Author Archives for Donna Jackson

A RECORD dating from the last century was among 19 broken at The Armidale School’s swimming championships over three days last week, culminating in a full day of competition on Friday 16 February. Swimming in his first TAS championships, Jesse Streeting (Armidale) touched the wall in the 17 years freestyle in a time of 25:03, shaving 0.37 seconds off the previous record of 25.4 set by Adam Hall in 1999. The Year 11 student who was named senior boy champion, also set new benchmarks in the 17 years 50m butterfly, backstroke and 100m freestyle, bettering the previous best times for the events all set in 2013 by Jay Kennedy. Another new TAS student, Toby Michell-Smith from Narrabri, broke a record... View Article

MEETING Nobel Prize winner Dr Brian Schmidt, dissecting a human eye, building a robot that responds to human movement – just part of the holiday mix for six Year 12 students from The Armidale School. Attending separate Rotary National Youth Science Forums in Canberra and Brisbane, Nicholas Bohlsen, Ashini Ekanayake, Sambavan Jeyakumar and Nicholas Jackson said it was more like a conference that opened up opportunities, than a summer science school for nerds. Both choosing the Medicine stream at the forum, Ashini and Sambavan had scalpels in hand in an anatomy workshop, visited a pathology museum and visited the new John Curtin School of Medical Research where they learnt about medical imaging. “It was really hands on and designed to... View Article

CENTURIES for the team captain and vice captain and three wins from five were among the highlights for The Armidale School’s First XI at the annual Independent Schools’ Cricket Festival last week (15-19 January), this year held at Downlands College, Toowoomba. The round robin competition brought together fine young cricketers from TAS, Downlands, Sydney schools Shore and St Ignatius College Riverview; Ambrose Treacy College from Brisbane and Rockhampton Grammar School. On day one, TAS skipper Nicholas Farrar scored an outstanding 161 not out against Shore in a thrilling encounter. TAS notched up a credible 286 off 50 overs against Shore’s 347, with Cotter Litchfield (4/38 off 10) the pick of the bowlers for TAS. There was more team success the... View Article

ROWERS from The Armidale School have returned from the Taree Summer Regatta with great success, bringing home medals in several events. The 25 rowers competed in both sweep (one oar per rower) and scull (two oars) events over different distances at the three day regatta on 12-14 January, following a four day camp at nearby Oxley Island. The school’s girls’ crew were the first to compete, coming third in the Women’s C Grade quad scull over 1000m on the first day of competition. Other top three finishes included a second placing in the D Grade quad scull over 1000m, third in the Women’s U23 quad scull and thirdin the B Grade quad scull (both over 2000m). The TAS First IV... View Article

DAYS spent learning how to roll firehoses, start pumps and back burn came to fruition last week when 26 trainee rural fire fighters from The Armidale School’s were called out to assist brigades with blazes across the north. Following up on training days throughout the year as par tof the school’s Activities program, the students were called away from mock scenarios at the Armidale RFS Control Centre during Activities Week, to assist Dumaresq and Diggings Rural Fire Service brigades with blazes at Hillgrove and Nowendoc. “We all ended up going in different directions and came back together at night with all sorts of stories. At Nowendoc we fought fires for the first day and put it out and then spent... View Article

THE sacrifice of those who gave their lives in war was commemorated by students and staff at a special Remembrance Day service at The Armidale School (TAS) today. An international observation commemorating the sacrifice of all who have died in wars, Remembrance Day at TAS particularly paid tribute to the 103 Old Boys and staff who have given their lives in various conflicts, from 1901 in the Boer War to Afghanistan in 2008. Commemorations commenced in the War Memorial Assembly Hall with a presentation about the Western Front by senior students who toured there last month prior to attending an international Round Square conference in Switzerland. Students then moved outside to the school’s flagpoles for the official ceremony, which was... View Article

A POWERFUL set of drawings by The Armidale School’s Jack Tizzard of young children dressed in historical militaristic costumes has been nominated for inclusion in ARTEXPRESS, the statewide showcase of HSC Visual Arts. Jack’s haunting works, called The Precipice were inspired by a Facebook video of a young boy dazed in the back of an ambulance bleeding from a cut after an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria. “It made me stop – what is this kid’s life going to be like? Will it be drenched in the blood of conflict, or eclipsed by amazing moments of peace and understanding? Standing on the edge of a precipice… my purpose is to simply capture them before they fall.” His teacher Ian McPherson said... View Article

Fixture Information – TAS v Joeys