Dear Parents and Carers
Community of Achievers
The Dripstone Learning and Community Ambassadors have been working hard within our school community to boost student engagement, wellbeing and learning outcomes. This Special Edition Newsletter highlights the important work our Student Ambassadors have been doing and the positive influence they are having in our school community.
BADGING CEREMONY
On Wednesday 15th of May, we held our first Dripstone School Ambassadors Badging Ceremony.
In 2024, we saw a record number of students sign up to be a School Ambassador with over 180 students putting their names down for the program. After a trial period, we have 130 who have illustrated their commitment and leadership as School Ambassadors.
This evening was to recognise and celebrate our Ambassadors who embody our school spirit and who are a powerful voice across our school community. Students received a name badge and certificate.
Congratulations to all our School Ambassadors! We look forward to seeing all that will be achieved in 2024!
The full photo album can be found via the Dripstone Middle School Facebook page.
SCHOOL CAPTAINS
At the Badging Ceremony, our 2024 School Captains were announced. Congratulations to the four students who were selected for this role. They have displayed outstanding contribution to our school community over the last 2 years and have maintained an excellent school record in attendance, academics, and community events.
PEER SUPPORT
A new initiative led by Irini Pikoulos, Assistant Principal has been the embedding of a Peer Support Program through Years 7 and Year 8. Irini led the training for our Year 8 and Year 9 Ambassadors, Mr Rose and Ms Kuo. At the end of the Training Day 1 our Ambassadors had planned a series of lessons that are being presented by them on a Monday morning during a Personal Learning lesson to Year 7 and 8 students that explore topics like bullying. This program will continue throughout the year and will be accompanied with our Learning Curve Program (Social and Emotional Program) that is found in your child’s diary. It is amazing to see such leadership amongst our Ambassadors.
KATHERINE HIGH SCHOOL VISITS DRIPSTONE
The Dripstone Learning Commission (Learning Ambassadors) attended the NTLC event for secondary students at the Hilton DoubleTree. This event allowed Dripstone students to review and explore what becoming a comprehensive school would be like and collaborate alongside high school students.
From this event, students from Katherine High School wanted to strengthen connections with Dripstone Middle School by partnering with our learners to explore our school data and share experiences.
Dripstone students welcomed Katherine High students at our school before they made the road trip home. They gave their new friends from Katherine a tour of our school and further discussed their work and impact as Learning Ambassadors in the school.
NTLC - SUMMER’S VISIT
Summer from the Northern Territory Learning Commission visited our Dripstone Learning Commissioners to prepare them for the annual NTLC End of Year Pitch!
Students worked with Summer to develop their hunch on what can be improved within the school to increase learning outcomes.
In 2023, the Learning Ambassadors focused on building positive student-teacher relationships for wellbeing and achievement. This year, our Learning Ambassadors will focus on how they can foster student voice and choice in learning and in the classroom.
FREE PANCAKE DAY
Free Pancake Day was a wellbeing initiative that the Learning Ambassadors organised, supported by the Dripstone Wellbeing Team.
Learning Ambassadors showed off their culinary skills by cooking up enough pancakes to feed over 500 students!
KINDNESS LETTERS
The Dripstone Learning Ambassadors set up a stall in the Mall during lunchtime for students to write a kind letter to their friends, peer or teachers. Once students finished writing their kind letter, the Learning Ambassadors distributed the letters onto their recipients.
This initiative helped spread some kindness around the school.
HOUSE SHIRT FRIDAYS
House Shirt Fridays is an initiative started by the Community Ambassadors to help lift school spirit and create some friendly competition within the school.
Every Friday, all students and staff are invited to wear their House Shirts to represent their House Teams. The Community Ambassadors have a roster of students who take turns each Friday to go around and count up all the House Shirts, then announce the winning team at the end of the day, before students head home for the weekend.
These points are being saved and will go towards the new Dripstone Spirit Award, which will be awarded to the House Team with the most points at the end of the year.
FUNDRAISING STALLS
In Term 2, Dripstone Community Ambassadors ran various stalls to fundraise for various causes.
The stalls included:
- A Mother’s Day Stall - Community Ambassadors sold gift packs to celebrate Mother’s Day.
- World Music Day Bake Sale - Ambassadors brought in sweet treats to sell. Money raised from this stall will be donated to the Dripstone Music Faculty to support purchasing new musical equipment.
This term, the Community Ambassadors will be fundraising for World Ocean Day and will also be heading to Casuarina Beach for a beach clean-up excursion.