transition process with our year 9's so they can get ahead with their choices for 2027. We are aiming to have them visit our TTC early next term to start conversations and get people thinking to help with all of their future choices.

Brody Walker
11-12 Acting Assistant Principal

Certificate II in Cookery - Year 11 & 12

Are you in Year 11 or 12 in 2026?

VET Course registrations NOW OPEN

Certificate II in Cookery

Register your interest using the link:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=xzq-qWAMHkmLO6Mvj0auyC_GMI7VHEZEugAXSRLkLLJUMlJLMFhCVVNBVkxCVDNBMFJEN0laTEZRUC4u

Fortnightly School Calendar of Events

Book Club - Issue 6