From the Head of Secondary 29.08.2020
School has been very busy this week with the focus on student leadership. Mr Baxter has designed and volunteered for a new role this year, that of House Coordinator. Instead of having teachers as House Mentors, these roles will be taken on by students, and as I write this elections are happening for various roles within the House system. The overall goal is give more students the opportunity to experience and practice the skills associated with leadership and enable them to take a more active part in the school community. Next week we will also be starting the process of selecting school Prefects and the opportunity to apply will be offered to Years 11, 12 and 13.
Many thanks to all parents for supporting the students in bringing laptops to school for lessons. This is now school policy for Years 10 upwards, and during this time when some lessons are being delivered electronically by our ‘still to arrive’ new teachers Years 7 to 9 have also been very responsible not only in bringing their devices, but in using them sensibly and responsibly in lessons.
Mr Hallas, our new Deputy Head of Secondary/Head of Sixth Form has been very active from a distance. This week he has been meeting virtually with each student in Year 13 and discussing with them their career choices and university applications. This is a vital part of a process for these students as they begin to firm up on their decisions, complete their research, ensure they are aware of any university deadlines, and make sure that all their paperwork is in order, in particular their personal statements. The goal is to have a first draft of this completed by the end of September so they can make good use of the time during the Careers Days [1st and 2nd November] to finalise this important document. At the same time, we will be compiling school references, which will be submitted at the appropriate time to the universities.
You may remember reading an article written by Tiggi Mornington Sanford in a June newsletter entitled ‘Against all the Odds’. Tiggi recounted her experience in helping to rescue turtle eggs and delivering them to the Kudat District Turtle Association (KDTA). Tiggi promised to come back and give us the final episode of the story….. and now we have it! Please read on to see what happened to over one hundred marble sized turtle eggs!
And well done Tiggi!
Margaret Renshaw
Deputy Principal/Head of Secondary
The Miracle of Life
They crawled out of the briny sand and were met by the late afternoon sunlight, scuttling around desperately trying to find the sea only to discover that they were in a confined area.
Ninety eight tiny droplet shaped identical green turtles that had incubated in their white golf ball size egg shells for only 45 days.They were like the perfect pearl inside an oyster shell.
The tiny baby turtles were collected carefully and put in to a big container to keep them safe for the night ready for the release the next day.
On a rainy Sunday afternoon at 4:30pm a small crowd had come to watch the turtles being released into the big unknown sea.
Roland, from the Kudat Turtle Conservation Society (KTCS), brought out the turtles, still safe in their container. KTCS staff walked the container around the crowd so that everyone was allowed to see the baby turtles and take photos. By the time everyone had seen them they were all scuttling about because the light from the sun had woken them all up, even though the sun was beginning to set. They were now trying to get out of the container, climbing over one another and flipping themselves over and wriggling about.
The turtle conservation man slowly and carefully tipped over the container and out came 98 turtles at super baby turtle speed racing one another to the wavy sea. In no time at all some of them had reached the ocean whilst others got confused and went back up the beach or to the sides. Some people, who wanted to see them make the start of their journey of a lifetime, followed them out into the sea with a camera whilst others watched the confused turtles being directed back towards the ocean. After a short few minutes they were all in the sea, swimming away from their birthplace out into the unknown depths of the ocean. Hopefully, if they are lucky enough to survive, then they may return one day to lay their eggs but not for another 20 to 30 years!
Sadly most of them won’t because of predators.
People say that for every batch of turtles released into the ocean roughly only 1% will survive. Most of the things that kill them or harm them are from humans. Fishermen catch them in their nets and they drown or they sell the turtle for food.
The turtles also think that plastic bags are jellyfish and they eat them and their stomach gets clogged up and they die of starvation. They also get plastic straws up their noses, plastic stuck around their necks or fins or are just caught in ocean pollution.
It has been an amazing privilege to see them being dug up from their original nest on the beach and taken to the turtle hatchery and then to watch them being released in to the great unknown.
Tiggi Mornington Sanford
